001Welcome tonight. If we'll please stand for a moment of silence. Thank you. You may be seated. I call this meeting to order at 502. A quick reminder, any citizen who wishes to speak on an agenda item or call to the public must complete the sign-in sheet in the lobby prior to the public comment time on the board agenda. This evening, the pledge of allegiance will be led by Miss Monica Mesa, assistant superintendent of elementary schools east. Please stand. I pledge allegiance to the flag Thank you. We will begin tonight's meeting with a video on governing board procedures and then I will 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
002and 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 form before the item is discussed. The form is located in the lobby. Members of the public will be given a maximum of three minutes to speak once recognized by the governing board president. Please state
003your 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. The 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
004essential to the operation of the district. Everyone is welcome to express ideas or concerns in 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 or disruption have no place in a classroom or the boardroom. Please. No side conversations or reactive comments. They can be disruptive. It is the governing board president's responsibility to maintain proper order so the board can conduct its business in an orderly and efficient manner. If you're disruptive or interfere with the conduct of this meeting, you'll be asked to leave so the board can conduct the meeting the business of the district. Moving on now to our governing board calendar. Dr. Stum, will
005you please review the calendar with us? [Music] President Davis, members of the board, in August, regular govern board meetings will start at 6 PM. As a reminder to the public, also as a reminder to the public, they'll be on the second and fourth Thursdays of the month. Uh we would like to add a special meeting on October 14th to the governing board calendar. Uh the purpose of that meeting is to vote on the annual financial report. So, we don't anticipate a long agenda, but we do anticipate the agenda uh to include the AFR. And the purpose of that is the AFR is due by October 15th. Um, and that that allows us the preparation time from our last meeting in September through that, which is, you know, approximately 20 days preparing for that oc on
006October 14th. There's currently only one regular meeting on October 23rd due to fall break and the AFR has to be h has to happen before October 15th. Uh we will also add this to status. So if you have any feedback on that October 14th meeting, please circle back with Miss Kirby and let her know uh what that feedback is as soon as possible so we can plan that meeting out with uh President Davis and Clerk Chaffy. July 31st, exciting times in Mesa Public Schools. July 31st is the start of school. Uh some of the most important times in a child's life is that first day of school where they where they get to come to school and have that sense of belonging right out of the gate. and Mason Public Schools opens uh opens up
007all our doors with open arms for all students who wish to attend. August 14th, we have a a board meeting starting at 6:00. 28th, board meeting starting at 6. September 1st, Labor Day, schools and district office will be closed as we anticipate Labor Day. And September 11th, we have a regular board meeting at 6 p.m. That includes the update on the governing board calendar. Thank you, Dr. Stum. We're now at the time in the meeting for public comment and call the public. We'll first watch a short video on the procedures. The governing board welcomes comments from the public on non-aggenda items during the call to the public. Please remember, as a general rule, public comments will be limited to 3 minutes and the duration of an open call to the public will be 15 minutes.
008The president may set specific time limits for speakers and the duration of the call to the public to maximize the opportunity for individuals to offer their viewpoints. Comments must pertain to a matter that is within the jurisdiction of the governing board. This is not an appropriate forum to complain about an employee, student, or others. Please use the procedures established in policy 1-302 for this purpose. State law prohibits board members from commenting on or discussing the matters presented at the end of the call to the public. The board may ask the superintendent to review the issue or place it on a future agenda. [Music] A board member may also briefly respond to criticism of a board member or the governing board. Thank you for allowing this meeting to be conducted in a peaceful and productive manner.
009begin. Just a quick reminder that policy 1-302 says that call to the public is limited to issues within the jurisdiction of the board and is not an appropriate forum for persons to complain about a specific employee, student, or other person. Mrs. Chaffy, how many speakers do we have signed up tonight? We have seven speakers who have signed up tonight. Okay, we have seven speakers and you will each have three minutes to speak. Um, I would ask Mrs. Chaffy to lead us through this agenda item. Thank you. I will read the first three names and then I will announce the next four so that you know that you're on deck. We will first hear from Mark Low and then Jeff Thompson, followed by Mark Kimble. And then on deck we have Casey Baxter, Julie Sessions, Chris
010Hamlet, and Ed Steel. Family of low first name Mark. Madame President, board members, all my relationship with this board superintendency began on or about August 8, 2022 when I attempted to engage the teacher staff regarding the teacher teaching of American history by chance in the lobby of this boardroom and at the offices of Main Street, which resulted in a fake notice of trespass issued by and signed by Arizona's school district number four, general counsel, stating that I on several occasions have acted in a threatening manner dated August 9, 2022. That unlawful notice resulted in my first Mesa Public School public records request for the verbal or written proof supporting said fake notice of trespass dated August 10, 2022. After several written requests for underlying reasons for the notice of trespass, the general counsel's parillegal finally
011responded on October 16, 2023, 14 months after my public records request to it. And in part, Mr. Low, no documents were found for this request. The only emails that were located were emails that you sent. These are attached to this email. This concludes this request and is considered closed. Mesa public schools general counsel is also a sworn officer of the court which makes this issue extremely troubling and worth a close review as due the attempt to employ a non-existent attorney client privilege as covered not to answer public records request. If the general counsel was willing to fabricate to issue an unlawful fake notice of trespass in my case, it begs the question, what else has been fabricated during general counsel's tenure? I say all that to say this. The practice of dragging out responding to
012requests for information continues to this day to dozens of my outstanding Mesa Public School public records requests since August 10, 2022. I rise tonight publicly to put on this board's record the general counsel's pattern of willful and intentional neglect in answering requests for information from taxpayers in a timely manner, especially regarding my request for true and correct copies of contracts for the Hail Elementary Security upgrade and for the district-wide lead removal from innocent drinking students drinking water. If there's nothing to hide, why are there dozens of my requests for information still unanswered? I pray this board will ensure that the Mesa public school superintendency will no longer be allowed to ignore and delay responding to taxpayers lawful requests at will adn nauseium. If this board will not address this taxpayer paid public servants practices, who
013will? Also, the practice of not visually recording members at the public of the public during their appearance before your board must end with Andy Forless's tenure when it began. Finally, the practice of not allowing written public comments on Mesa Public Schools YouTube channel must come to an end. Thank you for these your attention these important matters. I'm Jeff Thompson. I'm my homeowner and I want to congratulate Matt on his new job. And I have one request with the proficiency rate that you're going to bust your you know what trying to get up. Can we get a can we get a progress report like at the first of the year in January? Because I've when I worked in manufacturing, we knew by 10:00 the next day where we were at. And I had a cousin that
014farmed for 30 years and he didn't know if he made any money till he did his income taxes. But we need to you need to we need to know where you're at so you can go further. And I was I was quite upset last month when we had an AI expert here that makes a good living at it. And your council was asked a yes no question whether or not he could speak. And all all she did was read the room. And we had the previous president over there shaking her head to the president. They didn't want him to speak up and she was looking to their neighbor next door because it was an agenda thing. They they wanted to push agenda and she didn't know want to step on anybody's toes. I think we
015need to really look at this legal council and see if it's in the best interest of the whole instead of just you guys in here if it's the best interest for the whole community because from what I gathered if the president could could tell the person they could vote or they could take a vote on the board that they the person could talk that yeah I get a little passionate get ahead of self, but she she could have either called for a vote or told him he could speak. The guy had more knowledge than anybody in this room. And when these programs like the Bill Gates one a while back that got shot down, what's the catch? There's always a catch to something free. Somebody comes to you and wants to put a free security
016system in your house. What are you going to get for it? There's always a catch. And this guy said that there's no way and I from what I've did on the internet comes up AI. That stuff's wrong. It even said one one time that I had printed out and I wish I'd have kept it because it's not there anymore. It said AI. It said persons could speak out at any board meeting in Mesa. It was uh Mark Hamlet pointed out. He goes, "That's not right. It's AI and you guys are using these kids for guinea pigs for somebody else. Who's going to gain from it? It It's going to be whoever's furnishing it, you know? Are they are they paying you guys to have that Superintendent Strom, President Davis, Council members, it's good to be
017with you this evening. My name is Mark Kimble and a lifelong resident of Mesa. I stand before you as a concerned parent and community member to address two pressing matters affecting our schools. First, at last month's meeting, you discussed and approved the introduction of course mojo AI into the seventh and eighth grade ELA curriculum at Roads and Smith Junior Highs. It's my understanding. While this innovation sparks interest, it also raises concerns among parents and community members about its role in education. To foster transparency and understanding, we respectfully request that the board arrange tours of these schools to observe how course mojo AI is being implemented. These tours, ideally starting in midepptember after the program has had time to establish itself, would mirror the accommodations provided for parents and community members to tour Mountain View High
018School's block scheduling and uh academy program. This opportunity would allow us to see firsthand how this technology supports our students learning. Second, I urge the board to revisit the issue of inappropriate materials in our school libraries. Parents and community members are deeply concerned about books that are near or cross into pornographic content. We need a robust process to ensure such materials are identified and removed promptly, providing greater assurance to families that our libraries remain safe and appropriate spaces for our children. I along with many others ask that you discuss and act on these issues to uphold the trust we place in you. Thank you for your attention and dedication to transparency to parents and working toward and improving our children's academic performance. Thank you. Appreciate your time. Next, we will hear from Casey Baxter, Julie
019Sessions, Chris Hamlet, and Ed Steel. Good evening, Madam President, members of the board. Dr. Stro and other superintendency members. My name is Casey Baxter and I have the honor of being the principal at Franklin Accelerated Academy East Campus. Tonight, I'm here because I'm back to continue my mission of looking for the good cuz I truly believe if you look for it, you'll find it. I took the summer off. I hope you all had a good summer. I did. My granddaughter's 11 months old. It's been great. But tonight, uh I want to express to you my appreciation to Christy Glasser and Sida in our research and evaluation department. This department has given us so many great resources with data that we can use as principles that really allow us to focus on targeted instruction for students.
020Even yesterday, we were provided with the new tool on how we can break down our AESA data by different components um that would have taken me by hand hours that I have done traditionally. And the amount of time that they've put into it for me is is going to save volumes. and I'm going to be so prepped for my teacher data meetings. It's literally going to save me at least eight hours as a principal to hand crunch that data. So, it's phenomenal and I know I'm not the only one that feels that way. In addition to that, they've done a lot with our move up, catchup, keep up data and so it's moved up, kept up, caught up now. So, we can really see how those students perform so we can continue to track them
021and their progress. So, the data they're providing for us really is going to help us to continue to support teachers and in turn our students directly. In addition to that, they've given us a whole calendar of the data they're going to provide us throughout the year so I can quit worrying about, okay, when do I have time to crunch that? They're going to crunch it, simplify it, and give it to us so that we can really work the problem. And I'm very grateful for that. So, I just want to express my appreciation to the department as a whole. I'm very grateful because, you know, um I always say that um I believe in God, but all others must bring data. So, thank you. I'm Julie Sessions. Um, I'm going to finish uh something I was
022going to say way back in April. April 1st, 2025, the Gallup pulled females describe describing their own mental health from excellent to poor. From 2020 to 2024, young women aed 18 to 24 declined 33%. I cannot help but conclude that their environment has played a large role in this outcome. And since school is the largest portion of their day, it may tragically be the greatest culprit of the decline. Here's four things that I'm concerned about. Young women have been stripped of their safe places. Title 9 no longer provides girls with girls sports. Most can't even boast of their academic prowess. curriculum curriculum continually pelts them with crises and activism to the detriment of their learning. Um Jonathan hate a social psychologist pointed out that people from cultures that are western educated industrialized rich and democratic
023aka weird manifest several peculiarities. And the weirder you are, the more you see a world full of separate objects rather than relationships. An NEA article stated, well, and and obviously that's what's happening because we're focusing on the one to the ne neglect of the 50% female. An NEA article stated, "Student on student sexual assault happens with alarming frequency in school bathrooms. In Wisconsin, a 200lb male allowed to change in a girl's locker room, strip naked and massaging himself in front of the girls. The girls are frightened and go to the genderneutral bathroom to get away, and the teacher prevents them using the neutral bathroom by um marking them absent. Now, you may say this won't happen here, but I know I went to a city council member and he he said that there wouldn't be
024men um that the men in the girl in the women's bathroom wouldn't end up being um moved down into the schools. Yet, here we are. Um we are putting our daughters in jeopardy and it must end. Thank you. How you doing all? Um Chris Hamlet, Mesa High parent. Um over the past several years, I have brought forth numerous valid concerns regarding the district's failure in academics, the corruption, the tyranny, the hypersexualization, indoctrination, and grooming of our children. each time bringing receipts with truth and integrity. From showing that inappropriate books exist in our school libraries, showing the true negative effects of pushing the transgender and pride agenda in the classrooms across the country, showing that inappropriate assignments are given to our children, showing that our children are being medically screened in programs that were hidden from
025the parents to exposing the corruption and evil actors within the district. In that time, besides being called a domestic terrorist, there was one attempt to transmiss me by the former president of the of this board with the help of a Mesa Police Department. On two occasions, agitators were sent to confront me in public in an attempt to provoke me into losing control so that would give the district an excuse to trespass me. A current teacher was even encouraged to encouraged to file a false report against me with false accusations. And although those accusations turned out to not be true by the end of human resources investigations here, the the warning, the trespass warning that stemmed from those false accusations is still in place. So all that said, none of it has been able to silence
026me. So the inevitable conclusion is now we're in the lawfare phase and we have a ma current Mesa public schools teacher suing myself and three other staunch advocates for our children for defamation. me simply because I shared an article online that exposes her agenda and her teaching methods. So, as opposed to the old way, listening to your constituents, the stakeholders, the parents, and then moving the goalposts or attacking us with this new board dynamic, new superintendency, I propose a new way. Work with us. Work toward the academic success and overall betterment of our children. take the public comment seriously and listen to what all the stakeholders have to say and actually implement policy that will have a positive change. President Trump made more progress in the past few months at the federal level than this
027entire district has done in years. It start starting with the dismantling of the department of education. Even informing people at the department of education that if any teacher or school suggests that a child is trapped in the wrong body that they will face serious consequences recognizing male and female only and prohibiting men and women's sports. So he heard his constituents and acted accordingly. I don't see why Mesa public schools cannot do so as well. So in all the years I've been coming here, I I have to say this. There is only two people on this board or up in this day as period that have ever fought for the betterment of our children and that is board member Walden and board member Benson. And hopefully their courage is contagious and catches on to everybody else
028and we start making decisions for the betterment of our children academically and get all of this social emotional learning and this indoctrination and grooming out of our schools. Thank you all. God bless. Have a good night. Members of the board, superintendency, my name is Ed Steele. I'm a concerned community member and taxpayer. I want to talk tonight. Well, let me start off by saying Mr. Hamlet and I didn't coordinate this, but there's going to be a common thread. Um, I want to talk about item uh 8A, the grant proposal, inspired teaching exceptional learning grant. Um, I sent you all uh an email today to talk to give you a heads up on my talking points. Um, if you do what you've always done, you're going to get what you always got. And what this district
029has always done is bring new program after new program after new program in disrupt learning, disrupt teachers and staff, make guinea pigs out of them for the betterment of someone else but not our students and our staff. That's what we've always done. There's no accountability. Um, this grant program appears to be a continuation of the program that was implemented three years ago. I think it was next education workforce where we're going to do teaming models. Where's the data that says teaming models has a positive impact on our academics? I haven't seen it. And if you board members haven't seen it either, you got to ask yourself, why are we bringing this program in that has no credibility? and no proof that it works. If if there's proof there, that's great. I'm all for it. You
030know, as an engineer, I'm a data guy. I want to see data. And not just any data. I want to see meaningful data. And as a business owner, I want accountability. I expect no less from from the people that are running this district and this board. So, I I gave some questions out to you to ask, and I hope you'll take this up during the discussion part of this agenda item. um what are the metrics that are going to be used to evaluate the efficacy of this program? Um how, when, and who is going to be reporting back to leadership on these metrics? Um I also noticed that we're funding uh with this grant that we're getting $250,000 to pay for uh subs, stipens, and uh offhour work for teachers. That's great if we're going
031to implement a program, but this money is going to go away. Have you made a provision for what happens when this money goes away? Is this a sustainable model? You know, these are all questions that should be asked. Um, we have new leadership here. I'm excited about it. I think there are some good changes heading our way. But let's start with this. Let's start. I want the board to start demanding that any new program come with these metrics, reporting and data collection that says these programs are working so that we can continue looking for more good programs. Madam President, that concludes our public comment for today. Thank you, Miss Chaffy. We'll now move on to our agenda. We will now review the consent agenda. All items on the consent agenda are approved with one vote
032with no discussion. If a board member would like to pull a consent agenda item, please do so now. Seeing none, thank you. Um, now moving on. Do I have a motion to approve the personnel request including the addendum? So moved. Do I have a second? Seconded. Any discussion? Seeing none, Miss Kirby, will you please take our vote? with a vote of five yays. You have approved the personnel request including the addendum. With this approval, we have one employee to recognize as in memoriam. Dr. Strong, will you please tell us a little more? President Davis in memoriam. We'd like to honor Mr. Randy Vogel, a math teacher at Mountain View High School. Mr. Mr. Ranny Vogel served at Mountain View High School community for 30 years as a dedicated and deeply caring math teacher. He poured
033his heart into his work and approached every day with a passion for teaching and a genuine talent for connecting with top tier calculus kids. His quiet strength and unwavering belief that math is fun left a lasting mark on Mountain View High School's community. He mentored new teachers, set the standard for what it means to be a Toro. We often hear from alumni who accounted Mr. Vogel's among their most influential teachers. His AP scores were unmatched and his impact reached far beyond the classroom, shaping lives in powerful, enduring ways. Mr. Mo Vogle will be deeply missed. And I want to let this community know that as a calculus teacher in a former school district, his reach was beyond this district. Mr. Vogue will be sorely missed to the math community throughout the state of Arizona. Thank
034you. Thank you. And we just echo Dr. Stum's thoughts and prayers with the family. So, and our Mount View community. Um, moving on to our consent. All items, this will be considered as a group and will be approved with one motion. If a board member would like to spotlight or comment on a consent agenda item, please do so after 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. Thank you. Miss Ker would please take our vote. with a five yays. You have approved the consent agenda items according to the recommended action for each item. Madam President, may I make a comment? Yes, please. Um I just want to thank uh Mr. Moore. Welcome. And also
035thank you for providing the detailed list of um payments that go on the warrants. Uh it's I haven't gone through all of the 93 pages, but um I appreciate that detail and I'm sure I'll have lots of questions for different people that uh after the fact. So I appreciate that. It helps me do my job. Thank you. We'll now move into our action items. Our first action item. Do I have a motion to approve a grant request for the inspired teaching exceptional learning ITEL grant and acceptance of funds if granted? So moved. Do I have a second? Seconded. Any discussion? Madam President, if I may start the discussion. Um, I do actually uh I had the same question as our community member, Mr. Steel. What are the metrics for success for implementing um the grant?
036And then I have a couple other questions, but what are our metrics? What is the accountability? And uh he he paired it to the NextGen workforce that has been in um effect for three years. I believe we do have on the back end data as to whether or not that was effective. So could we speak to that as well and answer that question for him? You want to start with I Yes, Madame President, member Benson. Um, this grant is about participating in the implementation of high quality instructional resources and helping um support teachers build their capacity around instructional design, planning um and delivery of instruction aligned to the rigorous standard. And so the metrics that will be in place are academic outcomes in ELA and math as we'll be focusing on um the implementation of
037Scholastic, SAVIS, and um foundations resources at these three sites. Um there will be observational data that's aligned to our NPS instructional framework similar to what we do with our um instructional leadership teams, our coaches, etc. at our schools. Um there will be teacher surveys and focus group information gathered around the support and building that capacity and um like we do uh encourage our collaborative teams as always to look at the student artifacts common formative assessments etc. So those will all be pieces of those metrics that we'll be looking at. So the first one the metric the first metric I heard Dr. useless I think was um uh being able to participate in how to develop quality instructional frameworks or curriculum. Sorry, it's okay. Um it is providing professional learning for teachers to instructionally design with
038our standards and the use of our um high quality adopted resources, Scholastic and and Savis. All right. So, I just didn't word it correctly, but that's that's what I understood you say. So does um do Envisions and Savas and Hardcourt not provide that instruction when we adopted that curriculum like three years ago. Do they not provide the district with uh professional learning in order to use their materials effectively? Um the first year that we adopted the resources, they do provide some limited professional learning. Um those are not aligned to our specific um identified needs and theories of action though. simply about how to implement the tool. Um, this will be focused on what we will be focused on as identified in the continuous improvement process at these schools around the actual instructional design and alignment
039to not only the rigor of the standards, how these resources interact with them and then how teachers co-plan and co-design and deliver instruction. Okay, I have more questions, but do you want to answer the other first, please? So just for my own clarification too, I thought I checked in on this but maybe I don't have the right understanding. This grant is through next education workforce or outside of next education workforce because next education workforce is just a component of Arizona of ASU's uh college of education. So in these particular schools that are participating these schools have teameing models there. So they will be looking at how those teachers are co-designing instruction but it's not actually measuring next education workforce. The actual grant is through Arizona State University not necessarily the next education workforce. Correct. Arizona
040State University received a large grant. This is a subgrant with partnered with instruction partners is actually the the group that will be providing some of that professional learning. So the the reason that's important for clarification because even though Nick's education workforce is running on these campuses, the this grant is to support the professional development of the teachers whether they're teaming or we looked at the grant in another area where they weren't teaming it still would be the itel grant. So it's just a little fine line of we don't want to necessarily say that everything where I want to be super careful everything that comes out of Arizona State University is not necessarily next education workforce. Next education workforce is a component program that includes these teameing models. Now with respect to your question uh of
041what data do we have, we have been working with Arizona State University over the course of the last nine months to dig into and ship outside researchers and evaluations including ERS and including Paul uh Paul including I said Paul because Dr. Paul gives uh Richard Ingresol out of Penn State University uh data to analyze student outcomes with respect to teaming. What we're finding out in the teameing model is first of all notice there's a difference between adult outcomes and student outcomes and we know that teameming has good outcomes on uh teacher perseverance, teacher retention, things along those lines. That's been reiterated over the course last three years. What we're learning on the uh education side and student outcome side of things is there's wide variance in the way teams implement teaming. That tells us that
042there's teams that have high positive effect on student outcomes. But then there's also teams that are not necessarily having high positive effect and and in those teams there's actually sometimes some negative outcomes for kids. And so when you have 106 teams functioning across the diff uh the district, you get variance of implementation. And so when you get variance of implementation, you have to work at the at the schools that are not necessarily running with high efficacy, high efficient teams to make those teams better so they can have outcomes like the high performing teams. I'll give you an example of a high performing team. At Hermosa Vista in the kindergarten level, we had great outcomes in their teaming environment this last year with 85% of the kids making benchmark on our benchmark assessments that we administered
043in kindergarten. That's an example of great outcomes. If every team function that way, then the results would be through the roof. But when you have 106 teams, as with anything, there's variance across those teams. And we're learning that we do have some of these teams that just have to get better at implementation of our curriculums that the board's adopted so that the student outcomes can follow. So to to to answer your question, overall when you average out across all these 106 teams outcomes for kids, we are starting to get some data out of ASU that we need to make improvements with these teams to have them function more like these teams so that there's positive outcomes for kids. And what I think the big part of the story becomes, as we've learned through ASU and
044Richard Ingles's research over the course of the last nine months, is just because you do something doesn't mean that the process is equivalent across all sites. And and if you're a processoriented person, it's about how why did the process work well here and what can we do to make the process work well over here. And so our results are kind of overall when you look at average across the district, the results are kind of a little net negative or a little net neutral right now, but it doesn't mean in certain places that we're not having really positive outcomes for kids. Well, I think that goes without saying and I think that uh it's really important to now that we know that that we are putting metrics in. How do we replicate because we have some
045phenomenal stuff happening across the district. some under the radar that's not well known um and some that they blast their success. We need to be able to replicate what is working well. Um and I believe when we had the teaming conversation months ago, um the reality is when people are forced into a team, those teams I would imagine are not going to be as effective as those teams that can um pair together because we're working off one another's strengths. So, I can do this component of it really well. Maybe Mrs. Chaffy can do this component really well. Maybe um maybe Madame President can do Mrs. Davis can do this component really well. And we we work off one another and we uh that's how we make I would guess that's probably what happened at Hermosa
046Vista. I haven't met those those teaming those teamers yet. Um but I think that's important. Let's get metrics if we're going to continue teaming. And I think we have to have solid metrics for um I have to tell you I'm a little concerned with the number of things that we partner with ASU. It almost feels like Mesa Public Schools is becoming a sub um a subsatellite campus for them. So I'm a little concerned about that. I think there's other universities around that perhaps we can look at GCU. What are they doing? what can we do with can't go south. I'm sorry, but um we could go north. So, uh I'm concerned about that as and I know that there are many of our constituents that are also concerned. Why are we partnering so much with
047ASU? ASU's um climate then perhaps comes in and and um and gets put in place. That's probably not going to be a good thing. The other thing that is of concern that u Mr. uh Steel mentioned in uh his comments as well and I've heard from other people and reading the um the memo is the innovation and the um researchbased but oftentimes the research is the students and whether or not it's actually working with them and it's a I think our constituents want to know are we actually implementing things that we know have worked other faces and now we're going to try a Mesa or are we implementing things that ASU thinks is really cool. We don't really know if it works but let's try it on Mesa students because we're partnering with ASU. They're
048concerned about that. Our kids have one shot at an education and a quality one in Mesa and we have to do everything we can to make sure they're not being used as guinea pigs if we're going to if we're going to take money. And there is always the reality that if you get something what is the tie? What is the nothing comes free in this life? So if we could address that as well and then I'll let you. So madame president member Benson we will actually be partnering with instruction partners. ASU is providing us the funding through the grant that they received. So, we're a subgrantee, but instruction partners is a nonprofit company that will be actually working with the teachers, working um with the professional learning, etc. And they are uh nationwide known for
049improving um high performing systems and helping with instruction and high quality instruction. So, I'm happy to provide some more information about instruction partners to to our board. Um and then we are also looking at as as Dr. Stum said um really looking at the metrics and what's working both in these teameing schools and non-teaming schools um and really identifying and helping through this three-year sustainability model is to build that capacity so that we are sharing what's working and scaling that and so that it becomes internally um additional support to what we are providing as instructional leadership teams and as as a leadership team here. Can I ask one more thing then and then uh it just because it ties with this um the uh the other issue that Mr. Steele brought up was the sustainability
050model going forward. But as I read the memo I my understanding was that um we'll train teachers at Hermosa Vista at our three schools. They then would be used to train other teachers on their campuses uh in these high instructional models. That that's the way I interpreted it is and and that is what potentially makes it sustainable over time. That's is that accurate? That's correct. Those teachers who are collaborating and planning together would be expanding that across the campus, expanding that across the network of schools that are participating across the district. Our coaches would be supporting that, our leaders, etc. So, we're we're building that sustainability throughout the year. Okay. Thank you. Any other questions? Oh, you go ahead. I'll go. You're good. Um, so thank you. So the uh and thanks for the explanation
051about the the subrant subrant. That makes more sense. So this is this is basically this is for training to implement uh curriculum at the at tier one instruction. That's that's what this grant is doing. And um so uh board member Benson, this is sort of the the train the trainers kind of a thing. And you're and you agreed with that? Yes. Member Walden. Um if you recall, we've been talking a lot about our continuous improvement cycle and our our um schools have gone through that process and identified needs and theories of action and their professional learning plans at I would say more than 75% of our elementary schools. Their identified needs are around that instructional design, understanding content standards and then aligning um rigorous instruction aligned to those standards. And so part of our professional
052learning as a district across those schools is really providing that support and the implementation of those high quality materials and how do you utilize that with the standards with the students that are in front of you. Um and really understanding the content and the strategies around our our Mesa public schools instructional framework which is based on research. Um and so this grant provides additional professional to learn professional learning to support what we are already planning and and doing this coming year. Okay. And do I understand correctly so I mean and I appreciate superintendent STM's explanation you know with with teaming because we do have schools where things are going really well. We have schools where people need help but that the data is promising uh for student and and uh teacher outcomes. So this grant
053will help I think in both schools that maybe need help with the teameing but it's not restricted to schools that do teameing. Um for the purpose of this grant it's restricted to those three schools. So for example at Hermosa Vista um that principal with the the team here has selected the third and sixth grade teams based on input of the teams on the principal the data etc that we've looked at. Um at Whittier, um the principal wants to focus on K2, um for that foundational literacy piece in ELA. And then at Stevenson, who's been teaming, um for several years, they're looking at math and really improving the outcomes for math. So right now, it's limited to those schools in terms of the support that will be provided, but we're also providing a similar supports and
054and collaboration across the district aligned to their theories of action and their identified needs. And I know Stephvenson and Hermosi do teaming. Whittyard does. So are those all three teaming schools. Um Stevenson is teaming schoolwide, but the other two schools do not have schoolwide teams, but those grade levels do. Okay. Um K2, Miss Mesa or sorry, Mrs. May K2, I'm not sure if Whittier is teaming. um they're more of a a traditional collaboration professional learning community team whereas the structure in elementaryaries is is most um teachers team at the grade level anyway in terms of collaboration and planning. Yeah. Well, and thanks for sharing that additional data because it does obviously what you've said the grant money is very targeted across those different schools where they've targeted those weak areas to to reinforce with the
055grant. Um my last question it says that there's going to be a stipen for teachers. So, I'm assuming that's because they're going to have to devote additional time for this training. Are they are they volunteering for this? Yeah, the principles are all are working with all of the teachers who are going to be participating and that's uh very flexible and that's what we will be working with the leaders, the site leaders and the instructional um teams and those teachers on whether some days might be sub days, some b some days may be off contract work after school, some teams may choose to come in on a Saturday and do it. It's really going to be flexible in in what works for their context and for those teachers and then they they get a stipen for
056for putting in that that extra work. Yes. All right. Thank you, Miss Tffy. I appreciate what board member Weldon said that this is a very targeted grant that's focused on tier one instruction and the curriculum and the researchbased instruction that we already have. Um I think that anytime we we talk about taking teachers out of the classroom, that's a concern. Do we know how much commitment there is outside of the classroom for these teachers? So, there are there are some mostly virtual trainings. We'll we'll focus the out of the classroom time as much as we can on those um early release Wednesdays when they're already planning and working and designing. So, we're going to limit that as much as possible. Um I would have to look specifically at the grant. I don't have it right
057in front of me, but um I believe it's one day per semester in person. There's some virtual training like I said and then there's that off-c contract um professional learning andor planning time but I'll get you those specifics. Thank you Madame President. Um Mr. Steel I do want to thank you for your questions um because um they helped to guide the discussion and um and it seems that um district staff particularly Dr. East has been able to answer a lot of those questions. Um, I like the idea that we have evidence-based practices. Um, and as Miss Baxter mentioned in her public comment, um, that this evidence, this data is helping to, um, really drive instruction and, um, and saving her a lot of time and improving her ability to, um, determine the needs of her
058student population and what instruction would be appropriate. Um, also, um, I like this grant because it supports the board goals that we're going to be discussing later on in this meeting. Um, particularly our board goals in ELA and math. Um, and as was shared in our last meeting, um, the data that, um, was shared, um, where we are monitoring the progress on our goals is very promising. Um, we are going in the right direction. Um, I like that. Um, we've got three elementary schools and we're targeting instruction for those three schools. Whittier will focus on K2 ELA. Um, Arosa Vista will focus on third and sixth grade math. Stevenson will will focus on K through six math. Um these are all very much in support of our student outcomes as as um designated by the
059board. And and one of the things that this board has done is to provide the resources needed to um provide um exciting um materials for kids to use and and for teachers to use. But it's all in the delivery. It's all in the implementation. And you know, I was talking with a principal this past week and and she made me realize that 80% of our district principles have only been here since 2019. We have we have young principles. We have young teachers. And I really believe anytime we can support our teachers with evidencebased tier one instructional practices. Let's go for it. Um so I'm very much excited about this program and the way it can support our teachers and our sites. Dr. Isis, can you touch on how these schools were chosen? Yes. So, these
060schools um really looked at their data. We worked um with the area superintendent and we identified um schools that did have teameing models in place and who really were wanting to to jump on board. And so, um we met with each principal. They selected the grade levels. They worked with their teachers um and that's that's where we started. We looked at data and we looked at also alignment to their professional learning plan and their theories of action too because we want to ensure that we're supporting exactly what they've identified based on on their data and that continuous improvement cycle. Thank you. Any other questions? Yeah, Dr. Eis, are these three schools in which those areas that the principles chose um are they below uh are are their students not effectively meeting standards currently in? So,
061it's a variety depending on the grade level of course. Um we do have one school Whittier that is a um project momentum school. So they are um in the CSI status. So they will they are specifically targeting um you know those instructional strategies etc. Yes. Um and so those those principles like I said have used the data to um identify what grade levels and areas of focus they wanted to to look at based on that. Okay. Thank you. And then one last question to piggyback off of um Mrs. Trappies. Do we have any any idea or is it going to be contingent at each different site the number of subdays that are going to be funded? No, we haven't gotten into the details yet. We wanted to make sure we have governing board approval before
062we move forward. So, we'll be working if approved with those principles um with instruction partners, etc. to lay out the plan for what uh the days of training and professional learning, instructional design, the walkthroughs, all of that would look like. Okay. And then can you um say again the name of the subgrantee? Um instruction partners is is the partner that will be um working with um ASU with us with Mary Brown um on the instructional design piece. Okay. I would be I would be concerned post if we have too many sub days. Okay. Um that are built in simply because and I know we have phenomenal subs across the district but typically it's not a full day of learning. And I might add um with the project momentum schools they have specific dates that they
063are required to um have professional learning sub days have stipens with that grant etc as requirements from AD. And so we would for sure be aligning with those so that we're not intentionally taking teachers out of the classroom more than they need to be. Thank you. Any other questions, comments? Just one followup comment. Dr. Stum, could we get a report on this at the end of the year? Could we just kind of get an update from those schools when and see how things went? Yep. Okay, that' be for sure. Can can I provide a brief comment on the substitutes and professional learning development days? Dr. Teresa said it correct and Mr. Wang has been analyzing how many days we have substitutes in classrooms and we honor the work that all substitutes do. They serve a
064vital role here in Mesa public schools. But we also need to be cognizant of the research and the research is simple. Uh simply that the certified teacher being in the classroom is really important. And so, uh, I just need you to know that on the backside, we are moving through analysis of how many days we're spending outside the classroom, uh, with our teachers. So, not not just in this grant, but across the board throughout the district. That's good to hear because it's it is really important. Thank you. Thank you for the discussion and answers. Thank you, Dr. and Dr. Strom. All right. Uh, Miss Kirby, we're ready to to vote. With a vote of five, you've approved a grant request for the inspired teaching special learning ITL grant and acceptance of funds if granted. been
065granted. Moving on. Do I have a motion to approve the inter agency partnership agreement with Maricopa County Head Start, CACFP? So moved. Do I have a second? I'll second. Any discussion? May I begin? Yes. Go ahead. Okay. So, as I started looking this over, I initially was annoyed because I looked at the date and we're again back approving. Um, and it then as I continued reading, it's not our fault we're back approving. Okay. It's the government's fault. So I I think we have really no I mean my just my humble opinion this is a must approved because the money's already been spent and just because the state of Arizona can't get their act together. Any other questions, comments? Seeing none, Miss Kirby, we please take our vote. With a vote of 5 days, you have
066approved the inter agency partnership agreement with Maricopa County Head Start, CACFP. Do I have a motion to approve the intergovernmental agreement with EVIT for the Career Technical Education District satellite? So moved. Do I have a second? second. Thank you. Any discussion? Go ahead. So, um, just to start, I want to thank the district for coming to the table to partner with EVIT and getting a new intergovernment agreement. The last one we approved was only a month as we worked on negotiations. I think we're the largest district in the state and are leading the way with this. From what I've heard, there's other districts that aren't moving forward and they're struggling with their negotiations and their IGAs. So, I really just first want to start out by thanking the district for uh working and partnering with
067EVIT. I've been in meetings with them. We've been in meetings where, you know, it's obvious that we've got a good relationship with them. There's a service that they they offer for our students. There's programs they have that we don't have. And so, it's important that we partner. I think if we're really focused on student outcomes, then we're going to recognize and I think to use Superintendent Stro's words talks about, you know, we want to honor uh honor their opportunities and those commitments that we've made to to make sure that we're meeting all their different needs. And you know, they've got aviation, for example, that that we don't have. There's things that are being offered that could interest our students. We want to give them the most opportunities that they can have. And and so I'm
068happy that we have this vote tonight. I think other districts I I hope they take notice and can kind of follow in our footsteps or I feel like we're leading the way on coming to the table and doing our own agreement with EVIT. Uh one of the things I really like in this agreement is that the funding is based on on outcomes. So all of the CTE money flows through through EBIT. And uh if you look at this agreement, there's sort of a schedule here that if if if we're performing that that increases the amount of money that flows to our our district. And so there's accountability built into this agreement. Uh is am I correct in that? Does it Okay, good. I want to make sure I'm reading it right. Um and I think
069that's huge. I I know uh some of the old agreements were done I think with like multi-dists. And the benefit of coming out and taking the time to negotiate with EVID is that we're now getting a more customized agreement that's specific to Mesa and uh we satisfy everything with uh with coming to the table like this. So I guess I don't have any questions. Maybe somebody will say something. I might have another question, but kind of want to just just start off with that. I think this is this is a win for us. Thank you. I agree. Any qu other questions, comments? One of the things that I'm most pleased with is the satellite program and that the ability to make sure that EVIT is going coming to us, which is really cool. And um
070and that um as we build ourmies and as we we build opportunities for kids, I couldn't agree with you more. um board member Walden um that to have um an EVIT satellite program um on um our campuses. And I know that this is still in the design. We're not quite sure what it will be, but um I I really appreciate the ability um of us to work together to not only share students, but to share our strengths, our instructional um capabilities, um our interests, our um our talents, if you will. And I think it's only um only a benefit that um we are entering an agreement with EVIT um that is going to really enhance the programming capabilities of Mesa Public Schools. Thank you, M. Chaffy. Thank you, President Davis. I've received some really positive
071community feedback on this and I I agree. I love that it's focused on outcomes and I love that we've been able to kind of lead out in this. What is the plan to make sure that we meet the expectations in student outcomes? There's a question for Dr. Esless. What is the qu how do we make sure that we're going to meet the expectations in these student outcomes and how are we going to receive progress updates on those outcomes? So, um our CTE department under the direction of uh Mrs. Lauria has content specialists. Um she monitors that progress. These um uh this criteria was is fairly new and so last year was the baseline data. and we're going to be looking at those outcomes. We're going to be um the content specialists under those programmings will
072programs will be working with those teachers. Um we'll be collaborating with our high school teams. We'll be collaborating with HR on certifications, etc. Um and so we'll be we'll be monitoring that as we go. Um I have Mrs. Lori here if she wants to add anything. Yeah, last year was a year where we were working very closely with EVID on um collecting all that data and those metrics and meeting with Christy Glass Meer in research and evaluation looking at how we can get a lot of that um data into synergy so that we can have that data also in real time as we look at building out data teams and maybe a dashboard so that the teachers uh the principles everybody kind of knows where we're at. um some of it's a little bit lagging,
073you know, when we talk about technical skills assessment that they have to take, but industry certifications students are earning all year. So, we'd be able to see and monitor where we're at with students earning certifications as related to how many students are in the program. Uh we we already have a lot of that data also through the Arizona Department of Education that we report out every year, but again, it's always kind of lagging. It's at the end of the year, so that's a good place that we'll start working. We meet with our teachers um uh every uh month. They have a dedicated PLC time just for district departments and that is one of the focus areas that we'll be looking at is looking at their data and how they can improve those student outcomes as
074it relates to what's in that IG. Thank you, Mrs. Benson. Yeah. Um I have a couple of questions while you stay up there, Mrs. Lauria. Um, how many how currently do you know how many teachers we have that are uh do have the certification uh through AD to teach the CTE courses that we're offering? Well, the expectation is that all CT all teachers that are hired to teach CTE classes have that certification and so I guess it's a year to get there. So my question is that's the way I read it. No, did I read it correctly? In our in our we we have to have that. That's the baseline. We can't get a program approved without having the appropriately certified teacher. So, I would say we are still working with some new hires to
075get with AD to get that process finished. Um, but our goal is always 100%. We're not supposed to be hiring teachers that can't that don't have that certification or can't obtain it shortly. Um, or we the program is not approved um and we can't receive funding for it. the the specific item that you're probably referring to in the IG, sorry it took me a second there is in refer to um teacher experience. So we have a lot of teachers that have been teaching in Mesa schools for a long time and maybe have been out of industry. For example, I have maybe an automotive teacher that's been teaching for 20 years and hasn't been in the auto industry for 20 years. EVIT is wanting to ensure that that teacher um has um some experience and professional
076learning in the current industry. And so we are working with EVIT and our uh business partners on teacher externships where a teacher could go spend a day, maybe a week, maybe spring break, um whenever those opportunities are so that they can get some of that more hands-on training. Maybe they're taking a professional uh development class through maybe one of the associations related with their industry. Maybe they're taking a um a class at Mesa Community College on trying to get up to speed on their certifications because the part of career and technical education is we're supposed to be in alignment with current industry and industry moves a lot faster than education. And so that's a very important factor to the EVAT and the EVITS board is that our teachers are up to date with what current
077industry needs and demands are. And so that's why they put that into the IG. um and we are recording that and to see where everybody is and then have a professional learning plan to ensure that we get them that additional training um that they need to be up to speed. Okay. So I am referencing um item C under no sorry E under uh year two. So maybe I misread it. It's the an additional 1% of satellite funding if 100% of CTE instructors satisfy the industry related educational effectiveness quality indicator. Is that what you're speaking about? so that they're up to date industry standard. Yes. So it's separate from a CTE ad certification that is separate that is based on their uh making sure they have current um knowledge, skills, exposure to the industry that they
078are teaching in. And we're starting that now even though the incentive doesn't really kick in till year two. We are currently working with uh EVIT on getting where that data is, where each teacher is at and then we are putting together a professional learning plan for them this year um to ensure that they are starting to get that training um in this current year and moving forward. Okay. And then um do the current the the amount so we'll receive 85% funding um and it doesn't actually increase our funding when we meet. It brings it back to 85% for two for year two and almost in year three unless I did my math wrong. But that's well it was originally a little bit less. Um so getting it back to a a possible 85% was a
079was a huge win. Dr. STM helped negotiate that with Dr. Wilson over at EVIT. So even though um you know it's it is a little intimidating to be able to look at each program at each campus which is each teacher right a lot of our programs are singletons and how does that um that data impact um but this would be a districtwide read correct yes this will be districtwide but but everything is at the local level so our each we'll look at each program at each high school okay um and the amount that we're going to be getting for our sit satellite programs. Will that be sufficient to cover CTE costs? Yes, we um actually Tyler and I were just uh and I were just meeting today about that. So, yes, we've done a good
080job with um the CTE funding to be able to cover CTE costs and expenses in relation either to teacher um salaries, benefits. Um the the satellite funds don't cover everything. Um and nor can it really and I I don't know if Dr. strong wants to add anything to there's a certain supplanting formula that the district has to contribute um and that um and we work very collaboratively to ensure that the district is meeting that and then CTE can pick up those additional expenses as we've been doing as you've seen um have come across your uh desk the um increase in certain purchase orders um to help fund those additional costs with the the new CTE programs that we have because of themies. So for themies uh can the board assume that all of the CTE
081courses that are being offered through MesaMmies have been approved by EVIT? Yes, everything has been approved by EVIT. Okay. Um and it mentioned in this if if there is a and I read it and I could be reading it wrong, but that EVIT would have um like an maybe an EVIT campus on one of our campuses or a section of it. Did I read that correctly? Okay. Do we currently have that? No. So, um that's actually a newer model. So, to board members since Hutchinson was mentioning it's going to be a central campus on our um at Red Mountain High School for nursing assistant. That's where we would like to start. Um Scottdale, I believe, has a fire science program. They've done some of these in Apache Junction and Fountain Hills over the years. Um
082we're really excited about this model because it does complement our academy model very well. In fact, some of the classroom space that we have looked at um is right um by where their healthc care um health and medical sciences academy classes are. So students actually would be meeting a lot of the prerequisites for the CNA program through our academy. So then they can go their senior year right into their CNA program and don't even have to ever leave campus. They can just stay there at Red at Red Mountain. So are we planning that for 26 27? Mhm. 25 27. When is No. 2627 hopefully we will we will immediately get uh if the board approves this back with EIT. I do want to say uh you know my f first personal experience having helped with
083an EVIT negotiation in Mesa. Mesa is uniquely different in their relationship with EVIT because EVIT is kind of uh you know Mesa born and bred and uh so this has been a learning experience for me even though I've negotiated EVIT contracts in prior districts. that's unique being in Mesa and we're excited to have a central campus on one of our campuses because our three-pronged approach to our space is one, we want to partner with ourselves to slowly reduce district office campuses and partner with ourselves by getting some of our own programs that are centralized now out to school campuses to use that space. Two, we want to partner with educationally adjacent institutions. This is an educationally adjacent institution and so this really excites us. And three, we want to partner with nonprofits and community building
084organizations that help us in the process of learning for kids. That help us in the process of learning for kids. So, uh, we're excited about this partnership with EVIT. And I just want to thank Dr. Wilson and Miss D, Dr. Dr. Dr. Doulan for being part of the process and helping us through the negotiation phases to get to the point where we're at. So, over the next nine months, we will likely Mrs. King, Miss Dr. greaseless. Miss Lauria and myself will be again the negotiation stages for what a central campus looks like and there'll likely be another IGA that comes back that spells that out for the central campus solution. Yes. Okay. My I I assume this had a lot of hard work and I too want to um piggyback off the I love the
085idea that we've got we've built in metrics, right? So we have built in are we being successful with our satellite programming? Um, I think that's what our our community wants. They want they want to make sure that what we're bringing to students is actually meeting the needs of those students that are uh more career oriented initially out of the gate than uh collegebound. So I think that I I I loved that component as well. So I think that's all I had. Any other questions? Miss Waldman. Um I just want to comment I I you know in hearing more of the discussion too just to to reiterate that I just to thank EVIT that they did approve these uh CTE programs at Mesa like ourmies while the board doesn't vote on CTE that was voted on
086and and approved by EVIT. So I'm not surprised that we had another successful partnership with them. I do feel like that we're headed in a really good direction and giving our students choices because everybody in Arizona is going to have the same diploma. Everybody has to take the same classes to graduate. And so, how do you make yourself competitive? And a lot of families don't realize that. Like, I'm a first generation college graduate. So, that was never a conversation at my house about, oh, you got to what are you going to do to set yourself apart? And I, you know, learned the the long way. We're giving kids that a lot of them probably like my family are possibly going to be first generation college graduates. We have some that are first generation high school
087graduates. We're giving them the opportunity to get that leg up in life uh that their parents may not know about is is needed. So, I think it's it's we're we're satisfying that sort of real world application of education, but also helping our kids have that competitive edge so they have those choices and maybe they want to go to college, maybe they don't. But the more opportunities they have, the likelier that they will achieve the things that that they want to achieve versus your basic standard diploma that everybody gets. So, I'm I'm excited at the direction we're going and I think uh I I I think this is a really really greatlooking IGA. I really hope other other districts come to the table and follow in our footsteps. Thank you, Mr. Walden. Well said. I echo
088that and agree with all those things and I do appreciate the district and everyone's work on this IG and and working with EVIT. Um it's a great partnership that we have. Do I have any other discussion? I just want to piggyback off a comment that member Walden just said. The other thing that uh allows uh you know kids if kids don't initially think they're collegebound or they're they're not college material. Providing um a way to get a skill before they even graduate high school um provides them with the ability to work to earn money to go to college if they want because college is so expensive. So I um I like this. I I think even started with in high school. So Dr. Dr. Wilson over at EIT calls that a livable wage. If you
089can get people into their first jobs so they can have a livable wage to create the next opportunity for themselves. Uh that that's a very important first step for kids so they can continue to pursue their college education or their education and in their post-secary path. So, uh, we're very much into helping kids get that first step in their post-secary lives. Thank you. Any other discussion? All right, seeing none, Miss Kirby, will you please take our vote? For the vote of five years, you've approved the intergovernmental agreement with EVIT for the Career Technical Education District satellite. And thank you, Miss Lauria, for your your answer to questions. Moving on, do I have a motion to approve the 202526 governing board travel, conference registration, and membership budget not to exceed $2,000 per board member? So moved.
090Do I have a second? seconded. Any discussion, Miss Such? Yes. Um, thank you, board president. Um, one of the things that I would like to, um, make mention of is actually a couple of things. Excuse me. Um in the notes for tonight's meeting on the agenda, it it shows that um it seems like we've been not spending as much of the total budget as has been approved. Um, I'm going to say that one of the reasons why the the board did not use um much of the money last year was that we were engaged in a superintendent search that fall semester and that took all of the energy that we had. Um, and and so if it looks like we didn't we didn't do anything, we did. Um and and we were we were totally
091engaged in one of the most important jobs that a board does, which is to hire a superintendent. Um but um in reviewing um the information that was shared at the general administrator's meeting, um I noticed that travel guidelines were established um in the meeting. And what I would like to suggest to my colleagues um and recommend to my colleagues is is that we follow those guidelines um in that um we only have one um time when we do instate travel where there would be an overnight um that we only would travel once out of state. But I I'm going to suggest that many of the opportunities that we have for professional development as a board are instate. And because we are in the Phoenix metro area, um many of the things happen here, um we
092don't have to have a hotel, which is cool. Um we don't get reimbursed for mileage as board members, so that's that's a wash. Um but um by being members of ASBA, we are reducing the cost of our professional development. For example, um a number of us want to go to the law conference um which is in September. Um the law conference will cost $330 a person for each for each board member as opposed to $990 if we were not members of ASBA. So, um I'm um um I'm thinking that the board is being responsive to the cuts that are happening throughout the district that we are lowering um our professional development budget, but I would also like to make the suggestion that we follow the guidelines that were established for all employees. Great suggestion. I
093appreciate that, Mrs. Benson. I appreciate that the budget was reduced um considering we are in a um precarious budget situation and um I would even recommend that we try to reduce uh I appreciate the guidelines that were provided to staff because it's truly a bad optic to allow out of state travel um overnight trips for professional development when we cut over 200 people. It's a really bad optic. It's bad luck. Regardless of how good the training might be, um we have to be cognizant of that and we have to be using our um our uh money wisely. The other thing that I think was included in the requirements for professional development is that it is centered on our core objective uh which is how does this improve my ability to teach the children that are
094in front of me? How does this improve student outcomes? That has got to be our focus as a board as well because that is our goal as well. It our goal is to oversee and implement and put into place things that are going to improve student achievement. That's our whole job is to educate students. So I think that we as a board should be looking at trainings that u provide us with insight especially those of us that don't have an education background. Uh Mrs. Sutinson and I both come from the education world. Mrs. Chappie kind of does um well you do uh so it's a different world than so it is important that um people that are that are overseeing a school district does understand there are some unique elements to the um whole business
095of education. So I would like us to I would encourage our our our membership to also be cognizant does this training benefit um student outcomes? Does it position me as a board to be able to oversee that uh goal? Well, and uh I mean that's what I would always look for in attorney. So I do appreciate that we reduced because even before the superintendent we the board was only using 40% of what was allotted to it. So it seems that you know what is that 12 12,500. It's a drop in the bucket with our overall budget. However, so thank you. Any other questions, comments? Yeah, I I agree with um board member Hutchinson. I think that's good to adopt those guidelines and just want out of state travel and and part of too like not
096using the budget like I haven't I haven't ever come to the board to get a budget reimbursement. That doesn't mean that I'm not trying to work on professional development too. There are a lot of things that are free. The Arizona Department of Education, there's trainings that come out of that. the county superintendent's office is planning on doing trainings. There's other organizations that have done schoolboard trainings that uh I've attended. And then there's there's one organization and it's 25 bucks a year to be part of it. I've joined that organization, didn't need a reimbursement for it. So I I'm not bragging about training I've done, but just want to make sure that's to answer that too. Like just if we're not using the budget, that doesn't mean that we're not working on professional development. there's other
097opportunities we can take advantage of. I went to Florida in 2023 that was scholaripped for a conference. So, there's there are there's lots of different things out there. And uh to Sharon's point, you know, when we're going to submit a reimbursement from public money, we want to make sure that it's it's student outcome focused and and uh I think the law conference will definitely be helpful to help people be better board members. the $300, that's a steal for legal training. So, um, so we'll we'll use this. Probably still won't even get to 2,000. Um, but I, uh, I, I appreciate those recommendations. I I support that. Thank you. Any other questions, comments? Seeing none, Miss Kirby, will we please take our vote? So, motion. Who made the motion? Mrs. Mrs. Hutchinson, would you like amend
098we need to Miss Kirby, would you like me to make an amendment? Yes. Okay. All right. So, I would I'll amend the motion to read that um board members follow the travel guidelines um for fiscal year 2526 as was established in the general administrator's meeting. Now, are we good to take a vote? Thank you. With a vote of five yays, you've approved the 202526 governing board travel conference registration and membership budget um not to exceed 2,000 per board member. Board members will follow travel guidelines as established in the gam meeting. Moving on, we are now to our discussion items. I'm going to turn the time over to Mr. Wing to get us started on this section. Good evening, Madame President, governing board, superintendent, audience. Uh what we're going to share with you today is more
099of a progress update on three particular school opportunities moving forward uh for 2627 school year. Uh if Oh, I have the clicker. There we go. So, we may not know all of the answers, but we're going to give you an update based on as as much of the information we have as of today. Uh, it's a work in progress. U few things. Uh, our intent is to provide these three opportunities, make recommendations to the governing board by our last uh governing board meeting in October, I believe October 23rd. reasons for that. Uh along with other budget and staffing, it's it's uh imperative that we make decisions in the fall for the following school year because uh spring is quite busy and not kind to education. Uh couple things also to consider. We are expecting students
100to uh register and roll starting in November. So we want to make sure that we educate our parents and our students families of the opportunities going for 2627 school year. Just an overview of the enrollment picture. Uh the nations has a declining enrollment. Arizona has declining enrollment. Mesa public schools has a declining enrollment. Uh this in a dark blue header shares the last three years of declining enrollment going from 5 55 700 to 53400. And the gray shares uh the projection over the next three years. This is comparable to national research etc. probably through 2030 uh that we'll be expecting this. Uh another thing to point out in here starting right away in 22 23 moving to the 23 24 our seniors our 12th graders who graduate is much greater than the incoming following year
101kinder by about 18 to 2,000 students. So uh that's really what's hitting us most in the decline of enrollment. We have to due to this decline enrollment, due to the decline in revenue, it does require us to um be very creative in our options. Um as shared many of times, our intention is to as long as possible keep all of our schools open. Uh the school is our community hub and while we're one big Mesa public schools community, uh we have a lot of important ones uh within within for each school. Other school districts are having to make decisions using their own creativity. Some of that may be closing schools. We've seen staffing adjustments. Um typical 85 to 90% of budget is spent on staffing, etc. Here are just some examples of school districts uh
102neighboring school districts or school districts throughout the throughout the metropolitan area. Now to the first of the three opportunities. Uh this one's exploring moving to Franklin the Franklin opportunities for our families from a K8 to K12 setting. So expanding to high school. Just to answer a question in case one may have uh when rolling this out, it's not our intention to have it be K12 immediately. We'll have to roll out by uh year, by grade level. Most typical 9th grade, then the following year 10th grade, the 10th graders go to 11th, etc. We did that over the past couple years, moving from two of our schools from a K8, I mean, excuse me, from a K6 to a K8. there was a two-year rollover or roll out, excuse me, where this will likely be a
103four-year uh roll out. How do we get to where we're at now? What are some updates? Uh to begin with, uh we heard parents I want to say a year ago, but uh don't don't put that in pen. um from parents here at the call call to the public, the governing board requesting that we explore uh this opportunity that those parents had interest in having their Franklin students uh go from K through 12th grade. Uh governing board received emails, superintendency has also received emails along with uh Franklin administration. Uh with that, we heard also a strong um want to have smaller high schools. Going back to a statement earlier made that we want to give our Mesa public school families choice and that choice is within Mesa public schools and this is one consideration. We
104did survey our Franklin families. I believe we shared that with the governing board in the spring, but overwhelmingly they shared an interest in moving to that K12 setting. Oops, pardon me. Uh, along the way, communication is very important. So, Mrs. Man, uh, area superintendent did meet with the Franklin principles to communicate this opportunity. Mr. Abrams, thank you for being here. Uh, communicated the proposal to his staff and PTO and families. Uh we're researching capacity of the current Brim Hall and other um Brimhall campus, excuse me, and all nearby elementary schools. Uh we're exploring different grade level cluster options. As a result, uh the course offerings will be primarily honors and AP that has been shared with you in the past. We're uh leveraging our uh district athletics uh director to see what uh to evaluate
105our ball fields, our gyms to see what opportunities we can provide in the athletic side. I know there's been one parent meeting and uh more to come as well for our Franklin Brimhole family. Uh we did an analysis of space at Brim Hall. Brimhole currently has 55 classrooms. If we planned on 150 students, kindergarten through 12, 13 uh grade levels, we would need 69 classrooms, and that does not account for our special area rooms such as music, PE, art, etc. Um, we have more needs than we do space at Brim Hall, which means we're going to need to consider some other space, particularly nearby uh elementary schools. And in order for us to do this, we need to involve our PABDEC members who is responsible for providing recommendations regarding any boundary changes to the governing
106board. So we did an analysis around Brim Hall. Brimhall's in the red dot and we looked at nearby uh schools and we took uh considerations of a few a few items. one, we looked at proximity to Brim Hall. We looked at the boundaries of of these particular schools nearby and in some cases the uniqueness of some of the boundaries. We also looked at declining enrollment of these elementary schools and better yet projecting out and which ones are declining at a faster pace than than others. What schools have a self have self-contained programs? um etc. So with this uh to be transparent, we're eyeing Wilson Elementary as a as an opportunity for us to expand that Franklin from a K12, I mean K8 to a K12 with Brim Hall because of the logistics and the makeup
107already. I believe it was designed for a 79 school in the past. Mrs. man can correct us in a little bit, but uh it has uh opportunities for or to expand to that high school level, which means we'll need uh uh location for our elementary side of it. Uh because of the capacity of Wilson, because of the capacity of Brim Hall, we're eyeing probably or we're looking at maybe a K4 or likelihood a K4 at Wilson and a 512 at Brimhall. uh there's an opportunity in the future depending on enrollment etc and interest um transitioning to a K5 612 but uh for right now be because of capacity and what we're projecting it'll likely be a K4 setting. I will share um that Dr. Stro has met with uh Mrs. Marilyn Wilson and her family.
108Um because we're well aware how how integral the Wilson family, including Maryland, has been to Mesa Public Schools and even beyond that. Um but that discussion was made and we still intend to honoring Mrs. Wilson even with that move. We have more work to do. So, here are some timelines for everybody to be aware. Um, we're going to be meeting uh this Friday with departments, transportation, food and nutrition operations. We need to make sure all of our internal stakeholders are prepared and assist with the transition. July 25th, meeting with the Wilson staff. We wanted to ensure that the governing board was made aware and we need uh promptly follow up with the Wilson staff. August 18th, Pab Deck, who's already met twice, uh we'll be meeting uh with intent of voting moving forward on our
109district leadership recommendations and subsequently there's some per governing board policy items that have to be completed after that. Uh I'll get to that in a second, but August 21st and 22nd 26, we're going to have listening sessions with the Franklin families. Again, we're going to provide it to the governing board as discuss discussion item late August, August 28th. And the September will be full of hearings, at least two hearings at each of the schools who may be significantly impacted. And depending on the August 18th vote by PADE will determine which schools uh will be impacted with a potential boundary change. September 25th, again, board meeting for a discussion item. September 29th, uh, PABDC will consider a vote based on the information provided to them through governing board discussion, through district leadership, and also the hearings
110that will be held in September. And then the intent, as I shared earlier, is that we'll provide a recommendation to the governing board on October 23rd. And that'll be PABDEX presenting their recommendation on October 23rd. Continuing with the communication, uh, working with the communications department, we are going to be sending mailers to the homes much in compliance with governing board policy. Uh, it'll be provided at least 10 days prior to the first public hearing to give them ample notification of that. Uh, parent square, we're going to leverage parent square and text invitations for the listening sessions as well. Uh and then we'll be also launching a web page to continue our efforts on exhausting really all of our efforts on communication with various stakeholders that may or may not be impacted. Continue forward. Excuse me.
111Shepard 712 College Prep Academy. I'd like to invite Mrs. Jill Benza, principal of Shephard, to provide some updates. Again, this is not a new opportunity we're exploring. This is something that's been in progress during the 24-25 school year, but Miss Mrs. Benzo, would you mind sharing a update? Um, yes, Mr. Wing, I didn't know I got married, so thank you. I'm Miss Benza. Mrs. Benz is my mom, so you're channeling her. Um, good strength for me today. Um, so we are really excited. I brought actually Nick Johnson with me. He's um my instructional coach. Um, and he's on my team. Um we have a group together planning um for our expansion for our um high school that we will have, our 712 school. Um we are really excited about this. If you don't know, Shepard
112is the best junior high in town. Um but we are we're small. Our neighborhood is in Ulta Mesa. Um it's a beautiful neighborhood with these beautiful old homes and um my sister-in-law who went there the year it opened, her parents still live in their home. So it hasn't turned over and so our numbers are shrinking. Um, and we've been talking for a long time. What can we do? So, when they approached us and said, "Would you like to be a small 712?" The high school part of me, my 19 years of high school, I was like, "Yes, absolutely. I would love it. I love my seventh and eighth graders, but there's just something about working with those high school kids as well." So, to have them for that huge chunk of time would just be
113amazing. So, we've been working and I think our next slide um kind of shows what we've had going on. Um, so we met with Dr. Malerine back in June. um to kind of tell him where what we've been doing and the work we've done. Um we did put out a survey this spring. Um and that was awesome. And I love that um the um data people gave me permission to look at it and I perhaps looked at it like every 10 minutes that first day to see what kinds of things people are saying and we had really positive feedback and a lot of our parents then decided to send it on to their friends um and see what feedback would come from other areas of the district which is really um cool as well. So,
114we have talked a lot about that. We when we met with Dr. Malawine in June, we said it's time to look at applications. And I'm so thankful um for my friends back there from um Franklin, he met with me and talked about how he does his application process. Um and we've actually looked at a lot of schools around the valley. We've looked at what they do at Gilbert Classical Academy. We looked at what they do at some of the charter schools. Um, and we're pulling all that information together, um, to kind of put our proposal together to say, "Here's what we would like our application to look like." Um, then on June 17th, um, I had Tommy Eubanks come out. I had met with him last fall to kind of get a preliminary, what do
115we need to do? So, he came out and we walked my entire campus and talked about sports and what would work because we are a junior high, we don't have the same facilities. Um, but he walked into our gym and he said, "This is great. This is the size of some of the small um charter schools in the area. So, you definitely would be able to have some high um high school sports. Our thought is is that our our listening sessions to kind of share to with our parents here's what we can, you know, potentially have. What are things that your students would want to do and kind of work from there. But we are looking at having um smaller things. We have a beautiful pool, so we could have a swim team, um cross
116country, boys and girls basketball, that type of thing. Um we would not be able to have some of the larger sports like football. we just don't have the space on our campus to house that type of thing. Um then we met last week as a team um with teaching and learning and that was a lot of fun because we it's been a long time since I've looked at high school courses. Um and I said, "Hey, I I know what kids need to take for social studies, but I don't for science." Um I didn't teach science. So we really had an opportunity to sit down and map out our four years. Um and we've actually created our first two years what our students will take. um where we kind of struggles a little bit is what
117are we going to do with electives because again we are smaller so you know we don't have the capacity to offer welding. So what we want to do is in our listening session again ask our community and the parents who are interested what are you thinking for electives and what could we possibly um have there um so we um have been doing that we've been doing a lot of communicating to our um department our families I've met with my sak a few times um I presented at pra with principal benza it was very exciting morning um and again really positive feedback so moving forward um we have three listening sessions coming up um we have our core sequencing due, which we're ready to hit send on that probably tomorrow. Um, we have our open house
118on the 14th, which is our regularly scheduled openhouse. We're going to do a listening session at the end of that. Um, and then we'll be doing one um on the 20th at 8:00 in the morning. Um, trying to catch those parents who couldn't come at night and then we'll have one more um on the 27th at 6 o'clock. So, we're hoping to get good feedback from parents to kind of finalize some of those things and then we will be coming to you guys. Any questions? I don't know if I'm allowed to ask that. Yeah, let's continue with the the third one and then we'll follow up for questions. Is that all right? Thanks, Miss Benza. The third um school opportunity is referred to as participatory staffing. Uh few things to be aware of. Last school
119year, 14 of our small schools facilitated by Dr. Gibbs and Mrs. Adams uh facilitated community practice engaging with the the 14 uh leaders our leaders at the 14 schools and out of that um uh and through the discussion was perhaps we need to look at flexible staffing at our schools which led to the participatory staffing. So for this school year in the fall, these five schools will be engaged in participatory staffing. Washington Elementary, Lehigh Elementary, Okconor Elementary, K8 STEM Academy at Red Mountain Ranch, and Shepard Junior High, potentially Shepard 712, College Prep Academy. So participatory it's a unique programming uh for small schools that to engage with our school community stakeholders particularly parents on what offerings what interests we have regarding staffing and staffing allocations. If you recall, February 11th this year, the governing board
120at a public meeting engaged an activity in which it was more of an expense revenue uh model spreadsheet playing around with staffing models to kind of um make sure that the uh expense or the revenues and expenses for a school were within a tight range maybe 5% I think we did 10% as our as our sample uh through the activity some statements I remember the governor board mentioned that this is pretty difficult uh decisions to be made. I think another one mentioned that when you focus more on the position than people uh decisions are uh will be will lead to better outcomes etc. So what could this mean? the participatory uh staffing school leaders engaging with their community regarding that expenses uh versus revenue. Uh they're going to uh review and make sure that the
121uh the expenses are within a certain range of their expenses. Uh the staff models may or will be different than other schools. uh it'll have to hence the participating in this participatory staffing this flexible staffing similar the Franklin schools and Mesa Academy for advanced uh study school special area offerings will differ from differ at these five sites um reminder that we'll be uh engaging with parents and receiving input from them. One school for example may prefer a music academy where music the music is the focal point of special areas. Another school may prefer a STEM academy where STEM and the arts may be uh the preferred special areas to serve the students at at that particular school. Just like that activity we um experienced in February, um Mesa Public Schools has a lot of offerings
122for students, but our small schools in order to keep them open, offer um that school as a community hub, we have to be within our means. So, we're just not going to be able to offer all of the offerings that we have in other schools that may be larger, that may be gaining more revenue because of the the higher uh student enrollment. So, there will be some changes uh but we're going to let the five schools through participatory staffing uh provide some recommendations. And with that, we're open for any questions, comments. Thank you, Mr. Wing and Miss Benza. Um board members, any questions, comments? Ready? Miss Madam President. Yes, go ahead. May I start the discussion? Um so Miss Spenza and instructional coach. Um I personally love the idea of a college prep. Uh I
123think it's great. I think we lose a lot of our um IT gifted. I think we lose a lot of those kids to college prep type uh programming once they hit sixth and seventh grade. Would um the college prep if it's seven uh 712 your seventh graders would they be able to take college or high school electives? Are we limiting and would they be able to access let's say we have a seventh grader who can take algebra or potentially geometry. Uh what about the so I know they can do that. Uh I assume that they will be able to take foreign language in seventh grade and earn high school credit high school credit for it. What about electives? Uh that is a great question and with I know with world language we have that ability
124to do that. One of the questions that we are trying to figure out is is it the same if they take a photography class in seventh grade if they take it with a high school person what will transfer over? So, that's something that we have to work with teaching and learning on to make those final decisions um to make sure we get all of that correct and we don't mess up somebody's transcript because we never want to do that in the end. So, that is still something we're working out. Okay, great. I I do love the idea though for especially our quantitatively gifted kids to be able to have advancement in mathematics with a real person. Yes. Uh I think that is that's absolutely essential. So I I have other questions for the other people
125but anybody else for Shephard because I don't want to Principal Benza. Um I know that Shephard is known for it music program. Yes. Um and the showstoppers they're amazing. Um and and frankly it is one of the means by which Shephard has has been the stellar school that it is. Um, what plans do you have for the arts? Um, very interested in making sure that that program remains the stellar program that it is. So, if you could maybe elaborate on those types of electives. I know that your arts folks, your visual arts folks are amazing as well. So, um, is there going to be an emphasis on the arts in this type of a classical academy? Yes. So, I actually, um, put Mrs. Tidwell on our planning committee, um, because we said we certainly don't
126want to lose her and she's already making adjustments in what she's doing on our campus of shifting. We normally do one musical a year and this year we're going to do two and we're going to do a smaller one in the fall that will then be geared towards our seventh and eighth graders. and we would do a larger one in late spring that would be geared towards our high school students. So, she's already working on what that would look like. Um, my band teacher, um, he is thrilled. He has 50 kids in seventh grade band this year. So, um, we know that we have a lot of kids. Often when you take an honors and AP class, you're also in performing arts. So, we know that that area is going to grow. So, we're working
127with them to figure that out for sure. I'm going to piggyback off on that. I feel really optimistic that this can help the district be competitive in what is a competitive market here in Arizona due to school choice and we've seen it be successful in other areas. What are the biggest concerns your staff and your teachers are raising? Oh um my staff has not every time I've presented to them and we've talked about it many times um every time they get excited. Um so they are very excited about it. Um, I think the fear always at Shephard has been we might get closed. And so when they look at this new opportunity of bringing more kids in, I think they really get excited and say, "Okay, this is um an opportunity for us to keep
128going." Um, and then they come to me and say, "I'm able to teach high school, just so you know." So, we already have a list of who can teach what high school class. Um, I have not heard any fears from them. Um, I will tell you that someone said, "Are we gonna have a football team?" And I said, "No, we're not." And I think that alleviated some fears because that is a lot um to have a football team. But I haven't I don't have any teachers that have come forward. I don't know that Mr. Johnson has either to say what does this mean for us. I think they're actually all very excited about it and the opportunity. Can I piggyback on that question, please? Um, I know that to teach AP you're going to have
129to get certified and Oh, and so I would suspect that we are going to have requests for professional development, travel. Um, number one, can we afford it? Number two, how how would um, teachers who have taught junior high coursework get up to speed? Not I'm not saying they couldn't, but I know having been an AP history teacher that there there it's you are teaching a college level class. So So there is an enormous jump in skill development as well as as content. Yes. So um perhaps you could speak the um to that um question. Can I go first? You want to do some? Okay. Um so the first thing I would say is yes, we will need to do some professional development. send people to um an AP conference and a lot of times like
130I know I did mine at Pinnacle High School um in Phoenix. So there are ones that we can do locally. Um some of my junior high teachers they will they are only K8 certified so they will always stay at the seventh grade. Um I for example I have a science teacher and she has a chemistry degree. So she's like what do I need to do? I could teach chemistry you know so we will do some of that. Um, and then as we grow, and I, um, found out yesterday that I'm doing participatory staffing, um, we'll be really creative in how we move people up into those positions. And then we will be pulling people in. We'll have to hire, you know, almost every year in some areas in order to bring in what we need.
131I have a math teacher who can teach all the way through 7th through 12th grade, but I don't necessarily have that um, in other areas. So we would have to look at that and make sure that they are first qualified to teach high school and then they they do have the ability to teach it at the rigor they need. Did you want to add to that? And then we also are very aware that our professional learning plan will need to change if we be get board approval and become a college prep academy. Um the professional learning that our seventh and eighth grade teachers will need will probably look a little different than our 9th through 12th grade teachers. And so we're already kind of brainstorming what that'll look like if we get board approval. Um,
132but we we do recognize that that training and professional learning is going to look different if you're an AP teacher or dual enrollment. If you don't mind me adding to the state board of education has approved MESA to have uh to host five uh certification programs and one of them through path to teach and one of them is a secondary. So the K8 certified teacher who is interested in teaching in the high school uh we can break down some barriers by having them join our program rather than uh having a more expenses um through tuition and all that kind of stuff through a college or whatever means. Is there an option too if we had a school that didn't have a full AP schedule at their school that they could share a roster and go
133to Shepard? Okay. Yes. Speaking on the instructional piece, are um because it's college prep, is there going to be a larger focus on the classical education model, which always involves the arts? Always. Doesn't always involve the sports. It always involves the arts. Um, so when I look at it, I look at a lot of AP classes, um, honors classes, things like that with the arts. Um, I know we've talked a lot about what will make us different than Franklin because they're not too far from us. Um, so we actually talked just the other day about how our focus this year is really on student centered learning and um, using the instructional framework with that. So that would be really our focus that when you come to Shepard Junior High, you're not going to sit in
134your rows. It's going to be very student participatory and you're going to do socratic seminars and things like that. Does that help? Well, yeah. The classical education model, Franklin doesn't do the classical education model. No, but I'd like at Gilbert Classical. I don't think we're going to go that classical as them. Like we'll offer Spanish will be our world. Well, they have foreign language. They always have. Yes. I mean, a classical model develops seven core elements, you know, three in the languages and four in the maths. So, that's what my question is. are we going to be focused more on like making sure that they have a well-rounded college uh prep and that typically is in a classical model. Any other questions? Go ahead. Okay. So I think the elephant in the room is what
135is the impact going to be on the other high schools particularly the high schools that are nearby um with a stone throw away is Red Mountain and and Skyline and well it gets a hefty pitch to Skyline from from Shepard but um but I'm but I'm also thinking about Brim Hall and and Mesa High. Um have we have we talked to those communities? Have those principles been involved in the discussion? Have they been made aware of of these plans? Um and and have you in other words, have you collaborated with your fellow principles? I have I talked with um I've had a conversation with Mike Oliver at Mountain View u multiple and he keeps telling me whatever you need I'll help you. And then I've met with Steve Tannibal from Red Mountain as well. Um,
136and the same thing we've had a lot of discussion because my kids already roll to Red Mountain High School. I know that that's where a lot of my students my first couple years probably will come from. Um, so we've had that conversation. He's very supportive of it. Um, and can see the need for it as well. As as Mr. Abrams comes up to two uh comments. One, we what we've learned from Red Mountain K8 STEM Academy at Red Mountain Ranch is we had the same fear with that that type of thing when we expanded to 78 at Fremont and Shepard and it just didn't occur. The enrollment at Fremont and Shepard did not get hit hardly at all because we opened K8 at STEM uh STEM at Redm Ranch. And what we think is going
137to happen in this case is, you know, uh, out of the eighth grade year out of Franklin, we know where kids go. And we were losing in any given year 20 to 30% of the kids to competitors out of Franklin at Brimhole. And they just weren't choosing our high school options. And so we think a portion of the students that are going to choose these options are people that we were losing in the market to other places. And so some of the enrollment will be enrollment that's newly captured. That's the goal. And we do know that there'll be some impact to those schools that the principles have been talking to, but we're hoping it models more like the K K STEM at Red Mountain Ranch Elementary School uh than than us just taking from our
138own. I do also want to mention that we want to be really clear with the community. We cannot do everything at these smaller campuses. These are going to be very choice and niche schools that offer what they offer. If you need something that's comprehensive, that's why we have comprehensive campuses. That's why you go get those those services, right? But if you're looking for something that's unique and and niche towards your family goals and what you want as a parent, we have that option for you here in Mesa Public Schools. Mr. Abrams. Hey, Madam President, members of the board, I didn't have anything prepared for this evening. I was invited to attend. So, but I'm able and willing to answer every and any question. Just to add to Dr. Stram's point, I also have to sell
139having students stay in Mesa public schools when they finish sixth grade at Brim Hall because many of my families live along that north border boundary and they want to go back to Desert Ridge. They want to go back to Highland to get into their junior highs to then feed up into their high schools. So, um, this is very exciting for for Franklin schools to have this possibility and to be considered to, um, have a 712 model and grow a high school, but I think it's also going to benefit, you know, Mesa Public Schools and and those elementary students that we end up losing after sixth grade. Hopefully, they'll see that path all the way through 12th grade and then they don't go back to uh, you know, the district to the south. Have you talked
140to Mr. Thomas and if not, can we schedule some time with Mr. Thomas at Mesa High? Yeah, I've talked to Mr. Thomas, Mr. Thomas informally, you know, um my school is a little bit different of a timeline because of the exploring options and the size with the elementary and having to, you know, be creative and how that's going to work. So, um the concrete conversation hasn't been quite the same as Shephardd's. Um but Kirk and I have spoke, you know, for about a year and a half now informally and how that will work as well as a lot of a lot of my community is is in his area as well. So I think as this process continues to move forward, you know, I've built pretty good relationships with a lot of people, a lot
141of administrators in Mesa and we have meetings with um you know, Estrada um Tom Eubanks was at the campus today, Patrick Walsh was there Monday having meetings with with our Lind and myself to do the preliminary planning. So when decisions are made, we're we're up and ready to go. Um and we will get a lot of feedback from our community. We will get a lot of input from our community. And um just so all of you know, I've I've had the privilege of opening two other Franklin schools to different locations within Mesa. My first year as an assistant principal or team leader at the time is when we opened up Alma and that was welcome to administration. We're opening up Alma. And then I was assigned uh and hired as a principal of Franklin Northeast
142and Junior High. And I think about two months into it, I was told we're we're re relocating your campus to Franklin Brimhall and we're going to combine Franklin South with you and you're going to do that and open up that campus. So, as we were sitting here, Frank was texting me. It was kind of funny. He's like, "We need to bring back the big boy, you know, toilets to Brim Hall." Because we had to like we had to downsize that the tension of the levers on the bathrooms. It's amazing the things that go into these these types of situations. But I've been through this a few times with our community and um there's a lot of great possibilities for both the elementary and um and of course growing on through the high school with this
143process. So, any questions you have for me, let me know. Thank you. I just want to piggyback on as we move forward um making sure that our Wilson families are well informed and that we're making sure we're communicating. I I know and I can remember sitting in this room when I was in junior high and there was they were relocating boundaries and how critical that was as a youth and just how disruptive it can be to these communities and families. And I just want to make sure that we are being um super mindful of these families as we do some changes, boundary changes and go forward. Miss Benson. Um, Madame President, to piggyback since we just went through this with um, Chrisman and not sorry Chrisman a little bit. So Ryan and Pomeroy, I will
144tell you that whole process I thought was very very well done. Uh, the community was very if you weren't informed, it's because you chose not to be informed. there was plenty plenty of opportunity to participate in meetings and and ask questions and um all of that. And the reason that Franklin has to go through PAVDAC is because we will be altering boundaries. So we'll um the the and and I think I heard in the presentation the the elementary portion is going to be K4 and then initially the high school is going to be 5 12. So can you speak to why that are we going to are we going to increase our potentially um our courses the number of of K's and ones and twos and threes and fours to build is that the idea
145or Yeah. So when when the campus if it's relocated to to another elementary school um we also want to be able to absorb and welcome those students to to a Franklin model. And with the number of elementary students that we currently have on my Brim Hall campus, um that that number of students wouldn't fit in most okay elementary campuses if they didn't have any students, let alone absorbing some students. So to ensure the fact that all students would be welcome um with the relocation of a of a Franklin Elementary, then not all of the grades of my current school would be able to move. Um and then through the years depending on enrollment um or you know numbers the goal would be to have fifth grade for sure move back to that elementary school. It
146just fits the model for an elementary school really well whereas sixth grade, you know, it can fit that middle school model pretty well. Um and it just it it would be a little bit of a a smoother transition K5 ultimately and then eventually having 6 through 12 or even K6 and 7 through 12. But but initially, yeah, we want to make sure that there's plenty of room in the campus that that you know that we may be relocating to to absorb and welcome all the families into the Franklin program. Okay. And one of the things that they did with the Pomeroy Serin move was those um students at Pomeroy who were participating in the Mon Monasuri program that wanted to continue to do that. Um but they were not Pomeroy neighborhood school kids. And I
147imagine you have several families like that at Franklin. I don't know what the distance between the Brimhole campus and the Wilson campus is, but um Pomeroy Serion had to cross a major intersection. So we we uh we um allowed busing for that first year for the Monastery kids that were at Pomeroy. So is there talk of doing the same thing here with our Wil I don't know if they have to cross a major road. So I don't know if that's member Benson if I can chime in here. That's what uh Mr. Abrams was talking about why we're going K4 and not K5 or K6 out of the gate is so that Wilson students um who currently attend Wilson will have that opportunity to explore the Franklin model and decide if that is something they want
148to be a part of as well. And um between um Brim Hall and Wilson there's probably less than a mile. It's across the road. One is east of um Higgley on Southern and the other is west of Higgley on Southern. Um, Wilson is back in the neighborhood, backs up to the US60, so you don't see it from the road where you do see Brim Hall from from the street. But yes, the idea is that Wilson students who would like to take part in the Franklin model um would have the opportunity to stay and that is why we're doing listening sessions um with Franklin parents, but also with Wilson parents so that they can understand what all is entailed in the Franklin model. So those Wilson families that don't want to participate, we will be busing
149them to I I assume correct. We would then provide transportation to a neighboring school that we would redo the boundaries for. And remember boundaries are um transportation boundaries cuz kids can go um anywhere anywhere. Yeah. Because we're open enrollment. How about our Burm Hall campus? Do most of those do we provide busing to Brim Hall or so those we would just change the bus route to the Wilson Elementary for K4? Correct. Okay. And then my final question because I don't know how this works uh with so um the focus would be offering honors and AP classes on the high school campus. Um I know that at the elementary level uh Franklin does not allow their students to do um other type programming for example gifted we could not have any gifted kids even we could
150we could test Franklin kids but they could not participate in the gifted program because it was an off-campus. Is there any concern? I mean, have we looked into we can offer because AP is a specific program, right? The offering in different we're going to be able to do do those and offer those in and maintain the Franklin model that parents want. Yes, absolutely. So, the Franklin Junior High model and in growing into the high school, once the students get to secondary, they're leveled based on ability. So, we have students that are advanced two years in math. So, my eighth some eighth graders will be taking geometry this year, some algebra, and then some general eighth grade. So, you're going to be on an accelerated track. Um, but we're but a Franklin High School wouldn't be
151100% AP and honors courses. We have quite a bit about 40% of our students that at Franklin Junior High that work on grade level in English, in math. So, it's it's a little bit different than just like a college prep program. Um, so there wouldn't be the concern of not being able to serve as students that were gifted because they're going to have that opportunity to work accelerated um, pacing within just the course sequence through high school. Well, my question I they could not participate in gifted programming because I believe the Franklin model does not allow pull out to other locations. So accelerating is there any concern with providing AP courses because it is a different program with different um merits to it. Is there isn't it? No, there's no there's no concern. It's it's
152just the courses like like right now our students don't take Franklin math in junior high. They're taking the same geometry honors geometry that they would take at Shepard, at Mesa High, anywhere. So once the students get to secondary school um the curriculum the resources realign with like district curriculum resources grading scale. So those students would be taking AP classes absolutely that were able to and then some students would be taking on grade level classes. Okay just depending on their ability. So and I know that sorry I didn't mean to interrupt. So I know the Franklin parents choose Franklin for a variety of reasons. not only the uh quality of academics but also the culture and really promoting um pro-American values. Is that going to be maintained through the high school level? Yeah, we're very patriotic
153with um with our campus. Same same for our junior high all the way through. Um you know, and and that's a key kind of component of the Franklin community and the culture and and celebrating that. Um and we we tie that into all the different activities, courses, assemblies, things that we do. So that wouldn't that wouldn't go away. I mean, you know, we are red, white, and blue all the way through. Thank you. I went to a music end of the year thing. It was super cute. Okay. Any other questions, comments? I just had one comment. It's not really a question and it's more directed to superintendent C that I think it's important that we also articulate to our community that we are offering college preparatory routes at our comprehensive high schools and that our
154students will be prepared for college and career but that we're really articulating what that looks like at our comprehensive high schools. Yeah, you can prepare for college at any one of our comprehensive high school campuses. We do know that there are parents that like small campuses, smaller cohorts of kids. And so in those environments, we can only provide certain things and we have to make choices. But please do not hear, there's two things I want to say actually. Please do not hear us say that at a comprehensive campus, you cannot be college ready because you can. And please also hear us say yes, the Franklin schools are very patriotic, but and and Mesa public schools is very patriotic as well. uh and we we absolutely honor the fact that uh we appreciate the country that
155we live in. Thank you. Any other discussion? Yeah, I cannot ask my questions about the participatory campuses. Oh, go ahead. So, um I'm personally not a huge fan of the small school model primarily at the elementary level because all the stuff still has to get done with the smaller number of people. So, that just means more people are doing more work. Uh however that's I won't discuss that tonight. What my question is um Mr. Wang I heard you say that uh they would be able to kind of explore a little bit like maybe maybe they want a STEM focus or maybe they want uh more of an arts focus um because it remain these each one of these feed into naturally our comprehensive high school other than Shepard Jr. And that I think that's your
156unique case. But the elementarymentaries is there going to be in um I guess that that my hope would be that there is um vertical alignment as well and that um these elementaryaries are talking to their junior highs that they feed into and they're talking to their high schools that they feed into. Uh focusing on their as they as they begin to think about what should our focus be. Does it align with the high schools that assuming they stay in Mesa with their traditional even though we have open enrollment but if they stay on their traditional path are we going to ensure there's vertical alignment discussions in with these other four elementaryaries when I when I shared um Miss Benson when I shared uh having participatory staffing engaging with uh district stakeholders I put a primary
157or I put an emphasis on parents but it also involves district level. It also involves the region ba regionalbased vertical articulation as well. Okay. So they'll be involved as well. Please note that we have not engaged in these meetings yet. We're beginning to engage these meetings. Oh yeah, it's not really the participatory staffing model will not roll out until 26 277 either. I mean you correct. Yeah. So I with the beginning of conversations I'd like to make sure that we have that vertical alignment discussion uh so that you know if because each one of our high schools has differentmies that they offer uh there's some overlapping but if we're offering academy that doesn't align if a if an elementary school that's feeding up to a high school that is focused on something that the academy
158is not going to necessarily offer or the campus is not going to offer. That seems kind of silly to me. So we've got to have vertical alignment would be my going to be within the means of the revenues versus expense. I have a feeling we might be hearing that a lot. Thank you. Um any other discussion? All right. Thank you. Thank you for all those that helped and answered questions and we appreciate you being here tonight. Um as we go through this, we will move on now to our progress monitoring towards board goals and dropout rate. And Dr. Glass my ear. It's all yours. Good evening. It's pretty early. I'm excited. Okay. Um I am so proud of everybody. This is awesome. Okay, cool. Um, President Davis, Dr. Strom, members of superintendency, governing board as
159well as members of the public still here. Um, we are going to do progress monitoring looking at our dropout rate. So, this is tenative measures from internally pulled data and it specifically looks at 7th through 12th grade specifically. So, we're not looking at elementary schools at all. Okay, great news. Okay. Overall, we have been declining over the past three years in our dropout rate rate for our number of students who are classified as dropout per the Arizona Department of Education and out of our total number of students enrolled, which means that we're getting an idea of for those students that are going somewhere, we know where they're going. Um, we're making sure our data is clean and we are also retaining. So, happy happy news. If we break down by grade, we have had some
160tremendous decreases across our high schools in 9th, 10th, and 11th, and 12th grade. Um, all exceeding, we're about 1.4% drops up to 1.8% drops. Again, super exciting. And then by resolved race, we have some really nice declines in some of our subgroup populations um that sometimes come at conversations. So making connections with those families and those communities is obviously something that is happening at our sites. So we're super excited about that one. Um we have a decline of in American Indian Alaskan Native. That's 4% drop. That's awesome. Okay. Sorry. Super excited again. And I'm going to totally step aside in a moment. I'm super excited about that. Okay. Um, by subgroup, uh, free and reduced lunch, exceptional student services, limited English proficiency. We also have declines across the board. Um, and so our big one
161there is lang limited English proficiency. That's a drop of 2.4% in that subgroup alone. Um, and that subgroup is very large in our district. Um, so we've seen a lot of work with those groups across a lot of the progress monitoring they've done. So we're really making very good gains in that in that population. And I am going to turn it over. We've brought two schools in today because it's not just about the numbers, but we ask about the stories. So the numbers are there and I am going to step aside and they are going to sell and tell you about all these amazing things that they do. Okay. Good evening, Madame President, members of the board, and superintendency. I am so sorry. I don't know if I can match um Dr. Glass Meer's energy.
162Um I'm going to work on that though. Okay. So, um thank you for allowing us to come in tonight to provide you just a short uh narrative of of what we have done. I want to acknowledge um like Dr. Glass Meer was saying, this has been a collective effort and um Synergy has done a great job of helping us clean up a lot of our codes. Um so um Melinda and Nathan have worked closely with our registars especially at the high school level to make sure that we're um a lot cleaner when it comes to um tracking our students. Um so what we did this past year was um we streamlined some of our systems that we have in place um uh to make sure that we're tracking the students correctly. We probably had way
163too many spreadsheets um of information going from when a student uh registered with us, when their transcript was evaluated, if they had a transcript coming in, what was going to the counseling department, what was going to our AP over registration and um so we have streamlined those processes for one document with um more viewers on it and less editors. So that has really helped out as well. um our partnership with Grad Alliance um we had some students take advantage of that um that could have easily dropped out from us. Um so um and I know in the district we were able to graduate some of the students um through that process which was really helpful. Um, and then our block scheduling on our campus. We were one of three last year that did the block
164schedule. When we opened up, um, the ability to go from three credits a semester, um, you know, and to to four, that helped a lot of our students who may have come credit deficient and and especially at the high school level. Um, when you notice that some of our our enrollment happens at the high school level because we get kids back um, from other areas. Some of our students come to us as juniors with maybe a semester of high school. So we're we're fighting a clock on that group of students. Um and so the block scheduling for us allowed some of our most credite deficient and what we consider a critical student to look out for an opportunity to take a class in person and not through egeneuity. Um, and that's really important to get
165kids in front of the teachers with the subject matter knowledge um, and to help identify the gaps where the students have um, in their learning and then progress them when they don't have those gaps, right? So they can work through quickly um, and work with a targeted um, specialized person. We have fantastic educators in our credit recovery program, and I never want to diminish what they do, but I know that those one-on-one um relationships that teachers can build in the classroom with students who aren't sitting in front of a computer all day um really go a long way to help foster a community where students want to be at school. Um as well, we had targeted conversations with families. Um more and more we're having a vocal community that says like, "Hey, I don't want
166to go to school anymore." And so we've had, you know, those conversations of tell me more about that. Um, so those conversations have happened with counseling, but a lot of our students have come directly to their administrators that oversee their grade level to talk about, you know, um, we've had conversations when kids have stopped coming to school. What's happening? What's going on? How can we help? And really what it ends up doing is creating some hope for our students. um you know whatever happens in our students lives um it's things can become so impacted that it does affect their education um and sometimes they can you know as a high school educator for over 15 years um I you know you watch your kids just kind of weirdly dig themselves into a hole that they
167have no idea how to get out of. And so I've I've been really proud of the work that our um staff has done to create positive relationships with students so that they feel comfortable to come talk to the adults about I'm I might not be coming back and I because I don't know what to do. I don't know how to get help. And so those target targeted conversations have helped our families come out with a little bit of hope and specifically creating timelines and interventions so that they can see um if you do this, this and this, your projected graduation date is this. And we understand that we might have kids graduating in the summertime and we might have them graduating a little bit behind their peers, but that's still a graduation. And it's for
168me less about what we're doing on our campus. It's more about doing what's best for the student, you know? So numbers are numbers and that's great, but I want to make sure that our students who need like want to graduate graduate. I don't really care when they do, just that they get it done. So um one of my um one of my kids that was very critical from the time he was a freshman came in today um to get his diploma that he earned um at the beginning of the summertime. So you know those are those those glimmers of of hope that we gave to kids and those are always really good feelings. So, you know, if I know a kid by first name, you you know that like we've talked a lot about that
169one kid. Unfortunately, I mean, I miss having those really good conversations with kids. Um I don't have my 150 kids a day or 180 kids a day anymore or that doesn't exist anymore on block schedule. I'm sorry. Um 60 kids a day or so. 6 20 maybe. I don't know. We've got a kids everywhere. Kids are everywhere all the time. Um but I do miss having those really good connections with kids. So, um, what are we going to do next? Moving forward, we're going to continue on with some of the systems that we've already put into place. Um, nothing that we have done is refined to perfection and probably nothing for me ever will. So, we are going to always continuously look at our systems and revise them as needed. Um, over our leadership academy
170in June, we had some conversations about what our um, MTSS system should look like. Um, and I forget the other AWIMS is is that the acronym? Um and so we've identified some areas where we can improve that which means that we will start using our dashboards. Thank you to um research and evaluation for creating dashboards that are so easy for us to get quick information on students and identify um subgroups of students that that need intervention sooner. Um so we will be able to intervene earlier and um Mr. Finley, our um assistant principal over registration is uh working specifically with our kids coming in credit deficient to be tracking them uh a little bit with a more of a microscope or a magnifying glass on them with our counseling department and through our MTSS to
171make sure that the students are progressing um when they get to us instead of just getting lost in the system. Um, I understand, you know, 2,200 kids on a high school campus is a lot and I get the apprehension sometimes of our parents wanting to come to a large comprehensive campus. Um, but I I really like to assure our families that we have several subgroup category students. We've got small schools within the school. Um, and we will make sure that um that their kids are not just a number on our campus that they they act they very much mean something to us and we'll make sure to get them to their their finish line in the um in the time in the time that we have them. So um that's what we've done. Thank you.
172Awesome. Thanks for setting that stage, Mrs. Buckley. Um, Madame President, the board and superintendency, I'm really excited about these numbers and the progress that we've been able to make. Um, and I think in my presentation, you're going to hear a lot of common themes of what Mrs. Buckley had shared. And really what I I believe is that it comes back down to knowing what every single one of our kids by name and really serving them by strength and need. And I think that that's really what has shown in our data is that we're really working hard at Carson to make sure that we know our kids by by their name. We know where they are. we know what they need and we support them. And one way that we really have been focusing on doing
173that is through our care team. And so I wanted to share that as an example of really what how we've been able to change some of our systems to be able to understand what our kids need. Um and and I really want to give a big shout out to my front office staff, to my counselors, um my assistant principal, um and and my instructional coaches who have been integral in making that happen. and and honestly even like my nurses who have been involved with it and my school resource officer because I mean I I wish I could have all of them up here with me to be able to share how much they love our kids and how hard they've been working to make sure that they all of our kids are successful. So to
174talk a little bit about our care team um and to help you understand the why, our care team really is is a team of professionals that work together to make sure that we're coordinating our supports for our kids. Um, and so to tell you a little bit about how this can affect our dropout rates, um, at junior high, you might say, "Okay, dropout rates, how do how is that different than a high school, right?" And, and really when it comes down to it is that it's making sure that we know where our kids are at, knowing where they're going, and making sure they have those supports. Um and so in our care team, this is something that we we meet regularly um on a weekly basis or bi-weekly basis depending on the time of the
175year um to make sure that we know where what sort of supports our kids need as well as which kids are excelling. Um and so that way if a kid transfers to a different school or if we notice that a kid isn't there um that we're able to follow up with that family and make sure that they have that support. Um and that comes in a variety of ways of supporting them through attendance needs and attendance meetings, supporting them through um different meetings about behavior as well as supporting them in their academics. And so as I had shared before um this is something that isn't just a me um system. This is something where I really made sure that we involve all of our front office and all um and really I mean teachers as
176well and and SRO's and other community partners. So, for example, I mean, we we meet with our Salt River community partners every single week. Um, which has been a huge support for our kids. Um, when I see the numbers about our Native American students, I mean, it almost makes me want to cry because I feel like we had a part of that, right? We were able to help support our kids with that. um because we've been able to work with our our the Salt River community and um for example with our truency officer as well as the um the social worker over there and really be able to make sure that we know our kids by name out there, know what what they need. Um and they're able to help make home visits. We're able
177to have attendance meetings and and really make a difference. Um and so as I had shared before, this is something that I feel like has to be a system level where it has to be where it's scheduled. we make sure that um every single person that's supposed to be there is there and it's a priority because our kids are our priority. Um and so that way it gives us the opportunity to be able to discuss the needs of our kids and that way we're not just talk talking hypothetical or just talking big number-wise. We're talking about Johnny. We're talking about Tim. We're talking about Sam and what they need. Um and then if we notice that they weren't there this past week, we're talking about where were they, what's going on with them, what's going
178on in their families. And so that way we can follow up with them um because we don't want them to move to a different area um and then drop out, right? Where they then don't enroll in a future um school and then they end up having to make decisions that are tough in their lives. And so for me, it's something that I'm very proud of my team to see those numbers um just because I think it speaks to the volumes of of their buy into the system that we've been creating and really being able to focus and lean back into our our promise and our goal in Mesa Public Schools of serving our kids by strength and need. Thank you so much for let allowing me to be able to come join you tonight and
179and to be able to share a little bit about the great things that are happening at Carson. Thank you. Thank you, Miss Buckley and Mr. Brunst. Um, and Miss Yes. and Mrs. Glassmire, any questions or comments? Um, oh, we appreciate you guys being here tonight and and it's not 10 o'clock and you're presenting. I think that it I mean, Mr. Buckley, we ought to have like a celebration just for that. Usually, it's like 10:30 when you're up here. So, so, no, thank you. And it's always great. I think it's always great to hear what's going on in these schools and what how we're making this progress. So, I appreciate you sharing that with us and that um other schools can be made aware what's what good things are happening. Um any questions, comments? I'd like
180to make one. Thank you for telling the stories behind the data. I appreciate it so much because this is as board member Benson said earlier on this evening couple of agenda items ago, we need to know what's working and what's not working. and and clearly what you're doing is working, but you're working. Holy cow, the amount of effort that your staff that you have led to make sure that every kid is known by name and served by strength and need. We say that you're living it and and and I I very much appreciate it. Um, I the the the word that I heard from the Dobson High story was hope and and the question I would like to ask and I heard I heard from Principal Brunst about your connection with the Salt River community.
181Um, we saw a dramatic drop that the doc here got like ecstatic over. Can I hear more of the Native American story? I I I clearly understood that you have had scheduled meetings with the community and and that you have have um um linked with um authorities and and communities. Um, but I I I want to hear more about that, but I also want to hear from Dobson because I I noticed by being at the Native American Education Program graduation ceremony, how many kids from Dobson were from the community that that we're that we're talking about that you have made made links with. So, could we could you give us a maybe a little bit more information um that way? Yeah. So, I I think for for me at Carson, it's being present in the
182community. So, I mean, to give you an idea, I mean, I've collaborated with their superintendent um and talked with with her. I've had the opportunity to go talk with their board. Um I've had the opportunity to go visit different cultural events um and back to school events. Um, and then as I shared, I mean, I I meet with their um, truency officer as well as with their um, social worker that is in the community on that regular basis. And so it it's great because then when we show up to events, it's like they know who we are. We know that they care about them and that we're really able to support them. And so that way when we're working through attendance issues, when we're working through different behavior issues, that these kids don't just disappear.
183That there I mean, I can't tell you. I mean, I think within this past year, I think I had 150 kids when I looked at my data that had started the year and didn't end with us or had come in partway through the year and ended with us. And so, I mean, that's a significant number of kids. And so, we really had to make sure that we were putting a lot of effort into making sure that we knew who those kids were and that we were in areas that they were going to be. And so, with the Salt River community, that in particular, that was going to events, that was getting to know their different tribal leaders and making sure they had that connection. Thank you. Um, yeah. So, at Dobson, um, and I I'm
184unaware, I'm sorry, about how the junior highs, um, are staffed, but we have, um, a Native American liaison, Miss Tiffany Barry. Um, she is been an incredible addition to the Dobson, um, community, and, uh, we do serve some of our native population at Dobson. um not not all that come from um the same uh regional area as Dr. Bruns and I know uh for Westwood High School. Um we do have um a high high we can look at that population as it's been growing because we have a couple programs that draw um uh some of that pro um uh student population to us. Um, one has been our um, girls basketball team. Um, has um, really been a draw for our students and and anytime we can get our students involved in um, extracurricular activities,
185whether that be through athletics, performing arts, visual arts, or clubs, we know that that is a way to get students to um, be on our campus and have a goal in mind. And if that goal is just to pass to play, then that's a great goal just to get us out of the gate, right? because that means they're going to start gaining their credits. Um so, um so that's one way and like I just like I said um I I have had overwhelming support from our district liaison when it comes to our Native American population and um I have been at Dobson since 2010 and worked with several um uh coordinators and um Miss Barry is one of the the most fantastic um educators that we have added to our campus to help our student
186population. So, uh, a lot of what she does, um, with our native students, um, it it keeps them with us, um, and it keeps them engaged and, um, I I know largely sometimes they just come to school to see her. So, and she's a kind of employee that we want to keep. So, well, and Mrs. Buckley, I can attest to the quality of the girls basketball team and the draw that it has. Madame President, uh, Dr. Bren um with your participation with the uh you going and speaking with is it the Salt River community? Mhm. So a lot of your feeder schools are also have students uh and as I spoke with uh principles from elementaryaries one of the big um issues they have is transportation for kids who kids or parents who wake up
187late and they miss the bus to get so um that's a question have you been um working with and focusing or um bringing to light that with um with the tribe leadership and second um are are you sharing what's working well for you at the junior high level with those elementaryaries that have high Salt River puma uh communities so that because junior high starts in elementary. Oh totally. So I if you can change the mindset the earlier you can change the mindset and the earlier you can really instill the importance of an education the better off junior high is going to be the better off that high school is going to be. Graduation starts in elementary school. So, are are you partnering with and are you bringing in uh do you see your elementary teacher
188or principles being oh, what are you doing? How can I can I come with you? Yeah. No, that's a great question. So, I mean, I think to to touch a little bit when you asked the question about transportation, I think it comes back down to the one, right? So, it comes back to the kid and and for me through our care teams, we've been able to identify those kids and then have those attendance conversations and start to talk about what are the transportation needs. Um, so like to give you an an example, I know I talked with a student this past year and she was not coming to school because to be honest, I mean, she had um there were some wild dogs that were in the area and she had gotten bit and so
189she was scared to ride at that bus stop because of that that specific issue. And so then we had to talk through like, you know, is there a different bus stop that we can have? Can grandma be able to transport you to a different area? What can we do to be able to help support you? Um because if that's a fear of yours, let's work through that. Um, and so really it's not one of those like catch-all like, hey, I'm I'm just going to talk to everyone and like say, "Let's fix transportation." It really is, "Hey, help me understand what what are our concerns." You know, it are there are there issues at home that make it hard to get up. Do we need to help you with that? Are there concerns with with the
190bus stop? Let me help you with that. Um, and so I think it comes back down to making sure they have that team of professionals to address that. Um, and it can't just be one person. It's got it's got to be everyone. Um, and then coming back to um, working with my elementary school feeders and and to be honest, I I even include the Salt River Elementary School feeders because I get students from them them as well that that we are working together on that. Um, that's been something that's been great is to be able to talk with, you know, the Salt River Elementary School principal and say, "Hey, what what are you doing that's working? Also, what what can we do to help bridge that gap?" And so that way our kids feel comfortable
191coming on over. Um, and so that is something that I'm excited about. about. I mean, I feel like the elementary school principles in in my feeder pattern are very open to collaborate and and very willing to collaborate, which is which is great. And being a former elementary school principal, it makes my heart happy, too, to be able to have those kiddos come on up and and for us to be able to talk about what we can do to support them. So, any other questions? Thank you. I have one overall qu and maybe this is Dr. Glassmire. The dropout rate is based on the cohort. Is that correct? No, not by definition. Um, so it's all students enrolled. Okay. So, what this doesn't always capture, what this does capture is students who um don't reenroll somewhere
192else. Is that correct? Correct. And then we consider them a dropout after some amount of time. So what we're not capturing and is there any way to try and capture the the data at some point because some of these may be some of these students may be dropouts of public ed and public or Mesa public schools but they're still being educated either through homeschooling or whatever which they wouldn't have to tell anybody. Well, I think they do have to tell somebody technically but they don't, right? And so then their kids considered it I'm writing that right? They are supposed to tell somebody something, right? They are. Yeah. Yes. You're Yeah, they But they don't always do that. So, um, is there a way to capture that data or is that not? Because if they're not
193letting us know that they're homeschooling, they're not going to tell you that they're homeschooling. Is that is that a dicey piece of data? There's a withdrawal code from Arizona Department of Education. It's a withdrawal code specific to homeschooling, but we train our people that when people ask for that homeschool code that they've asked, have you registered with the Maropa County Superintendent Agency? As you should have. So, because we need documentation, we're audited by the AD on how we do our withdrawal codes. You understand why they audit because people play games with these numbers by putting in audit or W codes, withdrawal codes that aren't correct. So the AD now audits all that and comes in and says, "Let's pull files and see if you actually have the evidence to show that the kids coded correctly."
194Um, and that prevents school districts from playing games with graduation rate withdrawal. That audit process does. So the answer to your question is there is a code for withdrawal due to homeschooling, but we also tell people that we need evidence that they're actually homeschooling to use that code. Uh so yeah, we can't we can't change over those codes without the evidence that warrants us to change that code. So the other thing is the state actually also provides us with a dropout tracker which is part of what Synergy is also working with our schools on is that there's an actual matching process because if if they enroll in another school within the state of Arizona and they don't come back and tell us, we wouldn't necessarily know unless the state told us. So there is a
195dropout tracker that we monitor at our level at the district to communicate back and then the schools are also following that as well. If it if we have it as a W4, a kid who leaves a school and we don't know where they're going and then it indicates that yes, they reenrolled somewhere else then we can go ahead and change that code because the state has verified that they have enrolled somewhere else. So some of those are probably homeschooled kids as well. So sometimes the message gets back to us not by way of the parents but by way of the state. So and then there's also um if they get their GED. So some of these dropout students are also kids that go on to vacational school or get their GED. So it they're while
196they don't graduate with Mesa, they're still on the correct trajectory, too. So please be aware that they're in there as well by definition. And some of these could be that they left the country and we don't and that's the state right wherever. So we don't have that access to see that they enrolled somewhere. So do we only not know where they're going if they don't ask for records for their student if who's they? Well so like let's say I still have school age kids and I move to um somewhere without snow. They can ask the dis they they can ask the district for records and that may not get back to the school to the school to recode. Yes. Oh there there's an there's a elaborate network of communication across data systems to make sure
197you get this data correct. And part of the process we've been through over the last couple years is to make sure our systems are working better and better to have the kids coded in the correct fashion. So, uh it is a complicated process and a nuanced process. Any other questions, discussion? All right. Thank you, Dr. Glass Meer, Dr. Brunston, Mrs. Buckley, we appreciate you. Um, moving next, um, we are going to talk about, um, the ASBA priorities. Um, Dr. Stum, I'm going to turn it over to you. Um, Dr. Stum and district leadership have shared their five recommendations and they all center around funding. Do you want to just give us a summary on that? Yeah, ASBA produced a document this year that was rather lengthy lengthy. It is concluded in your executive content. Our
198ask the governing board members is over the course of the next week if you can breed that content and give feedback back to both Mrs. Hutchinson and our delegate this year who you guys elected which is uh President Davis that'd be great. In the meantime, we picked through every one of those priorities and we think as a district administrative team the things that are most pressing to this district are funding issues because what we're trying to solve right now are problems due uh that that link to our budget. And so the four at the bottom fully fund full day. Folks, we offer full day K in Mesa public schools. We're very proud to offer full day KK in Mesa public schools. It is only halfime funded by the state of Arizona. That's very important to
199us. Uh we fully fund preschool programs uh uh with a with a formula through preschool. We offer preschool to a wide variety of constituents here in Mesa public schools. It's approached 26 2,700 kids over the course of the last three years. And the fact of the matter is we only get partial ADM funding for kids that need IEP services. And so we've had to cobble together funding for preschool from a variety of different sources. And so we think it's important to continue to push for preschool funding uh in K12 systems because we are not funded for anything outside students who need uh IEP services at at the age three is when that kicks in. Index district additional assistance on inflation. uh charter school uh uh additional assistance. Charter school capital funding is inflation funded. It's
200in the state law that they get inflation every year. Uh 2% uh or the lesser thereof. We don't get that. And so our numbers are often stuck for decades on end at a certain funding level unless there's a specific legislative action to adjust that number. And so we want to continue to advocate for inflation funding in DAA pot and then repeal constitutional aggregate expenditure limit and put something out to the voters to end this madness on an annual basis. And what I mean by that is every year the AAL comes up. The aggregate expenditure limit is a cap on expenditures across the general fund that the state legislature and governor can make uh towards K12 education. That cap is 50% if I remember off the top of my head. And if you approach going over
201that expenditure amount for K12 education out of general fund, you have to have uh the aggregate expenditure limit uh in front of the legislature to vote to go beyond that. And there's mechanisms and mechanics that we can go through to put this back out to the voters so the voters can say, "Hey, we need to adjust certain portions of that formula uh so that we don't have to go through this annual process with the state legislature." Now, this year, thank you, Arizona State Legislature. Thank you, Governor. It was a two-year amendment in the budget process bill where we don't have to actually have this conversation in the upcoming legislative session because they repealed the AAL for two years in a row. But it's probably time in the state of Arizona we put the AAL uh
202into the modern 21st century even though we're 25 years deep into it. This is a formula that's existed uh all the way back into the 80s uh in the state of Arizona. Finally, the one I skipped at the very top allowed school districts the full flexibility to uh uh the to to to the divevesture of use of taxpayer funded uh assets. And what that means is we are in a current position as a district where we have assets that as we continue to utilize our space differently, those assets will be coming available for the district to explore what to do with those assets. And right now when you look at divesting those assets, there's a lot of statutory uh elements that prohibit prohibit us from taking those funds and using them flexibly flex flexibly for
203student needs and classroom needs. And we'd like for the the state to continue to run bills to try to open up the ability for us. If, for example, we sell a parcel of land that we're no longer using, let us have the flexibility at the local level to spend that money on student needs and classroom needs as opposed to having statutory language that prohibits us from doing so. Those are the five that we found that are really relevant to budget. And uh I I don't know if we're going to discuss the items as much as we're just asking you to read the executive content and provide feedback to Mrs. Hutchinson and uh President Davis within the next week so we can circle back for the delegate assembly. [Music] I would send it to Camo. Probably
204send it to Cameo. Okay. Yeah, I would send it to Cameo and then she can send it on. So, thank you. Dr. Storm, did you say do we already have access to that packet and I missed it? Is it in status? Yeah. Yes, it's also in status. I thought it just linked to that. Okay. Admin content. I said executive content. Admin content on board docs and in status. And if you don't if you can't find it, it's really easy for us to grab and send it on to you. No, I'll be able to find it. It's just there's links all over the place. So, uh I I agree that just my brief comment I I agree we probably need to focus mostly on um budgeting and um I I like the idea when we sell
205an asset, we should be able to figure out what to do with it that best meets the needs of our school community. Question, Dr. Strong. Um, what does it cost the district to fully fund full day kindergarten? I'm going to do rough mathematics off the top of my head. Uh, at 3,500 kids in kindergarten at four teachers per 100 kids. Uh, that's going to be approximately 140 teachers and 140 teachers. Once you load in fully loaded benefits, salary and benefits, 140 teachers at approximately $90,000. Average teacher pay in this district is uh $66,000. Once you add the benefits in, it's about $90,000 when we cover their state retirement and things along those lines. So, just doing some quick math. Uh kindergarten cost us $12.6 million for staffing only. This is not taking account all indirect
206costs like the principal's time like the front office staff time for just for teachers about 12.6. So off the top of my head I think it'd be a you know $6.3 million funding gap for the non full day funding. There's other elements. That was really rough math off the top of my head. Well then that's only for teachers. They also each typically have an IIA. IAS. Yes. To limit the student to Yeah. Cold day kindergarten is a very expensive Yeah. And and yet the um standards for kindergarten that teachers have to have to meet for kids to be um educated in kindergarten require a full day. Isn't that that's what I understand that that there are standards and you teach you couldn't teach them in a half day yet there we are only funded for
207a half day. So what fully has happened over the last let's say 50 years in public education is the standards that maybe my mom and dad were taught in kindergarten right are standards that kids are expected now to come in having in kindergarten. And so what kindergarten models is more like first and second grade learning now. And so if the comment is the rig the rigor of the standards has increased the answer is yes. And if you then want to say that probably takes more time, I probably can get home with that argument that it does probably take more time to do that with kids. Uh that someone may argue on the other side of it that you know you can get there in a half day. I would say as they became more rigorous
208it does take more time to address that rigor. Thank you. Any other questions, comments? Well, and would you also say that in order to reach those standards in a developmentally appropriate way because little 5-year-olds really can't sit for 6 hours without it's just brain development all that we know about it just is not conducive to learning. It really isn't. I think and so you have to have that full day to integrate play and integrate uh downtime and integrate hands-on let you know. Yeah. I just want to add for parents too though, but I I know it's more popular to do full day kindergarten, but it's not a requirement to do full day kindergarten when you're starting your kids at five. So, they do have that option to do half day. They have to allow half
209day by law. I think what's happened in the budget is that the state hasn't maybe realized that parents aren't opting for half day. They want full day kindergarten and they haven't caught up with it in the budget, but it is not legally required to do full day kindergarten for parents. Thank you. We'll move on to our um next discussion item. Um it's on our draft of board goals for the 202526 uh year. Um they've been written to mirror Dr. Stro's um pay for performance goals and and then I'd love to get some input. I'm going to turn the time to uh board member Hudson. She had some uh suggestions that she handed out earlier if she wants to explain those. Thank you, President Davis. Um, one of the, um, when we got our draft of
210the board goals, it became clear to me that, um, they didn't reflect the discussions that we as a board had um, on with Dr. Strom about his goals. Um, and I felt like we needed to clarify the language a little bit. Um and particularly the two goals, the ELA goal and the math goal. Um it it's Dr. Stum's intention that that the increase in proficiency be based by school and the goals that we had drafted did not make that clear. So, I tried with my limited ELA proficiency to to rewrite the goals so that it's very clear to our public and particularly to our schools. um that each school in the district will demonstrate an increase of at least 5% student proficiency on the state required ELA assessments as well as the math assessments that
211and and what Dr. Strom explained to us was that a 5% increase in proficiency is statistically reasonable and achievable at the school level. And having been a classroom teacher, I know that it's easier to write one ship that's maybe a speedboat than it is the Queen Mary. And the district is the Queen Mary. I mean, we are we are huge and and I I feel that we've had such success at sites that we really ought to have our goals reflect proficiency increases by school site. It means that teachers who are already teameing are working together for their kids like Principal Brunt said our kids and and it's a greater investment of the staff all the staff certificated and non-certificated to get those get their kids get their kids proficient And so I'm I'm hoping that
212and and again this doesn't have to be the language but my intention is that it reflect that proficiency rates would be measured by school not district and and I'm I'm welcome the principles who are still with us at 8:00 um that if you wanted to to um make any type of comment I we We would certainly welcome that. Thank you, Mrs. Hutchinson. Board members, any discussion or comments, input? So, for clarity sake, Mrs. Hutchinson, are you saying that you would prefer that our board goals uh list that we don't expect a five an overall 5% increase across the district, although that is achievable if each school is doing 5%. um but rather that the goal reflect that we want um at least 70% of our student our school sites to increase their proficiencies by 5%.
213And those that are already at the 90% level um or higher they need to maintain that right and um I I don't necessarily have an objection to that because I do in your goals Dr. rum, you have a rubric. So your pay for performance is if the whole district gets a 5%. It's this that is correct, right? Yeah. So and we should be celebrating progress. Not it is going to take a while to to dig out of the hole academically that Mesa found finds itself in. It really is. Um it's you can't just do it like that. It's not magic. uh especially when we have kids that are going to junior high and high school that are not proficient because they didn't weren't proficient in elementary school. So we we I think we need to
214be logical and reasoned in knowing that we are headed in the right direction and we have to celebrate those successes when we see them especially great successes and we need to be cognizant of if we uh if each site administrator knows hey 5% for some of those campuses is going to be a lofty goal. It's not an unachievable goal but it's a lofty goal. Um that is one of the things that I appreciated about when when Dr. Connley was here. Uh now I mean she set a 90% proficiency goal across the whole entire district within like four or five years. Everybody kind of knew that that was not going to happen. However, it was a lofty goal and it made I think it I think it planted in minds that oh, in order for the
215district to do that, my campus has to do that. I've got to really focus on getting my campus up. So, I think when we increase and really have a stretch goal on each one of our campuses, that is what's going to motivate um student outcomes. That is going to you've got to do this. So I I I like that clarity. I don't have any objection to uh changing that that clarity in our board goals. It still aligns with Dr. Stum. Um so thank you. Any comments? One more question though. Mrs. Sutchinson, did you consider adding in the ELLL goal that is on Dr. Strong's goals? I didn't because I figured that the ELLL goal supports our ELA goal. Yeah, it totally does. And and and frankly, um four goals is probably and and these are
216the goals that have been um historic. Yeah. Historic. and and certainly there is great importance related to them and and principles have have said give it give us the opportunity. Yeah, I'm looking at this I agree that we I looked at Dr. Stum's goals and was like 13 goals is a lot. We need to kind of narrow our focus a little bit. Um, and so I appreciate that we're trying to kind of take these goals from 13 to four and especially kind of combine this language in ELA and math. And so I I think I'm flexible about how we want to word it. The way that like Dr. Stum's goal number two is written is more students will demonstrate proficiency on the state required ELA assessment with a district-wide increase of 5% in ELA proficiency.
217So that's kind of the district focus and I go back and forth as a board member where I'm like, do we want to have it focused per school? How do we report that? What does that look like when we're doing board goal progress monitoring? Are we going to look at all 80 schools? That's that gets a little bit into the weeds sometimes. Um, but we do we do we do as in fact as a board get into the weeds anyway. Um, so I think that maybe just being being aware of that as we go into this is like, okay, we're going to have to be looking at side by side and and I do want to make sure that we're promoting the good things that are happening in schools. Sometimes it doesn't always mean 5%
218proficiency. It does mean we're retaining students and we're getting them graduated. So I I want to balance that as we have that conversation. Um, and then, you know, set lofty goals that we're making sure that we really are ensuring effective instruction of students. So I love this. I love this focus. I think we can get the language where we need it to be and I'm open to either district 5% or school site 5%. And I, you know, piggybacking on on what you just said, um, board member Chaffy, I I I was looking at the GAM notes and there were so many celebrations for schools that had met the proficiency. And I mean, and it's a lot more than it was in the previous year. So there was there were I mean there were slide after
219slide after slide of congratulations and and so I'm like going yeah let's go for it. So on our board goals and there's four points here. This ELA and math would replace points two and three but still keep goal one and four. Yeah. Um Dr. Strong, is there anything in these recommendations for board goals that uh conflicts or would interfere with your goals? No, there there's the the language Miss Hutchinson, member Hutchinson is proposing is uh 90% where my language is for my own goals. So, you know, it's really what's the board want to do? Do they want to go with the way they're set or do you want to adjust this? It it they're all going to emphas emphasize where we want to head as a district. So, it's really it is really just a
220difference of setting a goal at a district or setting it per site and do we want to acknowledge each site individually? And I could go either way. I don't I don't think I have a preference. I I think doing it by sight is in line with the research and work that um that um board member Hutchinson did with former board member Dr. O'Reilly when we put together academic goals. I mean, the first board to really do that. So I could see where you kind of want to stay stay with that. So I mean I'm I'm good adopting these along with the other points. But again I I I think if we have a board goal of it it really um it doesn't alter your goals at all. In fact it uh helps to improve them
221because the only way Dr. strong is going to reach 5% proficiency achievement overall across the the um district is to increase the number of schools that are improving their achievement by 5%. That's the only way he's going to make it. Okay. So, we've really got we do have to have a focus on the individual sites and what can we do to support those sites that and I think there's a lot of tremendously good work that's happening with focused uh tier one instruction and and you know really ensuring that we have um if we really focus as part of I assume as part of the it's not just academics it's also classroom management and making making sure you have an environment for learning that's conducive for it because you can't have, you know, books throwing across
222the room and kids learning. So, yeah. So, I I I don't have any objection to changing. Dr. St. Yeah. So, President Davis, we've heard feedback uh this evening. Uh this is not an action item. We will take the feedback. We will draft another version. We will get that out on this week's status. Right. You will then have officially about four days of the next week to get feedback to us so that we can be board ready for the action item on August 14th. So, thank you for the feedback. Perfect. Thank you. Thank you board members and thank you board members Hudson for making those adjustments. I just had one quick comment. Yes, madam president. Um, I love that we are looking at these four focus goals because I've learned as a board member that there
223are a lot of things that we could focus on and talk about and there's a lot of things that often go on in a district and I love the idea that we can keep our focus and our emphasis and our energy on these things and helping support student outcomes. Thank you. Thank you all for great discussion tonight and thank you for all those that participated. We appreciate you being here and for your input and um being a part of our community. Um, do I have a motion to to move into an executive session pursuant to ARS 38-431 03A3 discussion or consultation for legal advice with the attorney or attorneys of the public body on policy matters and ARS15-843 student request for readmittance after expulsion. So moved. Sorry. I don't Miss Balden has moved. Do I
224have a second? I'll second. Thank you. Any discussion? Seeing none, Miss Kirby, will you please take our vote? With a vote of five yays, we the board will now move into an executive session. After completing the executive session, the board will resume the regular meeting and adjourn it. No additional business will be conducted. Thank you and have a good night.