001Well, welcome. It got quiet enough. I think we'll go ahead and start. Sorry, we were having some streaming issues, so we were seeing if that was getting up and going, but we will go ahead and get started. If we'll please stand for a moment of silence. Thank you. You may be seated. I would call this meeting to order at 5:02. Tonight we are doing call to the public along with public comment. Anyone who wishes to speak on an agenda item or at call to the public, please complete the sign-in sheet in the lobby prior to the public comment time on the board agenda. If everyone will please stand for the pledge of allegiance led by Miss Orlando Man, assistant superintendent, West Area Elementary Schools. Please join me in the pledge. I pledge allegiance Thank you.
002We will begin tonight 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 and the clerk of the board are elected in January. Under state law, the governing board may only discuss and vote on matters that are on the agenda for tonight's meeting. Agendas are posted a minimum of 24 hours in advance on the Mesa Public Schools website and in the curriculum services center. Copies of tonight's agenda are located in the lobby. The public may speak on any item of business on the agenda that the board discusses or requires the board to take action. If you wish to comment on
003an 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 your name before you speak. We ask that all speakers show respect and courtesy to others. During the second regular meeting of each month, the agenda will include a call to the public, which is an opportunity to speak to the governing board about a school district matter that is not on the agenda. Please submit a request to address the board form to participate in the call to the public. If you would like the board to consider adding an item to a future agenda, you may submit your request
004in 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 essential to the operation of the district. Everyone is welcome to express ideas or concerns to the board in accordance with the agenda. The poster in the boardroom describes positive behaviors expected and behaviors that cannot be tolerated. Please speak and act respectively and actively listen. Be kind. Verbal harassment, abusive or foul language, intimidation, and disruption have no place in a classroom or the boardroom. Please no side convers conversations or reactive comments. They can be disruptive. It is a governing board president's responsibility to maintain proper order so the
005board can conduct its business in an orderly and efficient manner. If you're disruptive or interfere with the conduct of this meeting, you will be asked to leave so the board can conduct the business of the district. We are now going to review our calendar. Dr. Foris, if you'll take that. Thank you very much, Madam President. Members of the governing board, uh June 24th is the next governing board meeting with a summer start time of 5 o'clock. Uh June 25th is an additional board meeting that has been scheduled at 5:00. That will be a virtual executive session. July 8th, also a summer start time, 5:00 p.m. And then July 22nd will be the last governing board meeting of the summer and that will also start at 5:00 p.m. Starting in August, I want to make sure
006that we uh share with our community that there will be a change to governing board meeting dates and times. So in August, the regular governing board meetings will start at 6 PM instead of 6:30 on the second and fourth Thursday of the month. So that is a strategic change from tu the second and fourth Tuesday of the month to the second and fourth Thursday of the month. We will continue to post the board agenda on the Friday before the meeting. This will allow the board and public to have more time to review materials before the meeting that will occur on Thursday. Thank you, Dr. Foras. And now to the exciting part. It's so great to see a summer meeting with such a full room and um we have lots of students to be to recognize.
007So um board, if you'll join me around the front and Dr. Foris, we'll turn the time to you. Celebrating success is just one of the ways that we ignite a culture of learning and well-being in Mesa public schools. We are committed to recognizing students, teachers, staff, and administrators for their achievements. So tonight it is our honor to celebrate several of our high school student athletes, a speech and debate winner and students from our international balora program which is known as IB. We have a lot to celebrate and a lot of people here to celebrate with us. So we're going to get started. So first we are going to recognize Mountain View High School boys unified track and field team for winning the 2025 AIA Division 1 state championship. So students, as I call your names,
008please take your place right here in the limelight. For center on center stage, we have Sawyer Hagen Jackson Woolly. You'll come around and look forward. Mrs. Snder will help to uh place you. There we go. Ryan McMahon. uh Tyson Rivera, Skyler Miles, Sam Camberg, Brent Pierce, who was an alternate, and Emanuel Johnson, also an alternate. So, we have those that could be here this evening. So, we're h so happy that you are here. I also want to recognize Sawyer and Jackson who are state champions in three events, the 2x100 relay, the 2x200 relay, and the 2x400 relay. So students, will you please um we're gonna have you walk kind of in a curve, shake hands with our governing board. We'll all come forward and take a group picture. [Applause] And we're gonna have you stay
009right here while Gabby. Absolutely. [Applause] Next, we will recognize the Westwood High School girls unified track and field team for winning the 2025 AIA state championship. So, [Applause] So students, as I announce your names, you kind of see the pattern here. Come on up. You're going to step into the light and then we will take a group picture. So our girls team state champions, Camila Rodriguez, Corona, come on up. Na'vi Brinkerhoff, come on up. Eliza Anderson, Abby Blatner, Ripley Swinhart, Michaela Dale, Abony Fazende Moody, I think I got that. I practiced. Rebecca Gibson, Lupita Riviera Salgado, and Cristiana Daring. Big round of applause for all of you. All right, don't go too far. Additionally, I want to recognize several of these amazing young ladies who are individual state champions. Girls shotput state champions are Lupita
010and Na'vi. Girls turbo javelin state champs are Abenny and uh Na'vi. Girls long jump state champs Cristiana and Camila. And the girls 2 by 100 relay was Abony as well. Still going. Oh, and Michaela. Girls 2x400 relay state champs Cristiana Daring. You're hearing a pattern here. Um Abby Blatner. Girls 2 by 200 meter relay state champions were Lupita and Eliza. Girls 4x100 relay state champs Cristiana, Michaela, Camila, and Abony. So we lots and lots and lots to celebrate. [Applause] And we have a very special coach to join. Come on, Meg. Come on. And Heidi. Oh, here we are. [Applause] Next up, we're recognizing the boys 4x100 relay unified state champions from Westwood High School. So, can I please have Wilson Banks, Jack Murphy, Jaden Hutchinson, and William McFaden come up for a photo and a
011handshake. And I see a coach. Come on up. There we go. [Applause] Now we will move to the AIA Track and Field State Open Championship where athletes get a chance to go head-to-head against the best of the best regardless of division. We have two individual champions to recognize this evening. First up is a very familiar face. So, can we please have Daniel Jud from Mountain View High School please come on up and join us. Is Daniel here? I didn't see him. Yeah, I didn't see Daniel. But let me tell let me brag about Daniel for a minute. Daniel won the 1600 and 3200 meters at the Open Track and Field State Championship. So, we have a lot to celebrate for Daniel. Now, Josh Lee from Red Mountain High School, can you please join us for
012photos and a handshake? You get to stand right there in the middle. Josh is the open state shot put champion. Congratulations to you Josh. Do you have a coach here tonight? Is your co is your coach with you? Come on coach. Oh coaches plural. All right. We'll do a picture real quick. Then we'll we'll change it up a little. [Applause] All right, we're going to switch a little gear here now. We are thrilled to recognize a state and uh a state speech and debate champion from Mesa High School. Will Nelson Deer please join me at the podium for photos and handshakes. Come on up, Nelson. So, I want to tell you a little bit about uh Nelson's success. Nelson won the dramatic interpretation category at the Arizona State Speech and Debate Championship this past March.
013His winning piece drew inspiration from Native American author Sherman Alexis's autobiographical essay, Superman and Me, delving into themes of literacy, identity, and life on the Spokane Indian Reservation in northeastern Washington. A big congratulations to you, Nelson. We're going to do handshakes and a picture. [Applause] And finally tonight, we are thrilled to recognize three of our international balorate students from Westwood High School. I will call each up individually for a photo and a handshake. So, first up is the Arizona IB Diploma Program Student of the Year, Toba Broadscape. Toba, can you please join us? We'll do a handshake and then come up front. Congratulations, DOVA. And we'll have you stand right here. Next up, we want to recognize the Arizona IB Spirit of IB Diploma Program Student of the Year, Briana Morales. Briana, can you please
014join us? She's not here. Yes. Here we go. If you are here to celebrate any of the I'm sorry, and last but certainly not least, can the Arizona IB Career Program Student of the Year, Natasha Grogan, please join us for photos and handshake. [Applause] If you are here to celebrate any of these incredible students, please stand to be recognized because we know it takes a village to support them. We know that you might want to celebrate outside of this um boardroom. So, feel free that if you would like to um celebrate elsewhere, that would be fine. We're going to get on with our business meeting. We've got a couple other um but we do have some principles to recognize when we uh approve the personnel agenda. So, we will be back to recognize our principles.
015Congratulations once again to all of our students here tonight. We would like to take a moment at this time. We'll let the party continue out there for a minute. It's exciting. We do want to take a moment tonight to recognize Dr. Forless. This is her last board meeting. So Chad, can you please play the video for us? Andy, thank you so much for the dedication and the the love that you've shown to Mesa's school children. Uh you're you had the most important job in our city and you you did it very very well. So on behalf of our community, thank you. Thank you so much, Dr. Foris. Congratulations and thank you so much for your partnership and everything that you have done for our community and the city of Mesa. Congratulations on your retirement, Andy.
016It's very welld deserved. Congratulations, Dr. Forless, on your retirement, and good luck on your next chapter. You will definitely be missed. Congratulations, Dr. Forless, on your retirement. Thank you for serving the students at Westwood High School, our staff, and our community the last several years. We wish you only the best going forward. Hi, Dr. Bless. Thank you for coming to read to us. Congratulations, Andy. Even though you are going to be sorely missed, um I'm super happy for you and your next adventures and this next chapter of your life. Thank you for all you've done to support our kids here in Mesa. Andy, congratulations on your retirement. Happy retirement, Andy. Congratulations. Hi, Andy. Best of luck and love as you begin this next chapter in the book of Andy life. Thank you for we love
017you and we will miss you. Hello Andy. You are going to crush retirement just like you do everything else in life. I'm sure you're not going to be standing still. We love you and oh how we are going to miss you. Happy retirement Dr. Foris. Stay awesome. Dr. Foris, thanks so much for everything you've done for Mesa Public Schools. Thank you for believing me uh believing in me as an educator, as a teacher leader, and now an administrator here in Mesa Public Schools. Um thank you for all your support for our students. Uh your big heart for every kid who uh walks through our doors every day. Um what you've done for this district and our students means the world to me. Thank you so much. Happy retirement. Happy retirement, Andy. I wish you the
018very best, Andy. I love you. We love you. Happy retirement and just know we will miss you. Congratulations, Andy, on your upcoming retirement as the superintendent of Mesa Public Schools. Hi, Dr. Foris. Thank you for always visiting our classroom. Congratulations, Dr. Foras. Happy retirement. Happy new adventures. We will all miss you. Hey, Dr. Foris. It's Linda over at Dobson. Just want to wish you the best in this new venture and thank you for everything you've done for us. Going to miss seeing your smiling face walking into Dobson when you come again. Congratulations and best of luck. Hi Dr. Forless. Thank you for our book, The Interrupting Chicken. Andy, I just want to say thank you so much for all the support you've given us in security. Happy retirement. Congratulations, Andy. Now go enjoy the next
019phase of your life. Hi, Mom. Happy retirement. Here's to all of the beach vacations coming your way. I love you. [Music] [Applause] We just want to say thank you to Dr. Forless and her commitment to Mesa Public Schools in our community. Um, I'm truly grateful for the vision she's brought to the district and for the innovation we're now seeing as a result of her vision. I'm especially thankful for her dedication to community involvement. Your door, your efforts to open doors, invite more parents into conversations have made a meaningful difference from strengthening Mesa parent council to launching the parent advisory committee this year. Your leadership has created more opportunities for parents to be heard and engaged. I wish you all the best in this next chapter of life and lots of time at the beach. Um,
020at this time I'd like to invite any board members who wish to share their thoughts to do so. And then finally, I'd like to ask board member Hudson to close the discussion as she has something special for Dr. Forless. Board members, I just wanted to tell Dr. Forless how much it meant to me and the experiences that my kids have had because of her leadership in Mesa Public Schools and the ways that parents have really felt that they could be part of this experience. and that leadership led me to this place. So, thank you. I'm excited for this next part of your journey and I know that great things lie ahead and I'm so grateful that you came and spent time with us here in M public schools. Well, Dr. Forless, I'm I'm hoping that
021your retirement is more um relaxing than mine has been. uh and that you're able to really enjoy beach days uh retiring to something that uh I'm sure that as you put your passion uh to it, you'll bring uh vision to that as well. So, thanks for your years of service. Um I know going through co that's when you jumped right into the super and tenency. It was a challenging time and I think I mentioned this to you once before, but one of the things that I really appreciated was that you were looking to be responsive to keeping schools open, keeping kids engaged uh in ways that uh other people probably would not have been. Um your desire to potentially partner with Prenda even though it didn't come to fruition, I was like that's impressive. So,
022uh congratulations on retirement. enjoy the beach. Have a margarita for us. Just Yeah, thank you very uh Mike Oliver said, you'll crush retirement and you are opening a new chapter of your life and I I'm happy for you and I hope wish you the best of luck in in your retirement. I hope I hope you you'll find good things to do. I think is going to say I hope you find things to keep you occupied, but I'm sure I'm sure you you will and and you know, maybe we'll we'll hear from you again. But I hope you definitely take time to enjoy your family and the the beach sounds awesome to me, too. And make sure you get all that fun stuff in. I appreciate that. Andy, you may have noticed that some of your
023former bosses are here. Um, we were able to gather former board members and I'd like to introduce them at this time. Um, Dr. Joe O'Reilly is here. He served up until um, December of this year. And we have Mr. Steven Peterson, fresh from South Africa, having served a mission there. And we're delighted. I was I was thrilled to text you and to find that you were on this side of the Atlantic. Um, former President Elaine Miner is here today. Um Elaine and um Jenny Richardson also former president. Um there were uh the four of us hired Dr. Forless. Um she entered into a very tumultuous time. um took on the reigns with kindness, caring, compassion, and that's good because the fourth C was co and um as board member Benson said, you you did that
024with amazing grace under fire and it oftentimes was from board members like me and and I and I just want to tell you how much I appreciate you. Um, we have many things to be proud of, but I think the most important thing is every board meeting you said the promise that every student will be know my name, serve by strength and need, and graduate ready for college, career, and community. And everything you did was to help this community fulfill its promise to its kids and its families. Um I mean the things that you have been able to initiate whether it's teacher leadership, professional development, giving kids opportunities to be entrepreneurs in the arts. Who does that? Andy for does that. The next education workforce which is a model for the nation. Over almost 1,500
025education leaders from around the nation have come to Mesa Public Schools to learn from us. But most importantly, all of the initiatives were done by employees that would walk through hot coals for you because of the type of leader that you are. You will lead the district in a beautiful position to succeed and excel because you have helped us realize our potential. So this board and your former bosses would like to give you a small token of our appreciation. I just uh probably should mention that um we are going to Thursdays as you heard in August and Dr. Forless will be spending her some of her Thursdays at the Mesa Arts Center enjoying music instead of board meetings. So, we we we um all wanted to make sure that you truly did start your retirement
026in a happy note. I can't wait to see what Oh my goodness. And you're going to make sure that I do that, aren't you? Uhuh. You have seats. Thank you very, very much. Oh my goodness. Oh my goodness. Oh, thank you all of you. We had some help from the Mesa Art Center. They wanted to make sure that you enjoyed your retirement, too. You should explain it. Yeah. So, Thursday nights I will be, as Marcy said, at the Mesa Art Center enjoying beautiful music and um cheering you on for from afar. Thank you very much for such a thoughtful gift. Um I know my husband will love this as well. So, thank you very very much. It has been the honor of my life to serve the students of Mesa Public Schools. Um, every day
027I think about what else can we do for them and how can we better support them to make sure that we live into our promise. And whether it's second graders at Highland um, arts academy that they are known as the second grade chickens class. They're the chicken coupe. And so they have an we have created a tradition of um, bringing books to them and them t they're talking about their futures about what they want to be. And every time I I'm in that classroom, I think about our promise and what as second graders what they are building up to be when they graduate ready for college career and community. Um I know that there have been a lot of lessons learned, a lot of memories, and a lot of laughter and there's so many chapters
028left to write. I am so honored that I've been a part of this and I know that that our district is in great hands with all of you um writing the next chapters for our kids. Thank you very much. Thank you, Dr. Foris. Can we get a picture with the current board and Dr. Foris and our prior board members and presidents, please? All the bosses. There we go. Speech. Speech. Speech. Thank you all. We are now at the time of the meeting for public comment and call to the public. First, we will 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
029open call to the public will be 15 minutes. The 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
030to be conducted in a peaceful and productive manner. Before we begin, 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 five people signed up tonight. Okay, five speakers. Each person will have three minutes to speak. Mrs. Chaffy, I would like to thank you for serving as the clerk, and I'd like you to ask you to lead us through this agenda item, please. I will call your names and I'll call the first three and then let the next two know who's on deck. We'll start with Mark Kimell, then Jenny Richardson, and
031then Ray Deer. On deck, we have Ed Steele and Kelly Berg. Good evening. My name is Mark Kimell. Good evening, Superintendent Forless and Mesa School Board members. I'm here to voice the concerns of many in our community who feel unheard and undervalued. Technical issues with our virtual meetings have le left us feeling excluded, especially given the district's alarming academic performance. Over 60% of third graders lack proficiency in ELA and math. And only 18% of high schoolers are proficient in Arizona science. These numbers show how we are failing our children's futures. Despite millions spent on salaries and billions on expenditures under current leadership, our return is dismal. A clear failure of accountability. The reliance on virtual meetings and AI feels like an attempt to avoid direct public engagement, fostering mistrust. After being unable to access the
032last virtual meeting, I emailed you these concerns, noting that parents and community members are tracking performance. I appreciate today's response, but more is needed. We are looking for more detailed information to collaborate effectively which is in our parental uh rights statutes. We also have other legal framework provided to us as parents and guardians to engage in the process and the future education of our kids and grandkids. I'm representing many parents and community members who want clear answers and decisive action to improve student performance and restore trust. Parents in the community deserve better and we will continue to be involved and monitor academic development closely. We look forward to the new leadership of superi with superintendent superintendent strong and the opportunity of working together for the s success of us all. Um and to continue I
033it's important we're all on the same team. We want the same thing. We want the success of our kids and we all know that there's room for improvement. We really request a cons a decisive plan for this improvement in the u proficiencies of our kids. It's very much a priority and we really need laser focus on this. Uh Dr. Foles, I do wish you the best in your retirement and thank you for your service uh and all of you uh for the job that you do. Thank you. Hello board and superintendent forless. I am this is my first call to the public. It's pretty exciting. But um I just wanted to express my gratitude for the sacrifices that you all make as a board and um for the hard work. Uh being a board member
034comes with a lot of um pros and cons. There are some real highs. You get to see some a firsthand seat uh at some of the really great things that happen in Mesa public schools. And it also comes with a little bit of a target on you. And I appreciate those who are willing to stand up and serve our community in that way. I believe that a board is better with a variety of opinions where you can work together in a kind and considerate way to come to a good outcome. I know that is true and I am thankful for the five of you being willing to do that and to engage um in with kindness in the things that you do. I especially wanted to thank Dr. Forless. Um Mrs. Hutchinson was correct. When
035Dr. before list began. It was a hard time in Mesa public schools. And if you think things feel divided now, they were very divided then. And she had a big job and she did it wonderfully. And her job was to unite people behind a common goal to get people focused on our promise and to be willing to work and do things and have a vision for that. And she did a great job of that. And I am so grateful as the mother and now grandmother of people in Mesa public of children in Mesa public schools. Um my youngest will be a senior next year and that feels hard to imagine uh because he was a kindergartener when I started on the board and um but I feel like uh there are um there are people
036who don't understand all of the things that go into making choices that serve every student. by strength and by need and help them to fulfill their be their potential. And I appreciate you. And that was thank you for making it through another school year in the 90 days of May and all that comes with it. And I just wanted to voice my appreciation for everyone who works for Mesa Public Schools. Thank you. [Applause] Good evening, Mesa School Board and Dr. Foris. I'm Ray Dear, um parent of a MPS student and also a community member. Uh first I'd like to congratulate Dr. Foris on her retirement. Um I've got to known Dr. Foris back in 2022 and she was very welcoming uh during that time uh during my uh run here and uh she was very
037cordial and respectful for for all candidates. So, I really appreciate that uh making me feel at home uh here at Mesa Public Schools. Also, uh on a side note, because of Dr. Forless, um my son Nelson, he was recognized earlier. Uh she took it upon herself to recognize him and being state champ. She said, "No, this has to be um out there recognized." And uh I I thank you for that. And my family does. So, I wish you well. And my family, they're into the arts also. and music. So, I wish you well in your retirement. Thank you, Mr. Thank you. And also for Mesa Public School Board, I thank you for your willingness to serve and also um I can probably if I would do some research. 100% of you uh ran on public
038safety, school safety, and I like to thank you. I brought some public safety issues uh to uh a particular school and I would like to thank you uh you responded and um I may be doing some followup but I I thank you for taking public safety school personnel and uh especially for our students their safety at the utmost and I'm really grateful for that. Um one particular comment is for suggestion is for uh Mesa PD. They're our first responders and they're at all our school sites. Uh I would ask that Mesa Public uh continue to collaborate with Mesa PD and they're the experts in first responding and they're the experts in policing and um our school site leaders are there to collaborate and cooperate. So it's my wish that every school site leader would be
039able to collaborate and cooperate. I was a school teacher for almost 13 years. Um, part of those years was at Mesa Public Schools. And as a teacher, I was the expert in producing lesson plans, collaborating with uh other teachers and making sure that the students had that uh uh agenda and were able to be uh schooled appropriately. Uh not once in my mind did I think I'm going to tell the police officer what to do or how to police. Um I know we have to stay in our lanes, but there's collaboration also. So it's my hope that every school site leader would would honor our first responders and take heed to their [Applause] Next we'll hear from Ed Steel and Kelly Berg. Good evening, members of the board superintendency. My name is Ed Steele. I'm
040a community member here and uh Dr. Foris, congratulations on your retirement. Enjoy it. Um speaking from experience after I retired, I have no idea how I had time to work. So, I'm sure whatever you do, you will uh find fulfillment in that and and I hope you do. Thank you. Um, agenda item 8D, this course mojo. Um, I have a compilation of concerns from a number of parents in this district about this program. The overarching part of this is that this decision does not need to be rushed. The process should include greater transparency to parents and theou should include a statement for uh respecting parental rights under ARS1-601. Um there are five key points that parents want to have debated before you sign thisou. Uh and here are the five. I'm just going to outline
041them. uh transparency in data collection and usage, opt out or consent mechanisms, curriculum influence, disclosure, parental access to the AI generated insights and regular review and feedback mechanisms. So, I would ask that the board make a motion to suspend the vote on this to a later date until such time as parents concerns can be properly addressed. Um, the second item is 10A, the uh ASU universal learner course. This was brought up a few meetings ago and there, you know, as I said at the time, a lot of great courses in there and and students should have access to that. But there are some courses that are of concern. Uh specifically the ones that look sort of like uh DEI and activist training to me anyway. Uh when you start talking about how a slab of
042concrete that runs coast to coast marginalizes people and is affected by climate change. I don't think we need to be sending our kids to universities to learn learn this type of stuff. We were told that those were just sample programs and weren't the ones that were going to be included in this project. It would be good to know for the board to know what they are actually voting on. It would be good for the community to know what the board is voting on. This is transparency, folks. Um and then real quick, uh no more virtual meetings. police, you know, you you engaged this uh democracy innovation project a while back because you stated you wanted to better engage the community. You you've taken away our our picture by not having the camera on us. You've
043taken away our presence by having this uh virtual meeting. And then you take away our voice by having AI speak our comments. Madame President, superintendency and board members, Kelly Berg, um current but not for much longer MEA president. Um I will be finishing my term at the end of June, so just a couple of more weeks. Um I wanted to take a moment to speak to you about um some stuff that you will be seeing this evening. One of them being the teacher evaluation handbook. Three years ago, we set out to bring the teacher evaluation handbook into compliance and align the handbook more closely with the current practices. This iteration brings further clarification in the handbook and further streamlines the process. The biggest change is that all continuing status teachers will be evaluated on all
04422 competencies. In the past years, teachers were on a three-year cycle for all components. This year we had to riff 42 counselors and teachers using the evaluation tool as a way to rank certified employees. Because not all teachers were evaluated on the same 22 components, it was extra difficult to determine who would be placed on the list. Hopefully, we will not need to riff staff this coming year, but if we must, they are now going to be on equal ground for everyone. This process was done through collaboration with certified staff, administrators, and HR. Thank you. [Applause] Madame President, that concludes our public comment. Thank you. Thank you all. Um, we will now review the consent agenda. All items on the consent agenda are approved with one vote with no discussion. If a board member would
045like to pull a consent agenda item, please do so now. And I would just like to thank my board members um for following the courtesy of informing the superintendent and myself to the intent pull any consent agenda items by 12 um o'clock of the day of the meeting. So thank you. Um moving on to our personnel. Do I have a motion to approve the personnel request including the addendum? So moved. Do I have a second? I'll second it. Any discussion? Seeing none, Miss Kirby, will you please take our vote? With a vote of five, you've approved the personnel request, including the addendum. With this approval, we have two employees to recognize as in me memoriam and also at the May 27th meeting, we approved two incoming principles. So, we will recognize those also tonight. So,
046I'm going to turn the time to Dr. Foris for just Thank you very much, Madam President, members of the board. Um, our first inmemoriam is Jesse Pomonus, a Red Mountain uh teacher. Jesse was a passionate educator who decid who dedicated more than 20 years of her career to Mesa public schools. Spending over a decade at Red Mountain High School, she poured her heart into teaching English and inspiring her students to think critically, express themselves confidently, and find their voices. Her classroom was a place where students felt seen, challenged, and supported. Her energy, creativity, and belief in student voice help build traditions that continue to define what it means to be part of the Red Mountain family, and she will be greatly missed. We're also recognizing Nicole Delgado as inmemoriam social worker at Mesa High School.
047Nicole was passionate about supporting atrisisk youth and adults, a mission that she pursued for more than 30 years, including 10 years here in Mesa public schools. Her commitment to the well-being of our students and families was evident in all that she did. She approached her work with empathy, professionalism, and a genuine desire to help others. She will be greatly missed by her Mesa High family among many, many others. Thank you. Thank you, Dr. Foris. And our our thoughts and go out to our those families and those campuses. And let's go meet some new principles. Join me in front of the DAS. We're going to get started with uh Melissa Munoz. Will you please join me at the podium? [Applause] It is my pleasure to introduce Melissa as the incoming interim principal at Highland Arts Elementary.
048Melissa is currently serving as the assistant principal at Fremont Junior High. Melissa began her career in education in 2010 teaching at Okconor Elementary where she was also a department chair. She has also served as a title one specialist at Lehigh Elementary. Melissa has a bachelor's of science degree in elementary education with an emphasis in English as a second language from Northern Arizona University and a master's degree in educational leadership and innovation from Arizona State. Melissa, we are so proud of you and would like to congratulate you. I know that you'd like to say a few words and then we will uh join the governing board for a quick photo. Good evening board members and superintendenc. I'm deeply honored and grateful to be named the incoming principal at Highland Arts. Thank you for placing your trust
049in me. This responsibility I hold with great pride and purpose. I want to take a moment to acknowledge the incredible mentors who have helped me shape my journey. Um Dr. Malawine, principles Bruce Kasaboom and Principal Téja, your guidance, encouragement, and examples have been instrumental in preparing me for the next steps. To my parents who are here, thank you for your for instilling a love for Mesa and public education, for showing me the importance of giving back to the community that raises you. I carry those values with me every day. To my husband, thank you for always pushing me to believe in myself. and to my daughter Lily, who's also a Mesa public school student. You inspire me to see a world through a lens, through a new lens, reminding me of the importance of compassion,
050curiosity, and joy in everything that we do. And to the Highland Arts community, I'm so excited to be part of your family. I'm looking forward to working alongside you as we continue to provide strong academic opportunities for our students. Thank you. [Applause] Next, I would like to invite Jennifer Radakovich to join me at the podium. [Applause] Not too long ago, you got to uh welcome her sister into the principal role. So, we're so lucky. I'm pleased to introduce Jennifer as the incoming interim principal at SUSA Elementary. Jennifer is currently serving as assistant principal at Highland Arts and Ishikawa elementary schools. Jennifer began her career in education in 2002, teaching at Ishikawa, then taught in the GUS program at Taft Elementary, where she also served as the Mesa Public Schools ASU next education lead teacher committee.
051Taft Leadership Coalition, MTSS team, and the CARE team, just to name a few. Jennifer has a bachelor of arts in K8 elementary education from Ottawa University and a master's degree in K12 educational leadership from Northern Arizona University. I know you'd like to say a few words, Jen, so I'm going to let you step up and do that and then do you have your crew? We'll do the family and then Okay. Uh, thank you, Madame President, members of the board, and superintendency for the opportunity to serve the staff, students, and community of SUSA. I'm super excited. Um, as a proud product myself of Mesa Public Schools, I'm so proud to be part of a district that continues to put students first. Um, I am truly grateful to everyone who has mentored and supported me um, not
052only as my years as a student, but also um, throughout my career here in Mesa. Um, to my family and friends, thank you for your constant love, support, and for always um, cheering me on. I am beyond excited to join the SUSA family, and I look forward to this next adventure with so much gratitude and enthusiasm. So, thank you so much. your family first and you have the board join. Yes, you have to You're not going anywhere. [Applause] Thank you. We're going to get our steps in tonight going back and forth. So, thank you You're good. On to our consent agenda. All items 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
053the 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. Miss Kirby, will you please take our vote? With a vote of five years, we have approved the consent agenda items according to the recommended action for each item. We are now going to our first read policies. Um, tonight we have the first read of five policy updates. The updates are aligned to the passage of House and Senate bills that updated Arizona revised statutes. The policy revisions were provided by the trust and reviewed by district leadership in preparation for this first read. Um when policies come to the board for a first read, it's an opportunity for the board to discuss the policy and there is no vote.
054We'll start with policy 1-401 parents legal guardian rights and education. Miss King, can you give us an overview of the update and then I'll open the floor for board discussion. Yes. Thank you, President Davis, members of the board. Uh tonight we will be having a first read of policies um revisions to policies 1401 regarding parent legal rights and education, policy 343 on technology, policy 5305 uh which is the student code of conduct, policy 4204 on mandatory reporting and policy 5303 on student records. Um although the legislative session for 2025 continues um which is always a surprise but uh the sessions have been going long the last couple years. Uh the governor has signed several bills into legislation and in order to get a head start um we are bringing you these recommended policy revisions in
055order to ensure that our policy manual fully aligns to state statute. Uh these laws will go into effect 90 days after the end of the legislative session, which we don't know when that will be. Um so my recommendation will be that these do um have an effective date of to be determined. Maybe by second read we will have a better idea of when these will go into effect. Uh but none of these have emergency clauses. So um no requirement to have them uh effective July 1st. Um rather than go policy by policy since you aren't going to be voting um and because some of the the bills affect more than one policy I'd uh like to do an introduction more by bill than by policy if that's okay with the board. Okay. Um so the
056first bill that impacts our policy manual was House Bill 2484 and this bill creates a new statute in Arizona revised statute. Uh the new statute will be codified as 15120.05 and this statute requires school districts to restrict student access to wireless communication devices including social media platforms during the school day. So while we do have some flexibility, we are required to allow exceptions for emergency use, student medical needs, and certain educational purposes. So in order to address this new requirement, the trust is proposing revisions to policy 343 and 5305. and you have been provided drafts of those policies where I've tried to really carefully um outline where the changes are through strikethroughs and underlining and highlighting and all sorts of colors. Um the next bill is Senate Bill 1437 and this makes changes to two
057existing statutes. The first is ARS 133620 and title 13 is the criminal code. Um, and it also makes changes to 15514 and these are statutes that cover mandatory reporting requirements related to abuse of minors. So, first, school district employees, which now by this statutory change include substitute teachers and governing board members, uh, who suspect or have received a report that a public school employee has engaged in conduct involving abuse or neglect of a minor must make a report to law enforcement and to the Arizona State Board of Education. Second, conveying information about a mandatory report to a school resource officer will no longer satisfy the reporting requirement. Third, a school resource officer who receives a report will be required to immediately notify a law enforcement agency in the appropriate jurisdiction and submit all information to
058that agency for investigation. And fourth, the scope of involvement of school resource or safe school safety officers and student in interviews will be governed by specific limits. And specifically those interviews will need to be um conducted by an individual who has gone through a a forensic interview training. So in order to address these new requirements uh we are proposing revisions to policy 4204 on mandatory reporting. And finally house bill 2514. Uh, this bill amends ARS 15102 and ARS 15142 and requires school districts to annually provide parents and guardians a copy of policy 1401 on parents and legal guardians rights and education as a way of advising them of their rights as outlined in state law. In order to address this new requirement, the trust is proposing a revision to policy 1401. Uh this bill also
059changes requirements regarding directory information designated under the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act, Furpa. Under current law, schools um may disclose directory information if the district has designated those items as directory information and offered parents, legal guardians/eligible students, which are students who've reached the age of 18, an opportunity to opt out of the disclosure. Once this law takes effect, districts can no longer disclose a student's address, telephone number, or email address unless that disclosure is required by state or federal law. um the parents legal guardians or eligible student has provided affirmative written consent for that disclosure or the parent legal guardian student has not exercised the right to opt out of the disclosure of directory information and the disclosure is to students for an educational purpose or to staff for a school business purpose. I
060know that's a lot to wrap your mind around, but um I think between policy and procedure, we've made it happen. Um finally, the law reiterates the obligation under FERPA to annually notify parents, legal guardians, and eligible students of their right to opt out of disclosure of directory information. In order to address these new requirements, the trust proposes revisions to policy 5303 on student records. Any questions? Thank you, Miss King. Any questions, board members? How do you want to do questions? Do you want to go policy by policy or just we'll start with the first one and go through? Does that work? Okay. So, first we'll start with uh policy 1-401 parents legal guardian rights and education. Any questions? I have one. Um on number uh then this is not a change but um the I
061don't have any question about the changes that are recommended which those are highlighted in yellow I assume right? Yes. So but for number three uh bullet point number three uh it lists procedures by which parents are legal guardians who object to any learning material. Um no that's not the one. Sorry, number six. If there's a where can number six, bullet point number six is procedures for um parents and legal guardians to learn about the nature and purpose of any clubs or activities that are part of the school and are extracurricular part of the school curriculum. Where are those procedures located? Are they on each individual school website or are they on the district website? So there we have a very comprehensive Mesa Public School student handbook that gives some general information about any topic you
062could think of. Um I'm going to look over at my colleagues who um the area assistant superintendent are um are you able to answer the question about where parents can find more detailed information about clubs and activities? So, um, member Benson and board, each individual school has, um, outlined the clubs and activities that they have on their campus, but also within our student handbook, we outline, um, clubs in there. So, it's it's part of the um on our main website, we have a button to the student handbook, and within that, it outlines parent rights and um the responsibility of the teacher and that students have uh the ability to access programs on their campus and then it goes into the discipline matrix. So, it's all comprehensive in that student handbook on our homepage. Okay. But
063not each campus has the same exact number, same exact clubs, correct? That is correct. More differentiated on each individual school. Each individual school will then um list what clubs they have on campus based on what sponsors they have for each club. Okay. And elementary schools are limited in the clubs that they can have. Correct. They are limited um because it has to be age appropriate and um all clubs need to have a staff sponsor on campus. Okay. Uh and then I have I do have a question on number three. What is where are the procedures by which parents can object to? Is that located on the district website? Is that on individual school sites? to um object to specific lessons, harmful material. Uh that is the opt out form is on the website. What if
064they find out about an objectionable lesson um post lesson? What's the procedure for that? Do we have one? So, let's say a teacher brings in material that we have not authorized as either supplemental material or um or it's not part of our uh district approved material. They bring in something and a parent finds out, I don't know, let's say it's uh saving the chocolate tree in wherever. So, some do you know what I'm saying? Like it could be anything where what's the do we have a procedure for that? So, member Benson, I think what I'm hearing you say are two different things. So, one is a procedure for if a lesson happens in class that the parent objects to that is approved by Mesa Public Schools, every parent has the um option to go to
065the classroom teacher and request an alternate assignment. Um, and every teacher is um required to do that for the parent that requests it. The second thing I hear you say is if a teacher uses material that's not um endorsed by Mesa public schools, that's a completely separate situation because then that would be something that would be handled by the site administrator if it's not appropriate. Okay. So the parent would go directly to the building admin and say right the parent would first go to the teacher to understand um what the assignment was and then um if the parent feels that that was not resolved with the teacher then the parent would go to the admin on the campus. Yes. Okay. Thank you. And then I just have one comment as well and board you members
066you can um we under the uh the part portion that was changed is the copy of the policy. It says um that we'll deliver it in either digital format or print. Uh just having had four children of my own that um passed the age of probably past grade five. uh if it was I needed both op um both options a print that you're or sending home that may not make it uh and a digital. So I I don't think it would be a big issue to have both send it via email to parents or through our parent square and send a copy home to make sure that our parents have an have access to what our policy is. Miss King, can you help me just understand again? I know we had a conversation about the
067the change in the language to why we were changing around digital and print, digital or print. Um, this is a change that was required by the legislature I assume. Um and I am making an assumption that it was just for accessibility issues for for people who have um different needs for the medium in which they want to read these but it is changing to an or correct yes yeah and so I I mean I I do because of accessibility issues we have some parents that don't like pardon me don't like um electronics they don't look at email and we have parents that want it in their hot little hand. So, I don't think it would be a big issue to have it us delivering our policy both ways. Last question. Um this is just a
068question for information please. Um when it says um on second page access to information um the availability of the educational teaching background experience and academic content subject years for all instructional staff. Where is that housed that information? I'm sorry which it's number three on the second page under access to information. We have a It's in our human resources information system. I'm sorry. It's in our human resources information system. So, uh, a parent could look up a teacher's name in under in the human resources part of the web page. No, a request would need to be made. of requests would need to be made likely through is it through the public records request something like that process and uh human resources would obtain that information to share. Okay, thank you. Any other questions in this on
069this policy? Okay, we will move to policy 3-403 technology. Any questions here? I have I have questions um for this policy as well under the subsection. Let me find it. The Where is it? Internet safety subsection one says internet access by staff or students to child pornography or visual descriptions that are obscene or harmful to others. We have to have a uh filtering filtering mechanism for that. Is it is our filtering mechanism only filtering visual images or does it also filter for obscene language, pornographic text? It does filter for both. Yes, member Benson, our filter is um it filters words. So if you if if a student does a word search it we will they will get a response that says that you can't access this and it's pictures as well as words. Okay. [Music]
070Do our students still have the ability to chat with each other through whatever system they're always working it around there. There is a chat mechanism in one of that has been an issue. It's um what is it called? What was Google for my my students? It was the Google chat thing and also the WebEx. WebEx. WebEx. We now use Teams and uh there is not a student feature for chatting in teams at this time. they might be using another tool that they have found but uh our standard system is teams and there's the students are turned off on teams. No, I really appreciate that clarification because I think it was WebEx that was the problem and then when we moved to teams it eliminated that issue. We learned thanks we do. Thank you. I have
071a I have a question. Is it okay to ask? Thank you. Um, I'd like to know, um, in let's see, it's on the second page, no, third page. Um, there's the bold print that is highlighted yellow. The district shall restrict student access to social media. In that paragraph, it says that the district shall monitor online activities and provide instruction about appropriate online behavior uh including interacting with other persons on social networking websites and in chat rooms regarding cyber bullying awareness and response. Where is this instruction taking place? Is it is it taking place within content areas or is there um at the beginning of school a uh an introductory to technology? Um can you tell me how the instruction is being delivered please? Yes, member Hutchinson and members of the board. Um during the first
072few weeks of school, teachers have lessons that they go through with their students and then they actually um have to sign off that that has been done. And then we've also embedded technology standards, appropriate use, etc. through content areas, through lessons that happen in um our resource center at the elementary level, etc. And so it's embedded throughout and we continue to um update lessons incorporated into like our K12 college community readiness framework. Yeah. Um so it's embedded all throughout because it technology access happens everywhere, right? Normally it it is um at the beginning of the school year. Great. Great. Great. Because I was thinking about our new social media course and how that was a that was a real selling point for me that kids were learning how to use um various platforms responsibly. Um
073but I I was wondering how how we were handling those folks that those kids that aren't taking that course. So, thank you very much. Appreciate that. Along those lines, will we have something that goes out to parents along these lines that the district will be monitoring these activities so that parents I think too will sign off, you know, at the beginning of the year we sign off on our code of conduct or student code of conduct. I think adding something in so everyone's aware of these new policies. Hopefully we have I think there is a reason to get some of these through by the beginning of the school year so that as we're getting ready to start the new year that we can start off on the same foot um and with the the right
074information so we're not mid mid- semester changing our policy on on technology especially um but just a thought as we look at these is I know it's going to be tricky for these teachers to monitor some of this so yes I you Under the under the parental notification, parents will also be notified of their right to prohibit the student from the use of technology in the internet while at school in which covered information may be shared with an operator. Are this is a data sharing clause I assume. Oh, pursuant to law as defined in blah blah blah, it does not apply to technology that is used for the daily operations or administration of the online instructional programs. So it was my understanding uh earlier in the year it was deter parents cannot opt out of
075their students uh using the computer and technology because so much of what we do is so they do have the ability to operator or system that is going to data mine. Correct. Correct. And is do we have any of those situations? Do do we know do you know of any operators that currently do? I mean we we actively in our memo understandings try to limit and prohibit that. Correct. Yes. And we've worked with all of our vendors over the course of the last two three years to ensure they sign on to our DSAs. And if they're not willing to sign on to our DSAs, we don't do business with them anymore. Okay. That were the questions. Senator. Yeah. Well, because parents have the option of, you know, it it by law now they h are
076they have to be able to. So, I want our community to know that we we are proactive in that, I believe, very very proactive and and uh to be frank with you, there there are some educational tools that we'd like to take advantage of, but because they won't sign off on our data standards, we don't do business with them, even though they have pretty good products. So yeah, we're very active in ensuring uh that the protection of data at the Mesa public schools level is important to our constituents. Any other questions on technology? Okay, we'll move move on to uh policy 5-305, student code of conduct. Any questions? Madam President, I just had kind of a question. This policy includes also a procedure that talks about how this is implemented in our K through 6
077and our 7 through 12. I want to make sure that board members kind of scroll down and look through that. And the one thing I hear over and over again by teachers and substitutes is, "Please help us with the cell phones. It's so hard. It's so distracting and it's it's hard to enforce. it's hard to um feel supported. And so I I want to make sure that we're not putting the burden on our teachers only, that they are feeling supported by their administration. And I feel like we may need stronger language in this um because I really want as a board that we reflect on how we can better support teachers and classroom learning through this policy and this procedure because this is what our teachers are are really asking for. Board member Chaffy, I
078couldn't agree with you more. Um um number 30, when we talk about um no wireless devices being used during the school day, um the enforcement is going to be key and and we heard that from our kids, whether they were junior high or high school kids during the activate process. Um that um the the consistency of enforcement is essential. Um and we also heard it from our parents from the parent advisory council and we had a rather robust discussion about the um responsibility of parents in in in um helping to enforce these policies. What I'm I'm concerned about is not only enforcement and I don't want it on teachers. I but I don't know how we're going to avoid that. But I um in the procedures um if we're saying um and this is in
079bold print that wireless devices um wireless communications devices the school day which includes meals, passing periods, recess except as permitted in procedures 5-305.8. Um but in the procedures we do allow it. though based on the school. So, um I'm I'm concerned that we may be contradicting the policy with the procedure um and particularly maybe maybe I'm smarting still from the way that um graduation um protocols were interpreted by various high schools. Um, I think we're setting ourselves up for um some real tension that wouldn't necessarily need to be there if we completely leave it up to the schools. Um, I I I I like, you know, that we don't have a district that believes in cookie cutter policies. However, something as serious as this where we have had our students engaged, our parents engaged, our
080staff engaged. Um, and this is a community issue. So, number one, enforcement, but then number two, if we're going to have different permissible behaviors on various campuses, it's going to be really hard to enforce. I think it's going to be even harder to enforce. So I would really prefer that with the procedures that we have a little bit more continuity, commonality um so that we're clear as even board members visiting schools, we see a cell phone out, is that kid in violation or not? And I can really see a policy that is very well-meaning. And I think we heard from our kids. They they just tell me what the rules are and let them be enforced consistently and I'll do it. I get it. Because we had robust discussion on the problems of devices. I
081I really wish that we we were um more consistent, more um standard in in the policy. And my last comment is um it says the school day is when school kids are at school. Maybe we ought to say maybe, you know, bell to bell or something like that. Um, I like the idea of a bell is when school starts and a bell is when every every kid knows when that bell rings that school's ended. Boom. Okay. Um, so, uh, I I would like to have a little bit more robust discussion, maybe some input maybe from the activate kids, maybe uh, even from the parent group or at least go review those notes on on on how we're going to enforce this. Other questions? I just have a comment with the procedures too and I'm I'm
082open for changing the procedures for consistency. I know that that's not really our perview though and changing them, but we're asking superintendency. I do think maybe there needs to be a footnote or like a little addendum that you know in really rare instances because since I've been on the board there's been two where students got out their phone and filmed something in class for behavior that was highly inappropriate and I think everyone agreed that it was but maybe just a caveat about uh safety or a lesson that they feel violates uh you know their their rights or their beliefs that you know and they have to get a record of that because there's no evidence otherwise. But maybe I think if a student's in a situation and and they're like, "This lesson is really upsetting
083me that I don't think that that student if they start filming the lesson should be penalized for getting their phone out to do that." So, I think that might be something that we add as some kind of um addition to the to the procedures. I would just hate to see a student who feels threatened then also be penalized for trying to stand up for um wanting to get documentation that they're threatened or they something inside them tells them this is really wrong or this is really inappropriate. And I echo that along that lines also with our um on the back of some of our schools IDs on when they feel threatened or and there's something going on say someone's fighting or vaping or something like that they need to report it. You know, those are
084other instances that we need to make sure we keep in in as we make these changes. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, safety safety is a priority and it's really it's uncommon for the district, right? So, it's not like a pervasive problem and that's it's rare, but I just think about a student wouldn't want them to then be penalized for speaking up for themselves. But, I mean, it's more common in in other districts. I do think that it's still like what goes on in the classroom is still a topic of national concern um because we continue to be inundated with news articles of wild things coming out from different schools or districts. But that's also an argument on why teameming is good too because then you have three teachers in a classroom. There's more accountability there. So
085I think we're addressing it but I I would like to see a you know a again we don't vote on the procedure but I think that would be a good protection in there. Well, and member Walden then the uh there's a section under here. It says a student shall not record or transmit speech or other communication of other persons without the person's express consent. We'd have to make a modification of that, right? Because and actually uh Arizona is a single recorder state. I don't think I'm saying that accurately, but uh legally you can record uh somebody without their permission. So, what you're saying is if a student is in in the middle of a lesson that is objectionable or um comments inappropriate comments by a teacher, they're recording it. Um technically that would violate this
086section of the policy right here. I mean, yeah, I guess you see what I'm saying? So, yeah, but I don't think it's like pervasive enough that we have to change the policy. I think overall we want to respect people's privacy on campus, too. But that's why I think it's something that could be added to the procedure. Yeah. the the concern that I have also regarding um phones is um I'm kind of torn on it because of what member Walden just said. We have, you know, across the country seen some really crazy things happen in classrooms because kids had cell phones. However, one of the reasons um the district allowed cell phones out when they first um when they first came out and especially with smartphones is because uh it was a an issue of making
087sure that all students had access to uh the internet, right? Well, now we have onetoone devices. There really is no I can't think of an educational purpose for a student having to have access to their cell phone during class because we have onetoone devices. At the elementary level, they're on on computer carts. Uh at the junior high and high school level, they're actually onetoone devices. So the whole reason that historically the district allowed phones out was so that if a family couldn't afford a laptop that had internet access but they had a smartphone that was the uh solution to that. So uh I think that should be within our procedures as well. I I don't see any reason for it and we heard from the hack of eight kids. Uh there's got to be consistent
088follow-through across the district. Uh I I love the fact that the junior high were intermingled because I think it was very eye openening to them that uh you know here here we have this issue in our policy and our student code of conduct but it's not actually enforced um universally across the district and I I'm a big proponent if you're going to have a policy if you're going to have a rule it should be enforced uh and it should be enforced to me this it doesn't matter what the demographic is Right. Um, and in that note, are we done with cell phones? Because I have a different question about the student code of conduct. Well, it was we're on student code of conduct. So, under number 26, um, it's the tobacco, cigarettes, and vaping, and
089we've added any nicotine product. How is that going to be enforced? That was the that wasn't the legislation though, right? Like that's not us adding it. That's the state. Well, I know that we need to we have to add it to our policy. Client how? Yeah. This was a trust recommendation. Oh, it's a trust as as a because my understanding a nicotine product is like a piece of gum or something. It's like there's no smell to it. There's no physical evidence that you I think I don't access it myself, but that's my understanding. It I It's just a recommendation. the board is not interested in that. You can Well, I just don't see how we're going to enforce it. Well, that's that's where I'm if it's just a recommendation. I'm not interested then because I
090I agree with you. How are you going to enforce it? Like, and if some kid has a patch on their arm, like who maybe there's a medical reason someone has a patch in their arm. Are you going to question patches or question gum? I mean, ecigarettes make sense to me because that that has a physical you can see it. But um I mean these nicotine things, they it looks like a container of gum. So a kid just has to put it into a container of gum and you're not going to know the difference. So if we're going to have a rule, it needs to be something that we can enforce and follow through on because otherwise we're just teaching kids that rules don't really matter and we all know students are going to try and
091push it. So I mean I I took this as just an attempt to be comprehensive, right? What do you guys think? Well, I was just going to add if you had a student though that you know they got in trouble or caught with other paraphernalia and that was included in there so they would be okay if they had that in their pocket, you know, if it was labeled and they knew it was, that would be okay, but the other stuff wouldn't. I think that's where it might get a little at least we're covered if we have all of those items listed and the ch and the student gets, you know, in trouble for a vape and then they pull out of their backpack three vapes and a nicotine, you know, pack of gum that's labeled
092or chew or chew. Well, is it illegal for students for minors to have nicotine? Yes. Yes. Well, I didn't My kids are all adults now. Well, yeah, but we have students that are 18 in high school. Oh, we are allowed to make it um not allowed in a public school setting. Even if even if an 18-year-old is legally allowed to possess nicotine, we can still prohibit it in school. Right. We do. Exactly. Yeah. I think for me, I feel like I appreciate that there. I understand the point about vagueness, but I think that having a more comprehensive language in there makes sense for this. Yeah, I I I with board member Benson, I agree. I think it's going to be impossible to enforce and then you have something that is like it's never going to
093come up because you can't you can't enforce it. So, board members, if I could add a comment. Yeah. Um, nicotine products are ever changing and we don't know what the future holds for nicotine products. We've listed what we know now, but we could find out next week that a new product is out there. So, by having nicotine product in there, it covers us for anything new that might pop up that we aren't able to name right now because we don't know what it is. Yeah. This is something where if you know somebody's caught with like cigarettes or ecigarettes, like I think that's what you were talking about, Madame President, that there's like lesser offenses and then the school can determine if they want to like go whole hog on on charging offenses versus just charging
094on the main things. It would just be included with other things. So, if I can add to that, uh, member Walden, our discipline matrix outlines how to handle um tobacco products, how to handle nicotine, how to handle ecigarettes, how to handle um drugs versus um tobacco. So, it's not a a guessing game for the schools. They would go and find the violation in the discipline matrix and then find the line item that describes the offense that's been committed and then they can move forward with a consequence there. Okay. Right. That's what you meant by the multiple offenses. Okay. All at the same time is what you're talking about, right? Yeah. Yeah. Like so if you had, you know, if they got a vape other products, you know, then they would be accountable for all those
095different things. Yeah. Any other questions? No, I think just for me, I'm not willing to move forward with this policy until we clear up some of that procedure that's connected to student technology use and hearing that the board has some concerns about the procedure, that's why we, you know, let you have it for context and please I ask that you provide any feedback um either through Miss Kirby, through Dr. strong and I will make sure that um the area assistant superintendent have a chance to process your feedback and then we can bring you a different version with some of your comments and some of your input incorporated because ultimately our procedures are intended to implement your policies. So, thank you. Madam President, I have one more. Yep. I have one more comment on student I
096think it's under student code of conduct. Um, how under the plagiarism and I think it's under plagiarism. We're adding AI. I don't know where it is. 17. Um, how do we have a procedure or how are we actually are we training teachers on how to identify material that has been created by AI because it's quite stellar generally speaking. So, how are we actually able to again enforce this and recognize that students that have used AI to to write their essay for them or whatever. Member Benson and members of the board, we actually have, especially at the secondary level, um tools within our adopted resources that help teachers recognize plagiarism. And then we also have um professional learning for teachers in regard to generative uh AI and its uses and implementation. And part of that covers
097um how to recognize those kinds of issues. Any other questions on Okay. We will move to policy 4-204 mandatory reporting. Any questions? I I have two. Um Mrs. King, can you um provide maybe some context for why board members are now included in um the legislation. And then secondly, um since we cannot report to an SRO, who exactly can we report to seeing that Mesa Public Schools is in so many various jurisdictions? That's a great question. Um, I did actually do some research into the legislative history of this bill and there was not a lot of explanation for why um, at this point in time substitute teachers and governing board members were added, but I can only imagine that um, it was not clear before that district employees included those two groups. And again, I'm
098guessing, but as you know, you receive a lot of phone calls and emails and texts from community members and staff members. And I think um because the reporting of suspected abuse or neglect of children in Arizona is such a fundamental concern that we want to make sure that anybody who might um be part of the lives of a child knows of their obligation. um your question about jurisdiction. Um typically you you know we have some schools that are uh fall within the the Chandler Police Department's jurisdiction, some within Mesa, and we do have uh three I believe county schools within county islands which fall within the jurisdiction of Maricopa County Sheriff's Office. And I would say just do your best. Um, if you contact um a police department in the wrong jurisdiction, I'm hopeful and
099Sergeant Lines can correct me if I'm wrong, that they will direct you to the appropriate jurisdiction. Um, so it's where the is it is it where the child lives? Is it where the child goes to school? is it's my understanding is where the abuse took place where the abuse took place. So it could actually be Phoenix. Yeah. Not a and sometimes you might not know. Sometimes um a child might disclose some information to you and you might not know what city or county is lines. Sorry to put you on the spot, but if a mandatory report is made um and it turns out that is is it where the abuse took place? Is that the jur the police department? And if you aren't sure, can you call any police? Any police department? Any police department.
100Okay. And we will work with the agency alleged crime occurred. Yeah. So being reasonable in making a report to a police jurisdiction within Arizona as long as it we our board members if they make a report to Mesa police and it turns out the abuse took place even in a different county if Exactly. Yeah. We have uh a lot of our schools have Smith Junior High School for example has students that live in Mesa and they have students. So if alleged to have occurred it to the police department and happen in the county and they'll do their Thank you. Yeah. Any jurisdiction that is Okay. Thank you. Mrs. King, is this a change that for clarification's sake, I thought if you um had suspicion of abuse, you contacted CPS and they contacted law enforcement. Is
101that is this a change? Do you know? That's what I the stat the statute provides several different scenarios. So, if if you suspect that the abuse or neglect was um inflicted upon the child by a family member, you would want to contact law enforcement and the Department of Child Safety. If the abuse was alleged to have been committed by someone who is not a family member, then you would contact law enforcement. If you believe the abuse was committed by an a district employee, then you would contact law enforcement. and the Arizona State Board of Education and mandatory reporting is specifically for cases of abuse. Not for example, if we think a teacher has given a lesson that violates the parental rights, that is not a mandatory reporting situation, correct? Suspicion, reasonable suspicions of child abuse
102or neglect. Okay. Thank you. And also um if I may, Madame President, uh there will be training for all governing board members to get all of this information as part of this legislation that goes in that drives our policy. Yes. And that and that is conducted for all district staff and will be in the future conducted for all uh board members annually. Thank you. And that's at the beginning of every year, isn't it? Correct. Yeah. Sorry. Any other questions on this one? Okay, we will go down to policy 5-303, student records. Any questions here? Okay. Can I ask I'm sorry. I'm sorry. Um Okay. So, if I'm looking at the the the change of language here, um, is is directory information designated by the district? Yes, the district determines what directory information is. That's correct.
103Got it. Okay, that's my that was my question. And I think it's really important to point out, you may have noticed in the accompanying procedure that we are proposing to remove from the definition of directory information students address, phone number, and email address to avoid any confusion and enable us to um implement this new statute with a lot less confusion. Thank you. Thanks very much. Okay. Thank you. Any other questions on this one? All right. Thank you, Miss King, for your help through that. We will continue on now. Two action items. Sorry, let me get we will first start with um action item A. Do I have a motion to approve the memorandum of understanding of course mojo? So moved. Do I have a second? I'll second. Any discussion on this? So, um I had
104uh some questions that I brought up with, uh the district that I kind of wanted to ask here, but then also I did want to address the questions we've gotten from the community about this. So, I had uh I think for the email I had asked a couple questions about it because we so going back this was a supplemental material that the board approved last month and then it seems like we have a supplemental material but it's complicated and AI is needed to use this supplement and is that why this is coming back to the board for vote is because of the AI component? it. No. Um, in May you approved the supplemental resource list. This action item is to recommend approval for a partnership um with this company and accept funds. Um, we wouldn't
105actually inter interchange funds, but they would be paying for these licenses to use this supplemental resource. So, if not approved, then teachers or the district or whoever would be using that supplemental resource would incur a fee. This is allowing us to receive funds um to implement these resources at Smith and Roads, who are um two of our comprehensive support um schools that were identified um by the state department. So, the board really isn't approving, we're not technically approving the use of this. We're approving the agreement so that the district isn't charged a fee. So, the district could use this whether the agreement's approved or not. That is correct. Okay. Um, and then so one of the questions I had was that it feels like maybe the supplemental maybe this resource is a little too difficult
106and was it really is it really the appropriate resource for these schools and I was wondering if you could could speak to that about the need to identify learning gaps. Yes, member Walden and members of the board. This tool um is really a a support tool that uses uh a variety of vendors um that in in our case in the secondary level um 6 through 8 we have HMH as our approved resource for English language arts and that is one of the vendors that this tool coordinates with. And what it does is it personalizes learning for the learner and it allows the teacher to for example if she or he is working with a small group of learners and there are other learners working in small groups or individually um it provides additional support for
107those learners if they're having difficulty with complex text or it might be providing feedback to those learners while the teacher is working with another group of students. So it accelerates um engagement and so for example if uh there was a student or a group of students who were working um in their English language arts materials and they would have to essentially wait for the teacher to come over when that teacher was done with that small group or another um student and provide that feedback right away. Um so it's it's accelerating learning and engagement for for learners. It also um helps teachers to differentiate instruction um provides them with exemplar units and questions and those kinds of things that again saves time for the teacher. So is there what kind of data collection occurs in order
108for this sort of review to happen? So, um, with this agreement, just like any vendor that we use, as we talked about with some of the policy review, our, um, policy 3-402 addresses all of the data sharing agreements, data privacy. So, this is really, um, a walled garden is what it's called. When whenever there's AI involved um, in our educational settings, we want to use walled gardens because then the privacy, the data, all of that is is safe within our own environment. So, and this is really like looking at learning gaps. I what I mean I understand we have all the data collection but is it it's not going to be collecting data that's like makes the child like it's not personally identifiable data or I mean it's it's if it's just related to curriculum
109it it's really yeah it's utilizing our approved resources and helping teachers to identify much more quickly which students are getting feedback based on their responses. However they're writing, they might get feedback. Um, if they are having trouble with complex text or whatnot, the teacher then will know right away and how to adjust his or her instruction. Okay. So, we already have the policies in place that uh protect the data and describe our use of data and um with this one. So, it's uh helping that with that identification for the learning. Um so is it something that is going to get stored uh for for a long-term period like so the data that's collected it and it sounds like it has results in real time. Is there any mechanism of of storing this information? Um I
110would have to go back to our expert on the data sharing and data privacy agreements that we follow all of the requirements regarding that. So, as far as storage, I don't know how long that might be. Um, but again, it's it's all protected within our own system and and for the purposes of teacher use. Okay. Are there other districts that are uh using this or are we piloting it? Yeah, there are other districts that use it across the nation. Okay. And do we have any idea of what their data looks like from that about the success or benefits of this program? Um, I don't have that with me right now, but I can certainly access that for you. Okay. With with artificial intelligence integration in a school systems, the most difficult part at the stage
111we're living in right now is, you know, there's short-term effects. Let's go to preschool education. There's short-term effects of preschool education. There's long run effects of preschool education. And to understand the long run effects, you often have to uh have that data play itself out over the course of several years. And we're just too early on in the integration of a AI to understand whether the learning outcomes in the current year, first of all, are effective because we're just in the initial stages of artificial intelligence and public school system, let alone the ongoing effects, the year three, year four, year five effects uh of of artificial intelligence integration. That's why it's so important to make sure we have a closed environment or a walled garden so that our data doesn't become something part of a
112comprehensive analysis and it's only internal to ourselves. Yeah. Because I think that's the that's the big concern, right? Is that like in today's world, we're all products, so to speak. On everything we use, we become the product, you know, and so that's good. we're just we can say, "Yeah, we're keeping it in the district because there's a lot of people and and I'm I think I'm one of them that doesn't really want people in across the nation using my child's information to make money off of and and create programs and stuff." So, um, would you call that the walled garden? I feel like I haven't heard the IT term that is used a lot as a closed environment. The tech edtech term that we we hear a lot is a walled garden. A walled garden.
113No, I like that. One other one other comment is the mo after 13 years teaching mathematics in the classroom formative assessment like true formative assessment isn't the practice of collecting short quizlets on kids of five four three questions. True formative assessment is understanding exactly what that kid's thinking at the exact right point in time to ask the exact right question to get them to understand how to build that mental map in their mind of what's going on. And so that is kind of a little bit of a promise of AI if we can get home with this one-on-one tutoring type situation where the we understand based on the way the kids responding to a certain problem set that they're trying to encounter whether that's history or English language arts exactly where their mind's at because
114there's a large enough data set within Mesa public schools where we can go oh that kid's experiencing the same learning point that thousands of kids prior have experienced and so this question is the one that's the highest efficacy of getting that kid over that hump and creating that mental map. Um, and it's it's very difficult in a classroom of one to 30 to do that with really high efficacy because when you have small groups running, it's difficult to understand where every kid's at at every moment in time in the learning that they're trying to build in their own mind. So, uh, you know, this is one of the reasons a pilot is so important and, uh, we want to understand whether it has the true effect we want, uh, before, uh, rolling it out throughout
115the district. Um, this did seem to garner some community interest. And so if is this something that we could table to vote on until the next meeting and maybe come up with like a frequently asked questions link or just maybe like a one pager FAQ. here's how here's here's the safeguards or the the guard rails on how like we use AI in the district or how it could be used because I understand that like I understand the concerns and then on the other hand we also are charged with we've got to get the proficiency rates up and if this is a faster better way to do it like we need to be open to tech so I think like I understand what you're saying you know we have these different policies but the general public
116doesn't always know and understand like how to piece together the safeguards and maybe we could just present that and it's summer so I'm thinking if we delayed at one meeting we might still be okay. Yes, I absolutely think that's possible certainly. Well, and can I add in Madame President like one of the concerns from um the community and the constituents is the uh and I I'm going to kind of piggyback on what you just uh said Dr. Stum. It's the conditioning of the mind, right? that the pinpointing the way you described it is understanding exactly where in the learning map, right? The community is concerned about that in terms of leading not the um how to think but the what to think because AI responds and and most of AI currently is uh developed by
117people that are on the left side of the aisle. So we've seen examples in the broader community of you know asking for I don't know an image of whatever and the language that is used and the the material that is presented is not unbiased and it's not neutral. Uh I think if it were neutral we wouldn't I don't think the community would have too much of an issue with that. Right? if it is strictly hey they don't understand the word you know hypertension that's different right so uh that that is one of the primary concerns that I've heard from community members is how is this because AI and and honestly it is it can be a great tool however it can also become a crutch and it can become a way to shape the thinking
118the what to think rather than the here is how you think that is a huge concern and um on so that that I would I would uh go along with member Walden's suggestion that we table the vote on um course mojo until school's not starting until July 31st. I can't believe it's that early. But I would go along with that. Madame President, I move that we t do I need to resend the previous motion. I move that we table this until the next meeting. I don't know, Mr. Thompson, what we do procedurally at that point. Technically, when you're tableabling, you are deferring to the next meeting. If you postpone, then you either set the date or you're postponing indefinitely. So, if you intend to bring it back in the next meeting, you can just table
119the motion. I motion to table this. And I just wanted to ask, is the next meeting Oh, I'm sorry. Let me get you the motion first. A second. Okay, we got a second. Uh, is the next meeting enough of a time frame to develop or write up a FAQ document? Yes. if I could get some specific questions through um President Davis, that would be great and I could bring those back and then that if it were approved that evening um based upon the information you received, then that would give us some time to still work with um the agreement and get students rostered etc and all the things that would have to happen before school starts. Okay. Thank you. So, Madam President, we can forward an email with the concerns that Mr. Steele mentioned earlier,
120correct? Yeah, if you'll send you have two. Yeah, if you'll send the Yep. an email and then I'll get that to Dr. Eis. Now, do we have to vote to table? Yes. Okay. All right. Miss Kirby, will you please take our vote? Uh, Mrs. Benson votes in the affirmative. I don't have anything on me. With a vote of four yays, one nay, we have tabled this discussion for theou for course mojo. We will now move along to action item B. Do I have a motion to approve the additional Arizona State University universal learner course ULC intergovernmental agreement? So moved. Do I have a second? Seconded. Any discussion? Yes. Um, I have a young lady who reached out to me today and she asked about two courses specifically that we do not have listed um on
121the M MPS ASU connection. And first off to um to allay the concerns of others, the only courses that our MPS students are going to be able to register for are the ones that actually coincide with our standards and high school graduation and that are on the list that you provided. Correct. That we that they can do during our time. That is correct. During our time, students always have any any member of the community has access to ASULC learner courses, but the ones that are on this list would allow us to move forward in um defining the logistics and standard operating procedures for how students would enroll and register and and the fee as as referenced in the memo, etc. Right? So on their own they could register for any of the issues at any
122time but the ones on our campuses are only going to be limited to this and to the um so the two courses let me pull it up is um HST 109 is the American history course and it is an identical course to the junior junior year requirement for American history. It is not on the list that our MPS students could take. And the second is POS110 which is American government and politics through ULC is the identical course to the senior year required US government and economics/government and politics. So I told her I would mention those and bring those forward. If they are aligned with what we're teaching then they we should add them to our list. Yes. Right now we wanted to start small. Um like other districts, there are some districts that are, for
123example, um one of our neighboring districts only has access to CTE courses. We wanted to provide a little bit broader list that aligns to um our standards supplemental to what we offer on our campuses as well as um student interest in terms of our college careermies, etc. And so, um, because this is a new endeavor for us, um, if you do approve this agreement tonight, that it allows our team to start working with, um, the school sites as well as with ASU on all of the procedures for that, and then we would look to, if needed, to expand in the future, but right now, we want to we want to start small and ensure that we get it right. So, is it a possibility for you to look at those two courses that I just
124mentioned that can that if we vote on this tonight, we're not specifically voting on this list of courses, but the memorandum that we can go forward. Is there a possibility that those two courses can be added for this coming up school year? Well, let me address the for this upcoming school year first. Um the action item on the table tonight is to approve this agreement which allows us to engage in um with with ASU on the um the consolidated pricing. So that $250 flat fee versus that $400 that was on the last agreement. Um and then the courses obviously would continue to change and you know we would be looking at those annually just like we do our course catalog. Um but if this is approved this evening, it will take us probably the whole
125first semester um next year and maybe longer depending um on getting all of the logistics together. We want to make sure we've got the enrollment, the procedures for payment, the flat fee, etc. Um so we're hoping we might be able to launch by second semester, but that we know for sure first semester we're going to be working on all of the logistics. We wanted your approval first before we move forward. Right. Right. Right. That makes sense. So those two can be added though for her that she might be able to take continue to find cross and they can take these courses in the summer at the 250 rate too, right? Or does it have to be during the school year? Um we would again that would be part of the logistics we would want to
126look at. Some of these are offered sessionbased which is the ASU session and some so we'd have to align those with our sessions etc. Some of them are on demand. It really depends on um what the courses are, if they're concurrent, if they're dual enrollment, etc. If we had a student or if there were other students that came forward and there wasn't something that was listed, is it something that we would look at considering to add to the list and then that be brought back for for us to know? Okay. Board member Davis, if I could just make a quick comment. This is no different than the college articula articulation process for transfer credits in that uh a title doesn't tell us necessarily what's taught in the course. And so while people may say, "Oh,
127that's pretty much this course." Like the political science course out of ASU, the economics that are in that political science course may not align at all with the economics we teach at the high school level. So I just while stu we openly welcome students and families bringing courses in ULC to us to examine but it's no different than why ASU may not accept from a university on the east coast a transfer credit for calculus when a student on the east coast took calculus for engineering and they wanted to apply in a math calculus class, a theoretical calculus class. It just doesn't articulate well based on what was taught in the course and that does take work. It takes resources and work to examine syllabi at that level, which is the work that Dr. E is
128department does. So once again, this gets into administration and work and all those things that it takes to to get all this accomplished in and the articulation process, right? And having been an AP teacher, you the I got the same email from the from the student. um not all departments at each end university accept a grade and determine how much credit there is a lot behind the scenes and and I would agree simply because a course has the same title doesn't mean it's got the same content doesn't mean it's got the same resources doesn't mean it's got the same rigor doesn't mean it's got the same type of of of um standard that we want our kids to have that we determine as a board is a standard for graduation uation. So I I totally
129agree with you that there is a lot more articulation that has to occur before we can start equating um um almost like a dual enrollment credit if you will. Um so I I appreciate the explanation because I think um I mean I I I very much appreciate her question. I think it's really valid, but um a student doesn't understand just how much articulation there is between universities and high schools and the accreditation that has to take place. Um but it certainly um shouldn't preclude accepting the agreement. No, I wouldn't preclude it. I do think it's good for our students to hear that we're willing to listen to them and say, "Oh, is this a course that if it benefits them, if we are living into our promise, then for students to understand that we as
130adults are listening to them when it comes to their college careers, I think that's really beneficial for them." Question for sure. Yes, I have a couple more questions. Um, is this only for a is the ULC only for ASU credit or is it transferable? So, this specific agreement is for Arizona State University. It would be up to other universities. is if a student were they would earn the credit at ASU and then they would have to investigate and work with their counselors on the articulation or or um acceptance from other universities. Perfect warning then. Thank you. Thank you very much. Also, another question is what possibly could be the impact on the Mesa College Promise? Because if if if the student is getting university credit, does that then knock them out of of uh contention
131for the Mesa College Promise? Um, yes. Every situation is unique. And again, that goes back into why we want to make sure we've got standard operating procedures and we're working with our counselors so that they understand how that all works. So, yes. And have we determined um that this type of college credit, which is generally a three credit course would equal one of ours. Is that correct? For dual enrollment. Yes. Got it. Thank you. Or Yeah. Bringing in credit. Uhhuh. Madam President, a couple questions. Um, so these classes are taught asynchronously through ASU. Will a Mesa Public Schools teacher be guiding students through through these courses or will students be learning independently in these courses? So again, it depends. Um, for example, um, in dual enrollment, it could be one of our teachers that's working
132with the ASU content. If if for example we have um a dual enrollment course that's offered at one of our schools but maybe another high school doesn't have a highly um appropriate appropriately certified teacher to teach that dual enrollment course then it would be the ASU instructor who would be teaching that course with um supports either from ASU and or our own staff. Um there are asynchronous courses and opportunities where it might be an individualized situation where a student's um taking it on their own time or it might be part of their schedule where again there might be support. So there's a lot of different situations and contexts um for which they might be able to access these courses which we're excited about because it provides a lot of different access for students. Thank you.
133Just one other question Dr. Isles. Um, do any of these courses meet Mesa Public Schools graduation requirements for non-elective courses? Yes, there will be some, of course, on the list that will meet that. Yes, I had to think about the question. Sorry. No, that would be great to see, I think, for us to be able to see those broken up. Thanks. Well, and from our discussion last time, this is actually potentially going to broaden kids dual enrollment opportunities because we don't always have a MESA teacher who is dual certified. Absolutely. So therefore, we can use the ASU person in lio. Yes. Yeah. Do you have a question? Yeah. I just Well, first just want to commend everybody for getting the fee down from $400 to $250. So, thank you for your efforts with that. And
134I believe it was two meetings ago when this this was up and we talked about that the full MESA course list would be would be brought to the board in a future meeting. Correct. Yes. And that's the list we brought this evening. Okay. Yeah. And that's what Sharon clarified is just um that is just just for our students in Mesa, but on their own they can obviously do whatever they want. Okay. Thank you. Any other questions? Seeing none, Miss Kirby, will you please take our vote? With a vote of five, you've approved the additional Arizona State University universal learner course ULC intergovernmental agreement. Now moving on to C. Do I have a motion to approve the MPS 2526 high school and junior high school course catalog revisions? So moved. Do I have a second? Second.
135Thank you. Any discussion only? Um, how will parents know about the revisions? Are they sent electronically? Are they because I assume we're not going to reprint. Correct. We won't reprint the cataloges. Um, but we make those changes online. And Dr. Eless, are parents notified of that? Like are we going to send an email out? Hey, course catalogs have been Yes, I would say specifically with um like the music designation and the changes, we will definitely have our music teachers that will be sharing that information, our counselors, etc. Yeah, that'd be great because that I'm sure will be of vast interest, too. Yes, lots of our students. Dr. Tracus, can you help me understand the differences between the Mesa High credit hours and MDLP and the other high schools that are on block schedule and their
136MDLP and the cost associated with that? Can you talk us through that and explain the why behind it? Yes. Um, Mesa High currently has a a six period day whereas the other schools next year will be on the block schedule and have the opportunity for eight courses. Um and so when the community ed fee schedule was brought to the board in January and February um for approval, those course fees changed for next year. Um and both schedules have the option of a free MDLP course within their within their school day. So for example, at Mesa High, it moves to seven. Um, and then the block schedules also have a free course, but then they also have an opportunity for more courses at the block schedule. And so this change was made um to ensure that
137Mesa High still had the opportunity for free courses. The block schedule had an opportunity for free courses um but the block schedule has an additional opportunity for more courses. And so thus the change to the the fee on the ninth course. Okay. Okay, I'm going to ask for clarification again because we we did this in our check-in and I was like, "This still feels a little confusing to me." So, I'm just going to talk through it so that the board members kind of this comes to their attention because it took me a couple of times to just make sure that I had it correct. So, the way that it currently is written is that high school students taking an MDLP course in addition to courses at their home school are assessed a fee for each
138class taken in excess of seven on a non-block schedule and taken in excess of nine for a block schedule. And the change is that let me see how it is here. Okay, never mind. I think we should write this a little bit clear. That's my first feedback. Um, no, I'm just trying to see. So, any classes exceeding seven in a semester will incur a fee of $250 for students enrolled at Mesa High. And then for our students attending on a block schedule, if a student enrolls in MDLP course exceeding eight will incur a fee of 250. And this applies to everyone else. So I think this is my question is Mesa High students, it's more than seven. Like they're taking six in a day, but they're only being charged if it's more than seven. The
139eighth class is charged. So they're getting charged on the eighth class. But at our block schedule high schools, they're getting charged not they already have eight courses available in their day. So anything over and above they would be charged. So it just feels to me like our Mesa High and I just want to have this discussion if this is what we want and why the decision was made. Our Mesa High students can take seven classes plus an MDLP, right? like they can do their six classes plus a free class number seven. And our block schedule students can do eight classes and then they pay because they already have eight built within their day. Okay. Yeah. So we're we're essentially charging them anything over and above their regular schedule whereas Mesa High is getting uh a
140free course and then we're charging them beyond that. And I love that except for the fact that also in the blog schedule, we're asking them to take classes as part of that eight schedule. They're taking a core academy class and they're potentially taking another class. So, I just I I feel like we have this discussion often that we're offering them more opportunities, but I do think there's discussion about the fee that we're charging for those students because really we are allowing them to take eight classes, but it is seven that are going towards graduation requirements because those Academy Core classes are not part of graduation requirements, right? And parents have the right to opt out of those if they so choose. And as we make this change, maybe this is something we just need to
141communicate really effectively as parents make their four-year plan and are making financial decisions that many of our MDLP classes do meet graduation requirements and those are very valuable for students who want to participate in arts and and athletics. I understand that there's a shift here and that there's an opportunity to take eight classes, but I think this is something I'd love to really weigh how many students this impacts and and how we feel as a board saying Mesa High probably necessarily needs this extra credit, extra credit, but is how is that going to impact our other schools? Can I add a comment perhaps? Is that I I see what you're saying, Mrs. Trappy. I I Well, let me let me see if I understand what you're saying. So, it appears as though uh Mesa High
142is getting the opportunity to take a free course in addition to what's already in their day and the rest of our campuses are not because the rest of our campuses have the opportunity to earn eight credits in a year. And actually, I mean, they have to earn like freshman and freshman and sophomores don't have a choice, right? Uh, however, do we really want our students taking nine, 10, and do you know what I mean? I totally a huge It does. It appears as though it's it appears as though um Mesa High students are getting an added benefit. However, with the block schedule, the added benefit is you're already getting eight credits, right? I mean, I think the bigger question for me is over time figuring out h how does the uh block schedule affect us
143overall? And yeah, we may not want students to be able to take that many classes. That is going to impact our ADM. We know this is one of the impacts. So, saying, you know, students can take more classes that has an impact on our district. Um, I just wanted to highlight that because it is a it is a change. It is a shift. I didn't want it to be part of consent and I wanted to make sure that that's really clearly communicated to our parents because I mean essentially either way you're getting seven required classes. But it's important for parents who have incoming freshmen as they're mapping out those schedules that they're talking about that and having those conversations and knowing like if you are taking more than this or you were planning on doing
144online bowling, it's not going to be part of your credits. you're going to be paying for that and some of those opportunities are only available through MDLP. They can still take one MDLP course in their aid, can't they? So, they still could take online bowling as one of their courses, just not an extra one. Correct. Any other questions? Okay, seeing none, Miss Kirby, please take our vote. with a vote of five years. You've approved the MPS 2526 high school and junior high school course catalog revisions. Now move to Do I have a motion to approve the 202526 pay for performance plan? So moved. Oh, I got two. I'll be second. Miss Walden moved and Miss Benson second. Um, Mr. Wing, sorry, Miss Hutchinson, I'm sorry. Thank you, Cameo. Uh, Mr. Wing, will you share your
145presentation with us? Certainly. Uh, I'll just start by sharing that, excuse me, we're recommending no changes to our pay for performance plan going into the 2025 26 school year, which would mean we were using the same uh protocol for the fourth year in a row. Part of the consideration for no changes is that face of public schools, we're going to be experiencing changes going into next school year, other changes such as leadership, etc. And so this is one area where we can continue and I'll share some of the details with you in a second. Uh this does align with Arizona revised statutes 15977. I want to say it was established in 20201 when uh voters approved classroom site fund uh which incorporated a a per pay for performance uh component to it. There will be
146no changes or modifications even though it permits the governing board to do so. We uh human resources we work with uh our four employee associations uh MEA, MAX, MASSA and MESPA and they all are aware in agreement to the recommendation of continuing with our current pay for performance protocol. There are really two goal settings for employees. One is a performance goal and one is a work product goal. Quickly, performance goal is just to improve your overall performance on things you currently do. The work product goal is really aimed at enhancing a certain area or even uh developing something new uh within your scope of of work. The work product goal can be collaborative. uh for example I know there's a small group of individuals in human resources u enhancing our uh classified new hire orientation
147would be kind of an example on the work product goal we do apply the smart goal setting uh being sure that specific measurable achievable relevant and time bound employees when they complete their performance goal and the work product goal uh the forms lead them to address each of these components in the smart goal setting. Uh quickly, um the actual pay for performance approved last board meeting, I believe, or the two board meetings ago, excuse me, was uh through our stipen schedule, a $1,000 pay for performance for a full-time equivalency prorated based on an employees uh full-time equivalency. If halftime, they would receive half. It is and will remain $1,000. Uh for non teachers, those who are not eligible for the classroom site fund, meaning other certified personnel, administrators, classified, that $1,000 is broken into two
148components. One is the performance goal and one is the work product goal. For teachers, the classroom site fund eligible folks. Uh they have a a third component. So instead of a 50/50 split, it is 40% 40% $400, $400. And then the final 20% the $200 is going to be based on their evaluation. And this aligns with statute 15977 um through the classroom site fund um what was the state statutes that were developed based on the voter prudent initiative. Accountability regarding our pay for performance. There are three forms that employees have to complete during the year. One is actually the goal setting form in December. They're required to complete a mid-year update u that is submitted and shared with their uh supervisor and then an end of year u update as well. U most of it's
149done through our uh HS perform evaluation system. So we have record of it uh internally um and as well as supervisors have access to it as well. There are appeal guidelines where an employee who feels that um some consider consideration should have been made uh from maybe not exactly achieving their performance goal or their work product goal. A good example would be somebody on like family medical leave where they weren't able to achieve certain goals because they were on uh nonwork status leave. that could be a consideration, etc. And then timelines. I already kind of skipped to this already. The timelines, we'll be sharing the plan details. Again, it's pretty consistent with the past couple of years. If the governing board approves in July setting, September 5th will be a due date for employees to
150establish their goals. I don't show a December midyear one, but there is a midyear report. And then the end of the year, April 30th, their final due date uh to complete their pay for performance goal updates. And with that, there you go. I'm open for any questions. Thank you, Mr. Wing. Board members, any questions? No questions. Seeing none, Miss Kirby, will you please take our vote? With a vote of five years, you've approved the 202526 pay for performance plan. Moving to E. Do I have a motion to approve the 202526 propo proposed certified teacher evaluation handbook? So moved. Do I have a second? Second. Um, Mr. Wing, will you uh give us an overview of those changes on this? Certainly. This is I think two words describe the changes. One is consistency or having consistency
151and then the second is just streamlining some of our processes. Uh there was a certified evaluation design team led by Miss Susan Jenny, our executive director of human resources. um along with the Mesa Education Association, Mr. Burke who spoke uh earlier in public comment um work together to provide some continuous improvement on some of our processes. Two major changes. One is all certified teachers will be evaluated using the same instrument every year rather than some years you're you're only given certain components of the evaluation tool. This will provide consistency for various reasons. It was alluded to earlier, the reduction of force. We haven't had one since the recession years and so we've had some opportunities to to improve based on things we identified last year and that includes making sure all of our certified staff
152are evaluated using the same instrument. Second is to remove uh an extra summitive evaluation in Mesa public schools. We have um required beyond state statute requirements for certified evaluations and many have saw this as a compliance kind of or a checklist type of uh task. And so what we're doing is we're recommending that we follow state statute on evaluation requirements for both continuing teachers and for probationary teachers. teach probationary teachers are teachers less than three majority of three consecutive years in the school district. That's it. Thank you, Mr. Wing. And thank you to all those that were involved with this and putting this together. We appreciate it. Um any questions? I have some. Um we're with the handbook. Did I didn't as I was glancing through it I didn't see any the changes highlighted uh
153to make sure that our uh at least I didn't Sam are they highlighted because there's we had I thought we had a revision but maybe we didn't share it with you. We'll we'll share that. The highlights are in the memo. Well, I saw that. Okay. So then um how do teachers that are on the alternative evaluation cycle fit into this? How are they going to be evaluated on all 22 components? They will they will not be uh through our certified evaluation committee last year or two years ago. My apologies, don't write that down, but within the last year or two, uh we determined that those on the alternative evaluation cycle, and you can only be on the alternative evaluation cycle if you have an overall classification of highly effective for three consecutive years for that
154certified member, uh they will receive a score, the top score of uh the the top outcome of an evaluation. So they will still go based on they have to do a formal walkth through and then there's just a status check that supervisors are required to administrators are required to complete every year. So for example there are 22 um standards or factors that are rated in our Danielson evaluation tool if highly effective is worth three points. That's 66 total points that can be achieved through that evaluation if we're looking at having to do another reduction of force in the future etc. So anybody on the AEC will automatically get 66 points. Okay. And how long can you stay on the alternative evaluation cycle? Is it three and then you have to go back and or is
155it indefinite? Uh it can be indefinite. Two opportunities to be removed. one the teacher can ask ask to be uh placed based on the standard evaluation cycle. Yeah, I don't know they have the they have the opportunity to do that by September sometime at the start of the year. Uh the second administrator can elect and move a teacher onto the standard. At the end of the year, administrators do have to um complete a form verifying that this individual still is still or remains highly effective overall. Okay. And to determine that, is there any standard measure uh the length of time that an administrator should be in a classroom do during their formal walkthrough? I know it's not the full length of a full lesson, but like is there a Nope. Recommended, hey, you should be
156in the classroom at least. I believe in our training, we do 10 to 20 minutes for that formal walkthrough. Okay. It's not tied to any state statute. That's just our practice wanting to make sure administrators are in classrooms and the formal side of it is just really what what we mean by that is to provide written feedback to the individual right based on that walkthrough. And then my final question is um how do our ESI employees that return fit into this? It's my understanding that they go back to like let's say that um I retired. I'm an ESI employee one year, but before I retired, I was on the alternative evaluation cycle. When I come back as a full-fledged MESA employee, it's my understanding that they're put back on the traditional evaluation cycle. Is that
157accurate? And is there a way for ESI? I mean, if they were, it's doubtful if they continue teaching that they weren't still, you know what I mean? So how how do we if an individual who's on that highly effective alternative evaluation cycle goes on ESI and then returns the following year, they will uh not continue as an AEC alternative evaluation cycle because the state statute requires three consecutive years in the school district of receiving a highly effective evaluation and that year you're on ESI, you're not employed by Mesa Public Schools. So there is a start over. I will share that human resources uh has embedded in our training on ESI making people aware of it. I don't know if anybody turned down the opportunity to go on ESI because of that change, but we do
158want to be transparent and communicate because that was a a lesson learned a few years ago when we made some transition some changes to ESI. uh they they do not return as a probationary teacher. However, and quite technically a return to work retiree uh a return to work teacher who had normal retirement under Arizona State Retirement System, a lot of the evaluation laws do not apply to them specifically in statute. And so we don't have to move them back to the probationary status where they have two evaluations in a year, but they still have we put them more underneath that continuing teacher where they have to have one evaluation every year. Okay. And then if they're ranked highly effective for three straight years to the A. Okay. Thank you. You are correct. Any other questions?
159I had a quick question. So uh this increases that 22 point evaluation. So it's done every year instead of every three years for the teachers that are uh qu that have the highly exceeds or that meet the requirements to have it done every three years. So is there um work that is going to be replaced with this new evaluation? Like does this increase or decrease the principal's workload? I'll say overall it'll be a decrease of principal and teacher workload. Uh what what occurs now is the probationary teacher the first three years they receive a full evaluation 22 factors they get three evaluations. So they get a fall a spring and then like the day after the spring you get the end of the year one. So you get three uh which complicates things. So we're
160we're moving that board uh back to two evaluations in year. the continuing teacher, the first year they they receive the full evaluation, then the second and third they receive 10 out of 22, and then that cycle just keeps changing every three years. We're moving that up to 22. So yes, the principal has to evaluate all continuing teachers with more factors to be considered. With that said, um they only have to complete one evaluation, not the end of year, not the midyear and end of year evaluation. All right. Thank you. That's that's good info. And I did appreciate the comments uh we heard from Mrs. Berg about uh the fairness of having the evaluation the full evaluation done every year. That made a lot of sense. Thank you. Any other questions? Okay. Thank you board members.
161Um seeing none, Miss Kirby will please take our vote. with the vote of 5 days. You've approved the 202526 proposed certified teacher evaluation handbook. And thank you, Mr. Wing, for your presentations tonight. Moving in to our discussion items. Uh Dr. Gibbs, I think you're up. Um we made it. Uh our first presentation tonight is on attendance linking to our board goals of increasing proficiency and graduation rate. So I believe Dr. Gibbs, you need the clicker. I Mr. Wing has the clicker. I saw the look in the eyes. It's the clicker look. All right. Thank you, Dr. Gibbs. It's all yours. All right. Uh, good evening, members of the board and superintendency. Um, have a brief update tonight at the end of the year on attendance and our Isela scores. So, um, first we'll take a
162look at where we ended up the year on attendance. Um, the first metric we watch is average daily attendance. Average daily attendance is calculated by taking all the days attended by all of our K12 students divided by all the days our students were enrolled. So, and you can see here that average daily attendance has been creeping up the last two years, which is a good thing uh when you're dealing with over 50,000 students. Uh percentages move slowly. So, it's good when you see movement like this. Okay. Next, we look at average daily attendance by grade. And here you can see students have the lowest attendance rate as they get into junior high and high school particularly as students have a lot going on in the high school years and things start competing for their time.
163Then we look at uh students who were absent for 10% or more of the academic year. Now for this group we're looking at K12 students who are with us for the majority of the year. Um and among those uh these are students who are we're leaving out the highly mobile population and transient population looking at those who are with us for the majority of the year. And of those um here you can see the numbers have been inching down each year as well. And then the final stat we're looking at tonight is the uh for attendance is the percent absent for 18 days or more. Uh and this once again looks at kindergarten through 12th grade um and students who were here for half the year. Uh and um of those who are enrolled for
164half the year and these are the students who of those were gone for more than 18 days and once again this number has gone down as well. It's a good outcome um for our folks and it's moving in the right direction. All right. So u that is attendance. Go ahead and move on to Isella and then if folks have any feedback on those we can discuss that. Do we do we know any of the factors that led to the decrease in the chronic absenteeism? It's still way too high. It blows my mind. It blows my mind that 28% of the kids are missing more than 18 days. It blows my mind. Yeah, there's a few particularly at the younger ages. It's like where are those kids? Yeah. A few a few notes. Uh and then
165if the area superintendents know some practical situations happen out in the field uh certainly uh they can provide input as well. one uh prior to the pandemic and even back in the days when attendance was part of ADM collection average daily attendance was supposed was the goal was 95% by the state of Arizona right and now although we're inching up we're still at 91.3% so we have work to do that's the first thing on average day of the 10 is kids need to show up if you want kids to learn they got to be in school the second thing on chronic absenteeism uh is while we're in inching down the national research still is recognizing that it's almost double the rate that it was prior to the pandemic as well. And that uh work that
166needs to be done is centered around sense of belonging engagement in in school. Uh and what we've done over the course of the last two years is Amy Deatory uh has been primarily the lead uh has led out the attendance task force and trying to implement some things at the school level with respect to how to get kids engaged in a learning process. Uh we also have some interactions right now with teameming. Kids in teameing tend to to achieve attend school. A little bit less actually is the initial research out of ASU than kids in non- teeming environments. And we're just digging into why does that occur? Why do kids in teaming environments attend about 3/4 of a day less on average than kids in non-teaming environments and how do we engage the teams so
167that we can get better at attendance. So all these factors contribute and we're studying it across the district to see how antennas can improve uh throughout the whole district and there are some good initial signs up. Our initial KPIs with school level administrators that we released just this last week are centered around we are expecting our school level administrators to increase attendance and decrease chronic absenteeism and it'll be something that we build into their evaluation process on an annual basis. So, uh, just know that the administrators are are being made aware that there are going to be expectations to get kids present and at schools. If the area superintendents have any practical school level things that they can comment on, that'd be greatly appreciated. Yes, I can add. Um, thank you. at least at the
168elementary level that I can speak to more specifically. Um our our leaders are really looking into their into their data more regularly to ensure that they are aware of the students that um have chronic absenteeism and then they're implementing interventions to ensure that um those students are um touched that their families are touched their parents are called um and that they are more aware around what's happening to uh to those families that is increasing their attendance. There are a lot of campuses that are focusing on really recognizing students that are at school. So, a lot of announcements around um perfect attendance or recognitions for students who are coming to school. And then we do have some schools that are actually having some friendly competition around recognizing um you know the consistent high attendance rate on
169the on the daily basis to ensure that students are um really focused on coming to school. And then last, I think that um one of the major things that's happening on campuses is they really are focused on ensuring that they're providing highquality engaging lessons that students are able to participate in and they want and have that um excitement to come to school. I don't there's something else. I I appreciate that. Um I I'm hoping that um if this is um a measure of accountability for principles that um that there's articulation between the principles of of what's working and and that we give them time to talk with each other and um and particularly we can be as engaging as heck with kids, but if parents don't get their kids to school, they can't be engaged.
170So, I um I'd really like to see the parent committee tackle this issue um with with with greater sense of urgency and and and deliberation um because if I if I remember correctly um Dr. Skinner, we talked about um absenteeism and um and it seemed like we we kind of got into it, but I'd really like to like to look at the parent quotient and and make sure that parents understand how important it is for their kids to be in school, get them there, and get them there on time. Um, and and if we could do something with SCAKs or PTO's um, and and take it down to the grassroots level, I I' I'd really like to see some type of of intervention with parents. Yeah. Board member Hutchinson, uh, the Mesa Parent Council spent
171quite a bit of time talking about attendance and the importance of attendance and understanding, um, what they can do in their schools to increase the friendly competitions and so on. Each school has an attendance team and that attendance team is analyzing the data that Mrs. Ma Miss Mesa was um referring to and then identifying what is the barrier and I think that that's also something that we need to be talking to our family support specialists about and bringing them in to say what how are we making sure that the importance of coming to school is top of mind. And then um through the parent advisory committee Dr. Skinner was talking about the relationship between discipline and attendance and there seems to be some data that indicates that kids who miss more tend to um have
172more discipline problems because they're always on the back foot and so we've got to our area assistant superintendents talk about the MTSS system. It's not just academics that we need to intervene on but it is uh behavior and attendance. So I assume we're doing questions with each presentation. Okay. So are the um absent 18 days or more is that the same? Um is the absent 10% or more is that overlapping data? That the groups of kids who are absent for 10% or more are very much the same kids who are absent for more than 18 days as well. You could be present, you can be enrolled for just a few months, like say half the year and just make it into this sample, but still be absent for 10%. That's nine, that's nine days only.
173So if you were enrolled for half the day, half the year, um just a little bit more than half the year, you'd be included in here. And 10% for you would only be nine days. All right. So there's some overlap, but not necessarily all of it. Okay. And then my second, is there a way to get data? um not necessarily based on our standardized achievement tests and successive students that are uh present. Sorry. uh that. So for grades given to them, let's say courses earned with if if we have somebody that's chronically absent, they've missed 10% or more within a course days and yet they're able to meet the requirements of the course. Is there a way for us to capture that data rather than just it being on standardized measures? Does that make sense?
174Yes. So, you're looking to find out, you're looking to know, I understand you correctly. Um, for those students who are the difference between what percentage of those students who are chronically absent are advancing at a at a normal rate. Is that what you're think? Is that correct? Okay. Is there a way to because that could be calculated. Yeah. So I I mean I think that there's sometimes kids say I don't have to be I can pass the test. I don't have to be there. Right? So uh and they may not be enticed by engaging lessons, right? I if they can read the book themselves and they can pass it or they can do practice samples on their own, then I think that's an issue that we potentially have to to um also address is let's
175make it engaging. Let's get them to want to be there, but let's make it so that they can't actually pass the course if they're not at school because we have some very intelligent kids. I taught gifted. I have several of my students that I'm sure would have been able to sit out for several days, right? So, we've got to make sure that our it's difficult enough to get them there. Okay. Thank you. I'm gonna refer that to my colleagues here for discussion. It's just an issue I think that we should consider and and I don't I don't think we have to discuss it tonight. Just be something to be mindful of. Okay, let's go over Dr. Gibbs on the next item. Yes. Y a slide deck for that one here too. Sure. Yes. There you
176go. How's that? Sorry. All right. So, um, now we'll have a look at the Ezel reassessment. Uh, the ESEL assessment is the key English language learner state assessment for the year and is the test that determines whether students continue in our EL program. And uh most of our ELEL students are included in our state test scores. So when we see our proficiency rates, it's good to remember that these numbers include students for whom English is an additional language on top of their home language. For this year, um we though we've had a decline in enrollment, our number of EEL students continues to increase. Um M Dr. Gibbs, say that one more time, please. though we've had a decrease in enrollment, the number of EEL students has increased. Thank you. Also, can you make a comment
177on the number of uh students who have an IEP as well? What what are the trends with enrollment with students with IEPs even though our enrollment is declining? Yep. Both both SPED and IEL have been increasing as a proportion of our student body. Yeah. So um and this increase has been seen not just at the upper levels but also at the very beginning. So in kindergarten the number of students has increased as well. Um so we're receiving students at all at all eight age groups who are e learners. In this chart you can see that these students are continuing to be spread out even more evenly throughout our grade levels. Um, we continue to serve older students. Many students do arrive in high school and um and enter our programs in in those upper grades
178as well. Our students come from a wide range of backgrounds and you can see the representation of languages in our student body here. These are the top 10 uh with slow increases in the number of non-English speakers. And um so despite the increase uh we've seen gradual despite the increase in students that we serve we have seen gradual increases in the number of students who are testing proficient and are able to exit the program which has been a great incursion to our EEL team and to the rest of us of course as well. Dr. Gibbs. Yes. Can I ask Dr. Eis a question? Dr. Isos, what works been done in the last three years? Because Marcy's going to ask this question anyways. what work's been done in the last three years regarding our ELLL structures.
179Yes. So, three years ago, we put together a proposal to um increase the amount of cert certified teachers that could support um our teachers across a campus and we decreased our technical support positions um who mostly did paperwork and testing and those kinds of things is is one thing. So we we changed our model and it's based upon um the number of students that a a campus has and then the amount of support is provided um through that and then along with that we also have been providing a lot of professional learning specific to um learning English as a second language um what the data actually means um we've been sending out our content specialists and our coaches have been working with individual students in identifying their strengths and needs so that they really understand
180what that means. Um, additionally, students that are assessed in this um on the AELA are also students who may have exited the program through parent withdrawal, but they are still um incorporated into the data and we still have to assess them for a few years. And so we've also worked with those students and those families to help them understand and identify um the importance of these English language proficiency standards and and how to access that. And then the professional learning um specifically with our intensive support schools as well as um looking at the data and really where additional support was needed for our teachers. Our content specialists and our coaches have have received a lot of professional learning in small groups. um we provided substitutes to additionally provide more professional learning. So really have targeted
181how um students learn and and transfer um in incorporating the language aspect specifically as they access um grade level content. Excellent. Yeah, this is this is just a big celebration and you know oftentimes in public education we understand how many improvements we have to make to get better for outcomes for kids and when those improvements occur we just need to stand up and say hey great job on making improvements throughout the system. So when when I saw this data roll in this year uh celebrations across Terry Cota and her team, Dr. Eis and her team and then all our school principles for implementing everything they needed to do to increase outcomes for kids. We still have progress to go. Uh uh but uh you know there is trend trending in the positive direction. Yeah. Thank
182you. All right. So just a couple more quick slides here. Um the LZ Zela has four bands and you can see them here by grade level with fairly consistent representation uh of students within each band each grade level. Um and then uh finally um right we have a chart here showing growth. So as we'd expect to see from the growing number of students who reclassify as proficient we see that there's also very slow growth but there's growth also in the number of students who advance one or more levels. Um this small difference adds up particularly when you consider you always do have students who go back a grade level or two. So it's not just advancing, it's also you don't want to have few fewer kids regressing too. Both of those things work together. So
183uh these growth points are an encouragement to the EL team and as we just heard from Dr. Eless and just a tremendous cause for celebration all the work that the team has done and u thank you for your time tonight. Thank you Dr. Gibbs. Board members, any questions? I just have one. Are we um actively trying to engage community ed in supporting parents of um English language learners? Uh yes is the answer to that. If you ever want to uh see some of the best learning happening in Mesa public schools, you can go over to the community education department and and watch our parents learn English through our community education services and adult education programming. Uh it's it's a great experience. And then if you in next 90 days of May want to watch people
184graduate from that program, that's a fun graduation to go to. And I'd also like to recognize our uh nationally award-winning um family literacy program that we have that is in our elementary schools. I was just going to add that we we began that program 15ish years ago in our um title one many of our title one schools and engaged families um primarily in the K3 area but it's open to all um and really work side by side where parents come in and work sidebyside with their students. Um and we added several years ago what literacy instruction looks like the data. So, not only are parents learning English side by side with their students, but they're also engaged in um what students are learning in school. Thank you. Thank you all. Thank you, Dr. Gibbs. We
185appreciate it you being here. Do I have a motion to move into executive session persua3 discussion or consultation for legal advice with the attorney or attorneys of the public body? So moved. So moved. I'll second. Miss Benpensson moved. Miss Hutchinson seconded. Any discussion? Seeing none, Miss Kirby, will you please take our vote? With a vote of five yays, 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.