001We would like to welcome you all back to this meeting. We're reconvening our regular meeting now at this time. As a reminder, any citizen who wishes to speak on an agenda item or for call to the public must complete the sign-in sheet in the lobby prior to the public comment time on the agenda this evening. Presentation of colors will be led by Westwood High School, JOTC. Presenting members tonight are Randy Ayoli, Leila Clay, Luella Valenuela, Marco Lopez, led by Lieutenant Colonel Joseph Ael, and Senior Master Sergeant Richard Crom. The pledges The Pledge of Allegiance will be led by JOTC student Isabella Clay. The national anthem is recorded and is performed by the Kino Orchestra directed by Jennifer Randall. Please stand if you are able for the presentation of colors, pledge, and national anthem. [Music] I
002pledge allegiance to the Flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. [Music] Heat up here. [Applause] [Music] Heat up here. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] You may now be seated. Thank you, Westwood JOTC. We appreciate you being here tonight. We will begin tonight's uh meeting with a video on governing board procedures and then I'll read a statement. Welcome to the Mesa Public Schools governing board meeting. We appreciate your interest in the district. The five elected governing board members serve without compensation 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
003are posted a minimum of 24 hours in advance on the Mesa Public Schools website and in the curriculum services center. Copies of tonight's agenda are located in the lobby. The public may speak on any item of business on the agenda that the board discusses or requires the board to take action. If you wish to comment on an action or discussion item, please complete a request to address the board form before the item is discussed. The form is located in the lobby. Members of the public will be given a maximum of three minutes to speak once recognized by the governing board president. Please state 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
004public, which is an opportunity to speak to the governing board about a school district matter that is not on the agenda. Please submit a request to address the board form to participate in the call to the public. If you would like the board to consider adding an item to a future agenda, you may submit your request in writing to the board at least five working days before that meeting. The superintendent or governing board president will consider your request. Thank you for your attendance and involvement in tonight's meeting. This is an official governing board meeting. The board has important business to conduct that is 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
005and behaviors that cannot be tolerated. Please speak and act respectively and actively listen. Be kind. Verbal harassment, abusive or foul language, intimidation, and disruption have no place in a classroom or the boardroom. Please no side conversations or reactive comments. they can be disruptive. It is a governing board president's responsibility to maintain proper order so the board can conduct its business in an orderly and efficient manner. If you're disruptive or interfere with the conduct of the meeting, you will be asked to leave so the board can conduct the business of the district. We will begin tonight with a board calendar. Dr. Foris, will you review that with us? Thank you very much, Madam President. Members of the board, um our next time together is March 31st at 6:00 for the East Valley School Board Consortium meeting
006and that is being hosted uh by the EVIT administration. On April 8th, we have a 4:00 executive session uh where Mr. Wing and Mr. Thompson will provide an update on the meet and confer process followed by a study session. We will have our junior high students coming in talking about their problem solving um model called activate and it's all about cell phones. Then uh we will have our regularly scheduled governing board meeting at 6:30. On April 11th from 8 to 2, the board has a planning and study session here in this boardroom. April 16th from 5 to 8 is the CTE. That's the career technical education student recognition night at the Mesa Art Center. and you're going to see a theme. We have lots of end of the year celebrations coming our way. April 22nd
007uh is a governing board meeting at five o'clock. That will be a study session with our student advisory group followed by our regularly scheduled board meeting at 6:30. On April 23rd from 5 to 8, the student services awards will be held at Red Mountain High School. And I believe you received a paper invitation uh this evening. And on April 25th from 5 to 10 is Young at Art at his at historic Irving. And I think you've all been to Young at Art and know how amazing it is to be able to see the uh creativity and artwork of our students. And that concludes the calendar. Thank you, Dr. Furles. This will prep us for what our May calendar will look like, I'm sure, between all of our other things. So, great things going on. Um
008I'm going to send it back to Dr. Fles. You please share a superintendent update with us. It's always my honor and privilege to be able to talk about the great things happening in Mesa public schools. And so I'll begin with my update this evening focusing on our promise to know every student by name, serve them by strength and need as um they preparing them to graduate for college career and community. And you will you see some um signage up here these A+ schools that we get to formally recognize in just a bit. So when I think about delivering upon that promise, what we're going to see tonight in our A+ schools certainly brings that to light. We have a series of uh strategy in order to deliver upon that promise that begins with our governing
009board goals to increase proficiency and growth in English language arts and mathematics and increase our graduation rate that is uh designed to support our graduation plus model, our five strategic goals, and of course our portrait of the Mesa public school graduate. Three areas of focus that uh we are committed to this year are academic and instructional development, community engagement and safety, and organizational and operational efficiency. So, I'm going to give you some updates of those in action. Speaking of art, we are the Spinx Art Foundation, a nonprofit dedicated to empowering global education, hosted its annual youth art contest, inviting students to illustrate how people around the world, past, present, and future. Fischer Hawks, a seventh grader at Stapley Junior High, earned second place in this prestigious competition. His artistic achievements reflects the creativity and innovation
010of our students and we congratulate him on this very well-deserved recognition. And moving into the arts from the arts into STEM, Red Mountain High School and the K8 STEM Academy at Red Mountain Ranch, students had an unforgettable experience at the Arizona Cardinals first ever STEM combine at State Farm Stadium. Students had the opportunity to explore interactive stations and hear valuable insights from Honeywell Aerospace experts and Cardinal staff. Throughout the event, they discovered the importance of pursuing careers in STEM fields, all while engaged in hands-on activities, and they left saying they had a really great time. I'm proud to share that we've got some success on the uh in on the court as well. Mesa High Jack Rabbits had an outstanding basketball season. Before spring break, Mesa High upset defending 6A champion Peoria Liberty. This win
011advanced Mesa High to the 6A's 6A boys basketball championship game against Brophie College Preparatory. Our team played with determination but ultimately fell to Brophie with a final score of 62 to 49. This young team fought hard and their talent and resilience um proved to be very strong as we look forward to the coming seasons. Now we're going to move on to taking a look at community engagement with our Warriors on the Job students in Mr. Eli Duncan's Warriors on the Job Training Program at Westwood High School are gaining valuable employment experiences. This initiative connects students of all abilities with meaningful work opportunities, helping them develop job skills, confidence, independence, and enhance their career readiness. A notable partnership with Marriott Hotels in downtown Mesa allows students to gain real worldworld experiences. In addition, students create Birkin
012Buddy Biscuits, which are sold to the Pet Friendly Hotel. This program exemplifies our commitment to preparing students for the future by providing hands-on learning opportunities and fostering community relationships. If you have dogs, you've got to stop by Westwood because I will tell you, their biscuits, especially the butter, the peanut butter flavor, are pretty amazing in my daughter's house. So, it's uh they are a good one. We've got some special days in April. In April, we observe school library month, child abuse prevention month, autism acceptance month, occupational therapy month, national volunteer month, and we have some special weeks. National Library Week, Mesa Public School Bus Driver Appreciation Week, Public Schools Volunteer Week, Administrative Professionals Week, and National Student Leadership Week. And we've got some important days. Earth Day, School Bus Driver Day, and National Arbor Day.
013I'd like to um welcome you in to find out some of the great things that are happening inside of Mesa High. And we have a story of a student who was able to find his success through the welding program. Chad, take it away. [Applause] [Music] on our road like you have to concentrate like a lot. So it sort of like blocks everything out from the outside world and all you have to do is just keep that going. Definitely help me concentrate on just one thing at a time. Hi, my name is Jesus Aranda. I'm a senior at Mesa High School and I'm also doing an internship for Honeywell. I'm originally from uh S Vista, but I lived in Douglas and that's where I was raised and then during sixth grade I came to Mesa and
014then I've been here ever since. The trucks were um important for me from like since I was young because most of the time I would be on my with my grandpa and in a semi truck and we travel around and from there I like started loving like just like traveling a lot and when I started looking at welding and all that the like the opportunities that they give that's when I started liking it even more. My freshman year, I didn't really know about like that we offered a welding program. And then towards my end of my freshman year, that's when I started meeting new friends and they were already in welding. So through that, I like sort of met the teacher and then he helped me get into welding for sophomore year. I think it's
015very important to have it at high school just because it gets you an early start into this like a workman of trades and that and definitely like for people that don't really want to wait and like for people that don't know what they're going to do after high school definitely helps them like find what they want to do in life and help them like do an early start. Uh, junior year was really a very real rocky year for me. So, I made a lot of mistakes that year. It was really hard cuz um I saw the disappointment I put on my parents face and I really I disappointed them a lot. And so seeing them have to go through that cuz they definitely broke broke me a half. I took the opportunity to like pick
016up my credits again and so they gave me a second chance here. I pushed my butt and I got done four credits. There was like a lot of nuts obviously just so I keep going. Definitely finish my credits. Thank you to all these people in my life. They they help me be right where I'm at, you know, with my internship and on track with my on graduation. Thank you to them. [Music] [Applause] Thank you, Dr. Foris. Such great things happening across our district. Um, we also have many celebrations tonight and I'm going to turn the time back to Dr. Forless to get us started. And board members, will you join me in front of the dis for recognition? We are going to get started with our spotlight recognition program which is designed to provide our
017community with an inside look at the exceptional individuals within Mesa Public Schools. At every meeting, we celebrate remarkable students and staff members who positively impact our schools, inviting everyone to find out what's inside and honor their contributions. The school spotlights feature a video showcasing each school, which will also be available on the school's website, recognition of a distinguished student, certified staff member, and a classified staff member. So this evening we have the honor of celebrating Summit Academy. Will Mike Dman, principal at Summit Academy, please join me at the podium while we watch a video about your school. [Music] Summer is special because a lot of my friends are here and all the teachers are nice. The teachers and students are really kind. everybody. They just welcome you with open arms and they like ask you
018like, "Oh, like what's your name? Do you want to hang out with us like at recess and stuff?" And then they just help you a lot to make sure you're not feeling lonely or left out or anything. I think a school is really good at doing IB things. We get to have a different approach on learning and gets to be the only leader on researching things. The teachers here, they're really nice and they give you a bunch of opportunities to learn things and they always help you. Like if you need help on something, then they can pull you into little groups and stuff and it's really good because that's the way that I like to learn. I would say my teachers make learning fun because they try to use concepts that we would like find
019interesting or that we might have already heard about. They try to engage us as much as possible and do activities that make it to where we want to learn. We had to choose a um a person in history to be of and then we'd have to make a poster of that and then we went in the gym and we had to like dress up as our character and then we would be like robots like we had speeches and we had to memorize them on campus. I like going to the Spanish room because I feel like we get to talk, do activities, and we get to learn a whole new language while being with our friends. One of my favorite things, I think, would have to be our band program. I play the flute, and it's
020a lot of fun because we learn lots of new songs. It's really fun because I get to express myself in music and songs. Summer is a really nice place to be. [Applause] And I know that principal Dgnet is very excited to introduce uh the spotlight honories to us. So take it away. Thank you so much. Appreciate the opportunity to be here tonight to spotlight a few of our fantastic folks at Summit Academy. Let's start with our uh spotlight student, seventh grade student, Seoia FA. Sequoa, could you come stand up here with me? This is her favorite thing to do right now. [Applause] Let me tell you a few things about Sequoia. Sequoa excels at many things and one particular area is her musical prowess. Sequoa has been first chair percussion in the junior high honor
021band since fifth grade. Let me say that again unless you missed that. Sequoa has been the first chair of percussion in the junior high honor band since fifth grade. She had to get special permission to audition in fifth grade because she was still in elementary school. She was the first junior high student to be allowed to participate in the state's high school solo and ensemble festival. She performed a four mallet mima solo in which she received a superior rating. Sequoa is an accomplished, honorable student as well who does not shy away from challenges and uses them to motivate and teach her. In her own words, Sequoa says this quote, "Whether it's a math problem in class or a drum groove in jazz band, it's always rewarding to me to find success after failure. Struggle has
022been very impactful in my life, shaping me into the person I am today." Close quote. Outside of the classroom, Sequoia is an accomplished cross-country runner and participates in jiu-jitsu. Seoia is truly a deserving spotlight [Applause] student. Okay, I think you can Okay. And uh our classified staff member that we're honoring, Heather Oakley, could not be with us this evening, but I want to tell you a little bit about Heather. Heather started in February of 2020 at Summit, right before CO changed how we did business for a while. When we ran a hybrid model, he Heather supervised our online center in the MPR and then in the library for students who were learning on site in those emotionally trying times. After that, Heather worked closely with students in the primary grades as a highly supportive and
023engaging assistant to the teachers as she supported early literacy development. When called to do so, Heather would venture across the parking lot to the junior high for lunch period support, showing her range of abilities to positively engage with all students, whether you're in kindergarten or 8th grade. And that's not easy to do. Currently, Heather is our go-to person in the elementary lunchroom and on the playground, who masterfully balances the need for structure and order with goodwill and banter. Heather's a delight to work with and wears many hats at Summit with grace and humor. We appreciate Heather Oakley so very, very much. And finally, our certified teacher, one of my favorite people in the whole world, Cody Allen. Could you come on up here? Don't brag about you. We're putting the spotlight on special education teacher
024and department chair, Mr. Cody Allen. Cody has been teaching for 13 years. He's he's worked the entire K8 spectrum, but prefers the junior high level for its quirkiness and the unique relationships that junior high students need to be successful. He has very effectively worked in many inclusive co-eing environments with many fabulous teachers to help benefit our students. Cody's teamwork approach and excellent collegiality makes him the absolute perfect co-eing partner in the classroom. For the last four years, Cody's been our special education department chair for both campuses, elementary and junior high, as he supports teachers and works closely with parents and guardians to serve students with special needs. As an aspiring administrator, Cody often functions as our admin on duty when Joel, our assistant principal, or myself are not present at school. Cody's big heart, his
025great rapport with students and staff, his incredible sense of humor, and excellent knowledge of public schools serves him very well in his current role and will set him up for success in whatever lies ahead for Cody Allen. Thank you, Cody, for being you, my man. What happened? [Laughter] [Applause] So, if you're here to celebrate, if you're from um Summit Academy and here to celebrate your spotlight school. Will you please rise? We'd like to congratulate [Applause] you. All righty, we're going to keep going with recognitions. Celebrating success is 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. Tonight, we will recognize two of our most outstanding schools and some of our district's outstanding student athletes
026for their achievements. So, we're going to get started because we have a lot of people here that want to celebrate them. So, Porter Elementary, will you come on up and we are going to celebrate you along with Washington Elementary School. Come on up. We've got Holly and Kathy. Come on. There we go. Before we celebrate each of these schools on their A+ recognition, let me share a few of the requirements for the A+ award. Schools go through a rigorous application process and are evaluated in the areas of student focus and support, school culture, active teaching and learning, curriculum, leadership, community and parental involvement, and assessment data. The final step of the selection is a multi-day site visit led by a team of A+ award judges. Schools that ultimately earn the A+ School of Excellent designation
027consistently model quality and equity, demonstrate a strong commitment to academic excellence, respond successfully to the changing environments of education, cultivate learning centered, safe school environments. Encourage innovative instruction by supporting teachers. Actively address students social, emotional, physical, and intellectual needs. and demonstrate superior ability to go above and beyond the norm in providing services to children, families, and the local community. Awardees receive a banner and a monetary stipen from the Arizona Education Foundation, and you will see celebratory flags in our boardroom that will um be delivered to your schools. Don't yank them down and take them with you tonight. we've seen that before. They're like, I we earned this. I am so proud of these two school communities who are modeling a culture of achievement that supports student success. Kathy Ray from Porter Elementary School. It's time
028to say a few words about your great [Applause] school. Good evening members of the governing board superintendency. It's with great pride that I stand here tonight before you to celebrate an incredible achievement for Porter Elementary. We are honored to receive the A+ School of Excellence recognition, a testament of the hard work, dedication, and innovation of our students, staff, and community. This award reflects our unwavering commitment to academic excellence, student growth, and a culture of success. As an AVID showcase and STEM focused school, we ensure that every student is equipped with the essential skills and attitudes needed to excel in college, career, and community. Our AVID program has transformed the way we support students, fostering a learning environment where all students, regardless of background, develop strong critical thinking, organizational and leadership skills. Additionally, our STEM initiatives
029continue to ignite curiosity, creativity, problem solving, preparing students for the challenges of their future. The A+ recognition is a reflection of our dedicated staff, engaged students, and our hard engaged families, and our hardworking students who strive for excellence every day. We're grateful for the ongoing support of the district and of this board. We look forward to continuing the mission towards the MPS promise in portrait of a graduate. And thank you so much for celebrating this milestone with us tonight. And to continue the celebration of Porter Elementary, any all of those of you from Porter, will you please come on up and we're going to have you join Mrs. Ray in a picture with our governing board. Come on. PTO president, member of Mesa Parent Council. Okay. [Laughter] There we go. Congratulations. [Applause] All right, Washington,
030you got a hard act to follow here. You ready? All right. Um, now, can Principal Holly Chang from Washington Elementary please come on up to this podium? tell us all about Washington. Okay. Good evening. It's a credible honor to stand before you today as we celebrate a milestone achievement for Booker T. Washington Elementary School, being recognized as an A+ school of excellence. This award is not a not just a symbol of academic success, but it represents dedication, perseverance, and commitment to our students, staff, and family and community members. At Washington, we believe every child deserves access to the highest quality education, and we work tirelessly to ensure that each student is supported, challenged, and empowered to succeed. Our staff goes above and beyond, not only in the classroom, but also in building meaningful relationships with
031students, families, and families, creating an environment where learning thrives and students feel a true sense of belonging. This recognition reflects the hard work of our students who show up every day to learn, push themselves, and strive for excellence. It is a testament to our teachers and staff who inspire and support students, challenge them to reach new heights, and never themselves stop learning. It also acknowledges our families and community who are essential partners in our success, working alongside us to ensure that every student has the tools they need to grow and succeed. But while we celebrate this achievement today, we recognize that the journey does not stop here. As Booker T. Washington himself once said, "Excellence is to do a common thing in an uncommon way." This award is not the finish line. It is a
032reminder of the high standards we have set and our commitment to continuous growth, improvement, and innovation. On behalf of our students, staff, and families, thank you for this honor in celebrating with us today and your ongoing support of our school. We are proud to be recognized and we are more excited about what the future has in store. We are still building it together. Go Bulldogs. [Applause] So, you're going going to now call up your um you want who do you want to start with? Bulldog. Bulldog. Come on up. Come on up. Oh, so good to see you. It's been a while. Oh my goodness. Thank you. [Applause] So if you are here to celebrate both Porter and Washington elementary schools, will you please rise so we can celebrate you? Next, we have three of Mountain
033View's wrestling team members and their head coach, Corey Anderson. Coach Anderson, can you please join me at the podium? And student athletes, once your coach calls your name, please join us at the podium as well. Come on over, coach. We want to hear all about your athletes. Thank you. Um, our first athlete is Delton Kaufman. Delton was the division one 190 lb state champion this year. Um, finished uh 50 and0 on the year. Um, his career record at Mountain View is 148 wins and two losses. Um he's not lost since his freshman year. Um so he's been on a a pretty good win streak there. Um he uh he just recently competed in the uh folkstyle nationals in in De Mo Iowa over spring break. So gave up a spring break to travel to scenic
034de mo Iowa to wrestle and uh took sixth place. So he is a a high school all-American as well. Um, and uh, you know, Delton uh, when when the lights come on and and and it's big and bright and you're on the big stage, he's going to be at his very best. And, uh, right, he's a is a good role model for his teammates that way because as things get tough and as the pressure mounts, you see a lot of people kind of shy away and and he walks into it headon and carries his head high and and and acts like a champion in all aspects. So, Delton Coffman, incredible [Applause] job. We have uh uh one of our wrestlers, not here tonight, had a prior engagement, but I still want to talk about him,
035Justin Bet. Um and and first and foremost, I think an interesting note, Justin uh his dad teaches at Mountain View as well. They live in Glendale and they travel to Mountain View every day because they want to be part of what's happening at Mountain View High School both academically and athletically. So, I think that's an important thing for for Mesa Public Schools to acknowledge, you know, that that people want to be part of of what's happening in our schools. Um, so Justin sat the first half of the year um per transfer rules. So, I had a little bit uh smaller window, 17 wins, one loss. um and probably ran through the toughest bracket in the state tournament pound-for-pound. Beat a wrestler in the semifinals who was 67 and0 on the year to that point, defending
036state champion. Um and beat a nationally ranked wrestler in the finals. Um his attention to detail and doing the little things right um was absolutely um a great great model for his teammates and his attention to detail ultimately got him a state championship. He also wrestled in De Moine, Iowa, and came home with an eighth place finish, also earning him all-American honors as well. And uh lastly, we have um Delton's sister, Annabelle Kaufman, who is a state champ for us this year, freshman. Um she is uh a dynamo. Um, actually we were in a like little staff meeting, prep period meetings today and I got pulled aside by a teacher said, "Hey, I want to talk to you about one of your wrestlers." And that can either go one of two ways, right? Um, and
037she was like, "I just want to tell you that Annabelle Kaufman is just amazing student. Adds so much to our team. We are so appreciative of her." And I think that just, you know, says it all about her. She comes in the room, she's smiling, she's happy. um one of the few people who can get me to kind of crack a smile during practice a little bit. Um she has tremendous drive. If you watch her state finals match, she was 43 and one this year um as a freshman. Um she she avenged her loss in the state finals. Um when in her state finals match, you know, I've been coaching wrestling for 20 plus years. I I couldn't even tell you what she did at some one certain point just to not get taken down.
038And I think I said something in our banquet like um if she were just a mere mortal, she would have gotten taken down. But like she's she's um superhuman with her drive and and just a fantastic young lady, the kind of lady you want in your classroom, the kind of lady we want on our wrestling match. So absolutely just a phenomenal individual. Look forward to three more years there. Annabelle Kaufman and and Delta and Annabelle are first brother and sister combo state champs in Mountain View uh Mountain View's wrestling history. Thank you. [Applause] [Laughter] It's not bad. [Applause] If you are here to celebrate these fine wrestlers, will you please stand to be [Applause] recognized? Next, we have our AIA unified basketball champs from Westwood High School. They are joined by their coaches Meg Balman,
039Heidi Dorne, Jack Murphy, athletic trainer, and student coach Cole Freily. Come on up. We'll do the coaches first. Coaches first. Oh. Oh, even better. All right, student coaches, come on up. You've got some work to do. Come on. You guys are so awesome. Will you please introduce us to your star athletes? Yes. All right. Thank you, President Davis, school board members and superintendency for recognizing us for our accomplishments. This is super special for us because it has taken five years to win a team state championship. Um, so this basketball journey started for Will and myself last year. This year we gained nine new teammates. Last year we tried our best but we didn't make it. So we had to push forward and achieve our um goals to of um win of championship game. Every day
040we practice basketball during class. We all got to work together and figure out every player's strengths. Last year we tried our we last year oh um our teammate um our teammate help us work harder to make make it to the championship game. We work so hard. I love all my teammates that make me so happy. Make me so happy every day. All the time we play with each other. We work so hard every day. We always push each other hard every day. I make good friendships every day. Time I see them, I always go up to them and shake their hand. Thank you for coming. All your support. [Applause] Okay, coaches, you're going to stay right here for just a minute. Well, I'm going to call up names. Kate Anderson, come on up. And you're
041going to stand right in the in the spotlight. There's There's Kate. Joey Bonesy. Hope I got that right. Silus Balby, come on up. Na'vi Brinkerhoff, Eastston Davis, Henry Edol, A Benny Fazendi, Moody. We've got student coach Cole Freily, Brock Jeff, William McFaden, Colon Mos, and Dominic Slattton. And am I missing one? Am I missing one? Okay, great. All right, Mrs. Bowman's going to organize you. Here we go. And the governing board will join you. Oh, she knows that guy. There you go. How you doing? [Applause] Well, it was an honor to be able to celebrate our student athletes and our um A+ schools this evening. You are well all of you are welcome to stay. We're going to continue on with our business meeting. So, if you would like to celebrate elsewhere, this is the
042perfect getaway time. [Applause] I didn't [Music] I agree. Okay, we'll go ahead and continue on with our meeting. Um, at this time we are now at meeting for public comment and call the public. We will first watch a short video. 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 minutes and the duration of an open 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,
043student, 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. A board member may also briefly respond to criticism of a board member or the governing board. Thank you for allowing this meeting to be conducted in a peaceful and productive manner. Mrs. Chaffy, how many speakers do we have signed up tonight? We have 19 speakers signed up to speak tonight. Thank you. We have 19 speakers. Each person will have 90 seconds to speak. Mrs. Chaffy, I would like you to thank you for serving as a clerk. And I'd like you to ask to
044lead us through this agenda item. Thank you, President Davis. So, I will call the first three names and then I will let you know the next three who are on deck. When you come up to the podium, if you will please say your name and how you're affiliated with Mace Public Schools. We will start with Lily Ael, Gretchen Ael, and then Jeff Thompson. On deck, we have Casey Baxter, Meg Howell, and Mark Kimble. Hi, my name is Lily Ael. I'm a junior at Mountain View High School and I am against block schedule. So to start block the block schedule practice at Mountain View was really memorable to me and all the other students I'm associated with because it was a disaster. We really struggled to focus in class. We had a hard time during passing
045period. they were shorter and it was rough. Um, I feel like I need to attend classes every day to be successful, especially in classes like math or my um dual enrollment and advanced placement ones. And then on that note, in our AP lane class, we were given the opportunity to do an argument assignment on anything of our choice. When talking to the teacher after the assignment, I found out that over 75% of our class chose to do the assignment on why we shouldn't have block schedule. Thank [Applause] you. Hi, my name is Gretchen Ael. I have four kids with uh Mason Public Mesa public schools right now. and I have two students at Mountain View High School. Um, board members and Dr. Foris and Dr. Stro, I want to ask you to please listen to
046the concerns that parents are here to share tonight. Um, and consider delaying the roll out at Mountain View until Mountain View can show that teacher and parents have been involved in the changes. Um, and that the changes are data driven, cold hard data, not not anecdotal data. um and that there are financial reports and um projections to support the changes. Um I have done a little research on the schools that were visited. Um out of all of them, the average amount the money that states assigned to the schools outside of Arizona um of schools that have similar programs, it was uh between 14,000 and 18,000 per student per year. Arizona students, the average is 10,000 per year. So, we are at a financial disadvantage with this. Um, there were some schools in San Diego that
047rolled this out. They had support from the Bill and Meinda Gates Foundation. Um, and California assigns over $18,000 per student per year. Um, and after eight years, Crawford High School had to shut down their academy program because it wasn't financially viable. We really need to check the finances on this and make sure that it's sustainable. Um, I'm very concerned and I share in the other concerns of people. Um, and real quick, if you're here because you're concerned about block schedulermies, will you raise your hand? There's there's more than just a few [Applause] parents. We have Jeff Thompson next. Okay, we'll move forward with Casey Baxter. Oh, sorry. You ready? After Jeff Thompson, we will have Casey Baxter, Meg Howell, and Mark Kimble. I'm Jeff Thompson. I'm a concerned homeowner. Nobody knows what I'm going to
048say, but I tell you what, you guys, I hope you listen. I hope you listen to these people. You've been creating a hostile work environment, excuse me, student environment for these kids. We were told last fall that this wasn't working because we don't have the people here that have the skills to teach it. So, I'm going to I get a little frustrated at these people up here. We need to go We need to get merit raises. None of these people deserve a damn raise until they can at least raise the proficiency rate 20%. They deserve nothing, you know, and the principles, the janitors, everybody else, the teachers. Yes, but it's like you guys are like the coaches and you're running the you're running a bad team here. And we've got hope we get back to
049the traditional education instead of this radical. We've got three people on the board. Two of them I know that are that are um conservatives or Republicans. One of them maybe gaslighted it to get elected. I don't know. Since she's been on the board and I've been coming, she's been a she's just been a rubber stamp for the radical previous president. And I don't know. It seemed like she maybe Good evening, Madame President, Dr. Forless, members of the board, and district leaders. My name is Casey Baxter and I have the honor of being the principal at Franklin Accelerated Academy East Campus. As I've mentioned before, I am on a mission to look for good because I honestly believe with my whole heart that if you look for it, you can find it. This year, several schools
050in our district have been piloting a new parent square communication tool. My school just joined this pilot in January, and I'm incredibly proud of how my teachers are using this new tool to our advantage to engage our families. As you know, Parent Square allows for the two-way communication, enabling me to reach directly out to parents. I can message specific parents of a particular grade level or a class. I can engage the entire school community very efficiently with a click of a button. Our entire staff has embraced this platform and we've even scheduled our spring parent teacher conferences seamlessly using this device and this technique. Parents and teachers appreciate the ease of communication because now there's no more searching for email addresses or relying on outdated contact methods. One of the most practical benefits has been
051enhancing communication while protecting teacher privacy. On field trips, teachers can now communicate with parents without sharing their personal phone numbers. This ensures a professional and secure way for everyone to stay connected. I also want to acknowledge Nina Alred for her incredible support. She's provided principles with valuable messages, handsouts, materials, and we've had a pretty smooth roll out so far. When you run into something unexpected, she's also been really open to help us with the functionality, and she's worked with her team to get us the information we need. Parent Square aligns with our strategic goal of engaging our community through a stronger school family partnership, and for that, I am thankful. So, thanks for parent square. [Applause] Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you for this opportunity. My name is Meg Howell and I have taught
052for 42 years. 29 of them have been in Mesa Public Schools and I thank you for that opportunity. All of them have been at Mountain View and my veins run true with Toro pride. Go Toros. I would encourage Mesa Public Schools and the board to find a way to reach out to teachers, especially teachers, because I've been asked to come and speak tonight by my fellow teachers because they are afraid to speak out. I'm retiring this year. And so, what can you do? Find a way to communicate to teachers to give them an avenue to communicate to you about all of the changes that have occurred that we've experienced over the last few years. It's been difficult. It's been trying. And I was going to stay on two more years, but it's just too much.
053Block schedule is not something that I want to teach in. Um, if I was a teacher and could do a six-fifth contract, I would be making more money this year. Next year, I'll be teaching I would be teaching six classes with no extra pay. 30 extra students means 30 extra essays every time I assign an essay. So, find a way to hear the voice of teachers to give them a safe place to talk. [Applause] President Davis, governing board, superintendency. Um, appreciate the opportunity to speak, although I prepared something for 3 minutes and once again 90 seconds. So, it's very ironic that your shareholders, who are the parents, should be the main focus of this meeting. Every time we get cut down to a few seconds to speak, it sends a real message that that is
054not a priority. It's wrong. I would like to know where that rule comes from. There's nothing good on TV to rush home to. This is much more entertaining. Why can't we hear the parents, right? I would like to know where that rule comes from. So to my point I really really second what was spoken to about themies. There is far too much information that we don't have that needs to be uh postponed decision-wise and you need to provide data proven facts to these parents that that is the right direction to go. Now, years ago, Mesa School Board, Mesa District was known as the place to go and raise your family. Great schools. What's happened? The whole country's in trouble. recently signed into law by our uh president uh section uh 7301 section five two [Applause]
055genders. Next we will hear from Sarah Nickel, Heather Austin, and Anna Eager. On deck we have Matt Lofrren, Bonnie Drain, and Amber Nielsen. [Music] Hi, I'm Sarah Nickel. I am the mom of two um former graduates from Mountain View as well as a current freshman in Mountain View and a sixth grader at Hamosa Vista um elementary school in the dual language program which is fantastic and we're grateful for. Um, I'm speaking with you tonight because I am disappointed in the district administration and board with how they are not listening um and are only listening to the school, especially Mountain View's administration when it comes to these changes. Um I'm disappointed that there's a being a complete restructuring of our um secondary education that has happened without any board vote, without any parent input. I am
056asking you at this time to put some checks and balances into place at these high schools and these junior highs. We'd like to see that a requirement that there's certain changes that could not be implemented without the district seeking um a percentage approval from parents and faculty. We'd like to see that there's a requirement that newly implemented programming includes opt out processes that are clearly stated to the parents since none of these classes are graduation requirements. We shouldn't have to fight the counselors, fight the school administrations to let them know this is not something we want our child to be taking when it is not a graduation requirement. I don't need to be a lawyer to make sure my kid gets into the classes they need to be in. Um, and we'd like to see
057that there's a [Applause] Madame Chairperson, members of the board, and members of district admin, what will Mountain View sophomores be learning in the fall of their CTE Academy classes that they are already enrolled in? Parents have a statutory right to know the content of classes their children are taking. Parents deserve to know, and I expect the board to ask and actually receive answers before this program rolls out in the a in August. What data was used? I'm sorry. What data was used to enact these CTE Academy CH changes? How does the board, district, or Mountain View admin measure success of the ME Academy courses? What specifically will students be learning in the academy CTA classes that they are being forced to take? What actual certifications are these courses tied to? Why are they being misinformed
058that they are required when they are not part of the current graduation requirements? Dr. Randy Malerine misspoke in the recent study session that the academy courses are required. The next week at an in-person meeting I had with Dr. Dr. Oliver and Mr. Long of Mountain View. They confirmed that Dr. Maller Wein misspoke and shared incorrect information. I asked them to help clarify the truth to parents. They have not. Instead, that same week, Mr. Long emailed another parent that are required. Why do we not have accurate and consistent information being shared from the district and site level about such a major change? I have heard from five Mountain View teachers that they feel unsupported and unheard from the impending block and CTO rollouts and are afraid to voice concerns because of anticipated retaliation by the current
059Mountain View administration. Change is inevitable, but implementation of change continues to fall on the backs of teachers, not district or site admins. I encourage board members to open and maintain better [Applause] My name is Anna Eager and I currently have a student who is a sophomore at Mountain View and two younger students in the district. I am concerned about the changes in the school system. Amongst my many concerns is the lack of parental input in the implementation of these changes. I first heard about the academy pathway program in September when information about our SC school Saks meeting was leaked on Facebook. There was no email notification or communication about this meeting. High school administrators presented a rough outline of the academy program and stated they would not be answering questions at that time. I also
060attended a town hall in October and a governing board the governing board study session in February. The study session raised several red flags for me. The first being lack of data to support these um this education model. In that study session, governing board members requested a report from the district. Has that report been provided? If so, please make it public. And if the district has not provided that report, please make that information public as well. Um, excuse me. I have spoken to several current freshman student parents. They were not told themies would be implemented at Mountain View High School when they were registering their freshmen. These changes came as a surprise to them in September. Why are the district and schools not communing this communicating this information to junior high students and parents as well?
061For example, why would you not tell parents by 2025 we're transitioning to this model? On a district level, parents receive a survey asking what me week in March they want spring break. Why was there not a parent survey about whether parents want a complete change in their students learning style? I want to go on public record requesting this issue be put on the agenda and voted on the at the April 8th meeting by the governing board. And please take the next two weeks [Applause] Just a reminder that we want to make sure we do not say any employee names as we are during public comment. Please. Thank you. My name is Matt Lofgrren. I'm a parent of a student at Mountain View. I also, for what it's worth, I volunteer 10 hours plus a week
062for this school. Um, I want to know if everybody has seen this petition that's been around and I'll I'll email it to everybody afterwards just in case they have not seen it. Um, as many have said tonight, I'm I'm concerned as well about the changes, the the plan changes. U I've heard some of the the feedback that it's just a few students um just a handful of parents some of the uh privileged kids and you've seen a handful of the students and and actually more so on the parents tonight um but the petition doesn't say that it's a handful the petition is almost 900 signatures most of them students most of them just at Mountain View so I encourage everybody to look at that also look at the comments and videos the kids have taken
063a lot of time to share that had their thoughts on this. So, this is way more than a handful. I think it's probably uh at least a quarter, maybe closer to a third of the student uh body there. Um I don't think this school is ready to roll out the changes. I think we've seen that with the grading uh that it was a failure. Uh, I think that's pretty well acknowledged and I'm glad that they see that the uh the grading has is um going back reverting to where it was, but I think the other changes it's premature to do that and I think that should be put on hold and voted on once it's ready, once everybody understands what it really is. Thank you. [Applause] Hello, my name is Bonnie Drain. I have been
064involved with Mesa Public Schools since 1989 when my oldest daughter um became a kindergartener. I've had four kids who have graduated from Mountain View High School. I have been a parent volunteer. I have been a PTO officer. I have been a teacher for the last 16 years full-time substitute for 10 years prior to that. I've had a lot of interaction with with Mesa Public Schools and I have loved it. I am retiring this year and I had multiple teachers come to me and ask me to come and speak before the board because they're afraid to they're afraid of retaliation because of all the changes that have been um implemented. They are worn out. We spent three years trying to do standard-based grading, wore everybody out, making new rubrics, doing everything, and now it's being changed.
065I've been part of a fast team this year that has not been successful because we knew from the very beginning it wouldn't be successful. All of our kids were not in all of the fast teams. We could not make it work like a fast team was supposed to at Mountain View. This year, only 50% of the eight fast teams that have been um working have been successful. And there's only a handful of teachers that are teaching at fast teams this year that are even coming back next year um to work in fast teams. And I feel like it's one more change by adding block schedule andmies that we haven't even figured out the fast [Applause] teams. My name is Amber Nielson. I'm a parent of two Mountain View students. I share all these same concerns
066mentioned. I'll do the best that I can to add to that. First, I think you should know there are a lot more concerned parents um than you probably realize. We've spoken to many neighbors and friends of our children, and many people share these same concerns. This school does not have the programs needed for the additional credits that would be picked up under this program. The class offerings at Mount View are already limited. We have been told the block schedule will add more opportunities of taking more classes. is the problem is this is counterproductive. It's already hard enough to get into any of the classes that the kids want to take and very few classes being offered offer any real life growth. Now we're just adding more holes to fill in their schedule with very limited
067classes to fill them with. All we have done is just made the problem work. I don't believe our school is good fit for this. It's it's a very successful school as it is. I don't know why we're messing with it. I literally everyone I've talked to is not a fan of these changes. Uh secondly, we've heard that some of the sports programs will no longer count for PE credits. For example, my kids participate in swim, and this comes as a huge surprise. Those kids work every bit as hard as any of the other kids in the other sports programs. It's likely our children would not participate in the sporting event any longer if that is the case. It would be a shame to do anything to the swim program, a program that has always been
068parentally strong in the state with great kids who work very hard. So, basketball will count, but sports with sports such as swim and cheer will not. How does this make any [Applause] sense? Next, we will hear from Alli Haywood, Henry Miller, and Lindseay Hill. On deck, we have Julie Sessions, Chris Hamlet, Ed Steel, and Kevin Atwood. Hi, my name is Ally Haywood and I also am a parent of a student at Mountain View High School this year and soon to be a another student coming into Mountain View at junior high right now. I would like to start that I am disappointed that to hear any concerns being brought with the new changes to the learning with block schedule and academy is met with not clear answers and um being told that we're just privileged complaining
069moms when we would like answers. Um, but I would like to thank board member Chaffy. The last uh meeting I attended, I appreciated your questions that were being asked to bring clarification and I felt like the answers didn't make sense to me and they were also met each question was met with rolling eyes and scoffs from the audience of people of teachers who are on board for this new program to be rolled out. And I just am disappointed that if we have concerns and we'd like answers that were made to feel stupid and I don't appreciate that. I just am a a a mom who cares about her children and their education and I care about teachers and we want to keep our great teachers and for them to feel like they don't have a
070voice and we might lose these great teachers just as devastating. I would like to keep my kids in Mesa public schools and at Mountain View, but it's not looking great for me and my [Applause] kids. Hello, my name is Henry Miller and I am a district employee. Uh, members of the board, I come before you tonight regarding my termination, which I believe stems from a serious procedural failure. 3 weeks prior to my termination, I submitted a detailed harassment report to human resources, as the harassment I experienced was directly connected to the allegations now being used to justify my dismissal. The timeline reveals a concerning pattern. I was targeted with harassment which generated the very complaints that led to my termination. Despite my documented report, HR took no action. When I inquired about the status of
071this investigation on the day of my termination, I was told I needed to fill out proper paperwork despite having already submitted a full report weeks earlier. This presents a tr troubling sequence. Harassment was reported but not investigated followed by termination based on allegations arising from that same harassment. My report should have been thoroughly examined before any termination proceedings as it provides critical context to the evaluating the complaints against me. I respectfully request the board pause this termination until a proper investigation of my harassment report can be completed, ensuring all relevant facts are considered in this decision. Thank you for your consideration. My name is Lindsay Hill and I am a um district employee and I'm also a parent. I have three kids in in different schools in Mesa public schools and I just this is
072my first time attending a board meeting. This is my first time uh listening to all the different complaints or comments and I just wanted to share for myself my own um experience in Mesa public schools. Um about two years ago, my oldest came home in the middle of 8th grade and told me that he felt like something was off and there had been things coming up. And um it came out that he felt that he was transgender and I was terrified because what is going to happen at school? I know in eighth grade I didn't want to make attention and bring attention to myself, but I want to tell you all how grateful I am of how Mesa public schools, his both of his junior high and high school have treated him and provided him
073a safe place and how reassuring it is to have them use the proper pronouns and his chosen preferred name. And it's scary to be a teenager today. And I do not I just hope that it can stay a safe place for him and all my kids and all the kids in Mesa and I say thank [Applause] you. Next we have Julie Sessions, Chris Hamlet, Ed Steel, and Kevin Atwood. President Courtney Davis and members of the board. Thank you for taking the time to support our community. I am Julie Sessions, a certified teacher, owner of Roots and Wings Micros RAWM.School. Tonight, I would like to share a story with the permission of the family. One of my first students, an eighth grader, came to my school bruised and broken from the public school, five grades behind
074in reading and math. Heartbroken, I disclosed the starting grade third and the unusually severe rigor required to claw through so many levels. The first struggles to overcome were number one, building trust in me, another teacher. Two, restoring self-worth. Three, belief that a five grade change was even possible. Halfway through the year, my student completed three grades. Confidently rose steeply. Confidence arose steeply. Rigor did too. Smiles were more common and the eye of the tiger visibly shown. This young scholar began to wake up at 5:00 a.m. to compete complete more lessons before arriving at school. And by year's end, this student was ready to go to public high school, graduate in two and a half years. Now, my concern is that you will bring in the Carnegi curriculum that is not evidence-based or even research-based to
075my students and continue the educational decline by lowering the standards to opinion-based teaching which negatively impacts our community and culture for which we moved our family here. Please courageously stand for our children. [Applause] Good evening board. Um Chris Hamlet, parent of Mesa High Jr. Um I agree with with Mr. Kimble when he came up here and started speaking about public comment, how we get our time cut down. So I'm used to it. I do a lot of public speaking so I always shave a minute or so off but shaving it down to half the time from three minutes to a minute and a half that you know we can't get anything worthwhile across people's ears or into consideration. So it's a great tactic and it works. So but so I'm going to veer away from
076that whole speech and just scrub it all together. But it warms my heart to see that teachers are actually coming in to speak up now. And this is something we have all agreed on. If you have noticed parents and all community members alike have been clapping for for what they have been saying up here. But what really sad about it is it has it takes retirees and they've both both told you other teachers feel the same way. They're just scared. They don't want the mob after them. And so they are confirming what we've been telling you as the community for years that there are more people out there. They don't want to deal with this nonsense. And it's very sad that this new schedule and this academy garbage has been pushed through without a vote
077of the board. The board has given too much power to uh superintendency and legal here. You guys need to take that power back and bring this stuff to the public square and put this stuff to a vote, including public comment. How disrespectful it is is it for everybody here to have to look at my backside while I'm speaking instead of being able to look at one of the moderators like they used to before. That was done on purpose in 2022 when Rachel Walden, myself, and Ed Steele ran for school board because they didn't want us grandstanding. So since then, they have used it as an excuse that, oh, people are watching from home, they don't want to hear that, but that's nonsense. You guys should get do [Applause] Good evening, members of the board, superintendency.
078My name is Ed Steele. I'm a taxpayer here in Mesa, have been since 1987. Um, I was going to speak about item 11A, this memorandum u with Carnegie. You know, it was just a few months ago that students lined up here to air their grievances with this leadership and that and they noted two things. They don't feel heard and now you're hearing it again tonight. You guys created that environment. And the other thing is they're sick and tired of being made guinea pigs with all your education experiments. And what do we have tonight? Carnegie. another unproven, untested education experiment where you're going to have up to 14,000 students be guinea pigs for this group. And and it's not even up for debate. It says so right here in this document. It says the parties have
079an interest in using research methods to learn whether the changes they are pursuing are leading to desired outcomes. If that's not an experiment, I don't know what is. I urge this vote, this board to vote no on this. Miss Chaffy, you should be especially sensitive to this topic. I'm asking you to vote no. I want the whole board to vote no. Send a message that you guys are going to do one one time. You're going to follow this Mesa promise to serve these students need. [Applause] Hello, my name is Kevin Atwood. I have three students in the Mesa Public School System. I thought I was going to be able to ask you questions regarding a specific subject, but um this is my first board meeting and I wasn't prepared to stand in front of everybody
080and air my grievances or make comments about how things are, but I'm thankful for the forum. uh thank you for giving us the opportunity to communicate with you about the issues we're having and about the things we're thankful for in the school district. But I have two kids who have a rare genetic disorder. Uh it's called Neman PIC type B and they're thankfully getting treatments uh every two weeks. to get IV infusions. And initially they were part of the FDA trial that rolled out the treatment medication and they would have to miss school every other Monday because they could only give treatments in Phoenix Children's Hospitals. Thankfully with FDA approval that's now moved to home so that uh they can get their infusions on the weekends and still continue with school uh 5 days a
081week. But my concern is the funding for IEP and uh I believe it's 504 programs. Just would hope that that would continue, you know, with all the changes that are being made in the school district and nationwide. Um I would hope that that is something that continues to be funded. Uh because it's been a huge benefit for my family. I'm very thankful for it and uh again I thank you for giving us the opportunity to speak in front. [Applause] President Davis, that concludes our public comment. Thank you. We will now move on to um review of agenda. We'll now review the consent agenda. All items on the consent agenda are approved with one vote with no discussion. If a board member would like to pull a consent agenda item, please do so now. Seeing none,
082thank you. And we'll be moving on now to our action items. Do I have a motion to approve the personnel request, including the addendum? So moved. Do I have a second? I'll second it. It has been moved and seconded to approve the personnel request, including the addendum. Any discussion, Madame President? Yes. Um, so on these uh personnel requests, we have two positions that have been added to the uh their two new positions. I don't remember their their titles. I I would like some clarification on because I've gotten several comments from uh our stakeholders and our shareholders, our community members regarding the fact that we just laid off several uh several staff members throughout the district. Uh but we re we created two brand new positions that they believed could have been uh filled with what
083we already had. So, I'd like to know is is where's the money coming from for these two positions? What's the justification for it? Uh, and then second, it seemed like that the other request and concern that I've gotten is that these two jobs were posted um and I think last week uh and both of them have already been hired and they're on the agenda for approval tonight. So I have comment that people are really concerned about the fact that were these two positions new positions created specifically with certain people in mind. Uh and I I think we just need to have transparency with our shareholders. So could you I don't know who Mr. Wing or Dr. Strong. Yeah. So, we informed uh the governing board in the status update of the associate superintendent approximately I
084think that was three weeks to four weeks ago that these positions are going to be funded out of community education funds. Um the purpose of both these positions, uh first of all, uh as we continue to downsize in the district and centralize, uh more and more functionality of mid-level management, we're going to have to figure out how to take jobs and remold them uh so that we can support less administrative positions with that that do more activities. As an example, in this case, uh we eliminated a position uh that was a hearing officer position. And that hearing officer position is going to a lot of the functionalities and duties of that hearing officer position are going to go to our director of athletics. In order to accomplish that task, we're going to have to surround
085the director of athletics with supports uh at a lower level. And so that that that the responsibilities that that athletic director has in athletics and then the responsibilities they have in discipline uh end up being realized across the whole districts to the level that we need to. So what's going to happen over the course of the next several years as we continue to realize uh a reduced mid-level management team which is part of the reason I was hired in this district was to uh re re-imagine how mid-level management functions. We're going to have to create new positions uh that support management managing more tasks on a single given plate. The other the other position that's being referenced uh is is partly due to we are finding issues with facility use throughout the district and junior
086high athletics throughout the district. And that facility use position is to help our whole district manage facilities and ensure that we're following proper practices and protocols in facility use to collect the revenues that are actually due when outside community members uh use those facilities and that was explained in the associates superintendent report. bill the revenues generated into fund 520 by managing facilities to a higher level of fidelity will increase and as a result of the increase revenues in fund 520 we're going to be able to fund this position and we'll keep monitoring and tabs on that fund and the revenues collected in facility use to ensure that we're generating revenues commiserate with the expense of the position and as we live into the next three years and honoring that Mesa Public Schools is not a
087district of 74,000 students like it was in 2005. And realizing uh that we are a district right now of 54,000 students and demography suggests we we may be even smaller. We will continually work to try to centralize task to a smaller number of district level administrators over the course and and in so doing we're going to need to have support around those administrators to still accomplish their task and and goals. And over the course of the last, just to be clear, over the course of the last 3 years, we've downsized district administrators as well from something like 197 to 184. And this is just the continue continued evolution of realizing how to accomplish the task we need to with less and less staff at the administrative level. Thank you, Mr. Wing. just to add the
088minimum uh posting requirement is five calendar days and the jobs you were referring to is posted for 10 days and anybody who's eligible to apply. May I uh thank you very much for that um explanation. I think it's really important especially in the the current climate that we have with our shareholders who uh are lacking trust in district leadership uh and questioning uh our ability up here on the board. We need to be as transparent, which is why I asked you. I I read it in your but the people who um actually pay your salaries, which are our taxpayers, need to be clear on why the decisions are being made that are being made. And it's in that that you're going to regain trust of a community. You're not going to do it by posting
089two brand new positions that look like, well, wait, where are these coming from? So, they're not coming out of Money. That's important for them for our our uh shareholders to know as well. It's not coming out of money that would have funded uh teacher salaries. So, as transparent as we can be is how we need to approach this going forward. So, Thank you. Any other discussion? Seeing none, Miss Kirby, will you please take our vote? With a vote of five yays, we you have approved the personnel request including the addendum. With this approval, we would like to recognize an incoming principal, Dr. Forless. Back to you. Thank you very much, Madame President. Members of the board, if you'd like to join me in front of the uh podium or the dis, I've got someone special
090to introduce to you. I hear pom poms back there. You've been so patient with those pompoms. Madame President and members of the governing board, with tonight's approval of the personnel requests, we have an incoming administrator to recognize. Will Dedricch Martinez please come on up and join me at the podium. You are right behind me. Perfect. [Applause] It is my pleasure to introduce Dedricch as the incoming principal at Lincoln Elementary. Currently, Dedricch is serving as the executive director of student services and extended learning with the Isaac School District. Dedric began his career in education in 2006 and has served as a school principal in Ngalas, Arizona, Phoenix, and Cells. Dedric has a bachelor's of arts degree in secondary education in Spanish and bilingual education and two masters of education. One as a reading specialist curriculum assessment
091development um degree and another in educational leadership business administration emphasis from the University of Arizona. He is currently a doctoral candidate in educational leadership with an emphasis on systems and processes from the American College of Education. Dedric, a huge congratulations to you as you take your new leadership role in Mesa Public School. I don't want to do more. I I know that our governing board would love to um greet you. If you've got a few words to say, then they would love to be able to shake your hand. And a little statement for you. um governing board members, um cabinet cougars, um staff members, family, um my wife and my kids, uh who have been patient and uh all of you guys just um honored and deeply grateful to accept the administrative position at Lincoln
092Elementary in Mesa School District. Uh this opportunity is a privilege and I embrace it with a strong sense of purpose and responsibility. Uh guided by the mission of Mesa Public Schools to ensure every student is known by their name, served by the strength in need, and graduates ready for college, career, and community. I am committed to fostering a culture of excellence and opportunity for all of our students. Um I look forward to working alongside governing board members, cabinet members, as well as our staff members and community and families and working together to be successful for our students at at the forefront. So, thank you very much. Now you do the handshake. We'll bring your hand then I'll be sound. [Applause] Have you come into [Music] What else? Right. Your turn. [Applause] Yeah. Emmy, you Emmy.
093[Applause] [Music] We have our own climate. Yes, my office is like that. and my poor 72-year-old colleague is on the cold side. I'm like, let's just swap. That makes no sense. Okay, that's an agenda. Oh, one more. Bring out the blanket. [Laughter] Thank you, Lincoln, for coming to support tonight. Do I have a motion to approve the 202526 administrative psychologist renewal non-renewal list? So moved. Do I have a second? Seconded. It has been moved and seconded to approve the 202526 administrative psychologist and renewal non-renewal list. Any discussion? Seeing none, Miss Kirby, please take our vote. Don't do that so fast. With a vote of four yays, you have approved the 202526 administrative psychologist renewal non-renewal list. Madame President, yes. May I make a com a comment? Sure. First, so I want to explain why um
094have abstained for from this vote because I didn't get it. just went too fast. Uh there has been a lack of student achievement for a decade in this district and as a couple of our community members spoke earlier. No one's held accountable for that. So I believe it's ultimately leadership that needs to be held accountable for that. So, I don't feel confident voting um and I also don't feel confident voting for a whole list of um district level admin and building admin when I have no idea um I don't have access to are they functioning well. The only thing that I can look at is are they providing is student achievement happening? Is student growth happening? So I don't feel comfortable voting for because of that. So thank you. Thank you. Moving on. All items
095cons all items list will be considered a group and will be approved of one motion. If a board member would like to spotlight or comment on a consent agenda item, please do so after the vote. Do I have a motion to approve the consent agenda according to the re 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 yays, we have approved the consent agenda items according to the recommended action for each item. Let me get Madam President. Yes. One of the uh items that we voted on was um concrete asphalt concrete and related services. I was just at Edison and hopefully they're on the list for a parking lot redo because their parking lot is just a
096portion of it, but it's a mess. Thank you. Tonight we have an updated version of policy 4-202, staff student boundaries for first reading. Would any board member like to start a discussion on this policy as it reads now? So, I have some questions. Oh, do you want to go ahead? No, go go go ahead, Miss SW. So on on this policy, uh one of the things that I hold on a second was concerned about was the language uh and I didn't see it in statute. Uh but it shows that we're adding the language under item 10 being alone with the student behind a closed door or in a confined space unless and under B it says the students dignity or well-being requires discretion. I didn't see that in statute. That didn't look like legal language.
097So, I was kind of concerned about what what situation could that mean when we're talking about having a student be alone because their dignity and and well-being. Is this on the on the the policy? Anybody? Yeah. Does anyone know what the what this refers to or a situation this would refer to? I'm making I can make an example or give an example. Uh the idea what I think what we heard was not to have a laundry list of exceptions rather put it in a different twist. So school counselors for example uh was were one of those exe exceptions where they would be with students and so in my mind that would be an example of dignity and and well-being of the student. Also, the maybe a student reporting something uh maybe a adult or something
098like that would be another cause for possibly being alone like with the principal or something like that. Those are just a couple examples. I can tell you this was sorry. Yeah, I invited myself up to the lect turn. Um this uh not the exact language but this the underlying reason for this was requested by our health services department mostly for the administration of certain types of medication that would require uh some privacy in the health office. Okay, that makes sense. So yeah, I just I was just you know when it's not part of the legal language then we wonder if it's too are we using language that's too broad? Is this up for like interpretation where that's going to cause a problem down the road? Um, those examples make sense. And I like on number
09920, we added this district staff should only use district approved technologies and programs when communicating electronically with students and or parents, etc. I just wanted to throw in. I think that's a that's a really good one to add is we continue to have we don't have this but there's news stories of other districts where communication and uh unapproved communications a problem. So those are my two topics. Thank you. Anyone else? Go ahead. Thank you, Madam President. Um, I want to um remind everyone that we we we sheld this and we got some input from employees who raised some concerns, particularly employees that were impacted by this policy. Um, I'm I'm very grateful that um the employees concerns were listened to and um and particularly I know some emails that I got I'm seeing um the
100evidence that that um that the policy was revised and I'm also grateful that um the board's concerns of a laundry list was was avoided as well. Um, I think this um policy is is better crafted because of the input of the folks that were going to be impacted by this who do the work and and I and I'm very appreciative of that. Um, thank you very much. I know that this took a little bit more effort and it took some time, but I think we got a better product as a result and a better policy. Thank you, Madam President. Dr. Before I just wanted to clarify I think that um this is a good point that we need secure communication and parent square is one of the ways that we're moving correct so that we
101can provide that and and be in alignment with our policy. Absolutely. And uh beginning in July uh we will be implementing parent square only. That will be the only communication device between staff and students. Okay. Go ahead. Dr. Dr. Ples, could you explain why it's important that parents square because it is a cost to the district. Um, and I I know that it's a convenience one piece was a convenience issue, but I think the more important one is what member uh Chaffy was bringing up is the communication piece. So, could you just with clarity explain why parent square going forward is going to be an important piece? Absolutely. Um board member uh Benson, we selected parent square as a the the communication tool as I mentioned between administrators and home, teachers and home as well
102as uh between staff and students and this also includes our um athletics teams. What is very important, there's a couple of things that are important. Um I'm thinking about my friend over here, David Sanders, our chief technology officer. He is very very worried about um the instability of products that we do not have access to and what it can do to bring down our network. And many of the free apps that teachers and schools are using um are binding students data and that is something that cannot happen. And but most importantly when we think about student safety, parent square gives us the ability that the principal will have access to see all of the communication between home or students and um staff to be able to monitor that as well as a district view. So
103it is 100% about not only just student privacy, teacher privacy, but also about keeping our network secure and making sure that our data, our student data and our own staff data is held uh in private. Thank you. Any other? All right. Thank you. And I again want to echo the thank you to all those that worked to reddraft this and come up with this new policy. So I appreciate it. We appreciate it. We will now move on to action items. Our first action item. Do I have a motion to approve the memorandum of understanding future of high school network? So moved. Do I have a second? I will second it. It has been moved and second to approve the memorandum of understanding. Any discussion? Madam Madam President. Yes. Go ahead. Okay. Thank you. Um I'm
104impressed by um this memorandum of understanding. Um MPS is one of 20 schools in the nation that was selected to apply for this opportunity. Um what I like about it is is that it provides support um support for for teachers and staff for um data collection and and what it gives is access to professional development, networking resources, software. Um, one of the many things that we heard in public comment is support for our teachers and this is one way in which this grant could possibly get us that kind of support. um the idea that um software resources and being in a cohort with 20 other selected schools throughout the country I think is a very exciting opportunity and I'm hoping it's one that the board can support in support of our teachers who are trying
105to move the needle on student achievement and student outcomes. Thank you. Miss Jeff. Yes. I had some clarifying questions for Dr. Isus. Who will serve on this executive team as laid out in the memorandum? U. Madame President, member Chaffy, we have a steering committee that needed to be identified for the application that we brought to the board in December. And so that's members of our teaching and learning staff. Dr. Malerwine is part of that as well. And then once the umou is signed if if approved then the districts will come together in a convening in June and that's when affinity groups will be selected based on the topics. Um and at that point then it'll it'll go back to the schools and then schools would select those members of stakeholders, teachers, leaders, community members, etc.
106depending on those topics that come from that convening. Are there any teachers on the steering committee? No, not at this time. They had specific um roles for that steering committee that were laid out by Carnegie Foundation. Yes. Awesome. And what will the $100,000 fund? So um as um as theou states, it'll provide support for professional learning um access to tools. It's really to help identify um deficiencies in our educational technology system. So earlier you heard comments about the Carnegie um foundation, Carnegie, which has been around since 1906. That's our unit of credit um used in high schools and second post-secary education um that defines 120 hours. Um and in Arizona, we actually have seat time flexibility where we're looking and and already utilize in some of our schools that um instruction can happen outside of
107the classroom. And so this is really also helping identify what tools we can use to um look at evidence around student learning and help prepare them for the future. So the honorarium will help with the professional learning, help with the travel for that convening um any work that teachers, for example, would do outside of their contract, etc. So some of this $100,000 will go directly to teachers outside of the steering committee. Oh, absolutely. Mhm. Okay. And Dr. Stum, does this memorandum does this partnership provide data collection support? It it does. And one of our efforts in Mesa public schools over the course of the next 5 years is going to need be to increase our data flows and our data systems from uh siloed data systems into central source uh data systems. And uh Carnegie
108is going to help us realize how to do that to the best of our abilities. Any other discussion questions? Oh, yes. So, and I understand that you know some of the good things said one of my issues is this evidence-based innovation. Every time in education, anything that's evidence-based is we don't have historical research, but we're going to use the participants to get our evidence for our our current research. And in reading through the contract, that's what it looks like we're doing. Uh so there is I have an issue with the data mining. I have an issue with implementing these big changes on our schools and then also inviting this other organization in to uh to sort of steer it when if we can't do it ourselves then we shouldn't be doing it. If we don't
109have the support to do it, if we don't have the finances to do it, then we shouldn't be making these changes. I don't think we should rely on an outside organization to make something work. If we don't have the talent and skills, then we need to work on that first. But it's it's that feeling and the attitude that we're we're constantly involved in these grants and and projects where it looks like the students are guinea pigs. And I know nobody wants to treat students that way, but these programs continue to make them guinea pigs. I think this is something that we could look at doing down the road like after we have some successes in our in our district and can be prepared to share that. But uh I think this this this you know
110using our kids like that to create the evidence-based innovation I I I think is a problem. I think we should be working on seeing what works ourselves first and not relying on this outside organization to to tell us how to work it. I think um you know we've got three schools that have been doing themies and moving into these changes already and we should be monitoring that and monitoring that data and helping apply it to our other schools and that's it. That's that's my issue and I'll just let you guys know like I have zero intention on supporting this and voting for this tonight. Any other discussion? Madam President Spencer. Um, so I'm concerned with the word um transformative. We uh I and I I want to um also say that a lot of what
111member Walden uh has already stated I agree with. I'm concerned with the word transformative. We're not doing what we're currently doing well. Why are we transforming a system? We have parents who um have registered tonight their frustration with their children um having uh new strategies, new techniques, unproven, no data to support them, but their kids are going to be in uh thrown into this mix. They only have one shot at a high school at a high school career, right? So, we I think we really need to be considering our and the reason that we were offered this I believe uh is because we um have stated that we're going to have college and careermies on our campuses. Had we not done that, we wouldn't have been offered this is my assumption. Is that correct? Um,
112I think the grant itself is really around competency based and personalizing learning for our students. And I'm not sure if you're aware, but at the Department of Education in in Arizona, there are actually teams that are developing standards, high priority standards around competencies, similar to the the work that we've been doing. They just came after us. Um, and so our teams have been highly involved in that work with the the State Department as well. So this grant will support the metrics that you're exactly talking about with those three schools that um have been implementing block schedule. The college and careermies is separate from that. The block schedule is a method to develop or um implement that model. Um, so there's there's a variety of things in there, but the actual highlight of the support that
113this provides is really those tools around how do we collect data um to continue to to really look and see are things working or not working and we have data on both sides right now in terms of what we've been doing for the past 20 years with the Carnegie unit and then what um the states across the nation are are moving towards. So Dr. Curious Lisa, are you saying that we we've already participated in the Carnegie unit, which is is that what you're saying? So, I'm unclear what the Carnegie unit Carnegie unit is our credits that we we give to students. Those are the graduation credits. That's the Carnegie unit. Okay. I didn't I didn't also used by university. So, it's the university system as well. Okay. And so, it is used since 1906. Um
114Okay. another the um is that can you define for me what an actionable signaling system is? So the signaling systems would be how are we progressing and growing in those metrics. So for example right now ACT is a signaling system that shows whether students are prepared for entering college. That's one signaling system. But what other signaling systems are out there? So metrics would be another way that I would describe that. Okay. Um the other question that I have, it appears as though um under section view for data sharing, it it appears as though uh furpa is perhaps being um not abided by and student actual student data can be and identifiable data can be shared. Is that accurate or am I misreading that? There will be a data sharing agreement just as we have with
115many of our other um partnerships. So is it identifiable data? No, it's just a aggregate. Is it an aggregate or is it a there there are methods in data sharing where we can anonymize the data of PE of the students we share with any third party um outside of our organization. So what will happen is our data R& team will ensure all the data is scrubbed so it's nonidentifiable before we and send it out with unique identifiers uh that are proxy to that relationship with that company that only we have the key to associate that back to a specific student if and when we need to. So the data that they receive is anonymized essentially. Okay. And then under the um highlight I believe it is the shared vision and objectives. It's area 4 in
116the box. By the end of the 26 27th school year, MPS will have blah blah blah blah blah. Um I know we are already on our way to competencies. Um I that that's for a different discussion. I have an issue with competency based versus uh skill-based learning and a traditional uh making sure that we have clear metrics. But again, it seems as though this uh box um really, as Mr. Steele mentioned in his comments and as our Mountain of Mountain View parents have reached out to us via email, um it really does support the notion that the academy model isn't fully fleshed out and our students are being guinea pigs. So, I like Member Walden, I I can't support uh participating in this. I don't agree with our students being used as the uh guinea
117pigs and used as the data collectors. Mesa doesn't have to always be that person. We have an obligation to students to provide them with the best possible education that prepares them. It should be databased. And again, as member Walden said, we have three schools that have done they participated in block schedule and um I I believe it's only freshman and sophomore now. Correct. We have not implemented the college and careermies yet. And we have one semester in on block scheduling at three schools. That part is correct. Yes. Well, Westwood's been doing block scheduling and teameing. And I thought they've been doing it since 2017, I believe. 2018. No. No. I got a sample schedule. It was live student schedules from Skyline. So if they haven't been if they haven't been if they didn't do anymies
118then how are those live it was like there were three students these are students participating themies. This is what their schedule looks like but they're they're not no they've been doing block schedule this past semester but we have not implemented the college and career academy model yet. Okay. So why did I get a sample transcript that said here's three students in their schedule if there's nomies? Like I've been sharing freshman teams an example of whatmies look like but it's not an example of whatmies look like then if they're not doing it. Where'd that come from? I'm not aware of of the example you're talking I'll forward it okay to all of you because I I was told that this is whatmies look like. This is what the transcript looks like. You can't. It looks like
119a normal high school schedule, but it was not a sample. It was three students from Skyline with, you know, their information redacted. So, I'm just confused because I've been sharing that as an example of themies. Um, board member Walden. Um Skyline is further along in theirmies in their first year of implementation than uh Westwood or um Dobson, but Skyline has organized some courses intomies. They are not at the full-blown academy that we will be seeing moving forward. Okay. Well, I'll send it to everybody because it looked really good, but if it's not an example, then I it is it is a first iteration example. Okay. Um, sorry I didn't mean to interrupt you. Board member. Uh, so I I want to follow up. Are you suggesting that uh if we don't participate in Carnegie, which
120I'm not a fan of Carnegie, just so you know, they moved education to schooling um rather than education. But are you saying that our our teachers will not have access to the ability to uh implement or training if we don't participate in Carnegie? No, we're already training. We're we're already participating. And I'm not I'm not sure what you mean by not participating in Carnegie because we we have to have the Carnegie unit. That's the credits that we No, no, no. I mean with this memorandum of understanding going forward with what you're asking us to vote on the future of high be participating in the future of the high future high school network. That's what we're v voting on tonight. Correct. Correct. Yeah. So my question is as part of this I believe the memo said
121if we don't do this then we won't be able to provide um let me let me look at it real quick. Um if not approved the future of high school network members are provided 100 grand to cover costs of participation. If it's not approved, MPS leaders and educators will not be able to engage in high quality professional learning and support to increase student engagement and greater readiness for life after high school. So, um, as member Walden mentioned earlier, do we not have people in the district that can provide highquality professional learning to support our teachers? Yes, I think that's referring to the professional learning with the network that's identifying those um metrics and tools um the deficiencies and the technology tools for those metrics. That's the professional learning that they we wouldn't have we wouldn't
122be able to access because we wouldn't be part of the network. We would have professional learning around engagement and instructional design and all the things that we've been working on already with our teachers, but that specific professional learning we would not have access to. And that's the ability to gather data as to whether or not our approaches are working. Is that the metric? Those specific tools that the network is going to be providing and taking a look at um across the nation, we would not have access to that. Okay. So, can you explain how that might be a detriment going forward because we just wouldn't have the support of the network and and as the nation moves towards these models and collects different metrics, we wouldn't be participating in that. And I I feel like
123though that's kind of the issue that some of our that our community has like I've talked about I'm you know I'm supportive of reimagining high school and I won't get into that because that's not on on topic here but you know one one of the concerns and what this I feel like this grant discussion is kind of exposing is that we know we're told we've got other high schools doing this. We went around the country and looked at other schools and gathered data, but at the same time like we're this grant is sort of showing that we don't have we don't have data that what we're doing is going to work. And that's that's concerning, right? Because now we're saying our we're not going to have access to if we don't approve this grant and
124data mine the kids and share all this data with these other schools. We're not going to have the right tools to track if something's working. But if we have no idea if something's going to do any kind of improvement are are we just throwing things at the wall again? Because I feel like the message that has been delivered time after time in the board is and even to some of the parent meetings is that this was these these programs are six years in the making. It's been thoughtful study. We've researched it, but now it sounds like we have no idea if our programs are going to work. So I hear what you're saying. I think um right now our metrics, for example, in high school are is the ACT. We have the ACT as one
125of our metrics. We have the Carnegie unit or credits to determine whether kids are graduating and then we have post-secary metriculation. Our model in Mesa public schools is not the exact same college and career academy model that other schools have. So this opportunity brings those schools together to network together to identify things that are actually working that will could continue to increase post-secondary metriculation, increase engagement strategies, increase um or look for ways to identify student learning and growth. exactly what we what we're hoping for our students is to increase um graduation rates and and growth on state assessments, but also other metrics to show what kids are learning both inside and outside of the classroom. As I as I've listened to um community members and read the emails of parents and listen to parents tonight,
126um there were there were some major themes. Um we're not moving the needle on proficiency and that has been an uh an issue for a very long time. what we're doing is not resonating with students. It's resonating with some students. Don't don't get me wrong. Point of information. I think this is off the agenda topic talking about proficiency. I I please let me finish. Okay. Thank you. Um we we are trying something different at least in three of the high schools and a fourth will come on board. Um parents have asked us for data. um they've asked us to be fiscally responsible. Um I see an opportunity here for um some support, some financial support, but also some networking support with other districts that could possibly support the work that we're doing. U I I
127also need to remind folks that what Dr. just said is that this model is a Mesa model. It is it is we did not take a model from Kansas City or San Diego and and plop it down at Westwood or or Skyline. It it they were they they were ideas that were gleaned and principles met with their parents with their students and we've got a messa model and and how are we going to know if it works if we don't start collecting data and compare it with other models. So um I I really believe that if we listen to what our parents said um they want us to be fiscally responsible they want data I think this is a way in which we can get some data Dr. Mr. Forless, which of our schools will
128be participating in this? Right now, it is a district-wide um the steering committee uh needs to get started and then they will help to identify. I don't know um Tracy what the I've not taken a look at the whole timeline of when you actually start bringing schools in the beginning of this. And remember, this is the first time that Carnegie has offered this. So, it's not we can't look at a model that they've created and we've said, "Oh, this is what exactly what it looks like." Um, so which schools? I I'm not sure that I can answer that question. I don't know that you can yet. Pardon me. Sorry, just in the questions that we provided to the superintendency before. The response was that five of the six high schools that have gone to college
129and career that are going to college and careermies would be participating. And once they have the eligibility to participate because they are part of this work, once the steering committee gets going and understanding specifically what the work is, they're going to have to identify so which teachers are interested. We we need to take a look at interest. We also need to take a look at what what is Carnegie studying at a specific time or what is this coalition? This is building um a true inquiry. I think we talked about this. This is a true inquiry on the Carnegie unit, the Carnegie Foundation saying, "Can we change what we've been doing since 1906?" And I and I think you and I had the conversation, the answer might be when you get a steering committee together of
13020 different districts, they might come together and say, "You know what? That problem's too big and we're not ready to even tackle it yet." That could be the outcome of this collaboration. But this is not there. This is not studentf facing at this time. This is around building a system around data that Dr. um Stum was talking about. I think that I think that board member Walden brings up a good point that what our parents are asking for are evidence-based strategies and a structure that is in place already. That's what we've been telling them that we have data. We've asked as a board to see the research from from the travel that's happened over the past four years and the the research that shows why and how college and careermies will improve students because we're
131we're telling families this is best for students. This is going to improve student outcomes. This is going to move the needle on proficiency. Um but that research hasn't been provided at the district level and I'm not seeing anything here. This seems to kind of reinforce the idea that we actually don't really know um whether these things work and so we're asking to participate in something to establish whether it will work. But I think that it really does expose some of these parents concerns that we don't know yet. Um and I think that we also lack the data collection systems to actually monitor the impacts of the changes we're making. And so I do not feel comfortable voting for this until we've seen the information that we've asked district to provide and until we can really
132listen to the concerns of parents on using evidence-based strategies in our schools any other discussion. Yeah. Could I just piggyback off of that? And even under um under uh on page leading into page four, the first paragraph, it says using research method methods to learn whether or not the changes um they're pursuing will lead to desired outcomes. And under Carnegie responsibilities, it's to catalyze innovation and collective learning as Mesa Public Schools builds the foundation for sustained high school transformation toward a new education architecture. Uh I I mean I I just the practice is students cannot be guinea pigs. They have one high school experience and I think that's what our parents have said over and over and over in email after email coming tonight. So I thank you for bringing up those points, member Walden
133and member Chaffy. Go ahead. I want to remind board members that we heard from one community and there are other communities that are doing the work and those parents were not here tonight but we have received emails who parents who do support what's going on and frankly a lot of parents who have sat at a kitchen table with kids talking about their futures and they don't know what they want to do when they leave high school. That motivation needs to be there. And I'm and I'm I'm we've got three schools that are fully involved in this and a fourth that's coming on board. I wish we could give them the tools to do the job. If we're not giving them the tools to do the job, then we shouldn't be rolling forward. I don't think
134that a grant from Carnegie is contingent upon our success as a district. One tool that can be used Uh, and I can I Yeah. And just to remind every we're voting on a grant. We're not voting on programs. We're not voting on any of that. And I think um again just a point of information that we need to stay on the agenda item of do we want this this grant and what's what is this grant going to do for our district and do we want to like my issue is just with this data Sharon. Are we saying we want to let our kids be the guinea pigs but then share all this data nationwide and be part of this? Uh I I don't see the reason for that, but just just to that reminder. And
135um member Hutchinson twice now you've said three high schools are fully on board and a fourth is coming on. I'm confused by that. Can you clarify what you because that's not what we've heard tonight. What I heard from doc from uh Dr. Forless and from Dr. Sorry, Eastless is that nobody's fully done the career right. We've only done fast teams in nth grade and three of the schools have done black scheduling but you just said nobody's done career not the full career and college college and career academy model it's only and five of our six schools next year. Yeah, schools have implemented block schedule this past semester and at the sophomore level they've done uh I know I know Westwood has teameing at least at the sop more and so that is what I'm assuming.
136Okay, thank you. I visited with four principles of the schools that are involved and each of them have given me their theirmies themies that they have designed for their schools and they've shared their block scheduling ideas and how they rolled it out with their students. So we have four schools um that have have that are either in the process or actually doing the work and a fifth that will come on board. And I've talked with all of those principles and they are doing the work. Any other discussion? Seeing none, Miss Kirby, will you please take our vote? [Music] With a vote of two yays and three nays, we have not approved the memorandum of understanding future high school of. Do I have a motion to approve to approve a contract increase for $75,000 for athletic
137supplies? So moved. Do I have a second? Second. It has been moved and seconded to approve a contract increase for $75,000 for athletic supplies. Any discussion? Um I have a quick question. It in the um in the memo it said we have to purchase uh football helmets every 10 years. Is that right? So I am assuming that the uh technology of the helmets improves safety uh and security of the football players brains. The the the answer is maintaining uh football helmets is one of the primary areas where we can make sure that we follow great concussion protocol calls for students including by the way we do recondition these helmets on an annual basis as is required. So they're certified on an annual basis. Any other discussion? Any other discussion? Seeing none, Miss Kirby, will you
138please take our vote? With a vote of five yays, we have approved a contract increase for $75,000 for athletic supplies. Moving to the next item. Do I have a motion to approve a contract increase for $4.5 million for technology, hardware, and software refreshes as needed? So moved. Do I have a second? Seconded. It has been moved and seconded to approve a contract increase for $4.5 million for technology, hardware, and software refreshes as needed. Any discussion? Board member Davis, will you clarify where these funds are coming from? Yes. Um, this is coming from the 2018 bond and it is specified for technology. This money that is because it's out of the bond cannot be used for salaries. Any other discussion? I have a question. It says percent of the budget 29.97%. Uh maybe I think that
139might be for Scott Thompson to answer. Um what is is it percent of the budget the current year? 30% sounds really high. That's why I'm asking about it. Yes, that's based on the remaining budget available for technology in the bond. Okay. So it's 30% of what was available for technology. So the bond already had had a certain amount of money earmarked for tech and this represents 30% of what was remaining what's remaining for tech. Okay. So the budget changed every year as we spent those funds down and this is 30% of what remains in the technology funds available specifically for capital uh purchase of technology. Okay. Thank you. Identified. Yep. Dr. U. Mr. Thompson, could you um give us an estimate of approximately how much money is left for technology from the 2018 bond? I
140might defer to David on that one. He's probably got a better idea of where he's at with that. Sorry. Sorry, David. I didn't I didn't see you down there. Even though you're wearing this bright red shirt. Sorry. Yeah, it's about $4.4 million is what's left for us for technology. So the increase you're asking for is basically the balance of the bond. Correct? Yes. So maybe it's 4.5. Well, we we probably a little bit more because there's other technologies. There might be other things. We're not the only one that use that contract. So we have 4.4 in bond for the the laptops. We put a little bit of cushion in there because there's might be other things that we need to buy using that contract. Okay. Thank you. I'm just really grateful to our community for
141passing a bond in 2018 so that we could make these refreshes. I've got kids who are really hard on laptops and I'm really grateful when we can fix them and replace the letter L that goes missing quite often. Um so thank you and to our community for supporting public education. Thank you. Any other discussion? Me. Seeing none, Miss Keru, please take our vote. With a vote of five yays, you have approved a contract increase for $4.5 million for technology, hardware, and software refreshes as needed. Do I have a motion to approve a contract increase for $1.5 million for audio enhancement, safety, and translation systems in our schools, in schools, and system upgrades? So moved. Do I have a second? I'll second it. It has been moved and seconded to approve a contract increase for $1.5
142million for audio enhancement, safety, and translation systems in schools and system upgrades. Any discussion? And again, this is also coming from the 2018 bond for technology. Any other discussion? Um, I have a quick question. Um, on item number three for the audiovisisual system, and David, this might be for you. I'm not sure. Um, but it says the ability to lock down the school from the installed audio enhancement panel in each classroom and the alert and notification solution that connects teachers and classrooms uh to first responders. Uh, when I was still in the classroom with the new system that we have, um, if I did not have all of my students in my classroom, there was no way for me to know whether or not somebody else had swept them up into a classroom and they
143were safe, for example, if they had been on recess or whatever. Is that going to fix this? Because to me as a teacher that was concerning. I if I didn't have all my students in and we went into a lockdown, I had no way of communicating with the office cuz my computer was totally locked down and I couldn't. Is that going to take care of this? It it it will it does have that capability to the teacher can say who she has in the classroom and report based on attendance that day will say report back to the principal or that site registration to say who is there. But yes, good. Because at the elementary level in particular, I was like, I don't like this because I didn't know where my, you know, if they were
144on recess and somebody just swept them up into a classroom, I had no idea where they were. Correct. Thank you. Any other discussion? Yes. Um, I'm I'm appreciative that we are going to upgrade the systems in the junior high auditoriums. um because we've got a number of wonderful musical programs and these kids work so hard and when you can't hear them and their microphones are falling off and I mean um I I think it honors the arts and so I I really want to thank you for including the junior high um equipment. Um I think it will really enhance the ability for kids to shine in a production. Thank you. Any others? Seeing none, Miss Kirby, please take our vote. With a vote of five days, you've approved a contract increase for $1.5 million for
145audio enhancement, safety, and translation systems in schools and system upgrades. Do I have a motion to approve the school year 2026 27 and 202728 calendars? So moved. Do I have a second? Second. It has been moved and seconded. Um, Dr. Strong, will you please share a presentation with the board? Yeah, we'll walk you through the presentation from the survey. Um, so first of all, we've been out for survey for I think approximately four weeks regarding school school calendar. I I do want to let everyone know that we changed the survey design uh with very uh with a very big amount of intentionality. In prior years, the survey design was such that several alternative calendars were provided. And when you have several alternative calendars that are provided in in uh in the in a similar position
146to also providing the traditional calendar, you often for people that want an alternative calendar will subdivide the votes. And so you'll you'll see in this data that we're about to present to you that we have strong support to remain on a traditional calendar, but there are there are there is a portion of the population that also wants to explore alternative calendars and we think we have a solution for that for 28 29 2930. Um so here's the survey results. So we had 13,686 responses. Um the ins the sample size across these categories is different. Obviously there's not as many school administrators and district administrators as there are classified staff and non-MPS employees as your parents and community comm community. So we bolded the 750 responses or higher to to delineate to you hey these are
147our large groups. Um classified staff are strongly saying let's stay on a traditional calendar. This is not something we did didn't anticipate. Uh you got to imagine that in the last survey we received the same results and they commented in the last survey design that the reason for that is the longer summer allows them other employment opportunities to also supplement their income uh for what they're making in the school district and it's a little more difficult and alternative modified schedule to catch twoe employment periods and have employment. So that that number was not shocking to us as was the uh substitute uh number was not very shocking to us at at all either. Um the parents are are saying 66% hey let's stay on a traditional calendar. You got to remember Mesa public schools has
148a wide variability across the whole entire district in terms of socioeconomic strata and income levels. And sometimes uh with parents that are working multiple jobs, schooling is a process that not only supports the academic uh uh needs of their students and the well-being needs of their students, it also supports just the basic need of needing child care. And so it's not shocking that parents uh in a in a wide degree of areas say, "Hey, the traditional calendar calendar works really fine with my work schedule uh and I may have some more freedom and flexibility in the summer uh to get time off." Uh teachers, 53% uh said, "Hey, the traditional calendar works." 47% said, "Hey, we'd like to explore an alternative." And school administrators, 42% uh have said to us, "Hey, the traditional calendar works
149fine." 58% are telling us, "Hey, we'd like to explore an alternative calendar." I will tell you, as someone that set an alternative calendar, modified year- round calendar for 17 years of my career. Uh there are I that number does not shock me either from a school administrator's perspective. There are distinct advantages when you're running a school to go nine weeks on, two weeks off, nine weeks on, two weeks off. And so none of these numbers are completely flooring, but overall we have majority support by a wide margin well above 50% for staying on traditional calendars. Let's go to the next slide. Uh so what we did then is we took the comment section. We allowed people to make comments and we took them and we summarized them into categories using research methodologies. Um survey respondents
150could provide comments open in field. Here's some of the uh comments fre that were frequent support to maintain a traditional MPS calendar. Logistical concerns about calendar changes. Uh that includes uh things like uh uh daycare um and child care concerns about starting a school in July and August. And this is a true fact on modified year round. uh you know August we have a lot of heat days where kids spend recess indoors when you move that even to mid July because you're on a modified year round there are more days that kids spend indoors due to heat index numbers and so there's a lot of parents saying you know we want our kids to be outdoors and playing during recess periods and that's more likely to occur when you're on a traditional calendar and not
151going to school either in June if you're running late on a modified year round or in July if you're starting early on a modified year round a desire from uh modified year- round calendar similar to neighborhood districts. So, there were quite a few comments centered around people going we need to get on the same calendar as surrounding districts. So, we want to honor that we've heard that and you'll see how we're going to honor that we've heard that uh in in in a calendar plan for 28 29 2930 and there were some requests for 4day school week and uh we are openly observing how the 4-day school week affects learning in other school districts. Um, and the initial research on academic outcomes for kids in four day uh learning weeks is is not suggesting uh
152large positive gains. I'm not telling you it suggesting negative gains. I'm just telling you there's not large positive gains out of that. Kids only go to school approximately 144 days in a four 4 days school week. So I I would say if if we get in to that realm, it's going to take probably a five to 10 year approach of learning and listening and observing what's happening in other districts uh in order to pivot on that. And it'll take several re iterative conversations with the community and the school board to move down that. But we did have quite a few comments on 4day school week. Um summary of feedback regarding early release and professional learning. So, uh, we separated this out because there were quite a few comments on the early release and professional learning
153day. And, uh, frustration with early release Wednesdays was apparent in the open-end comments field. Preference for Friday or Monday instead of Wednesdays was prevalent in comments and eliminating or reducing early release time was prevalent in the comments as well. So, next steps, uh, we do think we are at a point where we'd like to survey our constituents on moving early release Wednesday, uh, to either Monday or Friday. I will tell you in talking with colleagues, there's a preference towards Monday because Friday, it's very difficult to convince teachers on a Friday afternoon to be really super engaged in the professional learning process. Um, and then there is conversation with reducing the length of time on half days. And remember, Mesa Public Schools didn't always have a 2-hour professional learning release. It used to be, if I
154remember right, a half hour one point, an hour at another point. And so that's what they're mentioning when they talk about this reducing of length of time. I did put caution in there. And the caution is this equitability of planning time. And I said this in my interview for this job. Time, tools, and training are three things that we constantly need to pay attention to for teachers. If you don't have time for them to plan, if you don't have training for them to get better at their craft, all right, if you don't have the tools, the curriculum, the resources needed to uh provide the learning outcomes that they need, you get yourself in trouble quickly. And the biggest problem with reduction of length of time is across our school system. We have a different amount
155of planning time right now at the high school level than we do at the elementary school level. So when you reduce a Wednesday half day time from 2 hours to 1 hour, you affect the elementary educators a lot more than you affect the high school educators, if that makes sense. So there there's like some thoughtfulness that needs to be put into place when we're when we're talking about uh reducing the time there. Spring 26 calendar committee. Oh, so here's here's kind of something that we're that we're wanting to to propose for the next school uh school cycle, which is 28 29 2930. And we already have a couple parents off parent council who are interested in helping us lead this process which is wonderful. A parent uh from Porter is very interested in helping us
156lead this process. So uh what we want to do is in the spring of 26 we want to put a calendar committee together consisting of 20 to 30 stakeholders and we want that calendar committee to work diligently over the course of the spring of 26 semester to get to one single alternative calendar. As you can as I probably am not telling you anything you don't know you know Dr. Stum's idea of what might be a great alternative calendar might be to take a oneweek fall break and a oneweek break at Thanksgiving because we struggle with attendance at Thanksgiving. But if I take that calendar, right, and then we take a two week calendar that's a fall break and then we take another calendar that gives maybe a oneweek fall break and a 3-week Christmas break.
157That's what I'm talking about when the 37% of stakeholders all of a sudden get subdivided. So this committee would put together the work to get to a single alternative calendar. So then in the spring of 27, we can go out with a survey and say here's our traditional calendar for 28,29 and 2930 and here's what it looks like and here's the single alternative calendar that the committee got to that we're saying if we're going to do anything different it will be this. Now do you want to choose this? And that's kind of the method we want to move with going forward. So that's kind of a summary of where we're at. And so this action item is asking you to approve the traditional calendar for school year 2627 and 2728 with the understanding that we'll
158put a calendar committee together in the spring of 26. Thank you Dr. Stum. Any discussion on this? So I definitely lean for Monday on on the uh early release. I think by the time Friday gets around, we'll probably see worse attendance than leaving out on Wednesday. Um, and I think on the the calendar voting you with this committee, I I love that idea. So, we can just say here's calendar one, here's calendar two, which one do you want? I think that's a a way better solution. So, but these look these look good. I one of the things I checked for is because I think you all remember last Christmas where the date of Christmas break was way too close to Christmas and we're not really sure how that happened and that was actually one of
159the things I checked for on these calendars is when winter break happens like how how soon are they released before December 25th and that was a that that was a a big selling point on these calendars for me is to make sure that you have like a a solid winter break uh that was a you know hopefully never never gets a recap what what we went through. Well, I guess not last year. Two years ago. Lacy sh she knows what I'm talking about. Um yeah, it was like two years ago. It was so so close. The way the year lined up, it was like the two days before Christmas or something we got out. So, well, that happens every couple years just because of the layout of the calendar. Um, one of the things I'd
160like to make sure that we see because we are the only district currently in the East Valley that does not have a modified year- round schedule. Uh what is frustrating is when like historically we've always matched with at least one of the weeks of the other districts and um I I don't believe we did this year uh and I I haven't checked everybody else's calendar but because we have staff that work in other or live in other districts it we we've got to try and make sure that we are matching to the best of the ability that we can with at least match one week if we can. So committee, whoever you are, keep that in mind. Dr. Strom, you brought up that a lot of people have commented about the early release change and
161that's something that's come up often and that you're looking at making a change. What year would that change be implemented? Uh, good question, Member Chaffy. the uh what we'd like to do is survey the parents and see if they're ready and willing and and our teachers and our classified staff ready and willing and able to transition for the 2526 school year. Uh and we'll write the survey to get that style of feedback. Once again, the calendar is different than a bell schedule is different than when you have professional learning days. And we can always adjust the bell schedule and the professional learning days with transparency and to make sure everyone's been communicated with. So the survey will read along the lines of hey we're interested in doing this for next school year and you know
162do you support moving Wednesdays to Mondays then there'll be other survey elements later on that ask about the time 2 hours 1 hour half hour and then uh we'll also have a follow-up question we can ladder these things on a survey so if they respond no not for 25 26 we can ladder it to then put them into a question that says is would you support this in any school year and if so what? Does that make sense G? So we're going to try to design the survey so that people understand we're trying to get this accomplished for next school year. Yeah, I appreciate the transparency and the thoughtfulness. My feedback is I think a lot of people do want to make this change, but making this change in July 31st is is difficult for
163people with child care who already have existing work agreements for child care. It's difficult if you have a child in lessons or sports activities because a lot of those we've already started registering for and it's difficult if you own a small business like you teach music out of your home. You've already set up that structure. And so I think for our community, we really need to be thoughtful about the community impacts like when have people already scheduled appointments and you know when you schedule your pediatrician 6 months out. And I think that our parents plan ahead a lot of them for child care and other things. And I I worry about that starting July 31st. And we know it's hard to communicate to all the people and let them know when change is happening. I
164I have a couple of questions. Um, first of all, why have if we are the only district in the East Valley that doesn't have um the modified schedule, excuse me, the modified calendar. You are from many different districts in in the East Valley. You've been you've been employed by those districts. Why did so many other districts adopt the modified calendar? What was the reasoning? So, I I can speak to Chandler. Uh and and one of the reasons primarily out of the gate was something at the time that was understood to be codified as like summer learning loss. Recent research has suggested that a lot of the summer learning loss articles that were published two decades ago are not necessarily valid research because of the assessment tools being spring to fall measurements. And so one of
165the distinct reasons that tra that school districts moved was to reduce summer learning loss. And we know now something they didn't know 20 years ago, which is, you know, the research is now suggesting that it's more a factor of students being actively engaged in the learning process and testing process in the spring versus in the fall. It feels more like a pretest. And so some of the learning uh loss that is referenced in research is solely because of the administration techniques of assessments. And I can send you on those articles if you're interested in reading them. And and so that was a primary driver 20 years ago. A primary driver of many districts that followed was from the enrollment perspective, the earliest out of the gate to enroll students is advantageous from a business perspective
166to collect ADM. And one of the things that happens even to this day across school districts that are uh boundarying have boundary lines that are next to each other is because of daycare and the high cost of daycare, you will see parents that enroll early in July in one district and then when they go on fall break, they'll hop right over to another school district, enroll their kids for a twoe fall break in another school district only to hop back to the original school district. Now, this is not the vast majority of kids, but these games happen. And so when you start to learn that those things happen in the enrollment game, other districts say, "Well, if you're going to start in July, we're going to start in July." There are business outcomes from starting
167in July. One of which you'll you'll run higher uh energy bills in July, and it does affect budget by running in July. But those are those are just a few. I will tell you there are athletic and arts reasons that fall out, too. Um athletically, it is kind of nice to have fall break around the time that football playoffs are heating up. Uh, that's an argument. Volleyball playoffs are heating up and you're able to have your athletes have some downtime away from academics to really focus in on. And there's plays that you can run and arts things that you can do over a fall break that maybe you can't do during a school year with a full focus because you have your normal class periods running. So, there are some ancillary elements as well, but
168those are some some off the top of my head that I can reference for you at this point in time. I I I appreciate that. Um the um I love the idea of of the committee and that there would be um representation from staff and and and parents um community members. Um I had I had some emails um where where they were encouraging me to vote no on this calendar. So, I I'm I'm reluctant. However, I'd like to know what you think would be the consequences of a no vote. And the other thing is why is it taking us three years? Um, in the life of a kid in Mesa public schools, three years, they're out of school. Um, I'm wondering if if possibly we could um adopt a 2026 27 calendar and maybe up
169the the date and really take a look at maybe modifying in 2728 because I'm I'm I'm just I'm afraid that we're taking three years to take a look at this and in 3 years a kid is out of school. Um it's you know 25% of their their um school years are done. So So let let's take this in pieces. The first piece is let's talk 206 27 school year. It's really important to get the vote done for that as soon as possible. Right? because because of the fact that parents will want to start planning for the summer of 26 as early as this spring actually or maybe this summer and running a committee process does with parents involved and outside stakeholders involved and our teachers involved. It's going to take us six to nine months.
170You're going to have to have an initial kickoff meeting, right? And that kickoff meeting is going to have to describe the purpose and the problem and you know all the all the things in there. You have to have an information gathering session. like a running a community of practice where people go out and gather alternative calendars. Then you're going to have to have sessions where you come back and debate between those alternative calendars and we can't run those sessions back to back to back because these stakeholder schedules won't work out that way. So I think this is typically in most school districts a 6 to9month process. So if we delay 2627 tonight then we probably won't be back to the parents till delay 2728. So now that we've addressed 26 27 27 28 and saying
171hey let's move that spring of 26 process to the fall of 25 get a committee together in the fall of 25 to design something to be back out to survey in spring of 26 for 27 28 I think I'm doing all right with my numbers here. That's very much a possibility. So there's not anything that's that's wrong with that. The only reason we've done this for two years is that's just me practice. It's approve a calendar a year ahead of time for two years that follow. And I will tell you, it is nice to be in Mesa because there are districts, most districts that don't approve two years worth of calendars. They approve five years worth of calendars at a time. So, and that's another thing we could task the committee with. Hey, we don't
172want you to come back with two years worth of calendars. We want you to come back with five years worth of calendars so it can be set all the way through 27, 28, all the way to 2032, 2033. So, well, I appreciate that. And I do want I do want to echo um board member Chaffy who talked about um the Monday changing to Monday. Um in talking with the four high school principles that I did um when I visited schools right before spring break. Um they they would very much like to see a Monday um Wednesday go to Monday. um and um and they believe that they can recoup some instructional time if um if the um amount of time for professional development were cut back. Um and then I even had um elementary teachers
173approach me and say, you know, that that specials issue that we've got and with elementary um principles and their their their legitimate worry um about having enough instructional time, if we cut back on on early release, we might be able to find enough time for the specials. So, um whether it's in support of block scheduling and recouping some of that instructional time that got lost, um and or um the specials at the elementary level. Um I think it would be really wise to take a look at this and take a look at it quickly. And I couldn't agree with you more. So to make sure that that that families know exactly what the schedule is going to be. So, I think we would have to amend if if we wanted to um to switch it,
174member Hutchinson, to just uh adopting a single calendar because I got similar requests vote no. Um one of their frustrations that many people or the people that reached out to me, they were frustrated that they didn't actually have an option, that it was just it was just a the traditional calendar. So we would have to amend the motion. Correct. Yeah. Mrs. Kirby and u Dr. Storm would it would the six to9 month process of being able to uh to provide a traditional like we already have the traditional for whatever year that what is what would that be? 20 27 28. Um we already have that. I would assume we could work off that because so many of the districts around us or all of them already have modified year- round schedules. Wouldn't that reduce the
175amount of time that would be necessary to draft a modified year- round schedule to I mean we already because we already have clear examples. Does that make sense? I I do not disagree that the information gathering process uh of school calendar options will be quicker. You will be amazed when you get a committee of 20 to 30 people together on school calendars how many unique opinions you get on which days are off and which weeks are off. And that's the process that takes several meetings to get through and and it it models like a meet and confer process almost and and where you have storytelling and people presenting their points of view on calendars. But I do not disagree that the collection process of several schedules should be pretty easy. Well, I assume we would
176move we would not move to having 100% consensus, but rather a like a majority uh a majority of our shareholders believe this and this is the preferred. We're not going to be moving for 100% consens consensus on a calendar. Correct. You will try to get as much buying as you possibly can from that committee. Madam President, can I make an amendment, please? Um I'd like to um amend the motion and basically it would be to strike the 2728 calendar from the motion. So the mot my amendment would recommend approval of the of the calendar for the school year 2026 27. That's essentially what I'd be doing. But we would be eliminating um the years 20 27 28 and we would make it a singular calendar not calendars. Miss Kirby, does that make sense? So recommend
177approval of the school year 26 27 calendar basically. Right. And then doesn't the current motion does it have to be withdrawn or we just are we just amending the motion? I I think that's the pleasure of the board. We can we can we can amend it by striking. Okay. Yeah, I'm fine amending. I just didn't know. I I think I seconded it. I I had to withdraw it or not. Miss made the motion. So, she'd have to accept the Okay. If she does, um I have the power. Just kidding. Uh so can we add into the that uh or are we going to just assume that a committee will be does that need to be part of our amendment just approving that just so I I will amend my mo my motion to what member
178Hutchinson suggested just approving 2627 calendar. Okay. Then do I need a second? There's a second amend there. Um I think that was Rachel. It was Yeah. Mrs. involved in I'll second that. Okay. Um and may I ask a question real fast before we vote? Okay. Um so with the uh 2728 because I am very uh sort of sympathetic to what you were explaining with parents trying to plan their summer schedules and all that. Um when could that come back if we remove it tonight? When could it could it come back to a vote to the board? Any time then? Is if we remove it tonight? What what we'll do is we'll spend the next uh month trying to get a committee a sound committee together of stakeholders. Um, and then I I will probably task
179the new chief of staff with the ability to run that committee along with along along with the uh Porter parents and a couple parents from parent council that are interested and we'll try to start in July with that committee and we'll try to have their work finished hopefully by November, December so we can have either a December vote or a January vote if that timeline works out for the board. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, I just I just don't want to put like, you know, have it get delayed and then families are in a buying because they have no idea like what their summer's going to be. So, all right. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you for all the discussion. Dr. Storm and I discussed this earlier today, a lot of these questions that we came up.
180So, thank you for being ready to answer. Um, so since we've had discussion, Miss Kirby, please take our vote. And this is voting for a motion to approve the school year calendar 2026 27. Right. with a vote of five yays. You've approved this calendar uh for the school year 2026 27. Do I have a motion to adjourn the meeting? Yes, you do. Do I have a second? I'll second it. It is moved and seconded. Any discussion? Seeing none, Miss Kirby, please take our vote. [Music] Get out voted with a vote of five yays. The meeting is adjourned. Thank