Roosevelt School District No. 66 Governing Board Meeting - April 1, 2025

001Woods here. Dr. Ashley Hodgej present. I know that Miss Victoria Castro Cora is on her way and I'm assuming that Mr. Buts is as well. Um, is there a motion to adopt the agenda? Agenda moved. Second. All in favor? I. Motion carries. Um the next item on the agenda is recommend that the governing board call for executive session pursuant to ARS section 38 300 341-03A 3 and 4 for legal advice. Is there a motion to move into executive session? So moved. Second. All in favor? I I the eyes have it. We will go into executive session. We will return form that you would like to submit if you can please hand it to me so that way um it has to be submitted before we get started. Does anyone have a pink slip for public

002registration? No. Okay. Is there anyone in the audience who would like to follow the meeting in Spanish? Anybody here would like to follow the meeting in Spanish? If you'd like to follow the meeting in Spanish, we have um um Amy in the back table back over there and she has a headphones. If you like this one, um please feel free to pick them up. Thank you. Okay, Spanish. [Music] So, we like to use a headphone um to follow the meeting in Spanish headphones at the table for Amy. Thank you for your patience. Um, is there a motion to adjourn executive session? So moved. Is there a second? Second. All in favor? I. Motion carries. Executive session closed. Good evening and welcome to our regularly scheduled board meeting. Um I now call this meeting to order.

003Please rise for the pres pledge of allegiance and a moment of silence. You may be seated. Next item on the agenda is roll call and I'll pass it to Marisella. Thank you, Madam President. Roll call for this evening's regular meeting, April 1st, 2025. I will begin with Miss with Dr. Ashley Hajj here. Dr. Megan Francoitz here. Miss Tatiana Pñena here. Mr. Michael Buts here. Miss Victoria Coral Castro Coral here. Madam President, we do have a quorum present for this evening's regular meeting. Thank you. The next item on the agenda is item 1.04. Is recommend that the governing board adopt the agenda. Items on the consent agenda may be pulled at this time. Is there a motion to adopt the agenda as presented? So moved. Second. All in favor? I passes unanimously. Item one count 05

004is recommend that the governing board approve the minutes held in the month of February 2025. Is there a motion? So moved. Second. All in favor? I. Motion carries. The next item on our agenda is student outcome focused governance. Um, and I will anchor you in our our vision um for the community. Give me one second. Do I have permission to share? Thank you so much for your patience. We had to do things a little differently. Okay. Student outcome focused governance. Um, uh, oh, where's my other paper at? Hold on. I have a lot of papers up here. Okay. In 2023, the board embarked on a journey to align our framework at the board level with the incredible work that happens every day in the classroom with our students at the center. The entire RSD board

005is committed to engaging our South Phoenix community and gathering meaningful insight. Our vision is community united to create better futures for all through education. Student outcome focused governance is us improving student outcomes and achievement through researchbased policym decisions to increase learning outcomes based on the community's values and vision for the district. The school board will set the goals and the guard roles for reaching that vision through this framework. We have adopted board behaviors that emp emphasizes hold on sorry student outcome focused governance equal the board put students first and success in every decision that we make. Through this framework we have adopted board behaviors that emphasize synergy and teamwork to define our goals and vision. This approach helped us set clear targets for student outcomes, establish core values to identify our non-negotiables, and implement measures

006for progress and accountability to monitor where we are and where we're headed. Our ultimate aim is to enhance student success. Achieving these goals requires effective systems and processes as well as your voice and advocacy and engagement. So student outcome focused governance and action means that 60% of our time spent in board meetings is on student outcomes. The board adopts a budget that prioritizes adopted goals and guardrails. The superintendent evaluation is focused on adopted goals and guardrails. Board conduct is rooted in in guardrails. RSD community collaboration and collective vision. And we have a responsibility to increase our two-way communication regarding goals and guardrails. and we want alignment from the classroom to the living room. The academic goals that we adopted is 45 and five. So the first goal is the percent of fourth grade students that

007scores meets grade level or above on the ASA ELA will increase from 20% on August 2023 to 45% by August 2028. The second goal is the percent of fifth grade students that score meets grade level or above on a doubleASSA math will increase from 11% on August 2023 to 45% by August 2028. The third goal, the percent of seventh grade students that meets that scores meets grade level or above on the ASA ELA will increase from 22% on August 2023 to 45% by August 2028. And the last goal is the percent of eighth grade students that score meets grade level or above on the double ASA math will increase from 12% on August 2023 to 45% by August 2028. And so we also have guard rules for ourselves. And so guard rule number one is

008healthy board conduct and discourse. Guard rule number two is having board operating procedures. Guard rule number three um is student outcome focused decision-m. Gargo number four is financial integrity and guar number five is community engagement. And this is how we agreed to govern ourselves. And our superintendent also has guard rails. So guard rule number one is in attaining the board student outcome goals. The superintendent shall not go without proactively sharing updates and plans on the budget or enrollment that will change the current landscape and stability of our district to stakeholders including board members, students, parents, staff, and community members. Number two, in obtaining the board student outcome goals, the superintendent shall not fail to consider the climate survey results to ensure a holistic approach to student development addressing academic, social, emotional, and physical well-being, which

009includes after school programming and wraparound services. Growing number three, in attain the board's student outcome goals, the superintendent shall not allocate district budget resources in a manner that does not prioritize and support student outcome focused goals, ensuring that the financial decisions directly contribute to the academic and development success of all students. Go number four. In obtaining the the board student outcome goals, the superintendent shall not fail to implement and maintain effective strategies for the retention and development of teachers, including promoting from within to ensure that they have a positive impact on students as evidenced by data. And the final guard rail for our superintendent is in attendance. The board's student outcome goals. The superintendent shall not fail to ensure progress toward exiting a TSI and CSI status, which ensures that students with special needs and

010English learners and African-Americans receive equitable access to highquality instruction, resources, and supports tailored to their unique needs to promote their academic success and overall development. So as a parent, student, community member or part of our staff, you can join our board meetings monthly every first Tuesday um to share feedback, give us share your voice, um hold us accountable to our board, our hold us hold us accountable to our goals and garbles that we adopt, build partnerships and collaboration that helps moves our dish our students forward and also I want to invite you to our study sess session on April 18th where we'll be discussing um our two-way communication, which is how we're going to come to the community and inform you of all of our goals. We'll take a deeper dive. And so that's what

011we'll be talking about at our next study session, and we invite you to attend. The next item on the agenda is a celebration, which is gargo number two, um our sports. So, I I read to you what our superintendent go number two was. And so, today we're going to celebrate in both mind and body um our students. I'll pass it on to Dr. P. Thank you. Thank you, Madam President, members of the board, executive team, and Roosevelt community. We're excited to celebrate our students and our guard number two, which is educating the whole child. And with that, I would like to invite coach Mel Marvin Pettit, who is our PE teacher at Campbell and also Moonlights as our district athletic director. Sorry. Good evening, Madam President, members of the board, Dr. Patio, and the executive

012team. As a district sports coordinator, I am honored here to be tonight to celebrate the incredible accomplishments of our student athletes. Their dedication, perseverance, and teamwork have led them to remarkable achievements, and is a privilege to honor them in front of our district leadership. First, I would like to recognize the Southwest Cheer Squad who earned first place at our district cheer competition on January 18th. Representing Southwest tonight, we have Aaliyah, Mila, and their coach, Miss Ringal. Thank you for being here, Sus. Next, for esports, I would like to recognize the esports teams from Conchos who had some outstanding performances this season. First, we had Matthew from Konchos who demonstrated impressive skill and strategy, winning the Super Smash Bros. tournament on February 11th. Following Matthew's achievement, we have Konchos's Rocket League team consisting of Vincent, David,

013and Luis. They showcase their teamwork and precision, securing first place in the Rocket League tournament on February 13th. Representing Cons tonight, we have David, Louise, and Coach Ashida. Thank you. Can I help? Would you like me to do the place? We did our esports tournament virtually, so they weren't able to get their trophies beforehand. Thank you, Cons, for being here tonight. Lastly, I want to recognize the track team from Davis who demonstrated speed, endurance, and determination to take first place at our district track meet on February 22nd. Representing Davis tonight, we have Noel, Arturo, Chloe, Julian, and their coaches, Mr. Sy, and Mr. Stanache. different. Eight. Thank you, Davis, for being here. We got one more. We got east. Yes. Madam, Madame President, uh members of the board, executive team and Rosello community, we also

014want to celebrate with um guardil number two our spelling bee winners. And with that, I would like to invite Miss Elizabeth Susa. Good evening, Madame President, members of the board, Dr. Patio executive team, and members of our community. My name is Elizabeth Souza and I'm a district reading coach and tonight I'm here to celebrate with you the four students who demonstrated excellence at our district spelling bee. Each of our schools held classroom and school spelling bees to identify their top two spellers and those top two spellers were then invited to the district spelling bee. After many rounds of tough competition, the four students here tonight earned their spots to represent our school district in the regional spelling bee. We are all so proud of their hard work and dedication and we know that these traits

015will follow them far in life. Please join me in celebrating our spellers. From Sunland and Jorgensson, we have Javier Espinosa. From Ignasio Konchos, we have Ethan Galindo Casas. from Clovis Cample. We have Daniel Ray from Cesar Chavez. We have Carlos Raina. Awesome. Thank you so much Dr. Cotios please return to your areas if you would be so kind. And then also parents at this time if you'd like to have photo session with your babies, your loved ones and family in the hallway as you entered there's a nice backdrop. Feel free to do that at this time and we want to thank you for trusting us with your babies. See you soon. Thank you. Whether it's a championship trophy or a spell and be medal, each of you have demonstrated excellence. Keep striving, keep shining, and

016keep making us proud. Did any other board members make want to make a comment? Good. Right. Hearing none, next item on our agenda is goal number is goal number one and goals 1.1 and 1.2. Just a reminder, goal number one is a percent of fourth grade students that score meets grade level or above on the ASA ELA will increase from 20% on August 23rd to 45% by August 2028. The interim goals are designed to measure progress toward our B our board academic goals. It is the board's responsibilities to submit questions to the administrative team prior to the board meeting to ensure that the team has time to answer questions, but there will also be questions that were not sent to the administrative team asked during this portion of the meeting. With that said, I'll pass

017it on to Dr. Portillo. Thank you, Madame President, members of the board, executive team, and Roosevelt community. We are about to present um on goal number 1.1. Can you speak into the mic, please? We can't hear you. Thank you. Go number one.1 and 1.2. And for that, I would like to invite Mr. Nicholas Ovo to the um to the stand. Thank you, Madam President, members of the board, Superintendent Portillo, Deputy Superintendent Battle, and Executive Team. Uh, thank you for having me here to share updates on progress towards goal one. There we go. Um, just going to try to see if I can zoom this out a little bit, get it all on the screen. Okay, so um I had half of a mind to have a April Fool's joke where it showed our data tanking.

018Uh, but I know this is like a public document, probably wasn't the right place, but you just imagine Will wasn't here either. So that was the other thing that was holding me back. Uh so um the the data is actually going up uh that I know that you have all seen this but to also share with our um community members um this we have seen before. This is our second time going through it. Um but uh for those who are seeing this for the first time, just a reminder that um 2021 2020 obviously represented COVID and um a lot of progress that we have made um since then and over the last two years that we are at 21%. for uh our board. I know that we want to make sure that we are um

019headlining the headline and uh our headline is that this these fourth grade numbers um are not on track. However, uh we are seeing as you can see an increase in progress when you look at star. So we were looking at um trying to achieve 28% by the spring of 25 and um our winter benchmark was 24 a.5%. Our February our most recent data is 23.6%. I'll say this a couple of times uh because it'll it'll come up. Um we have we as a district think about benchmark and progress monitoring data. Our benchmark data is fall or the beginning of the year, winter or December, and the end of the year, spring. Our uh sites are also doing progress monitoring, and we're really striving for once a month. Um but but the progress monitoring and the

020benchmark data are going to be a little different, and I'm going to u speak to that. Um we'll get to this too. I also mentioned in the headline that um for 1.1 we have really strong first grade early literacy data. Um we'll also talk about our second grade data uh which is currently not on track to meet 1.2 interm goal 1.2. Okay. When we think about our um growth and proficiency rate um so just a a reminder of of what we're looking at here on page two. Our school population proficiency this is just fourth grade. This is uh December again midyear data but we all also are going to talk about our most uh recent data as well but again this is our most recent benchmark data which is why we we show this. Um

021so you have your proficiency rate the percentage of students who are at proficiency or um more specifically this is what the star test is saying um students are on track to be proficient on ASA. it's meant to be a predictor. And then also you have the growth average. Um so this is um students SGP scores their standard growth growth percentile score and taking the average of all the students in that grade level at that school. And a very simple way since uh SGP is a complicated measure I always think about it as speed. Um and and my my sports analogy today is is race car or NASCAR. So, I know I'm going to lose everybody today, but uh proficiency rate is you can think of as the position in a car race and growth average

022is is the speed that they're going or their top speed. Um so, for schools that have a very high growth average, you can predict that they are on track to move up in proficiency. So, um, uh, I've been watching a lot of Cars 3 with my, uh, kids, and Jackson Storm has a better top speed than Lightning McQueen and Cars 3, and inevitably, uh, passes Lightning McQueen and is perform outperforming Lightning McQueen. So, if the NASCAR didn't get you, hopefully Cars 3 and Pixar movies works for you. Okay. Um, I also want to uh look at our student population proficiency with our district numbers. I'm going to leave our our district number there. So, if I'm looking at this, I think um what would stand out to me is anytime I see a growth average

023in the 30s, that's going to be a little on the low side, especially when the district average is uh 43 right now. Um so, just kind of calling to attention our uh American Indian or Alaskan Native uh population. Although it's a very small sample size, I still think it's um noteworthy. And then obviously the proficiency is low there, too. Um, conversely where we have um percentage they use the term multiple. So this is uh typically uh one more than one uh race or ethnicity. Uh the growth average is is low but the proficiency is very high. So I I would be uh not as concerned with that just seeing that proficiency number. And then finally, at the bottom of page two, I always like to do uh my flavor of the month is looking at

024our first grade early literacy proficiency and growth scores. Early literacy, uh just as a reminder, is taken by our kindergarten and first grade students. Uh our reading test is 2 through 8th grade. Reading is u more a standard comprehension test. Early literacy looks at foundation skills. So that'd be phonics, letter names. Um so that the tests are different. Um, these are our top uh schools in terms of proficiency and you can also see the uh growth average on the far right as well as our district averages and percentages. Um, so we're going to get down to our interim goal and you can see our December percentage right here is 45.6% and I'm going to get I'm going to scroll so that we can see interim goal 1.1 and I think that that is of note

025because obviously 45% is our big number. So when we're at a number anywhere that's at 45% I think that that is noteworthy and um certainly a celebration all the way back to kindergarten last year we were really highlighting this kindergarten cohort and how well they were doing on some of our district CFAs and now continuing to do well on our our early literacy. Again you see a dip there is a dip um for what we're I'm calling February or some of our most recent data. Um, but we also saw a dip last year and that number went up. So almost imagine just kind of I don't want to say throwing out cuz this data does matter, but the line actually makes a lot of sense except for that February data. Um, so I would still

026be um I don't want to say hopeful, but I'm still would be tracking towards u May data for first grade that would be at or above 45.6%. Again, um this is not to make an excuse, but progress monitoring is just uh administered differently than our benchmarks. Um for our benchmarks, we're we're really um um intense about getting to 95% the test environment. Um and certainly this is something that we want to look at um for next year and we actually are looking at that on the assessment calendar plan to make sure that when we are doing these tests especially for the data that we're going to show that it's being administered as cons consistently as possible. Um and so we're we're thinking about that right now. Um but again I would take um I would

027take more stock in our benchmark data the August, December and May data. Uh and then uh this was a uh request of the board that our school population proficiency by site. Um and we've included the growth average numbers for each site as well. I say January to March here just cuz I didn't just take February. I kind of like took a little bit into January and then a little bit into um March. And so that allowed me to get more students cuz when when we do it that way, it just gets any student's last test. So if they took a test more than once, there just got their last test. So just to give us a little better data. And again, interimm goal 1.2. Uh this one I would say we're not seeing as much

028growth obviously as we saw for first grade. And this is a little bit more in line with last year. So uh this cohort is tracking the same as last year's second grade cohort. Um, so based on that, you could probably expect something similar here. I will also say that this cohort of second graders, their growth score is a little bit lower than last year's cohort of second graders. And again, I have the second grade uh proficiency for you. Again, I I believe this was a request. This put us up to five pages on the on the report now, but this is uh good data to see uh by sites here. And then um finally second to fourth grade star reading. So at the end I usually try to combine um a kind of band of

029grade levels at a school. Um this kind of helps you to see a little bit more of a trend at each site as opposed to just one grade level. And um again it has the growth average, our percentage of proficiency um across the district and then our growth average. And again this is more recent data. So data that has students who have tested after December. Uh one last thing I want to um scroll up to the top again and just um address a question. This came from Dr. Hodgej uh about predicting 23% for fourth grade star proficiency in in the spring. And I would say that that would be correct specifically for ASA. That's kind of what I would be tracking at too. So Dr. Hajj, thank you. you're you're going to run me out

030of a job. Please don't. It's just kidding. Uh that um we I would expect our spring 25 star data based on what we see here in this trend to be um really based on the um growth data maybe even as much as 24%, I would say somewhere between 23 24%. And you can see last year that our spring 2024 data for STAR really tracked well with what we ended up with in ASA. Um so this was a really accurate predictor of AASA success which is what makes STAR so valuable. And with that um I can come to the bottom of page four to get to um what is working, what needs more attention. Uh Dr. Portio, I'm happy to defer to you or speak to some of Yeah, thank you. Um, and because the um

031area was reading, I'd also like to invite um Elizabeth back up. So, what is working um what we've been doing that has been working and is showing us evidence of of um strong results. Thank you, Dr. Hajj. Um is the implementation of the science of reading. So, as you all know, over the last two to three years, um, three years specifically, but really, um, at at full throttle, we've been implementing the science of reading. So, having all of our teachers, um, trained, um, in the lower grades on letters is something that we see as, as you can see in that first grade data, kindergarten and first grade have been able to um, benefit from being uh, receiving instruction under um, teachers that have been trained in letters. Um, and what we see is more growth

032there, right? So, that's something that we think is working as we're exposing other teachers and other grade levels to that training. Um, we do anticipate being able to accelerate some of that growth and we recognize that the growth in the other grades isn't where we want it to be yet. Um, so we'll continue to um provide letters training. The other thing that um is working is also um the retention and our development of our instructional coaches and then ensuring that they're also um going to be supported and training um as well as the um the H in HMH we um revised our structural literacy resource. So we purchased another add-on to our HMH adoption which focuses much more heavily in the lower grades on phonics. So, we see that that's working based on the evidence

033that you saw that those great that that first grade is so much stronger. And I know you've seen our early literacy um data in kindergarten in other meetings. Um as well as um teachers applying that um science of of reading training in their actual reading blocks. Is there anything that you'd like to add to that, Miss Susa? Okay. All right. All right. So, what needs more attention and what is our action plan? So, we recognize that one of the things that needs more attention is to continue to develop all of our instructional coaches. Um, we are going to be revising the RSD uh curriculum pacing guides this summer after we finished all of our assessment so that we can ensure that kids have exposure to all of the um standards that will be assessed on

034the UNASA um next year. And then also we want to develop our fourth and fifth grade teachers um even further. And um just want to remind you that we are changing our master schedule to be departmentalized. Um that means that our um fifth grade and up our teachers will be uh either math teachers and or reading teachers. So they'll be able to focus more so on less things and become stronger at that. And then our action plan, if you don't mind scrolling a little bit. So one of the so we we found three things here that we really wanted to highlight in our action plan. One is the ELA plans. So we currently are having our teachers engage we have had our teachers engage in uh unit planning um and doing a lot of the

035unit planning in their PLTS. This summer we'll have um teachers that we that we will um select uh and interview and select um to lead that unit planning and then utilize um utilize the Ashlock priority reading plans which is actually on the agenda today for uh recommended approval so that they are able to focus more so on um the creation and the adapt adapting of their lesson plans to the class that they have before um for the other grades, the the upper grades, what we'll be doing with the um with the um in the summer is that we're going to be then interviewing and bringing in teachers to create the ELA plans for those older grades. And then the teachers in their PLTS won't be um working on unit plans as much during the year.

036They'll be working more so on the actual lesson plans. Um, also, uh, our consultant, Jennifer Ashel, will be conducting reading, uh, summer academy, um, training for those K5 teachers on how to utilize those, um, priority reading plans. So, they'll be observing, um, exemplary lessons so that they could see, um, and see and watch a model of the delivering those lessons and how they might adapt them as they are planning for the students that are in front of them. Um, also, we want to continue to grow our principles and our instructional coaches. So we'll also be um training them on the reading plans. They don't principles don't need to know them as to the same level of of course our practitioners are teachers and then our reading coaches of course will get differentiated training because they

037need to know them even better and be a step ahead of our teachers. Um and we will continue then to work on uh an analyzing the impact of our reading intervention materials. um and knowing that um we will create a a resource chart based on those students needs. We do have um as a result of reinventing Roosevelt, we're able to maintain one additional teacher on every campus to work on RTI response to intervention. So we'll be also onboarding um those new um intervention positions um and creating systems with them and structures to ensure that that tier 2 intervention um is is resulting in yielding in accelerated growth for all of the grade levels. Um and then also we will be um prioritizing the data conversations in one-on- ones or uh grade level meetings um providing

038guidelines for the instructional coaches and working that into their actual schedule. Um anything else you want to add to that, Miss Susan? Sure. Just to um reiterate and rephrase in a different way starting with Mr. Oedo's point. I'm sorry. Good evening, Madame President, members of the board, executive team Dr. Portio, members of the community. Um to reiterate what has already been shared in a different way starting with assessment. Uh when we think about our second grade data that we are looking at here, we received a question about the um the dip that is seen from first grade to second grade. Mr. Obio touched on that the star reading assessment starts in second grade and is a comprehension assessment. Well, if you have second grade or students older than that who still have um word recognition

039gaps or skill deficiencies, that test isn't alone going to um diagnose those. And so we're having conversations now about what does that look like for students who are scoring at that beginning reading level on the STAR reading assessment? Whether that's administering the STAR early literacy assessment to see those phonics and phonological awareness gaps as well as administering the CBM or the curriculum based measures, oral reading fluency measures just to give us a better picture. Tying that data to some systems we already have in place with our uh CST or child study team. um bringing that information to the the coordination care team and then tying in our our new staff member for the uh response to intervention. Making sure that there are many minds together to try to help students in a a quick um

040prognosis and fast data cycle to imple determine the interventions, implement the interventions, and come back and check that progress to hopefully get students moving faster than we already do. We're very lucky that we have quite a few resources, but we are streamlining our systems and almost coming up with a a flowchart of if you have this if you have a student with this uh data or this skill gap, then what what do you do? Just so we can really solidify our systems across the the district. Thank you. Um Madame President, um you all keep us on our toes and have submitted questions. So we want to also invite Miss Erica Sander to the podium. Um and between all of us we are going to tag team answer some of the questions that were submitted. So

041Miss Victoria Castro Coral um asks what instructional strategies and intervention are we utilizing to ensure that progress on a goal 3.1 which is increasing star ELA benchmark scores translates into measurable gains toward April's target goal number one. So between all of us, yeah, anyone who wants to to add to that. Good evening, madame president, governing board members, Dr. Portillo and executive team and community. Um so to ens for this specific question um for what instructional strategies and intervention are we utilizing to ensure the progress on interim goal 3.1 we wanted to touch base on a few um key bullets. Um the first one is our datadriven instruction. And so for us, one way that we can do this is teachers are using benchmark and progress monitoring assessment data to identify skill gaps and tailor instruction

042accordingly. Um site professional learning communities analyze student performance trends and adjust lesson plans to address areas of need. two specific examples of that actually today. Um I had the opportunity to visit two sites bo uh bar and sunland and their data um speaks to they have um high growth and as well as proficiency and in their plts they had students um student work in front of them and they were analyzing it. what did the students master versus what do they still need to work on and then what are they going to do about it. So some of the conversation was if it's more than um a certain percentage the whole class has to be retaught during tier one versus is this something that we're just going to pull small groups. So I was very very

043proud um I know a lot of our admin and our instructional coaches work very hard for that student work protocol. Um the other one we wanted to highlight are targeted interventions. Uh students who are not meeting proficiency levels receive additional support through small groupoup instruction in both reading comprehension strategies and skills as well as word recognition and phonics instruction as needed. And we are leveraging researchbased intervention programs like SIPs and Lexia to reinforce foundational literacy skills, comprehension strategies and writing proficiency. at Sunland today. They actually were looking at progress monitoring data for specifically ELA and they had a graphic organizer where they were filling out these are the students who are currently struggling um based on their most recent progress monitoring and then how are they going to attack it and support their students moving

044forward. Um so that's one way that they really look at interventions specifically um for their specified intervention block. We're the other bullet we want to highlight is differentiation and scaffolding. Our lessons are designed with multiple entry points to ensure all students can access grade level content. Uh teachers use scaffolding techniques such as building background with multimedia, graphic organizers and thinking maps, sentence stems and model text to support struggling readers and writers. Um and last one is consistent progress monitoring and we can speak to this on various levels. Um as you saw tonight um we do ask sites to progress monitor once a month. Um but in addition to that they also utilize other like phonics screeners um and other assessments on a daily basis in order to get that instant feedback. So formative assessments such

045as exit tickets running oral fluency records and common grade level content assessments are developed by teachers and used to track student progress regularly. By maintaining a strategic focus on these instructional strategies, interventions, we are ensuring that gains on intram benchmarks lead to sustained and measurable progress, you know, toward our April ELA targets. Any additional questions? Um, Madam President, can I just jump in with a follow-up question? Um, and first I just want to own that I as a board member did not do my due diligence and submit my questions ahead of time. So if this did not this is coming to you um without proper preparation and that's on me. Um specifically thinking about our um English language learners and our ESS populations. Those are the two populations um that have the lowest proficiency currently.

046Can you speak um I I appreciate the overview you're giving about the intervention the progress monary. Can you speak specifically to how those two subgroups are receiving intervention or any um specific considerations that are happening for those two specific groups given their low proficiency rates? Absolutely. And I invite um Elizabeth to come up as well. Um so this year specifically for our students who are English language learners, we um are the governing board um this previous summer adopted and purchased a curriculum for specifically called language power. And so students who do receive services um they do have a c a specified curriculum that they receive training on and then during their intervention block they do receive um specific um language power. Um anything else you want to add to kind of uh sure so you

047touched on it but in their intervention block that's their targeted EL instruction. So they're receiving at their uh language proficiency level whether uh it's in grade bands of K2, 35 or 68. And then within that there are pre-emergent emergent basic or intermediate um curriculum resources that teachers can use to support all areas for EL. There's a lot of overlap between the ELP standards and the ELA standards. So a um it is very similar to what students need in their ELA intervention as well, but targeted specifically to grow their language needs as well. Then within their reading block or their um their core grade level reading, that's what we call their integrated intervention. Um and and that's where students receive their core instruction at their grade level with scaffold and differentiation as needed uh to help

048them access the content. And then did you want to talk about ESS? You can. Okay. Our ESS students for tier three within their resource classrooms or other special programs have uh used the 95% group phonics program which I I uh have heard is is awesome and our resource teachers love it. Um that specifically helps with that word recognition piece of phonics. So when you have students K5 or beyond that have uh gaps in their phonological awareness, phonics and site recognition, that's where the 95% group really comes in. They have additional resources like words their way depending on what the students goals are on their IEP. But uh the each student whether they are EL subgroup or ESS subgroup has a variety of resources at the teachers disposal to um tailor instruction and to add to

049that just oh sorry go ahead. No perfect can I just say this back to you to make sure I'm understanding for the the ESS um I'm familiar with the 95% phonics piece um for the EL intervention. Can I just say this back to you to make sure I'm hearing it correctly? Um, the targeted intervention where ELEL students are receiving their language intervention is happening during the block when non-ELL students are receiving their reading intervention. Yes, that's correct. Okay. Thank you. If I might, Madame President, govern board members, Dr. Portio, executing and community. um we don't want to oversp speed what we plan to do because we just received our audit and so you will get more information as to how efficient we are doing both the targeted and the integrated model. So I just want

050to make sure I call that out for right now. What Miss Sosa has described is exactly the plan. So we're looking to see how how we're using all strategies with fidelity. All right. also submitted by Miss Castro Coral. How are teachers being supported to effectively bridge the gap uh between STAR ELA growth and ASA ELA proficiency? Thank you. Great question. To um effectively bridge the gap between ELA growth and ASA ELA proficiency, um I can spec specifically um speak to an example I saw today at Sunland. Um and so what they did is there is in STAR there is a report called growth and proficiency and it's split into four quadrants. And so when it students have either um high growth, high proficiency, Nick, you might have to help me on this one. Um high

051growth, low proficiency, um high proficiency, low growth, or low in both. And so what they do, thanks to the training from um from Nick and from um his department, our teachers are pulling those reports now. And so they're looking at which students can we target. So at Sunland today, they specifically looked at that report, looked at which kids are falling into the low proficiency, low growth, and they created a plan. And so that was a quick pivot for them just based on their most recent. Um but in addition to that um we're providing comprehensive support for teachers through targeted professional development, instructional coaching, and strategic curriculum adjustments. I can speak last week during our principal instructional coach meeting, our ESS department provided professional development to our site admins on strong instructional effective strategies to meet

052the needs of our students um who do receive specialized resource uh services. Um for professional development uh for teachers um we are engaged in ongoing PD sessions focused on effectively analyzing student data at multiple levels. The sessions offered include improving comprehension, vocabulary acquisition, and writing skills, ensuring alignment with AASA expectations. Participating teachers have received targeted professional development on student engagement strategies, the science of reading, and effective instructional strategies for teaching in a multi-age classroom. for instructional coaching. Our instructional coaches provide a variety of job embedded support through coaching cycles which include classroom observations, modeling lessons, and co-eing opportunities. They may engage in coaching um opportunities where they whisper coach. So while the teacher is um in the classroom, the instructional coach will come up and whisper in their ear to provide that instant feedback to

053them so that they can grow stronger. Our RSC instructional coaches work alongside teachers to refine instructional practices, implement high impact strategies, and different differentiate instruction based on student needs. Our coaches participate in learning walks at their sites where they gather data with the admin team to identify trends and implement action steps. One example was at Pastor last week. Um, Miss Geston and myself with Miss Aosta and her team visited every single classroom. We were there a full day based on what we observed. They created a plan short-term of okay so now how do we support our teachers moving forward and it was very very powerful. So the plan um can provide professional development which pastor's plan does because they were able to identify the gap. They know what they need to work on systemically. Um,

054instructional coaches also have been provided targeted test preparation for teachers on integrating AASA style questioning techniques into daily lessons, emphasizing critical thinking, textbased responses, and multi-step problem solving. And during, um, last week's district learning walks on Tuesdays, the executive team as well as myself um, and Lynette Wright um, we go to schools and we walk classrooms. We spend time with our administrators and we observed having students to complete the AAA aasa practice assessment. So they are familiar with the tools and how to navigate the test. So that it really is not a matter of is it not because they are confused by the technology but they're they're ready for it. And then um one additionally one seventh grade class was writing argumentative essays online while requiring students to use uh uh two teacher provided texts

055as a source of evidence. Anything else you guys want to So I'm going to take a stab at the last two qu at uh Dr. Haja's last three questions. Um so are we projecting that fourth grade will be at 23% at the end of the school year and um Mr. Joello said that yes we are between 23 and 24%. So that is um not as much well it's relatively flat and not as much growth as we have seen in our other grade levels. Um I think one of well I I know that one of the reasons is because the students have not had the opportunity to benefit yet um uh as much from um teachers being in ELA training um and all of the science of reading that we've been doing and pushing. Um as

056a as a reminder our letters training is takes approximately a two-year cycle for our teachers to go through. Um so it's a a a significant um investment in time and resources for those teachers and and sub coverage. So we do see um faster growth. And that connects back to question number two is what is working with our first graders that is not working with our second graders. So um one of the things that's working great with our first grade um students is that focus again on um phonics and phmic awareness. Um and um we know that with our with our second graders, they the teachers just haven't had as much time in the training and the resources and the students haven't had as much time to benefit from that. Um another thing is um as

057we look at our second graders, we know that many of them still have significant phonics gaps. So, as we do our phonic screeners, we're finding that um and that's why we um are are really uh fortunate and thankful that you all approved for us to have that additional teacher to be pulling those um intervention groups for this upcoming year so that we can accelerate the growth of our students as they will be third graders next year. So, we have to start planning for for the following year. um they not only have significant phonics gaps, but we also know that they need to um become more accurate and more automatic or have greater fluency. Um so we have a lot of work to do with that group in order to be able to get them um

058caught up to where we want them to be on our interim goals. Um and let's see the next question. Anything else you think I'm missing, ladies or gentlemen? Okay. And then how can we make progress faster? And again implementing letters um K3 um and actually um continuing to push our our teachers in training um this summer. One of the items again for for your approval today is an opportunity for them to choose what works best in their summer family schedule. Three different options for them to go to training on how to use those um those um um they're not called templates anymore, priority plans. they've changed name. So, the priority plan. So, we recognize that um we're also very fortunate that our board has um adopted such such a comprehensive reading adoption and all these

059different resources to support them. But it's it's so many materials that those priority reading plans will really be able to to um have them prioritize and then adapt based on the the um the assessment results of the students before them. So again, providing these three opportunities for the teachers to to participate in that training, which I believe is five days, right, Elizabeth? A five-day training this summer is going to be important. Um, also we will be we already have had our our principles participate in two sessions of training and they'll continue to to be in that training so that they also are able to know what it looks like, what it should look like when done well um in the classroom and be able to provide that feedback alongside the instructional coaches. We know that

060they are the instructional leaders and we want to invest in them as well. Anything else I missed team? No. Okay. Um any other questions that you all might have? Thank you. Thank you so much. And no, Mr. Oiera, I do not want your job. You're so good at it. We'll just leave you um to do that cuz you're the expert. Um the next item on our agenda is public participation. And we do have some public comment. So I'll read the ammunition. Personal tax upon board members, staff personnel or other persons in attendance or are absent by individuals who address the board are discouraged. Presenters are conscious that statements or representations concerning others that convey an unjust or unfavorable impression may subject the presenter to civic action for defamation. And I will call the first person

061to the podium. You have three minutes to speak. Um and Marisella will set a timer. Miss Liliana Hutcherson. Good evening, president of the board, member members of the board, superintendent, executive team, and community members. My name is Liliana Hutcherson. I want to take a moment to acknowledge the incredible impact that Superintendent Dr. Portillo has had on parent engagement in Roosevelt School District. Under her leadership, we have seen a true commitment to creating spaces where parents feel valued, heard, and empowered. Because of this, we now have a strong dedicated parent leaders who are actively involved in shaping the success of the schools and students. This level of engagement is a is a testament to the important of collaboration between families and the district and it's something truly special here in Rosenb. Thank you, Superintendent Dr. Portillo,

062by fostering this culture of partnership and leadership. Thank you. Thank you. Next we'll have Mr. Jeff Zatino. Zatenno. Okay. Okay. Okay. Zatenno. Yes. Uh good evening uh Madame President, members of the board, uh Superintendent Portillo, and members of our community. Uh my name is Jeff Satino. I'm the vice president for policy and advocacy with all in education and I'm making remarks today uh representing the organization and also myself as a community member. Um I just wanted to start off by saying that leadership matters. Um leadership is the defining factor that we see across the state when we see improving school districts. And I commend this district for having such an amazing cadre of leadership from the school board to the superintendent to the cabinet and down to the principles and teachers. Um my comments are

063towards uh Superintendent Portillo. But I think one part of leadership is being able to build a strong team and the team that she's built and the relationship that she has built and fostered with the board is truly commendable. As we look at all literacy and math proficiency rates across the state, uh we are in a crisis. But what we see in South Phoenix is that it's a district that's on the rise, that it's improving, and we see the dedication from the board and the superintendent and everybody within the community to make sure that we turn these literacy and math proficiency rates around uh around. her leadership not only within the community but nationally and her uh involvement with everything that we see on the ground is truly commendable and I just want the board to

064know that um we are in deep debt to Dr. Portio's leadership. Uh the future of our kiddos and our babies uh are dependent on your decisions today and I hope that you guys uh take these comments into account when you deliberate the extension of her uh contract. So, thank you for your time. Thank you. Next we have Miss Darlene Jackson. I have to remember like how to acknowledge everyone. This is my first time doing this. So good evening. Um Madame President, Dr. Pertilo, um Dr. battle because I look executive members of the board and the community. Did I get it right? All right. Yay. So, my name is Darlene Jackson. I represent an organization called Future Framework in which we focus community development on the child, but I'm also here as a community member. As

065Jeff also said, I am extremely impressed with Dr. Portillo, her recruiting Dr. battle cuz I heard the behind story. Um, you are a queen, Dr. Patilo. I've seen you wear your crown and your makeup be flawless when the crap hit the fan. You stayed focused. You stayed honorable to who you are and you respected those even when they attacked you. Um, in doing that, you won my heart and my support. You kept your word. You said after we get through this storm, they're going to see a better Roosevelt School District. We see that and I'm bragging about it. I think your leadership is vital to this community, to the economic development of this community and to the future of our children. I commend you. I am proud of you. She came to because she doesn't

066just work here. She works in the community. I also am a member of South Mountain Village Planning Committee. She is there more than I am. I had to take some time off because I had school and she was there routinely. And when she first came to introduce herself, she said, "I live in a community that when I go to their schools and I look at their brown area," she said, "They're green." She said, "I want the same thing for our school. Every last one of them." And if you hear the development of the reinventing Roosevelt School District, it is happening. We're talking about new furniture. We're talking about infrastructure being improved. We're talking about an increase in teacher salary. We're talking about ways to get more teachers here that are specialized in certain subjects, which

067is the beginning of the future of developing our children so they can go off and be great as we know they can be great. I appreciate you. Keep doing your work. Keep your crown straight because we are proud of you. Extending her contract or whatever we're looking to do would be a blessing to this entire community. Thank you for your time. Thank you. Next, we'll have Dr. Patty Murk. Good evening, Madame President, Superintendent Dr. Portillio, Deputy Superintendent Dr. battle and all the esteemed members of the board and the community. I'm here to with I my name is Dr. Patty Murk. I work at the University of Arizona Cooperative Extension which is located in A5040. We've been here forever and we are uh we have been operating and helped create with you the district the University

068of Arizona Cooper um Roosevelt School District Early Childhood Family Resource Center. And as I was watching the presentation before about the reading progress and reading scores, I was so encouraged because our program helps those babies and uh toddlers and preschoolers and parents understand and bring together the importance of familiarness, the importance of learning communication from the start and helping the community come together to understand that what we do early in education matters those birth to five years and prepare those students to become your students in the in the district. So um along with that most recently I've had the pleasure to meet weekly with Dr. Portillo and Dr. battle as we transition King uh to a community a more open community center as we um move forward and I'm really really encouraged by what I

069see how that's going and how that's progressing. And so we're all we're all working together to help improve that whole neighborhood uh and help it uh be um accessible to the community and help to um transition people to Julian and we're all working together. So it's just really heartwarming to me to be a part of that and also to continue. I've been um doing this for 15 years. I made a few presentations before the board and it's just been really um a wonderful experience and I'm so encouraged with uh the bright future that I see ahead and the wonderful progress um that lies ahead with reading in particular and math and whatever we can do. We actually teach the parents how they can work with their children with math um with as you know one

070and two year olds on up. So, um, that said, I'm in full support of continuing Dr. Portio's contract to help us to all work together to continue to progress. Thank you. Thank you. Next, we have Miss Tamara Floyd. Okay. Oh, April Fools. I am not surprised. I am not Samira Floyd but April Fools. My name is Thomas. Thank you. Say for the record. One of these out if she told me to speak in her place. So my name is Thomas Clayton the fourth and she stated that she wants to affirm the continuation of Dr. P. What she has started is a good thing and continuing moving in the right direction is important. Um those were her comments and then for me I just heard that uh leadership matters and I would like to continue and

071add on to that and say consistency matters and the fact that there has been so much effort and energy put into building team um collaboration with community partners and for me as a community resident and community partner I think it's important. I think Dr. Pia has showed and displayed exemplary leadership skills. Um, I've witnessed her hosting the right to read workshops. I've witnessed her being in the community, working with the community. And lastly, I just say I think she has the proper lived experiences that will be good for this district and to continue on the leadership that's necessary. Thank you. Thank you. And for our final public comment tonight is Miss Maria Valenuela. I bring my notes. Good evening, Madame President and members of the board and Dr. Portillo and community. Thank you. Um, my

072name is Maria Valenuela and I am the new executive director for spaces of opportunity and I am here to share the importance along with leadership matters. I think representation matters as well and I am here to in favor of continuing Dr. Portio's um contract. I've just recently met her um as she was also um a part she was there at spaces of opportunity uh very engaged in as you all know spaces of opportunity the land belongs to the school district and I have not heard or been around another superintendent that has had that has the heart that Dr. Portillo has for the community, for the children, for the families that she serve. And her the whole two hours that we were there, it was cold, it was windy, and you know, she kept saying, "How

073do we get the parents engaged? How do we get this um spaces of opportunity to be a community land for the children and their families? So along with that, that's what we are working for. So um next year you will see more engagement or you'll see your families, the children um at spaces of opportunity along with um with you all hopefully. And so anyhow, I'm an alumni of Roosevelt School District. I appreciate all of the hard work that you all do. Um many many years ago, I was a student that some members of the community were out here supporting us. So, I appreciate what you're all doing for the families. Um, I can see myself as a little girl back then and I can see the moms of the community as my mom was once.

074Thank you. Thank you to all of our presenters. We do welcome public comment. Next item on our agenda is reports and I will pass it to Dr. Portillio for the superintendent report. Thank you, Madam President, members of the board executive team and Roosevelt community. I do want to thank our members of the community for your kind words and encouragement. Thank you very much. Um, and before we start our superintendent report, I want to call Principal Christina Baracharia to the podium. She has something special to talk about her school to share with you. and then also um a small token of awesomeness for you. Okay, Madame President, governing board, Dr. Portillio, executive team and community. Um thanks. Thanks, Nate. Um so we had our Cessor Chavez Day celebration on Friday. Um Dr. Portio was able to

075attend. Um, and we had a school assembly where we honored students who um earned an award for demonstrating Cesar Chavez's core values. Um, we also had a soccer tournament where some of my colleagues sent their students um to really just be rooted in community. Um, and it was a beautiful day. We had Radio Compassina there which is from the Cesar Chavez Foundation. Um, and it was a lovely day to eat lunch outside. And so a long time ago, I signed up for my token of awesomeness for this day so that way I could present you guys with some Chavez shirts. And then I'm sorry, exact team. I need your sizes so we can get you some as well. So thank you. Thank you. And just a reminder to you all and then also to the

076community. The token of awesomeness represents a connection for you the board to always remember that the work and the decisions that you make here um on the dis has direct impact on the students that we have the pleasure and the privilege to serve. So thank you um principal Badaria. Okay. So we wanted to introduce you to a new crop of principles that we will have starting with us next school year. So oh yes after recommended approval by you the board. But I did want to introduce them to you. Um so we had um all um Miss Sylvia Miller who will be serving as principal once approved um at Irene Lopez. We're recommending her for approval. She has more than two decades of experience in education. She is also an alumni of the Roosevelt School District.

077Um her journey began her journey began as a classroom teacher where she spent 11 years inspiring young minds and cultivating a love for learning. She's driven by a passion for leadership. She served in various leadership roles after leaving the classroom, including instructional coach, assistant principal, supervisor of preschool and student records, and most recently, director of early childhood and literacy. Miss Miller believes by fostering a culture of high expectations, collaboration, and continuous improvement, Roosevelt can create an environment where every child can excel academically, socially, and emotionally. All right. Next, we have Miss Crystal A. Danzy. She is a native of Detroit, Michigan, and she will be serving as our innovation planning principal at Maxino Bush. She earned her bachelor's degree in education at Eastern Michigan University. Later, she earned her master's degree in principal certificate from

078NAU Northern Arizona University. She started alternative high she started an alternative high school in alternative high schools. Oh, sorry. She started teaching in 2001 and her love for teaching literacy led her from elementary and middle school classrooms to an alternative high school as a reading specialist where she later served as principal before becoming the director of credit recovery for the district. She has spent the past seven years transforming teachers and students perspectives on learning, growth, and achievement. And uh not here today because he is out of state is Dr. Michael Crder. Um his career in education spanning a p spanning primary, secondary, and higher education is a testament to his exceptional achievement. For 38 years, he has received numerous awards including two A+ school principal awards and a golden bell. Dr. Crder's success Dr. Crder's

079success working with highly gifted and disadvantaged students is unparalleled. His distinguished background has prepared him to continue his legacy here at the Roosevelt School District. And um not as principal, but um recommended for uh for approval as the new director of athletic safety and student discipline, we have Miss Doris Simmons. She has been she has been a dedicated school administrator in Arizona since 2018, bringing a wealth of experience from her background as a division division one athlete, a collegiate coach, and a military veteran. She holds a master's degree in organizational leadership and administration and supervision. She blends academic excellence with real world leadership. Her approach centers on using athletics and discipline as a powerful coaching tool to build character, structure, and a strong school culture. A passionate advocate for accountability and student growth, she looks

080forward to supporting and collaborating with fellow leaders to strengthen our schools, empower students, and elevate our community. And next, we have Mr. Melvin Mitchell. Mr. Mr. Mitchell will serve as the principal at Valley View. He is a dedicated and experienced principal with a deep rooted passion for fostering academic excellence and creating inclusive learning environments. For more than 15 years, our Milwaukee native is deeply committed to student success, instructional excellence, and school leadership through data driven initiatives to improve achievement. Mr. Mitchell collaborates with his staff teams to design and execute plans that improve strong relationships with students, families, and community. Um, he serves to efficiently manage and provide resources for students in underprivileged communities. And he also has experience with leader and me as both schools that he has led at were leader and me schools.

081And not here today, um, he is in Tucson and he was not able to to come up here because he had a different commitment today is Mr. Louis Robas. Um he is eager to bring enthusiasm for student success and community engagement to our community. He hold he has holds his bachelor's and two master's degree. He's uh currently pursuing his doctorate degree in educational leadership reflecting his commitment to lifelong learning. After spending more than 10 years in the classroom, he served as an instructional coach and assistant principal before becoming principal for the past five years. His approach focuses on fostering academic excellence through project-based learning, STEM education, and a robust arts curriculum. Welcome to our newest principles again after you approve. All right. So, we had record-breaking engagement in our annual climate survey. In alignment with

082superintendent guard rule number two, the annual climate survey um engages staff, parents, and guardians and students to gather valuable insights. The survey was conducted by the student wellness department under the leadership of Miss Bika Ladley, aiming for a participation rate of 50% among guardians or parents, 80% among students, and 80% among staff. The survey results soared beyond expectations. As of March 29th, 2025, student and staff response rates reached an impressive 156% of the goal and 108% respectively. Additionally, parent participation exceeds targets at Jorgensson and Campbell, making a significant success in community engagement. District parent response nearly doubled from last year. So, we're very excited about that. As you all know, that information will be helping us to develop new guards once we meet the guards we we've engaged in already. And then also will help

083us in the planning and a strategic planning process um that will start in May. All right. And then Sunland shined. I know I sent pictures to you all. This was so beautiful. Sunland shines with Finding Nemo the musical. Roosevelt School District is beaming with pride as we celebrate the phenomenal staff and students of Sullen for bringing Finding Nemo to life in yet another outstanding outstanding musical production. Last week we had the privilege of experiencing this breathtaking performance firsthand. In alignment with Superintendent Guardwell number two, The Whole Child, RSD continues to expand after school programs, enriching students academic, social, and emotional growth through the arts and beyond. And thank you. That's all I have for my report today. Thank you so much. And pending approval. Welcome to um our new principles and new staff. Are there

084any comments from the board or questions? Okay. The next item on the agenda is our board member update. Any updates, board members? Madam President, just that I know it is AASA testing season. So, a huge shout out to our administrators and teachers who are testing your students right now. We know that it is both the most stressful and just the most stressful time of year as you are really just like the Super Bowl is happening in your classroom every single day. Um, so just thank you for all of the work you've put in to get to this point and you know we are thinking of you and best of luck to you and your students. Thank you for that. Next item on the agenda is item 4.03 and is REA report and I'll pass it

085to Dr. Portillo. Thank you. I'd like to call to the podium Miss Dr. Martha Thomas to provide the REA report. Take your time. Good evening, Madame President, governing board members, Dr. Bortho, executive team, our REA and RSD um colleagues in our South Phoenix community. I'm Martha Thomas, social worker and president of REA. Currently, we have 354 members. Um, we would like to congratulate and um, congratulate our two newest executive board members. Um, Miss Charmaine Woods, a teacher teacher at Campbell School, and Mr. Eric Stanbeck, teacher at Davis. We now have a complete executive board, which I am really excited about. We are currently preparing for our delegate assembly um, which is coming in May. It'll be May 9th and 10th. Um getting ready to prepare and vote for our members at the A.E.A. um delegate

086assembly. We are also in the process of putting together a celebration movie night for our um members, our CL, our certified members um to celebrate them in all of their hard work. And we are also putting together our retirement dinner which we do every year for all of our members who end up retiring. um just to kind of oversee all of the comments and kind of in line with our great superintendent that we have um as REA um and I will share with you in all the conferences that I go to um for our associations throughout the state. We are the only district, the only association that has the relationship that we have with our superintendent and our board and that is absolutely phenomenal. No association in our state of Arizona and that includes other

087states have the relationship that we have with you and our superintendent. And I know a lot of our guidance in all the time that I have been with Roosevelt, um this has been the best relationship that we have had as an association and um a lot of our um successes have been with our relationship with you, Dr. Portillo, and all of our executive team. Um they are an amazing team. Thank you all for what you do and we can't do it without her. And so anything we can do to help and support, we're here to do that for all of you. Thank you. Any questions you might have for me. Thank you. You're welcome. The next item on our agenda is Ria Vincent Roosevelt. Um, for some that do not know, we did vote to

088close schools at the end of last year. And so, as a part of that, we um request an update monthly at at our regular schedule board meeting um about how that progress and process is going. And so, I'll now pass it to Dr. Portio. It's a lot of love in the room. Thank you, So, um, reinventing Roosevelt says our update and sorry, got to compose myself a little bit. Thing two, we'll step right in. Here we go. Doc, we love you. So, starting off as you've seen and um heard and um alluded to that a lot of good work has gone into prep and we're opportunity to give you an update on the reinvent Roosevelt and Governor Board we appreciate you uh for your support and dedication to that end. So, leadership as we've heard

089matters are committed to serving students and family and staff and the entire South Phoenix community. our vision, a community united to create better futures for all through education and we see that exemplified on the regular basis. So going fast there, say with me, Nick. So get involved, attend board meetings like today, share your thoughts, provide feedback, hold district accountable to its adaptable goals and guard rules. And thank you all for staying with us so you can hear what it is we're about. But we want to continue to be transparent and we appreciate you board members. Partner and collaborate to help move our students forward. Updating our community is what we want to do regularly, but we also want you to let us know. So, with that said, we have a few things that we're going

090to bring to your attention with the support of our colleagues to share a little bit about what we're up to. And we're going to talk about Alante, moving company, project manager, who's present. You'll get a brief intro of him and his wonderful talent. our update on transportation parent meetings and I'll provide that and of course we'll hear more about the superintendent's advisory group that continues to grow and expand. So with that said, Mr. Gonzalez, Madame President, governing board members, um, as you've heard, uh, Remaining Roosevelt has a lot of moving pieces. So one of those pieces is actually moving the stuff around the buildings. Um, rather than attempting to figure out all those logistics and the labor associated with that, um, we are planning, uh, pending your approval later on tonight to, uh, contract with

091this company, Elon Tech, who does a lot of that movement for us. Um, and because our auditors in the audience, yes, we follow proper procurement rules. Very good. Thank you very much for that, Mr. Gonzalez. So, moving forward, I'd like to have Mr. Gabe McDaniel just stand up, please. He's adding to and al already he's going to be our project managers. So you approve this evening. That would be outstanding. Um and also he'll be tag teaming with U. Bob and myself as we prepare our our school district uh for the future. A few things I'd like to share about Mr. McDaniel in my notes. He's an engineer uh engineer uh by trade. Um his degree is a BS in um mechanical engineering technology aeronautical sciences. Very talented and very skilled in multiple places. He did

092a fantastic job in the interview. Some of the positions that he has held um include factory director, production um manager, engineer, manager, um processes engineer, and again design is his his trade um in building and construction in managing and project managing. Um, and so we're going to get along great. So I appreciate you and your expertise and welcome to the family. Next slide. So transportation as you all have heard from Mr. uh Jason Kyle and so we've had opportunity to share with the community just last week I believe as an update about what we're up to and a few things just to highlight. um very thoughtful planning and again transparent and evident uh throughout already. So we appreciate his experience building stronger community connections is what we're focusing on optim optimizing routes and efficiency as

093well as enhancing student safety including clarifying student discipline in transportation and guidelines. So this is a collective effort, not just solo, but already he's demonstrated great leadership within the department and also expanding out into the community. So we've got some parent meetings to be scheduled. He been he's already attended a few capacitos. He's partnered with uh Mgalli and the community uh relations team to ensure that he's out to listen and learn. So, we're going to see great um just enhanced transportation with your leadership and we want you to know that um you're going to be well pleased with his efforts. Next slide, please. All right. So, thank you. My pleasure. Thank you. Um so, we had the opportunity last week to meet with the superintendent's advisory group. The superintendent's advisory group is composed of approximately

09425 members. I know that sometimes we'll have a few less and sometimes a few more um from the community. So, we um invited members that represent um our our religious leaders in our community um parents um community groups um our executive team uh is outside of those 25 members, right? cuz we're already here, but they they were present there um presenting um the uh the um community update that relates to their area of leadership. We also have um um some REA representation there and we also have principal representation um as well as parent representation and members of the business community. So we try to be very diverse in um the invitations that we sent out so that we could have a holistic um view and feedback from them at that meeting. Um I would say

095that uh the the general uh feeling was very positive. Um I know a couple of the community members reached out to a few of you um to um talk about what they experienced and we we gave them all of the updates that we've been working on. Um, I think the biggest highlight was um, Michanelle Alexander and her announcement of the um, of the efforts we're making to recruit the the most talented teachers in the state. Um, right now we're tied um, as one of the top um, beginning um, salary districts for our teachers. So, we're really excited about that and definitely have one of the best packages when it comes to our ESS teachers as well. So, we're really excited and proud of that. And again, we are one of the few districts at this

096point um as everyone is concerned about the drop in birth rates and competition that's out there for students. We're one of the f the few districts that not only um that were able to work our finances in such a way and address the the financial um hardships that we were facing in such a way that we uh are able to not only keep all of our teachers but also added additional teaching positions. We also added additional um opportunities for students when it comes to a higher level math classes. We um we're also adding flag football for next year. Um additional steam classes that we hadn't um been able to fund in the past. And then again the the um ability to have that additional teacher on every campus to deliver intervention is something that our

097principles have been asking for for a long time which we just were not able to afford before. Um, in addition, we um gave all of our teachers raises, which is um very unique um right now in the situation that we're in um as a district. And then also uh we prioritized um those hard to fill positions and ensuring that we have a strategy to try to save the district money in the long run by uh making those positions more attractive, providing more training in those positions. Um those would include our higher level trades. So, um, oh, yay. Thank you. There's our our our flyer that got the most applause in the meeting. Um, and also in our higher level trades, right? Being able to provide that that um additional compensation for our higher level trades

098will will help us to maintain those positions filled with the most most qualified techs, make sure that our our buildings are comfortable for our students and staff, that those air conditioners are fixed. um especially as we get ready for the summer season. And then also ensure that we have the most qualified um drivers and um transportation department um members to ensure that kids get here safely and and are able to um to um operationalize the um vision that we have for transportation in addition to um working on helping us to um be less dependent on outsourcing our paraprofessional positions. Right? So, we gave a significant increase there as well as part of the strategy to uh to lessen the impact of outsourcing on our Medicaid funds and the rest of our our our um our

099um on the rest of of our budgets. All right. And did you want to add something? Yes. Thank you. I'd be remiss not to also call out the facilities committee under the leadership of Bob Lucas and um as Dr. Portio shared and we also heard earlier uh we will have a transition of f of furniture but also new furniture that we'll need to mostly go into some so it's fully equipped but again a great assessment was done upgrading and refreshing our fire systems flooring restrooms and should you approve the purchase tonight we'd be really thankful so that we can continue that effort I think Dr. wrote would be really excited about that as well. And then also uh planning the the future of collaborative sport field sports fields for use. Um I know Dr. um

100excuse me, Nick Odo as well as Mr. Pettit are really creative and working with Bob about using our facilities right now for sports and um also just the um aesthetics the landscape. Um we're dedicating some funds to help support that. So again, your uh support and approval would be um outstanding to that end. Thank you. Thank you. Any comments or questions from the board? All right. Hearing none, moving on. The next item on the agenda is item 5.01 is approval of the consent agenda. Items 5.02 through 58. Is there a motion to approve the consent agenda items as presented? So moved. Is there a second? Second. All in favor? I I Motion passes unanimously. Congratulations to our new principles and our new staff. Next item on our agenda is item 6.01 is the request for

101employee benefits and I believe we will have a presentation so I'll pass it to Dr. Portio. Thank you madam president. Um we are uh requesting approval for employee benefits for 2526 fiscal school year. As a reminder we do have an agreement with asbait um for last the current year and the upcoming year. Um, we do have representatives from Matt Gallagher and Asbby that I'd like to invite to the podium so that they can present the highlights of the of the new benefits package. Good evening, President Hajj, Superintendent, Dr. Portillo, members of the board, and the executive team. My name is Lisa Weston. I am your um account executive with Gallagher Benefit Services and it's my pleasure to present to you this evening the employee benefit package recommendations for the 2526 plan year. Um as a

102large district that spends in medical benefits alone over $7.4 million, this is an incredible fiscal responsibility of the district in order to provide benefits to your employees. And in the package that I'm presenting today, uh we we're delighted with with essentially where we've come financially in the presentation. We do have some benefit changes and adjustments and some minor adjustments that I'm going to go over and present. But I also have in attendance with me the team from Asbait Maritane uh to answer any questions relating to any sort of plan changes that are being presented specifically relating to your medical benefits. Number one, um, as we're looking at the screen, I know it's very very small and very wordy. I apologize for that. It's it's a lot of benefits you guys give. Um, so first and

103foremost, um, we are represing um, approval and continuation of of offering the banner high deductible health plan a plan that you currently have in place. Um, keeping no rate and no network changes. also offering continuing to offer the classic gold plan and the co-pay gold plan as currently offered to your employees. We're also recommending the addition of a fourth um medical plan that is called the new value silver plan and we'll talk about what the idea the concept between behind offering an additional plan opportunity for your employees to select from. We also provide a recommendation to continue offering your retirees the opportunity to select the high deductible health plan A as well as a VA value gold plan as an opportunity to continue their benefits upon retirement from the district. We're um also recommending a

104new addition this year is international medical solutions. Um, we're excited to bring this opportunity as a consideration because what it will do is provide your employees who enroll in this benefit the opportunity to access the Mexico provider network. So, if employees are currently traveling to Mexico for receiving any sort of medical care or prescriptions, they're actually able to engage and utilize a med medical uh solution for that. So actually a a plan that they can um receive those those services at a a highly reduced cost. And that benefit alone if it is offered as a voluntary benefit if for employees who elect it would be an additional $6 per employee per month and it would cover them as well as their family members that they have enrolled with them. So I believe it is a

105uh an incredible opportunity for employees who are perhaps engaging or driving that distance already to expand uh the services that they're already receiving. We did have a minor increase um in in your dental plan this year, a 3% increase in rates uh for both your PO and your prepaid dental. But I have to be honest for the rest rest of the benefit plans, we are delighted to present that there are no um increases to any of the other benefits that we're presenting, including your vision plan, accidental death and dismemberment, voluntary life, short-term disability, employee assistance program, teleaalth, employee savings account, FSA, COBRA, as well as your voluntary supplemental benefits. So, we're delighted to say that employees will not see any sort of impact to that. Um, as we move to the next screen, I'd like

106to point to um, bring forward these are your current merit benefit plans that you're currently offering. You're offering three benefit plans currently. Again, like I had mentioned, we're going to be offering a fourth and I'd like to um, and what we're doing is looking at the plans as they currently sit. As you can see that what the deductibles are and how they're currently designed. Um, as we move two screens forward, I would like to present what the new plan designs are beginning with the 2526 plan year. Um, with the the Meritane plans this year and ASBA plans this year, there is an uh an overall increase in deductibles and out-of-pocket max as well as overall increases of $30 to um co-pays on all plans that are being present by Asbait Maritine. Now, we are saying

107that there is no increase to the cost to the district. um there is there is no increase to that premium but there is an increase to what the employees are going to be paying at the time of receiving services. So these these plan designs were provided and presented by by meritane in this renewal cycle this year. Um and we're presenting them as as an opportunity to to discuss them and and see what your thoughts are to this. Um, we are presenting the fourth plan option, the additional new plan, as an opportunity for employees to have a way to draw down premium while considering a way to also find um enroll PO plan, meaning a co-ay plan, one that they don't have to hit a deductible first. So, in offering moving from a three plan option

108currently to a four plan, this gives employees essentially um three PO plans again, they can get a prescription or see a doctor starting day one of the new plan year with with just meeting a co-pay versus having to meet a high a deductible on the high deductible health plan. So, we're giving them more opportunity with a seeking an opportunity to um uh draw in some additional savings. Um if we can move to the next slide please. So as you're looking at the slide again very busy these are the yellow that highlighted in yellow are the plans that we're presenting. What I would like to point out is anywhere you see noted in blue on this page is essentially where there has been a plan change or an adjustment to the deductible or to the co-pay.

109So, I'm h I'm essentially letting you know that the plan designs, this does look very different, but the goal is to make sure that employees have have still have access to to really um competitive plans. Um, even with a a plan that has a $540 deductible or even an $1,100 deductible, comparatively to non-school district offerings, these are still very competitive plans on the benefit market. So I would like to to to ask the board if they have any questions specifically and I'm happy to bring um the asbait maritane team to address any comments or questions relating to these plan design changes. I have a question. So help me understand or remind you Dr. % maybe I misunderstood but I thought that the 2-year we were locked in so none of our rates were changing and

110it sounds like the rates are changing for our staff for their co-pays. So I'd like to answer that. So the 2-year rate gu the rate guarantee that was provided this year was specific to rates. The rate guarantee was not specific to plan designs. So um we there was no increase to the premium as presented this year. So we maintain the same premium that we were presented last year. But that was the the rate lock was specific only to rates not plan designs. Thank you for the clarification. Are there any other questions from board members? Okay. Well, it's my pleasure to present this as as a a an opportunity this year, and we're delighted that that we're presenting this package, a fully well-rounded package for your employees to consider this year. One other thing I did

111want to mention is with the numerous plan changes, Gallagher is fully committed to the to helping your your administration take on the lift this year of communicating. One of the services that we offer that is a value added service to your district is what we call a benefit advocacy center. That allows employees to reach out and to speak to a benefit specialist one on- one for any sort of support and guidance on on plan design. So, somebody can reach out, anybody, your employees, your uh their dependents can reach out and say, "I don't really know what plan is best for me." they can get one-on-one support from the Gallagher team to assist them in the opportunity or of of selection of their plans. So, in addition to the benefit advocacy center we're activating this year,

112we're also doing recorded brain sharks. We have an open enrollment event that is actually going to be held here in the in the boardroom right at the time of open enrollment where we'll be bringing in carriers as well for employees to meet with and be able to engage and ask questions and then um your benefit website as well. So, we have a commitment to support you throughout the open enrollment process and to to he do the heavy lift lift about educating your employees about one of the most important decisions that they have to make. It's choosing their benefit plans that is really not shouldn't be taken lightly because it can have such an impact on their health and and finances. So, that's my presentation. Thank you. Or do you have a question Dr. Battle? Okay.

113Dr. Do you have a question? Was there any opportunity for employees to give feedback on any of the changes in blue? Um, Madame President, governing board members. Uh, no, as Lisa probably could elaborate on this a little bit, we got this very late in the year two two weeks ago. um it just handed us so we evaluated it threw it on the board agenda as that but truthfully there wouldn't be enough time I mean this is what we got so no we did bring it up to our REA president though I've talked to uh Dr. Thomas about it already um last Thursday. Thank you. So, and for future reference, is there an opportunity for us to have a conversation with it prior to us having to to vote? Because it sounds like we're pressed for

114time. Um and so we we have to vote tonight. Madame President, governing board members, in the future there should be. Um again, this time it wasn't wasn't us. It just that's the way it ended up on the asb side. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you for your presentation. And so now we get to vote on the approval for employee benefits. Um is there a motion? So moved. Is there a second? Second. All in favor? I I I motion passes. Um I'm like, sorry, let me back up. I'm abstaining from the vote cuz I'm actually on the Arizona School Board Association Insurance Trust, which is ASB. So, I'm abstaining from the vote um for the record. And it sounded like we had Dr. Franklewoods, Miss Pena, and Miss Kashro in favor. Are you in favor

115or you opposing? I'm going to abstain as well. Okay. Motion carries. The next item on the agenda is item 6.02. Approval for the board to accept the single audit USFR compliance questionnaire and annual comprehensive financial report for the year ending June 30th, 2024. I will pass it to Dr. Portillo. Thank you, Madam President, members of the board, executive team, and Roosevelt community. I'd like to invite our auditor representative representative from Stiflel to uh present the findings of the I'm sorry from Heinfeld Meech. I apologize I was talk I was thinking about the bundle Meech I apologize for that. Um to present to you as a reminder this item will require a roll call vote um at the end of the of the presentation after all your questions are answered. Good evening, Madame President, board members,

116Dr. Portillo, executive team, uh, and community members. Uh, my name is Joshua Jumper. Uh, I'm an audit partner with Heinfeld Meech, and it's my pleasure to be here to present the audit results for the district's annual audit for the year ended June 30th, 2024. Uh so I will keep my comments uh brief but I do have a few slides that uh will guide my comments but I do encourage you if you have any questions about the audit process or any of my prepared remarks please ask them. Uh so just to highlight what the at a high level the audit summary. So uh we are the district's external auditors. your audit firm is procured through competitive proposal process. Fiscal 24, the audit year I'm presenting on was the third year of our audit contract. So to

117touch on the audit timeline, so again we are speaking to June 30th, 2024. So looking backwards, you're currently in fiscal 25. The engagement letter was issued in August of 2024 that begins the audit. Uh we came on site in September to perform some preliminary audit procedures and then came back out in November uh to perform additional audit procedures. And the two different visits on site are mainly due to we uh need to come back out after the district's financial records have been closed out in the annual financial report. the AFR is submitted to the state uh which is due in October. So our audit test work was completed in January. Uh the draft of the audit reports uh provided for to management for their review in February and the audit reports were issued in February

118as well. So what is the annual audit? So, uh going to speak to the four documents that are included in your packet. Uh but, uh the communication to governance letter, I'll touch on that in a minute. The annual comprehensive financial report, that is the district's audited financial statements. The single audit reporting package uh reports on the district's expenditure of federal grants. So the federal grants that the district receives uh must be uh summarized and reported back to the federal government. And then lastly, the uniform system of financial records compliance questionnaire, USFR. Uh this is a state requirement. So all school districts in the state of Arizona have to uh have their external auditors fill out this questionnaire uh and submit it to the auditor general of Arizona. So, I'm going to touch on all those

119a little bit more in depth, but just to summarize, what's the audit entail? It's those four items in your agenda packet. Uh, and so what is the scope of audit services? So, we perform an audit in accordance with generally accepted auditing standards, government auditing standards, and uniform guidance. So essentially there's a lot of rules and regulations we follow as the external auditors and then also we have to comply with uh uh state reporting requirements and uh fill out and complete the USFR compliance questionnaire for the district. So uh this slide is just to talk at a high level of responsibilities of what we do as the external auditors and what's management's responsibilities. So, just letting you know as part of the annual audit, we have fraud communications or we inquire knowledge of fraud or any

120concerns of fraud. That is part of our standard audit procedures. Uh but just know that the ultimate goal of an audit is not to detect detect fraud. It is just part of our standard process to uh inquire about it and ensure if there was something that we're aware of it. And then ultimate responsibility for fraud at the district rests with management and its board. Uh and then our audit is designed to provide reasonable but not absolute assurance that is that qualifier all auditors provide uh when speaking about the audit. And then the financial statements that are included in the ACFR is ultimately respon the responsibility of management. So audit adjustments uh so uh we are required to report to the board if there were any audit adjustments uh from misstatements uh that either were uh

121corrected due to audit uh detection or just uncorrected at all. Uh pleased to report that uh that no items met that I criteria for the year. So great news, positive news. uh other required communication that's in the letter, but I'm just speaking to you uh verbally in this presentation. We had no disagreements with management over accounting, reporting or other audit matters. Uh the management provided uh and signed the representation letter at the conclusion of the audit which allows us to issue our audit opinion on the financial statements. Uh and then we are uh continually uh looking at uh compliance related to ethical requirements and such as independence that the district's required to adhere to. So the annual comprehensive financial report, the ACFR, that is the district's audited financial statements. Just a few page highlights. I

122do not plan to go into that report in detail. It is quite lengthy. But just note on page 15 is the actual independent auditor's report. It's our opinion. Uh our opinion was unmodified which is the technical accounting term. Uh the non-technical account accounting term is a clean audit opinion meaning your uh financial statements are free from material in the statement. So uh a positive audit opinion but uh just notating the other pages that highlight uh specific sections of the financial report. Uh it is quite lengthy. uh if you are looking for uh very high level data the management discussion and analysis provides uh in uh general verbiage uh the results of the year and then I'll point to the back of the report the statistical section that provides uh up to 10 years worth of

123data in a comparative matter uh so that can provide uh use some trend lines if you're looking at certain figures single audit reporting package uh which is uh reporting of federal uh expenditures. So spending of the federal grants that are received. So we had no material weaknesses in internal controls for the year. No significant deficiencies in internal controls. We did notate two uh findings over federal dollars and one was on federal procurement and one was just uh the journal entry process. And so those are reported in there and there's also a corrective action plan that management uh completes and also attaches to that report. The USFR questionnaire. So this questionnaire requires us to look at a host of different areas and processes and procedures of the district. So uh just the overall procedures that the

124district has, accounting records, uh procurement, student attendance, uh travel records, purchasing cards, credit cards. Uh so in total there's 170 questions we answer yes or no. It's black or white, yes or no. So we if we find one transaction that did not meet USFR standards, we answer no. So uh just I'm not going to speak to any specific questions in the report, but just there are 170 total questions. So anything that's a no means that there's an instance of non-compliance in relation to the questionnaire. I promised I would keep it brief. I hope I achieved that. Uh but those are the reports that we issued for the year. If you have any questions for me about the audit process or any of the reports, I'm happy to answer them at this time. Are there any

125questions? Go ahead. I just wanted to invite u Mr. Gonzalez to explain the two federal findings um and the remedy and then um our auditor is present also to make sure that we're staying accurate and I can touch on them a little bit if you like me to Mr. Gonzalez from my perspective. Madame President, governing board members. Sorry, I was not prepared. Pulled it up now. So, um yeah, for the first finding, oh, I lost the finding now. I have the remedies but not the finding now. That's where we are. Okay. So, um the first finding was that vendors weren't checked for debarment suspension or suspension. Um and the R and the RFQ process didn't allow sufficient time for other quotes. So, on the federal grants, there's a requirement that says um just make sure

126the vendor on the federal side isn't uh debarred from or disparred from doing any kind of work with us, right? Um they pulled a sample and we couldn't show them that whatever vendor we'd used, we had that documentation for. Um the second one was the RQ process didn't allow sufficient time for quotes. Uh I mean this was uh pretty broad in the district and we I think we've squashed this this year was that um they would go out for there's a requirement that above $10,000 you have to get three quotes. Um what was happening was they would get they'd know who they wanted to hire and then on Thursday say hey by noon tomorrow get us a quote for the other two. And they were like yeah that's not enough time. and that was the

127answer 90% of the time or they didn't even do the work. So we've gotten out of that habit of doing that. So much much earlier we're asking for the quotes given sufficient time to all of them couple weeks. Um so that was uh where we fixed we're fixing that this year um on the corrective action side. Um and this is uh uh Eric Thompson's department. So Eric and our new hire um Rosie are taking care of that that piece for us. Uh the second uh finding was that the journal entries didn't have an approval and some of that was just again we were really really short staff last year and just to get things through um some of our staff our our senior staff was putting stuff in the system but they didn't have that

128second checker and on every journal entry you're supposed to have a second checker. So um we've implemented that this year again. So um I'm her second checker if that ever happens but before that it really shouldn't get to me. So, we got a first uh other people involved now in the process. Um, and we're just about to a full department um here in a couple weeks. So, that that should alleviate that issue even further. Madame President, governing board members, uh, Dr. Patillo and community. Thank you very much, Josh. Um, I just want to commend the finance department for their work of what they have done as they are made aware of things. as you can find uh that those two areas are already remedyed. So, it's a matter of just keeping our practice in order.

129So, we want to thank you, Miss Gonzalez, uh for the work that you're doing with the team and your support in making Roosevelt better. And I wanted to echo that as well. um he's under his leadership, we've had a lot of um systems that we've been able to put in place um that have now led to the point where we are are secure in the practices that we have on a daily basis, but then also that we're able to forecast as we um financially plan for the district in the future. So, I want to recognize him, his work, and the work of the team. Um and again wanted to make sure that we are transparent with the community um in sharing what those two federal findings were um and understand that we have the remedies

130in place um which have also been documented in the report that you received. Thank you. And thank you Mr. Gonzalez. I know you've been in the trenches with us um and so we appreciate your work. Are there any other questions or comments? Okay. The next item. Oh, no. I'm sorry. We have to vote. Just kidding. Um, I'm going to pass it to Actually, I need a second. Is there um a motion to approve the findings? So much. Yes, we have to vote first. We have a second. Thank you. Um, and now I'll pass it to Marty Fella to do a roll call vote. Okay. Madame President, I will begin with the roll call. And I will begin with Dr. Ashley Hodgej. I Megan Francoitz. Hi. Tatiana Pñena. Hi. Michael Buts. Hi. Victoria Castro. I. Madam

131President, item 6.2 has passed by unanimous vote. Thank you. The next item on the agenda is discussion and possible action to approve the superintendent's contract for Dr. Danny Daniela for Theo reduced goal for 2025 to 2028 and related performance plan pay plan. Um at this time I'll take any comments or questions from board members. Um, just to clarify, Madam President, um, if we have comments, are we making the motion and then making comments or are we making comments and then making the motion? Make comments and then make the motion. Um, I think I would just like to say, um, you know, having worked with Dr. Portio the full extent of the time that we've been on the board, um, you know, anytime that we're extending a contract, it is both an offer and an ask.

132And I think that, you know, we are incredibly grateful for the work that Dr. Portio has done and appreciate the community who've come tonight to speak. Um, and that the idea of consistency and continuity within the district is important for families. It is important for students. It is important for teachers. Um, and it is also an ask to say you've committed to do a really challenging thing. you have been with the district to do a really challenging thing and we're asking you to continue with us um to continue to do really great hard challenging things for the next few years. Um and we are really excited to be able to do that alongside you. Madame President, um Dr. Portillo, um I do want to speak on um I remember the first time that I came

133to the board meeting. This is not me being a board member here, but as a community member, um you were the first to greet me um and welcome me to the community or just to the board room. So, I just appreciate that. And um just a theme that I saw going on was that representation matters, that leadership matters. Um, but spec going back to representation, I just want to acknowledge I'm I'm very grateful to to have a superintendent who's a um Latina, who's a woman um for the first time in Roosevelt history. So, I just want to acknowledge that and thank you. Um Dr. with you. I just wanted to share that that it's um it's an honor uh working with you and it's good to have you here and you are making some really

134difficult decisions. um you know there's a lot that we've come from in this district and I do see the efforts to make things better and so I really appreciate that and when things are in a good position in this district we got to make sure that we do everything to continue that uh instead of self-sabotaging which is sometimes what was done in the past. So, um, so I appreciate your efforts and I appreciate the communication that you have with us board members when we have questions. I also appreciate the communication that you give towards the community. I know that the community is always wondering and always like um not always necessarily understanding every decision made, but I see that you take that very seriously of trying to get that clarified so that they understand the

135reasons that decisions are being made. um and that that's coming from your heart with a real desire to do the right thing. So, as long as you keep doing that, I'm in support. So, uh Dr. So for me um as a new board member um you know kind of being a part of the last three three months right of decision making um and seeing how the leadership team executes uh it's going to be you know uh very interesting to see how this unfolds as far as our student success and achievement and um and just you know uh the things that have occurred in our district over the last last year. Um I'm excited to see that materialize. So, um I appreciate the communication as well and so thank you uh for the work and the

136decisions that you're making. You're welcome. Thank you, board colleagues, and I'll go now. Last month, we renewed and issued contracts for our staff. And this evening, we are voting on the renewal of our superintendent, Dr. Portillio's contract. Over the past school two two school years, we have seen an increase in enrollment after experiencing a steady decline since 2007. Dr. Bertio has risen to the challenge of understanding what our students know and are able to do by fully embracing student outcome focused governance. She welcomed accountability and even pushes as a board to challenge the status quo. SOFG is no small feat. It requires developing systems that pro that drive adult behavior change to improve academic outcomes for our students. Roosevelt School District is a high performing district and the and our progress speaks for itself. Last

137year, we earned our first A rating in nine years. Today, we have one A-rated school, seven B-rated schools, and eight C-rated schools. This growth is a testament to the incredible work happening across our district, and it is essential that we ensure continuity and leadership. Over a year ago, Dr. Portillo informed the board of financial challenges within the district. In 2024, we directed her to address these challenges, ensuring that we we operated within our financial means while upholding our responsibility as stewards of district resources. Superintendent Garo number three clearly states that the district district budget resources should not be allocated beyond the revenue generated through enrollment for reoccurring expenses. Financial decisions must support student outcome focused goals contributing directly to academic success and long-term financial health. This process was complex and overwhelming, but Dr. Portio led

138with grace, transparency, humility, and courage. As a board, we made the difficult but necessary decision to close and consolidate schools in an especially challenge of vote for me as a Southside kid and graduate of Roosevelt School District. However, we took this step to protect local control of our district and prevent receiverhip in the future. As a result, as a direct result of this decision, we were able to make significant investments in our staff. A 36,000 or 3600 salary increase for teachers, a 2,000 annual stipens for math teachers, a 2500 stipen for first year math and science teachers, endorse special area teachers will receive 5,000 year 5,000 yearly, a stipen in addition to the 2500 first year stipen. A salary step increase for all staff. substantial raises for bus drivers, pair professionals, and category 3 maintenance

139professionals. Air conditioning professionals receive an additional $4,000 um as an annual stipen. We're creating new programming for our students, including high school level math courses, flag football, and other steam opportunities. Yes, we voted to close and consolidate schools, but we did it for the long-term success for our district, and we already seen the positive impact. We still have work ahead and as we transition, there is no better person to lead this effort than Dr. Portillio. I have full confidence that she will continue to lead with thoughtfulness, care, and consideration, ensuring that the transition is as smooth and minimally disruptive as possible. With that, I'll entertain a motion. So moved. Second. All in favor? I. Congratulations, Dr. Portillio. Oh, she does have to sign it. Just kidding. She still has to sign it though. Just I

140accept your Okay. The next item on the agenda is 9.01 adjournment. Was that 6.04? 6.03. What's that one? Oh, just kidding. Sorry. I guess I'm ready to go home. The next item on the agenda is item 6.04, approval um for the request of the superintendent's performance pay plan for 2024 to 2025. Um it was an oversight and we did not adopt it last year. Um and so basically this performance plan that we are voted on approved tonight is based on um the progress that we made thus far with student outcome focused governance. Um in the first year uh we are instructed not to measure the not to evaluate her based on where we are because it's our first year and we're learning a lot. Um and so we are not evaluating her based on progress.

141We're we're evaluating her based on um the steps that she took to help us implement SOFG. And Madame President, can I jump in? Yes, you may. Um and for community um uh superintendent Portio has also set up some interim guard rails that she has been presenting to us, she's been presenting to community, she's been presenting on um that have been transparent to community and we've been presenting on in study sessions. So that is also what part of the performance pay is based on. Any other questions or comments? Um I I will add that I do appreciate that the performance pay plan includes our board goals. Um going back with um Dr. Portio, congratulations on another contract. Um but the I just want to highlight that the Dr. Portillo's contract ends in 2028. And if you

142look um at the at the wall, we do have our four um board goals and um they end in August 2028. So, I'm really excited to see this through um with the leadership and the consistency that our community is asking for. So, Dr. Portillo, thank you and the executive team. Thank you so much. Is there any other questions or comments? With that, I'll entertain a motion. Oh, go wait. Go ahead, Madam President. Yes, ma'am. Um I and I do want to highlight the April 18th study sessions um because we will be discussing um community forums where we do want to um ex talk about the two-way communication regarding our board goal. So please hold us accountable and be part of this conversation with us and um and be part of this vision. Let's reinvent Roosevelt.

143Thanks. Okay. Thank you. I understand a motion some moved. Second. All in favor? I motion carries unanimously. Okay. Now item 9.01 adjournment having concluded our business. Is there a motion to adjurnn? Some moved. Second. All in favor? I. Motion carries. Meeting is adjourned. Thank you.