001Well, Do you have one more question? I'll probably remove Test one, two. >> You can put it under All right. Is it Yeah, it was over. Looking for a Hello. Oh, he Justical. You missed it. You're playing probably Yeah, that's But I knew >> Yeah. when I was 13. Okay. Watch. Can I question. Thank you. that I wanted to see. Yeah. This is the Let's go. [laughter] Thanks for Somebody brought I'll stop. This is what attention But I made up for it next time to No, he said I would have just Hello. >> Yeah, me there. Good. That's Let's see if they Let's see. probably. What you doing? Good evening. Thank you. I am it's plugged in. Okay. >> I mean, >> yeah, I'll leave it. I'll leave it tonight. My god, when I it
002just and my husband has this terrible habit of unplugging laptops. Thank you. People come in. Good evening. We're going to get our meeting started. So, please take your seats. If there are any open. Good evening. Welcome to the April 14th governing board meeting. I am uh will be running the meeting until Dr. Shaw returns from uh his children's performance and line weaver. So with that being said, can I get roll call, please? Uh, Miss Rose, Luna Rose, sorry. >> Oh, here. >> Uh, Mr. >> here. >> Miss Shaw >> here. >> Miss Extramm >> here. >> Dr. Robbie. >> Okay. Well, like I said, Dr. Robbie will be joining us in a little [snorts] while. And um I am uh let's see the land acknowledgement statement. Do we have Oh, we do. Okay. Just a
003moment. Let me see before Well, you can come up to the mic, but I don't know if I have his information. Oh, here we go. Thank you. [snorts] >> He took it. Oh, it's right here. I didn't. Okay. >> It's the same one. >> Okay. >> He's got it. Oh, he's doing both. Okay. All right. Well, thank you for that. Okay. So, um, this is Carter Romero. He is a fifth grader at Warren Elementary. He is the student council president and has been in the council since the third grade. He plays both basketball and football, but football is his passion. He cheers for the Dallas Cowboys. All right. [laughter] Carter also plays the ukulele and the trumpet for the Warren B. In his free time, he is sharpening his skills for football and school. Last
004year, Carter only missed one question in the entire Arizona's academic standards of assessments assessment test. Congratulations. Good for you, [applause] Carter. He has been invited to attend the self-contained gate program at Pister Middle School, and he will be doing both the land acknowledgement statement and our pledge of allegiance. So Carter, when you're ready. >> On behalf of the governing board of the Tucson Unified School District, I name I Carter Romero acknowledge that the schools, buildings, and facilities of the Tucson Unified School District reside on the ancestral homeland of the Toono Odum Nation and the federally federally recognized tribal land of the Bosuyaki tribe. >> Fantastic. Thank you. And now, can we stand for the pledge, please? And whenever you're ready. >> I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to
005the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> Thank you, Carter, and good luck next year. [applause] >> [applause] >> Okay, now off to agenda adjustments. Dr. Trillo, are there any adjustments? >> Um, governing board clerk Luna Rose, no agenda adjustments this evening. >> Okay, thank you very much. All right, now we are on to the superintendent report. >> Yes. uh governing board members, members of the community. Sadly, uh we've been having to do this all too often, kicking off our meetings with uh news of sadness. And uh anytime uh any life is lost in our TUSD community, it hurts. But when it's a young life full of potential that that hasn't yet had the uh years of experience to realize that potential, it hurts even
006more. And so tonight, uh, we take a moment and we honor and remember one of our students, uh, 12th grade senior at Choya, uh, Camila Salana, whose life was tragically cut short in a, uh, traffic accident on March 25th. Camila was not only a student nearing graduation this spring, she was also an active and valued member of the Choya Charger community. She dedicated herself to mariachi and dance, sharing her talent and her discipline and her spirit with our other students. Through those commitments, she contributed to the life and culture of her school in ways that will not be forgotten. The tragedy hits even harder and extends beyond Camila because it was her mother who was in the car with her and also lost her life. So we also remember her mother Nora um in this
007accident and our hearts are with their family as they grieve this profound loss and our our thoughts, our prayers, our best wishes if that's your religious uh preference are with the lone surviving sister who will have to move forward. Uh moments like this remind us that a school is more than a place of learning. It is a community of relationships, memories, and shared experiences. Camila's presence will be deeply missed by her classmates, by her teachers, and by all who have the privilege of knowing her. On behalf of the school district, we extend our deepest condolences to Camila's family, to the Choya High School community, to all those who are grieving. Let us honor through a moment of silence Camila and Nora Salana this evening two beautiful members of the TUSD community with a moment of
008silence. Thank you. [clears throat] And now I'm moving into the uh joyous part of the superintendence report, the I believe debut here, at least in a long time of one of my favorites. It's great to see Mr. uh Mr. Snook here outside of the cafeteria where I usually see him performing with his students. Uh we're going to get ready to see the Davidson Dragon Choir. Uh under the direction of Jose Snook, this talented ensemble of fourth grade through sixth grade students. They bring remarkable energy, joy, and pride to every single performance. They are a vibrant part of the Davidson Elementary community, regularly showcasing their talents at school assemblies and in their annual concerts. Many of these students will go on to represent their school in this year's Ma Showcase Honor Choir on Saturday, May 2nd
009at Palivvery High School, which speaks to their dedication and growing artistry. Those of you watching in the public, it is well worth the price of admission to go to the MA showcase. It is literally one of the best events in the district. I look forward to it every single year. Uh Mr. and the students extend their sincere appreciation to principal Sarah Andraopoulos, the Davidson teachers, and the support of TUSD's fine arts department for their continued leadership and support. Tonight, the Davidson Dragon Choir will perform one of my favorites. And for some of you who are in my I don't want to say age group, but in my area of life experience, um you will be taken back to childhood by their rendition of Won't You Be by Neighbor by Mr. Fred Rogers for those of
010us who used to enjoy that show. Uh they will also perform Collidioscope by Pink Zebra and also Put a Little Love in Your Heart with Love Train arranged by Greg Gilpin. So, please join me in welcoming the Davidson Dragon Choir. [applause] I like you exactly the way you are. It's a beautiful day in the neighborhood. A beautiful day for a neighbor. Would you be mine? Could you be mine? It's a neighborly day in [music] this wood. A neighborly day for a few. Would you be mine? Could you be mine? I have always wanted to have a neighbor just like you. I've always wanted to live in a neighborhood with you. [singing and music] So, let's make the beautiful day. Since we're together, we might as well say, "Would you be mine? Would you be mine?
011Won't you be my neighbor? >> [music] >> Won't you please? Won't you please you be [music and singing] my neighbor? [applause] >> One turn is all we're waiting for. to show you all we are [singing] and more. [music] Don't look away, you'll miss the show. [singing] We're changing what you think you know. Always in motion. [singing and music] We'll design a brighter world that we define with every change. We'll show you [music and singing] what we got. What we got? What we got? We're lingoscope. We're lacking the [music] scope. and you kaleidoscope. Oh wo. And everyone that [music] we know is all a part of the flow. And now we're ready to go. Oh wo. Just take a look and you'll see how beautiful we can [singing] be. We're so kinetic and free. Yeah, it's
012[music] you and me. We're like a kaleidoscope. We're like a kaleidoscope. We're like a kaleidoscope. Come on, let's go. [screaming] Oh wow. Let's go. Oh wow. Oh [music] oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh let's go here in the space we are fly transforming [singing] like a butterfly we're taking on another [music] form you'll see but don't expect a door each one of us will play a part to build a larger world a far beyond one. [music and singing] We are exceptional. Exceptional. We're like a kaleidoscope. [music] We're like a kaleidoscope. Kaleidoscope. Oh wo. And everyone that we know [music] is all a part of the flow. And now [singing] we're ready to go. Oh wo. Just take a look and you'll
013see [music] how beautiful we can be. We're so kinetic and free. Yeah. That's you and me. We're like a kaleidoscope. We're like a kaleidoscope. We're like a kaleidoscope. Come on, let's go. Oh. [screaming] Wo. Let's go. Oh. Woah. Woah. [music] Oh wo. [singing] Let's go. We feel emotion and changes. Our lives are going through [singing] stages. We want to shape the world that betrays us. Each time a scene reanges, [singing] we feel [music] emotion and changes. Our lives are going through stages. We want to shape the world [singing] that [music] us show you all we are. >> We're like a kaleidoscope. We're like a kaleidoscope. We're like a kaleidoscope. Oh wo. And everyone that we know is all a part of the flow. And now [music and singing] we're ready to go. Oh wo. Just
014take a look and you'll see how beautiful we can be. We're [music] so kinetic and free as you and me. We're like a kaleidoscope. We're like a kaleidoscope. We're like a [singing and music] kaleidoscope and every see us changing another vision. [music] Keep on. This is a generation new creation. Let's go. >> [applause] >> People all over the world join hands. Start a [singing] love train. Love train. [music] People all over the world join hands. Start a love train. Love train. People all over the world join hands. Start a love train. Love train. [music] People all [singing] over the world join hands. Start a love train. Love train. Take a good look around. And if you're looking down, put [singing] a love in your heart. I hope when you decide kindness will be your guide.
015Put the love in your heart and the world >> and the world be [music] a better place. >> and the world [singing] will be a better place for you. >> For you and me and me. >> You just wait. You just wait and see. [music] People over the world join hands. Start a love train. Love train. People over the world join hands. Start a love train. Love. Another day goes by and still the children cry. Put love in your heart. If you want the world to know, we won't let hatred grow. Put the love in your heart. [music and singing] And the world >> and the world will be a better [singing] place. >> And the world [music] >> and the world will be a better place for you. >> For you and me and
016me. >> You just wait. [music and singing] >> You just wait and see. People all over the world join hands. Start a [music] love train. Love train. People all over [singing] the world join hands. Start a love train. Love train. Put a little love in your heart. Put a little love. [music] Put a little love in your heart. >> in your heart. [singing] Put a little love in your heart. Put a [music] little love. Put a little love in your heart. >> In your heart. Put a little love. See all of the world. [cheering] In your heart. Join hands. [music] Start a love. [applause] Tra. Join hands. Start a love. Love train. All the world. Join hands. Start a love. All people the world put a little love in your heart. [cheering] [applause] One more
017round of applause for the Ma Dragon Choir from Davidson. [applause] And of course, all of our amazing parents of these young performers that came out after work to support their kids. Let's hear it for them, too. [cheering and applause] >> All right. Well, moving forward with the superintendence report, it's been a very, very busy month. Uh, I had an opportunity to visit Innovation Tech. I hadn't been out there uh yet this year. It's always a wonderful time to visit the district's newest high school. had an amazing school tour with uh Miss Hurley and was very impressed with the school's journey to projectbased learning, an instructional overhaul that is instantly created a lot more excitement amongst the students, a lot more studentto student interactions. I also had an opportunity to tour the new building and to
018see all of our great CTE programs there. I do want to thank Miss Hurley for welcoming me and for the CTE culinary arts kids for providing the delicious snacks that I was able to enjoy during my visit. Uh I also had an opportunity to head east and to visit one of one of the most amazing schools not just in the east side but in all of TUSD. Had a chance to go to Fruit Tendler and visit with Mr. Ericson, tour the campus and of course read to the students. And over there at Frandendler, normally I would read to one classroom, maybe even one grade level, but Fruendler actually gets the whole school there. So, uh, it's it's always a surprise walking in and I see the entire school. I think Miss Rose, you you've read
019over there, Miss Luna Rose, so you know, it's not just a class. You're reading to the whole school. So, that was an absolutely wonderful event. had an opportunity to meet several of our amazing staff members, visit classrooms um and see the wonderful job that our grounds crew is doing out there. Also got to see some of the wonderful additions that protender has received because of the bond program. I am fresh off uh the NSBA annual conference. We had an opportunity to facilitate a uh presentation with our governing board leadership team uh president Dr. Shaw uh board clerk uh Natalie Luna Rose. We actually did very well for having our program our presentation was actually scheduled at the very end of the conference at the very last session when people are actually getting ready to catch
020flights. And considering all that, we actually had like a full house. We actually had like 30 or 40 participants. We were able to share uh our approach, our strategies, um and our planning that led to successful ballot initiatives, our victory in the bond in 2023 and our victory in the override in 2025. It was great to share that knowledge with so many districts like TUSD that are struggling financially and are looking to extra tax levies like bonds and override. So, we're very very happy to share uh some of our learnings, some of our challenges, and some of our successes uh with districts from around the nation. Uh last week, I had an opportunity to attend the African-American Student Services Department recognition event. Um, I want to thank our governing board members that attended uh that
021evening. Blue had uh we had uh governing board member Satie Shaw. We had clerk Luna Rose. We had President Shaw. Uh thanks for having everybody out. We really appreciate your support. We met some absolutely amazing students that night. It was a celebration of African-American student excellence across the district. And I was very very impressed with the Choya validictorian. What an amazing young man. I'm sure we're going to be hearing more about that young person uh going forward this spring as he continues to rack up the recognitions. Um Tucson High. Uh last week I was able to head out to the school. Uh principal, newly appointed principal Dr. Norma Gonzalez uh had a meet and greet at Tucson High and a full auditorium of staff members wanting to meet the new principal, had an opportunity to
022introduce her and more importantly, she had an opportunity to share a little bit about her background, uh her goals and what she's hoping to accomplish within the first 30 to 45 days there on the job uh out there for Tucson High. So had a wonderful last wonderful but busy last 30 days. So before we uh move on to some other parts of the superintendence um report, I wanted to bring the CTE team that I think is here this evening who is going to kick us off uh with this spring's schedule of celebrating the effects of the override and how so many different programs are going to be enhanced. I think we've spent the last couple of months talking about budget cuts. we've got that behind us. It's now to pivot and start talking about what
023the override is bringing into the district as opposed to what we've had to cut to balance our deficit. So, we want to kick it off tonight uh with career and technical education who as a result of the override will have a million dollars uh to invest in their programs. I'd like to welcome our program coordinator for career and technical education in the district, Mr. Chuck McCullum. >> All right. Good evening, board members. Dr. Trill, Councelor Ross. Um, tonight I'm here to present the override funding impact and implementation as it relates to the career and technical education department. As you know, our program serves over 6,000 students across 60 plus programs at 11 sites districtwide. This override will allow us to continue our commitment to career pathways and critical need for increased resources. It'll address key
024changes and strengthen our ability to serve our students effectively. I'm going to be honest with you. When this override first came to into, you know, into play, we sat down and said, how are we going to use this possible monies to help our kids and help our teachers? And so I think we put together a a really good plan that is going to impact instruction. Okay. So let's go through the slides here. U the purpose uh key CTE support roles across all sites and all programs. The main scope is to provide 14 instructional aids across high school CTE programs. Now we did keep that to industrial programs and I'll speak about that in a minute. uh systems integration specialists which are TS um one CTE specialist. You got to understand that that we have a
025lot that goes on within those 60 programs. We need somebody who's running between each to meet needs. Um and then project technical specialists, two of them which are centrally based supporting career exploration at middle schools and we'll talk a little bit about it. We were budgeted an allocated amount of 1.1 million We have written out and submitted for 985 basically $986,000 of that money with a difference of about 114,000 because we're if the if salaries increase or something of that nature, we got to have a little money to pick that up. Okay, so that's the the overall scope of it. Um the staffing overview will will hire 14 instructional aids to site uh based support embedded in specific CTE programs to increase hands-on supervision, lab safety and day-to-day instructional capacity. Um we'll also do the
026systems integration specialist which is a regional cluster support model for technology systems used across all programs shared service approach. In other words, we're not hiring one for every site. We'll have three total and they will be assigned regions so that they get to the programs a lot quicker. And then the two project specialists, they'll be centrally based, but will move from middle school to middle school to help with career exploration, the delivery, the logistics, and the technical program operations. Um, here's where we're going to place. Catalina, we're going to place in construction. Choya in the automotive construction welding. Palverie and the engineering. Uh Rencon in automotive. HVAC our new medical assisting program. Sabino our brand new welding program. Sorro in the automotive and engineering positions. Sanorita in the culinary position. And Tucson High in the
027automotive and welding positions. Okay. Here here's really why we're looking at that. You got to take into account liability. Okay, I'm not going to lie to you. We like everybody to leave with five fingers. Okay, so when you look at liability, two sets of eyes in the room makes it just relieves worries every day for that instructor who has 30 kids in a construction area using saws. Um, it increases hands-on learning because you have people roaming the room being able to help all students. um provides really good uh student support. And here's the kicker. It really works with teacher recruitment because you take an instructional aid and then you find out that instructional aid could become a teacher. So now you can work the PD, the certification process, and then when we have an opening,
028we're not sitting at a job fair hoping somebody walks in the door. We have somebody that we could promote and move. this is uh we've done this before uh funding wasn't we're not able to continue it but now we can so those are those positions I can't tell you how much the teachers are going to go crazy over the fact that they'll have another set of eyes in the room so this will impact instruction greatly um the centralbased specialist roles um we um in CTE um rely on a lot of specialized devices. Our technology is way above everybody. I'm not going to lie, way above everybody else's when you take into account the certification, testing, all the stuff that we do. We need specialized TS tech folks who can go to a Choya or go
029to a PBLO or go to a Sorro and get things up and running so that instruction doesn't lack. Right now we're sitting on one and he's trying to handle those 6,000 kids in 11 sites. Not working real well. Now with three, we'll be able to regionalize it and boy, when a when a teacher needs help, we can get people there. Okay, so again, here we go. Increasing instruction. I can't tell you how this override has affected us. It's been a great great addition. um program technical specialists. This will be multi-sight coverage. Okay, we feel the need and it's it's the need the CTE department felt and I'm going to say it's a it's a need the curriculum and instruction department has talked about uh career exploration at all middle school sites. Okay. What we're looking
030at right now is a program called Books and Ladders. Books and Ladders is used by the u uh public school system in New York, the public school system in Texas. It was new to Arizona and they came to us. Okay. One of the few districts that they wanted to get involved with. Uh to be honest with you, we have had a proposal written. It has been sent to curriculum and instruction, Dr. Uitt, Miss Ronda, and to five middle school principles for them to review, look at. This is not a driveby. Pardon the expression. This is not a driveby. This is built into the curriculum that the teacher is using. So therefore, it ties career exploration into your sixth grade English class. They'll see options. It will also tie in the CTE programs that are appropriate
031at our high schools that fit in. So these are this is really big. This is something we're taking on and and we think can really help our programs. So when you look at total salary and benefits, the instructional aids, we're we're uh anticipating about 560,000 which includes benefits which includes any kind of extra monies. uh the system integration specialists at 255,000, the one CTE specialist at 55, the two project technical specialists at 115 for a total amount of about 870. Uh there is a little difference there. The allocated amount was 1.1. So the difference is 229. Again, we're not sure if we allocated correctly until the fall when we come back and look at what everybody's salaries are. Okay. And then we'll we you always leave some money in in contingency. If you don't Yeah,
032that's a mistake. So, that is where we sit with the override. Um, there's been a I've been in the district for a very very long time and this is one of the most exciting things I've seen in a while, a long while. This is going to help kids. This is going to help teachers help kids. So, we're really excited about You should be excited yourselves because this is really something that we need that we're using and I think the public um will see that we're using the override money to really accomplish what we need to accomplish. So, if you have any questions, I'm done. >> Thank you, Mr. McCollum. That's some really great news and thank you for your presentation. I'm I'm I'm excited and I am excited and I'm thank the community again for
033supporting the override so we can do these things for our kids. Um board members, any questions from Mr. McCullum or comments? >> No. Okay. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Thank you so much, sir. >> And I've got our director for early childhood education and our community schools before and after school programs, Mrs. Rein Keevit. For those of you in attendance, it was a little late at night uh a few weeks ago when uh Mrs. Kiev secured uh some pretty crucial governing board action to significantly expand preschool availability as a result of the override funds that the voters have approved for us. So, that's why I asked Mrs. Ke to come back and just kind of give a general recap uh here at the beginning of the meeting when we have our highest attendance rate so
034that we can all uh celebrate and look forward to this expansion. Mrs. Keith, >> thank you. Good evening. I'm here to provide a brief update and summary of the preschool override plan that was approved at our last board meeting and to highlight our plan moving forward. As a reminder, the board approved the use of $200,000 for district supplies for each preschool classroom and $600,000 in override funding to expand access to prek through a scholarship model rather than opening new classrooms. We explored the option of opening additional classrooms. And while that approach increases capacity in a fixed location, it also comes with significant startup costs, staffing needs, and long-term financial commitments. In addition, override funds cannot be used for capital expenses such as furniture, equipment, and other startup items which would require additional funding sources. The
035scholarship model allows us to maximize the use of existing classrooms at our elementary sites and two infant and early learning centers. And more importantly, it allows us to remove financial barriers for families who want access to fullday prek but cannot afford tuition. Through this model, we will provide tuition support using a sliding fee SC scale, which prioritizes our highest need families. Currently, our existing scholarship supports families up to 300% of the federal poverty level. This plan expands that eligibility to about up to 500%, allowing us to reach more families across the district. The sliding scale is designed to be both equitable and practical. Families with the greatest need will receive full tuition coverage while others will contribute a portion based on their income. This approach allows us to support more families in a fair and
036consistent way. Another component of this plan is that it allows us to be flexible and responsive. Rather than committing to fixed classroom classrooms and staffing, we can adjust the number of scholarships based on our family needs and available funding each year. This is especially important for long-term sustainability as it allows us to expand access now without creating positions or programs that may be difficult to maintain if funding changes in the future. As part of this implementation, we will prioritize new student enrollment to ensure that we are truly expanding access across the district. Based on our current projections, we anticipate serving approximately 50 to 90 students depending on the level of need among participating families. We are so excited to move forward with this work, continue, and to continue expanding access to high quality early learning
037opportunities across Tucson Unified. Thank you for your continued support, for your care and commitment to early childhood education. It truly makes a difference for our youngest learners and their families. Thank you. >> Thank Thank you board members. Any questions? >> Okay. Thank you so much. >> Thank you. So, we close the superintendent's report tonight with a discussion of about a what's going to be a yearlong uh project for us and an attempt to make an important shift uh in our desegregation program, our desegregation funded programs here in TUSD. that shift from court directed supervision to community input with regard to um desegregation programming here in TUSD. But a little bit about the desegregation program or the desegregation funding that the district has available for it. for those that haven't been fully uh uh informed or
038tend to not be as engaged in the desegregation conversation. Um desegregation funded programs have been in the district since 1976 uh when active court supervision began uh for the district to eliminate all vestigages of past segregation specifically the segregation that was happening at Dunar. The district has since received a community levy, which is an additional property tax that residents of the district that homeowners do receive um to be able to fund compliance with the court order. And so TUSD has levied $63 million uh which is the cap that it's able to levy for these programs. The dollars have to be used for programs um and goals and objectives of the former unitary status plan which was essentially the court order in written form. The unitary status plan contained all of the different conditions, programs and
039initiatives that the district was responsible for implementing uh in return for fully autonomous status which is known as unitary status. Well, the district was released from court supervision in 2022, and that decision to release the district by Judge David C. Bur was upheld by the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals uh last year in 2025. So now the district is fully autonomous and returned to a state of local governance by its locally elected school board. But our $63 million levy is still levied in support of those wonderful programs that came into existence as result of the desegregation dollars. Most notably our wonderful magnet programs. We have a wonderful magnet program school here tonight in Palaverie. We talk a lot about dual language. We have awardwinning advanced learning experience desegregationf funded programs. We have an award-winning culturally
040relevant pedigogy and instruction lineup and department. So, we have a lot of amazing desegregation programming that has come in as a result of our um of our time during court supervision. But now that we're out of court supervision, we have to make a pivot under the old structures of court supervision. We had a federal judge telling us what really we could and couldn't do. We had a court-appointed special master on the ground who was sort of the administrator of the district's usage of desegregation dollars. Any proposals, any ideas, any programmatic enhancements had to go through the special master and then also had to be approved by the federal judge. There were structures where the special master, the court-appointed administrator, would have to work diligently with the pliff representatives to make sure that all proposals were
041shared to all parties before then ultimately being presented to the federal judge presiding over the case. Now, with those structures gone and the district returned to a state of local governance, we're now in an era of pivoting away from court-directed supervision to now an area of community engagement and community input. And so, that's what our goal is. So, we want to make sure that we are hearing from our community um and that we're hearing from a very very diverse selection of our community, very very diverse um portions of our community that are representative of the district, the students and the families that we served. The community, it's a community levy, so it does warrant community input. If we're levying the dollars from our taxpaying homeowners and residents of the district, we want to make sure
042that those residents have an opportunity to weigh in. And then also the education landscape has changed, right? Since the district has been in court supervision since 1976 and then even the more recent iteration of court supervision which began in 2013. So, our goal is to take a look at our programs, assemble a community advisory committee, and to really introduce an advisory committee comprised of community members that are representative of the different segments of TUSD's overall student population. And our number one goal, we have a couple, is we want a fresh perspective. um because the court ordered supervision days really gave um the predominant voices the largest stage right so I was one of those voices right as the dis leading the district as the defendant I don't want to be on this committee it's not
043my my time is over right my time saying things to the court my time working with our attorneys that time is over so this committee is not for me it's now for the community so as we look for community interest. If you're sitting there thinking, I don't know anything about the desegregation order. I don't what is it? You're like the perfect candidate. All right? Because we want to teach people about the history. We want to teach people about the programs. And the other goal of the committee is to review data um assessing the effectiveness of our existing programs. So looking at all the amazing student outcomes that we have from dual language for example and then some of the great student outcomes that we've got for students that are enrolled in magnet programs versus those
044that aren't. So really like looking at at the data for our different programs to ultimately help me gather community input about what are the programs that we need to strengthen and expand. I know we've already kind of had one conversation publicly about dual language, right? This is an opportunity to gather a community advisory committee to do just that. What are those programs that are really doing well, producing amazing student outcomes, and then also bringing students into the district? Let's take a look at how we expand those programs. Another thing that the committee will will do is identify best practices, work with uh our team to really take a look at what schools around the nation are doing. number one to integrate. Look at some award-winning uh magnet programs in other districts. What are some strategies
045that they're employing? Some resources that they're deploying to strengthen their magnet programs. Can we do that here? Uh it's also to look at best practices for student achievement. What are other districts around the nation doing to lessen or eliminate achievement gaps, especially for students of color in English language arts and math? What can we learn from them? and are there any programs that we can fund uh that are eligible to be funded out of uh desegregation. So though nothing is going to change this year, we're not changing any desegregation programming uh for 2627, we want to get started on this work because I want to help gather some potential thoughts, ideas, suggestions, and recommendations that I can bring to the school board in anticipation of 2728. So, I'm making a call now for any community
046member. Um, if you're interested following this meeting, we are going to be advertising on our district main page. You can just click the link, sign up. Uh, we're going to be compiling a list of interested community members. Uh, we do want to keep the committee a manageable size. So, I'm going to we're going to try to take everybody we can. And of course, we want to be fully inclusive, right, of the demographics that TUSD serves. Not just ethnic demographics, but academic. We want to make sure that we're inclusive. Uh, for example, exceptional education parents and those also that have students in gate programs. I think that's very, very important. Uh, we also want to prioritize parents, right? So, we're happy to to see community members sign up, but I'm going to give you the answer
047to the test. We're really going to be looking at parents, right? you are our number one partner. You are our number one um customer, if you will. We want to make sure that we're including you. Uh it's not to say that we won't have some other community members, but we really want to see parents involved. We want fresh perspectives and we want new voices, right? Um I'm the first to raise my hand that I've been saying the same things about desegregation programming for 10 years. Like the school board doesn't need to hear from me anymore, right? We we've been down that road. you've got all the court filings. I'm in them. So, I've had my time. Like, my time is over. It's now your time as the community uh to weigh in. So, we want
048a fresh perspective. And [snorts] then we also want to make sure that the work of this community advisory committee is extremely public, right? We want it doing its work publicly. We want it having uh public report outs. We want the committee itself facilitating committee listening sessions where people who perhaps aren't on the committee can come in and share their thoughts and opinions about desegregation programming um for the future. Ultimately my goal is to gather community input to be in a position about a year from now uh to share ideas, suggestions and recommendations to the school board potentially for the 2728 school year. So with that uh governing board I will leave it open to your questions, suggestions or any thoughts. >> Thank you >> governing board members questions for Dr. Trill. Miss Shaw. >> Um
049thank you for your presentation. Um and so Dr. Trujill, would this be a superintendent committee then? >> This would be a >> superintendent committee. Yes. >> Okay. Um yeah, I mean you mentioned that you want to take uh a back seat with um guiding the use of desegregation funds. Um though with the superintendence committee, I don't see how that would uh be possible. In the past, I have uh tried to form a desegregation advisory committee that um is a board committee and subject to open meeting law. And I think that would be my preference moving forward. I do see a need for a committee like this, but I think um so that we can ensure that um the work being done is nonbiased. I I would prefer that to be a board committee subject to
050open meeting law. >> I will add that there will be a professional facilitator. I will not be facilitating any of these working sessions at all. >> Michelle, >> and if I um can ask one more question. Uh who gets to decide who gets on the committee? Then >> if it's the board, then you're you're now in legal territory where it's a vote by the board because it's a boardappointed committee. If it's a superintendent committee, I I'm throwing it open and I will select among interested members that sign up. >> Okay. Yeah. cuz I, you know, I would love to have new people um on that committee, whether it's a superintendent committee or my preference as a board committee, but um I do want to have seats available for our um representatives of um our longtime
051representatives of the desegregation plaintiffs. >> Board members, any other questions? Okay, >> thank you very much. Thank you, Dr. F. >> And now that President Shaw is back, uh I would propose one agenda adjustment if we can move the Palivver folks. I see a lot of staff members uh coming off of a long school day and they're up at it early in the morning. So I'd like to get them up before uh uh before we do the consent immediately following the call to the audience >> board members any I'll still good are we good to that okay we will move that so now um Dr. Sha, you got to miss all the So, now we are to call to the audience. >> All right. Thank you, Luna, Miss Luna Rose, for covering. Uh, my twins
052had their second grade performance tonight. So, uh, got to see the gingerbread cowboy for a little bit there. So, apologize for my absence this first part of the meeting, but we'll go to call the audience and back to you, Miss Lenarose. >> Thank you. Okay. Members of the public may speak during call to the audience. The governing board clerk shall be responsible for recognizing speakers and for maintaining order where it may be appropriate. Those who speak in person or want to have their comments read shall email or call the board office or complete a request to address the board form before the meeting. Speakers who have not completed a request form are not permitted to address the board. The speaker must state their full name and topic prior to addressing the board. Speakers are encouraged
053to be brief with a maximum time of three minutes. While more than one speaker may speak together in the time allowed, speakers that are speakers are reminded that they are not allowed to speak more than once and they may not transfer or delegate their time to others. If there are documents for the board, please give them to the board office staff and they will ensure each of us receives a copy. Those attending the meeting or speaking before the board shall observe rules of good conduct. Speaker shel refrain from inappropriate or slanderous remarks. And because TUSD serves students from preschool through to high school, you should be aware that there may be children present and listening. At the end of the call of the audience, the governing board president will ask if any board member wishes
054to respond to a criticism, wish to ask staff to review a matter, or wish to ask that a matter be put on a future agenda. No more than two board members may address each topic. And our first speaker this evening is uh Samuel Kovari Stigville. TUSD student. [applause] Um, good evening members of the governing board. Um, I'm here to express my thoughts and opinions about the potential adoption of a 4-day school um, through an essay I wrote for my AP composition um, class. So my thesis is even though some may say that high schools should move to a 4-day school week because it improves morale and student attendance, high schoolers should stick with the traditional 5day school week because long school days and additional time away from school disrupts the process of education. To begin,
055many believe that high schools should adopt a 4-day school week because it improves student morale and attendance. Some may ask how. To answer this question, we have to understand the significance of a 4-day school week in comparison to a traditional 5-day school week. 4-day school weeks differ from 5day school weeks in the sense that students are in a class for longer to make up for the time spent in class on the day that would be missed. This would mean that the school days are extended, so students are insured enough instructional time in class. Additionally, 4day school weeks are different because it gives students and teachers longer weekend. This means more time to spend with family, more time to spend or do homework, more time to relax or recover from stress of school, more time for
056internships and career exploration, and more times for personal care. However, through a 4-day school week, though a 4-day school week sounds amazing and almost too good to be true, it has detrimental flaws. Adopting a 4-day school week would mean that we are at school until 4:00 in the afternoon. Already, I attend a school that goes until 3:00 in the afternoon, and from my experience, students do not want to be there any longer. By the end of the day, students are exhausted and want to go home. By fifth period, I can feel my eyes getting heavy and back straining. And I also yearn for the soft touch of my bed. Many students who feel tired at the end of the day have trouble performing their best. When students are exhausted before the school day ends, they
057overexert themselves, which leads to long-term burnout. If students are constantly required to work their tired minds, their academic performance and achievement are going to be lowered. Although with the extra day off, students are allotted more time for activities outside of school. For example, they can finish homework. They can spend more time to do internships or job shadows, and they can also spend more time with family and friends. All these are certainly true, but only if the school students would show that they would use this free time as intended. In reality, our school's majority of students are not high achievers, not proactive go-getters, and not mentally inclined to challenge themselves for improvement, and most certainly not the type of people to do school outside of school. For example, in my freshman year of high school, we
058had an optional conference period in the morning. However, the next next year, conference period was moved to the afternoon because too many students were at school or in the nearby shopping plaza, but they were not in the but they were not in conference period even though they weren't passing their classes. They were given opportunities by their schools to better themselves, but did not take them because they they are not the type of people who care about who care about success or value their futures. Thank you. >> [applause] >> Next is Judy Morel. Good evening, Superintendent Trujillo, Board President Shaw, and members of the board. My name is Judy Merillion. I've been here many times. I am a former TUSD school librarian and literacy coach and retired librarian educator. I'm here tonight to find out about
059the override budget decisions regarding opening and posting state certified school librarian positions. Likely like everyone in this room, thanks to the success of the override, we are elated by the ability of the district to increase compensation for employees. As noted in the superintendence report, the district is keeping its override funding commitment to career and technical education and implementing and expanding access to muchneeded prek education. At the December 2025 governing board meeting, the B board confirmed that restoring professional school librarians positions was promised in the override literature. My question tonight is this. How and when will the district move forward with this promise? Access to vibrant school library resources programs and the expertise of librarians districtwide is an equity issue. Professional school librarians with teacher certification and additional graduate level coursework in library science are trained
060to teach and co-e with classroom teachers to improve students literacy skills, reading, writing, and thinking using print and digital tools. In this age of distraction and misinformation, certified librarians help motivate students to practice deep reading and guide students to reliable information. The leadership of school librarians positively impact student achievement throughout a school community. With fewer librarians in 2026 than there were in 2025, TUSD can and must do better for its deserving students and classroom teachers. So, will this voterapproved funds be used to res So, will these voter approved funds be used to restore literacy learning through school libraries or not? Please answer this question tonight. Thank you. >> [applause] >> Next is Natalie Fry. You can put Hello members of the board. Dr. Trillo and all here in person and online today. My name is
061Natalie Fry. I am a speech language pathologist at Meyers Ganung Elementary School who has had the privilege of working with a robust team of Xed colleagues all of whom are doing so much more than their job descriptions and contracts outlined to support our students with Xed needs. Today I want to shine the spotlight on paraprofessionals. As you will hear today, paraprofessionals serve a wide range of responsibilities in our district. Between feeding and toileting, they come into contact with every bodily fluid you can imagine. They work with students on lessons and schoolwork as often as they are able, but are often called away to manage crises. They do everything they can to support student safety during disruptive and destructive behaviors, which often means putting their own body in harm's way and must constantly combat their own
062sensory dysregulation and overwhelm to stay present with students. Imagine being an aid, teacher, or student trying to work on classwork when you have one student screaming at the top of their lungs, two students crying, two students hitting each other, two students chasing each other around the room, one student banging on the table, and one student climbing into the sink. Most days, this is no exaggeration. And if you do the math, that's only nine students. TUSD caps self-contained classrooms at 12 with just one teacher and two classroom aids. Imagine you are a paraprofessional in the setting I just described. What would you address first? How do you recover after a day like that? How do you find it in yourself to come back? This year, my colleagues and I have begun to build a campaign to
063improve conditions for all of EXED. Resource teachers, self-contained teachers, related service providers, and paraprofessionals met in person in February to discuss our needs and develop our demands through a democratic process. Together, we determined the following asks. Create a fair step schedule that incentivizes experience for pair professionals. Establish case load caps for groups that don't have them encoded in the TEA consensus and reduce caps for self-contained classrooms to at least a one to three adultto student ratio. Reinstate students that services that have been significantly reduced or removed altogether such as orientation and mobility and adaptive PE. We additionally demand respect from our XED leadership. For years, many have spoken out about mistreatment from Jess Nolan, the Xed program coordinator without change. We need leaders who are respectful and collaborative. Please heed our invitations to spend a
064day in a pair of professionals shoes before the end of April so that you can see the realities and demands of the job, the environments and supports that are in place as well as the needs. Come get to know our pair of professionals. [music] Thank you. >> Thank [cheering] you. Next is Michael Rosar. [applause] >> Michael Rosar. >> Hi, thank you for everybody's time. I appreciate you all being here. My name is Michael Rosar. I'm an exceptional education professional, par profofessional at Tucson High Magnet School. 15 years ago, I started as a part-time monitor at Grihalva Elementary for 735 an hour. It was a 4-hour shift. I was lucky enough to live two blocks away from the school, so I could come for an hour in the morning, two hours at lunch, and an hour
065at night in the afternoon when school left. I instantly fell in love working with students and excelled at dealing with some of the more challenging students we had at the school. After two and a half years, a good friend and co-orker suggested I apply for an exed position at Maxwell. I got the job with no training. Began to work in a CCI class for 1111 an hour. I loved it. Again, I developed a particular set of skills working with some very unique children. Very unique situations. For the last nine and a half years now, I've been at the hallowed halls of Tucson High Magnet School. Go Badgers. And all those TUSD's crown jewel. In all those years, I've advocated for and mentored dozens of students. I've been dealing with and educating the most challenging students
066that have come through our program. I've had my ribs crept, cracked. I've been punched, kicked, scratched, dodged various uh classroom items, launched at full velocity, including chairs and desks and anything else they can get their hands on. I've assumed the role of uh security guard, counselor, coach, good guy, bad guy, and friend. Currently, I make $20.31 cents an hour. That's with 15 years experience in the district, 12 and a half with XED. The current EXE par crew at Tucson High Magnet School, some of them are here to support me tonight, are some of the best dedicated people I've ever worked with. Sadly, many are leaving at the end of the year because they can't make a living at this job. I'm here to support all my fellow employees and union members to get a fair
067and equitable wage. Please accept our invitations tonight to shadow and exit parapro and see what we put in with put up with day in and day out. Again, thank you for your time. [cheering] [applause] >> Next is Teresa Guerrero. Good evening board members. [clears throat] My name is Teresa Guerrero. I'm a parapro with the XED department at Van Busker. I have 24 years of experience in the field. Um, I'd like to address that the needs of an XED preschool classroom is most definitely not met by our hourly play. How can we keep both new and experienced employees to the position to be motivated enough with students to stay and return without hiring our paygrade? The 15-minute break is not an option in our classroom. In our morning session, we have 15 students, five of which
068hold an IEP, two who are visually impaired. In the afternoon, we have 13 students, again, five who hold an IEP. It's a constant battle with safety. Um, I feel like I am worth more and I'd like you to spend a day with the parah so you can have a more understanding of why this is so important for our success and the students success. Please consider spending a day with the parah. Thank you for your consideration to this matter. [cheering] [applause] Next is Susan Marott. Good evening. Um, I am also a parah and currently working at Alice Vale Middle School. And my question is why are we hiring outside contractors from agencies and paying them5 to$10 more than current employees which like myself working nine plus years making less than an in-n-out employee. [applause] Next is
069Dolores Divera. I'm Dolores Divera and I am on the subnegotiating committee with Dan Ireland. Um, so hello. It's good to know that passage of the override means that we are going to get some pay boost. You might have noticed in your packet though that there's no salary schedule for us in your documents today. That is because before we take things for our subs to vote on, it really just makes sense to be able to present them with a whole whole financial package. There are a couple other financial items that we want to get tweaked. Um the rates that we're going to the rate increases we're going to get for the override are really pretty good in my opinion, except we do think that the long-term sub rate needs to go up a little bit more.
070So we will be continuing to discuss that in negotiations. And I also want you to remember that we have not had a raise to our rates in most of our schools since 2021. Meanwhile, the minimum wage has gone up more than $3 an hour. Other employees in this district generally get annual raises. Uh maybe not last year, but they generally get annual raises and you've even given some mid-year raises that we were left out of. Um, in negotiations, we want to try to address some common sense proposals. For instance, sometimes our long-term subs get paid for taking on six fifths. Sometimes they don't. Sometimes a sub who is there all year has gotten some kind of bonus like I think it was 301 money or something mimicking 301 money. Some uh last year they were
071told that wasn't available to them. Um, sometimes we've been paid for Wednesday PDS. most of the time we're not. All of those things need to be addressed in the contracts. Um, and we have other proposals that might be a little bit more complicated. I would be glad if any one of you wanted to come watch one of our negotiating sessions at the next one, whatever it is, I don't know. I would like to review a little of the history uh of our raises and lack of raises with the administrative negotiators because my guess is they aren't really familiar with it and you might have heard some things that seem like hearsay. I would love if you would come see my presentation. We still have a lot to talk about, but it is great to know
072that we've got some guaranteed raises from the override. Thank you very much to the voters and the taxpayers for that. Thanks. [applause] Next is Jerry Schustster. [clears throat] Good evening, board president, Dr. Ravi Sha, members of the governing board, Dr. Trillo, Councelor Ross, and staff. Once again, I thank you for this opportunity to speak before you. My name is Jerry Schuster. I'm a substitute teacher with TUSD. Tonight I want to speak in reference to agenda item 8.1 the uh the proposed 4-day week and yes it certainly will uh present challenges as a previous speaker had pointed out but I'd like to point out that would also present opportunities for example with one extra available day it could give an opportunity for for instance for our middle school students to be immersed in a high school
073environment they could spend that one day when high school's at a session in in high school now yes They're already getting in in many cases high school credit, but this could be an opportunity for them to actually be in a high school environment and they could do similar things with our high school students on that day off. They could have an opportunity to spend time in a college environment as well, whether it be the UOVA or Puma and it could also expand opportunities for further immersion in a CTE JTED environment which was uh discussed at length um with all these wonderful things happening earlier. So um so I would look on it as uh as opportunity and uh we also have to consider the challenges that we're facing with the retention recruiting students as was
074pointed out at previous board meetings. The most challenging school level for that in is middle school. Well, I I would like to state that uh I'm sure there are some parents that if they see the middle school students having an opportunity to be immersed in a high school environment, I could see that as as a as an attraction. So, that could go a long way in uh in recruiting and and retaining our our students. And when they see that the process could continue in high school, that in high school they would actually have an opportunity to be immersed in a genuine university or CTE environment that would make us that much more competitive. So it so that's the way I would look at it as increased opportunity and uh along the lines of what Dr.
075Trill was talking about, this would certainly involve more community input. So I I for one would like to see workshops, town hall meetings, superintendence forms, and yes, Dr. Trio, that would add to your already enormous workload. But I think when you look at it as an opportunity and um and a way of retaining students, so much the better. So that concludes what I would like to say about that. But just more one more quick thing on a different topic, what's being discussed by many people here as a sub. Every once in a while I'll I'll sub for exas so I see firsthand what's what's talked what what they're talking about and I've experienced that as well. Once again, thank you very much and best wishes. [applause] Thank you. Next speaker is Natalie Mast. Good evening
076everyone. I'm Natalie, a current parent and exed employee and I have three three quick points tonight. First, to follow up on my statements at the last meeting where I spoke about grooming, a strategic approach to sexual predation. The information was incredibly wellreceived by the community and as it spreads, the following ideas have been shared. Get the packet to all staff, parents, and at minimum high schoolers. get the information into curriculum and integrate the in information into our daily school culture like a district-wide morning statement of confidence, bodily autonomy, boundaries, and consent. Posters with the same information in the afterchool clubs that teach these principles based on long-held traditions of coercion, control, and exploit exploitation in our country. The information is relevant to any current or former TUSD community member who has experienced predatory behavior in
077our district. My heart goes out to you. It's nothing you deserve, nor was it your fault. Predators are on a craven search for validation and conquest, and they have to be removed. Second, our superintendent, who we know is hoping to land a different job, has asked for a deputy superintendent position under him so he can focus on closing schools. This is a stunning example of the financial theater TUSD engages in. A month ago, we were duped into believing the cost savings of eliminating the region 2 assistant superintendent position. A prudent move, only to find now a deputy position will only cost $13,000 more than the eliminated position. The only thing more hilarious would be to place the former region 2 employee as deputy. Please consider how this looks and affects the morale of our staff.
078Our superintendent makes 10 to 15 times our lowest paid employees. But most important, he signed up to be a well-paid public servant. As many employees have been told in the recent past, exed employees as they struggle with low pay and staggering workload. Do your best. Everyone works overtime and feel free to find something better. Third, and most important, the exceptional education department needs help. Since 2017, according to state records, EXE funding has dropped from 29% of instructional dollars to 21%, a loss of millions each year. Somebody made this decision, and we would like to hear publicly the rationale, especially because last year we were told XED is growing in needs and numbers. based on the flow of power and control not only in TUSD but nationally. I highly doubt this decision was made or supported
079by our director, executive director of exceptional education. In fact, I have to imagine Dr. Sammon fully sees the incredible struggles many Xed employees are experiencing and wants to fix it. We look forward to having this addressed in detail at our upcoming XED forum. The days of ordering employees to do more faster and better as if we're machines are over. >> Next is Katherine H. [applause] [snorts] Katherine Hess. Last month, I addressed this board concerning your approval of Club America to operate at Ringcon High School. I will focus tonight on two of those violations that support removal of this club. The Federal Equal Access Act and your own governing board policies forbidding outside groups to control a school club. The response from your board member at the March 10th meeting was whether we like what a
080club has to say or not, they have a first amendment right to say it. This has absolutely nothing to do with the first amendment. We all know that almost any group has a first amendment right to establish an onampus club if they follow the rules and regulations of each school. Here are the specific violations. Students seeking to form a Club America chapter must first sign a formal contract called a TPUSA chapter agreement. They must maintain ongoing contact with an assigned Turning Point employee, one of whom we have on video present at their first meeting in January at Rencon High School. Students are required to submit regular reporting and verification to Turning Point. They are required to disclose extensive student officer contact information. Students must give Turning Point all their social media account passwords. The designation
081of all social media accounts are the property of Turning Point. They can assume control of these accounts at any time. Students are also encouraged to submit names of teachers and board members to a turningpoint watch list. Encouraging students to surveil and target staff members is not civic engagement. Turning point can give direction to issue press releases when school or school actions conflict with their ideology. When an outside organization exerts operational control over a club's direction and finances, it is no longer a student-led organization. It creates a major conflict with this board whose job is to oversee all school-based activities. Club America with its outside control by Turning Point is a clear violation of your very own governing board rules that do not permit outside group control for student clubs as well as the Federal Equal
082Access Act, which states the very same thing. They must not be allowed on any TUSD campus. It is time to do the right thing. remove Club America from the Rencon High School campus and deny any other attempts to certify these clubs on all TUSD high school campuses. [applause] Next is Lily. Next is Lillian Fox. I didn't expect my name to come up so fast. Superintendent Trillo, uh, pres board president Robbie Shaw, board members, um, you've got this little packet. Um, the $86.7 million budgeted for furniture equipment is still unexplained. I've watched the video. I heard what he said. It does not explain why that much money is budgeted. Um, the board bond money ought to be shown in the um budget. If you look at this little thingy, if you look at the top, it
083shows you Money, DEG money, Title One money, and other money. Currently, all the bond money is lumped under um other money. It ought to have a separate little column just exactly like DEG does, so the public can see where the money is being spent and and see that you really are doing what you promised to do. Um, [clears throat] you currently have $17,000 budgeted for staff food. That's not legal. The attorney general has ru ruled and the auditor general's website says you cannot use taxpayer money to feed staff. All the taxpayer money you're using to feed staff is listed in red. There's a bunch of stuff in black because that's listed under other. So, I don't know if that's taxpayer money or not. You can only use taxpayer money to pay pay food to staff
084if they are on an approved trip for an approved meeting. And the trip has to meet certain requirements. Otherwise, if you want to use money to pay for staff, it has to be money that was given specifically for that or it has to be part of a grant that says you're feeding staff. So, what TUSD is doing is illegal. that you stop this minute um and use it for something the kids need. Okay. Um you pre-approved. Let me go to administrative expenses because I won't get to it otherwise. For years and years and years, turn to this page. The auditor general has described TUSD as having very high administrative expenses. If you look over here, uh, we have so many administrative people that we have one administrative person for every 39 employees. We also pay
085our administrative people more than other school districts do. When you are compared to the other large school districts, we're one of the large school districts. Our costs are much higher. They have one administrative person for every 69. So, we're getting up towards almost twice this. You've got to do something. That's what you should be cutting down here. Again, I'm giving you the definition of what constitutes administrative people. Thanks. [applause] >> That is that is the last of our speakers, Dr. Shan. I've got four to be read. Okay. Good morning to USD board members. My name is Tammy Casease and I'm a proud and I am proud to represent Sanorita High School. I wanted to follow up on an email I sent to the board on March 27th regarding bond projects at San Rita. Thank you
086Dr. Shaw for taking the time to respond to my email. I cannot be here tonight in person, but wanted to send more communication because of a very real impact recent public statements have had on our school community. Mr. Romero publicly identified Santaorita as a school that should be closed before any formal process, criteria, or community engagement has taken place. Even more concerning, that same board member has stated and voted as such that he will not support bond funding for our school based on his perception of Santaorita, a school that is filled right now with engaged, committed, and proud students, families, and staff members. When funding for facilities is called into question, it sends a clear message to our students, families, and staff members that they are not worth the same investment as others. That is
087an equity issue and it is unacceptable. How does such a damaging, dismissive statement about our community, a community in your care, happen on your watch? I am responsible for school tours to potential parents and students, and this public statement has caused a lot of questions during my school tours. We've worked very hard to build confidence in the community and that single statement has hurt the years of hard work we have put forth. Our students deserve a safe, modern, and fully supported learning environment today and not a contingent on or impacted by the opinion of someone with a simplistic solution for addressing a highly complex budget crisis. So tonight, I'm asking for two things. First, a clear commitment that Santaita High School will receive equitable acqu equitable access to the already approved and planned bond funding.
088Second, that any conversation about potential school closures and/or consolidations follows a transparent process that defines includes defined criteria and authentic community engagement before a reputable public conclusions are drawn. We are not asking for any special treatment. In fact, we're only asked to be treated like any other schools in TOD with fairness, integrity, and responsible leadership. Thank you, Tammy Casease, Santaita High School and Career Readiness Coordinator. Second letter from Ryan Townsen. After watching last week's board meeting, specifically the bond approval process, I want to thank board member Extramm for recognizing that we do a disservice to our community unless we keep the discussions out in the open. Closers and consolidations aren't just budget items. They impact the heart of our neighborhood, staff, families, businesses, neighbors, voters, and most importantly, our students. Last week's comments seem to
089suggest that si decisions are being made outside the public process and behind closed doors without input. I hope board member Romero will join in this commitment to transparency. Our community needs to be a part of this process from the start, not just after decisions are made. Most importantly, our community needs to be able to trust that their elected officials will follow the transparent legal process for any difficult decisions that lie ahead. Thank you. Third [applause] letter. Good evening, TUSD board members and community. My name is Jessica Padilla and I'm a parent of Santaorita High School. My daughter is currently a junior at Sanorita and my son will be attending next year. Right now, our students are experiencing uncertainty that they did not create and cannot control due to comments that were made at the last
090board meeting. They are hearing that their school may close and at the same time that investments in their campus may not be supported. That combination is not just concerning, it is harmful. It affects morale. It affects trust. And it affects how students seen their own value in their school. It sends a message that a community is less than. It sends a message that our students are not worth the same belief, resources, or future. When a school is publicly singled out, especially before a process has even been discussed or established, it sifts perception in the larger community. Enrollment decisions change, competence erodess, and the very challenges being cited can become worse. That's why process matters and the temptation to identify quick fixes for a complicated budget crisis must be avoided. If there are going to be
091effective conversations about district budget solutions through school closures, they must be transparent, data-driven, include the voices of the people most impacted. And until that process is even communicated, let alone complete, Sanorita students must have the same commitment from every board member to a safe, updated, and fully functional facility as every other school in TUSD. It is what is right. It is what is fair, and it is what is equitable. Sanorita students and families deserve nothing less. No student should feel like they are attending a school that is already being closed around them as part of their lived high school experience. They deserve better. Please do better, board members. Thank you for your time respectfully, Miss Padilla. [applause] And uh last uh letter of this evening. Dear TUSD board members, I am writing to share my
092experience as a former employee of Tucson Unified and to express my deep disappointment in the recent decision regarding my financial compensation and the liquidated damages that I'm required to pay. My husband and I recently located relocated from Tucson to Denver due to his job transfer. a move that occurred in March, just two months before the end of the school year. Despite receiving an offer on our home in December, we carefully planned this transition to occur late in the school year as possible to minimize disruption. And I personally gave my supervisor 70 days notice to ensure a move a smooth trans handover my responsibilities. Throughout my tenure, I was committed to supporting the special needs children in the district, a role I know is critically understaffed. I took pride in my professionalism and dedication and my
093supervisor was supportive of my transition. However, despite my contributions and the district's ongoing challenges in filling teaching positions, a decision was made by John Fernandez, the chief human capital officer, to withhold 2,000 of my earning competition. This decision feels particularly unjust given the circumstances of our move and the district's broader struggles with teacher retention. Arizona faces a severe shortage of educators with thousands of open teaching positions statewide. Tucson Unifi, like many others, has classrooms that remain unfilled and the focus should be some supporting and retaining teachers, not penalizing those who leave due to unavoidable life circumstances. My situation is a clear example of how rigid policies can discourage dedicated professionals from continuing their vital work in education. I urge the governing board to review this decision and consider the broader impacts such policies have on
094teacher morale and retention. I also hope that the district will reflect how it can better support it educator especially in times of personal transition. Thank you for your time. Sincerely, Jessica Robertson, former TUSD child find evaluator. [applause] And that concludes call to the audience Dr. Sh. >> Thank you, Clerk Aluna Rose. Now, our governing board has the opportunity to respond to criticism, ask staff to review a matter, or ask that a matter be put on a future agenda. Reminder that no more than two members may legally address each topic. >> Dr. Shaw, >> Miss Shaw, first, I want to thank everyone who came to speak tonight. Um, I want to thank uh our student Samuel for voicing your criticisms about uh the 4-day school uh potential change at Pelverie. Um, I also want to thank
095Miss uh Merillian for uh your continued advocacy for our um hopeful librarians and I'd like to ask staff for an update and uh timeline on posting the certified librarian positions funded by the override. [gasps and sighs] Um I also want to thank all the par profofessionals who are here advocating today. Um, I'm put in a request for uh some time off to come visit uh your classrooms. And I also want to place on a future agenda the demands raised by Miss Natalie Fry and others regarding our par profofessionals including a raise to match what we uh pay for our outsourced pair of professionals as well as uh creating a fair step schedule case load caps and a 1:3 adult to student ratio. Um, thank you, Miss Hes, for uh raising those specific concerns uh regarding
096um Club America. And I'd like to ask our legal council to review the information raised by Miss Hes um regarding Club America and its outside group control and potential violations of our governing board policy. Um, thank you, Miss Fox, for also raising the issue of taxpayer money being used um incorrectly to feed staff. Um, and I would like staff um to review that matter and let us know if um you know when the governing board and other staff members are fed here um at our meetings if that is a misuse of taxpayer funds. And that's it. Thank you. [applause] >> All right. Thank you everyone. Um Dr. Trillo, what is the order of our agenda? Did I miss the agenda adjustments? >> The agenda adjustment is now that uh that we move up um the
097palvery item which is item 8.2. I'm sorry 8.1. >> That's the only thing we're doing out of order. Yeah. So, I think we're doing out of order. >> All right. So, we'll do 8.1 next. All right. So, we'll do uh 8.1. Paulo Ready High School Magnet School Pilot Program 4 day school week school year 2627. Dr. Trillo. Yeah, absolutely. So, yeah, give them a round of applause. The Titans are in the house. How about that? [applause] President Shaw, members of the governing board, I want to commend the palvery community. Though we're not here for action tonight, we're here to just hear the concept, hear the idea, and whatever becomes of this proposal, whatever action the governing board takes. At the end of the day, we have to celebrate the innovation, the daring to dream, the
098daring to think differently, the daring to go outside the box and to really reflect and think on how the palibvery community can number one meet the academic needs of its students in a more meaningful way, but then also an innovative way to address staff burnout while at the same time creating a new opportunity to bring in more students. It is that kind of thinking that I am challenging all of our principles to engage in as we struggle with declining enrollment and we challenge ourselves to recreate and reimagine uh Tucson Unified School District one school at a time. So with that, I'll turn it over to lead us off uh principal Eric Brock who himself is a proud alumni of Palaverie. Mr. Rock. [applause] Good evening, governing board and Dr. Trujillo. My name is Anna Leia
099and I'm a junior at Palaverie. As a junior with seven classes assigning me homework every day, I constantly feel overwhelmed. That was until I learned about the proposed 4-day school week with academic support on Fridays. This new schedule seemed revolutionary. With an extra day off, I can work on any leftover work from the week on Friday. Then on Saturday and Sunday, I can finally have a weekend again. Even though some may worry that a 4-day school week may negatively affect student achievement, in reality, it would allow for increased achievement and greater competition in student enrollment. To begin, some may worry about the effect a 4-day school week would have upon students academic achievement. If Arizona is already struggling in academic achievement, why take a chance that may continue to hurt Arizona's academics? This is a
100valid concern, but research shows that these worries aren't backed up with any evidence. In fact, the opposite is true. For example, Patagonia, which switched to a 4-day school week two years ago, already reported a 7% increase in math benchmark scores. Also, let's discuss the fact that a 4-day school week would improve school enrollment competition. In recent years, there has been a large decrease in TUSD enrollment, while charter school enrollment has only gone up. In fact, even my sister chose to enroll in a charter school. The hours the school offered made it easier for her to find extra time to do school work and apply to college. If TUSD explored the option of a different school week schedule, they could become more competitive in student enrollment. Overall, a 4-day school week would benefit everyone on campus.
101I hope this proposed schedule is given the chance to prove all the opportunities for growth it has to offer. [applause] >> Good evening uh governing board members. I'm Ysef senior in Palo. So back in Afghanistan, I used to go to school six days a week. School was Saturday through Thursday and Friday was the only day off. By the end of every week, I was drained and felt like um school never really stopped. Most of my friends and I were always tired and a lot of a lot of us were struggling in class. Uh if any of us had responsibilities at home or anything else going on, it was really hard to keep up. My grades were bad and I felt stuck in that cycle. When I moved to the US and started going to school
102five days a week, my grades started getting better because I had more time to focus on my on them. That made me realize that a school schedule can have a huge effect on how students perform. Sometimes different between uh the difference between struggling and succeeding is having enough time to rest, catch up, and handle life outside of school. That's why I support the idea of a 4 day school week. To me, it's not about doing less work. It's about using time in a better way. First of all, uh this schedule won't just mean having an extra day off. It could be a it could be a day to get tutoring, retake tests, and make up assignments or catch up on missing work. Too many students are burned out, stressed, or trying to deal with too
103much at once. H and having extra time in the week could really help. Students also have responsibilities outside of school like jobs, internships, family responsibilities, and appointments just just to name a few. Sometimes we miss class because we have to go to doctor's appointment or take care of something important outside of uh school. However, having an extra day in the week could make time for what we need to do without having to miss class. It will give students still more room to breathe and that can make a real difference. I know some people worry that students might learn less with a 4 day school week. I understand that concern, but I don't really see it that way. When students [snorts] aren't exhausted all the time, they come to school more focused and ready to learn.
104Students also do better in school with this schedule, not because they have more time, but because they have better balance. If moving to from six days to five could change my life for the better, I can only imagine the good that a four day schedule could create at Palo Verde. It's not about making school easier. It's about making the school system work better for the students. Thank you. [applause] >> All right, governing board. Uh thank you for having me here tonight to talk about a proposed pilot for Palvery High School. And I'd like to thank my faculty and staff for attending as well and my students who are a part of the presentation. So I have a packet that indicates a more broader um in-depth approach to this presentation for the pilot. Um I'm going
105to go through highlights to get through some important parts pretty quickly. Um in order to set the stage, I think it's it's obvious that schools are forced to compete on quality programming um and their culture to attract students. I represent the state champion boys basketball team. By the way, [applause and cheering] in a graphic that Dr. Trillo shared with administrators, uh the ESA, the empowerment scholarship account, there are 3,700 students in TUSD's area um that are paid between 7 and $8,000 to not go to our schools. Um this proposal is a way to attract students. Um that's a loss of $26 million. There's also a generational demographic shift. 45% of homes east of Swan are 55 and older. When I went to Palavery, my freshman class was 800. That's currently bigger than my entire school.
106So, I'm here to show you a couple of uh enrollment trends. If you look uh at a 5-year period here, um from 2020 2021 through 2526, uh these are high schools. um we've lost over a thousand students. If we look at middle schools, um that's a very similar number over that time frame. And these are just schools that are within um I'll call it a stones throw. These do not include westside schools like PBLO, Choya, things like that. These are more the footprint of um of my home. Um chose to represent this graph differently. Uh but I think what you can see is sort of an upward trend. These are enrollment trends for charter schools that again are in my area. Um they're not necessarily um students that are in primary ages. But in the
107same time that our high schools have gone down a thousand, the charter schools have gone up over a thousand. Um so my proposal is to move to a 4-day school week in order to attract students. Um the proposal maintains our seven period day and uh extends classes to 60 minutes Monday through Thursday. Um the graphic that you see that's small there is just a representation of recommended instructional time from AD. And so what I looked at specifically is uh like our math achievement scores and how we would how we would attack any possible loss in achievement for math. So my proposal utilizes a seven period day in order to have an an additional math class doubling AD's recommended minute counts. Um, in order to determine which day for uh reduction, I I looked at our
108school calendar and you can see there are countless days on Fridays uh that are off. So rather than make it a 3-day week, we chose Fridays for the proposal. Um, what a teacher workday looks like is a a 7:30 to 4:30. Um, and so that gets us to a 34h hour count. And then Friday, once a month, our teachers come in. We are open every Friday. And there is a rotation on Friday to support students on a flex Friday. an enrichment Friday, but once a month teachers come in to do a shift in order to support our students who need extra help. You had heard from some of the students in their essays. That's a way for them to come to school to make up tests. Um it's a way for them to get extra
109help. And then you'll hear from some teachers tonight also that will talk about uh ways that they're going to invite students in on Fridays. So this is an example schedule. On the lefth hand side in the white areas um I have different contents, science, math, English, and social studies. And what we did is we took each of the teachers that are assigned in those contents and we organized them into four groups for them to come in and help our students. So on the right hand side, the one with the yellow highlights that represents our district calendar and the assignments of our teachers to come in on the day of recess um so that we can help our students uh achieve. All right. So, um, in doing research on what a 4-day week looks like nationally,
110what I found out is that there's a possibility for, uh, loss of achievement in math. And so, in order to safeguard achievement, um, I mentioned offering an additional class. So, if I was a ninth grader taking algebra 1, I would be assigned a math elective class. So, I would double those minutes. I would have two math classes during the day that exists 9 through 11. um in order to support our students to increase our student our math achievement on ACTs and hopefully addressing our letter grade. Um additionally, keeping that seven period day is key in this aspect because it allows us over our sixth period peers um to offer that math elective. All right. So, I have a couple teachers that I would like to you to hear from that talk about ways that they
111will organize our Fridays. >> [applause] >> I'm Arwin Newman and I represent that English side as the English department chair. Uh we would be identifying students using common formatives, informal formatives, classwork. What are you missing? Did you miss something? Do you need to make it up? Benchmarks. We have the SAS curriculum which we're going to have some new tests with next year. I haven't heard much about it for from the district yet, but we're looking forward to that. ELL, etc., etc. to identify individuals and groups of students that need help but also maybe even need a little bit of enrichment. One of those has a QR code on it which they'll be able to scan to register to come on Fridays where we can help them with increasing their skills in ELA. >> Hi, I'm
112Carol Kegler. I'm the math department chair. Um we I wanted to talk about how we would be notifying parents about the this opportunity. Uh first of all the information about the program would be provided in uh when the syllabus goes out at the beginning of the year so the parents know that this program exists. Um whenever uh teachers feel that there's a student who might need additional help or even kids who just might need um extra challenges because their math class um maybe isn't as challenging as they um could be doing. Um, a notice would be sent home by each student explaining what it is that uh, we hope to accomplish and when we would like to see the student. Parents would then have the ability to accept the date that we gave them u,
113and choose a time that works for them. They could say, um, I can't, my student can't get in, but I would like for them to do Zoom tutoring. or they could say this is not a date that works for us. Could we change it to a different day? So, there are options for them. Um, but we are also making sure that we get email addresses because that's probably the quickest way to keep them informed. [applause] Okay. Another aspect of moving to a 4-day week explores an opportunity within our CCRI index. It's a an evaluation system for high schools. Um, and so this particular thing is something that is completely underutilized at my school. In five years, we've had six students complete a work-based learning, 120 hour internship or job shadowing. Typically, this is something that
114our CTE program um definitely helps us out with. And so I've def I have worked with uh Chuck McCullum on a a programmatic change opportunity so that we can increase what this looks like. But frequently when asked uh students why they're not interested in the job shadowing or or internships, they talk about getting home after four o'clock closer to five, trying to find a business that'll work with their schedules, balancing their homework and their home life. Um by having a day of recess, this gives us an opportunity for students to explore create career related opportunities and to complete internships and in turn helping our school score better on the CCRI index. Um there is a large aspect of teacher recruitment and retention that studies have have shown uh movement to a 4-day week helps. So
115in a particular example here um Jennifer Smith a professor at Purdue talks about uh applications increasing four times the normal amount. Prairieview High School was cited um and said that typically they have two or three applicants that represents exactly what my school is when we have an open job and now they see 10 to 12 applicants. Some of those benefits for teachers are improved work life balance and family time, increased job satisfaction and morale, and it's incre and it's a way to um to show them a non-monetary perk to be able to have that day of recess. Um the impact on staffing also helps re reduce teacher turnover and supports long-term stability at our school. Um there are some non-academic outcomes that I'd like our counselor to talk about. >> Hello. All right. So, as
116far as um bullying and fighting, schools that have adopted the 4-day school week have seen a decrease in these incidents. And with attendance, um there is not a lot of data, but um like one of our students talked about earlier, the Patagonia School District, they've been under this um school 4-day school week for two years now and they've seen a 3.6% increase in attendance. And then um just talking with some of our students who I would just like to say I'm very proud of for you guys for being here and speaking. This is very scary. [laughter] So as a counselor, I'm very proud of them right now. But um they also recognize that this is an opportunity for increased time for work-based learning um and internships, which we get asked about a lot trying to
117help students get that real world experience. Um dual enrollment or college prep, tutoring and academic support, and as well as family responsibilities. A lot of my students are working to support their families and so allowing them the opportunity to do this would be great. Thank you. [applause] Good evening governor board members. My name is Shaml Kurie. I'm a junior at Paulaver High Magnus School. I will be talking to you today about family and student benefits. So starting off appointments on Friday. What does that typically mean? To begin, students are able to use the Friday off to schedule appointments. That means that it instead of students missing schools school from Monday to Thursday due to appointments, they could use the Friday off to attend appointments. But in case of any emergency, the student is in need
118of the appointments during Monday through Thursday. That could also be acceptable. We want to encourage students to attend all four days and use the Friday off for other outside of school activities. Next up is going to be older students can assist with sibling transportation. Juniors and senior seniors will be able to drive which allows them to assist their families with younger sibling transportation. This gives parents an opportunity of not having to worry for their kids drop off or pickup. Next, opportunity for part-time employment. Upperassman students are able to use the Friday factor to work a part-time job, which allows them to make money and save that money for future expenses, such as students who are attending college, university, after high school. That money could also be used for tuition. Students that work on the Friday
119off could also help parents out on bills, which is very helpful for many parents who tend to struggle with bills. And then increase school schedule flexibility. Since our school offers seven classes per day, it allows students to finish credits earlier. So when they get to their senior year, they are able to to have a schedule flexibility. I will be using myself as an example. Since Polarity offered me seven classes, I was able to collect 22 credits just in my junior year. How amazing is that? This means that in my senior year, I could have a flexible schedule will which will also allow me to attend Jed and I won't be late to my class since Jed has a strict rule of time. This will also allow me to finish Jed and graduate with a certificate
120of a medical assistant just because Paulie offered me those seven classes. I can use that Friday off to apply to multiple colleges and scholarships throughout the school year. I can also pursue internships and job job shadowings on those Fridays. Thank you. [applause] Hello, my name is Saul. Uh, I'm a junior at Polar Magnet High School. And I have this I have this board right here where I wanted to present like a day in my life. And I know students that are in the same situation as me. Um, students that have a job. Um, and I wanted to just show you guys instead of just tell you. and me myself and other students wake up around 7 in the morning go to school go to school and I myself finish at 4 so I just wanted
121to just remove all of these hours that we have right here all of these hours and me as a um student that has a job I have to take my sister after school to her uh our house and then from there go to work and I start work at 5 and end an average time around 12 to 12 uh 12:30. Uh you may say, "Oh my god, why you guys working? Why you work so much?" It's because of the uh like in my I'm the oldest in my family. So I don't like I have to not just be there but also help provide to my family as financial because um my dad as an immigrant also needs help and my parents are really like old so that just comes as my job as an older
122brother and older son to step in. Um, and I just wanted to like cross all of this out right here. And I just wanted to show like as as a human and our human brain, if you're getting out around 12, I don't think that like the human brain doesn't have energy to proceed to do homework, especially as a dual enrollment or honors student. Um, so I just wanted to show you that. And I also just heard Mr. Brog talk about sports and myself as a varsity in soccer. Um, I've known my teammates that are immigrants and don't really understand English, so they really don't care about the uh like education, but sports also like help you um like that Friday will help them and force them to pick up their grades. That's why here too
123that Friday will also help me as a student that works and other students that work um like have that time at during Fridays to do work and come to school. not to goof off but to also come and take advantage of those teachers that are there for us to do our work and catch up with work and take retake tests. That'll be it. Thank you for listening to me and getting the opportunity to be here. [applause] >> Good evening board uh esteemed members uh Dr. Cuillo uh I appreciate you for having me. Uh my name is Fernando. I'm a junior at Palverie. Um, one of the benefits that I have viewed of adopting a 4-day school week is um, as a student athlete is reducing the amount of class time, instruction time that is missed.
124Oftent times due to our renovation of um, our gymnasium, I missed a lot of class time because we would travel to what some might say is the middle of nowhere. Um, and I missed most of my second half of the day constantly. And with that Friday, it would have been useful to just cut those missed classes in half. And then secondly, having access to opportunities that's playing sports takes away. Um, being a varsity athlete athlete, I normally don't get out of practice till 7:00. By then, I have to go get my little brother from practice, making it I don't get home till 8. And that's a struggle for homework and all my other responsibilities. Having that Friday would allow me to apply to colleges, um, looking into internships that I otherwise wouldn't have an opportunity
125to apply to because of my time constraints. Thank you. [applause] >> Hello all. My name is Veronica Yala. I'm actually Fernando's mom. Um, I am in favor for it because that Friday you time is fleeting, right? you. They were babies yesterday and tomorrow like he'll be a senior. So, I just I love the idea of having a slow Friday morning. If I want to make them pancakes and sit around the table and usually the weekends are go go go because they play club basketball and do other things, but having that extra time, I would I think it would soothe my soul and I think a lot of parents could also benefit with that. Um, I appreciate you listening to me and appreciate your time. [applause] I'll make this quick. U my name is Christina Daniel.
126I am a parent to a freshman at Palverie High School and I also am very much in favor of a 4-day school week. Um this my son is in a unique but not uncommon situation. His father lives back in Michigan. So having the ability to have a Friday off gives us more time for travel, more time for um for him to spend with his father when he goes back and forth during different breaks. Um this is also a pilot with a purpose. I think this is time to try something different because every time we've done the same thing and gotten worse results or the same results. So let's try something different. That's all [applause] >> just to uh just for time purposes. I want to make sure that all of our student, parent, and employee
127ver voices have been heard. And I would say we probably now want to shift into governing board questions. I know we've got a lot of other slides. Maybe some of the questions that you'll hear, you can use some of those slides to address whether it's a survey or the schedule or the tracks. So that I'll I'll turn it back to you. >> Thank you. I would appreciate if you could quickly go through some of the survey data. >> Okay, I'll go quickly. Uh so up front I have the the parent survey data and so uh there are three questions that I thought were most prudent. Um the the first is uh number nine where it talks about us pursuing an innovative scheduling idea and so agree or strongly agree was 88% of our parents. Um
128the number 11 at the bottom left for me uh prefer a 4-day school week for my student. 87% agree or strongly agree, 5% were neutral and 7% disagree. Um and then the uh circle graphic represents how our parents responded about what they would use for Friday. Yes, they would regularly attend. Um occasionally they would attend. No, they wouldn't. Pretty sure those are the students that got a hold of their parents' phone. Um and then the unsure aspect about how to use Fridays. When we look at the the student responses, um 72% agree or strongly agree with 15% being neutral. Um and then we have 11% disagree and 3% didn't know. Um and how would you use those days off? So that's completing homework or studying, resting or recharging, uh working a job, uh participating in
129activities or athletics, and spending time with family. And then our parent survey, uh, 97% agree or strongly agree, um, that they would be in support of a pilot for a 4-day school week with 3% being, um, neutral. All right, I know I have a lot of questions and comments and everything, but I'll turn over my governing board members for any questions first. Go ahead, Miss Len Rose and Miss Shaw. Thank >> thank you Dr. Shaw. Um hello Mr. Brock. Thank you so much. Um and thank you students uh for coming. I always love when students come and present to the school board because you guys this is why we're here. Um, so you're all very if anybody is listening or watching or has like negative things to say about what happens at TUSD and what
130how the students come out, just come to any one of our schools and see what the kids are doing because and what our teachers are doing um [applause] and parent support. I'm a parent. Um, I actually showed this to my daughter earlier or last night and she's graduating senior at Ringcon and she was mad that this is going to happen. So, um, but she'll be in college. She can figure out her own schedule. [laughter] But um anyway um so my question is like I and I like the parent participation and has the what have the the well we heard the young man who was also um um Sammy who came during the call of the audience. What other sort of opposition have you heard? >> So I think a lot of the students just voiced
131an unfamiliarity with what the extension of the day would would result in. Um and so when we look at minute counts over the course of a week um you know part of any potential mitigation of loss of achievement was to maintain minute counts right so um we're at 235 currently we would be at 240 by adopting this 4 day week so not only do we maintain we add you know a minimal amount five five minutes but that does result the concession of having a Friday off would result in those students being at on campus for an extra hour during the day. Now, there are other opportunities because we are a seven period day and you heard Sham talk about potentially a reduction so that she can go to to JTED. Um, so there are some
132flexible schedules that are available to our students because we are a seven period day. Um, but mostly the students just didn't know um what that would be like if they had to be there till 4, a change, they're used to 5 days. Those were the students that I had spoken to and what their opposition was. >> Thank you. Miss Miss Sha, >> thank you for your presentation and thanks to everyone who came to speak about this agenda item. Um, I do have a couple questions and my one comment is that I think you know this is an exciting model and it seems to have a multitude of benefits. So I'm um hopeful that if we do approve it uh we can see those uh data points realized. Uh my first question um is just to
133clarify that the longer period schedule um for the 4day uh week would not impact our average daily membership at this school. >> No, it would not. Um and I did compare like our bell schedules and the minute counts like a 60-minute count um compared to say Sunnyside at 55 or Flowing Wells at 55 or modified blocks that result in over an hour but only go a couple times a week. Um but yeah, our our minute counts would not be affected by ADM because we're increasing our minutes during the day. >> Great. Um and then um I imagine and I believe you said that um all students will be allowed on campus on Fridays. Um and I was wondering about like food service, like maybe they don't need to come on Friday, but they want to
134get a lunch or a breakfast. And so, um, has there been any exploration about how food service might be impacted and how, uh, we can protect against food waste on Fridays? >> Yes, ma'am. I think that there's certainly going to be an adjustment with trying to understand how many students are taking advantage of our Friday services. So, we are fully open. We will be serving breakfast and lunch. Students can come in and get breakfast and then hop in class and get a little bit of assistance. They can come and get lunch and get and see one teacher. They can see all seven teachers. they can go to their after-school athletic activities or um fine arts um performances or practices. So in this way um I did talk to the director of food service Lindsay Aguilar.
135um we sort of talked about the way that we managed COVID where students would come to campus um and receive their meals and uh I had asked her to talk in in sort of a jobalike situation with other directors um that are that are different districts that have 4day school weeks and she's gotten pointers from them. Um, but I definitely think that one of the things that we're trying to do uh through the suggestion of our superintendent is to utilize a service called bookings um for students to notify us that they're coming. You saw what our teachers would and it's in the packets for you the way they would invite people. There's also services for them to use a QR code to notify us that they're coming. We'll certainly accept anybody that walks in, but
136that way we can sort of plan more appropriately. >> Great. Thank you. Well, Mr. Romero, then Miss Extramm. >> Go ahead. >> Are there other um programs or school that are due in the four-week program in Puma County? >> Puma County. I do not uh San Miguel San Manuel >> is that charters >> Charters, but not a traditional school district. Um, but otherwise, Patagonia just completed the second year of their three-year pilot. Kasagaron Paige, uh, Pinetop, uh, there's numerous different, uh, districts that use this. >> Okay. And then as far as in Arizona, just going outside of our little area, I'm I'm guessing there's other schools, definitely probably charters, but other public schools in Arizona that are doing things like this, or there other schools that are doing pilot, I guess. Are you following a
137model that you've seen somewhere out there or is this kind of you guys are seeing what's out there and picking out some of the good things and see how you can implement them into our uh TUSD uh as a pilot. >> So there are there are a significant amount of districts that are moving to this um in multiple states. uh it's something that's spreading as a more common occurrence that's being handled now um because of the brevity that I needed to be uh I do not have the information directly in front of me but there's thousands of school districts that have adopted this nationwide um and so what I did what I was charged with is to you know as a father of two what if my son or daughter came to me and said
138I want to go to a 4-day school week well my first question as a parent would be how do I pro protect their achievement and so that's why I put in the slide about academic safeguards. What I read um through multiple studies in the last page of your packet is the citations of the studies that I read um was that there's no significant deviation in ELA, right? Um but there is a chance in nonrural, so suburban high schools could potentially see a loss of a standard deviation of 0.09 in math. My answer to that was to double my math class and to go from 60 minutes to [clears throat] 120. Thank you for your presentation to everyone who spoke today. Uh so I have a question about transportation. How [clears throat] would um that affect
139the bus schedules? >> So in talking to the director uh Martha Zamora, first of all, we only have two uh I'll call them GenEd buses. Um we receive a lot of contracted bus support for our special education students. Um but we are not looking at that being an effect to us in any way because of the current usage of our buses. Um but I talked to her about what would happen if you know my goal works and we attract more students. And so if you look uh on the complete packet which was omitted from what I've showed uh here tonight is that transportation had an influence on the bell schedule. So 810 to 410 actually puts us in the third tier which gives the most bus availability and the most driver availability um because it
140allows the current staffing to handle some of the the younger students and get them picked up and dropped off before handling us. >> Okay. And then staff um survey is that stakeholders or >> um so that was made available to uh here um okay student response the staff response so there were 66 responses to that and so every I met with everyone through our PLC period um gave them like some of the basic information behind this and then opened up a survey over the course of a week for them to respond. Okay. I just would like to thank you. I you put a lot of work into this and I think like someone had said, we've keep doing the same thing over and over again. Why not try something new? >> I think I was
141definitely interested in Patagonia's immediate results academically. Um and then because uh there were some news outlets that picked up um theformational pieces that I had passed out to the parents for um their response and survey. I had two students that were charter schools that during spring break because I work during spring break asked for school tours because they heard of it and said if this is approved they're bringing friends. [applause] And then I just want to clarify if a student wants to continue to attend every Friday, they're able to do so. >> Yes, ma'am. We're open. >> Okay. Thank you. [applause] >> Thank you. >> I have a bunch of questions. Um Oh, don't go. This isn't over yet. >> Thought [laughter] I got >> um and uh so if anybody has other questions as
142I go through mine is feel free to interrupt me um to continue asking some questions and want to say thank you for Principal Brock for doing this innovative approach. I love innovation. I love kind of some changes and trying some different things and I really appreciate everyone who came here tonight to speak against the uh proposal earlier. I call to audience but uh for the proposal here tonight as well. Um so and I had a unique experience in high school. I went to a uh this is back in the Chicago suburbs. I went to this uh magnet state high school in in Aurora, Illinois. Uh and we had a 4-day school week um in my high school. This is back in the stone ages of the '9s. [laughter] And a lot of students in that
143uh fifth day uh some of us would you get a chance to relax and gosh sleep in and catch up on things and um catch up on homework. Uh some of them did like these great programs. Some people had internships at Firmeny Lab down the street or all the way into the city of Chicago universities and doing research and other things uh which really helped kind of increase their knowledge and uh their applications to to colleges around the country. And so I've seen this in action from my own high school experience and saw it, you know, as a really positive thing for for what we were doing um there. So I'm really excited about this coming to hopefully fruition if this is approved. Uh a couple questions I had um going back to Miss Extramm's
144bus question. So if a student who takes a bus 4 days a week needs to come in for an exam or teacher hours, how would they come to school in the middle of day on a Friday? So >> just for that like hour or two that they need to come in and do something. >> So we would depend on on them to be able to get there or they can use the the remote feature. And so um and some of our principles during uh COVID used their funds different ways. Um in my math department chair room, we have cameras that are focused on the whiteboard um and TVs that show a remote access ability. And so we would take advantage of that to help them while they if they did not have transportation to site.
145>> Okay. Um so I know our our work week and our work schedule is governed by our like union contracts. What do we need to change? Like how does that work in terms of logistics of approving this and having the different work schedule uh the four days a week and then the coming in one Friday a month. How would that work on the logistics on the union contract that we have for our our teachers as well as our staff? So, I did meet with a lot of stakeholders there, whether that was with TEA, um, HR, employee relations. Um, and so there are a few fine-tuning things because of, uh, the consensus agreement that still need to be worked out. One of them is that Friday period. Um, and so there's a feature that working with,
146uh, Mr. Hernandez that we're exploring currently um as a way to make sure that the hours that our teachers are working are more consistent through both pay periods of the month. >> Okay. Um so with the the WBL, the CCRI, and all these different programs we want to have in place now, I know we're dealing with chronic absenteeism and so many other issues from STEM students that are struggling. We have some, you know, great students that are really engaged and we have a lot of students that aren't. like how how what will we do differently to try to engage those students that are struggling that aren't coming into school regularly that that we lose on those Fridays now and now they have another day that they're not being engaged in school like what are we
147what are we going to do differently with those kids >> so I do think first of all that we are a unique school because of a seven period day that allows us that extra opportunity for our teachers in PLC to target our students so they currently have a directive that they are to examine data during one of those hours during the week and we would use that opportunity as well as the first two hours on Friday. We're not projecting many students to get up on a day of recess at 8 a.m. to come and get help. Um, but to be able to target those students for achievement or attendance purposes, utilizing the MTSS framework and processes and be able to um show them that we need them to be here and to work with our
148homes to get them a little bit of extra help. I think it's oftent times our students don't know how close they are to success um before they give up. and this little push by having this enrichment opportunity, our flex Friday will give them the chance to know that we care about them and their achievement. >> Do you think they'll actually come in on those Fridays? You think we'll be able to engage students day off? >> I mean, that is an interesting question. So, we've had conference period, which is a tutoring aspect um both before school and embedded on our bell schedule, right? And so when students have a chance to come in early, we often see those that need to do makeup assignments, but those that care most about their grades. They want their teachers
149to know that they're willing to come in for five minutes and find out if they need anything. Um, I think that we are going to as a pilot make sure that we target those students so that we set frameworks for this process to be repeated in the future. >> Okay, there's a few more quick questions here. So, if we do this pilot starts next uh year, what u might be a slide on this, but what how will you measure success? How will you measure uh struggles and failure? what measurements are you going to be putting in to pivot to to make this work uh or to change things or to go back to way things were like what are you going to be measuring next year? >> So I think you heard about some of
150the ways that the criteria that our English department chair talked about for attracting students. So those are immediate opportunities to gain measurement but also comparing their their F rates from uh this current school year to what it would look like after uh nine weeks after four and a half weeks. So judging what how they achieved in class in addition to their benchmarking in addition to standardized tests um and making sure that those targets on Friday and the opportunity for enrichment are utilized for achievement. >> So will that be something that comes back to the governing board next year then for who's going to look into this? Yeah, Dr. Trio. >> Yeah, you're this is why this item is not action. We still have some work to do on the financial impact. We also have a
151little bit more work to do on uh adherence and compliance with existing consensus agreement language and we're still fleshing out the metrics. Definitely course failure is at the front. We want to see a reduction in the amount of FS particularly with the underclassmen. We want to see a reduction in credit deficiency and we're hoping to put in uh metrics for improved attendance. So we're going to have that fleshed out. Those three areas will be fleshed out when it comes back for action. Okay. And my last question and my only point of kind of concern with the proposal is the Fridays. Um, and why not like midweek? And so in my high school back in the 90s, it was Wednesday was our our day that wasn't a schedule with classes. And that worked really well to
152get like into the city and do things and have a midweek kind of break to refresh for the rest of the week. We always talk about when we have like the three-day weekends, how that other day, whether it's a Thursday or a Tuesday, is so low in attendance. And I wonder if we do the Friday that we're going to be missing a lot of kids on those Thursdays as well or or a Monday is coming back with a 4-day weekend instead of a three-day weekend. Especially with our short day already on Wednesday, why did we not pick like a Wednesday for the the day that is not scheduled with class? >> So the short day on Wednesday um is a result of us delivering PD. And so the manner in which I deliver PD uh
153might be different for us. you know, might the CSP that's here tonight might not love the effect the uh the fact that he would have to give multiple PDs over the course of a day instead of one to all faculty members, but it would offer us an opportunity to target improvement through our um through our teachers. Uh so that's why not Wednesday, though I'm open for suggestions. I simply looked at the calendar, compared the most amount of days off and looked at Fridays being the days that were um most numerous in in our recess and thought that it would make sense for our parents to have the our students there as much as possible Monday through Thursday. >> I was concerned about that Thursday a loss. So you always mentioned that Dr. Trillo in terms
154of like Fridays not being good for having that and that's why we we we talked about this with our professional learning days when we was on Thursday before. We lost a lot of kids on Friday. We moved it to Wednesday but I'm like why can't we just move it to Friday? so that those four days a year we could have the three-day weekends. And the big complaint was or the reason was that we didn't want to move the professional learning days to Friday because then we would lose a lot of Thursday and make a big mess for the whole long weekend. And so that was brought up uh like a year or two ago when we were moving the professional learning days from Thursday to Wednesday. And so I would love to look into that
155a little more and and see what other options we have. And I do want to point out that one of our parents talked about um and and while that fits her certainly um but the ability for her to be able to have her son travel back and forth between states is something that um the Fridays worked best for her on that situation. Um but I'm sure that there are multiple things that we need to look at when we get the final consideration. >> Governor boarding questions. >> So what's the timeline? What's the next step on this process? Dr. Trio >> fast. So, we're back here at the end of the month. We're back here at the 28th. We're going to have the financials worked out. We'll have uh if an MOA is necessary, we're hoping
156to engage with TEA, have that all um uh ready to go, and then we'll certainly have metrics fleshed out and um we'll have u some fleshed out justification for why Friday might be the best day of the week. Right. Thank you. >> Thank you. [clears throat] >> Thank you everyone for being here tonight. [applause] >> [applause] >> Dr. Shaw, >> looking for a break. >> Uh, well, I just want to propose moving um 8.2 up because it is 8:30 and I'd like the public to be able to listen to um the statutory requirements for school closures and consolidations. >> We also have family here for 7.1. Dr. Trillo, is that correct? Uh she actually had to leave early. >> Okay. So we don't have any family here for that one. >> So we can do
157that whenever the end of the agenda. >> All right. So the proposal is to move 8.2 next. Um and then go back to the start of the agenda. >> Yes. >> Any objection? All right. I'll take unanimous consent for that uh change. So next we'll have 8.2 to USD governing board policy and Arizona statutory requirements for school closure consolidation and boundary review. Dr. Trill. >> Yes. President Shaw, members of the governing board, um before we even engage in any kind of formal discussion about anything related to uh school consolidations or mergers, we first have to take a look at what's legally required and what does your own process say. So this is the very starting point of taking a look at what those requirements and what the law says and then where we can start
158putting together a timeline uh regarding public engagement and some of the required pieces. So uh leading us through this is going to be Mr. Ross our general counsel. I believe he'll be assisted with our associate general counsel and for historical perspective we have the member I was joking in with him this morning. I don't want to I'll just say he's the more experienced team member that was here in 2010 and 2012 when closures were last enacted. So he was on the ground for that. He can give you that perspective for any questions related to the presentation. With that I'll turn it over to Mr. Ross. >> Thank you Dr. Trillo and good evening governing board members. Sorry I have a cough drop in my mouth. I think I think I have a whole palvery in
159my throat right now in this last half hour didn't help. Um, okay. So, what I want to do is go over the the the statutory requirements for uh school closures or consolidations. Um, and then also governing board policies that have been developed to uh to accomplish that. So, there's one statute really that applies here and it's 15341A32. And the procedure that the statute requires is this. So you do a written notice to all parents and guardians and this is language from the statute in the district um 10 days before you hold a public meeting. Um the notice gives the reasons for the proposed closure, the time and place of the meeting and then that also that's an additional notice than your normal governing board meeting notice. So this is 10 days before you have basically
160a public hearing on the issue of consolidations or closures and that goes to all parents and guardians of the district. So you have that uh public meeting/hering meaning the contemplation of the statute is to have a public process and participation by the community. At that public meeting hearing uh there is discussion and comments on the proposed closure consolidation. Then the board needs to wait 10 more days after that public hearing before the board can vote on a proposed closure or consolidation. And then the only other statutory requirement is notifying the school facilities board of a proposed reduction in student square footage. So that's the statutory process. Easy, right? That's it. That's all that the that the state law requires. But this governing board has adopted policies that flesh out that process uh to work a
161a community um a communitywide conversation about this before the board votes. So the main policy here is FF FCB which is um called closing schools but it would apply to any consolidations. The policy has in it um considerations, the factors that that the board expects to be addressed when presenting a recommendation for consolidation of schools. And they're listed there, enrollment, attendance, condition of buildings, um any potential for um for the programs that are in schools, and then how close they are to others. And then, you know, looking at history of changes, and then what could the property be used for? um for reuse. The process also includes a and we'll talk about this in a second is adherence to the a superintendent's administrative regulation which really gets into the public u the public participation part
162of this. But the policy does say um the expectation is a thorough systematic study and those are words from the from the policy of all the impacting factors that can come into play. um and the evaluation of the contribution of the facility to the whole community is one of those considerations. So that's governing board policy FCB. Um it also requires open opportunity for public comment. Um again this is supposed to be a stakeholder communitywide conversation and that that public comment and participation would include um students, parents, staff and community members. The other uh interesting piece of this policy is that um if a school is closed then the policy requires a commemorative commemorative plaque to be created um and that there's also permanent public display of any school names and dates of operation. So just
163kind of a historical acknowledgement of the importance of schools in the community um built into the board's policy. So that's the board's kind of here are the expectations that we have. what does the regulation the superintendent's reg regulation say about how to accomplish that? So, uh obviously the board's policy contemplates a public process and the superintendent's job is to create uh a plan for that public process and present that to the governing board. So um the board the superintendent would create this process uh evaluating the consolidations do that systematic study that the policy uh requires and then there's all these criteria that are primary that are listed not just in the policy but also um again repeated in the regulation. um a little bit more detail here um about you know what the superintendent would
164expect in making a formal study and recommendation and then the plan must be submitted to the governing board for oversight. So this isn't a list the first step here isn't a list of potential targets for consolidation. its presentation to the board of here's how we're going to about to go about getting that list and what the criteria is going to be used and how the governing board is going to hear from the superintendent on engagement of the community. So that plan has to be submitted for review and then also that would include a timeline who's going to be involved and what kinds of things they're going to be doing to gather um uh community input. And of course the goal is to um give the board um evidence-based recommendations that um gives the board uh
165the right timeline to to do it uh successfully. So that's the the closure consolidation policy. In addition to that, the governing board has policy JC which is you know associated closely with closures which is how is the board going to uh accomplish boundary changes u for the schools that are remaining or consolidated. This takes on less importance in this era of of an open enrollment but you know where your your your home school is still has some value and relevance. Um, so you know there is policy and regulation on how to accomplish and get public input on boundary adjustments that that are the result of school consolidations. So this policy requires well the the regulation has two superintendence committees. There's an advisory committee of staff and experts who develop options for what the boundaries might
166look like. And then there's a next step of a boundary committee of community members and staff um to review those options that are developed by the advisory committee and make recommendations to the superintendent eventually to go to the board. So two different committees, one kind of a a steering working committee and then another one to review that work and provide recommendations. So the the boundary committee um has some jobs to do. One of them is to notify all the parents or guardians that would be affected by a boundary change. And again, this is this is a separate obligation than the closure piece, right? This is a a separate policy that says you have to notify all the affected uh parents or guardians of any proposed boundary change at least a week before there's going to
167be a meeting of that boundary committee. That's the the boundary committee of staff committee members. So, one week's notice and the the regulation actually says where will you provide that notice on the website. Uh notices posted at schools and press release and then the maps of the proposed boundary changes are posted on the district's website. And interestingly, I'm not sure maybe Mr. Nodine can tell us what we did with this phrase that says another district location. I don't know if that would be here. I don't know if that would be at at the district office. Um but the the policy just says another district location. Um the public boundary committee meeting is held in each region um that's affected um or in an area. It can be at at a particular school, but the I
168think the best practice is you're going to have more than one school probably involved. So a regional approach makes a lot of sense. The the committee presents its findings to the public. The public then gets to engage um in that process of giving feedback um through s small group discussion um or surveys and then also uh the the policy says the public can submit comment cards and then all of those comments and the committee's report gets reported back to the board um through the superintendent. So in addition to this we also have you know until and less and until the board makes changes to the post-unitary plan that we're currently operating under a desegregation impact analysis for the options also needs to be developed and we'll do that um you know assuming those processes don't
169change we'll do that as we as the board does um you know posting um impact analyses on the website um and then if the board takes action on the boundary change. Um then it would disband that public boundary committee and then another notification happens um to the community through the board minutes through the district's website um and also a bulk mail to all the land owners in the affected boundaries. Not just now we're not just talking about parents and guardians but to um all of the community members, land owners in the boundaries. and then um within 90 days of the board's action uh notify the Arizona Department of Real Estate. Um not exactly sure whether they would care um heck of a lot, but that's part of the the process is to make sure that
170the Arizona Department of of Real estate is aware of the boundary changes for schools. Again, in the era of open enrollment, that doesn't seem as important. I think, you know, 20 years ago it probably was a pretty big consideration. Um, at this point I can turn it over to Bryant for for these pieces. These are are two um there are two separate processes as uh Council Ross said and um these are a very um quick summary of what those processes involve. Um, basically with a consolidation plan, you look at your options, you gather some data together, you assemble the team, um, and then you, as he mentioned, create a plan for a public process that comes to the board. Um, and then once you get that done, you go out into the public, you engage
171the public, you look at different options, um, and come back, um, with a consolidation presentation to the board for, uh, decision. Um, so it's a little different than the, um, than the boundary changes because it involves a a broader committee and a broader look at the community. uh and it includes um other experts uh to look at things like perhaps demographics, land use and so on. Uh and brings that back to the governing board. The boundary changes are more specific. Um what you're looking at there is um you have a consolidation plan together. Um you put your two committees that uh Mr. Ross mentioned together. You orient those committees. You start to develop an idea um what the different options are and then you hold public meetings with extensive notification in different areas of the
172community. And I want to point out that that the committees that you put together uh really need to focus on the affected areas. So they need to include people from uh the affected uh the boundary committee in particular from the affected uh stakeholders and then as I said you hold the public meetings with uh uh in different areas of the community and again you present the boundary changes to the board. Now um so in summary um the consolidation process uh engages a wide amount of the community and um looks at the schools that should be consolidated and then looks at how to implement those consolidations. The boundary committee is actually part of the implementation and um that's a more involved uh process. it takes a little bit longer time uh because of some of the
173notification and and some of the uh and in fact you've got two committees working together and so on. Now um what we did in the past is we did combine them uh and ran them together. It took us um over a year in each each time that we did it to uh to complete the process. Um the first time we learned the hard way and we made decisions, we did it pretty much with fully with staff. Uh and we were making decisions on closures in June, which is definitely not uh a recommended way to go. The second time we started uh in the fall and ran the process all the way through the next fall and we were making pre presentations and board um uh considerations in November and December. Uh that's a much better
174approach to take. But you can see if you combine the two together, it takes longer. Um I I'll look at some of the pros and cons of combining and doing them separately. Uh pros for separating uh you can do all the consolidation decisions in a single uh decision with phases uh on imple implementing those consolidations. Um you can complete the consolidation in a shorter time than you can if you include the boundary process with it. um you're not including and notifying and engaging uh people who may not even be affected once you decide which consolidations you're doing because if you include the boundaries with that you have to um engage the affected uh communities um [snorts] and a decision can be made in as I said quicker and in a time that um parents have
175a chance to um look at this decision and make a choice in terms of where they're going to enroll their students. [snorts] Uh the cons for separating the processes are some of the consolidations may not take place for two to three years afterwards. um because in some cases you may have to add capacity to a school to be able to handle the extra um students. Um that wasn't the case last time. It may not be the case this time, but uh you have to kind of plan that there may be some longer term um renovations, improvements to the facilities to really make it a better facility to um accept those new students. And then the other side of it is u a con for separating is basically um you don't address the attendance areas fully
176in the consolidation plan. Um you do the boundary changes later. So parents have an idea where they'll attend or what their homeschool will be but they don't know for sure until a boundary process is done. Now, as Council Ross pointed out, there's a lot of open enrollment. 50% of the students within this district don't attend their home school. So, there it's less of an impact than it was in the past. Uh let's look at combining them. The pros are just the opposite. It's a okay, it's a full process. Uh parents know which school their child will attend. Um the cons are there really probably has to be if we want to make decisions for consolidation for the uh 2728 school year. Um there would have to be two consolidation decisions uh because we we could
177only probably do a few for the next year. Um combining adds time and complexity. Um and it affects you may include parents in the process who aren't going to be um ultimately affected by the consolidations. So there's some extra upheaval and angst in that case. So I've provided a timeline for a um strategic consolidation uh and you can see how it runs. You scan options uh in May uh if we started right now uh which we actually already have started looking at um gathering data preparing a scope of work and so on. Um then you put a team together in May. In June you look at leadership interviews and interviews and goal setting and do some initial assessments. In in uh July, you you get a public participation plan to the board. Uh in August,
178everybody's back from the summer and you initiate the public process uh engaging the community, evaluating and assessing uh all the potential consolidations. Um, and then in the rest of the time up to November, you're putting together implementation plans, project budgets, uh, and you need to create a a repurposing plan. One of the things we learned, uh, from the other prop, uh, processes is that you really need to know what you're going to do with the um, school that's vacated. and then in December um some decision on the consolidation plan that would give uh a timely uh notification to parents for enrollment. Oh, and I want to point out that that doesn't mean that um all the consolidations would happen uh right after this or all the implementation of those consolidations. As I said, it may
179be uh even a couple years down the road before some of them uh are implemented. And the boundary process would obviously follow that too. So, while you're pondering that, the the other thing that occurred to me about um you know, the boundary changes in open enrollment, you know, kind of making that less important is also this district's current kind of approach to transportation also u you know, mitigates any boundary changes. I mean that the the changes that have happened in transportation um really make those boundary changes less less impactful as they used to be. >> [snorts] >> All right, governing board, it's time to ask questions. Shaw, >> thank you for your presentation. Uh, my first question is, where's the commemorative plaque at Duffy? >> Uh, Duffy's still here. Um, >> but it's got a
180sign, right? So, where's >> Yeah, I don't I don't know if I don't know if it's here. I don't know. I haven't walked around the whole campus. >> Doesn't say where the commemorative plat needs to be. it be in the building or somewhere like if you sell the building they don't want to have a converted plat for us like >> there could be a hall of fame somewhere in the >> in 1010 or no >> well yeah I'm just curious if it's like if we utilize that school site is there still a commemorative plaque that's required >> well the policy says a commemorative plaque is supposed to be there with the dates that it was in operation >> I see okay well maybe I'll do some soouththing later um uh per the statutory requirement of
18110 days uh for uh public notice. Um does that include uh if we engage the budget budget advisory committee uh to review um boundary changes and school closures? >> So that 10 days is a minimum. Um the boards could certainly do more than that. Um I think you if you were going to do more than that, you'd probably want to do more than one type of notification. Otherwise, you know, you might lose the interest of folks. But if the board wanted to put in um other reviews by other committees or you know other board action um again that's that's the statutory minimum you could do more. >> I see. Um and then uh you know per governing board policy JC and JC-R I do hope that we go above and beyond uh the public notices
182that are outlined in that policy. not just um post these opportunities uh to participate in the boundary changes on our website at schools and in press releases, but also to engage uh parents through email and um phone. I'm not sure if we did that in the past, Mr. Nodine, if it was just strictly what's outlined, but I think uh we owe it to our community to go above and beyond. So, I I'll just say that that part of the obligation of the superintendent is to provide the board with a plan for community engagement. That could be part of part of that. >> Thank you. Want to make sure I understand and following up on Miss Shaw's question. So, this 10day public notice isn't for every time that the back meets or anything that's going on.
183It's the 10-day public notice is before the public meeting that's going to discuss the potential school closures, right? It's a very specific school closure. So, um, that's going to happen and that 10 and that public hearing needs to happen 10 days before a final board vote. Is that what I'm understanding? >> Yes. So, you're correct. So, the the this is from the statute, not from any policy. So, there's a 10-day notice before a public hearing and board meeting to hear of the proposed consolidations or closures. Then there's a 10-day waiting period before the board can vote. And that public hearing can happen at a board meeting like we sometimes will do public hearings for things. >> Yes. >> Okay. Miss Xram. >> So this is really triggering. Um having lived this um 10 days is
184not enough time to let families know what's going to be happening at their home school. Um each school has to have its own meeting. I remember I had to travel to Sarro to talk about Ocho and Mission View. I shouldn't have had to have done that. And I will caution this board that when I did public speak at that meeting, there was a stage. We all faced a stage. No one was up there. It was disgusting. So, if we're going to be fully committed to closing these schools, our faces need to be up there so that we're facing our community. Um, you we said that this happened. I mean, South Tucson didn't know about OOA until January when the superintendent barged into my office stating that they were closing OOA and there was nothing we
185could do about it. Um, to this day, ooa still continues to get questions if their school is going to be closed. So, Mr. Romero, when we're naming schools without having a public discussion, it really does affect um a community. So, we need to as a governing board really take care in what we're doing with school closures and school consolidations because some of these families, we can tell them where to go. they may not go. We have to be sure of what we're doing at all times in regards to this decision and this consolidation plan. Um 10 days is not enough. Uh all school communities need to be notified via email, text, parent square is not going to cut it. Uh yeah, social media, whatever it is, we want to be transparent. Let's be transparent. I
186think we also need to look at schools and what additional monies they're getting via grants that we're not really fully aware of. Um how money is coming into a school? Uh the committees who are on these committees? Uh last time it was just staff. Are we looking at parents? Are we looking at community members? Are we looking at teachers? What does that look like? Uh, we need to do a better job than what happened years ago. >> Chime in just as a procedural note. Um, I would be presenting the profile of committee member that the board would want. So, it would say X number of parents. What do you think? X number of representative of city council office ward, you know, 1 through five. So even though they're superintendent advisory committees, I recognize the gravity
187and weight of what we're embarking on and I would not make that move without this board at least, you know, not naming names, but saying here's comp here's committee composition. Are you comfortable with that? uh because I do realize that these committees are going to be extremely important in addition to your own governing board appointed committee, the budget advisory committee that will be looking at the financials. >> I I just this is going to be very difficult and I don't think that people understand the difficulty. I mean, we've closed schools before. Um it was not handled well. Uh our governing board needs to be at these meetings, too. I mean, they need to see what this is going to look like and how this is going to affect our community. I know we're talking about
188budgets and numbers and such, but people and community are much more than that. So, that's where I'm going to leave this right now. >> This one arose and Mr. Romero. >> Thank you. Um, so one comment and then one question for you, Mr. Ross. So my comment um I went through this process as a stu as a parent as well um when my daughter was preschool at SU um and it was one of the schools that was saved quote unquote and throughout the whole time she was there um and as I was uh the site council president and also booster club president uh it was it always came up every year when we were trying to recruit more parents. So, I have to agree with my colleagues. We have to be really sensitive when we're
189doing this. Um, we were at Catalina and I do remember the board of at that time was up on stage. Um, and it's it's a process because people are really connected to the school. I mean, I talk about RingCon all the time and I went there like 30 years ago. So, you know, it's it's something that's um and we've seen this I I will say as a parent and then also as somebody that went through this district, this is probably the third time I've seen closures because they closed schools back when I was in elementary school. So, that was a long time ago in the 80s, longer than the '9s. So, um I'm trying to add brevity to this because this is a serious issue. Um, and and it's people's community and it's their homes.
190So, with that being said, um, Mr. Ross, I don't really see anything in this that Well, I guess there's ARS 15341, blah blah blah, but is is that the only um statute >> that's that's the one >> concerning school closures and consolidations? That's the one that requires the that has the process um short as it is for the board request was um for getting notice out and then a quick vote. Um I'm not saying that's the right thing to do. That's just the minimum. But that's that's it. Um, aside from notifying department of real estate and the school school facilities board of a reduction in instructional p play uh space, that's pretty much all the statute requires. All the other requirements are uh by board policy and probably based on lessons learned um over a
191period of time. >> Okay. I just I mean and the reason I ask is because um and and I will say we want to be sensitive, but I also think that this is something that we're going to have to I don't want to drag it out because it's like um it's going to be hurtful. And so I want to hear all from the community and I appreciate Dr. Trillos um wanting to make this a a very precise process as can because we all saw what happened 10 12 years ago and many years before that it wasn't handled well. So I I I just don't want to drag it out too long to make it hurt longer is basically what I'm saying. Um just saying as a as a parent who went through that. Um, so
192I think Oh, so let's say let I'm going to play this out. So we do this scenario and there's x amount of schools. I'm not going to name [clears throat] any because we're not naming any. What happens after like legally like the these places are no longer you know working facilities. What happens after that? So, you still own the property, right? And that's, you know, part of the consideration is what are you going to do with a a school that's no longer operating as a school? How are you going to reuse that property? Um, other than that, I'm not sure what the question is. I mean, they're not >> Oh, well, I don't know if there's any like reporting to the state. >> Well, there's the again, there's the school facilities board. We'll know there's
193a reduction in school um instructional space. Uh that's >> that's it. >> That that's that's the only thing that I think the I mean they're gonna they're going to have to be some um you know there's a there's reporting for achievement of schools and that's going to be worked out with you know with our data folks with this the with AD to make sure that you know we're not now reporting on a school that has no students in it. Um and why aren't there why why aren't their achievement scores better? So, you know, that's that's kind of one of the the administr that will happen with, okay, this school is no longer operating as a school and just, you know, making sure there's connection with AD saying that, you know, we're no longer required to
194report those students. They're now at these schools. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Go ahead, Mr. Romero. [cough] [clears throat] [snorts] >> Thank you again. And I guess want to thank everybody else on this board. One of the things I think that we are doing here is being proactive versus reactive. And I think that's one of the things we need to look at. Um we're actually by looking at this ahead of the game. We know what the AI had to do with their situation. We know there's declining birth rates in our community. We know we have declining um enrollment at our schools. We're still running off the same budget we were using 20 years ago when we had you know, you know, more students inside of here. One of the things like Mr. Nodin had mentioned,
195you know, we have this process and one of the things I think that gives us a step up from the past is we're need to put together a plan. We don't have to do like we did. I'm just going to say Lake Carson. We up and left a school. Now we just uh it's an eyesore in the neighborhood overgrown with weeds, vandalism, things of that nature. That's not the same type of approach that we're looking to do. We need to be good community members with these schools. If it's selling it, if it's looking at other community programs, uh, veteran housing like we're talking about at Lions, what things can we contribute for these facilities to better off our community? We can't look at this as all of a negative type of thing. There's a lot
196of um parts that going to go along with this um with the possible of not keeping a school on life support. Maybe we can give those art uh like a mariachi class to a west side school that doesn't have something like that because they do have an increased enrollment and they do have means where we're spending money in other areas where we can't give them those other tools that they need to succeed and increase their enrollment like even Brock had mentioned during palveries 45% of uh the population um east of Swan is 55 or older. These are all facts that we have to look at. None of these decisions are going to be made easy. Um and we understand the impact on these types of things. But if we have a good plan and transparency
197is fine and I think Dr. Trillo is doing a really good job as well as Rob Ross, Mr. know Dean uh here and again front facing we're not that board from however many years ago when these things happened we're a different board we we we learn from those mistakes I think that's one of the things we need to do is learn from our mistakes I was actually talking to a principal today they were part of the closures where um it was Bria and Menllo Park and they ended up going over to Morgan Maxwell and what they ended up doing they had two declining schools at Briton and Menllo. They combined over there to Morgan Maxwell and they're the they brought in the best teachers from all those schools. Their grades went up uh to a
198a B rated school for that five years, first five years in that consolidation. Um there was a great commodery and those two other schools were failing schools with lower enrollment. But when they combined together in another school, they were thriving. We need to look at those things that were successes also. So I commend um our our superintendent and this board to take the high road, be proactive, think ahead of the game, come up with plans. How do we become a good community partner in this process? Be front-facing as much as possible. Um, and uh, again, it's not going to be easy. It's tough decisions that this board is going to have to make. We're looking forward to all the uh, data coming back uh, from our staff. So, thank you for the hard work you
199guys are going to embark on. All right. Thank you for the presentation tonight. All right, board. It's uh, just past 9:00. Uh, we have our consent agenda and a couple of action items which I imagine need to get done tonight to kind of move things forward. The 7.1 new administrative building, is that something we can move to a next meeting, especially since the family had to leave early anyway? >> Yes, we'll we'll move it to the next uh meeting. >> Any objection to that? All right. Seeing none. All right. So, we'll just have consent and then have the four action items tonight [snorts] or three is it three action items? Is it is it four? Four. Okay. >> Okay. So, we have our consent agenda. Dr. Trio. >> Yes. Um, I'd like to present to
200the governing board the consent agenda as arranged items uh 5.2 uh all the way down through believe it's uh 5.13. >> Governing board. Are there any items for clarification, for questions, for discussion, or to pull for a separate vote? >> Dr. Shaw. >> Miss Sha. >> Um I would like to ask a question about item 5.7. Um, and then I'd like to pull 513 for a separate vote. Okay, >> Dr. Shaw. >> Yes. >> I would like to uh ask questions on 5.5 and on 5.7 I would like to abstain for that vote because I do do work with that company. >> Okay, we'll pull that for a separate vote then. Okay. Um, we'll start with 5.5 for questions and then we'll vote on the rest of it. Then we'll pull 5.7 and 5.13. All
201right. So 5.5 is award to approval to awarded request for proposal of the workplace investigation and case management platform. Yeah. We kind of kick this item off and and John will be here um to answer any questions and um we have our general counsel, Mr. Ross. I'm going to start with the why. We have been struggling since I've been here to really have a centralized easily accessible online repository a or portal I should say available to school administrators and school personnel and school safety across this district to in real time document incidents that occur on campus. predominantly student disciplinary incidents like fights, like assaults, like weapons possession or sometimes when there's allegations of employee misconduct. So what's been happening and what continues to be a challenge is when [clears throat] you have a situation on
202a campus like an assault, you don't have any kind of centralized portal to go to where I can look up an incident number. I can log in. I can see exactly a narrative of what happened, who was involved, who was the responding administrator, how soon parents were called, were parents notified of discipline. Instead, we are still in the year 2026 calling individual schools and actually collecting paper notes, getting things out of notebooks from two or three different people. Sometimes we don't have anything written down and we have to ask for an incident summary like 5 days after. I've got governing board members that need answers. Sometimes we're working with PD, they need answers. Sometimes we're working with school safety. They need to know the details of a situation and we're constantly in this after the
203fact trying to get incident reports done. So a new portal would be an essential tool that allows our administrators in real time to enter the information so that we can expedite the processes that we need whether that's the student handbook, whether that's employee discipline so that we can make sure that we have an actual realtime accounting of what happened. That's the same thing when legal has to step in and work with employee related matters. There are times where they have to contact a school and collect handwritten notes about something that may have happened 3 months ago. And administrators have to track all that stuff down. We want to establish a new normal that when these things happen, it is your responsibility in real time immediately before you go home. What happened? what time did it
204happen? Who witnessed it? Who were the participants? And what was your communication to parents like? So, that's sort of the justification. I know I maybe stole a little bit of your thunder, John, but uh we haven't had a portal like this available. So, that I'll turn it over uh for uh questions for either myself, John, or Rob. >> So, correct. So, we we provide an HR support to all sites. So the schools and departments when it comes to employee conduct investigations and of course we know that student relations handling student investigations. Um in in HR we have a team of of one person primarily handling those the support for administrators and we have two others who would support and jump in uh during the course of uh you know the busy season when it comes
205to those types of investigations. uh when I started here a few years ago 2023 we were we were kind of managing this through our email system. So people would send emails in regarding uh an incident and the support would be provided by phone or by email with administrators uh to guide them through the process to review documents um and so forth. So that was what we started with. Uh we eventually transition to using Jira. So Jera our ticketing system for facility issues. we we said, can we use that at least to be able to assign the ticket and be able to better track um employee uh invest or investigations. Um so that's worked a little bit better um just because it allows us to more easily track um you know ongoing cases uh versus using
206our email system to try to flag things. We get about 6 to 800 600 to 800 cases each year uh at any one point. 60 or 80 might be open and so there's a high volume and a high level of support that HR provides. Uh going to this platform would uh solve a number of of issues. Number one is as Dr. Trillo said enables um users at different permission permission levels to be able to access the platform and to get information uh more quickly um and easily than through the current system which would basically rely on HR uh working with you know different partners to gather those documents pull them in uh for review. But um what it allows us to to the platform will allow us to be a repository for investigative documents. So
207something that starts out as a school incident could then be you know held and and stored uh in the event that an issue goes to discipline or goes to appeal or goes into litigation uh for any sort of reason. So right now every step along the way as things escalate there's a circling back to the school and HR to can we pull all the relevant documents there won't be a need for any of that anymore. the platform will serve as a repository for storing the documents and having it more easily accessible in one place. Um so that's going to be a benefit and something that we are currently not able to to do using our Jira uh ticket system. Uh the second thing it'll allow us to do is really kind of standardize the investigation
208uh performance. So uh the system will not only provide resources and templates but you know you have to it puts in place a workflow so that if you are an administrator and you're going through uh a particular incident at your school uh once you select you know the type of incident that you're going to be pursuing the system will ask you to go through using a you established templates to complete your investigation cite the appropriate policies uh identify the uh witnesses and statements that you've gathered pull your determination together and your recommendations and that will be we hope will be more standardized uh format so that you'll see some consistency across different cases and issues that you see through the schools. So I've seen personally you know being involved in a number of cases there's
209a wide variety of reporting that goes on a different level of depth and consistency. Uh we're going to we want to cure that so that we have uh what we can rely on is better and more consistent documentation of investigations that happen. I think that benefits us later in the process should something get escalated and go uh you know into litigation for instance. Um there's an ability for there would be an ability to link uh cases together. So you again like you said uh a discipline, an appeal, uh an escalated complaint that you will be able to reference and link to those prior cases without having to go manually track down that separate investigation and and so forth. Um you'll be able to do more historic look backs. So if you have repeat incidents by
210an employee or at a site or a type of incident, you'll be able to use this platform to go back and and gather that historic information. Um because it'll keep all that information easily identifiable and coded to to be able to access later. Um this would be this should be useful at the site level for administrators all the way up to the board level. It it would just have varying levels of permissions. Um so some people would have more access and less access depending on uh the level of need and uh and authority right and so uh we would work through setting up those permission levels uh as as part of this implementation. And then of course the big uh key for us is that if we are going to do this trying to get
211to board approval so that we can uh put in place the training and piloting set uh piloting schedule in order to try to go live with this in August when we come back for the school year. So um as part of that it would involve board training as well superintendent legal counsel so department level training as well as all the site administrators building in time to get them familiar. We'll probably go uh if if approved or work through a pilot with uh probably our oper operational a couple operational departments that are operating during the summer to get set up to start using the system and getting familiar with it so that by the time we get into July um go through training with administrators uh we can understand what to expect in terms of of
212any issues that we might encounter with the system. Um, so that's that's that's the plan and that's the general scope of what we're proposing here. >> Okay. And then just quick question, I did some research on this. So what is it sounds like? Yes, we need this type of program within our system for efficiencies and it showed that there's two different models. The targeted model or the enterprise model. Are we doing targeted just to focus on that or are we doing the enterprise I guess for whatever? So I'm my computer is like on the blink right now but we are I think we're going to the enterprise I think the yeah the enterprise version. So >> enterprise version because looking at that it also talks about different departments they can focus on human resources uh
213continuous improvement and planning financial operations services clinical services choice and enrollments facilities and grounds athletics transportation health and safety assessment and information technology. Are we planning on using more of these things on there or are we going to kind of pick and choose which ones we have holes in our district? >> We're just looking I mean really we looking at facilitating investigations at the school sites and at department sites at this point. So we're it's a narrow scope that we want to pursue and then um we're going to be working to customize it to our particular needs for now. So, um there's lots more capabilities in there, but at this point, uh trying to maintain focus on the investigation based on our employee conduct and student um issues. >> Okay. And then as far as
214criteria picking this program and then maybe Mr. Rob Ross can tell me about this when it gives us like the purchasing department, it says information for the RFP should remain confidential until governing board awards. This says compliance with the Arizona Administrative Code R7-21045-B, which states all those things. So, is that a a code that we're always uh uh under for uh any type of procurement purchases, Mr. Russ? >> I would hope that's cited in all of our competitive purchases. >> Yes. >> So, so yes, so that is that's common place as far as that goes. And the only reason I'm kind of questioning, you know, what the criteria is, so I was looking at it. Um, you know, most of the school districts that this company is is in Canada, Alberta, British Columbia, Manitoba, etc.,
215etc. US states were New York, New Jersey, Illinois, Missouri, and Ohio. And then it talks about proud school districts, you know, um, Missi Community School out of Gas City, Indiana. Another one, Hammond Central School District, Hammond, Indiana. All the schools that it looks like that they've done work with are all kind of smaller schools and smaller districts. Some of the forms that I seen in place are kind of specific to those and then you can kind of modify those. I'm just wondering where are criteria with this one. It just seems uh limited and nothing that's kind of in our area of the country that they've worked with. So I we definitely wanted vendors who have experience uh in with school districts. So uh we know we have a large school district. Uh so it's hard
216to find sometimes peer-to-peer um um you know um services or vendors that have had that experience but definitely we wanted K2 experience. Uh we got 11 vendors who submitted uh you know proposals. uh we were able to demo uh with three of them to see what met kind of met our uh criteria for ease of use the the different level of permissions being able to load customized templates uh to support our administrators. So that was the type of the functionality uh was was a key part of it also uh and then also you know meeting our needs within budget as well. So uh those are probably the essential criteria that eventually um resulted in this recommendation. >> And then in that enterprise model if we decided you wanted to utilize some of these things are
217there going to be extra costs for those or those other forms that we can kind of download to incorporate these other things where you might have services or needs. >> How do I do that? Good evening, governing board. Um, yes, on the enterprise model, usually what we do is we'll put it out. We have the scope and then those items are, I guess you'd call allocart. It's those things as we get into the program if there are additional services that we want. It's covered under the contract that we can then engage the vendor. And then it would also be either something that yes, they would say we can give you that as part of the service that we're already doing or if there's an additional cost, they'll let us know, but they would not move
218forward and we wouldn't move forward with anything without getting additional approval if it was an additional expense. >> Okay? But potentially, we wouldn't have to use additional money to do some of these services. The way that I was kind of going through this, I guess, is what I wanted to see. If we decided to use more, it's not really going to cost us more unless they let us know. >> Correct. >> Got it. Okay. Thank you for for your time on that. Thank you. >> Thanks, >> Dr. Shaw. >> Miss Shaw, go ahead. >> Thank you. Um, with this platform, will employees have uh the option of being able to make reports independently um of the site administrator if the investigation or complaints um involve or implicate the said site administrator? >> No, that's I
219mean this wouldn't be for receiving complaints. uh we would pretty much receive them the same way we do today up through the school administration up to HR directly um through those various existing channels. >> so this system is really to manage the post complaint investigation. So I I yeah if I'm if I'm hearing you correctly >> this is for things that happen like the fights, the assaults, the you know if there's allegations of employee misconduct or something happened, there was an accident at the campus. So that's really where and we have to do an investigation after the fact or it's headed for litigation or there's TPD involvement. >> So it's a way for site administrators to collect all the data involving what things that Dr. Trujillo said. It's not um it can't be used for
220employees to make complaints investigations. >> No, that's not the function, right? The function is, you know, the outcome is we want a better, more wellorganized artifact file heading into a long due process hearing for a student that might be facing a long-term suspension. We need to make sure we have all that evidence. If the board has to weigh in on a unfortunately from time to time an employee termination, whatever incident led to that fact, we need this is going to allow us to have a better, more well-rounded collection of artifacts and evidence. So, it's meant to help us manage those investigations and create a repository of those artifacts. >> Okay. Do we have a platform for uh employees to make the um complaints? I know we the audit committee has a portal on their uh
221district website, but I don't know. It seems like this could serve as as that as well. But does it have that capability? And I'm not aware that it does. I think I mean like I said I I hear your point. I mean I'm in ter of how to facilitate a receipt of complaints. Right now we currently goes to sites HR the board superintendent. We get them a variety of ways. Uh we can definitely explore you know what you know that might look like. I'm much I'm not aware that that would be a capability. It's not something we looked at. >> Okay. >> I hear your point. >> Yeah. Um kind of on that same vein, uh for our mandatory reporters, um will this platform serve as like a primary or secondary um uh reporting system
222for incidents that involve mandatory reporting? >> It would only facilitate the investigation part of it. The mandatory report still needs to be made um by our administrators or who you know our teachers who are covered by the those responsibilities. So we would expect in the narrative of the event >> if it that we would expect the mandatory report number. We would expect that the time that was called in. So the narrative portion of it we would expect inside of that report that would be in this portal. >> Okay. Thank you. >> All right. Governing board before us I'll move the items 5.2 to 5.6 5.8 to 5.12. So, um, I'll second. >> All right. Item moved by myself and second by Miss Luna Rose. All those in favor say I. I. >> No opposed. Item
223passes 5-0. Now we're on 5.7. Uh, I think there were some questions from Mr. Romero. Mishab. >> Yeah. Um, I had a question of for Mr. McCullum. First, thank you for your presentation earlier. Um, I think it is so important that we do have more oversight of our CTE classes. Um um I say that because my daughter's um dad and uh Tata are woodworkers and her Tata is definitely missing like one and a half digits. Um and so in regards to the loss of the wood shop at Sabino, are there others uh wood shops in our district? >> Yeah, there are two. We have a construction program at Choya High School and a construction program at Catalina High School. >> Okay, great. Um, I appreciate that. And then we have how many like advisors for
224that or or assistants to to keep track of those students? >> Well, right now, um, we're looking at one instructor for each of those sites, but through the override, we're looking to hire two instructional specialists, one for Choya and one for Catalina. And so there would be two sets of folks in the room. >> Oh, great. All right. Thank you. Go ahead, Mr. Romero. >> And I just >> I just needed a separate vote on that because I uh currently do business with the vendor and >> No questions then. >> No question. >> All right. So, I'll move item 5.7. >> Second. >> Item moved by myself and seconded by Miss Shaw. Those in favor say I. I. >> I. Any abstensions? >> Abstain. >> Item passes 40 with one abstension. Uh next we have
225item 5.13. Miss Shaw, you have some questions. >> Yeah. uh a couple meetings ago, I think that we had discussed in one of the uh budget uh cut discussions uh that we were going to move away from uh mileage reimburse reimbursements for our governing board. Um and so I would like to vote uh against this item since it includes mileage reimbursement. >> So this is a report of expenses that have already taken place. This is not an approval of future expenses. Um, it's certainly your prerogative to decide to not reinvest. >> I don't think there's any questions. Um, I'll move the item. >> Can you um Thank you. I'd like to >> Was there a question? >> Yeah. I would like um you to finish your comment. >> So, as I was saying, like you
226all can decide for yourselves if if you want to make a decision in regards to your reimbursements. Right now, as elected officials, we're required when you file a claim against the district for any kind of travel reimbursement, we have to process it, but that it's entirely up to you to decide as a board if you want us to continue to do so or not, but this is a report of activity that's already taken place. >> Thank you. >> I move by myself and second amendments Lunar Rose. All those in favor say I. >> I. I. Any opposed? >> Opposed. >> Item passes 41. All right. Next we have action items 6.1 administrative appointments. Uh chief operations officer Dr. Trillo. >> Yes. President Shaw, members of the governing board, uh I'm very very excited uh to
227bring forward a candidate tonight for your consideration. Uh tonight's uh recommendation is the current uh chief operations officer for Loi Unified School District in uh what would be Northern California. She's been serving in that district for 24 years. Uh she served the majority of her career as an executive director for information technology services, what would be a a chief technology officer in our world. But for the last three or four years, she's been serving as that district's uh chief operations officer in charge of the facilities and the transportation and the projects and overseeing bond bond uh projects and overseeing food services and health services like our in-house COO would do here. Uh she is a um a veteran of uh tough decisions that have had to be made in that district. uh bond levies like
228we recently passed here. That district did do school closures a few years back uh during her tenure. Even though that process over there is led on the academic side of the house, she certainly was in support of that uh issue. Uh tonight she is where we would want her to be here in TUSD. She's unable to be here tonight because she is at uh one of the district's largest high schools addressing employee and community concerns about a renovation project in the baseball stadium. the kind of visibility that we would want to see here. Uh so tonight's hiring recommendation is Miss Edith Holbert for your consideration. Thank you, Dr. Trillo. Governing board, any questions or comments before we have a motion? >> Well, we're excited about getting this position uh filled with someone who has experience
229in that role. And I'll move the item. >> Second. >> Moved by myself and seconded by Miss Sha. All those in favor say I. I. I. Item passes 5. And I understand we have a video. >> All right. We have a statement. Uh, Miss Herbert couldn't be here this evening. Miss Borbboa. >> Uh, President Shaw, members of the board, Superintendent Thruillo, and attendees. Thank you for the privilege of allowing me to join the Tucson Unified School District community. It is an honor to serve the students and staff. District operational teams play a vital role in keeping our schools safe, welcoming, and ready for learning each day. When we keep students at the center of what we do, we help create environments where both students and educators can succeed. I'm looking forward to leading this mission
230and meeting everyone very soon. Respectfully, Edith Hullbert. >> Dr. Shaw Glenn, >> I see I'm sorry. >> Oh, I see Hu Lopez in the audience and I would just like to thank him for all of his time and >> the extensions of time that you um served to USD. So, thank you for all that you've done and um yeah, we hope to see you soon. >> Yeah, let's give him a round of applause. I mentioned in our leadership team more our leadership team meeting this morning that this is the first uh chief operations officer that we've had permanently for almost 2 years. And Mr. Lopez, you've graciously time and time again have been extended and have filled all that time for us. I know you're anxious to get back to uh retired life as a
231proud uh grandpa, but uh we we certainly appreciate all your support. >> Thank you. Thanks for pointing that, Miss Extram. Great. All right, we'll move us on. Hopefully, we'll have a a chance for her to to say hi at an upcoming meeting so we can see her face and get to know her a little bit as well. Dr. Trio. >> Yes, absolutely. >> Uh 6.2 approval of contracts for Eli employees of the Tucson Unified School District for next school year. >> Yeah, I'd like to turn this item over to our chief human capital officer, Mr. Fernandez. >> Yeah, good evening. Uh at this time every year, we bring forth our ELI contracts which are essentially uh include your principles, assistant principles, school psychologists, uh research project managers. Uh we have 124 contracts before you for
232approval. Uh once uh you know with board approval, we would begin issuing those contracts. Um last year with the midappril approval, we were able to lock those contracts in by early May. Um, so we're looking forward to um being able to get those contracts out. >> Governor board members, any questions or comments? Mr. Romero, >> so I haven't really looked at these in the past. I was just kind of analyzing a little bit more and I have some questions cuz we got the list, [snorts] four pages worth. And so I'm just kind of going back a little bit on history on some of these things. one of our high schools. And it looks like uh on one of our main high schools, we have like this last one, three assistants that are not returning, one
233assistant that's moving back to their former school. And then I guess also going back to the year before that at the same high school, we had again a lack of retention with our um our ad uh assistant principles uh at this school. And it looks like it's a kind of the consistent thing that's going on and again this year why there's not returning assistance at uh that school Tucson High. Um and I even looking back at 2324 when um Mr. Rivera was there again. We had some turnover there. I know one left to go work for principal of an elementary school and some changes happened at the end of the year. So is there a reason I guess on some of these and then I also was looking at like I said principal at another
234assistant principal at another school transferred over to her former school. So, is this something that Eli has with their contract that comes to the district or I I thought like on some of these ones, if you move to a school, you if you want to go back to your old position, you have to apply and compete or is that different with the ELI contracts on these things? >> So, with with so in the situations where you're talking about uh people, you know, administrators serving in an interim capacity. So, at Tucson High, we have three um interim PR assistant principles there. uh that first of all they go through the appointment process. So the board would be the the you would be authorizing and approving those interim assignments. But for those who are internal they have
235they're working at another site taking an interim assignment that interim assignment is just for the year and then they return uh to their site um unless there was another interim appointment extended. U for Tucson High for example yes there were three interim assistant principles. Uh we're now going through the hiring process uh for permanent uh assistant principles. You know, we don't we don't want interims, but sometimes they get we do get interim appointments uh when we uh get late get late in the season or you someone is serving in an interim principal capacity and we're backfilling the assistant principal position. So the interims are supposed to last a year and then we're supposed to go in and try to fill those um in the next hiring cycle. And that's what's happening with a lot of
236these positions. So if I if I took Tucson High for example, there are three assistant principles are interim. Two of them were internal. So if they did not um apply, compete and get selected to continue at Tucson High, they would revert uh to their prior positions in the district. Um so that's that's what that's what's happening. uh we try to avoid interim assignments as much as possible, but if they're in place, uh we would certainly be working like we are today to fill those um with full-time permanent assistant principal appointments that we hope to bring to you or for your approval. Um we're looking at May 12th uh for that for all those appointments to be made on the assistant principal ships. >> All right. So then in that case of say Cuc high with
237the three interns if they that didn't go back to their old schools if they decided they wanted to buy for that job and they're not on this list they can still apply for that position >> right and so we're we are currently in the middle of of well at the start of of principles now going through that AP pool and and setting up their interviews for those applicants and in many cases yes those interim uh APS are applying uh for you know those that school or for other APS uh AP opportunities. So, we'll that'll sort itself out by um by May 12th is our is our target date. >> Okay. And then some other people that may not be on this list. Um is it um just kind of for retirement transfers? Do we have
238kind of an idea of why people are no longer on this this list? I know they just give us this list, but I don't see the ones that are no longer on that list. Right. So, if you're not on that list, you may have resigned. Uh you may right you resigned, retired, uh got promoted to a district level, you know, maybe a non a non-bargaining uh position, uh gone back into teaching or you know, retired and going back into a counselor position. So, it reflects all of those all of those items that you are not continuing as an administrator in the coming year. uh you would not be offered a contract >> unless like those interims they decide to reapply then they will kind of get locked come back into here or is that a
239separate kind of vote? >> Yes, they so yeah they would become they would come back in their new capacity once I mean what basically you're going to you know if you appoint them into their new position they would get a contract at that point reflecting their newly appointed status. Okay. So, this is basically what we have right now on the table, but there are other positions that are open and those other positions will come back, not four pages worth, but all those available spots that are still available in the district. >> Correct. Yeah. So, by early May, we're hoping that we'll bring all those remaining AP principal shifts that are open um and having those filled and appointed uh by the board. >> Fantastic. Thank you. >> I'll move the item. I'll second. >> All
240right. Item moved by myself and seconded by Miss Luna Rose. All those in favor say I. I. Any opposed? >> Item passes 5-0. >> All right. And we're going to move on to 6.3 approval of the next school year's override funded compensation increases and salary schedules. >> Yes. I want to thank our chief uh uh financial officer, Mr. Hernandez, for the work he's done with TEA. And then our employee relations director, Jason Free. this has been his first major project. Uh appreciate all them coming together to put tonight's information uh together for your consideration. >> Good [clears throat] evening board members. So yeah, this is uh the first well the next big chunk of our override implementation. It is the commitment to compensation increases for employees across the district. So just as an overview, we
241obviously had a 15% override about $45 million. um very fortunate that the voters approved that in November. Um I won't go through kind of what the years will look like, but ultimately um the renewal th this funding will be good through year five of the of the override. So through November or through uh I should say through June of 2031. Um seems like a long time away, but 5 years won't take that long to get here. And uh until that point, we will fully fund the amount that is part of this compensation increase um unless there is not a renewal by the voters or the board at that time decides to not put this back out on the ballot. Um currently we're estimating a property tax of about 95 cents. So it's about 7 cents
242lower than we previously estimated. So about $7 for every $100,000 in assessed valuation. Um we'll know that'll be finalized in the summer. So, what was the commitment? So, the override committed that employees would receive the following. A $3,000 increase for all teachers or all employees, I should say, in the TDR, TDRB, and NEXAT teacher salary schedules in the consensus agreement. A 4% increase for all other employing groups, including substitute teachers. You can see across on the right hand side of the screen essentially what the estimate is. Right now, we're estimating just over $20.2 2 million um will be invested which is uh just over half of the entire uh override that will be committed to providing increases based on on their bargaining group. Um as I provided there for substitutes it is an estimate simply
243because the estimate of how much they will earn is dependent on how much they work since they are essentially on call employees um at this time. So the implementation process is this. It will apply to all regular positions which include our monitors, our elementary support workers, our crossing guards, our substitutes, and our principal mentors. It will also includes include least and return to work employees in those categories. The 4% increase will be based on the current grade or step of that employees base hourly rate or salary. So, wherever you are on the salary schedule and all of the salary schedules were attached to the board agenda item, your 4% will go from there. there and I provided several examples on this slide. Now for TD, TDRB and exit only this process is still to be
244determined. Um we've been working on this with Tucson Education Association with TEA for a few weeks now. We have not finalized a uh essentially a preferred implementation process and we're hoping to get some resolution before the end of the month so that we can get this um squared away for the next school year. But ultimately everybody else um that is not TD, TDRB or EXID teacher um and substitute which includes substitutes will um will receive the increase effective the uh 2627 at this point. So now no increases will be affected to positions like coaches and extra duty positions or supplemental positions like summer school. Um the override increase does not affect other similar compensation items. So we do for example sick leaf payout or vacation payouts those are not those are going to be uh
245paid out at your regular rate not at your override rate. Um shift differentials education stipens and like I mentioned supplemental base rate. Now overtime pay is different. We will pay overtime based on your current hourly rate plus that 4%. So if you're at $20 and now you're going to be at 2080 your overtime will be calculated at that 2080. All of the increases will go into effect on July 1 or the first day of your contract, whatever is later since so we have some employees who ne don't necessarily start on July 1. They may start later in the month of July um or even into August. Whenever they start, that's when the the increase will go into effect. Now earlier in February uh you approved contracts contract language that is already incorporated into all of
246those contracts that talks about uh the fact that you know a portion of the compensation for these employees is override funded and it's subject to future funding levels. So if anything changes down the road obviously you know the board has full comm you know full authority to decide how we're going to uh fund that going going forward depending on our funding levels in the future. So, next steps, uh, if you approve this this item tonight, uh, finance and HR, we're going to begin working on the implementation of the new salary schedules. Again, they're they're provided with the agenda item 42627. Um, employee relations, finance and HR, we will continue to work with with [clears throat] TEA to uh focus on the implementation process of that $3,000 increase. And all employees will receive notification of what
247those respective increases will be. Once they're finalized in our payroll system, we will start actually rolling over our payroll system to open 2627 um this weekend. So, we will uh we will start kind of getting those ready to roll um here pretty soon. So, with that, any questions? >> I had a question. So, on the pay stop and payroll, will that be like a separate line item for the override or will it be incorporated into their base salary? it'll be so on their on their check it they'll see one line item. Um in the payroll system we will separate it out. So we will focus so that we can track it separately but people will only see one base pay item. Um if the board wants us to you know show it separately we'd have
248to kind of develop a kind of a supplemental pay kind of structure so that you know like I said if you're $20 we'd have to develop a separate line item just for that 80 cents. Um, so that if people want to see that override, if that's something the the board can wants us to do, we can certainly work on uh doing that. Otherwise, it's gonna be rolled into just one base pay item. What does the board prefer? Would you prefer see or keep it into just rolled in? I see Mr. Romero saying separate neutral on Miss Luna Rose. All right. [clears throat] [sighs] What do you think would be best? >> Just in terms of ease or >> Well, obviously I'm going to I'm going to advocate for my payroll team and make it as
249easy as possible for them, but we will do whatever you want us to do. If you prefer us to have a separate line item so people can see it, ultimately everybody's going to get notified, right? So everybody's going to know you make A today, tomorrow you're going to be 8 time 40 or time 4%. So I mean either way we're going to notify people of what the difference in their pay structure will be. >> There's no override after 2030 or 2032 or however it works with that. We would, and that's why I'm saying in the payroll system, not to get too technical, we would be able, we track it separately, we would be able to kind of essentially yank that 4% back, but people would see no change to that, you know, to their base
250pay of like let's say that $20 example. >> Okay. I don't think a lot of consensus and everything we can. Yeah, we I don't think we need to make a decision on that tonight though, right? That's something >> you don't need to make a decision about that tonight. Like how we want to structure it, we can do it at any point in time. >> What we really need to know, especially for auditing purposes, we need approval of the salary schedule so that we can work on the compensation roll out >> and the only thing we're not approving is TR T and Xed. >> Correct. And substitute teachers. >> Substitute teachers are are Yeah, we're still working on them. So those are the only four groups that are still kind of >> All So I'll move
251the item as presented then. >> I'll second >> item moved by myself and second amendments Luna Rose. All those in favor say I. >> I. Okay. No. Item passes 5. >> Thank you. >> All right. Thank you. >> All right. And our last item for tonight 6.4 approval of the implementation of the results of the phase 1B of the investment grade audit. Dr. Trillo. >> Yes. I'd like to welcome our uh bond project manager Dr. Charlotte Carter for this final item of the evening. >> Good evening uh to the go govern governing board president Dr. Sha and uh board members. I am here to present the implementation of the results of the phase 1B of the investment grade audit. Uh the board will receive and you're receiving information as for the results of the phase
2521B investment grade audit for the implementation at the following schools banks booth C. Rose Davis Romero bilingual elementary magnet deeds draman lineweaver monzo Roberts Naylor Robins K8 Sil um tab veil middle and right K6 so I did want to mention to you the scope so this is going to include the construction of the facilities and improvement measures which they call fins and the energy conser conservation measure ECMS. So that can include things such as the engineering and design for complex HVAC domestic water line replacements, plumbing modernization, sewer upgrades, irrigation replacements, building envelopes reduced air infiltration, for example, sealing doors and windows. uh electrical which is uh the switch gear transformers and upgrades. Uh career tech education for students and the benefits for the district in the implementation of the investment grade audit is enhanced design
253standards and utility savings which we know is very important right now. Reduce risk through IGA engineering and ongoing performance asurances. modernize facilities that address emergency cost overruns. Provide data analytics for transparency and accountability and standardizing documentation and software that provides predictability and long-term operational value. And on the screen uh if you go down a little bit you will see the schools that this includes and it shows the individual amounts. So each one of these uh particular schools have been assessed and the recommendations for implementation have been provided. Uh and it shows the total for the 14 schools of 26,562,370. We uh all the time have been um doing a contingency of 20%. Which makes the total for this particular um board agenda item is 31,874,844. So what I am asking for today is a motion
254to approve the implementation of the results of the phase 1B of the investment grade audit. Any questions? >> Dr. Shaw, >> go ahead. >> I'll move the item. >> I'll second >> item moved by Miss Exterm and seconded by Miss Lunar Rose. So I'm sorry. I'm a little confused. So you mentioned a whole list of things, but do we know like per school what we're approving? >> Yes. And so instead of giving you 17 proposals and I did for the bond oversight committee, they got each individual uh proposal and in each individual proposal based on the assessment is what they're getting. So like for example um I brought one of the proposals for um in this particular case I uh brought banks and so within their 11 pages it outlines exactly what that school would
255be getting. >> Okay. And that was vetted by the back and every or the bond oversight committee. I'm sorry. >> That was already vetted by the bond oversight commission. >> Yes. They received as part of their packet all the of the proposals and so they were able as well to ask questions if they had any. Uh but it's very individualized because each school is different and custom. >> Okay. >> All right. Uh all those in favor say I. >> I. Any opposed? Item passes 5-0. Thank you, Miss Dr. Carter. >> Thank you. All right, Dr. Trujillo stepped out, but I do want to say that we have on our schedule uh next week uh exact only session. I don't believe there are any items. So, I will move for us to cancel that uh meeting
256next week. >> Second move by myself and second by Miss Shaw. Those in favor say I. >> I. I. >> Okay. [clears throat] Item passes 5-0. So, our next meeting won't be next week, but will be on the 28th for a full meeting. Uh usually Dr. Dr. Heel will give I see him walking back to does there's anything else from the governing board on this item. >> Dr. Sha >> Mich >> um I would like to add to a future agenda a uh desegregation advisory board committee um as an action item to discuss and and vote on that. Um, and also add to a future agenda a review and revision of governing board policy JC and JCR so we can update the public notice minimum requirements. >> Dr. Trio, we um cancel next week's exectoon
257meeting because there's no items. Correct. >> Uh, we do have Where's Miss Boa? I thought I Do we have a student hearing? We do have a student hearing scheduled. Would would that be able to fit in the May executive session? >> We we >> we have a student hearing on the 21st. >> We have a student hearing scheduled for the 21st, but we would just need to notice notice the parents, I think, by tomorrow. >> Yeah, we Okay, we'll take care. >> This one item is the only thing that we have. >> We could take it into the first meeting in May. >> Okay. >> All right. I think that's it then. All right. I'll close the meeting. Thank you everyone. Thank you everybody. >> Thanks Jerry. >> Yeah, it was fun. It was a
258good day. as always. Thank you.