001um [Music] good evening everyone it's now 6 p.m and i call this governing board regular meeting to order let the records show that all board members are presidents with the exception of mrs johnson um holly sheriff is on the phone and the district is represented by dr holmes ken mcgovern kelly siegel terry romo and heather rada and now can i get an adoption of the agenda please so move to adopt the agenda second it's been losing second and all in favor aye fine okay the next thing we'll do is stand for the pledge of allegiance i pledge allegiance to the life of the united states of america and to the republic for which it stands one nation under god indivisible with liberty and justice for all the next item on the agenda is our board
002meeting minutes not previously approved and those were the minutes from our regular meeting that we had on the 15th of february and the minutes of our work session that we had on the 16th of february 2022. i'll make the motion those names be approved second it's been motion to approve and second and all in favor or is there any discu all in favor is there any discussion okay i did that backwards okay and the next item is that we have are going to be our summary of current events and we're going to start with the superintendent dr holmes please thank you president good evening everyone good evening um just a couple of items here summer academy will be held from june 6 through monday june 6 through friday july 15th it will be held monday
003through friday from 8 to 2 for our elementary students and from 8 30 to 2 30 for our secondary students again all sierra vista residents school age residents can attend at no cost we will begin registration for students on friday march 4th and registration will run until may 2nd we'll be providing ela and math uh assistance as well as uh some fun activities for kids to do uh throughout the day so we're hoping that we can match or um exceed the number of kids that we had last year we were close to a thousand and that is our goal again for this year and we encourage any staff members who would like to participate in teaching to let us know some congratulations are in order as you know each year the herald review does its
004academic all-stars and golden apple honorees and i'd like to announce the names of the sierra vista students and staff members who were recognized matthew conroy 7th grade student at joyce clark ariella antoman 9th grade student at buena keisha davies 10th grade student at buena elissa asaki 11th grade student at buena luke cerna 12th grade student at buena narine adams 12th grade student at buena gavin brownfield 12th grade student at buena and eriland hyatt 12th grade student at buena all academic all-stars as well as the pds parallel del sol student council was also awarded and that's a new honor for 2022. in terms of our staff here in sierra vista tara floss teacher at buena kimberly federics at jcms alex wolff at buena centauria loudoun at buena and michelle lombok principal at carmichael there'll be a
005recognition banquet at cochise college on march 19th it's a breakfast at nine in the morning and there's still some tickets available congratulations to all of the student and staff recipients buenas deca team will be sending four students to the national competition they competed this past weekend and had several students advance to the finals also brenda fine arts will be presenting a wrinkle in time which is a musical play this coming friday and saturday friday and saturday at 7 o'clock so if you were able to make it out there please do and show your support the brainerd jrotc cyber patriot team was given the opportunity to compete at the national competitions during spring break we just found out i think it was yesterday or today that they were eligible and the the board will have a
006discussion later on about having an emergency uh meeting on thursday uh film and tv and buena ardo also uh recently went to the drag races uh to see how the team performs and related to what they've been learning in the classroom it was a great trip for them to do that um as we know boys basketball advances the final four and i believe at our next meeting we will be recognizing the team and the coaches spring sports are running right now and competing this week tonight is boys volleyball jv baseball and softball thursdays boys tennis and friday varsity baseball and varsity softball and several students in our brainerd band and choir advance city all-state choir orchestra and band competition so congratulations to all of those students lots of positive things happening in the district uh
007that concludes my report for the evening thank you thank you dr holland next we'll start with our board members let's see joy you want to go first okay i just wanted to say congratulations to our new principals that are being pulled on board it's wonderful to have so much coming from within our district that is so positive for us and congratulations to deb whiting on her retirement retirement is funded that's it do you have anything here um yeah congratulations to all the students and staff on the golden awards um and seems like the district is doing some awesome things we're on the map and again congratulations and welcome to dr slayton and congratulations to ms jimenez okay uh the only thing i have that basketball game was so exciting and the boys did such a
008good job um i'd love to see the kids out there doing sports and having a good time i also attended the attended two we attended the boys and girls um event they sponsor a student of the year and it was actually a buena student um his last name is mims he's a football player he's in jrotc represented the district very well we're very proud of him and that's all i have so the next item on the agenda is a pr presentation and that's about the school marquee sign from mr good mcgovern good evening so real quick um if you remember recall during our scoreboard new signage project we had included two or possibly three marquis signs one coming going out here at frye and then two others to be determined so um i wanted to
009share with you that we we definitely have enough for two and this is what the signage will look like from the front this is going to be the digital this is from the side view they'll be about 14 feet tall 10 and a half wide total with the digital display being three foot eight by uh six foot nine however when we were trying to determine where to place those other two sites uh signs that's where the complication came into so ms weller and i were trying to figure out what is the criteria for a site to be chosen right is it who has the most traffic is it who has the best exposure who has the largest adm which which site requires design first for for messaging purposes and which site can generate the most
010ad dollars we didn't like any of these options so because a methodology could not be determined that did not discriminate against our students staff or parents we decided that we would have to come and ask you for enough money to put a sign at all sites we didn't think it was fair to say that say for example carmichael being way into or pdf being in residential areas that don't have a lot of traffic are they not worthy of a sign so we didn't feel that was fair so that is why we're coming to you tonight to say please allow us to go ahead and give or put a new marquee sign in all of our sites so that way we have some uh new message the messaging and branding that ms sweller is is trying
011to accomplish with consistent colors for the sites mascotting district logo is going to be on there we can consistently message everything because it's handled through one app we need to get something to everybody or if we want to message something specific to the site we can do that as well all from the same same house so the added cost for this is um it's a big ask it's 385 000 for those other six site signs um it will be paid for out of capital or plant fund remember the plant fund is just sitting there because we have all of the esser money if we choose to put part of it out of capital because of the expenditure limit uh easing we have plenty of times available there as well so with that i'll take any
012questions that you may have because we did put this on a as an agenda item for you to vote on but i wanted us to be able to have a conversation prior to that coming up for vote do the signs are pretty large and i'm guessing they agree with the dark sky uh city mandate uh i would have to defer to him as well or i do believe that we're we've met all of those those options uh but if the city does have any any restrictions then you know if they tell us we need to go a little smaller for an area we can which would just mean a savings at that point yeah do you ladies have anything else i think it's a a great idea i love the idea and the thought that
013you guys put into it that every school should have um a new sign and their mascots and everything on there i think it's a great motivation for the students and also for the staff i know they probably all won't all look this exactly the same because we just recently did something like this at my church and different areas have different provisions but the fact that they'll all be new and have the mascot at each school and that we'll be able to put out information through these i think it's a great idea and i'm glad you guys came up with that and that's all i have does anyone have anything else all right thank you the next item on our agenda is our public comments and with this um i just want to remind everyone that
014you have three minutes to speak and if you could really um stop after three minutes because i got quite a few here it looks like i got about 12 of them here um so that everybody has a chance to speak and if someone says something that you've already said and you want to forego your moment then you can do that and if you would like a two-minute warning we will give that to you also and i also want to remind everyone that at the public comments that we cannot actually comment on those but um some of the items might it looks like we'll be on the agenda from what i see and we'll be talking during that time on those items okay and so first we have in no particular order we have richard allen
015hello hello my name is richard allen today i'm speaking for my children my wife and any other parent in our community who might share the same opinion as i but feel like they do not have the opportunity to let their voice be heard my wife and i have two amazing children a seven-year-old son in first grade and a five-year-old daughter in pre-k we often discuss what is more heartbreaking as parents the seven-year-old knowing what school was like before covet and masks and him desperately missing the way things were or our five-year-old not knowing any better and her thinking that her and her friends wearing mask every day is normal while putting my son to bed last night he asked me do you think i shouldn't have to wear a mask to school because it gives
016me a rash and i got covered anyway my son is only seven years old and that's what's on his mind late at night while trying to go to bed he has been in speech therapy since he was two and a half years old and one of the very first things we learned is he needs to be able to see the mouth to see the way his position for proper pronunciation the mask took that tool for learning away from him and his speech is regressing on top of that he has also been diagnosed with periolic dermatitis it's a red rash that circles around your mouth i can't imagine how many children our community are dealing with these issues and then some and no i'm not being a dramatic anti-mass parent i'm just being a parent politics
017and agenda should have no place in parenting he continued our talk last night with do you think copit is going away because it's going away that's what i shared for my good thing in his class each kid takes turns sharing one good thing going on in their life again my son is only seven years old that is the one good thing he felt like he needed to share with his teachers and friends he finished his conversation teary eyes saying i remember before mask and coped i want school to be like that again i get that we can't just make this pandemic go away people are still getting sick they're still dying but when is enough going to be enough and we start letting parents decide what is right for their children i don't care what
018you may do regarding your personal health decisions but i care about mine and my families and in my household we've worn our masks we've sanitized and we followed every role for the last three years and we've all gotten covered it happens it's time to let parents move on and decide what's right for their kids it is all right i don't want to force my children anymore i don't want my son's hard work over the years in speech therapy to continue to take a step backwards i don't want him to feel embarrassed about his face breaking out with a red rash i don't want him to spend his one good thing at school talking about kobet and i don't want him to spend his nights in bed thinking the way his life used to be i
019cannot express to you how painful it is as a parent to feel like i cannot help or comfort my child in this situation because other adults who are not his parents decide they think they know what is best for him if you prefer to keep your children i support you 100 and i think you should always do what you believe is best for your child in all aspects of their life however i should be able to decide what is right for mine if my conversation with my son last night showed me anything it's that continuing to force our children to mask up during this crucial time in their life could possibly be more damaging than any of us adults currently imagine thank you for this opportunity thank you next week [Music] renata how do you
020say the last name renata no that's my first name oh yeah renata danny yes okay good evening uh this is a spur of the moment speech but i wanted to also speak up i have two grandchildren in the sierra vista school district one is three one is five a three year old wearing a mask is no harm to anybody or a five-year-old and i just heard recently that california oregon washington and i believe new york are going to lift your mass mandate so i just want to like ask to um have another vote and it's time to move on and let these children you know go on the blank and laugh thank you next we have jenny walston good evening good evening um i'm going to start off by what i printed off today off
021of the district website this is the district mission and belief statement i'm just going to read the title and then a portion under what it says under governing board so your title says schools are for children schools belong to the community schools are people developers self-effort educates and then under the governing board says we believe students are the number one priority the board conveys the educational needs and desires of the community to the district and establishes policies accordingly the board maintains high expectations for the district and themselves in working towards excellence so i just wanted to share that with you that's on your website um and i got a couple responses also from some of the board members for my emails and i appreciate that because it's really um dismissive when you send an email
022and you don't get a response um so i appreciate those that reach out and respond back to a member of the community hopefully this mandate on students and staff is over or about to beat in light of the new cdc guidelines and laws heading to our arizona senate for vote hopefully it passes 16. if it ends it won't be because of any of you but rather because you have no choice and you will forever be known as the board and superintendent that kept sb usd masked for over one school year the voters will remember this too switching gears i went by the district office to flip through the new proposed curriculum and in third grade teachers instruction manual and others i came across the instruction of culturally responsive teaching strange this shares the same acronym
023as critical race theory and shared several key words and ideas to the public watching go see for yourself they are still on display for a few more days i took a picture of these manuals too just in case you guys claim it's not crt i'm not saying it is it may not be but there were very similar words and the acronym says what it says i don't see color my brand my biracial grandkids don't see color and this school district should not be teaching anything that separates us this school district superintendent and board that represents the community and not the school should be less worried about mass and dress codes for grown adults that claim to be professionals but more concerned about not not allowing crt in our classrooms and improving our school's rankings in
024math reading science grammar online thank you [Music] we're not donating time brian duncan so you're not going to speak brian i'll use whatever time she doesn't uh we're not keeping track of that though then just give her my time if she's not about okay go ahead then um that educational affords our students at the place at the table wherever they may end up when they leave our schools spending money on books that may be against the law that may teach crt is not a good investment for this district and i encourage every one of you parents to go down there and look through those books to make sure it's not teaching something that will separate and and make us go through what we just went through as a community and as a world and for
025those of you who haven't seen i'm going to leave for you the newspaper about the articles that we literally are spending time telling professional teachers how to dress they should be spending their time teaching our children math reading and writing not how to dress they're professionals i find it ridiculous that you're spending time on that and less on taking our kids out of mass and making sure that they don't see each other or anything other than a friend and that's all i have to say thank you next we have donald lee good evening board i first want to apologize to you um because we have put all this weight on you um as the only one holding this because mr dr holmes you have just as much to shoulder as they do either one of
026you could have stopped this a long time ago in your recommendations so i digress the summer of 2021 governor doug ducey and the legislature passed a bill banning mass mandates these are the lawmakers that the majority of us as arizonans vote voted for due to some confusion and to win as to when the law took effect we started this school year with masks being optional because of course the district did not want to break any laws on august 17th dr holmes recommended um and the board voted unanimously to mandate masquerading as the law would not take effect until september 28 2021 on september 27 2021 a maricopa county superior court judge ruled the ban unconstitutional not on its face but because it was added onto a budget bill so it was a procedural issue the
027fact that this is what our lawmakers wanted did not matter to this board or this district on september 29th during a special meeting the administration and the board recommended keeping the mass mandate and the board passed it 4-1 currently hb 2616 a house bill that would ban mass mandates in schools is making its way it has made its way through the arizona house and is making its way through the senate again by people we voted for even if it passes it won't go into effect until 90 days after the legislative session is over and this board and the administration know that legally they can write this out and tell them defying what most of us want now comes the hypocrisy as you all know svusd was looking at a 5.2 million dollar shortfall due to
028an aggregate expenditure limit or you could call it a spending cap which mr mcgovern has explained in previous board meetings well on february 21st 2022 arizona senate finalized a waiver to the spending cap which averted a major crisis the same legislature that the majority of us voted for and yet you don't see our district defying this vote do you why not after all it is a law that was passed in 1980 that created this medic and it is constitutional ladies and gentlemen our state lawmakers chose to play a game chose not to play games with our children's futures by waving the spending cap we ask that you've stopped playing games by making medical decisions for our children if not our only alternative is to seek a medical waiver for our children or to support them
029in refusing their math make the choice tonight next we have karen christian [Music] dear board members my name is dr karen christian i come to you as a registered voter a parent of school-aged children and is a person scientifically literate with my phd in organic chemistry i know this board has voted in the past to keep masked mayonnaise in place you've done so despite pushback from community members students and parents alike you continue to enforce universal masking despite the fact that the cdc no longer recommends outdoor masking and you made your vote despite the fact that you yourself ms robinson work at a charter school that does not require masks i hope today that you choose to change your vote to uphold the wishes of this community and to reinstall our faith new leadership it
030is well understood that the majority of covet cases and children are asymptomatic or mild ledging data from the cdc's own website we see children have a 50 higher risk of death from influenza compared to coped even the cdc's new guidelines recognize that people who are who are at a lower risk for severe illness do not need to take the same precautions as those at a higher risk i would like to think that you have our children's best interests at heart but i honestly do not know will you fixate on coven and masking you willfully ignore the serious harm that is caused by your interventions the studies are piling up that show the clear harm masking does to our children i'm going to cite from three different scientific articles and i would be happy to send
031you the sources after a meeting today from the article face mask the code in 19 era scientists report that face masks have been shown to have substantial adverse physiological and psychological effects these include activation of fear and stress response fatigue headaches declining cognitive performance predisposition for viral and infectious illness chronic stress anxiety and depression my own daughter suffers from chronic stress and that stress manifests itself as sometimes debilitating stomach pain i urge you to consider the many unintended consequences that you are causing by forcing children into masks from the article mass education we see that mass significantly affect children's ability to understand emotional signaling leading to problems like communication social interaction and recognition of behavioral norms and finally from a study entitled the covenanting pandemic and child cognitive development we see interventions such as massive
032lead to lower cognitive scores children now have significantly reduced verbal and motor and overall cognitive performance where their cognitive score is reduced by two full standard deviations compared to pre-pandemic and it's even worse for children from families with low socioeconomic status we don't know how long these effects will last we don't know how long it'll take to recover their speech delays their mental health issues or how long it will take to recover those missing iq points i ask you to start today the work of healing our kids let's lift the mask mandate free our children and start living our lives again you have the power and the responsibility to eliminate this mass mandate let's grant our children the freedom we all crave to breathe freely to share our smiling faces with one another and return
033to normal next we have pettis patterson okay to your point thank you dr christian that was great but i'm i'm afraid this is going to fall on deaf ears those things have been said before and they don't listen the studies are replete that these masks have very minimal effect on the pandemic very minimal if any and the adverse effects are huge which you just alluded to and there's hundreds of studies about this this is nothing new but no one listens and because of that what's going to happen in the future they're going to have to listen with this mass mandate right they're doing it in new york city the state of the union they're not wearing it it's going to have to go but we're going to remember how we were disrespected and not listened
034to and we just talk and no one speaks back to us there's no dialogue that's what we're going to remember and what's going to continue to happen is the leaving of the public school the decline of the public school if there's a decline in the public school i'm concerned there's a decline in democracy we need the public school so at the work session this board wanted to listen to the cdc and the comment was made for our superintendent that any the cdc says that any mass is better than no mass that means was that hyperbole does that mean some mask off off the bathroom floor is better than no mass are we kidding can we think will we ignore phds mds like makari rich kaldorf vaticaria we're talking about harvard we're talking about yale we're
035talking about stanford we're talking about johns hopkins come on thank you next we have beth hannah good evening i thank you for letting me speak thank you for being here everyone my name is beth hannah and i'm here representing my family i do have children in the school system my mother sally calhan was a educator in the system it's not only my family but friends as well not all friends agree with me but nonetheless you know i watched in the beginning that it was um as glenn said it was cbc were the guidelines that we were following um my question is and i asked others who've been i haven't been here very often i've watched on tv but um what what guidelines are are we following right now um what is that what is that
036baseline um what number are we trying to achieve what is a good number when we hit this number we can stop doing this is that in place do we have that information or is it just a fluid a fluid target that's how i feel i don't feel that there's something solid for us to be a point that we're striving towards um also um you know my heart goes out to those who have um children who are suffering mentally and physically as i think all of our children are actually to different degrees um i i know my child is might not have to see have seen the doctor for it but as a parent i know my child and i know that he is suffering and his friends as well i just implore you to go
037back to the drawing board from where you stand and what is the guideline that i am basing my decision on am am i needing that am i striving towards something is it is it something like a pendulum um what is it and then please share it with us that's your responsibility i believe thank you very much thank you next we have lacey fitzpatrick good evening board members and superintendent um i wasn't planning on speaking i was kind of talked into it so um i feel like maybe that was a sign and i do believe in figure science so i'm a mom of multiple children um they are all greatly affected by this mass mandate our entire lives have been changed sometimes you find the good in it but ultimately it's been huge um i believe
038that math should be optional it is a medical decision it's a decision made by the parent only um i don't see anything wrong with wearing them if it's important to you but it's not your decision to decide what happens for my child when it comes to their medical well-being unless it's greatly affecting another person and i feel like we already know that everything's coming out and we're finding that maybe this wasn't as effective as we thought it was um so i'm going to keep it really short with that i think there's a lot of other people i'm going behind two doctors um really passionate people they said most of what i wanted to say um but i also wanted to touch base on sending emails when we send emails as parents and community members to
039our superintendent and our board members and we get two responses it's disappointing especially from our superintendent if i come to you with something important that is heavy on my heart in your schools simple received we'll call you later let's talk anything give me something it is disrespectful and if you can't just respond reconsider your job position that's all next we have sandy i should have this right saying true i'm sorry i'm so bad with that hello uh i would like to also request that you make the masks optional states are granting the students and faculty their freedom back to decide uh in several states new mexico just recommended all schools stop masks 300 000 children liberated nevada made mass optional 493 thousand children liberated virginia made it illegal for any school district to enforce masks
040now and forever one million children liberated north carolina passed a bill to stop all mass mandates throughout all schools one million four hundred thousand children liberated illinois just made masks optional for the entire state and districts were told that if they were breaking the law by enforcing them two million children liberated thank you [Music] next we have steve conroy my name is steve conroy and um i want to start with the idea that the federal government created a pandemic of fear which has covered our country and has destroyed our nation they spent five trillion dollars to get rid of a disease that has a 99.96 percent survival rate that's crazy and they've closed down businesses they close down schools and they've made you panicked about something that nobody else can understand none of us wants
041mass you are part of our community you're supposed to be helping us and you instead you're sticking to some kind of requirement to wear these stupid masks which don't stop the virus in the first place none of them do you could wear 12 masks and you still wouldn't stop the virus at a 0.1 micron it'll go through anything and viruses are everywhere that's why they're called a virus so we as a community come to you once again to say listen you're part of us we're a community we're a family and we're all asking you to get rid of the masks i don't see why you don't understand that unless you're getting a lot of money from the federal government to keep the mask on that's the only thing i can think about you would want
042to keep doing this to your community every one of us in here are saying the same thing get rid of the mask now the federal government giving you a million dollars or 20 million dollars to keep them on all right tell us that then we want to understand but otherwise we don't understand thank you once we have mary newman hello i'm mary newman and i have two high schoolers at buena this is my first time coming to a meeting because i am canadian and i am compliant but hong kong the survey that came out the question was do we support the board the school board with your decisions i do but um you didn't ask me do i support masks i wish the wording on that survey was just a little bit tweaked i think
043it would have maybe presented a different response from our community but i just wanted to tell you all about something you know the catfishing is you know when people are online they're dating and they're pretending to be someone but they actually look completely different i just learned that there's something called mask fishing that teenagers are now wearing masks because they prefer it over their actual looks they feel ugly they're suffering from acne and other things going on these kids need freedom they need to have a normal experience of that not just eye contact enough look at you and smile how does it make you feel teachers are not as approachable without their face being shown i have a child that suffers from some social anxiety and that child will not ask her teachers for help
044the teacher one she braved it and went to the teacher the teacher said ask a fellow student the answer well now she has to go to another masked human and doesn't know quite how to approach that person because they're not quite a person we are people and we need the full facial so from a mental health perspective for the psychology of our kids can suffer from depression poor self-body image this is my first meeting so i apologize if i'm getting ahead of your agenda but i really love what everyone has shared here that we need to consider the voice of our community those of us with our children home my children my two teenagers have a total of five f's on their they were junior honor society students once upon a time they are suffering
045right now not just because of the mass but because of the crazy for a 48-hour policy they can't return to school with any symptom my son suffers from migraines i know it's my head the aura beforehand we knew what it was but he was not allowed going to school because i reported in alignment wednesday for a fever that was on tuesday the child should have been able to go back friday right 48 hours but because i the parent reported it wednesday that's when the day counted so my child was sent home healthy with reefs we need to do more my kids are suffering i'm involved caring active parent i've been in the school with a principal the guidance council who are all phenomenal but this is beyond your staff we need to do more we
046need to free the masks and make everyone more approachable so we can do better for our kids mental health thanks [Applause] going back to our agenda the next item on our agenda well before i do that um holly's on the phone holly i kind of forgot you were on the phone there sweetie but um did you have anything that you wanted to say no i'm okay oh you know i can maybe share it at the end okay okay so the next uh item on the agenda is our consent agenda can i get a motion for the consent agenda i move we adopt consent agenda second it's been moved in second and for discussion is there any discussion on that i do want to also um let mrs jimenez know that we're proud of her and
047i'm looking for great things as she moves on to carmichael and our new um is she here oh she is here doc doctor help me mom oh she's not here okay but mrs minnes thank you i look forward to you um all those in favor aye opposed passes four zero the next item on the agenda is our policy policy consideration first reading it is recommended that the governing board discuss in review on first reading the policy revision recommended by administration of the following policies gdbc support staff supplementary pay slash overtime gcd professional staff vacations and holidays gdd support staff vacations and holidays thank you the policy revisions are necessary after adoption of the new wage schedules approved by the governing board during its december 7th 2021 meeting and because of incorporating juneteenth as a national
048holiday in the school calendar administration recommends acceptance on first reading for review in accordance with policy bgb is there any discussion all in favor on first reading hi the next item is discussion and action resignation and waiver of policy gcqc for professional staff member cindy johnson it is recommended that the governing board discuss and take action regarding a request of resignation and waiver of policy gcqc-r from professional staff member cindy johnson kindergarten teacher at wachuca mountain elementary school mrs hill mrs johnson has submitted her resignation on february 15 2022 and you have an attachment with an effective date of march 11 2022 for policy gcqc-r if a staff member asked the board to approve a resignation after a contract has been signed and returned to the human resources department and prior to june 15th any
049such approval will be conditioned upon payment of 500 any request for resignations after june 16th and or prior to the end of a contract term shall be conditioned upon payment by the staff member of one thousand dollars as liquidated damages the teacher may request a waiver of the fee by the board mrs johnson is requesting a waiver feedback reference policy and she is completed and you have an attachment of the form physicians documentation is on fire with the human resources office administration recommends approval of mrs john johnson's resignation and waiter request second it's been moved in second and is there any discussion all in favor aye passage four zero the next item discussion and action approval of vendor purchases exceeding the hundred thousand dollar threshold it is recommended that the governing board discuss and take
050action to approve the expenditures exceeding the hundred thousand dollar threshold for amazon businesses mr mcgovern purchasing department must receive permission from the governing board before approving purchases that will put a single vendor's fiscal year total over a hundred thousand dollar threshold because amazon business is on a us.com rtc 17006 contract and has been proven to be a quality vendor who continuously provides quality service to the district it is considered beneficial for the district to continue utilizing the vendor administration recommends it's been moved in second and is there any discussion all in favor aye passage four zero the next item discussion and action approval of vendor purchases exceeding the hundred thousand dollar dress threshold it is recommended that the governing board discuss and take action to approve the expenditures exceeding the hundred thousand dollar threshold for
051precise signs company mr mcgovern purchasing department must receive permission from the governing board for approving purchases that will put a single vendor's fiscal year total over a hundred thousand dollar threshold precise sign company is on one gpa cooperative contract and will provide new marquee signs for the remaining district school sites the total cost for the additional six signs will be 385 000 and will be funded out of capital administration recommends approval can i get a motion it's been moved in second and is there any discussion all in favor aye passage four zero the next item on the agenda is discussion and action approval of gifts scope and sequence it is recommended that the governing board discuss and take action regarding the updated gifts scope and sequence mrs madam school districts must identify gifted learners and
052provide appropriate educational programs and services for gifted learners that are an integrated differentiated learning experience during the regular school day in all grades k through 12. a gifted scope and sequence is a local plan developed by school districts describing their gifted education programs and services for the identification process of and curriculum modifications for gifted pupils to ensure that gifted learners receive gifted education commensurate with their academic abilities and potentials ars this update provides additional clarity and specificity to the title 1 cycle 5 requirements of the gifted program the previous update to the district's gifted education scope and sequence was january 2022 administration recommends approval second it's been moved in second and for discussion is there any discussion all in favor i i passage for zero the next item discussion and action approval facility waiver fee
053for the klein center for the southwest association of buffalo soldiers suave it is recommended that the governing board discuss and take action to approve the waiver of facility fees for the use of the client center to hold the annual spirit of the buffalo soldier award ceremony on may 14 2022 the southwest association of buffalo soldiers is a local community nonprofit but the mission to bring alive the stories and honor the legacy of the buffalo soldier through student academic recognition programs the association feels students starting with grades of c or below who have shown the most improvement should be recognized for their accomplishments and encouraged to continue and improve this recognition program highlights over 200 students from 17 participating schools including sierra vista schools the swabs recognition program prior to covet have been supported by the
054governing board for over 15 years district administration recommends approval of the use of the district facilities and waiver of the facility fees second it's been moved in second and is there any discussion i just like to say i appreciate this organization for recognizing those students who work really hard but you know don't get recognized i totally agree with you on that it's been a great thing and they've been doing it for such a long time and it does recognize those students who don't always get to be on the honor roll but that they're doing better in their classes and stuff so that is great i'll go ahead and call it to vote all in favor i appreciate oppose passes 4-0 next item discussion and action approval of juneteenth holiday observation for the 2021-2022 school year
055it is recommended that the governing board discuss and take action to approve a juneteenth holiday of observation for the 2021-2022 school calendar dr holmes the juneteenth holiday is on sunday june 19th during the 2021 2022 school calendar the holiday can be observed on either friday the 17th or monday the 20th of june administration recommends monday the 20th as the day of observance can i get a motion for discussion is there any discussion i think monday's good day those in favor aye fine oppose passage for zero the next item discussion and action rescinding of that a face mask covering requirement for school recommendation it is recommended that the governing board discussion take action regarding the rescinding of the face covering requirement and making it optional for staff students and visitors while on school property and during
056school-sponsored events so we have this on the agenda ladies as a discussion and also an action so that we can also talk about it and then we can also make an action on it so i just want to start with um the rumor that we get money for the kids wearing masks that's not true we don't get any money for the kids wearing masks um the following of the cdc um we have been doing that um i that's all i have to say about that unless somebody wants to add something to that well we've been going by the county figures when they first came out with those metrics those are the same metrics we've been following all along right as long as they were in the high category is where we were keeping it but
057as they're going down hopefully they can go down enough that we feel comfortable with them dr holmes do you have something to add uh this this week the cdc came out with new guidelines and i'm just gonna share with you what they came up with it was an effort to alleviate some of the issues regarding the mask mandates nationwide and they have changed the focus of how they're doing their measurements and they're keeping it at the county level now so you can actually go to the cdc web live a website click on your state and click on your county and it will tell you what the level uh of code is in the area where you live or the area where you may be traveling to again they've changed the criteria and i'll share with
058the board the criteria and also what the um recommendations are for for the for those counties that are still in high the new methods or methodologies that that they're using first of all new coveted missions per 100 000 population in the past seven days if it's less than twenty percent if it's greater than twenty percent then it's high percent of staff inpatient beds occupied by covert nineteen patients if it's greater than fifteen percent it's considered to be high and again something that we're familiar with total coveted cases per 100 000 population in the past seven days that remains if it's greater than 10 percent then it's high um unfortunately here in cochise county we're still high but we're heading in the right direction um and as of 228 22 i contacted the county and we're
059at 12.7 positivity however that number that metric is no longer used to determine whether or not a a county is would be considered high medium or low and the county is still in high transmission as of yesterday they're also changing uh how they are reporting this information so instead of doing it on a daily basis they're only going to be reporting it out on a weekly basis and that will be every wednesday as you know each thursday the state put something out their website has changed as of today and the information by county that used to be there is no longer there so i don't know whether they are going to be moving towards something similar to what the cdc has or not doing anything at all but all of this new information that has
060come down has again reduced the number of of counties in the country that they are suggesting continue having indoor mass so our numbers as a district our cases continue to decline two weeks ago we had 11 cases excuse me three weeks ago we had 11 cases two weeks ago 13 cases and so far this week we have three so our numbers are declining significantly uh and that is very good news thank you i just want to add um recently on the news i saw that the cdc were easy in easing the indoor masking recommendations but the reasons behind this is because many children and adults have been vaccinated in the hospital and the healthcare facilities are not being overwhelmed with high volume of coca patients president yes ma'am i'm really sorry i'm i'm having a
061little bit of difficulty understanding hearing everybody and i greatly apologize for not being able to be there this evening um could i please request that ms and ms robinson just speak a little bit more loudly into their microphones just for my benefit it's obviously an important discussion and um i would like to make a motion when one is in order okay do you have a comment or anything misses i do have a comment but it's more explaining my motion which i'd like to do after okay um there's a couple of other things that i did also want to bring up um that we as a board um we do have the kids best interests at heart um and basically we make those decisions with some time with the actual recommendation from the superintendent but everything
062is ultimately up to us um as we vote on that um and as you guys know you know the majority it's a democracy so the majority wins um and the rest of us just have to support that there a lot of times when we've had these meetings which was surprising to me was that we even because when you come to the meeting and when everybody speaks it seems like there's no everybody wants to lift the mass mandate but there are people out there and i have gotten emails from people who say that they you know want to keep it in place and so there's a little bit of this and there's a little bit of that in that um and so um i just want people to know that there are people out there just
063listening to some of the comments there are some people out there that do want us to continue with the maths mandate um i personally i mean i think with the change if i read it right with the change with the cdc had come up with like 75 of the state now are able to the cdc is saying that they could live the mass the mass mandate so um i think it should be the parents choices um and i think that um we've been going through this for a while and it's just my personal thought that it's time for us to um lift the mass mandy and that's just my that's just my personal thoughts um i do respect um my other board members and people i mean people when you look at it we're still
064high i mean it still says that we're high as a county i looked at it santa cruz and there's some other uh counties america maricopa county um and it's weird because maricopa is like bigger than us so um i i you can read a little bit about anything and everything and you know one of the things it said was because more people up there have gotten vaccinated but there's other logical things that possibly could be altering that i think once you have it set inside about how you feel about it a lot of things sometimes that you really don't always alter your decision um but i do think that you know everybody has the right to their own decision and i just want you guys and i just want the public to know that i
065love this the city and this county too and i believe all the other board members do too and we are this is really hard for us and it is uh we do care about everybody here we do care about the citizens and so i'm gonna stop right now and um does anyone else have anything that they want to add to the discussion okay with that um i would entertain a motion president returns like you make a motion okay what is that um i move that if the trend of declining covid metrics continues that we rescind the face mask the face covering requirement and make it make it optional for all beginning on monday march 21st after spring break and if my motion received a second for discussion i would like to make further comments is
066there a second i'll second now there is a second um is open for discussion may i president please can anybody hear me okay yes we can thank you um two days this board has supported dr holmes in following the recommendations of the cdc the arizona department of health and our local health department in order to do everything in our power to protect the health and safety of our staff and students and to keep our schools open i believe that masks have been an important layer to our district's covid mitigation plan through the worst of the pandemic as we move to the endemic stage we are seeing the public health experts we rely upon modify their metrics and their reporting frequency to reflect this new stage of our coded reality as i stated at our recent
067work session i believe it is time for this board to have a serious discussion about how and when we remove the mandatory mask layer of our mitigation plan as ms boute already mentioned and that's the four of us sitting on the dance except for me as we all very well know the disease are things that we can only discuss in a public meeting and we are all bound by our majority decisions i offer this motion in an attempt to honor our collective position to date and reach a decision that all or at least most of us can get behind i recognize that this move will be too slow for some too fast for others but i hope that we can strike a balance between all the stakeholders we serve while remaining closely aligned with the
068prevailing medical and scientific consensus consensus on effective coded mitigation and i thank my fellow board members for their consideration of this motion is there any more discussion on the motion um if i had been making the motion i would have said april 5th so i would have pushed it back a little bit further just to make sure we continue in this lowering but that's the motion on the floor right now so i would have moved for earlier motion to do this um i just feel like um that we should just move forward with this the the cases are declining as dr holm said um and that's my thought mrs robinson do you have anything yeah so basically um ladies once we um vote on this motion the majority rules unfortunately one of our board members
069is ill so um depending on how the vote goes it's to my understanding if it's a split vote that we would have to have like another meeting or something to um to do it to to vote again [Music] so um i guess i will with nothing else being said i guess that's something i guess i want you ladies to think about um so i guess i'll go ahead and if no one has anything else i just want to remind everyone that the cases are declining and um yes some schools have closed um [Music] because they did they and i don't know for sure it's because their cousin they have or have not worn masks but i think people understand that and something like that happened and we had to do that hopefully we wouldn't but
070the case is declining that's just something that we would have to do and i just think it shouldn't be everyone's choice so with that i'm going to go ahead and call it to vote will you repeat it please oh holly can you repeat that please my motion yes please i move that if the trend of declining covet metrics continues that we rescind the face covering requirements and make it optional for all beginning on monday march 21st which is after spring break with that oh and we'll do a roll vault i have one quick question yes go ahead with the way the motion is worded if the trend continues so when would we look at the trend again in another week in the week before spring break holly did you won did you hear that i
071did hear that and i'm definitely open to that i guess i'm thinking um the week of spring break if that's something maybe administration could look into for us yes we check that on a weekly basis so we can provide that information to the governing board okay we'll do a role vote then those i'll go ahead and and call you all all one by one those in favor or to cast your vote mrs robinson no miss man miss robinson i mean mr sheriff fine and i vote no so it's a split vote so we will have to on that item we will have to come back again we cannot do it at this meeting so going on to the next item information and discussion item is there anything else or matters about the board which may
072engage in discussion that we'll take no action on is there anything else that you guys have um number 10 our next item is request for future agenda items does anyone have anything else when is our next meeting our next meeting mr meeting over spring break 22nd the 22nd okay well we'll have that's something we don't we won't know we'll have to talk about that but we'll have to see when we can put that back on the agenda again but well i think we probably should put it back on the agenda for the meeting of the 22nd okay so sure so so sheriff gets what she wants anyway so we will put it on the next guys that's just how it goes i mean that's this is the way that the board has said things are
073set up i don't like it always either but it's just the way things are so i ask that you please just keep order um i would entertain a motion to adjourn thank you everyone for coming good night i have waivers [Music]