001Kurserich >> here, >> Mrs. Olsen >> here, Dr. Sero >> here, >> Mrs. Aaron Cotton here, Mrs. Cot here, and Miss Venezuela >> here. All present. >> First motion is a motion. >> I'll second. >> All those in favor say I. >> I. Motion carries 5 to zero. Now please stand alsisible with liberty and justice for all. >> First visitors comments appears we have no visitor. So, we'll move on to theformational items starting with approval of additional CSF funds for the 267. >> Yes. Uh, Mr. President and honorable members of the board, um, the, uh, administration and district's financial consultant agreed uh, instead of revising the certified salary schedule for the 2016 school year. It was recommended that an additional $1,000 be added to the classroom site fund amount allotted to each certified classroom teacher.
002you have you have the attachment. Um we're going to have a revised one for you to see for Wednesday. Uh that this is what I shared with Tyler Thursday and Friday the week. He did some extra research and he has a new number he would like for us to present. So but still uh this will come out of uh just for the context this will come out of the classroom site fund uh amount. It will not come out of the big number you see which is the M. This is completely from the classroom site fund for base salary uh which he he'll be here I believe virtually to give an indepth uh explanation. He has a a draft uh PowerPoint normally does. It's just going to focus on the classroom site fund. So he's going
003to share more with you on Wednesday. Uh we'll go into the reserve. We have a very healthy reserve. Well, share how much estimated sales tax revenue is coming in this year and how much uh with with the additional uh number that he wants to show on Wednesday that we want to show Wednesday, what will be the estimated expenditure. So, he's going to have a more in-depth uh presentation on Wednesday when he can be here. But pretty much what we want to do is is is uh have an increase to the total classroom cycle amount, not just the performance, but just specifically to to their salary. the base salary and and it's not coming out of M&M because they know us to take care of everything else. So, this is not the number that you that
004we want you to see tonight. We want you to see this number on Wednesday because we don't have it on the agenda to be posted for today. So, please don't put that anyone. Can you please take that off? So, it's just with uh when we initially met Tyler and I it was for 10,421 to be out of the classroom site based salary. This year it's 9,421. So from that 10,421 number, he's going to talk more about the new number he has to share with everyone what the power looks like. So it it looks uh the numbers look good. We have a very healthy reserve. You'll see it. Our reserve for classroom site fund is well over one million. So it's very positive. So I'm sorry. So this is an additional $1,000 on top of the
005salaries that the teacher is making. Yeah, it's coming from the classroom site if I'm not not the ML part, not the budget source. >> And the non-ertified teach employees, are they getting anything? >> We haven't got there yet, but we are getting there. >> We're get going to get there after we get through this first. We wanted to make sure to to have our teachers taking care of this amount first because this classroom site fun can only go toward certified pass. >> Okay. >> Any other questions or discussion on that? And our next item is the 26 27. >> Yes, Mr. President, members of the board, um first statutes as you see listed uh now state that probationary and continuing teacher contracts for the ensuing school year shall be offered on or after March 15th
006of each year. 2526 certified teacher contracts are being offered are 2627 certified teacher contracts are being recommended to be issued to to be issued to the following teachers. You have all the teachers uh names listed there. Um, so we're really really excited about wanting to do this uh before the teachers go on spring break. Also uh to talk about the previous agenda items so that they can see, you know, just what we're trying to do for them as far as compensation is, but also for their contracts to know that they have their contracts. Um, and to do this before spring break and also before testing is a sign of the room to show that, hey, we we take this seriously. We want show you guys we want you guys all back. >> Okay. Question. Next
007item is 2627 certified approvement for >> Mr. President and honorable members of the board. This is for Miss Jalar Narciso. She has been interviewed for a position as a secondary math teacher for the 2627 school year. We have her application there. A very very exceptional candidate and uh and um there is no board action necessary. This is a study session. I don't want to go over here to answer any questions. >> Okay. Any questions on that? Next item number 2627 certified employment fore. >> Yes sir. Mr. President, members of the board, um the Bravante Franchia has been interviewed for a position as an elementary sped or exceptional student services teacher for the 26 27 school year. Um there is no board action necessary. This is a study session. You have his application there. Very very
008impressive uh applicant. I believe he has his master's and doctorate right Miss and he's also uh starting with postdoctoral studies strategic management I believe >> leadership so um very very impressive and we'll be very fortunate to have him here with us he's he's ready this is an exceptional candidate >> I was about to say same with Very impressive. That is I could vote for that. >> Any question or follow? Okay. Next item is the class classified retirement finance analyst. >> Yes, Mr. President, members of the board. Um, Gloria Gutierz, finance analyst has submitted her retirement form schools as of February 27th, 2026. There is no board action necessary. This is a study session item only. Okay. Any questions on that one? Next item up there with approval of additional hours in the finance office for
009Leon. >> Yes, Mr. President, members of the board. Um, with the retirement of a finance analyst, the administration is requesting extra hours for Susana Leon, 6 to 10 hours during the week. Um, we like to have her here for 35 to 40 hours during spring break and possible summer employment. Susan will work in both the library and the finance office. And there you have an attachment. This is a practice that that is done in other districts. So, we just follow the best practices have a finance animal school that when we have sudden uh sudden things like this, whether it's a resignation or this is a sudden retirement, it happens real fast. And so um we have a pool of candidates to choose from and Miss Swingon is is our next most qualified applicant that we
010feel is ready to step in and start to help. >> Any question on that? Next item is spring interession employment for 2026. >> Mr. President, members of the board, the spring inter session employment. You have the dates there. March 16th to the 19th, the staff reporting times, student times. There you have our teachers, four days, five hours per day at the hourly rate. We have a good group of teachers and we also have an instructional leader in Miss Williams. And I believe we also have some spring intercession pair professionals um in UC as well. And so, uh that is to follow. We should have the names for you for for Wednesday. So, um this looks really really powerless and they have a real good team for uh for spring interession. >> What do we average
011student wise in those inter sessions? >> What's the question? >> What do we average? What's the enrollment for how many students do you >> about 70 I believe 70 80 that's usually our average position >> we're hoping to have more when we come back it's already we hope to have more participate this time compared to the Any other questions on that item? The next one, additional classified professional development. Mr. President, members of the board, um we're very excited also about this professional development opportunity for um or you have I believe you have the staff attachment. It has uh we really want to try and get not only our certified but our classified to get these very critical trainings. The administration is requesting permission to pay for an extra hour for AD mandated training of candy
012mental and foster care to parent professionals, teachers and cafeteria staff. A list of the extra staff is attached. So uh this is very critical to be helpful so that everyone gets the screen. >> Any questions? Next up we are reports one report being the J. >> Yes, Mr. President board we have a JM report as requested I believe by Mr. Guthrie a few months back. Cory Williams will make a report to the board on the Johnson grant and the JM committee and I believe you have the attachment in front of you and also on the board. So turn it over to Miss Williams. Miss Williams if you can approach the podium and the floor is yours. >> Good evening everybody. Um this is just a brief recap of what we have completed so far and
013what are our plans moving to the towards the end of the second semester of this academic year. So um at the moment we are in the works to get a couple of things completed um namely submission of 506 forms as well as the JM eligibility form. Now the 506 forms are a longstanding form. Most families know about these forms, but most families do not. So, fill them out and submit. Um, as it is right now, we have a little over 70 students who have submitted their 506 forms completed. on file in enrollment. When I check enrollment, we have over 100 students who have indicated that they are under but only 70 of those students have actually submitted their 506. >> And what is the 506 form? The 506 is a federally um issued form that
014we have to keep on file so that the office of Indian education and um the board of educ um Arizona department of education has to indicate that these students are Native American heritage. They are registered. They have identification whether from parent, grandparent or for themselves. So, and that is the form that is used to determine um funding for the different programs that the we get for the Native Americans because the only students who are eligible for funding are the students who have the 506 forms. If you do not have the 506 forms, then certain certain things that are a part of funding you're not eligible for. The same thing applies with the JOM forms. The JOM form from my understanding is new because speaking with different parents and different families, they have never heard of
015that form before. They've never seen it. They don't know what it is. So this year is the first year that we have started getting parents and families to submit the 305 form. Right now only 36 families have completed the form. So, we're still working on getting more parents to fill out the information and submit the forms. >> And you said how many kids say that they have Native American? 10 and something. >> Yeah, we have about 106 107 students. But, um, I think since February, um, four students have unenrolled and they've moved to different areas. I think no we have a lot students that have indicated that they're making >> so one only about 70 have turned in >> the 506 forms >> and then very few have turned in the JM form >> right
016the J form is the new form so most some a lot of the students who have their 506 forms they did those those forms the first time they register so some of them their forms are from kindergarten or first grade when we get new students we always give them the form but at But the problem is having them fill them out and return them. We have the forms at every event or every function that we have. The president has gone to homes to give them the forms. She has offered to return to collect the forms and some families still have not submitted the forms. So there is only so much we can do when it comes on to collecting the information. We just have to let them know that it limits what we can do
017for your child if your child does not have the form. >> You think it's a stigma or you think it's just you just don't do it? >> I don't think it is a stigma per se. It's just not seen as important for some people. So, they don't do it because a lot of them do not really understand that it's tied to funding. And even some of them who do understand that it's just not something that they're on their priorities. >> Do you know if all of them are very stupid? >> Um that I don't know. But from my understanding of the students that I have interacted with and students I know yes they are. And you said without those forms there's some limits as to what services you're going to >> right there are certain
018things that they should not be participating in because they are not registered where their 506 forms are concerned. >> So that's >> assuming that you let parents know too that >> yeah there are yeah there are things there there are things that we cannot do. So, for example, with the JM grant, we can pay for cap and gowns. We can pay for sports uniforms if they need to. We can pay for musical instruments if they're a part of the school band and they need an instrument. There are different things that the funds can pay for, but if your child does not have the form, your child is not eligible for those things. So that's also so those that's the information that we're trying to get out to the parents that if your child does not
019have a form on file then we really cannot supply certain things for them. Um so that's one of the things that we have been working on trying to get um the forms in so that if at any time we get audited we have the paperwork for that when we are filling out the grants they ask us for the numbers and the number has to be based on either the 506 form or the JM form is new so they didn't use that before it was always the 506 form but we can only submit the number based on the five to six phones. We cannot give the entirety of the population because they don't all have phones. The other thing that we have been working on is attendance. Attendance is a big issue um in most schools
020right across. So we have started doing incentive programs in order to have our students attend school more regularly. When we had our Christmas banquet in December, we gave out awards for attendance, perfect attendance, good attendance, and excellent attendance, as well as giving out academic awards. So, we're hoping that these little certificates that we hand out are encouragement for the students who are actually attending school regularly and those who are making sure that they're here to to get the the content that they need to get. for the students who are what we would consider chronically absent. Um the teachers have been in contact with the parents. We have had parent meetings with a couple of them parent child and myself and Mrs. Aaron Khan. We have um teachers also had meetings with some of these parents
021when we had their teacher conferences to emphasize the importance of the attendance. We pointed out the number of days that a number of them have been absent and highlighting the fact that the state requires that your your maximum number of absence is 18 days for the whole year. There are some students that they're way past that number in the first semester alone. So we are trying to emphasize to them the importance of um attending. What we discussed in our last meeting when the last parent committee meeting was getting some kind of survey done to find out what are the barriers that some families are experiencing that is preventing regular attendance and to see what kind of programs we could possibly implement or what assistance we could give. so that they are able to have their
022children attend school on a regular basis. Because a part of it is that we are not sure what are the issues that these families are facing that are preventing their students from attending school. >> You think they'll do the surveys? >> Pardon? >> You think that the families will do the surveys? >> We can try. That is that is really the only thing option we have to to get to try. it it can at least if we do the survey depending on the feedback they'll know what to do but if nobody responds to it it cannot be said that we did not reach out to try and get some information that would in some way help us to help them because that's the point of collecting the information how can we help you and if
023you are not working with us then there is very little that we can do to help you if we are not sure what kind of issues you're so that we can get suggestions or ideas to help. >> So, sorry I'm asking all these questions. >> Are there tribal resources in the way of social workers that can go out to those homes and and actually interact with these families where they live in their homes to find out what the issues are and what can be done to facilitate. There are tribal social workers. Um I have met a couple of them but they there were they were dealing with specific students and it was not an attendance issue. It was other issues that they had to cover. But I have their contact information and I can speak
024with them to find out if there is something that they some way that they can intervene in order to try and assist us with the issues that we're having with attendance system. >> I would imagine that if a kid's chronically absent in the younger grades, the chance of that kid ever graduating from high school is very very small. Am I correct? >> It does increase the It does increase the chances of not graduating >> and then once they're 16, they don't even have to go to school anymore, right? And then >> so the the thing about it is that attendance in a lot of ways is a habit. And so when you are when you have developed the habit of not attending and also the habit that the also the fact that there is no
025major consequence for not attending then it makes it a habit that they just continue to do and it never changes and as they get older it gets worse. So those are the those are the things that we have to look at when we're dealing with attendance because it is a habit that they have developed and there has to be some way in which we can either prevent that habit from developing or find ways of breaking the habit before it becomes something that prevents them from attending school altogether. So hopefully when we get that hopefully we get enough responses from that survey and I can get information from the the the track of social workers so that we can come up with the best plan or the best solutions to assisting these families that have the
026um student issues. >> We usually just as Sro visit. So the police these officer actually goes to the house >> but here we don't we don't sheriff's heart on these >> well we don't have an SRO right now but there have been different situations where the SRO has been asked to go and visit but we don't have one right now. So, >> understand by me asking these questions, I'm not like >> say that that you're not doing a great job, right? I know you're doing a great job. >> No, I understand that. I I just have a real concern about this population of kids and and so I you know >> yeah I understand I totally understand I'm not being I don't have any feelings forced questions um but it's something that we're trying to
027work on as it is right now um so for we have done two sets of benchmark tests already. We are moving into our third one this week. So, so far for the first benchmark for English language arts, we had 3% this is from grades 8 through to 8. We have 3% of the students being proficient and 14% being highly proficient. So, students who are proficient are getting 70 and above. Students who are highly proficient tend to be 80 and above. So those are so we have 3% proficient, 14% highly proficient. For math we have 7% proficient and 8% highly proficient. There are a number of students who are very close to proficiency. So we're hoping that with the tutoring that started in November, it will help to push them up so that they can become
028proficient. Um for the high school we have 21% of students being proficient in ELA and 25% being highly proficient. For math we have 17% proficiency and 10% highly proficient. The high schoolers are a smaller number in comparison to the um the second to 8th grade because that's the group that actually does the benchmark. first kindergarten and first grade down benchmark testers. So the larger number of students are in that second to 8th grade about 70 69 70 students in the lower elementary and middle school and high school is about 3.3 kids that are there. So and that was first benchmark. second benchmark similar numbers. The highly proficient number for math went down, but the ELA numbers were a bit similar. >> And the kids that we're we're talking about right now, these are the Native
029American kids that are registered that have done those forms or all the kids anyway. >> That's all the kids, not just the ones that have registered. That's all the kids. all 10. >> So, anybody identified as Native American in the applications? >> Um, that's that's included in this number. What percentage of the school is that? Do you have any idea how many what our what's our percentage of Native American kids in our school? >> 25% of our kids are. So, it's a pretty significant population. 25 to 28% of our student body. >> So what what I see there is is that about 10% of 25% of our school is proficient at math. Am I wrong that what >> 10% of the time >> for just to ethnose those numbers are just for second grade. So
030yeah and for the high school the numbers are pretty similar. We have a larger number that got highly proficient in the second benchmark at LA and for math. So um that was a good improvement for the high school students moving up for highly proficient. That's where we want them to be particularly moving into state testing. We want them to be at that level so that the um results for our state testing will be better and we will get the the points that we need to get so far. So one of the things that we have been working with is that a lot of our native students are part of our tutoring program um for the elementary school. A lot of the tutoring takes place during the day. Teachers use their specials for their planning periods
031to pull those students out and um have tutoring for those students and there are some teachers who do after school tutoring as well. So a lot of the Native American students are a part of the during school hours tutoring that is being offered to help them particularly with ELA and mathematics. No. >> So that was so that was one of the things that we had we weren't very keen on getting the students involved in. Um every year we do when we do open house we have open house as well for our Native American students where we give school supplies, backpacks, books, notebooks, pencils, all of those things. So we had a large number of students turn out this year by the jail room. Menty and M there to help give out and pack and and
032so on. We still have supplies. So if there are any students who need books, pencils, whatever, they can always come to the office and we can take them to them to get what they need. Um, we try to have a meeting every couple of months so that the parent group will because the parent committee is the one that makes the decisions. I just facilitate their ideas and whatever it is that they do. So, we had our first meeting in September which we had a decent journal. We don't always have a lot of parents coming to the meetings, but we had a number of them and that was where we had the discussion about what we wanted to do for Native American Heritage Month. Um, for Native American Heritage Month, we did not have the celebration
033that we normally had because one of the issues we ran into was getting people to come down and be a part of the celebrations because it's Native American month. the performers and persons who would come and and and assist us are busy on the reservation for native fun as well. So it's difficult to get them to be here to participate. So we decided not to do the big celebration but we had smaller things that we did during the month. We had an essay competition where the students from any grade level were able to to enter to explain or to talk about what their heritage meant to them. We had prizes for the best essays. Um we had a Native American jiu-jitsu group called the Res. They came down from Tucson and they did a demonstration
034with some of the students in the gym and they showed them self-defense skills and things like that and the students were very um excited and they participated. We also had early American schools week that is new but not and some students did participate but not all the students did but because it was the first time that we did it I expected that we would not have gotten the baby participation that we hoped. So we're hoping that moving forward when we have our daily American straight week more of the students will participate and um we will have a much more wholesome event at that particular week. Um in December we have our Christmas celebration and in and we also gave out awards for academic achievement and for um attendance. So the students who got proficiency and
035highly proficient grades for the benchmark that their certificates as well as those who had perfect attendance, good attendance or excellent attendance. We had those um during our Christmas bunch celebration. So these are just some pictures from the essay competition. First place was Marlin Ruiz from the 10th grade. Second place was Deon from the 12th grade and third place was Marcia from the fourth grade. This was our the student the jiujitsu group was and they came out. So we got to they got to demonstrate. They took pictures. The students participated. they have a good time and that was they and the the group is very willing to return next um for American month so that they can also give us some more demonstrations and make it a great um event for our Christmas brunch. We used
036the learning center by the college school because we needed the space and we had a large number of children and their families that turned out. We get donations for the gifts that the students get and it was fun. We had games. We had Santa Claus and his gave out gifts that it was a good afternoon and a lot the students had fun and the parents also had fun. And these were the when we gave out the awards lower elementary, upper elementary, middle school and high school. So I spoke about tutoring. Tutoring has been going on since the first week of November and it goes up until I think the end of March. Till the end of March 15. So, our students have been involved in the tutoring um session since the beginning of November and
037we're hoping that whatever the teachers have been working on with them will translate into the benchmark that is happening now as well as our state exams that come up in a couple of weeks in the beginning of April. These are just a few of our students, the classes, the teachers um that teachers took of the students in their session. So for our second semester, we are still talking about a field trip. We've been trying to get a field trip for the longest time, but things just have not been aligned for us to get one done. But we're still trying as best as we can. Um we also have our field day for the disable medical students which is in May and our graduation our annual graduation banquet for both the seniors as well as the
038eighth graders are promoting for this year. Oh, hi. I just I have one comment. Um, back to the SRO thing. Um, the P County Sheriff's Department SRO's or deputies are not allowed on the reservation. So, they would be they would contact TOPD to do whatever that would whatever would need to be done in that situation. Yeah. >> The students here some of the students in >> Oh, yeah. That that's different. But it was on the reservation. Yeah. any of the students that go to au reservation? >> Um, there's a few >> a few. There are a few. There are a few. Not a lot, but there are a few. >> Okay. So, most of them. >> Yeah. But most of the students live in town. >> Yeah. If they're in town, then they can, but
039if it's on the reservation, they cannot. >> Yeah. No, that was just because he had asked me what we do on the nation. Yeah, we have the SRO visit. Sometimes our principal goes out to visit. So, >> did you have another question? >> More of a comment than a question, but so some families this is perpetuating is generation to generation and so >> that makes it more >> it makes it more challenging. I don't to to go into a home and to convince a mother that that didn't finish school herself that her kid needs to finish school or or her son, it is a lot harder. But if if if it doesn't stop somewhere sometime somewhere, it'll it'll just continue to perpetuate. >> Yeah. >> You know, and and so um it's 25% of our
040school and and I understand that the social economic of of that 25% is all the way from top to the bottom. And I and I understand those situations, but um I would hope, maybe I'm wrong, you know a lot better than I do, that that the tribe would have resources to to be able to maybe go in do home visits and to go into these homes and and possibly assist some of these families and whatever help they would need to to get their kids at school, right? And and I think the school resource officer is a good option because if nothing else, maybe they can put a little fear of God into him. I know. I just >> I I walked out in my my alley to dump the garbage and and there was three
041boys there that that could have been topnotch athletes, right? and they're standing out in the alley and when they see me come up they know who I am and they have a bottle of whiskey and they hide it behind their these are like 15 16 year old boys and they and and they hide it behind their their back right so I don't see them drinking but I know they're drinking I said hey you're pouring your whiskey on the ground dude you know and not one of them was was in school right not one of them was in school you can imagine and where where those boys are now. You you know where the where they are now. And and and I one of those boys and I'm I'm sorry. Stop call me if you want
042me to shut up, but but one of those boys I had him as a freshman and he couldn't stay eligible because he couldn't pass math. So, two weeks, three weeks into it, I go into the computer room into the math class to find out why this kid can't pass math. And there was a form that he needed to turn in, but he never turned in the form. So, he couldn't get on the computer to do his math. And now he was three weeks behind. And so, we Mr. KC, bless his heart, and I walked all over the school to find that damn form. and I walked into his house and got it signed and brought it back so he could get on the computer. But now he was three weeks behind on math that the
043computer shut him out of and he couldn't catch up, right? He would want the boys standing in the alley. You know, I sometimes I think our Native American kids because they're so quiet that they kind of get left out because they they they're not the the rowdy ones. They're not the troublemakers. They're they're the just the that kid in the back of the class that's quiet and doesn't say anything until they're gone. And then suddenly they're gone and they're not around anymore, right? And and so but and I know it's happening everywhere. It's just not happening in Aaho. I understand that, you know, but it just oh, it just breaks my heart when I think about, you know, the these kids and and then I deal with them later, right? I deal with them later.
044And and so, um, yeah, and I know you know that. I'm not telling you anything you don't know. And I understand you probably feel more passionate than I do about it, but I just Oh, the just it just breaks my heart, you know, and so sorry. Sorry about the rant. >> Anybody have anything else? >> Thank you very much. >> Thank you. >> You're welcome. >> Next item up is governing board action. Does anybody on the board have something they would like to see agenda? >> I do. Um I had a discussion with two members of the booster club and they would like to make presentation to the board in April >> about funding items they have researched. >> Okay. >> Um they had some concerns because one of them I'm not going to get
045too much into it just so as a little basic information was a partial accessibility to the campus if there were improvements made to the football field track area and they have some different grants they want to discuss. Okay. >> Anybody else? Okay. Anything else? >> Just real quick, I just wanted to point out for the Wednesday meeting, we're going to change the salary schedule and then we're add the uh pair pros to the >> Yes. >> Uh spring inter session. >> Okay. Thank >> those should be the only changes. >> Okay. >> Nothing else. I'll make the motion to >> second. I motion approve 5 to zero.