001here M Rodriguez here Mr gu here Mrs olon here Mr K here by phone Dro here Dr here and I'm here okay and we have a motion to adopt the agenda please I'll make the motion I'll second it Miss ol I Mr Hopkin hi Mr Rodriguez hi Mr hi Mr I pass please stand and the pledge of allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all okay first item on the agenda is public comments but it appears we have no public comments to be made so we'll go right on to informational items first of which is the approval of the classic wide resignation of teachers Aid Samuel Hernandez Mr Hopkins Samuel Hernandez teachers Aid has
002has verbally resigned his position as a teacher Aid to uh director on January 8 2024 his last day of work was 121 2023 there is no board action necessary at this time this is a study session item okay any questions or discussion on that next item then is the approval of classified resignation of sped secretary Debbie house Mr Hopkins and members of the board um Debbie house bed secretary has submitted a letter of resignation to the administration effec of January 15 2024 there is no board action necessary at this time this is a study session item one what sped is uh special education special education exceptional education okay next item is unless there's more discussion on that no next item is the approval of increased in substitute teacher pay yes uh Mr President members of
003the board um business manager our true professionals consultant and administration are recommending an increase of substitute teacher pay the new rate recommended is $70 per day less than four hours and $125 for a full day four hours or more there is no board action necessary at this time this is a study session item only and what are we moving it up from that's 55 to 70 110 to okay $5 okay okay so weay them half day or by the hour didn't didn't do that that from what I understand the half day yes $70 for half day then once they go over four hours it goes to the the full 125 or it will go to the full 125 yeah it would seem like if it was just for one hour you wouldn't get people to
004come in to just get one hour worth of work you we can we pay them by the half day instead the hour why exactly if they if we P them for just for one hour coming in right they would come not worth their time and it's seldom we would need a substitute for just one hour right because if a teacher's gone we need a teacher to we do most cases and even a lot of times when we don't have substitut because even though we have three or four on our list that doesn't mean they're available and many of our subs are are older and have medical appointments so they kind of have different different times are available so our own teachers on their prep period will cover classes during their prep now they're compensated for
005their prep period that they that they missed um but then we're not getting a sub just for one hour thanks for coming and Le just for two periods third two periods either administrative staff or a teacher will cover so um most of the time it's a full day we do very rarely do we do half days but on occasion we do sometimes we do they'll do half day at one Elementary maybe and then half day um in our academic uh class academic enrichment classes or yeah thank you sir any other question questions on that on to the next one which is the approval of out of state travel for the ASA National Conference of Education Mr President MERS of the board of the American Association of superintendents and administrators is holding an annual conference on
006education in San Diego California from the 15th to the 17th of February 2024 key topics will include artificial intelligence safety and schools opportunities for Rural Youth and Leadership for impact uh Administration is requesting attendance and per uh usfr all out of state conferences must be board approved there is no board action necessary at this time this is a study session item only also want to add this is uh in line with best practices uh what what has been shared with me before from other superintendents who have been very helpful these last two years the best professional development for superintendents to expand programs and opportunities for all stakeholders that was from Dr L high tower tulson Elementary School District also yes sir no I just want I just want to share with you some more some
007more of the information like Federal relations topics are also going to be discussed projects that will help uh myself and our team become more well versed with federal government topics so just so you have the context in the background and you said you were going to be driving yeah I'll be driving okay it's close by yeah we' like you to take one of the buses if you buses are for the athletes it's a whole another Bing okay any other discussion on that and we'll go to next item is Arizona Department of Education assessment update Mr President members of the board um Aqua School data analyst Mr Casey will provide a detailed update of the upcoming State assessments that will be taking place in March and April um there's no board action necessary at this time
008you have you have our district leadership team here present as well Dr sholz and Miss Adam we just really believe that it's kind of it's it's not exactly under goal one but the topics in here align under goal one the board goal that you guys passed in the spring so we just want to be proactive and give you a good update believe we last spoke about any kind of Assessments and information was at the October meeting and so uh Mr Casey is going to share with you and Miss Dr shabot and myself we might jump in here and there but he's primarily going to share with you what he shared with the staff last Wednesday he gave a very thorough very detailed uh and informative professional development so uh Mr Casey take a Mr Hopkins
009honorable members of the board um this is the schedule that I presented to the staff and I'll be sending email I plan to send email to all parents and students with all the details um of the part that is affecting each grade level students so as far as the State Testing is concerned students in grades 3 to8 take the AAA which has the writing um Ela reading session one reading session two math one and math two so we administer those on separate days one session per day so it takes 5 days for for students in grade 3 to 8 to complete their stage assessment their writing test is on April 3r and that's a Wednesday early release dat but because of the test window that is available from the state we found it is best
010to place it on April 3rd it is an untimed test but typically students take 60 to 90 minutes to finish one essay question this is significant because if they don't take and get a valid score on the writing test the entire Ela component they will not get a score so if they don't get a valid score on the writing or reading session one or reading session two they won't get a valid test score for the entire Ela component and their score won't be included in the entire scho grade purpose they'll be considered as not tested so we have to plan the testing in such a way that we have enough time for teachers if possible I want to put it on the towards the last part of the testing window but at the same time
011I also have to make sure that we have provide enough time to do the makeup sessions and making sure that we test all the students if we don't test 95% of the students um then that limits the possibility of us getting a gr and any student who is not tested up to the 95% is considered as like even if they did not take the test they will be considered as fail even if they don't get a valid score they will be counted against us as fail only 5, of the total population is exent in case and we have done a good job in the past um testing most of our students and we have met that requirement for GR high school students are tested like a in ninth grade on ACT Aspire and we have
012placed it towards the last on April 22nd and 23rd so they'll be taking um tested on subjects English math reading science and there is a essay writing component for that this is about like a the entire ACD Aspire test about five hours and we are allowed to do it over multiple days so we have split it on two days so they get to finish like a about two hours on one day and about like a two and a half to three hours on the second day now on for the juniors they take the ACT and we don't have the flexibility to administer it over multiple days students need to finish it in one setting even the breaks are timed if they say you have 15 minutes of break we can only give 15 minutes of
013break and the entire testing if you don't start it right on time it goes even when we started on time it takes through the lunch break and they get a delayed lunch break on ACG test so we have the ACT test um even the date is fixed we have to start administ the first day of test on Tuesday April 9th we are allowed to do makeup sessions but a teacher has to stay with that student or those students who need the makeup for the five hours and those students need to stay in testing for five hours continuous almost five hours of testing and so the same process so we will try to get all the students will give advanced notice so that parents are aware families are aware and students are prepared so we can
014test almost all the students on that day itself but if they cannot make it then we are allowed to administer makeup sessions um later on but it takes five hours of time from one teach of dedicated time and location for acers and that's the state requirement that the five hours all in one day yes that just seems like a horrible way to get a good evaluation of somebody because they're going to be burnt out after three hours hours and not doing their best anymore I realize we can't do anything to change that but just's a break after the first two sessions um I think it is like a 15 minute break or something whatever it is like it is a set time even for the break that is how the total initially they start with
015a lot of filling out their information personal information and all those things um we may be able to schedule that on a different day for that part okay that way on the T day they can and start right away with the testing then after that once they start with the testing they have to keep on track and like a finish and imagine those students with the accommodation of extended time they may be allowed to take extended breaks too but at the same time they have to do the in testing on the same day for a certain set of students who get extended they get one and a half time but they have to finish the testing on one day which means going to somewhere above six hours of testing on the same day so that
016is another reason why we schedule whenever possible in most cases we schedule one session at a time and one exception to that exception to that is the science Testing um that is the very first test students in grade 5 8 and 11 they take the science test on April 2nd there are three units this year like there are three units before it was like two units and it says they take about 60 to 90 minutes per session and there is break between sessions and they can have lunch between sessions um so this is more flexible as far as the brakes are concerned yes where we want to finish that sence just on one day that way it is out of the way so that's how we have scheduled we plan to communicate that with the
017families and our teachers are preparing students they're aware of all the sample test and resources available students will be um taking more writing practices or other sample test items home or even they'll be working on that at home I mean in class does 10th grade not test no okay students in N High School n9th grade and 11th grade n9th grade take ACT Aspire Juniors take Act and the Juniors also get to take the AC SC the science okay any other questions or is the writing part for the R 3 to8 is computer or is it on the paper everything is computer based all these tests are computer based and the writing test there is only one question and it is on the computer they have to type it on the computer and that was another
018part I emphasized to especially to third grade teachers even if students are familiar with writing they had to be familiar with the typing on the computer and how to capitalize and how to do punctuation on a Compu yeah so third grader has to be literate in on the keyboard now yes that's [Music] I'm so it's not just the test itself load up familiar once a week's not GNA C it you know once a nine weeks I they're so they're not just playing around and wasting the test it's it's added a whole new piece to it as you can see from from the times on on testing it it a lot of them match times that were from the 90s when we had ases testing before internet or when internet was introduced to student before cell
019phones before all these things that they don't believe to rewired people's brains they're kind of crazy yet they've stayed with many of the same time that's G to be something interesting someday when they realize that people are thinking different our CH our kids are thinking different and and that sitting for five hours does not make sense to get the best to to figure out I don't even recommend that to my adult students in GED I thought I'm going take two tests at most in a day put time at the keyboard and that same thing happened in 2014 when they computerized the GED test all of a sudden keyboarding because it's a timed thing and you're not going to get through it if you're hunting and pecking for the keys so I had many students who
020if you gave them a pen and paper were capable right then of writing you a perfect essay but if it came to A time test having to type it in all of a sudden they weren't ready yeah got challenging breakout some Mavis Beacon design professional development Wednesdays not only with our plcs or professional learning communities but but now again to help teachers and be able to help the students wear the computer know the computer as well as possible and covering the standards it's going to be tested you know so it's um quite a challenge I should sometimes get essays turned in with text abbreviations in them like B and the number four instead of writing up it's like yeah no that's not gonna work good so any other questions or discussion thank you sir wake
021my computer up Mercy find my I'm just here to support oh how it's run is just like the the usual act that high schoolers have been doing time this is a one day deal yeah a one day deal oh yeah is that the one that they still have to have their ID for yes and seniors can R take acts it's just that they can do it during this time is free yeah have to set up on their own they have a that's what I figured it was similar to like the SATs that I took in college where you took it once and if you wanted to you could go take it again and see if you did any better so oh and I'll make a note that Eric's phone cut out at 649 okay if
022there's no more on that this assessments have we started the middle of the Year Dibbles assessments they have started yes okay so we'll get data when they're all sounds good first March and [Music] benchmarks yeah okay okay next item on the agenda is possible new items for next meeting's agenda so just so you know I sent email out but added a day higher to tomorrow's meeting so I just want to let you know it was posted before we started this meeting but I want that's be different okay okay lacking any new future agenda items I'll ask for motion to adjourn make motion I'll second the motion hi Mr Hopkins hi rgz hi meting at 6:50 City I bought my my two oldest grandchildren laptops h