0016:00 order school district 2025 board meeting attendance Ross on speaker Ross Mrs. Ross, are you present? >> All board members are in attendance. Please rise for the pledge of allegiance and remain standing for a moment of silence to the flag of the United States of America and to the for it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> Please be seated. Item 13 agenda. Mrs. Ross. >> Yes. to make a motion to approve session treat minutes, June 24th special meeting minutes and July 8th, 2025 work session and special meeting minutes as presented. >> We have a motion with somebody like second. Second, >> Miss Williamson seconds. Mrs. Ross. >> Mrs. Williamson. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Williamson. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Garcia. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Lane. >> Yes. >> And
002I Yes. That motion passes 5 to zero. On to information only items 2.1. Governing board members report. >> Mr. Ross, do you have anything you like? >> Mrs. Ross, do you have anything you'd like to report? >> No. >> Mrs. Williamson, do you have anything you'd like to report? >> I did attend the open house for the classical academy, >> right? >> Since then, that was pretty cool. So, other than that, >> Mrs. Garcia, >> I also attended the open house for the classical academy. Um, but I've been working um with the local organizations in the community to start trying to help the youth with the 5013C's um in regards to uh helping them offset some of the fees and equipment and uniforms and things. So, I have a list that I've been creating. Um
003so, once we have our work session and talk about some of those things, we'll be able to help some of the organizations And that's it. >> Mrs. Lane, anything you like to report? >> I toured the academy yesterday and it was I'm very impressed with what the principal has done with very few resources that he has. It looked looked really good. >> Yes. And I attended the the opening of the academy which I'm excited for and I just want to welcome everyone back. I can't believe this school year started already. It has gone fast. Um, Miss Bara is going to be speaking on behalf of Dr. Papalardo today for the superintendent report. >> Good evening. >> Absolutely. Good evening, governing board members, community, parents, um, and staff. So, thank you so much for coming tonight.
004I'm just welcoming everyone back for the 256 school year. We're excited you're here. Dr. Papalardo is unfortunately not able to attend tonight due to an event meeting that's taking place with superintendents around uh the East Valley um along with our CTE director. So he apologizes for not being here but it was a last minute meeting that came up that he needed to attend. So thank you again for coming. >> Thank you Miss Vera. >> Okay item three public comments. I'm going to make a quick announcement. Speakers are asked to limit their comments to three minutes so that everyone who wishes to speak will have the opportunity per ARS38-43102H prohibits the governing board from discussing items which are not on the agenda. If the item you are addressing is not on the agenda, please do not
005expect the board to answer questions or discuss the issue with you. Thank you. We will begin with >> Right. Come on up. Good evening. My name is Jill. >> Good evening. My name is Jill Bright and my husband and I are both AJUSD alumni as well as my in-laws. My son is a freshman and has been in the district since kindergarten. I'm here tonight to express my concern regarding the current state of the sports program and how it is negatively impacting our high school, its students and families. Since my son has been in kindergarten, my family has been highly involved in little league parks sports black and gold. >> Thank you. black and gold football and minors basketball. I was on both the Little League and Black and Gold football boards. Little League is fortunate
006enough to have their fields rented and maintained by the city, but minors basketball and black and gold football are at the mercy of the school district. >> How can a city only charge $18 to chalk a football field, but you want to charge between $600 and $2,000 to do the same thing? The recent fees you have implemented for nonprofit club teams >> make it nearly financially impossible. make it nearly financially impossible for these organizations who operate strictly off of donations to rent your facilities and run their programs. I understanding you are charging these high rental fees because not 100% of their participants go to AJUSD, but 90% of the kids do. >> And more than anything, these are feeder teams to Cactus Canyon and AJ High. What a better way to highlight Apache Junction to
007surrounding families than to let these teams be able to afford to host games and tournaments here. I can't tell you how many times we hosted black and golf football games at Davis Field and received compliments from the opposing team >> fans on what a fun experience we made the game and what a great view we have. That is the attention we want on Apache Junction. >> You recently let go of the varsity baseball coach who has lived and breathed >> baseball in Apache Junction for over 14 years and even just led the team to the playoffs for the first time in a decade. You also decided to pass on hiring coach Connley as the varsity basketball coach who lives at Apache Junction and has successfully ran the junior high, high school summer league, and local
008miners club team for the last three years for a coach who just moved here from Florida, lives in Scottsdale, and then quit within a month. So now, two sports who are excelling and improving each year are now left with no coaches. Whoever is making the these decisions has clearly never taken the time to attend games, meet the kids and their families, and see the relationships, improvements, and successes that have been made over the last few years. >> in a city that is growing significantly, why is the enrollment continuing to decline each year here? The number of kids that I know personally who have left the district this year is substantial. I even consider transferring my son this year. We are quickly on our way to become a 2A district. what you are doing is not
009working. So I plead with you today to reflect and to start working better with the community, not against them, and to please make decisions based solely on what is best for the kids. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> All right, Donna Carr. Welcome. >> Hi, my name is Donna Carr and I'm an Apache Junction resident. Been here for years. My kids grew up here. My went to school here and now it's time that my grandkids are starting school here. And according to the information that I've looked up as far as uh artificial intelligence goes, it states that um by law if you offer kindergarten classes in your school that you should not only just offer full day kindergarten, you should al also be offering half day kindergarten. There's a lot of kids that um did
010not go to preschool >> and throwing them into what seems like a full-time job um is a little ridiculous on a four and 5year-old child. >> So I think you need to look into it and do something about giving these kids a chance and not just throwing them in there for a whole day. You need to have the half date offered to the other to parents. I know a lot of parents maybe they're working and they don't have the time to pick up their kids in the afternoon or they don't want to have to pay for that babysitter, but you you uh you should offer it both full-time and half day classes for kindergarten kids. Thank you. Natalie, welcome. >> Welcome. >> I We can't mute her. She needs to mute herself. >> Can you
011ask her to mute it because it's using up their time when they're trying to talk? >> My name is Natalie Cis. I'm an HS alumni as well as a previous employee of the district. I coached high school cheer for four years starting back in 2009 as well as worked in the office at the high school. So I really do try to look at things from more than a parent's perspective. And from what I see, we are not doing everything we can to put the kids first. I came here today to join the other parents who desperately want to help our kids and give them the opportunity to have the best experience in school and sports. I know this problem affects kids across the district in academic, sports, clubs, etc. But I'm here today because I
012know firsthand how it is affecting my son, who is now in ninth grade, and loves the game of basketball. He has been playing with the AJ Miners Club team since the day it started about three years ago. He has worked so hard to train and improve his skills all this time, knowing it will help him when he gets to high school. The coaches gave up their time year round to help these kids get better and better and more competitive to be up to the levels of the high schools they will go up against. These coaches, including Coach Connelly, who has passed up for the coaching position at AJ, have worked endlessly to keep this program running, fundraising, donating, and even picking up our kids to make sure they can be at every single game, even
013if we couldn't get them there. Now, you can only imagine how my son and so many of these other kids are feeling knowing they have done all of this work to not even have a basketball coach or a program to be able to play in at this time. I recently attended freshman orientation and while there I heard our new athletic director say something that really stood out that students who participate in athletics often become better students academically. Does it concern you that half of the campus is closed because enrollment has declined? Have you stopped to think about why enrollment has declined this much? Could it be that your sole focus is to become an A-rated school rather than having well-rounded students not only in high school but in college trades and in their adult life
014in general? What's heartbreaking is watching the district I grew up in, a place I was once proud to be a part of, become a disappointment in how it supports the full development of our students. Academics are critical, yes, but so are athletics, so are the arts, so are clubs, teams, and every opportunity where students can find community, confidence, and a sense of purpose. I am asking you to please put the kids first. And remember that our students are whole people. Their growth doesn't begin and end in a classroom. When we invest in well-rounded experiences, we don't just create better students, we help raise better people. Thank you. >> Jackson. >> Hi, my name is Jackson Sales and I've been lucky enough to have Coach Connley as my mentor for the past three years. He's been
015a great coach for me and I can't thank him enough for helping me improve my skills so much. Without him, I sure I'd have given up on basketball by now. >> Coach Connley has had a huge impact on not just me, but also on all the other players he coaches. It's clear that without him, AJ basketball wouldn't be where it is today. He's not just a coach to us. He's like family. I truly believe that Coach Connley would be the perfect fit for this school. He's an amazing coach and he already has a great connection with the players. I think he'd be a great asset to the team and the school as a whole. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Hayden Martinez. >> I'm Hayden Martinez. I'm a freshman here at AJHS. Coach Connley has
016been a great coach and mentor for me for the last three years. This summer, I wasn't sure if I would be able to play. Coach Connley knew what was going on and told me not to worry that that he would pay for me to play to pick me up and drop me off for the games and practices >> if needed. He cares for he cares about basketball program and the kids in it. Please reconsider him as the as the varsity coach. >> Thank you Martinez. >> Christine Martinez. Hi, my name is Christy Martinez. I am an AJUSD alumni. My dad was actually a member of the board back when I was in school. I have two kids in the district that have attended AJUSD school since kindergarten. The current state of our district is terrifying
017and something needs to be done. My daughter, who attends CCJH, has no science teacher, hasn't had one since they started. My son, who is a freshman at the high school, has been working his butt off these last three years to prepare for high school basketball, which currently doesn't exist. The district has let go of quality, dedicated coaches who are AJ residents that have been working with our kids for years. The season starts in November, and the school didn't care that we didn't have a varsity coach to run summer ball. The kids can just miss out, right? Luckily, Coach Connelly stepped up unpaid and had these upcoming freshman playing. Now that there's no coach, they have been removed from having basketball conditioning class their last hour and may be forced to go to another school because
018how can you play for a school with no program? You guys previously heard from coach Connelly, a coach who has put a lot of time and dedication into the Apache Junctions basketball community. Not only did he coach at both the junior high and high school level, but he runs the miners program, which is a feeder team to prepare our youth for high school ball. This is one of the coaches you also passed up on, who has been extremely dedicated to improving our program, and is also a resident that cares about his town. for a coach that lives in Scottsdale who quit before even meeting our boys. Now, three years into this program, we are being told we have to pay thousands of dollars to use our gym, the same gym that the majority of these
019boys would be practicing in today if we had hired Connelly. But here we are, more time being missed that our boys could be in the gym because of decisions that were made. This program has raised money and donated brand new uniforms to both the junior high and high school, as well as purchased the shooting machine the high school has. That is all because of Coach Connelly. Now, you want us to pay thousands of dollars to use the gym, which means in order to do that, this nonprofit organization will have to increase pricing. And who does that hurt? Our kids because where else would this money come from? Since it is a year-round program, we can only do so many fundraisers. And those fundraisers are already used to help kids that can't pay to play. I
020also need to mention how awful the process has been to schedule gym time. Due to the recent changes, I stepped in to help and work all summer with staff to schedule gym time for both our upcoming freshmen at the time as well as our minor's voice. Figuring out that policy was awful. Then once we finally had it figured out, I received cancellations for no reason. There were a few days we had scheduled where no one showed up to open the door and the boys had to stand out in the heat until I was able to track someone down. That is unacceptable and is cutting into their practice times. >> I cannot even begin to tell you how many emails had to be sent to get gym time as we wanted to make sure we were
021following the correct process. However, it is extremely hard to follow a process that even the staff does not understand. I also have to ask how you can change a policy like this and not inform the two major feeder programs you have using these facilities. We found out we had to pay in the middle of our season. So, what choice did that give us? Cancel the season mid-season or agree to pay this insane amount. AJUSD preaches kids first, but I have seen firsthand how many opportunities our kids have missed out on because of decisions made by the district. I stand here to ask you to please put our kids first. Please make sure every class has a teacher. Please make sure we are picking quality coaches and not passing on coaches that have put their blood,
022sweat, and tears into this community. Please do better. >> Thank you, >> Caleb Defo. >> My name is Caleb Defo and I am a freshman at AJ Austin. Coach Connley made sure to pick me up. and dropped me off for summer ball every game just so I was able to go. He has made a great impact in my love for basketball and I'm asking you to please reconsider him for the position. >> Thank you. >> Ashley Defo >> Good evening. My name is Ashley Defoe. I have three sons attending Apache Junction schools. I'm attending the meeting today as a voice for my boys who have played sports their whole lives and are now watching as those programs they plan are getting pushed to the side and destroyed. Minors basketball has been an amazing program for
023our kids and coach Connley has had my older son with him for years now. It was very heartbreaking to hear about how he was dismissed from the position during practice for our children to see. >> He has successfully ran multiple basketball programs the last few years and has helped grow the minors into what it has become now. A handful of the kids that will be playing basketball for the high school have been coached by him for a while now. Giving that position as someone they don't know was very disappointing just for the new coach to turn around and quit. My younger boys are in the black and gold football currently and the board has been given outrageous prices and requirements for using the fields. The funds we have for the league have to be raised
024by the parents of the organizations. Um where are these kids supposed to play? We're supposed to be an AJ team but are getting pushed back for wanting to use AJ facilities. These programs are feeder teams for Cactus Canyon and AJ High. And with all of the negative changes that have been continuously made, a handful of the kids, including mine, are considering changing districts altogether. The decisions of the changes that are being made are not leading to improvements. They are heading for failure. The decisions being made are not in the best interest of our children, and I'm asking you to take a moment to consider them before making these changes. Thank you. >> Thank you, Chris Martinez. Good afternoon. My name is Chris Martinez. Chris Martinez. Both of my children have attended school since they were
025school since my son is now freshman. My son is now a freshman of students. As a parent of always pride always pride but I'm coming for tonight I'm coming for tonight concerns I have kids of the program although I'm hopeful Mr. will bring positive changes. I feel this problem is much like they have not only their but many kids. My participated program. The intent was the basketball program and success would feed John program likely to We don't partame this problem. about kids program. It is a shame program. I ask that this board. Thank you. Todd Furnish. here tonight of our kids growach years. started understand why he was passed up. Not understand why he was passed up. Coach Anthonyach. >> Thank you. >> Stephanie Farles. >> Hopefully I said it right. Hi, I'm sorry is
026also are chalk the field. It's $300. That's okay. Roberto. >> Thank you. Roberto Revelis Canyon. >> Roberto Revelis, president of the Gold Canyon. >> A community supporter of this school board. >> And it's obvious that public education is facing a crisis. >> Not just the school board, but virtually all of the public schools in the country. Arizona lost $124 million in funding. You are facing a hell of a challenge. But I'm encouraged by the parents, the students who are the best advocates in the community. Thank you young people for speaking out for yourselves. >> And thanks to the parents who have encouraged you to step forward because I don't have children in the school district, but I did have them before not in this school district. We all have an obligation to collaborate with board
027members who volunteer their services and they are facing a horrific challenge. But I encourage you from my 24 years working in the Congress, I know that the members of Congress who voted to reduce public education funding will respond. They will respond. And I urge the board members, the faculty, the parents, the students to contact your member of Congress who voted to reduce funding that's put all of our community in this predicament. But thank you board members for being there trying to make the best of a horrible situation. >> Thank you. All right, moving on. Anybody need a break? Are you guys good? >> Okay, we'll take a five minute break. Just let y'all know. Item 4.1 leaders institute report. Angie Thompson, come on up. Evening community members. My name is Amy Thompson. I'm going to
028talk about what I thought was a very exciting event that occurred this summer initially means response to the intervention And it's just basically an instructional framework and it uses a multi-ter approach to identify basically using data to identify the way we're struggling and to provide support at different levels and I'm just speaking about the um academically behavioral interventions and so forth. So we're speaks which stands for multi-gener systems. A lot of times they use these terms interchangeably but they are there is a distinct difference. RTI fits under MTSS MTSS brings in a lot of other factors behavior factors. So if kids are struggling they look at behavior things they look at attendance social emotional factors and academics to see why they're struggling. So I'm just going to speak about the academic piece of RTI. So
029the instructional frame of RTI emphasis on again inter So using data writing ways to target the areas of where the students are struggling and to provide targeted instruction and interventions and then also monitoring the students progress and making sure that the interventions we're providing are working and adjusting the instruction again accumulating more data making sure that the instruction that we're providing and the interventions are working and if they are not then adjusting instruction accordingly. So that's a little information in the background about what RGI is and then I said it's a multi-tier approach. So this is a little visual if you can picture what the tiers are and there are three tiers. The first one is called tier one. They're core instruction and that is universal instruction. Every child gets core instruction. Tier two means
030that and most kiddos are successful at tier one instruction. Some kids will need additional intervention. That's called tier two. That happens in core instruction and usually small groups again target instruction and intervention. And then tier three is a little bit more intensive. And that doesn't mean that some kids go to tier one, some go to tier two, some tier three. It starts in tier one. All students get tier one. Some students will are not quite successful in tier one. So they need additional support. So they get tier two additional support. They're not successful. they get more intensive support. And last year we focused on excuse me mostly this tier one and tier two and there's a lot of components going on within this tier one and tier two. you know, there's the curriculum, there's the
031assessments, there's the small groups, there's, you know, what kind of instruction were that really took a look at this last year. And so what we did there last year as we started, the first thing we did, we started this before school and then throughout the summer, we created what we call guaranteed viable curriculum. And that simply means guarantee means that no matter what teacher a student gets whether it's fourth grader they're learning the same content and skills making sure that every student is getting the essential learning that we have identified in our district as essential to the grade to be successful in that grade to be successful in life. So that's what's called guarantee. So it doesn't sixth grade teach and your friend has a different sixth grade teacher, you're still guaranteed to get the
032same content. You're going to learn the same essential standards. That's what we worked on a lot and then just simply means that it can be effectively learned within the time frame that we have. There are many many standards. We can't just not every student master every single standard. That's why we identify essential standards and we laid them out in a way that they can be master that we have. That's what known as a guaranteed viable curriculum. So that's what we worked really hard on last year to get that together. This is how we did it. First of all, we identified essential statements in yellow and And then we created and following and that's where the viable part comes from. It's not just about flying through everything. We want to make sure that mastering those standards
033that we have deemed as essential. And then we aligned our assessments for ping. We tightened up our PLC's to make sure we were focusing on student achievement a lot of data and you're going to hear a lot hear that word data a lot we have a lot of data and maybe I don't think we're using it in the right ways but this was a learning what we have how we're using it and how we can do better with it again we use a variety of data to inform our instruction individually as teachers as grade levels district and at the K5 this is where we sort of get into tier two we have all this data now we see some weak areas so we start working with K5 teachers implementing small groups so we have the
034data we see where kids are struggling now what do we do we put them in small groups we target the interventions the kids need to work here on this and helping those teachers to not only target the intervention but progress monitor instruction We need to tighten up on that a little bit. We just got started on that. It's a little bit learning, you know, organizing groups and what the other kids do and things like that. We're getting much better at now moving up and stepping. So that's a little bit of how we started this. So we're in RT process for sure. When I say a variety of data sources, we have quick checks from we have we have the benchmark assessments. We also have we have what's called universal screen universal screener simply means it's
035universal everybody gets it and gave it last year to pay beginning year and now it's four and five middle year it's given three times a year beginning year middle end you get to see student and the screen simply screener starting this kid's on target, not on target, where do we need to go from there? And then dig a little deeper and give diagnostics to see exactly where we target structure. So this fast screener, we're now moving up to um we're including math this year. So K reading and math. also very exciting moving up to the junior high for their reading lab. So, and they will have incoming data. They have incoming data this year from the from the fifth grade last year. It was already sent out to the junior high for them to start.
036So, this is all a lot of exciting things. So what we did learn from last year throughout my campus and the talks and sitting with the PLC is that RTI was happening that wasn't happening. Um this is the so I like to say everybody was in the right church in the wrong they were doing it wrong but doing it differently. So again we wanted to be consistent. We want things to be consistent. So um that a strong core you know is really really sets the good foundation. So that is where but these are some of the things that that I noticed since some conversations as you know where where and when does two intervention take place some were going to a different room for some staying in the pool. What's what's right? What is wrong?
037Um who's responsible for tune inction? What is instructional focus? Is it skills or is it standards? How much time should be allowed? These are all questions, really great questions, but they may different school progress monitoring. How's progress monitoring done? What tools do we use? How frequent do we do it? And in tier three, how many number of students think it's only one student, it's individual, some small groups. How freent do we do it? How long do we do it? said these are great questions came up. So that was where the leaders institute the school. So the decision was that after school was out um the principles principles interventionist special coordinator Dr. um we all got together for the elementary schools uh about five days the secondary schools about two days only because they Aperture and
038the focus was our goal was to collect create an instructional framework and follow agree upon what does RTI look like in aging and we use this book um called taking action as a reference and so we sort of worked through this different pieces of it we also brought in some things about leadership and things like that to me it was very exciting I know that for myself I had shared a lot of data with Seymour. She was in high school last year but I had never laid eyes on her. So it was great for me to see other people that I had worked with before and it was just great to be together and to discuss things and talk about things and it was great to see what they knew and what they thought was
039you know should be and shouldn't be. So it was a great learning experience for all of us. So anyhow, so moving on. So days one and two since everybody was together um secondary and elementary, we created a districtwide understanding of our instructional RTI instructional plan. And then days three through five um again the elementary stay um then they holding in other words implement what you want. And then since that time I've been able to be just there with the junior high in high school. So again um our little um visual framework here and if the core is strong and again that should work for the majority of the students. instruction to work for the majority students. Then again, some students need additional intervention that some students need additional. And so we agree as a district
040that all students master grade level essential stands to high quality core instruction. High quality core instruction for all students and then targeted small group interventions and four students need additional with a focus on those and then more individualized interventions both foundational universal skills for those students and those are typically two years. So that was the consensus we came to this is what we're striving for on our model. So again think about that tier one that big strong tier one if it's strong the majority of students are successful and don't need typically if your core is strong about 80% of students are successful but about 15% a little bit more intervention happens and then about 5% need moreensive foundational typically within. So the nice thing about that bridge universal screening that's done three times a year
041is it not only gives us individual student data usable data about the reading for where our students are. Again, we want them at 80%. We want 80% of our students at every grade level on top. And our current reality is that in kindergarten we have 50%. First grade we have 45% of our kids and second grade 36, third grade 38, fourth grade 32. So that stood out to us and again this is good good again we had this value just didn't the right way now we have it and now we're going to do something so in those implementation days they came by work together again and just some of the things that came up I think you're probably going to hear some pretty It was very exciting. I sat back and just enjoyed some of
042the conversations that um they used to identify more support each site and they modify their schedules on personal so they have more support that they can have some general class a little bit further behind. One campus is special teachers in class to assist small groups so that they can be working with the higher kids while the teachers working with other kids invention. Um we also revised our assessment calendar. We used to do the street bridge first couple weeks of school and we changed it for a couple reasons. is that we now have data actually a whole year so they know their kids are right now so they don't need the screen in August 25th also um it gives the teacher time to make connections and give expectations work on behavior and things like that I'm
043not pulling the kids off. She gives some time to relax a little bit because tomorrow you know these little kids need her teachers and things like that before and also last year they open kindergarten show up. So during this time they did all kindergarten with all kindergarters with just that little screen and are creating their screen so that they lo and then this year you will see much more focus on achieving you'll see data walls um that they're using when they you'll see students data folders learning goals and tracking their own data and then we have evidence of student work on the campuses um at the district for instructional planning because across their grade levels and then the basis on the essential standards and expectations quickened and this isn't in your promise after this is
044a fourth grade class and you notice they put tables in which is really cool. So they work in groups now all the time and they group and the kiddos know which group they go in groups and they know which group they go in and they um tag on and they take up with them. Really cool. This is another classroom. You see those are studentfriendly learning targets. There's a what, why, and how to do it posted on the board. So, I thought that was really cool. And um so we're on our way. We're using data much more effectively and efficiently. We're learning every single day. We learned a lot last year. made a lot of adjustments and kudos to the principal sitting behind me. They're executing the plan and the teachers are working hard. So, I'm
045very very proud of them. Um I thoroughly enjoyed the institute. I hope they didn't I did and um at the canyon with them they already createds which is that big umbrella. They already designed their team and team members and they scheduled their meetings for the year with their staff before the came in. They discussed the components of high quality core instruction and they sort of took like a self survey of where they are and what steps they need to take where they need to be to improve core instruction and they also have professional development on how to manage small group instruction at the junior high level and then the general ed teachers I was talking about fast they don't have fast groups there we only have the reading lab they already called the threeinut comprehension
046check and they're use that and if they need additional information they're actually going to get CMY accuracy and therefore they need so they are asking for more information instruction and then they already progress and then also just high school that as well And I also wanted to just do a little quick thank you. This book that I referenced was donated by um some of our folks in community books and there was a bunch of alumni and I don't know who they were because I did wish I couldn't know my neighbors. So I just want to give a shout out. So that is it. I just want to update you on what I think is very exciting and this week. >> No questions. Oh, sorry. >> Emergency room. Dr. Thompson made great progress with you where
047we were last year where we are today. That's a big step right progress. It's going to take a while to get there. talked about that big for us to chew because the focus wasn't core one before everyone on the same page understand what you do in core one >> governor board Dr. Papalardo and staff and community members uh my name is Angie Thompson I'm going to talk about what I thought was a very exciting event that >> so this test that you give these students is another benchmarks on top of the state. >> Yes. In grades through one is oneonone and the difference is everything like the benchmarks and things like that are all standards based. These are skill based. So we need to see this is what you need to be learn of those
048balance beast like we to see what we have, what we need to do, what direction took a lot of data, you know, analyzed it and said what is we don't want to test the test to drive instruction. [Music] members of district. So, we started last year with what we call wildly important or wigs. And so, um, every year we're creating a wig and most of our going to be focusing on what Dr. Thompson just talked about, which is that tier one instruction. All right. So, the I created for this year is by May 26, we will increase the percentage of K5 students demonstrating proficiency on our grade level ELA. as measured by the quick checks in grades and our benchmarks in three by 10% through consistent implementation of that tier one instruction that talked about.
049So I'm not going to go a lot into that including that small group instruction because that's where that learning is going to happen and we're going to use three different things to help us with that. Those are called measures things that we're going to be tracking our data. So we're going to make sure that we're hitting that small group instruction. So that's at least three times a week. Um, and we're going to use that data that we collected last year, including the data that we're going to continue to collect this year. We'll be looking our evidence by looking at the lesson plans that teachers submit every week and those small plan templates and we'll be keeping track and making sure that everybody's turning that in and providing feedback to make sure that everything is where
050it needs to be. The second part that we're going to do is obviously the weekly PLC's that we started this week. Um, we're going to analyze the student work. We'll be working with our reading interventionist, our math interventionist, and have a foundational literacy coach on the campus, Miss King. We're going to be working really diligently to make sure everybody understands what a small group should look like, how we work with that, what the other students are doing when they're teachers working with their And then we'll have signin sheets and we'll have our planning forms that will our data for that. And then we've created an instructional walk through form. There's certain things that we're going to be looking for as we walk through the classrooms looking at that tier one instruction. So we're going to
051be looking for you know do they have the small group instruction? Are their learning targets that what, why, and how are those posted? Um are they doing their checks for understanding? That's just a quick question. Hey, thumbs up, thumbs down. How are you doing with that? It could be an exit ticket, things like that. And um we'll be doing, you know, are they having that academic discourse? Are they talking to each other? Because the learning needs to occur from the students. The students should come home. We need to switch that up. We'll have a room for that. Um it's all going to be electronic. We're going to work through that and see, you know, who's it needs that attention. Who do we need to work with to get them up to where they need to
052be as teachers so that way the kids? [Music] >> No, thanks. small groups. There's usually just going to be a teacher, but um I had some holes in my special and so I wanted to be able to fill those holes and if I have somebody else on campus that is available, my goals push that during those interch colors there's always trying to make sure >> and that's why differentiation is so important and you have [Music] the students that are a little bit they're kind of that beyond level. A lot of times they can be a little bit more independent. So you want to have them working on maybe they're doing a book study or something like that and giving them some guidance kind of the beginning of the week. Maybe you know they're not going
053to need as much support the ones that that are kind of below level that need that more one-on-one support to kind of bring them up. They just don't have the confidence in themselves like they don't think they can do it. And that's why we have to make sure that we're giving them work at their level. That's why preassessments are good to do so we know what that particular student needs to have. because I have the future in your opinion by 10% through consistent implementation of that tier one instruction that Dr. Thompson talked about. So, I'm not going to go a lot into that included [Music] in the middle of this. Let's finish this discussion. We're going to have to have a different focus every week. It's like, okay, where are we at with this week?
054And that might last a couple of weeks. for I actually have four school goals and what I'm going to share with you today is our math goal and I have turned it through one of my wigs. So in line it states that 100% of teachers at PE will hold to analy data towards meeting the school math goal. Um this will be measured by weekly skills assessments. Data will be recorded for each individual student in their target intervention. So how are we measuring this? We are following the same as what was just presented from Kelly Desert Vista. So here's just an example of how uh we broke it down by grade level. So at the end of last year, we met um as PLC teams and met with the grade level teams and we identified areas
055and skills that our students were not at part of it. So for example, kindergarten recognized that our students were still struggling with writing and numerals one through 90 with 90% accuracy. So what they are going to do is work during the intervention look where they're working and focusing on skills that they're missing. So each grade level has skills and we also use the data to assess where they're at with just presented to you to see where the areas that our students are struggling. So in the PLC's we are looking at the data we look at it bi-weekly to see where they're at. So for example, kinder, we just finished up looking at the screener to see where their baseline is and where they need to go from there. So we do walk to read and
056walk to math and our teachers work together and they form the groups based on that. And to answer one of the questions about what do you do with the kids that are already met? So one of the groups is an accelerated group. So we need to push our kids. They already met the standard. They're already there. So what can we do to give them they need to prepare them for the next grade level or to extend their learning. So, we have those groups. I also have my specialist teachers. They do push in and it's built into the master schedule. So, they have each grade level has intervention, two of them per grade level that's built into the time so that they're able to do the math and reading at different times and they work together.
057I also have my special ed teachers that also help with the small group. So they will go in there and they work collaboratively with the genet teachers on what groups they're going to be focusing on and that scale for that week. >> All right. So, for four peaks, I actually have four school goals. And what I'm going to share with you today is um our math goal that I have turned into one of my um our wigs. So, in mine, it would states that 100% of teachers at four peaks will hold weekly PLC meetings to analyze student data towards meeting the school math goal. Um this will be measured by weekly skills assessment. Data will be recorded for each individual student in their targeted intervention. So how are we measuring this? Uh we are following
058the same presented from Kelly at Desert Vista. >> So here's just an example of how uh we broke it down by grade level. So at the end of last year, we met um as PLC teams and met with the grade level teams and we identified areas in skills that our students were not good evening madam president members of the board members. Um so this evening I'm presenting our trail goal statement and by May 2026 trail of will increase the percentage of K5 students exceeding grade level benchmarks in ELA and math by at least 10% and this is going to be based on the grow from the cost assessment. This improvement will be achieved by strengthening tier one instruction through evidence based teaching practices consistent instructional and real time data interventions. So each week meet in
059our last year to answer your question here. We definitely contributed to the growth of our students because it gave us that focus time to meet our instructional leadership team with our grade level teachers to be able to really drill down what does that standard what do we need to do on a daily basis to break it down. How are we going to assess to know if our students are understanding together to really using our teaching edge gradually instruction practice making sure that for our instruction and how to form those groups also look for students in this young and also my instructional myself and Martinez, but Mrs. and I came up with a way that we want to make sure that we're very purposeful as we walk through the classrooms on a daily basis and how
060do we get together and how do we sound up one another as far as what we're seeing and I'm seeing the evidence of the professional development of the strategies of our PLC groups being implemented in our class and that will give us this teaching coaching um with our teachers and to be able to identify which teachers has become a natural practice in our classroom and which students need to help support also our grade level teams will as I shared what we do is we analyze the student data we collaborate to plan instruction what are action steps that are place. For instance, last week and yesterday we started this week. Um, and we talked about what is that essential? What is it going to look like? Um, our teachers were able to share ideas, but really
061break it down and how many days is it going to take to teach this part of that standard? How many days is it going to take to teach the supportive standards? We have the essential and supportive standards that we need to make sure that our students are getting in order to show that to that student achievement. And so we take weekly things and we break it down. What's that going to look like over the next two weeks? And then we bring it back. We finetune it. And what we're finding already this school year in is that our teachers are feeling more confident with that implementation of that tier one. They have more ideas and really talking it through and coming up with that assessment to make sure that the students are ready with their instruction.
062Um and our third measure will be that all students will receive home check assessments and or benchmark at least every check for those skills as well as for the standards and the concepts are able to be able to analyze that together as a team in order to use the results to to adjust our instruction We need to make sure that it's >> and by May 2026, Peralta Trail Elementary will increase the percentage of K5 students meeting or exceeding grade level benchmark. Yes. So scoreboard is depending. So we are making sure our practice is consistent as well as taking notes on the Also, our school teachers are visiting also making sure that deadline dates. As far as spread out. Sorry. Mine is certainly a little different. It is to build a community. Um 21 days in,
063my goal was to have focus and that is to increase what I've seen so far. Um so my scorecard uh with some of this the envment has increased from the time I took it over just businesses like I said super gracious um met with four had donations had a lot of good conversation I didn't use for our campus the other day off um box of goodies for our our students and present our challen um 21 days in my goal was to have two focus areas and that is to increase enrollment but I think we can only increase enrollment through building a really good community relationship um which >> no >> kind of attacked head on um >> I can tell you that the community is is uh very gracious what I've seen so far >>
064um so my scorecard uh looks similar to this the enrollment has increased From the time I took it over, I can't say that was the only thing that I did. I think that's a lot of just public talking and just the way things end up, but we are up. We're up to 62 businesses. Like I said, super gracious. Um met with four. um had donations, had a lot of good conversation. Um the one I didn't add on here, which I'm going to use for August, um just came into our campus the other day and dropped off a box of goodies for our our students >> and kind of presented him with, you know, what our challenges are to start with. and he goes, "Give me what you need." >> So, they're just gracious. They're just
065available and um I wouldn't be here without them. >> All right, that's all I have. Um, I can tell you the two largest still is my Kinder that has 24. >> Um, >> is it arm wrestling? Do you have any questions? Are we hoping to split up the kindergarten? as we get in our data. >> Sure thing. Um I have a kindergarten teacher that is certified um is wonderful. Um I have uh two other sections that are being led right now by um very good um substitutes. >> Um they took it head on. I have one of them actually in here at this time who um is as good as any first year teacher that I'd ever see is planning already and and setting things and she took over my fourth and fifth starting >>
066today. So she's been wonderful. Um, I didn't support her at all today because I was busy at ATM and doing some other things and reached out to her a couple times and besides the tooth that fell out, >> I think it was a pretty good day, >> she came out. She came out standing and smiling and still over here planning while we were doing this. So >> what you want from people? >> So she's doing fourth and fifth. >> She's fourth and fifth until August 15th. >> Okay. And then we have a kindergarten teacher. >> Have a kindergarten teacher that's certified. first through third is a certified retired um just gogetter. Um I couldn't be more pleased with what they're contributing. Um but certainly best case scenario would be to have a >> a beautiful
067certified teacher. Um I will talk to Mera about one that I talked to today for over an hour on the phone that is holding out for something else, but if I could get her on my campus, we'll talk about her later. Um, she's outstanding national board certified teacher. Um, looking for a job, but she's got the things in sight. So, we'll see. We'll do >> walk your magic. >> She needs to just say, >> "Yeah, so we're we're it's like it could be an arm wrestling because I did talk to her and she's she would be great." >> And are we hoping to split up the kindergarten >> right now? Um, I think as we get in our early um early data and determining what my first grade is going to look like when we
068get that data, I would love to see a K1 split higher, lower. Um everything we need to ensure that our kids are going to be able to read um first and foremost and showing the proper awareness for phenomic awareness and and phone names and how they do all those things is super important. >> Kids are amazing. >> Yeah, I would love to see that split. I would love to see that. Um probably take more kids coming into the school. >> But then every 24 students in kindergarten, >> correct? >> Yes. Would you like me to read them all out for you? >> Yes. Go slow. >> I will go super slow. Kinder 24. >> First grade. >> Second grade. >> Third grade. >> Eight. Fourth grade. 15. >> Fifth grade. about >> that. >> And
069then >> so in kindergarten we have one certified correct First we have five where >> all the other five one of our partners to help us become that >> district. They had their first taste of that last week. >> We do have some push in support that we've been utilizing. as well as early childhood teachers. >> Are you certified? >> So, we're paying right now two subers over there. Correct. >> Some of the things 100 town homes The concern that I have is so we're so we're identifying the classical and we talk about being unique in that school but we have substitute teachers. So what does that >> what does that look like? >> How are we how are we identifying ourselves differently? >> Well, right now it's it's kind of on my shoulders to
070kind of contribute any kind of um support with curriculum. I've had report sent to me from my my last school. Um, right now there's a a notebook issue trying to fix that in text so we can actually display powerpoints. >> Um, >> pulling everything I can out of core knowledge, but then to be really effective, you need to have planning. You need to be able to be purposeful in what you're doing to uh give to the substitutes even to be quality to do what you're trying to hand them. So >> yeah, it's it's it's not pretty right now. >> I can tell you tell you no, the kid the kids are amazing and the staff that I have in there doing as good as they can certainly do at this time. >> Mr. President, so
071our goal is by May 10 increase standing scores by 15% as measured by the using the data through consistent implementation of evidence through tier one instruction practices data evaluation. So the schoolwide implementations including we have an program our classes are actually huge now double in size and we're going schoolwide with strategies. So that includes um the general strategies as well as student planners interact with note takingaking um and teachers are all being trained on implementation so that they know how in their classrooms. Um we're going to be focusing on the essential standards. The old notion of does not work for anymore. So, we're going to be going deeper on what really matters, the really core things that the kids may have ger um we are implementing um numerous ways to monitor that our teachers are
072as we're doing walkthroughs the normal walkthroughs and the normal observations. We're also doing kind like we're doing quick checks with the kids, we're doing quick checks with the teachers. So, we're and we're giving them these feedback cards that are based on one strategies and some other evidence strategies. So, we're giving them that as well as some feedback and we already started that this week. So, teachers are getting feedback. They actually several came up and said they actually app We're expecting the core teachers to implement these key strategies at least 60% school days. Um there we can't do every strategy every day. It's not reasonable different activities in the science labs and strategies, but we want to see that the majority of time that we're in classrooms will key include the small group instruction and really
073drilling down so that they are focusing on specifically what kids need. So grab those small groupers whether they're below or above that those kids are getting targeted exactly PLC meetings are weekly collabor team is going to start with recommending specific strategies identifying the kid maybe needing some testing or additional resources or going to the tier two and tier three. One thing that's really important is students that get tier two and tier three still get the tier one. So in tier two, they get tier one and tier two. They're tier three. So they get all strategies for their resources. Sorry. All our teachers are going to be doing as well. So we're going to be collaborating discussing what they did for reaching our schools, our individual goals, how that's interacting with the teachers and what are
074>> any questions? goal is by uh May uh having Cactus Canyon increase >> no question >> monitoring scores by 15% as measured by the quarterly >> ben that is myself my assistant principal and both of our interventionists so we have math and interventionist these are these are these little puppets are not specifically tied to the evaluation it's just feedback for them so they kind of they've already called me They feel good because when I give them that feedback, when I am doing the actual formal or informal evaluations, they know what I'm looking for. Hello. My name is the high school principal high school and I'm here to share our goals with you for this school year. there. May 2026 we earned to increase the percent of students in grades 9 through 11 demonstrating proficiency on
075the quarterly benchmark by 20% in math by strengthening tier one instruction through evidence based teaching strategies and collabor Okay, now my portion of my school goal is by May 2026% of H teachers will implement selected personal strategy at least three times per week to improve student achievement. So that is what my issues. So that is a big piece of what we're doing in school year is focusing on strengthening tier one instruction. A lot of high school teachers to teach how they were taught not. But now we have a lot new updated strategies to engage students. about their work. So each time we get together with the staff and I'll be training them on some new strategies tomorrow morning that we're going to learn about when we get up at least that's a lot of walking
076through it's a lot of feedback. So um the managers will be identifying these high impact strategies mainly strategies but um other evidence based strategies that engagement and we will provide professional development and job coaching to the strategy in the class. We're going to be looking for 100% teachers to be colleate being effective. We don't want to do them just to do them byreasing and strategies. We're going to see our success. Emphasis on student proficiency is making sure all of our students are in their grade level. We're going to monitor feedback myself. strategy and we will be attending last year but we're going to continue that work I mentioned that number five again feedback loop is also going to teachers each other to take risk from a part of And then again early release instructions for
077the whole class. All teachers will participate in a PLC group that has been assigned for this based on their strengths and what they teach. And then we're working to increase actual principal at Apache Junction High School and I'm here to share our goals with you school year. So um >> would you mind giving us an example of what one of these engaging strategies Sure. Tomorrow we're gonna start with some basics that I have not seen any teachers very sharing and then their whole group of four they can share or they can sh to groups. It is something that is taking them away from that note taking writing and engaging students in that learning learning collaborative work that collaborate each other and the whole class participates in that discussion article that would a little bit more.
078We're going to start very basic and build our No, not at this time. So what we did last year, our elective groups were focusing on ACT vocabulary and we we do believe that the results will show that was successful and so they were teaching vocabulary that was connected to their curriculum and it instruction. You'd be surprised how not daily vocabulary. So that was last year. Now this year we have several several single 11th grade teachers such as one algebra 2 or one ELA 11. they are all going to be collaborating on what that uh sustained reading writing will look like for the ACT. So, what we've seen through a lot of our benchmarks and our other test scores is that our kids give up and they give up on that reading because they it's really
079interesting. We moved our classes so far away from sit and read that our students have now lost the ability for that sustained reading. And it's not uncommon during the ACT to see a passage of technical information that they have to read through. So that's the sustained reading portion. Sustained writing is just that it's going to be respond to the written text that they've just read or it's the ability to sit and write an essay um all in one sitting. We chunk so much instruction which is great because we want the kids to be able to tackle that and learn it. However, they have to sit and learn to read and write. the the ACT takes about four hours when you go through all the material and it has to be given in one setting with
080breaks. However, if they're if they're used to just giving up after reading for 10 minutes, they're not going to be successful. And that's not while that is a measure of success in high school. It's not the end all beall. They need to know how to sustain through a lengthy job application or a career manual or other pieces of information. I don't know if you've applied here at our district, but that is a good 30 minute application, right? Um, and they experience similar things in the workplace. It's uncommon now for just who who are you, what have you done? It's tell us why you want to work here, tell us your previous experiences, etc. >> So, the ACT and the ACT, it's not like specifically like certain dates. It's just implemented into everything else. the the
081prepare the preparation is we will be giving um practice test days this year to again help with those sustained practices and a more exposure to the type of questions and then the ACT itself will be dictated by the state as to our options to give it >> okay >> thank you >> yes >> I wish I had that ACT held because I can't read more than five minutes at a time so I'm >> you're not alone Maybe I'll take >> Right. I'm going to go back to Facebook. No questions. >> Um, no, no questions. Sorry. >> I think it's important though because like you're right, like I know >> having this for the students, it really helps the kids because it's a matter of like one point could be $5,000. >> So, I think that
082it's good that you're doing that. >> Thank you, Mrs. Gin. >> You're welcome. >> All right, Dr. popular. Is there anything you want to add regarding this? >> Just briefly. So, you heard six different wigs, right? >> Six different approaches >> to get to the same place, academic achievement. >> Um, and that I think that's the beauty of having each one of those principles or leaders out there >> determine >> how to get there by themselves. They choose that wig. They know what the data says to them from last year >> and then they find a plan to implement, >> right? Some of them are using people on their campus in different ways, which is it's great for team building, right? Some of them are using what they have, but each of them have a
083plan and that's, you know, that's the first step to improvement is having a great plan. So, hats off to them. I think they did a great job with that. >> Thank you. >> All right, guys. On to item five, consent agenda. Second, >> I'm sorry. No question. I'm sorry, I can't hear you. >> There's like a 10sec delay, >> so >> I I didn't I couldn't hear what she said, so sorry. The motion was to pull the list off the consent agenda. >> Oh, pulled the new hire list off of the agendas. Is that what you said? >> Yes. So >> um I don't I don't see why that needs to be done. >> You you have such an echo, Dina. I can't I can't hear a word. just saying. >> Okay, I'll abstain. I'm
084I'm sorry I can't vote on something I can't even hear. >> Yes. I'd like to amend and make a motion to remove the new hire from the personnel report. >> I have a motion with somebody like the second. >> I'll second Mrs. Ross. We should further discuss for all Any questions on this? Madame President, I um >> I don't know if it'll be a problem, but I think that >> we should table this all five members. I just No. talk about Second Ross. >> Yes. I want to