001doing the pledge of allegiance and I've asked Jennifer Brimhall to lead us in that Al to the flag of the United States of America indivis andice for all right I'd like to welcome everybody here tonight we are uh short chairs so bear with us just for a minute while we set up some more chairs I think we'll have enough with that there will be a little uh change to the beginning uh of this program or outline tonight the uh Fine Arts presentation by Teresa dicks group will be at the end of the meeting instead of at the beginning of the meeting right now because they are practicing for another performance that they have so we we'll we we'll stick them in at the last instead of the first and just to let everybody know Diana
002Butler is participating with us via phone tonight as her health won't let her leave the home her house tonight Diana you still there I'm here all right thank you all right we will begin with some uh recognitions and I've turned this section over to Dr Wright he'll do all our uh presentation and recognitions thank you Mr President we appreciate that that can you all hear well enough okay so Diana's on the phone and I dropped and made a presentation to her earlier today so she received a plaque like this I carry chairs I'm out of breath but that's actually pretty good so I won't get emotional uh these plaques say uh for all of our departing board members I want to provide some context as well Diana between her service as a teacher an administrator
003and a board member has invested more than 50 years more than 50 years of service Mr Waldo up there the handsome man on the corner between his Service as a teacher administrator and board member over 50 years of service that's an incredible amount of dedication to our community and I want to make sure that that doesn't go unnoticed Jennifer has been on the board I believe this would be your 13th Year Jen 12th year and uh Jennifer you know is very active in our community and has helped out and all three of these board members have I've grown to love and respect and theyve been um a tremendous asset to our school Community each of these plaques reads thank you for your years of dedicated service to the student staff and community of the Blue
004Ridge Unified School District your commitment and contributions have made a lasting impact and are truly great we are truly grateful for your leadership and support and those to me those words seem a little bit empty you can't really say in words um the impact that these good people have had on so many lives we we love them we appreciate them we honor their service and so I have two presentations Jennifer you come down please I'd like to give you your plaque and then I'll present Mr Waldo and if we could take a picture you bet present that to you and now Mr Waldo we could have your picture thank you sir I appreciate you coming stand over here just like the kids we are we we're excited to have Sylvia steans Bridget wood and Michael
005grenal join us in January and so um we'll may be making that transition so one more round of applause for our school [Applause] REM I I just have to uh second everything Dr Wright said and I have to say he did very well because I expected tears he did very very well but but he he got a little out of line we need to uh talk about the elementary school before those presentations Mr Ryan [Applause] Grace so we got a new Banner that we're going to be able to hang up in front of the building there you go I will say it's bigger than our friend's banner down the road uh for a purpose this was this was a big deal um we take the education we provide the kids at the elementary school very
006seriously and and uh in the last three years we've brought our school that grade up 18 points um mostly in the area of proficiency because we were already high in our other areas so getting students to to essentially pass the test um while it sounds like the test is the most important thing we've done that really through hard work and dedication and and making sure that what we're providing to the kids is quality enough that when they get to that test that test is easy like that's the that's the purpose if we if the test is the hardest thing that those kids have seen all year then we did those kids a disservice all year long and so our teachers you can see they show up in force you know when we when we ask
007them to they deserve every bit of credit that they can have for this they are there for long hours every day they're there when students need them on weekends to show up to their soccer games they build lasting relationships with these kids and these kids want to come to school um it's a privilege to work with all of these teachers that are here behind me and all the ones that are not here tonight as well um this was just an incredible honor that that i' I feel like they they deserve they deserved it when I got here but they definitely deserve it now because it has been been a lot of work to get here um currently we are one point behind two other schools in the county for being the best elementary school in
008the county um and that's that's a big accomplishment so uh we're also three or four times the size of those schools so uh one more round of applause for our elementary teachers they are phenomenal human beings and uh I absolutely love working with them we are also joined by an elf and the Grinch over there who's trying to hide from a lot of of uh yeah better than yeah five years ago years ago hopefully we all take the education of our children is as serious as Rachel takes dress up day can we get a picture can we get a picture with you sure you would like the board [Applause] folks I just have to tell you that is that is a very big deal that's a big deal that come from where we were to
009where we are now and it rest entirely on the faculty at the elementary school you are the best appreciate you so much um know a lot of you personally and I'm gonna let Dr Wright take over yeah thank you thank you and thank you uh for participating we appreciate y for showing up as well and and acknowledging this accomplishment of our our faculty and our students we appreciate you we have now a recognition for those that are involved in sports in any of the Fall Sports irrespective of what sport it is please come on up and then we're going to we're going to announce the various teams if you have a student athlete or a coach that participated in Fall Sports please come on up um I'll MC I think you all need to go
010over there in front of the bluid banner come on up be here by the banner come on over here and so uh last board meeting Mr KF did a good job of providing a summary of how our girls and boys teams did in the fall from from the various Sports and uh we have a lot of those student student athletes and other traveling and other sports or activities are preparing for the band concert tomorrow but we want to hear from you we don't have a lot of you so we want to know your name and the sport in which you participated or the coach you look like a high school yes I'm Casey flake and I was the junior high Cross Country Coach looks like a high school student but that's coach Lake I'm honey
011ainson and I'm in the junior high cross country nice job how about you I'm Coleman flake and I did cross country in wrestling way to go I'm K KF and I did wrestling and football nice job I'm Jackson reek and I did wrestling and football my name is Dalton gner and I also did wrestling football my name is my name is Blake Maloy and I also did wrestling football nice job sir Jack esner wrestling coach thank you sir shanon Atkinson in Blue Ridge cross country thank you so for the these three these three coaches put in a ton of time for these students and represents these programs throughout the junior ir and high school we appreciate you immensely for your hard work and kids great job for your participation thank you very much [Applause] um
012guess not uh students in the month we'll go in uh let's go in just a grade level or start with the elementary school and then was that just Junior High you know what did we High School do high school student athletes if you're here can you stand up I didn't see any is coach hommerson here come on up then uh Eric Cox coach Cox come on up we had we did have one high school coach Shannon come you do both levels come on up give us a real quick view of your season for the for uh for you and the three of you i' appreciate it hi coach Eric hommerson head football coach PE teacher um TSW teacher we had a a great start to a season or my first year back um I'm in
013alumni graduated from here in 97 um taught here from 2004 to 2006 uh it's great to be back what a great Community great school great leadership uh we started off 7 and0 and then we uh we got in four dog fights and and lost our last four games but made the playoff um and loss to the eventual state champions push Ridge down in Tucson so good season thanks for all your support thanks to the community thank you coach appreciate it I'm just his right-and Man Behind the Scenes so I Echo what he said so cross country had a phenomenal season this year we had 40 kids who were cross country athletes this year which is a humongous program for any school but especially for a school as small as ours we had our girls were
014a bit of a surprise I knew they would do well all up our classmen for the most part but our senior Ireland McShan came out of the gate running okay anyway but she um she trained during the entire offseason and was our first place run runner for our team most of the season and then unfortunately we had a couple illnesses and injuries going into sectionals we weren't able to secure a spot for State for the girls but we did take two individual girls to State tally Applegate and Gianna gerardi both ran phenomenally at state had great times and then our boys team I knew would be a force to be reckoned with as I've worked with them as they were in junior high I knew they would be great but they far exceeded my expectations
015um we had I mean all season long they voled for spots on that varsity team so a lot of really great competition a lot of um pushing each other to be better and that's what we love to see eventually we took seven boys for Varsity to sectionals all of them PR and they secured a spot for the state championship and out of those seven we had three freshman boys um jet gerardi Garrett gestner and hold on parley Brandon um we had two sophomores Kemp Smithson and olly Rustin and then two seniors Dylan Nez and Spencer Brandon so our team is extremely young I'm really excited to see the future that they have it's going to be really fun to watch cross country over the next few years years but a special thanks to coach KF
016has been has done such an amazing job as our new athletic director he's there to support everyone he's on top of things for the most part and he's he's right there wanting to have his hands in it and then also a special shout out I don't I saw her earlier but to Denise Hall for from Transportation cross country is an interesting one because we don't get penalized if meets get changed and times get changed so that happens a lot and they rolled with it and worked with us and so we appreciate that but we're excited to see what next year brings we have 16 graduating seniors this year which we'll be rebuilding our program but we had 16 new kids join this year too so I'm not worried anyway so but thanks to all of
017you who have supported let me say one more thing real quick because I know coach helmerson won't say this I have been part of the program here since 1999 we went through I have missed five games since 1999 okay this year we had three kids who blew their ACL out we had a kid who broke his back and we have a kid who broke his elbow all kids who were starters at one point scheduled I have never seen that kind of injury and it happened to coincide with us starting to have problems so coach won't ever use that as an excuse and he shouldn't but it is a fact that we did see this year and I haven't seen anything like that in a long long time Eric also is our athletic trainer so he
018speaks with authority on that topic thank you Eric uh Mr reek did a lot of work I know for the boys soccer and a lot of administrative work helping out our new coach this year I wanted to recognize you Adam for your help and uh and for that I don't see Maya but I'm I know she's working doing something but uh we appreciate the the efforts that were made on the boys and girls soccer programs as well and thank you Adam for your time um and did I miss anybody else I do not want to okay I forgot to mention one super super important thing um jet gerardi placed 15th at State making him not just the fastest freshman in division 3 but he is the fastest freshman in the state of Arizona right now
019so that's [Applause] phenomenal hence the name Jet right not just a catchy name fast kid and now are we to the program for the awards now let's start at the elementary junior high and then High School you have your own mic all right all right our student of the month it's not just a special day because she's a student of the month but it's also her birthday our student of the month for the elementary school school is Charlie flukiger so Charlie come on [Applause] down all right so Charlie and her family are new to the district this year um Charlie is a kindergartener and she's in Miss krauss's class and Miss Krauss writes that Charlie is a kind and caring friend she has an intuition to know of somebody needs help she always has a
020how can I make this better for you attitude she always tries her best and is a qu is quiet but a strong force in her classroom every single day so like I said it's not only that she's student of the month but today is also her birthday so Charlie Fluker as our student of the month for the elementary [Applause] school I think we ought to sing happy birthday I think we should too I think Happy Birthday and I'll start that happy birthday to you happy birthday to you happy birthday [Music] dear Happy Birthday to [Music] you that's a first yes sir that's cute that is exceptional all right this on yes can you hear me okay okay Hattie can I have Hattie Atkinson come up please Hattie was hatti is an eighth grade student at
021the junior high and she was nominated uh by a teacher um and her teacher wrote I nominate Hattie ainson for Junior High student of the month because she consistently demonstrates exceptional leadership dedication and kindness within our school Community Hattie's work ethic sets a high standard she always gives her best effort in every assignment and actively participates in class discussions bringing insightful perspectives Beyond her academics Hade is a positive influence on her peers often helping others and encouraging them to succeed her willingness to lend a hand coupled with her friendly and respectful nature make her a role model for others Hattie's commitment to Excellence and her genuine care for her classmates truly embody what it means to be student of the month and I second that hardly she is an exceptional leader on our campus and
022we are very lucky to have her [Applause] here all right all right so the high school tonight we'd like to recognize Ashlin Smith as our student of the month she's not able to be here tonight because she is playing basketball and so she's representing bluid on the court as we are she's back probably getting ready to warm up and get out there so this is what we have about Ashlin Ashlin Smith is the high school student month for December she's a motivated young lady with a competitive background but is one of the nicest people you'll ever meet she's a compassionate young lady caring about the Gen W being of her peers teachers love having her in their classes because of her hard work and dedication she's taken honors in college classes all four years at
023bluid and is currently in her second year taking cosmetology with navit program she currently has a 4.7 weighted GPA in addition to her academic success she's an amazing Athlete on the court she has received Regional honorable Mansion Awards in basketball and volleyball and was the second Team all region in volleyball her junior year and was the regional offensive player this year in volleyball so congratulations go out to Ashlin Smith and I will give this to her [Applause] tomorrow and I'm up next right Tasha if I could have Mrs hunt come forward [Applause] please congratulations to you so we want to recognize Tasha hunt for the teacher of the month for for December so a fellow teacher says this about Mrs hunt she shows up looking fly every day of the week somehow she can tame
024freshmen and get them learning another Stellar history teacher who lays a strong foundation for all of our BR kids thank you TSH on the admin side we're always grateful for tsh's flexibility stepping in to cover for another teacher covering someone else's Duty she always she has also willingly served as department chair and as on the high school t3s helping her col colleagues navigate technology issues it's great having her on campus and we appreciate all that she does thank [Applause] you than we'd now like to make the presentation for the December BR Star Award good evening so Denise from Transportation who was mentioned earlier about getting all our sports kids everywhere they need to go is going to present her one to some that works in her Department he couldn't be here tonight but I wanted
025her to share what how wonderful he is good evening um I stand before you today to honor an individual who often goes unnoticed yet plays a crucial role in our department with every every trip mark embarks on a journey that's more than just Transportation he navigates busy roads ensuring the safety of our students he does this with patience care and a commitment to duty that is truly admirable Beyond his role as a driver Mark as a mentor and a friend he offers a friendly greeting and a calming word and a watchful eye he creates a sense of community on the school bus fostering a positive and supportive environment we thank him for his unwavering patience and countless hours of dedication to our students and we thank him for being a true hero to all us
026thank [Applause] you thank you I honestly believe this is my favorite part of every board meeting just coming and seeing all the recognition especially those that are honored in the elementary school at just uh touched my heart a lot tonight thank you Mom for bringing your kids out tonight all right the next item on the agenda is the consent agenda and after looking over the consent agenda board members are there any items that you would like to take out and vote on separately or there anything that you'd like to discuss any items particular that you just like to Chuck yes um I'd just like to make a comment that uh I noticed Dryden Brown the Financial specialist is moving and to my recollection this is the second time we've hired someone to be the assistant
027Financial director and gone through a Long training paying their salary and and other staff time helping them we get them almost ready to take over and they leave and this is the second time that I can recall that's happened and I wish there was something we could do I I I don't know why they're leaving yeah but it just it bothers me that we're spending a lot of taxpayers dollars and a lot of Staff time to train these people and then they leave and and may I speak to this Mr absolutely in both instances that were family um dren's relocating back to California his wife's from the from this area and so for family reasons they're moving in the same as last it was family reasons uh the other thing I'll tell you these are
028highly competitive um positions uh we haven't had people hired away from us but they're just they're very specialized positions that are difficult to find and we're seeing a lot of Mobility right now a lot of people making um transitions so it we share your frustration Mr Waldo um I can tell you we vetted these applicants and there were a number of questions about longevity now there's certain things we cannot ask legally you can't ask and you you hope you're having people that have Roots here want to make you know plant The Roots here but it it truly is something that with which we struggle and you know I apologize for that well oh that's all right I just I didn't know why they were leaving but I just noticed it and I'm I'm sure Kimberly
029has spent many many hours training this person and the one before that out of her day to to do all this um is there any way we can do a multi-year contract were there not with those positions with those positions they're annually by Statute yeah um but we might throw a b BR Jersey in and some cookies or little bit of extra well you know I honestly and all kidding aside we we share in your frustration we are I'm confident we're doing the best we can to try to find folks that are that want to make roots and stay here so good yes sir all right thank you thank you Chuck uh thank you for that answer I I wondered about the same thing myself and I hope that the next person in line will
030be the best person in line all right so is there anything that we need to take out to vote on independently if not can I have a motion to accept the consent agenda as presented a motion from Chuck second from Margaret all in favor say I and raise your hand I I got it thank you that would be unanimous all right the next item has uh reference to the budget uh revision that we just went through on the public hearing just a minute ago Kimberly is there anything else you'd like to say about that nope I'll just ask for the governing board's approval all right so we need a motion to approve the revised budget as presented in the public hearing have a motion from Jennifer I have a second from Chuck all in favor
031raise your hand and say I I I thank you uh next item on the agenda is a recommendation to approve the Indian policies and procedures for 2005 25 and 26 school year Dr Wright do you want to explain this is something we have to do every time Kimberly do you want to do that every every year we have to approve this yes have there been any changes since the year before uh no no not no any not really any changes other than um we were monitored by the federal government last spring um this is specifically for impact aid funds um in their monitoring they didn't give us a finding we actually didn't get any findings in our um in our monitoring but they did say that we needed to switch to a template that they
032have um on their website they're they're they're making all everybody that um gets impact Aid use that template all we did was use the template and and and didn't change anything just put the existing information into their required template so nothing has changed one thing that um has changed is that we need to do um a presentation of our Native American information and data so I'd like to give a very short presentation that um my colleagues have helped me prepare um that it doesn't really have to do anything to do with the Indian Poli policies and procedures it just has to do with what we're doing for Native American students here at Blue Ridge one thing I want to add that's not in the presentation is we have 140 students that are um from the
033Apache reservation they live on the Apache reservation and they attend blidge that is where we get our impact Aid funding from um last week my colleagues and I met with um the Bia representative from the Apache reservation to go over all of this information they were very impressed and they were very thankful that we had invited them here um to come and speak with us and go over this information and get their feedback um about what we're doing and how we can partner with them I think it was a very productive conversation um and we got a lot of good information out of it and I especially want to thank London she's not here tonight she must be probably at a sporting event she put together um the first part of this presentation and I
034just want to quickly run through um it's not branded with our normal branding but that's because it's featuring um our Native American students and we've had a lot going on and I kind of just want to showcase that Ryan is then going to come up and talk about our Native American data which is a requirement um for our um impact Aid and our title 6 money which is also a Native American Grant um those two um funding sources combined are about $450,000 to the district um and we appreciate that money um from the federal government um there is I I did want to mention there is some talk about um reducing impact Aid at the federal government with the new government coming in um to uh in on January in January I've um have a
035lot of experience with impact Aid I worked on the Native American I worked on the Navajo Nation for uh many years um I've gone to Washington I've lobbied for impact Aid I've gone to many many many impact Aid meetings that is likely to not happen um they have a very strong lobbyist group not only does impact Aid pay for um students that live on Native American lands um to come to a public school it also funds um military based schools and so this money is like kind of a big conglomerate um I do not see that that funding going away or being decre inre significantly at all just because of all the stuff that it funds it's just part of the funding formula for education in the United States so if you hear something about
036it I wouldn't worry too much about it all right so you can see here we're making um uh Indian bread or Indian fried bread um and we have some ladies in our office who um also are uh Native American and they love to make friy bread and so they had an activity here at the school where um they were making fry bread and um talking about their traditional food that they eat um also we had um some Native American royalty here and you can see them and they prepared snack bags and they brought them around to the football team and you can see them there and you see the girl in the front in her traditional dress um we have some uh gate scholarship um awardees that were Native American um they went to Stanford
037and notredam Notre Dame notam I don't know Notre Jame I'm not a sports person um we also had um um we during um our Native American uh week we had uh students wearing moccasins and then you can see some pictures here of uh some of the moccasins that that the kids wore and they show um their fellow students um we had an an assembly um you can see there's some uh Crown Dancers here that came to uh present in front of our student body um to show their culture and things that they do um uh in their culture and here's more of the um Crown Dancers and the assembly and uh Denise I believe Denise took all of these pictures she's a she loves taking pictures for a bluid she's amazing and she seems to
038be everywhere all all the time it's just amazing to me you can see we've got um some uh Native American students here um and uh that are using Johnson o Mal money um in in at Blu Ridge with the Apache TR tribe all the Johnson Ali money runs through the tribe not through the district so they apply to the tribe to get that money that's also Federal funding um that can pay for um Sports fees it can pay for uniforms supplies things like that and we have more uh kids participating in sports here this looks like we had some uh young kids here learning to play basketball and as you all know basetball is very popular here uh and then we have uh some awards here for uh GPA for perfect attendance being in the
039navit program um students that have 4.8 averages and we're just doing um when uh Ryan's going to present some actual academic data here in a minute and you'll see uh and then we've got uh Native American students visiting colleges and I think that one of the conversations that we had with the um representatives from the Bia was what are Native American students doing after um they leave uh Blue Ridge are they going to college are they doing um jobs and trades and they're very the Bia representatives are very interested um in the students getting into trades and um us partnering with them with the Bia to help um students learn how to apply for federal jobs I guess it's a very arduous process um Ryan was telling us about it um he knows some people
040that have had to apply um for federal jobs and I guess it's very difficult and so they want to partner with us um to help our students be able to do that uh more um talk about universities and U visiting universities oh there's a picture of Denise yay so she since she put all this work into this uh we've got a fall Expo where colleges come and visit us and then and all of our student body get to visit with them and they get to see their opportunities we've got Fort Lewis College there I believe that's in Durango is that correct yeah um a lot of mine I I just wanted to add we have two students uh Native American students at Columbia uh Silas Baka just earned Dean was on the dean list as
041a freshman in the engineering program at Colombia his older brother is a senior at Colombia and plans to uh attend Harvard after Columbia so we've had some very good success with our our Native American population and uh I just wanted to bring that's cool um and then more career U military um information um and uh helping students get apply for that and get finding career opportunities for them uh and then we had some uh school for ethics and Global Leadership um where they attended that and they got to get some learning um and I I'm not familiar with the SE seagull uh Lauren shaking his head uh then we had uh some the University of Pennsylvania you can see we're doing great things at blidge and opening up doors for all of our students including
042our Native American students you can see that they um dressed in their um traditional uh uh clothing um for their graduation um and again uh we partner with the Apache tribe for Johnson Ali funds you can see here um Chris Slaughter put together some information about how many Native American students are currently uh or sorry last year were in our CTE program um and you can see here I won't read the list but how they're how they're participating in um our navit program which is awesome here this is hard to read but um Courtney wanted to share her uh the her um students that participate in uh Sports at the junior high Native American students that tall bar is girls basketball right Courtney and that's 80% of the girls basketball team um is Native American
043at the junior high and this was last year and then uh Courtney had a uh here's just some pictures from our Native American Heritage um week uh month where we're celebrating our Native American students and their their um traditional outfits are just beautiful all right Ryan you're up Ryan put all this data together while he comes to the to the podium he's worked very hard on this it makes a lot of sense to me so if it doesn't make sense to Y all because I've just been staring at it for days at this point um but if it doesn't make sense to you by all means please let me know um and I can stop and and try to go through that so this is going to be our current sixth grade students um the
044academic data that that Miss dugdale wanted me to pull up was off the state assessment the ACT um and comparing the our Native American subpopulation to our uh overall grade level growth so the first two columns on the left are going to be your uh of each of those grade levels are going to be the current grade level followed by the Native American uh proficiency level so the 47 on the far left is going to be the grade level in third grade from 2122 and then 2122 is the Native American population and then it'll be math is the gray bar and math native American population will be the yellow bar um so as you can see going across it's going to be grades three four and five we are increasing across the board um the
045trend lines show you that we're increasing both um pretty sharply in reading and also in math which is really good to see um is that we're seeing both subpopulation growth as well as overall growth clicker you have a click you you have the clickers all right perfect next one so uh I think you skipped a slide but it yeah so this is our current seventh grade same thing it's going to start with your 2122 school year 22 23 and then 23 24 um you can see that we are we did have a dip in um math throughout uh but that's a dip kind of across the board in math throughout this is going to be the beginning of the year where we implemented the curriculum um as well as this would be the year where
046our uh Elementary and probably our Junior High population of Native American students went down a little bit because we no longer were running buses down to White River um and so statistically that makes every student you know weigh a little bit heavier but this would be the start of of our curriculum um as well as we were I think one year into the the current state assessment model that they have uh going the ASA so um in e8th grade see the same kind of thing we're going up in ela we are dropping a little bit uh these are our current eighth graders that're the last year that we have um all of the the same data for to look at um we're dropping a little bit in math but still we are showing gains from
047previous year so if you you were to look at it not as the cohort you would see that our math is still going up across the board um it's just a little bit lower than what we would like so questions on those all right um oh yeah sorry our current ninth grade is going to be the same thing uh this would be the last year that we have and then they start taking the Act and the ACT Aspire um so we have the 67 e8th grade um this is going to be that 22 23 year is going to be the year where we reimplemented that new curriculum so that's those middle bars um as well as as we we reduced our our population a little bit so it keeps the the numbers weighing a little
048bit heavier um 11th grade ACT scores so the senior class of 2023 you can see the state average there they don't have a state average for the class of 25 yet uh that I could find but it hasn't changed for our state of Arizona 17.7 our local average is still sitting the same at about a 17 and a half um so our our Native American students they're a smaller group so they each individual person weighs a little bit more than when you take the whole 150 students in the grade or 170 students in the grade um and so they're they're performing right about the same that they have been for the last few years as well as well as our grade levels are performing on the act right about where they have been um it
049is worth noting that we have students on both ends you know students that are scoring low on their act but we also have students that are scoring in the 34s um which there was a lot more in the 30s than I had anticipated seeing when I started looking at the data which was great to see um the ACT wasn't as big of a deal when I was a student so I don't think that I made a 30 on the ACT I can tell I didn't um so that's a huge accomplishment for these kids uh but our our scores are running pretty much the same across the board um for the last few years uh and then this last one is our graduation rate so this is going to go all the way back to 1920
050uh school year 1920 is on the far left with the projected 2024 2025 which would be this Springs graduation rate on the right um so we are trending up on both of those um and recently by looking at some of the data I know that Lauren and his team are working on bringing that up even higher um one of the things that goes into graduation rate is not just the number of students that are here but the number of students that are in your cohort um reported to the state and so being able to uh find any clerical error to remove students that are no long no longer here um goes a long way to helping out our graduation rate um currently we have 15 students in our graduating class and 170 students in our
051cohort and the counselors and Lauren are working and Megan are working to uh to find some of those in the clerical side of things to remove them all right thanks Ryan all right that is our presentation do you guys do you board members do you have any questions I I just need you to approve my thanks thanks are there any questions regarding that I had one question sure are there any dates specific that the public can attend any group meetings or anything like that like I was reading those those will be coming up yes yep there was one I think January 30th that had to be presented presented and it was open to the public so the public could go see this is one of them okay and we have to like a two week
052notification s great so that information will come yes all right thank you very much a question yes um going back to the U to the this agreement that we have for the title or the um impact Aid in looking at that um I noticed that in the requirements and procedures that it requires uh us to ask for um responses questions or comments from the public I'm just curious uh you know about how many responses we have gotten and the general gist of those responses once you once you approve it then we'll put it out for public responses and then we'll get feedback and then we can adjust next year's okay this year we had to use their template so we're kind of uh hand tied with what they want us to do what they want
053all right so that information will come all right thank you appreciate that any questions if not if there question have to approve yes so question I mean we need a motion to accept item number 3.2 which is the Indian policies and procedures for 2025 and 26 I have that motion from someone the motion from Margaret second from Chuck all in favor raise your hand and say I hi hi thank you that looked to be unanimous all right recommendation oh we're going to insert Dr dicks group right now so that they can they're getting looking actually they're looking a little anxious to get out of here and they were looking at the agenda thinking we're gonna be here another hour come on so appreciate you being here now and we'd love to hear from you now
054oh you're going you know if they don't sing well they sure look good they've been at play practice since 3:45 that's why they're looking ragged come this way come up this end swing this way okay now Center around him there [Music] christas here [Music] [Applause] [Music] everywhere Merry Christmas Merry Christmas [Music] ha ha ding ding ding [Music] [Applause] [Music] we Willow [Music] [Applause] merry Merry Christmas Merry Merry Merry Christmas [Music] [Applause] [Laughter] [Music] d da [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] gentle Christ Bor on Christmas day to us all from Satan when we were gone asay tidings oft and joy comfort and joy Tidings [Music] of remember Christ Our Savior was born on Christmas day to save us all from Satan when we were gone asay oh Tidings of Comfort and Joy comfort and joy
055Tiding of comfort [Music] Comfort Joy [Music] [Applause] God gentle let you dism remember Christ Our born on Christmas day to us all we were Tiding of comfort and joy Comfort Andy Tiding [Music] of Merry Christmas thank you for having us and sorry we couldn't be here earlier but Merry Christmas this was great before you leave we need to know the names of these young men and young women individually yes oh good heavens and then pass it down Zoe Wen my name is NAA quis Katie Larson Spencer Whiting and um can I one of the cookies in the bag keep going thank you going River rig Harley Brandon Zack Ren Kathleen Jensen Alina navarez Georgia Kerr Elliot Woods Spencer Brandon Kem Smithson Santiago Santana Brock Turley Alexandra Vias and I'm Dr D but honestly please have
056a very merry and a very blessed Christmas and holiday season so we appreciate you and there's a lot of personalities in here if you couldn't tell so we have a lot of fun so my thanks to the parents and to my students and Mom I have to disagree because they're mine too but I won't take her if she's misbehaving I don't want thank you hey there are cookies at the back thank they're specifically for you thank you every year that just gets better and better I appreciate it so much that is beautiful thank you much thank you very much okay next item on the agenda is recommendation to approve the amendment to the church lease we tabled this last month a lot of information has been disseminated since then uh Dr wght or would you
057like to come up and uh representative of the church we'll hear from now feel free doctor right I feel like I'm at a distinct disadvantage following that yeah that's a hard act of follow Pastor if I could just add this we have for the board's edification we have reviewed all the terms with the lease including insurance and every application and uh we have been told we're appropriately insured the lease is appropriately priced and that the terms meet all the standards required by Statute and I just wanted to reemphasize again the tremendous support this institute is to our this program and these these folks I'll just say these people have been such wonderful people to work with and uh I couldn't say more about what a asset the artar district so Pastor Savage thank you for
058that I appreciate it thank you for the kind words yeah I feel sorry for you just you know it's like you're a little Piper Club take Cub taken off after a jumbo jet right with that group right there that being said I feel blessed blessed to have been here to hear it so any questions for me you know I have none just uh presentation if you'd like to just tell us what you would like us to do we'd appreciate that uh what I think I said this last month what you have in front of you as an amendment to the lease agreement that the church maintains with the school district uh again I can't overemphasize or overstate the the amazing relationship that we have the amazing partnership we have uh between the school district and
059the church and between Dr Wright and his staff and between me and my staff and so I thank you for that and it's it's been an amazing few years and I look forward to continuing that the only substantive change in the amendment is the change of the the the lease end date if you will uh the in the in the previous lease or or in the lease agreement that's already on record that was set to expire in mid 2027 we've asked for that to extend through the end of 2030 so does that answer all your questions that that's all I need to hear um any questions from board member anywhere all right so we need a recommendation to uh on this motion to approve the amendment to the church lease have a motion motion from
060Jennifer have a second from Chuck all in favor raise your hand and say I I I I thank you Diana that looked to be unanimous thank you Pastor thank you very much I really felt bad for you coming up after those kids it's true all right item 3.4 for a recommendation to approve the booster and the PTO and PS ptso organizations um Dr R you want to explain why we're voting on that we're g to uh Kimberly will give the explanation I want to provide a little bit of context though all of the each year there are regulatory changes required of the school district to remain compliant some of these changes require us to be have uh ensure we're tracking spending on programs for uh Title 9 purposes to make sure all the programs the
061boys and the girls programs are supported equally um this is not these approvals are not driven by the district nor do we have any energy or interest in managing your money or limiting funding these are vital to our programs we just want to make sure we're we are remaining compliant that's it uh we're not going to tell you what to do with your money we're not trying to reduce the money we give you whatever money would be budgeted granted it's small will continue to go forward irrespective of whatever is raised so I just wanted to make sure we made that clear this is not our some effort to regulate even further um but it is it's what's required of of our finance so Kimberly with that I'll turn it over to you thank you Dr
062right uh governing board members the governing board president so the usfr that's the document that um the State of Arizona uses to uh audit us there it's a questionnaire there's all kinds of questions on it one of the um one of the questions on uh the usfr um asks that the school district the governing board has approved our partners which is our booster clubs and our ptso and our PTO this is just just a formality to um formalize that partnership with them one of the things that that allows us to do is that allows the booster clubs and the PTO and the ptso to use our facilities um as a partnership instead of as a vent um them paying us and this is just one of those ways to formalize that another uh perk of
063being a formalized ptso or booster club with us is that allows um them to partner with our student clubs in fundraising and to to co-mingle those funds essentially and so we can just to be to add to that in real plain language allows us to provide our resources and Facilities to you without charge if you're a partner we assume that's what you want and that's what we want want to continue these relationships we don't want to create undue expense but we have to follow this path in order to be able to do that and this something that is required every year for the PTO and for the PTO and the boosters to get governing board approved we're just doing we're just formalizing that um on this board meeting there'll probably be more to come as
064we continue to formalize these agreements and then um on SE they normally moving forward they would be all hopefully approved in the September board meeting um each of the I think there's a representative from each of these booster clubs in ptso here if you have any questions about their purpose or anything like that I did send um the cover sheet from the packet that they submit to us with their officers on it um so that you had that backup information any questions from the board I don't have any questions but I have a big thank you for everything that they've done we appreciate it so much some things would not happen without those those organizations we do have a website set up um on our website for all the pto's boosters um to put their
065information so that we have it all in one place so the community can just go there and see all of the approved ones that we have I just want to add that thank you all right any questions if there are no questions can I get a motion to approve item 3.4 have a motion from Chuck second from Margaret all in favor raise your hand and say Hi I hi thank you Diana okay we need a recommendation to approve the new hires excuse me um Dr wght are the any of these new hires here that we need to individually recognize or just a group I I do not I do not see any of the new hires here sir all right so can we have a recommendation to reprove to actually I have a question really
066fast if one of these employees I employ their mother do I need to State a conflict of interest or no okay remove thank you all right so I have a motion then to accept item 3.5 the to approve the new hires of Shelby Myers Elizabeth Meers Brenda R Rodas have a motion second by Chuck all in favor raise your hand say I I I thank you all right recommendation to approve out ofate travel for Denise Hall to a why would you want to go to is it De Moine Iowa in the winter I'm sorry I'm sorry it's in May oh it's in May I was thinking it was next month and I was thinking holy cow you don't want to go there beautiful there yeah May is beautiful beautiful in Iowa yeah unless you get
067in a tornado exactly so this is this is a um National Congress on school transportation is there anything you'd like to tell us about that we do have a packet as she's coming up I just want to say that um Denise was selected for this um through a um application process and she's going to tell you more about it but I'm proud that Blue Ridge can get represented at a national level and Denise is very passionate about um student transportation and I don't think that we could send a better representative someone that is so knowledgeable and trains people all around the state about transportation and Transportation laws so I'll let her share but I'm very proud that she got selected so this is not a burden this is a reward yes so to speak all
068right thank you um I am deeply honored um to have followed her I am not that quite that important but thank you very much um I'm honored to be one of the three delegates representing Arizona at the National Congress of school transportation um this conference plays a vital role in shaping and improving Transportation safety standards for the students across the country as a delegate I will review and provide input on proposed laws and amendments related to the student transportation ensuring that they align with the best practices and prioritize student safety this opportunity allows me to use my knowledge and training to make a national impact on student safety which is something I am deeply passionate about is there any questions yes any questions of Denise Chuck um I'm just curious since you're representing you're one
069of three I guess representing the State of Arizona um are is this District funding the total cost of this that is correct okay aside from I'm just curious since it's you're representing all of Arizona basically and I greatly appreciate that yes any other questions concerns not then we can we have a motion to accept item uh 3.6 yeah at the end come back and tell us what you learned absolutely thank you so we have a motion to ex uh to accept item 3.6 as presented a motion from Jennifer a second by Margaret all in favor to raise your hand and say hi hi thank you Diana thank you thank you Denise and good luck all right next item on the agenda is item 3.7 and this is a recommendation for out ofate travel for the
070graphics team um Mr Peterson do you want to tell us what you're going to do and why no I told you I was going to grill you this I knew it was coming um Okay so we've been taking kids out to California for a long long time I think personally I've probably done about 15 of these trips and then I was with my dad when he was doing a number of his trips as well um some of the main highlights for the kids is we go to the Huntington Library Museum um they get to see a lot of the old manuscripts and stuff they get to see the Gutenberg B which was printed in 1450 um one of the first books ever printed um and it's something that we we is part of stuff that
071we cover in class and then they get to see firsthand um this stuff um so that's one of the big things the other thing is we go to the um the Expo there in Long Beach Convention Center and that has it's a huge Expo and they get to be able to see what big business is like international business and stuff U with screen printing and printing and signage and all that kind of stuff and a lot of companies and stuff of course are selling their things things like that but it's it's a good for the kids to experience and see the big picture that a lot of times we don't get to see while you know being here on the mountain but they get to see the more the global picture of the whole thing
072so those are the two main things we go out there for any questions I think it's a great great thing to do thanks I did notice that you're going to drive ride the train over there yeah since we when since we don't have the Vans available I guess for insurance and you know something like that um so our vans the school Vans we can't take those anymore so we haven't done this trip for a few years um and so we figured this would probably be the only way to do it would be to go ahead and take the train or fly out there that's an experience in myself I'm sure it'll be something I haven't experienced so yeah Chuck you had a question just couple of comments one David thank you for coming back again
073this year yes and secondly thank you for taking the kids every year is something that's not required in your contract and you and your wife very dedicated in taking these kids over there and I've done many of these trips myself and believe me it's it's not easy how many are thank you how many are um looks like right now probably six students and then my wife and I and one of the parents so great all right so can we have a motion to accept item uh 3.7 as presented motion from Chuck a second from Margaret all in favor raise your hand and say I I thank you Diana all right next item on the agenda is recommendation proof out of state travel for the scene your trip um I guess we're getting a head start
074on that uh may I make a comment before Miss Rachel starts yes go ahead bring your stuff about eight years ago this young lady said I want to be a teacher and I said well I tell you what you graduate college come back and we'll hire you Mr web made good on that promise so she is an amazing she's a first year teacher but I would think if you just watched her perform she's a very experienced teacher she's outstanding and I'm thankful for the energy she has brought to the senior class and in the classroom and she and Sydney are doing a wonderful job supporting our kids and I just wanted to say thank you Miss Rachel well deserved do I have to okay uh thank you for having me here um so I'm just
075here to approve the senior trip we are planning on going from May 10th through the 13th and we have our chaperon as lovely Mr web Alex stubbin and Mr height so those are our three male sherons that are planning to go our three female shopon are Miss Slaughter Miss woods and um oh my gosh who's the other one I just trying to miss lingo isn't oh it's Gina Gina Bowman so um us two student council advisers we are we are stepping down for going on the senior trip because we want the moms of the seniors to go and because they're faculty here at the high school so they're going to go um but I need your approval please if we can have them go on the senior trip it is out of state it's going
076to California uh we have the Disney grad night we also got approved to go for that um I can give you the quote for that too the Disney grad KN night only certain amount of high schools can go to that so that was really amazing that we got approved to go they go from 8:00 a.m. and then they go all the way till 2: a.m. in the morning so that's going to be a fun experience for the chaperon um and then the main reason why I'm here is because we need to M as Mr web is preparing right now for that um the M main reason why I'm here is we need to approve for our transportation over there as you know inflation is growing and growing um so we're still looking at doing a
077charter bus and we need to get approved for our charter bus to do that the quote for that right now is about 10,000 $ I believe yeah so dividing that up by the 50 students that are able to go we have 50 spots and then the six Sho owns that can go and yeah that's about it so just if we can get that approved if you have any questions for me is there a a date a drop dead date how many kids you're going to take so if we decide to do the charter bus we can only take 50 students on that charter bus because there's 56 seats on the charter bus um are you saying like the date for the quote for the charter bus the sooner the better because they do raise prices
078on us um I know I got this quote about a month ago so hoping they don't rise rise any prices on us but I know that they do rise prices for May because they have multiple high schools going out there and doing notb farm and Disney and all the Six Flags and stuff like that so they do raise the prices soon okay are you doing any fundraising or are they just paying on their own yes they are doing fundraising we are already starting the senior candy cane grams and then we are doing the concession stand a couple times and it's the seniors who want to volunteer so we have been communicating with them through emails saying if you want to fundraise please come talk to Miss lto or I and then we let them sign
079up and get their own percentage of however much they want and then we do have already a deposit down so they've paid $100 we do have a wait list and then there's also some people that have dropped off that are are not able to go anymore so all right that was kind of Chuck um just a couple of comments uh I think going to Disneyland is a wonderful experience um but I think I've expressed before concern for the expense and since half of our students are on free and reduced lunch $650 I think is going to basically eliminate a lot of our students that aren't able to go simply because they can't afford that expensive a trip it I just think it would be nice maybe if we could do a trip in stap um
080and like half of that cost but I understand and I appreciate your efforts in doing this and I'm sure the kids are excited about going but it's a long way to go and it's a very expensive thing uh plus that's the cost of go going there but Disneyland is extremely expensive in there buying food and so forth so anyway just for what it's worth um that's my only concern I wondered if there if the community has been approached about scholar shipping some kids that possibly couldn't cover the cost themselves I wonder if the some of the businesses in town might offer scholarships to do the um who's I what's that the yeah the Johnson Mali we tried to have um them come in and help us support but unfortunately because this is not a educational
081trip then they can't fund money to us for the senior trip um but yeah we can the student council senior class they can start to maybe reach out to certain companies and seeing if there's any possible donations stuff like that um but I do agree with you Mr Waldo um I do agree with you it is very expensive and it's only going to get more expensive as the years go on so looking at inate for next year would be great uh or even doing just more surveys towards the seniors on what they actually want to do because this has just been a tradition for quite a few years to go to Disneyland and get out of state go to California and go to the beach so no water though just touching the water with your
082fingers so yeah but I I agree with you it is very expensive I'm just thinking like perhaps a trip down to a golf land or Big Surf and going to a Diamondbacks game or a Suns game uh some things like that in state at half the cost then more of our grad our graduates would be able to go on the trip um but it's wonderful for those that can afford it uh it's a great experience um but and I applaud your efforts and the volunteers that are going all of that is wonderful um but I'm just concerned about the students that just would love to go but their families can't afford it um through the counselors we I did hold five six spots and I asked the counselors for families that were not able to
083put a deposit in right away so that if some students wanted to go there are spots open so that we can take in those donations I know um your family practice team they have already put in $500 donation so there's some money that is coming in from other places that we can have those spots open for those students and children to have available do you have any idea of how much money beyond what you raise doing things at the high school that these kids have to come up with not as of right now um or maybe from past years just an approximate amount um well I know last year and the year before they're senior trip was about $550 I don't know how much how many fundraising options they had last year with u miss
084gelic doing student council but yeah I don't yeah I'm not for sure how much will a a good majority will be out of pocket if the seniors who are going if they do not want to put in the effort and fund raise so any other questions thank you appreciate it very much um so we need to vote now on the ID State travel for the senior trip so they can get started on that you have a motion to accept item 3.8 have a motion from Jennifer a second from Margaret all in favor raise your hand and say I I those opposed ready say nay I think I lost Diana all right oh she's there oh there you are she's an A okay I I mean a not an a sorry I a we'll get you
085all all right so a recommendation item 3.9 recommendation to approve State mandated minimum wage increase I thought we were trying to keep up with that and it looks like we had pretty well kept up with that where we only have to come up with 35 cents well yeah 35 cents across the I know that's a lot but yeah it but we are keeping the Step at vast majority earn more than minimum wage we I estimate the impacts about $8,000 because we have moved most of our folks up to 15 or higher okay so but it is a mandate so we need a motion to accept item 3.9 to comply motion from Chuck second from Jennifer all in favor raise your hand and say I I I thank you uh superintendent report Dr wri you want
086to just fill us in on some of the things that are happening in our district yes sir I'll make it brief and give you just the highlights that the Winter concert last night was wonderful and we uh we heard some of that from the choir that performed that numerous numerous choirs performed last night and did a a wonderful job as did the orchestra tomorrow night will be the band we'll have theirs and I believe it's 6 pm at the auditorium so we're looking forward to that performance as well wrestling basketball for boys and girls is underway there's a game tonight think against Monument Valley boys and girls at the high school level we I also just again wanted to wish express my thanks to to Diana Chuck and Jennifer for their service and for all
087that they have done for our district and for for me personally and professionally I appreciate youall we will welcome the new board member sylvana I see her there still she's here tonight welcome sylvana uh Bridget wood and also Mike grenal I'm providing onboarding training for them this week I've already met with sylvana I met with Bridget will meet with Bridget tomorrow and Mike on Wednesday or Thursday actually and we're looking forward to having them on board and appreciate their service we have posted the position for high school principal Monday internally and externally that position will remain open for uh consideration for applicants until January 17 20125 and then uh at that time there will there's a committee that's organized and those folks will be noticed and Jonathan our new superintendent as of July 1 will
088come down and conduct those interviews as well with the committee of high school stakeholders and Jonathan will make that decision after he has input from the committee and uh that will those interviews will occur on the 20 7th of January the interview is in the evening of the 27th We Believe yeah so it we're taking applications till the 17th so if we yeah oh I'm sorry thank you another announcement winter break thank you this just in the 19th of next week through January 5th thank you ladies that's an important announcement and we're going to post for the business manager position we've been trying with a a finance specialist the suggestion is instead of a CFO or a specialist is to find a business manager we'll post for that in February of 2025 and uh that
089concludes my report if there's any questions from the board i' be glad to answer regarding these items that I've covered if not thank you Mr President I don't have none any board members questions comments if not uh make a call to the public right now we'd like to invite anybody that would like to address the board to do so right now like to limit your time to about three minutes can't SE that to anybody else uh appreciate those that are going to come forth right now and talk talk doesn't look like anybody wants to so uh we will at this time looks like we probably need to move to Executive session to discuss Dr Michael Wright's performance evaluation it's done on a yearly basis in Executive Center oh yeah we probably got turn before that
090right sorry thank you guys uh the board will meet uh regular governing board meeting will be held on Tuesday January 14th at 5:00 p.m. at this place that's our Public Announcement so I have a motion to move to Executive session a motion from Chuck second from Margaret all in favor say I I all right thank you very much