001oh folks we'd like to call this meeting to order and we'll begin with a pledge of allegiance which I'll lead I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all still all right thank you for everybody that's come out this this evening this afternoon we um turn some time over to you Dr Wright for the first part of this or presentations and recognitions thank you it's stilled thank you I'll try to keep my uh my feedback limited let's start with the let's go in reverse order and we'll start with Mr Grace recognition of your presentation I'm sorry presentation I Mary corrected me I'm sorry do do you want me to go through the uh
002no let's do introduction the new employees M first employees employees okay recognition August employee V start okay so we'll do the first two sorry um can we start with you Mr Grace on introducing any new employees none of mine new staff is here tonight um but we do have uh Katarina scalero she's a kindergarten teacher with us now I can probably move over here so I'm more in front of everybody and less awkwardly standing over there um so Catalina Katarina scolaro is a new kindergarten teacher um she came up from the valley um Amanda Federico joined us to sixth grade she had taken a few years off and she could teach sixth grade math and science um Candace Co is fifth grade English she came to us from cholo and let's see Bailey slippi she
003joined us this year as a title reading aid so um shorter list than than normal so that's great so all Miss hoffmier could you introduce your new employees please I would love to but our new employee is Chris Johnson uh he is sharing admin duties student support duties at the junior high and the high school but he also is our eighth grade football coach so he's back there on the field with all of our seventh and eighth graders coaching football at the moment um and he has been an incredible asset so far to um to the school and to all of our football players so we're really excited about that but I do want to also um recognize Ali Brandon um even she started with us last year um but she actually has she's our
004um our our Learning Center teacher and so she's starting a a new position with us there um and she's really she she is new as of last the beginning of last year so we're happy to have her as well and she'll be coming up in just a little bit for something else as well Mr web all right thank you I've got quite a few so new to Blu Ridge this year we have Valerie brego um she's a sped Aid Co coach KF is here he's a our athletic director and assistant principal Eric helmerson coming back to bluid he's uh our head football coach and also doing PE and helping with TSW transition school to work program um Chris Johnson as Miss hoffm stated he's he's helping here at the high school and doing a great
005job Alex steans um he is doing our transition school to work and then helping with some weight classes and then Rachel Thompson is doing some math so out of all of those that we have they're all bluid people except for Dustin and most we'll adopt him close enough to bluid and he's doing a great job and then coming from other campuses we have Sarah bramy doing English Carol Godwin doing science Sydney langto is doing a multiple she's doing math and science and student council chat mows is doing our ISS program and Peggy Robbins is doing weightlifting and we're sharing Brian wat cot with the junior high do in Spanish thank you Mr web now for the recognition uh Mr Grace will you go ahead and introduce your student or students of the month absolutely so
006I have two students of the month um Max and Nora if you could come up here so max Rose and noris snogas they happen to be cousins um we have one in fifth grade and one you guys come on over here we're going to go right over there take a picture um so max is in fourth grade now and Nora is in fifth gr now they both earned um noras in English and math and Max in math a perfect score on their state assessment last year so very big achievement um I think we had four on our campus two of them moved on to the junior high and these are the two that we had left here at the elementary school so very happy to have them um they embody everything that we want as
007as be students as well uh they're kind they're helpful they're astute they care about their learning and they care about the people around them um so very happy to have them um and to have them here tonight so Max and Nora there you go thank you you guys did awesome come on right over here congratulations kids that's that's outstanding we're proud of you let's go to the junior high now for our student of the month I don't think I see as Isabella in the audience and I miss singer she um uh so my student of the month is not uh she is not present tonight but I'd like to recognize Isabella damato Isabella is an eighth grade student um who she um took on the adventure of running down the the derby down the deuce
008over the summer um and she had another student put a car together um and she was the driver down the deuce and did an excellent job I don't need to talk about the place they came in we said that's not important just that you participated is great and she's excited about trying it again next year but she also came in as a as a student aid for us and even in this first week and a half or excuse me a preschool Aid she has been she has sown shown so much responsibility and willingness to help in different areas today she was I walked in to walk I was walking students to lunch and she was on the gym floor just cleaning up a spot she noticed needed to be cleaned up so she's one that
009takes initiative and we are super lucky to have her at the junior high would you like us to wait until your student shows up okay when your students here can you give me the thumbs up Mr web and let's move on to uh Courtney again Sunny Ashcraft teacher of the month for the junior high well for the district yes if I could have Miss Ashcraft could you come on up please I'm so glad you're here uh Mrs Ashcraft took on a new position this year she um she has been a reading specialist for the last several years at the junior high and this last year she became our PE teacher and our athletic director and in the first week and a half of school she's already gotten the first parent meeting with all of our
010parents in athletics um done it out of the way yesterday so she's super organized communicating very well with parents and um and District staff and with me setting up all of our um all of our competitions this year and she's just done an amazing job in that transition so I'd like to recognize her for that congratulations principal hoffm you have the mic you want to go ahead and introduce your BR star for this month can I have Mrs Brandon can you come up please so Mrs Brandon could go ahead and give you that Mrs Brandon uh she came in to help us as a long-term substitute last year um or a full-time sub and transitioned into the Learning Center Center um and helps our students our students who are struggling to find their way she
011really helps to work with them she has taken such an investment in our students um and she really takes it to heart on on their well-being and so we are so happy to have her at the junior high she is an amazing um addition to our staff thank you uh Mr Grace would you please announce your three BR stars for the month so I have three BR Stars individually they all could deserve this award 10 times over but today collectively um our front office staff Miss Kathy palar Miss Kendra Palmer and Miss Alexis veto if y'all could come up these ladies get us started every single day um they they work a tremendous amount and make sure that that all of our kids feel welcome that all of our parents feel welcome when they walk
012into the building um Alexis registers half the school district by herself throughout the summer um Kathy manages the attendance and and Kendra is the first face that everybody sees as well as doing everything else in our front office as well um at back to school night we had just shy of 1,400 people show up and they didn't stop stop like they just kept at it the line was there as people were trying to register and they met them with a smile on their face and and they do it every single day so I know that I personally am very blessed to have them um working right outside my office door and as a district we're we're blessed as well [Applause] thank you uh ladies I will add Mr Grace that it's they they function as
013air traffic controllers during that first week of school and so you might have 750 kids but they're 1500 parents that show up the first week so thank you ladies for your exceptional customer service to our parents and students you do a great job and we're so fortunate to have you thank you Mr web would you like to present your BR star thank you so the high school would like to recognize the BR um awards for the high school tonight so first we're going to recognize M shanana ainson those that know Miss ainson know knows the incredible job that she does we consider the Swiss army knife of all teaching like she has stepped in and done long-term Subs in a classroom she is on the we currently use her as a as a long-term sub
014assigned to wherever we need her throughout the day whether it's in the special ed classroom whether it's upfront in the office whether it's um doing PE um she does an amazing job with our cross country team and she's got she's got a huge team this year I think over 40 kids out for cross country um and she does a great job with all those those kids so she is a valuable asset at the high school and we want to recognize her as one of our BR stars for the month of August so let's recognize Miss ainson she can't be here tonight she's actually taking her daughter to EA today so she'll be back to work tomorrow and next I could have Coach Club come forward so we'd also like to recognize coach clu as for
015for August so coach CL started his cont cont was supposed to start in July but we needed the help in June so he was willing to come in and get going and it was nonstop from the time that he arrived on campus and organizing all the different things with the fall Athletics that everything that needed to happen with the AIA and getting coaches ready and teams ready and schedules on on track but then taking on an an additional role of assistant principal he's helped us out with processes and different things at the school so it's been a crazy three months but he's we're we're so happy to have him on board and he's super organized and does a great job with the athletic program and also providing support to uh Mrs pinr and to myself
016and to all the staff and students so like to recognize and thank Dustin CL for coming aboard and being with blid I would like to add too for the boards edification this is in almost a decade this is the first time we've ever had somebody in their first month of employment or two become one of the BR Stars so that's an exceptional exceptional U accomplishment Mr kff thank you we're glad to have you and we'll adopt you into the BR family go home and throw away or burn everything that's green replace it with purple thank you thank you coach Mr Webb so we're still waiting for Brooklyn's mom if we can jump in if it pleases the board can we go on the next and when the student gets here we do that okay we'll
017do that Mr web when your student rides the parent after um Mr Grace's presentation then we would allow you to do that that that works the Mr Grace would you like to give your presentation absolutely so we are uh looking at different options for how to potentially change the drop off and the pickup at the elementary school to iate some of the traffic out front to uh allow the everyday traffic that crosses in front of the building to continue because right now when we back up into the roundabout all traffic stops uh until we get going and we can we can reduce that um and so we've come up with a couple different options uh if you haven't noticed and just to make sure that everybody understands they did come back in and tear up
018all of the curbs and the sidewalks that they just LED um those did not meet the ADA requirements is my understanding and so that's why they tore them out and are going to be relaying those um and so they are running a flagger we are trying to reduce that impact of of running the flagger uh on school traffic so they they start after we bring students in and they they stop before we dismiss students in the afternoon um but all the same if you travel down our road at the end of the day you know that we we can back traffic up um in a Monumental way we've backed it up all the way to the Circle K before uh depending on how much traffic gets into our line that's not school traffic um and
019so we started looking at this the other day I was up by the crosswalk where I typically am at the end of the day and we had a a person that was not a school uh not a parent trying to pick up their child that decided to put two wheels up on the new sidewalk drive down it next to a car and then hop into that dirt road and speed away and what we're trying to avoid is having any potential issue of a child not being seen by a driver that that you know could be catastrophic for us and so we are looking at a couple different options um you want to go ahead and click that do want to oh I have a clicker to do it so our this is our current route
020um it's from the bridge down it's 1.2 miles worth of roadway for us to stack cars uh by the rough estimation that I was looking at it the other day or the last few days probably about 40% of the cars that get trapped in our traffic are not us um so if we could try to get around that that would be great um they're RVs trying to go out there people going to sholo their their log trucks things like that and so anything we can do that gets us off of that road would be phenomenal um we also want to start using the side road as quickly as we can because it's there it's a very nice road is really accessible to our parking lot and so just one of the few proposed things and
021we're going to start doing our due diligence on this to talk to um Chief Barnes with the police department the timber Mesa Chief and then some of the business owners around us as well would be something along the lines like this this which brings us in on Commerce instead and gets most of our traffic off of Porter Mountain Road um it just it turns our drop off the other direction but this would be one proposed option that we would have to to do and we would solicit feedback from parents um that are dropping their kids off as well uh the business owners that would be impacted going around that Loop um they're not open in the mornings none of them are open at the time that we drop off but in the afternoon we would
022want to make sure that we have their feedback as well um so that is just one one proposed option Mr Grayson among those other stakeholders you're going to visit also with the town of Pinetop lakesite Matt Patterson to get some feedback on any concerns they might have right yes sir okay so we're just starting this process to try to figure out what we can do to try to alleviate that and use the road that they put in um that accesses us as well so this is this is not a final plan or anything like that we're going to start that process of getting all the feedback that we need okay thank you yes sir can I ask a question sorry this mic isn't working so okay um I like the idea of longer and do
023we get off the road but my big concern is you have now traffic making a lot of leftand turns with kids that are still crossing those specific areas so are we going to have flaggers to help kids cross through that spot and then our exit strategy how are we going to manage the cars now leaving the school and going right because now you have to turn left in front of all the traffic that's leaving you know our coming traffic and our leaving traffic are now going to be Crossing on that first left so do you see what I'm yes ma'am okay yeah so we we're looking at where students would go um so we don't have any students that walk up that new road because there is no path next to it right um but
024if necessary we would put somebody out at the end of it as well yeah so and to alleviate the backup because I can see no one allowing anyone to come out because when you're leaving you have a flow of traffic that's leaving the campus so how are we going to get the coming people and the leaving people to allow the people trying to get in to make the left people would leave campus from the roundabout the same way right so they would still leave that and then if there if we ran into some congestion down on Commerce we would have to address that I'm not concerned about Commerce I'm concerned about pen rod Porter Mountain Road that's the concern because if you're not the first if you're not in the first group that made the
025first turn how are you going to get all the people to make that left because the traffic flows really it's a thick traffic pattern after they drop their kids off also does that make sense yes ma'am because we don't have a light there and that's my concern is there a way that we can help with flagging there correct or is that again like is that a town jurisdiction or is that a school I I don't have the answer to that I would assume it's actually the town because it's off of our campus um but I don't know that for sure but that is part of what we're we would be wanting the feedback from everybody to make sure that if we're right building congestion somewhere else that we have a plan for that too so
026if I might Mr President if we could just add that concern to the mix along with the town and then we won't have to solve it tonight but make sure that's duly noted thank you Jennifer for bringing that up absolutely so we we were looking at trying to make sure that people that are also going to Sho because we do have a lot that go to show for work that they're not being stuck in the roundabout as well so we have currently we have several places where we pile up and the roundabout seems to be the biggest issue because as soon as our parking lot backs into it it stopped so um but absolutely I will I'll make a note of that and we'll talk with the town um and the police chief about it
027yes ma'am Mr you're on oh Ryan I have a couple of comments just to bring everybody up to date uh Ryan contacted me and asked me to come out and discuss this with him this plan uh which I did and uh in the discussion it came up that Brian and I were both under the impression that there was going to be a sidewalk curb Gutter and sidewalk all the way from the bridge to the school on the West Side uh and Brian told me that he found out that's not happening that's not in the plan and we were discussing the other side where they did put in the curb Gutter and sidewalk and then promptly tore it out and I found out today that that was because the the crew that was doing it uh
028had too much slope on the sidewalk and it didn't meet ad they had tear it all out it was $330,000 worth of concrete that they had to redo anyway um there was that and then the we had a paved area from the school up to where the kids cross over the road by the automotive shop and they tore that out and there was no plan to replace it so I decided that I wanted to talk with Matt Patterson who is is the town engineer um in charge of this project so I went over and talked to him and I thought the plan was excellent that Ryan came up with I thought it would solve a lot of problems but uh anyway I talked to Matt well I'm glad I did because he I explained to
029him our concerns and he explained to me that there was never in the plan for a curb Gutter and sidewalk on the west side he said it was to be a paved path 10 ft wide with asphalt and then having uh um street lights along the way but uh he's when I explained this plan to him and I didn't have a copy of it with me um he was he said well I have two concerns said number one is that if you do this plan you deviate from this plan the plan was designed by a traffic engineer and he's certified traffic engineer and he said if we did this plan and God forbid a child somebody got injured there was an accident and we end up in a lawsuit he said in court the opposing
030attorney would say say did you get this plan approved by a traffic engineer this revised plan and if you say no you lose we would lose a lawsuit because of that um the other thing he pointed out is he said right now you want the backup and I said all the way to Circle K and he says well he said he says I've never seen it that far but he says back to 260 but he says you want that because it slows traffic down and he said you got kids crossing the road and he said If you eliminate that backup then cars are going to be going through a lot faster and he says it's going to lead to an accident and if that happens he says you'll be in a lawsuit and then they're
031going to say you altered the route and allowed traffic to speed up which caused the accident so he says I would recommend that you not do that um he thinks it's going to work out fine when it's done there will still be some backup but it should be reduced from what it is now uh primarily because of the left turn lane where the buses are so my thought was if we keep it the way it is until they finish all of the construction and maybe go a month beyond that uh and see how things flow at that point and then we can look at getting changes but then if we do I think we need to work with the town and get a traffic engineer to validate it um but anyway so I thought that
032was kind of interesting like that that's a good idea also um my understanding was that that 10-ft paved walkway was going to always be there that the sidewalk was going to be on the other side according to the plans they were just going to pave that it'll be paved clear across the creek and up the hill that and I wondered why they hadn't done that already I thought that should have been done already yeah um I don't know either but they've got balt all the way right now and I was concerned that it was just going to be balt but Ryan uh I mean um Matt Patterson assured me that it would be paved with asphalt 10 ft wide that'll help away from the bridge out to the school and I assume on across the
033um the I think with that being paid some parents might drop their kids off and let them walk a little ways yeah anyway I thought the plan was great until uh I talked to Matt and I think Jennifer brings up some good points about the turning left I think it's hard to anticipate because there's so many moving Parts here that when you change one thing it can affect other things in the process and that's why I think if we wait until a month or so after this is all done and see how it flows and where the bottlenecks are and then we look into making some adjustments but according to Matt this was all approved by a traffic engineer and if we alter it then we are going to be liable well there's a lot
034of wisdom in that Chuck thank you thank you and so um we'll we'll proceed like that Ryan sorry we don't have any room for discussion on the thing other than presentation I just wanted to okay later but I would say this in light of in light of what's going on as far as a directive I'm sure the board would direct me to say let's hold off until we can look at this further and we'll do more research and that I can do that and then if you could please um meet with Margaret and get her feedback on her concerns yes or Other Board member that might have more to share absolutely thank you thank you well I think it would be a good idea for Ryan and Andor Dr Wright to meet with Matt Patterson
035and he can explain this in more detail Courtney is your student here now to make the presentation is okay Miss Miss hoffmier Isabella can I have you come up so I'd like you to I'd like to introduce you to Isabella damato she's an e8th grade student at blid Junior High um and I was sharing with the board earlier that you participated in Derby down the deuce over the summer and made a cool car um called what was the name of it the Stinger the Stinger U and they what was the award that you received for it car the goofiest car award which is amazing she has come in as a preschool Aid this year um and has done an outstanding job with that has been very responsible I was telling them I you I caught
036you cleaning the gym floor this afternoon so that was really great she cleaned up her own mess which is even better um so she is impressing us greatly so far we're super happy to have her the junior high congratulations [Applause] Mr web Brook Brooklyn come on forward so the high school we would like to recognize Brooklyn Paxton as our student of the month for the month of August so I want to read what one of Brooklyn's teachers said about her um she's grown tremendously as a student in the classroom and as a student leader over the last two years she's president of the senior class had excellent grades in AP US History and it showed more and more self-con confidence as the year went on um so we want to recognize brn not only for
037that she's just a great student to have on campus um she she does cross country and basketball and she's also doing the navit nursing program right now and she's really excited about her classes and and how well that program is going so super excited what the future holds for Brooklyn and get your award here sorry about that please help me recognize Brooklyn for student month congratulations thank you yes thank you all it always brings a great deal of Pride to me I know the board feels that way also with the recognition of all the good people that are in the district and the good students in the district it's it's really good next item on the agenda is a consent agenda and board after looking over any all these items is there anything that you'd
038like to separate out and vote on independently or we have a motion just to accept as is Chuck yeah I would like to 2 2.8 2. 7 2.8 any any discussion on that so you like to make a motion to take 2.7 2.8 out I'll second that motion all in favor that looks unanimous all right so the consent agenda as is without 2.8 and 2.7 can I have a motion to accept I have a motion from Jennifer second from Chuck all in favor okay item 2.7 recommendation to approve the adjustments to the transportation fee schedule uh Kimberly would you like to address that or Dr Wright would you like to address that that's even good good evening governing board members and governing board president so this is just an updated fee schedule for our transportation
039as you well know we have inflation increases and we have gas increases this is just to cover our expenses to run our transportation department I don't have a problem with the expenses I guess I'm just wondering it was talking about we're not charging for school related trips so are we renting out our buses for Community use or something I guess I'm a little unclear as to what we're doing but that's the case yeah um so for instance we ran out our buses for the balloon Festival is an example of when we rent our buses out to the public um and our drivers so we rent our drivers and our buses out for community events things like that and then um also um we have another example would be if we have a club sport that
040not affiliated with the school district like uh Club volleyball is like a good example they if they needed to go somewhere then they would rent buses and a driver from us that would be another example like the uh Club volleyball that they have in the summertime yeah that's not a that's not a not a school sport okay I just wasn't real clear exactly who we were charging fees to another example that just recently happened over the summer was White River didn't have little white buses available and their wrestling team needed to go somewhere so they rented them from us oh okay um Mr President if M on 2.8 it's it's not a a discussion on classroom size but rather a discussion on classroom capacity for the purposes of open enrollment so about four years ago
041the board approved a capacity of about uh 1 to 20 for our primary grades 1 to 22 for grades 3 4 and about 1 to 22 or 23 in grades 5 through six we're at 1 to 25 on grades 6 through or 7 through 12 this is just for open rollment it's not about classroom sizes if it pleases the board I can address in my report classroom sizes and a couple of classroom sizes that a couple of grade levels that we have concerns about and what our plans are but I just wanted to make sure I couldn't take questions on classroom size it's not about that pretty sure we had an addend we had an attachment with the the set limits yes sir we have that came to us in our packet that with the
042classroom set limits and where they actually are right now and we're at capacity and then beyond capacity is what it looked like well that's what I wanted to clarify and I saw the numbers and as near as I could ascertain basically we're at capacity or within the 90% which means yes sir so we are not open for open enrollment we we always have by Statute have to take an application and have to create a waiting list which we do but the message is we say we're beyond our capacity and so we don't anticipate having any extra capacity this year we have with uh 20% fewer teachers we have less instructional capacity than we did the year before that's why those numbers are going up meaning for open enrollment sake we just we're not going to
043be accepting students anytime soon is my view but in reality we're not at our capacity but legally that we can count it as that capacity if we're within 90% 90% or above yeah we're and we're which we are the board has a right to establish and approved the 90% where we could reserve 10% of our capacity for new in District students yeah we're so far beyond that in most every grade it's kind of a non-issue but as part of the open Ro procedure every year the board has to approve the capacity report that's what this is for I figured if I'm looking at it knowing my board they're probably going to say well there's a couple grade levels here that I'm worried about on size yeah there there are and I can in my superintendent
044report address some of those um but I can't have a discussion on grade level and how many students are in each grade beyond the capacities that we have established just to stay on the agenda so this is just a report I think we're just supposed to accept the report as presented so so we have a motion to accept the uh transportation fee schedule change of a motion from Margaret a second from Chuck all in favor okay that was for 2.7 2.8 a recommendation that the governing board approve the 2004 2025 capacity report establishing maximum classroom sizes to regulate student admission enrollment this is in regard should I say this is in regard specifically to open enrollment yes sir open enrollment only okay so we have a motion to uh accept item 2.8 as revised a
045motion from Jennifer a second from Chuck all in favor all right thank you all right business portion of this agenda recommendation 3.1 recommendation to approve the out of state travel request for the FBLA and I know there's a young man out here that's just scared to death to make a he's not he's very confident he's one of the future Business Leaders of America D getting a lot we're still getting a lot of feedback uh good evening School Board um my name is Jackson Woods I'm the president of FBLA and I know you've seen me before um but our out ofate travel request for this year is for November 7th through 9th the uh national fall leadership conference is in Columbus Ohio and we're hoping to travel to that we anticipate 11 students and two to
046three chaperon fundraising through the trip will be provided through existing funds in fbl's account we did a lot of fundraising last year um and additionally it'll be supplemented through our concession and fundraisers at sporting events as well as tax credits um this conference is the same one that we traveled to in years past um two years ago in Orlando Florida and one year ago in Providence Rhode Island and um this conference provides a significant chance for attendees to connect and get information from colleges and scholarships as well as there's um recruiters from the military and student organizations uh the biggest part of fbaa nflc is workshops and classes to take some of the topics of these include budgeting personal finance job interviews leadership skills and public speaking as well as competition preparation uh the competition
047preparation aspect was especially essential last year in Rhode Island and three of our students were able to travel to Nationals this summer in Orlando and to represent bluid and as well as Arizona and the town of Pinetop Lakeside personally my experience at FBLA and FLC I have gained invaluable skills in leadership and success habits I've been able to connect with colleges and scholarships as well as gaining Connections In the Air Force and universities because of these conferences and the knowledge I've gained has assisted me in Choosing My academic aspirations so I respectfully request the board support tonight in our travel request for this important conference and this will grow um growing us as future Business Leaders and so we can bring back valuable experiences and knowledge for our peers and community and we appreciate the
048board's past and continuing support in our fbaa endeavors and thank you for your time and consideration tonight thank you can we hire him you're a well spoken young man and we appreciate that and we have every confidence that uh the future's in good hands comes to business at least in your hands right now so any comments or questions from the board if not can we have a motion to approve item 3.1 a motion from Chuck second from Jennifer all in favor that too would be in US item 3.2 recommendation to approve a one-time retirement retention not retirement stien I'm going let you I'm going let you take off from there Dr wri okay thank you Mr Merill so in order to try to provide some level of compensation in terms of an increase for our
049employees we're doing two things this year uh what we need we're seeking the board's approval on first is to move our for a one-time stiping for certified positions which would include teachers and counselors our administrators and also directors the folks that are at the chief executive level excluding myself it would mean Mr Neil and and uh Miss dou dugdale would be the only two in the chief Executives that would qualify for the 1500 and the the rest of the classified staff would would qualify for 500 so that would be districtwide and so it is a I think it's a a valuable investment we can afford to do it it is uh something we've been thinking about and trying to do our best it represents our our best effort to to help to the extent we're
050able to do so I would say under compensation also that we're moving from the uh 1200 HSA contribution which 94 of our of our employees have one and we're going to move that to, 1500 that's a bit of a benefit we're also absorbing the 4% increase in Insurance we're we're not going to pass that on to the employee so in combination all of these things represent the best effort and this is an important part we believe of trying to help um our employees where we can if there any questions I'm happy to answer I just have one question what can you explain where the funds came from yes Kimberly the funds um for the stien are coming from Esser that will exhaust our sr3 Jennifer has a question Jennifer can we make sure that we
051add in our um motion to include the counselors because their names were not listed under individuals we we sure could I mean if you would if it please the board we could add in with your motion if if you could if you would be interested to make that that's a clarification point for sure all right any other comments questions um Jennifer would you like to make the motion include yes also move okay I like to make a motion and also make sure that we include for clarification counselors on the list okay the that'll be in the minutes all right good and can we have a second from check all in favor okay that also is unanimous 3.3 I think Dr W you you address that already with your for 3 three 3.2 so we any
052questions or comments about 3.3 we have a motion that to accept 3.3 as written motion from Jennifer second from Margaret all in favor that two is unanimous 3.4 recommendation to approve the closure of the uh aoi program would you like to explain that to I understand what it is sure the the online instruction program that the aoi is a separate entity than the high school or the junior higher or the elementary school this was necessary in during covid we just fortuitously had it set up before Co we leaned on it during covid right now with the instructional time model we don't need it and it's one more thing to maintain and I don't see us going to remote learning frankly ever again for an extended period if we did need to do so for a
053shorter period of time or frankly for any length of time the instructional time model would accommodate for that we have the infrastructure in place from a technology perspective to support such an effort we it's just something that we have to maintain cost us money and time it's no it's Antiquated we don't need it and that came from our principles who have to prepare the work every year to keep it alive and so my recommendation to the board is that we seek approval just to just to close it not to renew that application it requires school board approval any questions regarding that any comments we have a motion then to accept item 3.5 oh wait is that not 3.5 it's AC 3.3 3.4 item 3.4 um have a motion to accept 3.4 as written a motion
054from Margaret a second from Jennifer all in favor that too looks to be unanimous okay item 3.5 uh recommendation to approve increase in compensation for the special ed Aid one AIDS one and two positions yes sir if I might yes sir so we're struggling at the current pay rate to attract AIDS in the area for U our special Aid programs our special ed programs that the we just simply cannot attract people to do the work it's a different body of work if you're a special education Aid level one or level two those are different bodies of work than if you're an aid at the elementary school in kindergarten that's it's very different um in many cases these folks that are filling these positions lift children they provide for them they help them go to the
055restroom a sped Aid a sped Aid to they will have to change a child's diaper or a youth's diaper I mean it's it's tough work and we're having enough hard time frankly we can't attract additional people we need four today um two in sped two and two in sped one we're not getting applications so my recommendation to the board the marketing is telling us um minimum wage in January is going to near 15 we're Buck above that in sped one and then sped two would be 19 now would we move our existing employees to those levels yes we would um the the impact of that is relatively U minimal I guess we nominal we could say yes $10,000 or under to make that move and I I'm I'm not confident we can even we can
056get the people at 19 an hour but we want to try but we need the board's approval to do it I'd be glad to answer any questions Mr President so are there any comments or questions anybody like to uh add to that if not can have a motion to accept item 3.5 to increase the uh special a special Aid one special Aid one and special Aid two reflecting $16 and $19 respective respectively any comments I have a motion a motion from Jennifer a second from Margaret all in favor thank you okay item 3.6 a recommendation to approve the activity stiens for the 2004 2005 school year I don't see that we need to go over those individually did anybody have any questions about those uh payments those onetime payments for coaches and AIDS and and
057uh teachers I have one question um how do we compare with other schools in the area for these it it would depend on the activity I would say um my guess is our stiping we provide for our band instructor our band our teacher that is is probably significantly more than the surrounding schools our head coaches in track female and in soccer I know are competitive uh where we haven't made any ground up and nor has anybody else's no one has the budget capacity to pay assistant coaches what we really need to head coaches at still 25 cents an hour but we've made a significant ground the last two years last year the board approved increases in the state in the excuse me soccer for men and women for boys and girls and also track boys
058and girls and that and then one for band we've also provided and recognized like Mr Bloom strand works all the time and was not being compensated we're paying him a small stien to run the lights he has the training to do it and there are many of those um Becky Evans does technical work we prob providing a small statement for her so they're not this is in representation of their relative worth but it's the best we can do I would say Mr wal to work competitive testing hey it's working now so um we have a motion to accept item 3.6 a motion from Margaret second from Chuck all in favor that two looks unanimous okay item 3.7 acknowledge and accept the retirement of Dr Wright Dr Wright you want to take off from here or
059you want us to I'll say only that the date would be July 1 2025 yeah and so it's been an honor and a privilege yeah you know it uh it has been a thankless job at at times and uh for a superintendent to last this many years in today's climate is really an exceptional thing and and I know it hasn't been easy all the time and I know there are Head Hunters have been after him trying to get him to go somewhere else and he would call me up and he'd say hey this this these guys want me to come and this is what they're going to pay me and said man we can't pay anymore and he'd say well I'll stay cuz I made a commitment and uh so I appreciate Dr Wright and
060I appreciate his work his knowledge and his willingness to keep getting better and keep moving this entire School District to getting better and better and better you know the day you took over was a challenge and every year has been a challenge until this year I think it's gone pretty smooth right no major fires to put out just yet so would anybody else like to say something guess not all right so I have a motion to accept the retirement date of Dr R is July 1st 2025 have a second second from check all in favor what if we say no we tried yeah honestly I've told him no before so that looks to be unanimous also okay the next item on the agenda would be to help us find a replacement for Dr Wright do
061you want to just kind of briefly go through the process of that yes sir so that everybody understands where we're at yes sir so um the recommendation I would like to make to the board is to secure the services of Asa with Arizona School administrators they have a search mechanism where they have experienced superintendents that will do a Statewide search meeting the criteria that the board establishes and so if it one of the items of the board business will be before he adjourn is to move September's meeting from 5:00 to 4:00 to make room for Dr Mark Jord stads presentation to the board and then the board will come up with will meet with Mr Jordan stad and come up with a criteria for what you're looking with for the position some of the qualifications
062you're seeking and what that looks like and then that will commence a very well organized and detailed effort to attract applicants and to establish the interview process and the stakeholder feedback and input um I would imagine it would reflect similar what I went through the gauntlet about 10 and a half years ago and so it's it's very helpful to get you know the input in the communties involvement and so uh the board will have its opportunity to meet with the consultant and to provide the framework for the search the board will also set a range for compensation uh recommendation or preferences for for instance level of Education experience uh do you want an instate or out of state applicant my suggest is it says Statewide so I'm assuming Arizona so there there are those uh
063elements of the search that help it to move forward so it helps the Board I I I will add though that it it is wise in my humble estimation to begin this early because you want to get out of the gate so you're not waiting in uh late December early part of the year and those people have already committed elsewhere so it I think it's wise to get started early ideally the board would have everything that it needs and the candidates sufficient and had gone through the process to make your determination late November in a special meeting no later than early December and so that would be um the context Mr President if that provides what you're looking for it's it's my understanding that after we hire these guys to to to start this surge
064they'll give us a process by where we can involve the community uh to interview and Give opinions on that so that the whole thing will be open and transparent to everybody involved in town the administration School faculty so that that process will start and uh we just need approval to do that so to start that process with this uh with this group so can I have a motion to uh or is there any comment or questions so if I could add Mr Mr President Mark Jordan stad has been in in education in Arizona for 50 years he knows everybody if he doesn't know him he knows people that knows them part of the process is to make sure you vet your applicants very recently a district hired an applicant from out of state and had
065to terminate them because of various activities uh had they gone through you know ASA I don't think that it had the same problem so ASA is a Grassroots it is a economical way and your getting Arizona experienced Arizona administrators especially that understand rural communities to help you out with your search and they've been far more effective instate cap instate applicants are are far more the the odds of them staying and being successful are exponentially higher than Hing than hiring from out of state so those are just some of the other details when they come next month they will give us a u a proposal that includes a so we'll have to approve on that too so anyway can we have a uh Margaret would you like to say something so we have a motion to
066accept item 3.8 have a motion from Jennifer second from Chuck all in favor all right the process has officially begun item 3.9 is just uh as Dr Wright has stated to move our board meeting to 4 o'clock next month on the 10th of September instead of 5:00 will that be any complications that that's so that they have plenty of time to come here and do their presentation and presentation and then go back home so so we don't have to pay for a motel room what what announced here so if there's any problem with that no problems with that so we have a motion to accept item 3.9 which would uh change our normal time from 5: to 4:00 p.m on September the 10th do have that motion motion from Chuck have a second from Margaret
067all in favor okay that's item 3.4 is unanimous item four Dr Wright we're going to turn some time over to you to uh address some of the things some of the positive and maybe some of the negative maybe for beginning weeks of school yes sir uh it's been a good start so far we it's been very well organized those folks all along the front row from technology to our staff in the back have done a great job of being prepared and so we've got up to a good school year General as a general update our capacity concerned uh and we we noted this we're going to have larger class sizes we understand that we have fewer teachers classes are going to are going to be larger than ideal uh the kindergarten class is at about
068the average is about 26 right now we'd like to try to M maintain that to keep it under 25 our first line of defense is we're going to add a couple more AIDS so there'll be three AIDS there's one now we'll add three AIDS we'd also like to and we'll come for the board for an additional position a first grade we'll do that in September a first grade teacher/ kindergarten teacher a combination class that would alleviate the 26 students that we have in first grade per class so if we added one teacher between the two grades that would bring both numbers below 24 and for grades kindergarten first that's really important if we can do that the primary grades the other grades are higher than ideal but they're it's tolerable it's nothing that we should
069be surprised about uh when I'm looking and talking to my colleagues across the mountain in Snowflake proper they kindergarten 1 to 30 um Taylor's much smaller but snowflakes 1 to 30 across the valley it's about 1 to 26 1 to 28 it just it it's a function of Economics class sizes are going to grow our class sizes at the Junior High in the core classes are all under 40 I mean they're about 32 to 35 depending on the class I would say we're fortunate that's the case classes will get larger we don't have as many teachers we can't afford as many so we're putting our resources where we can in the primary grades I'll have more on that project with a with a proposal to the board in September for its approval for an additional
070position um and as we have had in the past if there's any immediate changes are needed if we need to do a special board meeting for one item to hire the person will do that the US Forest Service is agreeable to the deed of rightaway deed that we want to issue the town they're agreeable to they see no conflict in our current agreement they don't see it as a violation of the agreement they will provide that in writing so there's no need to worry about that I just wanted to report back to the board on that and once we get that in writing I'll inform the board again our recent emergency evacuation plan that was held last Friday we did it uh we did it earlier in the week at the kindergarten and then I
071think Friday at the high school in junior high and what we're planning on is how long does it take for us to mobilize our buses and evacuate our children and staff right now we're at about 45 minutes and for a natural disaster you're probably doing okay if you can get them out to a safe place at 45 um the the complicated and most complicated element is at the high school because kids leave they jump in with relatives they jump in with friends you might have 30% of the kids actually taking a bus on evacuation we're trying to iron out a lot of stuff right now we recognize we're just starting but you got to get started somewhere but I'm proud of the things that have surfaced with respect to uh the overall assessment we have
072to improve communication for an example so we're we're purchasing radios to make sure that the elementary school which is a large facility can Comm communicate and that's going to be important once the students are sent to the location for safety and then we we unify them with their parent that's a process it's a very detailed process to make sure the right child goes to the right parent or guardian and so radios were needed to make sure during those handoffs um we're trying to deal with how do we get kids to report back that they're safe we want to use our social media we want to use the technology we have in place and start teaching our older kids if you leave during evacuation please report back and let us know where you are and that
073you're safe so there's a lot of moving parts to this in in April we'll have uh Jesus vosa come back and part of the safety training we'll focus on with him will be reunification and evacuation we'll also do our active um active shooter training uh we have enough buses if we had to evacuate all of the kids at the same time it that would be I would say on paper no but in in reality yes because again only about 30% we estimate of the high school are going to get on the bus they're going to just leave or go with friends or relatives so for the junior high and the and the high school on paper that one that one's easier if the High School junior high Elementary everybody at once on paper we don't
074have enough buses true and so what we're trying to get then is have we're we started with drills just with staff so at the elementary for instance we're pretty confident correct me if I'm wrong Mr Grace that within 45 minutes we could have all of our youngsters including our exceptional need students who would be paired one-on-one with the support safely evacuated to the um to the evacuation Point wherever that would be there's a number of them Round Valley snowflake sholo the two Stak centers and sholo we have plenty of evacuation depending on where the natural disaster is we're starting with a natural disaster because number one it's light it's more likely and it's less scary for the kids so there's a lot to iron out we just got started but I'm proud of them for
075doing and taking the steps that they have and we're in the best shape we can be at this point and by the end of the year we'll be in a better position than we are now we'll get better on the uh the next next thing uh August 19th is code talker day the district recognized that day so there'll be no school on August 19th BR day is Saturday the 24th uh and so that we ask the community come on down a lot of it is is gardening yard work and the be family we can use that kind of thing and it'll be from 8 to noon we'll provide donuts and uh drinks so come on down for that in uh our Labor Day just as a matter of information August 30th and September 2 schools
076closed in recognition of Labor Day and then there's a food drive uh Ty Woods contacted me he and another group of uh of community members are working with faith-based organizations churches the church and other churches to gather as many supplies that we can for backpacks to support that program and that's going to be on September 11th you'll hear more about that and we'll use our social media to do that on September 12th and 13th our parent teacher conferences so in short if the board doesn't have any questions on any of those items that would conclude my report questions no questions so um next item on the agenda is a call to the public and uh anybody that would like to address the board at this time we welcome to do so um just in mind
077that we can't respond to that we can ask staff to look forward into something we'd like to um open that to about three minutes per person so you can just line up and come to the podium right now this is not yeah that just shouldn't said that if I can make it Mr okay Marl if I could just clarify the next board meeting the board approved 4:00 and not 5 it's says five in the agenda but should say four yeah mine says four okay all right I uh I personally would like to address the board just as a member of the public David Merill live or 25 whatever you know I um in in in defense of Jennifer Brimhall there's a lot of rumors that she started a charter school that's false she has not
078started a school she is a total advocate for school funds and according to her you're going to start a pack to start to Lobby our government to give more money to the school so I think there is there's a lot of rumors I had people from out of state call me say what's going on with your board they must not like the school they're starting their own Charter their own private school so huh who started that I don't know who started that but I'm trying to put an end to it right now for Jennifer so you can quit shedding tears over that all right is there anybody else that would like to address the board if not I'd like to have a announced that our board meeting will be at 4 o'clock September 10th we've
079already approved that and can I have a motion to adjourn have a motion from Chuck second from Margaret all in favor that looks to be unanimous