BRUSD - Regular Governing Board Meeting, Tuesday, May 14, 2024 @ 5:00 pm

001like to bring this meeting into order and we'll start with the Pledge of Allegiance and and I forgot to ask somebody so I'll will lead it myself this is great to see so many people out here this evening appreciate you coming Dr R I'm just going to turn the next several items over to you these recognitions and let you just go through the agenda that way thank you we're going to start with our recognition of the student the month Awards with first the uh Elementary School Mr Grace could you please introduce your student of the month absolutely so our student of the month is Donna Aila come on up Donna and here tonight to uh say a few words about her is Miss Heidi Johnson she is one of our ELD teachers Donna is is

002an outstanding student she's sixth grader here at at our school and has done everything to make our school a phenomenal place so here's Miss Johnson thank you Donna is a really good student she's been here for two years um she has very good citizenship and she's just all around cares about people and she's she's just I enjoyed having her in class this year [Applause] thank you congratulations Miss hoffmeier for our next recipient could I have Nolan Terrell come up please [Applause] Nolan is a seventh grader at blidge Junior High um and his teachers Rave about him um one of his teachers sent me an email just said he is an all-around just a great kid he wants to learn he's excited about education in junior high that is tough to have so much dedication to

003their education um but he he also just promotes um great Behavior he is a great example for other students um at at the Junior High in both seventh and 8th grade other students follow his lead and so he is a really strong leader on our campus we're grateful to have him thanks have [Applause] that Mr web all right Mia McFall come on Mia McFall herard come on [Applause] up so the high school we' like to recognize Mia for the month of May and let me read a little bit about Mia so she's been chosen as the student of the month for May she came to us as a freshman and has been pretty has a pretty amazing High School career she's applied herself hard academic classes taking honors AP and dual enrollment classes even with

004a heavy academic load she maintained a weighted GPA of 4.57 which earned us top a spot on the top 10% list so congratulations there she's also been active in student government has been instrumental in building school spirit on campus serving as senior class treasur and also a member of NHS and she was also captain on the varsity soccer team and also All Region first team for soccer and she plans on going to Na and study exercise physiology so so amazing career at high school and we want to thank you for all you've [Applause] done thank you congratulations to our students nice nice job for the teacher of the month Miss hoffm will you please present that award and make that presentation could I invite Miss Caroline Cox up [Applause] please um I have the privilege

005of working in close proximity to Miss Cox um every day and I see on a daily basis wrangling all the little all the little kids and she does it with such Grace and finesse and they it is they are adorable and I've seen I've just I've been in the classroom watching the the ordered chaos that goes on in a preschool room they have so much fun in those classrooms and the kids are treated with such kindness um and they're and they're treated so gently um and it's just an amazing setting so we're so lucky to have Caroline Cox here at the junior excuse me at the preschool near the junior high and it's great she's actually also um we have uh junior high AIDs that go and work with um with Caroline and with Kristen

006Hal um and they treat them so well and they really prepare them um for just things that they need to know about education and so we're grateful for that learning that's taking place there too so thank [Applause] you congratulations for the BR star recipients uh would one of the principles either Jake or or Lauren like to make the presentation for the first BR star for Megan Penrod you bet so Mrs Penrod is not here tonight she's actually chaperoning our high school senior trip so she's in California with 50 crazy kids and Disneyland but she's having a great time we want to recognize her for being the amazing person that she is we couldn't do everything that we do at the high school without Mrs penrod's help she's she's so strong and amazing and and does

007great with the kids and she has great relationships with the staff um she's really solid and we're we count on her for so many different things even with with a bout of illness she still Powers through and and has more energy than most of us there so it's uh we're we're really impressed with how hard she works and the determination that she has and we'd like to recognize her as a br star for the month of May so congratulate May with [Applause] me Mr Murphy Steve would you like to make your presentation to other be our Star Award for the month good evening everybody Doris Murphy has been with us for 10 years she is going to be hard to replace we're she's leaving us after 10 years and thank you for all your hard

008work and dedication you are a perfect example right up there with Tommy cran doors and I I mean that with all my heart plus you're my sister so but it's very very true she was she has been amazing all these years and thank you so much [Applause] our next presentation it used to be called the BR Superstar award and this award was given to an individual or individuals that were selected has Be Our Stars throughout the year just like these folks have been selected today and then this last year we lost Tommy Crane who is and was respected globally Tommy often was mistaken for the principal because he was so well-dressed he was a custodian and he always looked great very often people would come start talking to him and say oh I'm sorry I'm

009not the principal or they thought he was the superintendent I'm sorry I'm I'm the custodian he was very impressive Tommy did his job better than anyone we've ever met and we have some fine dedicated people like Doris that work very hard Tommy BR brought an energy and set the example for us and so we're changing it from a br Superstar to the Tommy Crane award you can clap [Applause] so our our first recipient Mr Grace could you come up here please and help me with this one our first recipient is one of our outstanding teachers uh from the moment I first met Justin resop I was impressed and very much convinced of his dedication to his students and to his family the family the BR family his immediate family and his the kids the children

010which he teaches he is an outstanding teacher and even a better human being Justin I think I saw your handsome face come on up here things Mr Grace So Justin embodies everything that this board is about um he cares genuinely for every kid that walks into our building he's in the hallways he he outworks most people um he he adds to our campus every day um in ways that that cannot be measured I'm absolutely grateful to have him on our team and and part of the BR family thank you Mr Isa our next Tommy Crane recipient is Megan [Applause] Penrod and true to form Megan's working still and she is on um this is a war detail she's with on the senior trip and so it's three days of no sleep watch 100 or so

011very rambunctious energetic young men and women and Megan is doing that and she has really set the tone if if you really had an idea of the uh the difficulties that she that she deals with on on a health basis and the fact she shows up and when I mean shows up I don't mean shows up and sits in a chair I mean she shows up every day bright and early she works hard her Devotion to the students and her BR family and her own family and her community is unquestion so we love you miss [Applause] bankin the uh M Mr archet do you have our BR student athlete or excuse me high school athletes of the year if you could make that presentation we have a couple um it was hard to Wrangle so

012many we have about a hundred uh student athletes who are recognized for All Conference or all state or All Region so it's a pretty pretty astonishing number um I have all the recognitions if you instead of saying a hundred names I typed them up so you could see who they were based off of sport um just because there were so many awesome accomplishments this year um um one thing I I did want to one individual I wanted to recognize especially was Eric gindo come on up Eric so for less than 1% of high school athletes can say they were a state champion at something less than 1% Eric can say he's done that twice he's two for two so far at being a state champ wrestler so I called him up to my office I

013said Eric what can we do to recognize your awesome accomplishments and we came up with the idea of a banner then we could hang in the gym and on this banner I left room for two more state championships CU he's only a sophomore so he's I left room for two more years to put on that Banner um I got him in touch with our individual who makes these I said I want you to make it you make it you you make it fun you make it what you want it and this is what we came up with so hang it the other way there you go [Applause] so so once we get done here we'll get it hung in the gym and hopefully he can add a couple more years to this um next year

014year and a senior Year too thank you guys thank you Mr archet and the work that you and Coach archet Ricky Lyn have invested in our student athletes you've really elevated that the recognition program and highlighted the the the ne necessity to be a student first and that is uh that is very much appreciated the Archer bets are moving to the Valley and they will both be missed sorely within their two-year ten tenure they've made both a combined and individually an a lasting impact on our schools and thank you Jake we appreciate and love you [Applause] all we'd now like to recognize those folks that are retiring but not returning be very frequently folks will retire and then come back for a year or two and we we beg them to do so some of

015these have already done that and they're really retiring this year others are just flat retiring and so if the following people could please come up and most of them are teachers not all so if the teachers could help us form a line so we could recognize everyone at once let me call the person's name and you could go ahead and uh applaud and I'll wait for the next one if you can come up and sit here stand up here until you can all be um recognized together as well I'd appreciate appreci we'll start with lesie angle [Applause] har Michelle [Music] gon my favorite teacher in the world shamaine [Applause] Wright Mike shimel [Applause] there you go Jennifer best Jennifer is unable to be here tonight Cynthia [Applause] rothberger Dr Kevin Jones [Applause] Mike grenal Greg

016Shimmel and Doris [Applause] Murphy Doris I know she was here is she still here she's not here anymore okay she left okay one more round of applause we'll take a picture and thank [Applause] you teachers you got to stand in line you were not dismissed thank you Mr web and Mr graceon the combined experience of these experience for these folks is over 225 years it's a long time I remember when several of these kids were in high school Margaret too Chuck probably had the opportunity to teach some of these kids in high school awesome thank you so much guys thank you so much I don't kiss all the teachers on the lips just my wife yes sir if you want to recognize the uh we would like to recognize our foreign exchange students now and

017we've asked uh Casey flake if you'll come up and and do that there she is I'm a pretty loud talker but um we I'm excited to introduce the exchange students um my name is Casey flake I have taken over for Marty Harris as being the international exchange student coordinator this last year and Marty did an incredible job for 17 years running this [Applause] program the reason why I am interested in exchange students is actually because I went to bluid K through 12 and became very good friends with exchange students at Blue Ridge that Marty had started so I I had great experiences with them feeling feeling like I was connected with people from different cultures around the world I hosted an exchange student myself last year because of these good feelings and good experience that

018I had had with exchange students and now I'm able to help other families experience this um great opportunity as well it was interesting to me as I as I trained to become an exchange student coordinator to learn why this program exists in the United States the reason that the United States has this program is to develop Goodwill globally they have found that if we will take people from other countries and other cultures and show them what it's really like to live in America and to see what families are really like they walk away with good feelings that last throughout their life aspect Foundation the foundation that we use to find these exchange students takes cream of the crop students from around the world and places them it's really fun that Blue Ridge are small community

019that gives this great snapshot of small town life in America what it's really like to go to a high school what it's really like to be a normal us family go to prom all these things that you don't have in a lot of schools in different countries they get to experience that and create connections and many of you in this room have hosted and I know you've had lifelong relationships with these students who you've attended weddings and things like that throughout their life so I appreciate Blue Ridge supporting this program having these students come and I would like to introduce them and they will introduce their host families they've had this year our students this year are Luma Bueno and she's representing on her shirt her country of Brazil she is from Rio de Janeiro

020and she can literally see from her house that Jesus statue which is just amazing she says that Americans always find that crazy but I really do I'm like I can't help it it's so cool that these this iconic thing that we've seen from our country that really is where she lives we also have Thomas Jackson and he is from Italy so if you guys would come up and bring your exchange families as well so that you can introduce them Luma said you have to go first so hi everybody my name is Thomas Jackson like like Casey said I'm a foreign exchange student from Italy this is my host mom she's technically from Germany she has been living in America for over over 50 years she's a hard worker she has worked here at blidge for

021almost 10 years now she's retired she's enjoyed his her retire her retirement and I mean that's it and despite being a terrible cooker she's a great old Mom first time I came to America and I said well what am I going to eat and she said well there's pasta with mayonnaise are you kidding me Maya so I like we don't blame and I play soccer V soccer I had a lot of fun with them I've known great athletes and people from and not only in America but also Mexican people they're very nice and welcome I will I'm welcoming their house I'm welcoming Maya's house and I want to thank also my best friend I went with Colorado with him he was one of the best exp I've had in my life I really love Colorado

022and I want to um in the end I want to thank Maya for taking me to New York for Christmas time probably one of the biggest shame I had in my life and thank Maya to realiz it different than Thomas I actually like American food because I just like food and she's a really good cooker I live with the webs they have four kids and they welcome me to their home since the beginning like they made me feel like home I didn't have any type of problems of not feeling loved or anything like that I just felt like C instantly I live with kids I love kids I live with dogs I love dogs so since beginning I had great experience with them and I went to Colorado too it was no to Utah sorry

023to Utah it was really fun um I played soccer track and PE ball um I don't really know what else to say you were really good at this um thanks [Applause] so we want to give a special thanks especially to these host families that make it possible for these students to come give them such a great experience and especially for bluid and supporting this program and allowing them to have these experiences thank you thank you Casey we look forward to our exchange students every year they bring a spirit to the school that uh it's not matched remind me I need to that families we're looking for families now for this next school year so if you have any interest please contact me they can either stay for one semester or for a full year and

024you basically just provide them three meals a day and a place to sleep and a safe place to be place to study and that's it thank you since I'm here I'd like to just say I am totally blessed that after really 19 years of being in addition to being the um counseling department chair I did this on the side because a parent came to me and said they'd like me to be that coordinator for them to bring a girl from Norway and I says if it's okay with the principal and the superintendent I'll be glad because you know it helps with world peace and and cultural understanding so I went to do it for one year and I did it for 19 but I needed to retire and then look who stepped up in my

025place I'm totally blessed to have you doing this so thank you so much and she does need families by the way if you wish to host but timing may not be right and you know someone that may want to host then aspect has decided that if someone refers a family and they decide to host then they send that referral person $200 because that is so helpful in helping these dreams come true for a foreign exchange student so thank you for letting me talk thank you again okay the next item on the agenda is our consent agenda and board members I just need to say that uh Diana Butler is at home and she's participating on her phone with us Dr Wright has his phone tuned to her right now so if she has anything she

026likes to say she speaks up and U we'll we'll help that be said so the next item is a consent consent agenda um there are a multitude of items on the consent agenda board after looking over the consent agenda is is there one item or several items that you'd like to take out and vote on independently can we take out 2.6 2.6 that's a recommendation to approve stiens and position adjustments for 2023 24 year uh is there any objection to that then we will vote independently on 2.6 at that time so the consent agenda as it is right now is items 2. 2. one all the way to 2.9 with the exception of 2. six I have a motion to vote on that consent agenda as stated a motion from Chuck I'll second is there

027any other U conversation about that if not we'll vote all in favor say I Diana thank you we got an I from Diana okay item 2.6 this is recommendation to approve stiens and positions for 2023 and 24 um we all received a list did you review would you like to go over that list or anything particular on the list I can't pull it up on my phone right now so I didn't memorize it exactly but there was just a um I'm just requesting a general review and then I talked to Mike a little bit about it and I didn't follow up but um how see how we relate with our stiens based on other school districts on a comparison on a comparison basis if we can do something like that and then also um see

028how we can fundraise to increase those stiens there's some um positions I think that we've kind of left out um and then others that I think need to be increased so like can we use the activities funds I don't know I'm sorry I didn't yeah if I may Mr Merill and the board please do Jennifer had concerns with and the idea which I think is attainable is we look at all of our varsity head coaching positions for all programs and evaluate those to see if there are any adjustments we can make we last time we did an evaluation of every stiping for every position extracurricular it would cost us close to 150,000 to make adjustments but to adjust just the head coaches at the high school level that's that's doable I mean the the board

029could choose to approve an adjustment of maybe $20,000 that would be meaningful considering most of these people earn 5 cents an hour as it is so anything extra is appreciated so I will meet with our CFO and we'll go through the varsity positions and come back to the board with what they're presently being paid and what the suggested adjustments might be as far as the fundraising we are ramping that up we can still do better um and any fundraising that occurs as you know needs to be board approved and there are some folks there are quite a few of our volunteers that are doing so on a volunteer basis and and don't want to be paid but we want to try to provide assistant coaches for each of those positions too which is a little

030more challenging to adjust those but we can provide those and we'll review those again to make sure that they are constructed with equity and those stiens also includes like the theater dep department and stuff like that also so I think that we've ramped up our program so much and I remember when we reviewed those it was right when the AIA was allowing you know um coaches to continue to coach so like for example there's not only fall soccer but there's spring soccer so now coaches are re almost required if that we're going to maintain our presence to coach year round instead of just four months so that's um basically and then how do we make sure that we capture the right coaches and extracurricular leaders and maintain them so that was my biggest concern no

031I was I was just looking at the list uh couldn't pull it up I pulled it up and you know I reviewed it and uh to to be a head coach for $1,700 is not much for for the responsibility and the time put into that so you know and then I'm looking at um some of the helpers $40 spotter $25 scorebook $40 you know so there's not a whole lot of money in that and I I I wholeheartedly think we need to pay more especially to those head coaching positions absolutely this is for last year we don't have it for available for this year right yeah so I'd be curious to see that you know before it's history so when we do that this next year absolutely what we'll do is we'll make a presentation

032to the board and have the current um compensation and then the suggested and then take board feedback and move forward as long as we get it done before July 15th before we do our our the board has to review and the budget for the upcoming school year will be in good shape I just have one more question so I've done a little bit of research on some of the neighboring school districts and they usually have pretty robust um fundraising large events where they pull in at least $100,000 towards their extracurricular activities and so I didn't know the like the legality of cuz I know that some towns also are basically putting this on so anyway so if we can just review like what we can do in our bubble and how we can capture um

033you know that type of Revenue that other towns have so it's difficult to compete with I've had a question in that regard too so funds that are donated through say businesses or whatever that go to the school can those will the AIA let us use those to pay coaches or they just for the program overall the question is not an AIA question it's a it's a school funding question and all the funds have to flow through the district they have to be a board approved so as so the I'll answer both I think we can I think we probably ought to stay away from the fundraising suggesting now because it's not on the agenda but it's noted But to answer the question which is on the agenda well I think they're both sort of off

034the agenda um I'll give you the short answer want to look at all of it and we'll give you some suggestions I would say that we need to recognize we're not sholo or even snowflake we're much smaller Community however we do have a lot of influential people that own second homes that are very much supportive of extracurricular activities Fine Arts Athletics and so that's an area we can tap into and we should and so we it's noted we'll do we'll take a look at that for up planning for the upcoming year and put that along with the uh the stien question that has been asked in present that to the board if that's acceptable I would hate to see you know the largest donor running the program I don't ever want to see that happen

035in a small school or any type of school where the largest donor feels like they have a say in the program I don't think that's appropriate so whatever stop and safeguards we could have in that I think that would be very wise so all we need is a vote on the sitiens as they were paid this past year item 2.6 we have a motion to vote on that a motion from Chuck a second from Margaret all in favor Diana say I or n Diana is an i all right next item on the agenda is item 3.1 one recommendation to approve the revised budget for fiscal year 2024 Miss dugdale would you please walk us through that revision sure good evening governing board president governing board member so uh by law we have to do a

036budget Revision in May maybe maybe Chris did it go oh there we thank you um we had to do a budget revision by May um that's in Arizona state law um and so all school districts do it and we just a reminder we're on current year funding that's going to come into play here when I get to the next slide so when we adopt the budget um in in June um we have to put a number for our ADM but because it's a current year budget we have to just kind of pick a number that we think we're going to have for that budget and traditionally you always pick a higher number than your enrollment when you do that budget in um the summer because you don't know what your enrollment is going to be

037when school starts and so that's why we have these revisions so that you can see we had our our first Revision in December again um Arizona Department of Education mandates that revision um if our enrollment drops which it did because we estimated a higher number and we do that on purpose so that we have money to make it through I don't know what happened struggling today Chris thank you um and so group a is um general education students and Group B is special ed students um elll students gifted students um and rk3 reading students as well that's where that number comes from so our budget um is determined by our enrollment in both groups so you can see here for our M budget um and our first when our adopted um budget we had a

038little over 13 million and then um in our second revision we went up to 14 million that um encompassed our carryover and then our second revision we're just down a little bit because we had a slight um decrease in enrollment but it wasn't much if you look back on the last screen if I can get it to go back it it was not very many kids so that's why we just have that slight decrease and then so that's our maintenance and operation budget and that pays our teacher salaries and salaries the majority and then the second thing that got adjusted on the budget is our capital budget and capital budget um is current year enrollment that's why or prior year enrollment that's why there's such a slight um uh addition in December because what happens

039is Arizona Department of Education recalculates our ADM um on July 15th after the school year is over so that's why we had that $14,000 increase in December because it gets recalculated in July and when you do your revision in December you add that in and that's why there's no change from um revision one to revision two because there's no recalculation for Olde um between December and May and that's because capital is um based on prior year enrollment all right are there any questions yes Capital yes had you showed a revision of $14,000 yeah is that down or up no that's up okay yeah any other questions dianae do you have a question no Jennifer Margaret anybody have a question so we need a recommendation to I mean we need a motion to vote on item

040six 2.6 which is a oh no I'm sorry microphone didn't like me uh item 3.1 recommendation to approve revised budget for the fiscal year 2024 so I have a motion from Chuck second from Margaret all in favor Diana say I and we might have lost her she said I okay item 3.2 recommendation to approve moving from a 24 credit to a 22 credit hours for graduation requirement Dr Wright do you want to explain that yes yes sir I will we have operated for um s years now about about seven years on a block schedule unfortunately our funding would not allow us to continue with that the block schedule requires about 20% more teachers even with a hybrid schedule which was a creative approach to the block schedule um we've eliminated through retirement resignation eight positions

041at the high school and we're moving to a six period day and we have that in place for next year the schedules have been built based on that and so it doesn't require we won't have as many options for one thing and to to earn as many credits as you do where you have eight uh a four a block period has four classes uh compared to the the construct at the schedule is that in a block period you have the chance to earn about 26 credits over the course of about four years in a six period day it's m you couldn't earn 24 credits without going to summer school so we're trying to do is bring the credits in alignment with the state minimum which we're funded State minimum levels to 22 credits from 24

042that will keep kids from having to go to summer school and if kids choose to go to Zero Hour for athletic weightlifting for instance and they want to go to release time it allows them a little bit of flexibility in their schedule so at a minimum for the adjustment we're asking to to move from a 24 to a a 22 credit hour day excuse me credit required for graduation re to graduate so so way I'm understanding this so if if kids that there's a possibility of getting 24 credit hours to graduate and that was our minimum to graduate and that was the all that they could possibly get to graduate without doing extra credit stuff so going with 22 if a kid happens to a child I should say I be crude if if a

043child flunks a class and doesn't retake that class or then they still have an option to I mean they'll still graduate with 22 credits if they've lost two two credits right Mr web can you bring some clarity to the discussion here's the expert yeah there you go the expert right so the dropping the required the number required to 22 gives us the flexibility like Dr wri is saying for those students that want to take whether it's Seminary release time Seminary or if they want to take another music class in there where they they couldn't fit it in with all the other required classes so it just gives a little more flexibility in their schedule or if a student they still have to meet the required you know your four English your four math your three

044social studies your three science and then your elect is on top of that but if a student fails the class that gives them at least another one or two chances to make that up without having to do summer school or you know doing it in a zero hour class I think that's what I was trying to think way I it so thank you any other questions from the board Jennifer we're going to be discussing the course content later though to ask type of questions so this is just to reduce the 22 credit hours correct okay and and that would show up in our in our requirements for graduation as we're going through credit checks and all that okay and then um how does that affect Juniors current Juniors so they they will have like it

045they're they have an overabundance of credits because they've had the ability to have 32 credits if they had four years of an eight per block schedule with eight possibility so there's going to be a little flexibility so we have some that they're going to have more our current Juniors will have more options for credits to be able to elective type classes so we may have a huge group of kids that can graduate early no because they still have to our classes are year round now so you're going to have to have a yearr round math class A year round English English class those two they have to take their senior year some kids we make an exception if they're in the navat program um they've had the ability to take those classes their junior year

046this year um and so we've there's been some flexibility there have you thought about um maybe having a tiered system so it's like the freshman and sophomores are required 22 and then the current June you know what I mean or does it really matter it just the 22 number is based on the number of teachers that we have teaching courses and so it it really wouldn't make that big of a difference to those those kids that the number of electives or or credits that they're taking any other questions any question Diana Margaret's got one over here question Margaret I have you gotten any feedback from the student over this um they're yeah they're they're upset that they're not going to have as many elective opportunities and we just have the conversation with them unfortunately this

047is the State of Affairs where we are we've had to make cuts to right siize our staff with what we're receiving from the state so we're still trying and if you look at the number of courses that we do still offer and the number of CTE programs it's still very rich and kids have a lot of opportunities for some great classes still m Mr Merill if I might add to this has not just been an arbitary decision arbitrary decision that we've thought let's just change the schedule it's a function of not passing an override in 2017 and not passing a bond in 2023 we've had to cut our budget proportionally and so we're reducing our spending by about $1.7 million and we're doing it through natural attrition in almost every case but three of the

04820 fewer people we have 17 either resigned or re tired and so we're bringing our headcount into alignment with our state funding and I'm not confident that we have the past the ability to pass uh an override or a bond anytime soon it's sort of the political climate and that's the reality in the hand that we've been dealt so we're bring in doing the responsible thing and bringing our the size of our staffing and the courses that we're offering in alignment with our funding any other questions thank you Mr web so is there any discussion from the board between members if not can we have a motion to vote on item 3.2 to change credit hours from 24 to 22 to graduate from high school a motion I have a second from Chuck all in

049favor say I all right that looks unanimous thank you i' just like to thank the everybody that worked on this I mean we just say we're changing at a meeting and the hours that it takes to do this and that will take next fall to to get everybody fit in where they're supposed to be so it's a lot of work thank you I agree Mr web and Jake and Megan have worked a lot of hours to make this happen in a relatively short period of time and so thank you well recognized we appreciate your help all right next item on the agenda is item 3.3 a recommendation to approve the Junior leadership the JLA Academy after school program Vicky Solomon is here like to hear from you or Mike or Beth thank you so much

050and uh this is from the junior Leadership Academy to the board just wanted to thank you so um for those of you who aren't familiar with Junior Leadership Academy this was actually the 15th year and about 3 years ago we started a pilot program to try an after school JLA rather than a summer JLA what we normally do and it worked so well and it was beneficial for the parents and for the students and whoever enrolled in it like if we had 25 or 28 well we had 25 or 28 that finished and so we were at 100% attendance with the after school JLA so that's what we we've been doing for the last several uh years and um just to give you a quick glimpse of what they do it is crazy amazing I'm

051going to read off what they do in 10 days and and you're I might get tired but listen to this so they read a mama bear book ice breaker name game Behavior contract goal setting a mile every day they either run or walk and they record it and get better each day hiking with a hawk and Nick team building activities carpet squares marbles bottle rockets habits thinking mindset Waterworks Tu of War sack races tag Nexus keep clear mind Open Spaces yoga personal stories medical x-rays representing lack of judgment Under the Influence red Haw Ranch field trip recovery stories kayaking cornhole bouncy house paddle boring alcohol goggles plastic knife throwing uh Pizza root beer floats how to do an interview public speaking sutera visits with the elderly obstacle courses Nexus your timeline and dash dealing with

052reality and life within goals life choices and handle and how to handle stress writing letters and questions to the author of mama bear book safe places with uh counselor Becky Montoya Wright JLA closing ceremony with parents family and treats isn't that amazing what these these these kids are amazing they cram all of this in and there's leadership involved there is respect there's mannerism there is the non- bullying and and and how to deal with the stressors in life so this is one of my favorite programs and don't tell White River or snowflake this but this is my favorite team J uh this jle facilitator team has been here for about almost the whole 15 years and they are fantastic so I'm going to turn some time over to them and let them tell you a

053little bit more I I want to personally thank um Paul and Kim back in the back there um they hosted us out at Red Hawk Ranch and you know what they do with kids and um they extended that to us uh for JLA so they really really helped us so thank you it was nice to see you two here that was by accident but um this is emua and he's super excited to get up here and read something to you uh look how excited he is he's also in my class poor kid so anyway the microphone buddy you can do this hi my name is imua Duma I'm a fifth grader in blue rid Elementary School this year I got to participate in junior Leadership Academy it was really fun some of the activities I

054liked were kaying paddle boarding and launching bottle rockets I also like running the mile every day because I like running a big part of Junior Leadership Academy was learning not how not to do drugs because it's bad for you and it makes people not be themselves we we learn how to say no to drugs we also learn how to do teamwork with a marble game we have five or four PE five or four people half a tube in your hand and the and the marble has to get down from one side of the room to the other you have to be patient and not rush everyone you have to have Team teamwork to win I would like to thank Mr shim Mr and Mrs shimel for all the things they do for us I learned

055lots and have lots of fun thank [Applause] you lady marcino is also in my class and she's super excited to get up here and talk um here she goes hi my name is ly marceno and in J we ran a mile and did an obstacle course it was hard but also lots of fun we went to SAA and talked to some elderly people they told us about their lies and I learned it is okay to make mistakes and to learn from your mistakes my favorite day was going to Red Hawk Ranch it was my first time to paddleboard and kayak it would it is cool to try new things and meet new new people we did a lot of different games to help us together and how important it is to talk to each other

056in a positive positive way it is important to make good choices in life and to think think about how to say no to bad choices at the end of J Jason shared about his son's life and showed us a video I think a good leader is is someone who is a good example to younger kids and their friends family at school good leaders do the right thing even when it is hard in jail I had a great time learning how to be a good leader thank you for letting us share today and have having J for kids at Blue rich girl thank you for your support every year and thank you Vicky for all you do of course she's the head of it so anyways questions I have one question you gonna stick with it

057now that you re yeah we're awesome oh yeah we I mean we'll be here as long as you'll have us so forever yeah forever yes well thank you all very much it's it's being recorded there you appreciate itob thank you very [Music] much wait [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] you're leaking [Music] that's great thank you Miss Solomon so any questions uh comments from the board just a big thank you I think it's a great great program appreciate it you have to get your pictures taken yeah yeah I was going to I was going to let them get their picture taken we'll vote so while they're getting pictures taken can we have a motion to accept item 3.3 as it's been presented I have a second from Chuck all in favor raise your hand or say

058I that sounds unanimous thank you item 3.4 recommend to approve the uh junior high and high school course content books we were provided those have you had an opportunity to review those books board any questions or comments about that I have several is that okay I can't pull up anything so this is by memory so we'll um see my first question that I have is how will this schedule affect our dual enrollment kids in the high school so so blidge was the only school that was doing the block schedule so all the other SK schools were the Talon schedule the dual enrollment schedule work better for a 60-minute period type of schedule so it really lines up better with MPC on the time of those classes it isn't exact so we're um for Spanish 101

059and Spanish 102 a student may have to take um the Spanish with one class and then they would take um another elective like it would be R 101 and the art is an asynchronous class which means it's online and they go at their own pace Spanish 101 is a teacher-led class and so you would have that class during at some point during those two periods and then you would have more time asynchronously to work on one of the other electives so you would have to take two of your like third and fourth period together to be so I just don't just yeah and just that was just one example with Spanish one 101 the way that their time sets it doesn't line up exactly with our beginning of second period so when that class starts

060they would have to there's a possibility if they choose to do Spanish 101 that was so far that's the only one that it has a problem lining up with so then they would we would encourage them to take another elective with MPC so they would end up with two college courses out of those two periods but still have the time to do it okay so like English 101 that is a semester based and they get full year how does that work so NPC will still teach their class as a 101 so that gives us that we have our kids sign up for 101 and 102 and so they'll have eight credits of college through our one year of English 12 or right so they'll do both so even though it's a year-long class they can

061do 101 and 102 within one year correct okay and it's um okay that's good anyone want to talk about that and then my next question is navat so when they return back um how are they is are we putting strain on our Navi kids to have to try to get all of the credits no so we're um we so for this year actually MPC opened up their summer program where anybody even adults could take take an MPC class during the summer free tuition so we knew some of our navat students that if they are planning on being a navat program their senior year we encourage them hey you need to get your math 142 this summer um they signed up for that or if they want to take their English 101 in the summer then

062they have that opportunity so then that gives them the ability to still have they they have three periods in the morning with navit then our lunch and then they'll come to campus and take three classes with us so that gives them the chance to do their you know their history U math and English or and so we're what we're doing is as these students are sophomores like I had mentioned earlier Juniors and seniors they have more flexibility with their schedule because of the number of electives our our sophomores we're telling them if you're planning on getting in the navat program we are working with you you need to take um a science class or a social studies class both your freshman and sophomore year that way by your junior year you have those out of

063your way so it provides space in your in your schedule your senior year I'm gonna ask lots of questions unless you guys want to pipe in is that okay keep them coming Jennifer okay um Moss boss is that still going to be a requirement yeah yes that one's a requirement that we're still as you know we're funded for that's our primary um funded for sophomores and so that is a class but it'll be a year-long class as for sophomores and it gives them I wish we would the state would approve us to have funding for freshman in CTE classes then that way we would start U Moss boss with our freshman students so like I'm calculating in my head and right now that makes it to where 18 of our 22 credits are stuff that

064we're already requiring so the flexibility of Music Theater really is diminished quite a bit is that correct it is just by nature of your schedule and then the other question is CTE are we still requiring what's our requirements for CTE now for high school let me pull up and it says in course content book if I can get my computer I believe um so it's actually that this is something that we are placing the required class is you have one credit of a fine arts or a CTE for the whether it's the and this is based on the state standard so practice at the high school we've we've encouraged kids to take those CTE classes just because it gives them well-rounded we're not mandating that kids take a CT every year so this would be

065different than what we've done in the past so there's some more flexibility in what the kids are able to do with with that without that how's that going to affect our budget because they pay I don't remember what percent and we have our CTE teachers that um gets paid through the CTE program or a portion of so how's that going to work so it it potentially could decrease the amount of money that we get for those CTE classes but we still the courses are there without a lot of electives to choose from students were encouraging students to be completers to take their first year second year of of within that track of you know whether it's construction trades one and two and and doing your graphic arts graphic design one and two and up to

066three to get that certification so it's it's really the discussions that we have with the students to find what's best for them and encourage them to take as many CTE classes that are there for them and once they see it that they they really are making that choice so financially it hasn't been really vetted because we just don't know we just don't know yet I would say I would Mr President if I could interject I would say we're going to be fine because our most expensive CTE program a vast majority of the students were not funded because they were taking it as freshmen that was culinary arts it's a very expensive program to for Supply consumable items and it was our highest paid teacher in the district and so we were like actually CTE for

067the last probably 5 years has not been self-supporting when Mr Waldo was in the program and we had a lot of programs and the funding was a little different it actually benefited the district to take it it hasn't been self- sustaining for a number of years at least five years so with fewer students taking those it's the expense has been reduced we put a lot of money into our construction program for Teacher housing so it's very beneficial but it's not inexpensive we do get a check but it doesn't pay for everything it subsidizes it to a a good extent but we have done the analysis on it and we're confident we're not going to be harmed by making these adjustments they were cost cutting measures again because of the fact we didn't pass the overriding

06817 and the bond in 23 we had to take these steps and there are fewer there fewer options so kids will need to make choices they'll need to make choices and some of those choices are tough but we're trying to take steps to limit those types of choices so in many cases kids that that take AP are also in our music classes we're making accommodations for that we do not require those kids to take a CTE class they're also incidentally largely University bound students and so we understand that and so if they want to take foreign language they take foreign language as well and a good number of those students are also taking have release time so they'll be the Juniors this year I don't think will be impacted like the senior class class of

06925 the senior class of 25 might have to take a summer school class that that's really so the long and short of it if they want to take multiple courses in choir they want to participate in athletics they want to take AP you want to take release time that will not all fit all the time in within uh the way we're funded we just can no longer support it so what you mentioned um I don't know what you menant but I'm going to ask another question is that okay so the other question I'm asking is in regards to neighboring school districts um what are their schedules uh there sholo is a I believe a a seven period snowflake is a seven period I believe sholo is six period Okay so we've done this I've I've

070been on the board when we did this before my big concern is what are we going to do for we used to have when we had a six period day we had a seventh hour and we had had a robust 7th hour and we had a robust Zero Hour what are our class options for Zero Hour currently we have zero hour the students can take release time Seminary or weights PE weights and so other classes beyond that we don't we have to have places for kids to be during the day and so we if we take a teacher teaching pre-calculus and move a section to zero hour then that takes away the ability to have kids being able to take it during the day if we just ran into tons of problems this was about

07110 years ago it was an it was a disaster because we needed a robust Zero Hour more than weights because our honor students are taking weights and weights and weights and weight it doesn't help them so with like I'm I'm concerned about like now we don't get unless we start in junior high earlier where they can take Algebra 1 in geometry and Junior High how are we going to get AP um math for example like are they going to be able to get the abbc calculus so my big concern is reducing constantly all the opportunities for our kids that already don't have opportunities because our we're live in a rural community so extracurricular is the and non maath science English so social studies um that's great for our 10% of our kids that are college

072track bound but what about the 50% of the kids that are teetering to make poor life choices because now they don't have an opportunity to experience other classes like we I understand we don't have culinary but it makes it almost impossible to do theater and band and choir and art so I don't know I just is there a way that we can even review maybe we have a theater class zero hour or maybe we have you know some of these classes that you have to get it anyway you know like if you're going to be doing ab calculus and it's only taught zero hour then it frees up so I don't know I don't know if you've been able to vet that yet but it just I've experienced it before I had a child that

073experienced it we don't have a decent summer school program here our summer school program is not for our academically like our College Bound kids so it makes it impossible for our College Bound kids to be able to take the classes they need because Summer School means nothing to them because how are you supposed to take anything and then if you're an athlete are we still requiring basketball PE and all that like I shouldn't have said disaster but I just feel like it it just keeps compressing um our kids and our programs that then will reduce our scholarship opportunities cause increased problems with drug and alcohol abuse for our middle kids I don't know I'm really struggling and I understand it's a funding issue yeah and that will add it's not just the funding issue funding

074is the issue it's not that we're this um you'll never hear any of us say all of these moves are great for kids in my view none of this is great for kids it's the any of the groups that I got in front of I told them we need your help and so the state legislator legislator have made it so that if you are going to have those extra programs you got a choice pass overrides or don't and most of the communities will not pass overr rights and so without that money it's just a question of personnel and so if you recall we have fewer bus drivers we have about 50% fewer people that are in the Maintenance and Facilities than we did eight n and a half years ago we're operating on a skeleton

075crew everywhere and the last place to go we teachers that means fewer teachers fewer programs fewer options fewer electives that's just the truth not sugarcoating it even so I do believe at the high school level and the junior high and Elementary are still doing a very good job with the resources we have but it would be disingenuous to suggest you can take everything you want you can create your schedule you have all these options the you don't those options are becoming very limited the other thing in addition to the limited funding and the reduced fun funding inflation has taken an impact on our district a bus that used to cost 135,000 is now 390,000 the same bus same ugly color same uncomfortable seats 390 Grand anything that we put in air conditioners anything on the

076facility side is 50% more so in the school space it's probably more like 30 to 40% is the impact of inflation so that's the only thing we can do and Arizona is on a trajectory in the next 3 to 5 years if they don't fund rural education your classrooms in the high school will be 40 or 45 everywhere and your Elementary School classes will be 35 to 40 it's just simple math you take the math and you put it against what it takes to support those schools and that's where you're at and so we're we're in a tough spot I will add we did not want to arbitrarily go to a seven period day correct me principles if I'm wrong overwhelmingly our teachers said especially in English and math that is 47 minutes is just

077not enough time for me to do it we couldn't afford to have a hybrid any longer because it requires incremental teachers we can't afford it we've cut back in every area every area from extracurricular to Fine Arts Athletics and Fine Arts um electives that we are offering our kids and we're doing the best with what we have but it's nowhere near ideal we're just trying to make it functional and so we will admit students that once had an opportunity to take far more options no longer have those options and we're not happy about it we're not proud of it but we are proud of doing the best we can with what we have and I'm convinced the kids are still getting a good education it's not because of what the state's doing it's because of

078our teachers and administrators our support staff and the and the work that's put in where our kids I like the length of the class time I think it's really important to maintain that length I think that's a really good idea I just have a weird question so now this was 1989 through 91 High School in the valley we had to pay for all of our Zero Hour can you do that yes we can we also wave a number of a good majority of our pay to play we wave a lot of the fees for kids to play but it would potentially give an opportunity to recoup some fees to give other opportunities right so I think that I like what you're doing with the whole um taking an elective with an MPC class but my

079biggest struggle is I support my school district but when you also establish a budget you're supporting the state and I don't know how I can support a state that does not adequately fund their um rural community currently here Iona ranks 49th in funding for education and along those lines Miss Brimhall the other thing about that rural schools have an inordinate amount of expense in transportation we spend upwards of $175,000 a year if you look at that at scale versus Gilbert or Mesa that's an exceptionally high percentage for transportation we go to uh band trips and they're clear in the valley that's an all day deal uh anywhere we go except for Snowflake and cholo and Round Valley is even nearly an hour on a bus so we do incur a lot of expenses that the

080metro schools do not and that's not recognized so I we understand that and I I I'm not trying to paint a picture of gloom and doom and we're going to be destroyed we're in a we're going to do a good job we'll continue to put out kids largely because the families they come from and the effort the teachers and support staff put in in our students we're going to be okay but we're not saying it's perfect and you it's not Water Burger can't have it like you want it or even Burger King it's more like uh I w't use a fast food but say just it's you get this thing in a sack and it's got a bun and a burger there's no ketchup or mustard on it and we're trying to make it work

081so my big my biggest question I guess thank you for answering all you like you've been taking a lot of time and asking a lot you know um my biggest concern is a robust zero hour if we could figure out a way to have a couple of the offerings maybe orchestra band The you know like can we figure out a way that gives opportunities for those kids to continue in those programs that the issue is is you don't have anyone that can teach your kids Orchestra except if you come to school that's our biggest issue so how do we can we be a little bit more creative with that type of scheduling um to figure out how we can offset so we aren't losing these kids may ask a question Mr Marill yeah please is

082that a is there a potential if we figured out are there any Creative Solutions to say we'll have the athletic zero hour and we have a fine arts zero hour and I understand what that does is because we don't have the capacity to pay those teachers for an additional class for a fifth class or sixth class so they would only have the five classes they'd have four during the day we'd have to figure out well where are the kids going that are went to Zero Hour where do they go now and where does that teacher go now and how does that impact the rest of the kids right the teacher could their schedule starts Zero Hour instead of fifth hour and then have that we do still have some smaller class sizes like I think

083that we need to strongly encourage our kids to take all the honors classes like I didn't have an option like if you tested at this level in math and your state standards too bad you get honors math right so it was that's how we they did it in my high school so you tried to faill those classes so you didn't have to take honors math but um but how do we can I'm sure there's some flexibility to get those class sizes that are smaller to encourage our kids and flex what we would have to struggle to do is to say if you want to take Orchestra it's zero hour we wouldn't have the capacity to say it's zero hour and it's fifth hour right that which I think would satisfy some of our issues and

084make others angry I can guarantee because it doesn't matter what a pain a building or whatever you're wrong with half of them so so so in your specific example it we're have because we've had to make cuts and reduce and and try and make a complete schedule with the Personnel that we have those teachers are teaching English classes they're teaching math classes so if we pull them out from it's not like we have for electives of choir or orchestra there's two music classes that one Orchestra teacher is teaching and then three English classes so if I pull from English then I'm going to have I I'm short English sections now so yeah it's a huge trickle down had the flexibility to to do that and and we can look and see if that can work

085um or even in our um online programs which is another topic of discussion but like if you're going to college you have to have two years of a foreign language right right so our foreign language program is very sparse so could we have even NPC online open up the learning lab Zero Hour you know that type of stuff to give kids opportunities to take something and the kids that want to take it we'll take it they'll be at school at 7:30 in the morning yeah I would love to have M they their classes are only instructor taught and taught during the day so we're Bound by the constraints of their hours so but is there are we opening up the Yellow Jacket Learning Center whatever we do you know Mrs armo teaches some of those

086classes are we opening stuff like that up in the morning for our Capac to be able to teach class if we had um somebody that would be able to teach it we just don't have that instructor from NPC they're just I'm just I'm not an NPC class just like just an ASU online yes or whatever yeah that's potential that that could that could be an is a problem that we could fit in okay I have a I have a question how many teachers currently are teaching in the high school and the junior high Al together yeah oh my goodness I oh so it's put me on so how much do you have 18 and then I have I think 41 but presently correct but that's including my shared staff with um the music department I

087meant how many shared teachers do you have oh just the just the we have four art teachers teachers and then music teachers I was also wondering if there were classes like like a motivated math student if he could take and you know get credit for a junior high class and take a high school credit class they we do that currently currently do that Mr so an eighth grader could actually get his math require one of his math requirements done in the eth eth grade high school graduation that is correct answer that would give a student if they do um Algebra 1 in junior high they can take their four years that gets them up to it just four years straight they could take um geometry Algebra 2 then they could go into pre-cal and Cal

088or they could go 142 152 um so it still gives them it they may not be able to do the algebra BC um or calc BC but they would still be able to do calculus now if they if they continue to have options with MPC in the summer for our kids then we would encourage our kids hey take your geometry uh take take your Al algebra 142 then that bumps them up 180 n they can take pre-calculus and it does offer more opportunities maybe we have a math zero hour when they're all awake geometry yeah Zero Hour yeah volunteer to teach can we actually have a teacher teach one class like can we do that do you have one have a part-time teacher teach a class if they if they were so inclined and they

089had a subject that we needed that fit into the schedule the one potential we have that we might look at expanding that is not as expensive that would provide some flexibility provided the kids are independent Learners we could use our Yellow Jacket learning lab the Open Lab that we have and we'd have a classified person in there so it's cheaper and they can show up at as early 30 as they like to in the morning as kids will and they could take various courses online from universities but they would have to pay for it we could afford a classified person just to supervise they would be tutoring they'd be do nothing more than keeping the kids safe and secure and they' have to independently study we're willing to facilitate that and able to do something

090like that further questions Chuck Margaret well well the bottom line is because of budget restrictions and what I would call a perfect storm of things coming together the same time we have had to reduce our staff and it takes more teachers to teach in an eight in a block four or four block schedule than it does in a six period day and so we've had to reduce the staff so we've had to go to a six period day and you can do the math in a block schedule they get eight credits a year they can take eight classes a year and with a six period day they can only take six so we they have to to give up two classes a year for four years because of this situation and uh we don't have

091the staff to teach more classes and doing a a uh zero hour class is great but we would have to pay that teacher they'd have to teach the five they would regularly teach and then get paid for the zero hour or teaching their prep but that costs a l a lot of money Diana you have a question no I am fine I'm listening to the discussion and thinking it's important for people to understand thank you Diana I just have a comment to um going back to the 80s again we were in this situation before and I'm so glad that we're working on flexibility because there was none back then chck can probably remember too the it happened and the honors kids could not tape music could not tape band at all like um they would

092get as far as their sophomore year and then they couldn't and there was no flexibility so at least we have a zero hour to work with at least we have independ tenant study which wasn't even considered back then so I think if we can make it work for these kids that want to be in music and be in the honors and AP classes it'd be great because that was not a good time I remember that our our Fine Arts programs just died completely yeah died completely we went from over a we went from just under a 100 students in in band down to almost nothing yeah six or seven yeah it was ridiculous thank you Mr Webb Courtney's turn now do you have anything you'd like to add saying please no please no bad thank

093you Courtney um all right so up to vote right now is um item 34 recommendation to approve the the course content books that were given to us to preview um we've had quite discussion on it at this point we need a motion to vote one one more com okay Margaret you can do the motion first then I have a comment okay have a motion to vote motion from Chuck comment Margaret second okay second then comment um I we were talking a little bit about it and I know there going to be some improvement ments made on it because it was kind of hard to get through it so just the format changes and and um any any other Corrections so at this time are we doing a final vote on it or are we voting

094as presented and then there's going to be some cleanup done from our discussion are there any changes that will come to the book just a Content the content won't change this is just a draft it will be made ready for public distribution this is just a draft just this the content is all we need board approval for and we'll get this fixed cleaned up and ready and presentable well before we voted I needed to know how far this was supposed to go so I think the major change that I was aware of is that from 24 credits to 22 credits to give chid kids more of an opportunity release time and zero hour do we have an opportunity to mle over it or is this like urgent we have to do this now I have

095to get it printed so if if there's a big change to it then it could affect what we're doing as we're building kids schedules right so it's kind of urgent now we need to yeah all right so for so for me unfortunately I'm not ready to vote and it's not that but that's okay I don't have to be ready you guys can all be ready to vote I think that you did an exceptional job I think that we're in a very very difficult situation um but there's a just it's just questions hard yeah so I'm just letting you know in advance that I'm in full support of your Brilliance but at this time I'm not ready to vote on it all right so all in favor say I or raise your hand I I those

096opposed can I abstain sure okay I'm an abstainer let let the record know that Jennifer ball abstained and it was four to one at that all right next item is a housekeeping item about Southwest Food Services Kimberly would you like to talk to us about that just explain why we do this every year sure governing board president Gover members um we have our renewal of our Southwest food um contract and Stephanie and John are both here if you stand up so these are our wonderful Food Service um people that provide food for our students every day and in the summer they do a wonderful job and I just want to have them here to recognize them and um if you had any questions for them for this renewal of their contract they're here to answer

097any questions I'm here to answer any questions if you have any questions do we still have a deficit in our budget from years past what the what they're awesome that's awesome I was wondering when you're going to bring cookies to the board question I like those chocolate ones they can make that happen I'm sure I'm just messing with you thank you thank you I know when you guys took over we were really in a bad shape and it uh has turned around completely so thank you did a great job all right so we need a Rec a motion to vote on it 3.5 Southwest Food Services have a motion from Chuck second from Jennifer all in favor say I or raise your hand I that's you unanimous okay the next item is also a housekeeping

098item and Dr R do you want to explain why we have this list of uh I can Dr r or Kimberly would you like to I'm sorry I'll pass it over to Kimberly so this is just a list of co-ops that we use for purchasing power in the state of Arizona this is a way that school districts can buy items um with purchasing power of like Mesa Unified School District Paradise Valley Unified School District all the big skill districts in the valley help us get cheaper prices through these co-ops and so this is a way that we can buy items through these co-ops we use Mojave for example for all of our food that we buy for the cafeteria we use that purchasing Co-op and we use um vendors like Shamrock so what happens is

099Mojave negotiates the price of let's say our milk and then we buy that milk through Shamrock but because all the school districts in Arizona are using that purchasing Cooperative then that that um product is cheaper and this is just a housekeeping item these are just the co-ops that we use in our district they have to be board approved um per the statute any questions or comments about that yeah whatever whatever it takes right so item 3.6 we have a motion to vote on item 3.6 a motion from Chuck second from Margaret all in favor say I or raise your hand I that also is unanimous okay item 3.7 uh recommendation to approve the no kid hungry Grant uh for 20242 Kimberly again would you like to explain that to us sure so Stephanie and I

100work together on this grant this is just a grant that came across our desk and we're like why not we should try to get some money if we can so we applied we worked together on it and we got the grant for $144,300 and we're going to buy um the major item that we're going to buy with this money is milk coolers for the cafeteria so those are those metal um coolers that you put the milk in to keep our milk cold and then we're going to buy a few um carts and some other things with the money but the majority of the money will be used for these milk carts so it's for equipment not actual food correct it's for equipment yeah great investment any questions or comments about that so we have a

101motion I'll make a motion to vote on item 3.7 I have a second from Margaret all in favor say I raise your hand that also uh is unanimous okay this is a lease agreement thank them for working on that that that was extra Stephanie and I had a great time appreciate that okay recommendation to approve the lease agreement uh with the Legacy Learning Community Dr Wright do you want to talk about that yes we have a representative here that would like to so I'll present to the board a couple of perspectives uh I think primarily we've had an agreement with Legacy learning now for the better part of a year we haven't had any problems in terms of of their behavior as a tenant or their students misbehavior or any lack of cooperation it's been

102a benefit to us we have recognized we need to renegotiate the lease price um they are providing us a service whereas we have a number of students that are receiving special education services were they not in the Legacy program we would have to facilitate those needs at like every other program we're at our limits special education teachers are hard to find so it builds us some additional capacity the three classrooms that the Legacy learning facility is using would otherwise be vacant and so it it's not a problem with our capacity I I believe from what I've visited with Sherry and some of the other folks that are in the special education department at the multi-purpose which was the old Blue Ridge school before we relocated that's our M multi-purpose building where we house the Fab

103Lab that's where the church leases a good portion of that building in space and maintains it Legacy learning has three classrooms there have been some concerns brought to the administration's attention one of which was there was a perception real or not that our some of the parents that had students in the program were being coached to ask their kids to get referred for special services for additional Services namely autism I've addressed that issue with the director Mr Shad Howley he's insured me that's not the case um to provide some Assurance for the board this is a 36 Monon lease however on the 15th honor before the 15th of each year the board could elect to say we're not going to renew that lease we don't want to re renew it the board issues actually the

104superintendent issues a letter to the uh Legacy learning Administration saying we're not going to R the lease and they'd have to be out at the end of the school year so uh the the points of discussion that I've had and the concerns that I've had just generally one is $2,700 a month enough and $200 for electricity is that a sufficient amount to charge for me it's a dated building we do not provide any it support we don't provide internet we don't clean it we provide a safe environment if a light fixture's fallen off the wall we'll fix that but it's a net lease we're not providing a bunch of services or any Services uh further the the organization also has to my knowledge complied with their safety and secur Safety and Security procedures and their

105teachers are on the Rave app when we evacuate the building they evacuate the building so in short they've been very Cooperative if there are concerns the board would like me to address Beyond those or inside of any of those I'd be glad to address those I have a question you know and this is rumor about the U parents that requests for the um the evaluation of their children we have to pay for that right how much does that cost our district every time they request that if if it's necessary it's expensive depending on the type of evaluation could be5 or $10,000 the uh there are groups that are very anti-public school that have a lot of money and power behind them that coach the parents to say get your kid evaluated some people on the

106basis of an Esa can make tens of thousands of dollars if their child moves from the category of a general student to a specialed student especially with those with higher needs now that isn't to say evaluations aren't necessary on a pretty regular basis and students in need that is the district's obligation to provide those services and evaluation for those students who reside in our district period and we don't Sherk that resp responsibility however I also admit that I'm sure that just like the fact that $900 million or so have gone to families for esas and there's zero accountability I should say very little accountability for that I'm sure the system is being abused I'm confident if Mr Howley tells me that will not happen that he will make sure that that does not happen if

107the board is uncomfortable with that next year or this year I invite either to vote no or to reconsider it next year but that's probably the best uh guidance I can give Mr President the rumor was is that they were asking the school district for those evaluations then once the evaluation was made then they were taking their child and putting in the Legacy Learning Center where they got an EXT extraordinary amount of money compared to what we would be for that same student is is there anyone here from the Legacy Learning Center here unfortunately unfortunately the director had a conflicting meeting couldn't make it tonight but I have visited with shad at length on numerous occasions this last 30 days and so that is a rumor I mean but I he assured me it's not

108going to happen it's not happening I will say the other side of the equation is if you you don't lease those space to them you don't have any there's no leverage at all I'm not suggesting that now of a sudden they would start behaving in inappropriate ways but I would say that this provides some structure and a certain amount of Leverage and while also building additional capacities I can tell you this every specialed student that moves in that has higher need creates concern for us because they we have a legal obligation and a moral obligation to support support and service that child that whole system is being stressed it is stretched to the limits our good people have a have a number of students in there in classes it's it's still safe we're working the

109best we can but there's not a lot lot there's not a long line of uh teachers waiting that have those credentials that live in this area and so we we do have additional capacity by having Legacy learning on our site I think in enal they did some really good due diligence so I've actually done a lot of research on this company so as a physical therapist I also have tons of experience in this area and um having no representation here tonight is very disheartening because there's a lot of questions that we should be asking one of the questions is um for Esa if you are diagnosed with autism you get if you're from a private school $41,000 where a public school might get4 to ,000 so um so I appreciate that but also with that

110$41,000 I did not see on their website a physical therapist occupational therapist and speech therapist so with their limited ability to provide appropriate Services it's almost like a double dipping so our school is paying for all the PT speech which is required to for these children that deserve it but this education center is not providing the services that they should be providing because they should have on contract a physical therapist occupational therapist and speech therapist I don't know how to put something like that in our contract to State services that you are being paid for $41,000 a year you should provide that for your students and that's per student so if you have 20 students at $41,000 a year you're at $800,000 where our school's budget is minimal so that's my biggest concern is requiring

111a school district that ALS already is not getting adequately funded that brunt of testing requirements whatnot so I don't know how we if we can add something like that into our contract stating um that they can do as many services as possible and provide those for their students I don't know because that just I don't I don't know and because they're choosing to be a private school private if they were a charter school they would be requ requ ired to do it for their students so there's this crazy loophole the state has provided and sets us at a disadvantage again yep and that's a legitimate concern I cannot speak to that I I don't have the knowledge to know how how those funding mechanisms work for the private sector in that specialized area I do

112know that as long as they live in our district we're responsible for that child so your concerns valid I can just tell you I don't know right and I guess that's the question is um it's convenient to have kids come here but if also if they are attending this school is it and they live in Snowflake is it our responsibility or would that be as you know let no so those are the questions that I just don't know how they're handling their school of their residence unless they're homeless if they're absent of the child being homeless if they reside in this snowflake District they're snowflakes responsible for those evaluations if they reside in our district we're responsible for those evaluations and they're provided by trained uh psychiatrist psychologist and those that have the credentials able

113to do that right and that's not cheap on the positive side they've really come together and put together a program that looks pretty robust but that's my question is are they getting the services these kids are are have the right to get and are they obligated to provide it instead of coming to the district if they take these Esser funds to give them the PT and speech that they deserve we're having a similar situation with general education students the students will profess at they're homeschooled they receive an Esa and then they they're enrolled in our district and they come to our schools we don't know who has an Esa and who doesn't so we accept them so I'm not sure how those systems would work on the special Edge side but to your point I

114don't I don't think I have anybody here from Legacy learning to answer that question so I would have to say in my view maybe a table it um I understand your concerns and I I think they're ballot I um I don't know how we could enforce that in a lease when it's just a physical lease for the for the space legally can we have them I mean legally can we make them open up their their curriculum to us and their funding to us if we just provide them a space to lease do we have a lease and an agreement or just a lease well we have a we have a lease agreement and that's all we'll ever have if you want to get explanation on how the other works from a a systems perspective they

115would be the ones to ask not us they know the law I know they cannot evaluate students um but and we it is our charge to make sure that we do but I don't know how that would work all I'm making clear is that's actually a great point this is just a lease what I'm trying and probably maybe convoluted it a little bit by pointing out there's some factors and they those are good points could you do anou um I I don't know I I'd have to I would say given all that Mr President I'm fine if uh our Administration if you give us more time to look through the concerns that Jennifer has brought up and the others that I think there's a consensus on the board why don't we just put this on

116the agenda next month sir after some of those questions are answered is that okay yeah let them research it or inv we need to force it to a vote tonight we'll do thank you let's let's just table this for tonight and put it on the agenda next month okay item 3.8 recommendation to improve the hire of the following new employees um would you like to read the list of those employees you bet there are any here please stand up I I think we have well kayn's there kayn is working at our front desk she's the first person you see if you come into the office and how long you want to give her a little introduction sure I want to wait I want to welcome kin to the bluid team she is at the front

117desk um so she is the first person that you see like Dr wri said she's also doing payroll for us which is a huge job so we just want to congratulate her for joining the team she has been here for a little while she's is exceptional and we're so happy to have her on our team and she's actually from sholo she graduated from sholo but she's not wearing green no she always wears purple I know she wouldn't let me in one day I'm just kidding was doing her job well trained do you have any of your new employees here no employees all right so why don't just read the names of these people so it can go into the record so people that are listening maybe might hear their name kayin Moore Dustin kluf Chris

118Johnson Amanda Federico who is going is related to I believe Sophia Sophia and she'll be working at the elementary school and then Candace K's Elementary School teacher those are replacement positions rep all these are replacement positions not position all right so we have a motion to accept item a 3.8 have a motion from Margaret second from Chuck all in favor raise your hand or say I I that too is unanimous all right um this is uh proposition pay 301 um who would like to explain this is an increased pay earned pay through proposition 301 this is the performance Pay Teachers a portion of their pay is based upon their performance and so they look like the Baseline data the student performance when they first had their students and then at the end of the year

119how did the students progress that's one of the measures that they have and there are a couple of other things that they must do participating in professional development and other areas that 75% need to vote on it the administration presents it and it's agreed upon and so we need the board's approval to distribute These funds that have been set aside through the Fe 301 uh compensation plan to be paid to our teacher it looked like a substantial list and I was proud of that list so any questions or comments nothing else uh we need a motion to approve item 3.9 I have a motion from Chuck need a second second from Jennifer all in favor raise your hand or say I I thank you that that too is unanimous okay next item on the agenda

120is um superintendent's report you want to just you've done a lot of talking already but you want to just over and add some to it if you'd like to yes yes sir I'll be brief the last day of schools this week is May 16th the junior high Awards and ceremony will be at 9:15 on the 16th at the Thomas keenon Auditorium on that same day the eighth graders have their final lap at 12:30 that's a longgo long-standing tradition graduation is on May 17th at 700 p.m at Paul moral stadium and that grad night will follow that ceremony the commencement ceremonies beginning at 11:00 p.m. minut it goes to 5:00 a.m. thank you all right thank you um next item is a call to the public anybody that would like to address the board we appreciate

121you doing that now we'd like you to take probably about three minutes if you wouldn't mind and U not yield that time to anybody else and um just the information we we really can't respond to that we can direct staff to do that if you would give us your name and address and Mary has a uh a form for you to fill out so we can put you into the public record all right thank you if you introduce yourself and tell us who you are what's you're here for hi my name is Lacy Rogers um I oversee the children's department at the change point also FYI change Point services are free to your school district um today I stand before you to urge a reconsider of recent district-wide policy changes that um blue Bridge sorry

122hopefully I don't get emotional okay um that have removed Mental Health Services from the classroom um that have prevented the writing of referral letters for Jake's law benefits so I'm going to present to you guys some compelling facts that will highlight the urgency of revisiting these policies um for the upcoming school year Jake's law was approved by the Arizona legislature in 2020 ear Mark's funding for Behavioral Health Services for uninsured and underinsured children all we ask is a simple letter from the schools affirming that a child could benefit from these Services yet in recent months families in dire need of mental health support including children exhibiting Suicidal Tendencies or self-harming behaviors have been denied this essential documentation from the blidge schools these are children reaching out for help only to be turned away from accessing

123vital resources covered by access under Jake's law which also would cost bluid nothing statistics from the Arizona Department of Health Services paint a grim picture with Navajo County recording alarming rates of child suicide attempts and deaths moreover data from the National Alliance on Mental Illness reveals the widespread impact of untreated mental health conditions Among Us youth emphasizing the critical role schools play in early detection and intervention change point stands as a Beacon of Hope offering comprehensive Behavioral Health Services to Children and Families Our dedicated staff have been supporting bluid Unified School District students for nearly two decades providing crucial in school and classroom assistance and around services that extend beond classroom boundaries youth workers and dedicated case managers provide not just support for the the teachers when they are struggling to manage problem behaviors but

124for your students in real time when they need the one-on-one support and tools to be successful and stay in their classroom to receive the direct instruction that they need to learn and to grow change Point staff have the same background checks and fingerprint clearance cards that bluid Unified School District staff have as well as we are trained to abide by Hippa rules which are very similar to the furpa rules light of these compelling facts I encourage you to please reconsider your stance on Mental Health Services in the classroom reinstating these services and educational settings can pave the way for improved student well-being academic success and overall Community Health let us bridge the gap and ensure that every child especially the most most vulnerable have access to care and support that they deserve I trust that

125you will hear this call to action embracing a policy that prioritizes the mental health in the classroom creating a policy that will support Jake's law and the well-being of all bluid Unified School District students thank you for your attention but I do want to leave you with these last stats since 20120 there have been 680 suicide attempts in Navajo County 19.9% of those were children in 2021 there were 44 child suicide deaths in Navajo County in 2022 there were 39 child suicide deaths in Navajo County in 2023 there were 47 and as of right now 2024 and it's may we already have seven child suicide deaths in Navajo County I need to passed you guys out some information because I only had three minutes so there's some other data in there thank you thank you

126I I know know we are looking into that and we just uh continue our legal research into that thank you for your presentation anyone else like to address the board at this time if not we'll just announce that our regular board meeting will be June 11th at 5:00 pm at this location um need to have a motion to adjourn have a motion from Chuck a second from Margaret all in favor of adment raise your hand say I I thank you thank you Diana