001yeah I I learned uh the same thing never underestimate who you're going against I thought I like walked up there and I was they were telling me that he was going to be like the hardest opponent ever and I went up against him and I was like okay this is going to be easy and then he he checkmated me within like 15 moves so yeah it's just how it goes wow his penmanship was amazing by the way too like legit cursive it was crazy just watching him like get up on the chair on his knees the chair is like bigger than him and then he gets the pen and he writes like the most elegant way on his paper and I'm like yeah I [Laughter] lost yeah so if you don't know every chess move
002has to be recorded uh so this is you how discovered the PIP it's PR so just fun fact um one of the things we did discover they don't have this manhole open very often but next to the Washington Monument there is actually a model of the Washington Monument in a in a hole um and they had this manhole uncovered and we got to go up and talk with the geologists that were in the area talking about how the Washington Monument was built um how this Monument uh this miniature Monument was once actually above ground um and now because of the movement of the Hill uh it's actually now underground and they keep it underneath this manhole so just fun fact so how strong how many are in the uh in your chess chess group right
003now how many students uh about 12 I believe um a few are not here tonight because they couldn't get rides home or whatnot so uh but this is pretty good job I'm really happy do they actually sing too they do ready guys [Music] one I can't I can't seem to embarrass any one of them oh not at all they're unshakeable no can't embarrass us enough we already play chess so you know embarrassed [Laughter] ourselves all right thank you very much appreciate you so much chess team wait up here we want to get a picture chess team real quick turn around look at Miss Heather I I know that microphone is not good still can't hear up here I don't I don't know I don't know if it's maybe it's just the microphone I don't think
004these speakers are working it has to do with that speaker that that and it's not working it's well it's kind of garble too it's not not a good feet I just kind of figured it was my own ears no I can't hear that either I'm trying to read his lips all right thank you much next item on the agenda is uh recognition of our March student of the month Awards and why don't we start at the high school or should we start at the elementary and go up or high school and come down let's start the high school and come down all right I'd like to call GI gerardi up to give you your merchandise here free cookie and CLA so I'm going to read what was written about GA um Gianna's currently a junior
005at blur high school and J is being recognized as as the high school student of the month for the month of March she's active in sports participating in cross country and track where she was the president and captain of cross country and she's also the track secretary she represents the district well in those events and she currently is serving as junior class president she's involved with NHS her qualities that help her stand out at the high school is she is selfless and doesn't know how to say no she's involved in everything um she applies herself in her academic course loow taking AP and honors classes and she's also on track to receive the AP Cambridge recognition so very high honor there as well with all that she's also fun to be around and she's always
006got a smile on her face at see here and she's a pretty good snowboarder I had a chance to run a run on up at sunrise with her over spring break so she can rock it up there so we're very happy and proud of Giana and what she has done for the school and how she represents her family and everyone around her so thank you [Applause] congratulations think I have my student here great so I unfortunately I have people here is that better yeah a little bit okay up here too is it not working up there very well not very does it help if I move over just just talk talk with the so I just great Brady is our that's good that's better thank you gray Brady is our student of the month um
007I'm I'm so bummed that she's not here this evening and they have some things going on uh but she is she's recommended uh or nominated by all of her teachers um as well as she's an aid in the front office and we are looking for ways we can hire her as a freshman to come back and work in our front office next year she runs that office like a champ she's opening the door she's answering phones she runs errands to teachers she's just incredible she does it with a smile on her face um she's got such a great attitude she's a just such a great example for everybody at the school and so we we love her and we are super lucky to have her so I'll give her that same speech tomorrow in the
008office thank you thank [Applause] you all right so at the elementary school our student of the month is not here but Miss D is here to say a couple words so our student of the month at the elementary school is Irene NAU she is one of uh Miss D's students if Miss D you want to come up here um iie spends her whole day with with Jamie Dy and she is an absolute joy to be around regardless of where you see her on campus um when she comes in in the morning I see her almost every single morning and she smiles and laughs um and so I let Miss Miss Dy who knows her probably better than anybody outside of her family um say a couple words about her thank you very much um she's
009just a great little girl she's been in preer since um preschool she um I'm sorry she deals with a lot of struggles in her life and she has a lot of physical problems but she comes in every day she's so happy she greets the kids she loves them she Embraces them you know she has become an ambassador to all of the special needs kids sorry she becomes Ambassador for all the special needs kids and she has taught so many people around her that it's okay to be special and it's okay to be a little different so I just love her and we'll present her with her plaque um we have an awards assembly next week and so we'll make sure that she is she is there um and we I'll I'll talk with Miss da
010ahead of time so she doesn't cry in front of the whole student body so thank you I did not know that she next we have uh the the uh teacher of the months up again I think we'll all hear from the same folks very deservingly so it sounds like so our teacher of the month for this month is Miss Jamie Dy she runs our self-contained class um for special needs students at the elementary school she has I think nine students right now um that vary in age and academic ability and um many of them are non-verbal students uh she she loves these kids and it is evident every single day when she walks in the door um she does a job that most people couldn't do I couldn't do it I I freely admit that
011I couldn't do it um and and I don't know a lot of people that could do it the way that Miss die does um whether it is working with students that can't express themselves to holding students hands as she walks down the hallway and the kids are still learning every day that they're there they're just learning in their own way um these are these are students that spend their whole day with her and they cook and they make drinks and they learn about their emotions and they learn sight words and we have a student in her that has been with Miss D for years now and he's non-verbal but he can identify several hundred sight words and can communicate that way but when he came to us it was nothing um and so he's he's
012able to communicate now his wants and his needs and so I can't think of anybody that is more deserving of being a teacher of the month than Miss Jamie [Applause] Dy and by the way that student now reads at a 4.3 and he's in fifth grade and he reads it a 4.3 the next item on the agenda is our BR star for the month of March come on up Justin our BR star for the month of March is Justin ROP he's is I think everybody knows who he is um he's he's one of the best third grade teachers I've ever seen um I've seen a lot of third grade teachers and people that that show the same compassion to all of their kids year in and year out that that kids show up they want
013to be in his class his attendance rate is higher than pretty much every other teacher on our campus um he he works with the kids so directly that they want to learn they know that they can learn they know that they can succeed um Justin is is there on campus before everybody else I think he turns the lights on um I almost positive he turns the coffee on um and he's he's there for everything he's one of our team leads he's assisting at at lunches he's assisting at recesses anywhere we need him he's there um he's a true team player he's got all of the values of every every BR um employee that we want so Justin reop thank you so much actually the first part of these board meetings is the only reason I
014come sometimes if I could find an excuse not to come I wouldn't come sometimes not kidding not just kidding okay next item on the agenda is the consent agenda items 2.1 through uh 2.8 I believe board are there any items that you'd like to take out and vote on separately or cheuck yeah I'd like to uh ask a question about 2.8 out of state travel yeah right you want to explain that well I was just looking through this before the meeting and I noticed that we're approving a clinic for the coaches to go to on February 29th to March 3rd today's the 19th of March yeah that was after the fact we still have to get it of approved it seems like the same thing happened last year it [Music] did can we get coach
015a calendar or well we'll we'll commit that if we don't get it on the agenda um that the trip won't be taken in advance okay that's a fair statement Mr wdo Diana Jennifer are there any items that you'd like to take out and vote on separately or we accept the consent agenda as no they don't fine to me I want remove 2.7 and 2.8 remove you'd like to to remove them out of this I would like to vote on those separately oh vote on those separately those two out of state travels y have an objection to that are you making a motion then yes I am moving to move 2.7 and 2.8 the consent agenda okay we'll vote if that's okay can I have a second on that second from check then we will remove
0162.7 and 2. out of the consent agenda and we'll vote on them separately you have to vote you just have first and second oh that's right all in favor of that motion and second say I I okay okay we'll vote on items 2.1 through 2.6 of the 10 agenda I have a motion to accept that no motion second from Chuck all in favor say I I I thank you okay item 2.7 recommendation to approve out ofate travel request for Dr right or Kimberly you want to talk about that one or Dr Wright uh so 2.7 is um the annual trip that asbo puts on or the annual conference sorry that asbo puts on for for I hear feedback sorry um I'll do my best um for maintenance um and transportation and um the CFO and
017business managers I will be presenting um again at that um conference as as I did last year um and then uh of course it's specific to transportation and maintenance um and that's their annual conference it's about just making sure that we're compliant with those dep departments I would also add this is Laughlin Nevada which is not Fort Light area to go I personally would not go um but it's something we have to do for compliance and this is a fancy trip hotel rooms are probably 29 bucks and uh it's I could never be the mayor of Laughlin or an advocate for the city not a fun trip as far as I'm concerned any questions Jennifer Diana my biggest question is is there an opportunity for them to get the information from an online line Source
018local resource or state level um my response is no there's not one thing Kimberly's presenting secondly this is where asbo presents and if we're going to have our people participate in transportation facilities for compliance they have to attend so we're we're stuck with that location I would love for it to be in Flagstaff or anywhere else but that's kind of what we're stuck with the location schols in Arizona to get the information to remain compliant for this topic yes ma'am for this setting inside of this setting that's true and in each one of those areas Transportation maintenance and whatnot and congratulations for kimbery for being a presenter that's amazing yeah Kim you want to add to that I don't know what else I can provide as far as information no it this it's not it's
019a unique conference because it's their annual conference and it's not streamed unfortunately all right any any further questions comments okay if not then we'll ask for a motion to accept item 2.7 as presented we approve item 2.7 have a motion have second from Chuck all in favor in favor say I I I I thank you okay that passed unanimously okay item 2.8 any questions in regard to that we discussed that just a bit no questions no questions comments just comments that these need to be in a timely manner it doesn't seem to matter who it is this has happened lots of times with different staff I'm not sure why but you know y we we need a calendar not all right so if there's no further comment or questions we have a motion to accept
020accept item 2.8 I have a motion from Chuck a second I'll second that item all in faor favor for vote say I I I I I would I would like to vote nay nay all right so we have one nay and four eyes noted Jennifer's the name okay item 3.1 recommendation to approve principals teachers and counselors contracts as presented to us in our packets uh Dr W do you want or Kimberly either one of you want to address that or this just something we have to do yes it's an annual requirement in order to issue these they have to be approved by the board and so the the contracts that have been issued to our teachers counselors and principes have all gone out and are due for return by March 29th any questions or comments
021in regarding to that if not can we have a motion to accept item 2 point I mean 3.1 as presented I have a motion from Chuck oh a motion from Diana all a second from uh Chuck give be a second all in favor say I I I that would be unanimous thank you item 3.2 recommendation to approve the bluid Strategic plan Dr R I'm going to let you uh present that strategic plan we've all had a copy of that but is it going to be posted up I'll have the highlights of that a presentation but just some highlights to go over that beginning with the first slide that you have that there there there you go so this is the planning session if you go ahead and go to the next one Dave the planning
022session for our strategic plan and succession planning districtwide we invited stakeholders throughout the community uh we used every internal and external uh mode of notification that we did and out of that we formed a steering committee to make sure that we had representation from the various groups students parents community members teachers support staff and administration and we held uh a series of meetings to discuss the idea of a strategic plan what the objectives would be what we hope to accomplish and to gain Community feedback and then after all that we had a uh consultant that for I I think the majority of the fee or all the fee was paid for with a grant from uh Nick Clement and through a program with Northern Arizona University so it we we obtain these Services essentially free
023of charge and uh Dr Clement did a great job of bringing the people together discussing the project and what we are trying to accomplish as a group and by the way the steering committee comprised of about 20 people put in the better part of an entire day after having met earlier to discuss some of the concepts so we appreciate their effort and the final presentation was put together with four goals and I'll discuss those I'll present what those four goals was and each goal has four action steps Associated so if approved by the board the next step is to make sure that we have the who what and when with each of these actions and incorporate uh the strategy within our day to-day operation and have regular reviews so the next slide I guess I
024can go there goal one where's the go one okay this is an example our first goal the feedback that we had was to increase family and Community engagement in student extracurricular activities and volunteerism at all schools we want to Simply put get more people out to our our Fine Arts programs our athletic events and everyone agrees we need more volunteers so an action item in in order to achieve that action one for this specific goal one is to use District media resources to promote specific volunteer opportunities available and that the participation requirements are are made known and they're simple and so we want to simplify the process and we also want to make sure that these opportunities are known what some of the community members said is that they're afraid to volunteer sometimes because they
025don't want to be volunteering for something for instance math and the the subject matters over their head and we assur them that would not occur especially at the elementary level and that we have many roles that just require supervision or reading to kids or helping teachers uh produce product or making copies or whatever we have a lot of opportunities so that's action number one to review a couple the headings for the others that the two the three other remaining goals are these the second goal is to place the health safety and Welfare of our students and staff as our top priority and so we have we've done that and we've had four action items associated with that to give you a little bit of a flavor we want to make sure that we're providing appropriate
026learning environments that are clean well-appointed and the students have the tools and Technology they need to succeed that'd be an ex example of an action item the third goal is to improve student academic outcomes and College and Career Readiness so an example of how we use these goals this target was kept in mind when we had the consolidation of our programs we want to continue to improve our outcomes so we're going to retain the two we only have two uh curriculum coaches districtwide to support roughly 100 teachers we decided we're going to retain those positions to make sure the teachers have the support they need and therefore that provides our kids uh greater instruction and so we want to make sure that our decisions are consistent with our strategic goals that's done through monthly review
027and anytime we make an important decision to go back to these goals and make sure that the determinations are consistent with what our resources are number four the fourth goal is to provide clear and consistent communication with all stakeholders to ensure student staff support again that's on opportunities that are available we want to update our calendars and simplify our calendars we want to make sure folks know everything that's going on and they're able to participate in those things in which they're interested so in a nutshell that's that's how we achieved these goals and we are working hard to make sure that we make these a day-to-day thing it's not just a a very expensive long La drawn out process that results in a big old binder that sits on a shelf that no one looks
028at uh that that has been most of the strategic planning that I've been subjected to over the years that's what it's like this is very much a a workable plan it's simple it's straightforward and then we will Monitor and adjust this plan as it goes as it sets we're seeking board approval through 2024 through 2027 school year are there any questions from the board Mr President are there any questions Diana Jennifer any questions no I think it's a great plan I just wanted to get a little bit more information but I know you know as it's being implemented so I think it's a great idea a lot of the the new strategies um any other questions comments no I like the fact it's simple it's simple enough to follow we can make it happen yeah
029it's something that uh just can easily be follow simplified keep things simple and it's easier to accomplish instead of yes page and page and page of comment yeah it's equally informative for students as well as staff or parents or somebody walk in from the community and and be able to read through it and know what's going on yeah will we publish this yes sir we'll post it on our website as well and make it available to have a copy always are the district office and the front desk as well at each of our campuses any further questions or comments not can I have a motion to accept item 3.2 for the Strategic plan for bluid school district for 24 through 2027 so moved have a motion for Margaret second from chunk chuck all in favor
030say I I I I that looks to be unanimous thank [Music] you all right item 3.3 recommendation to approve the early graduation requests we I think everybody received a list of those students I have one question uh to Mr web are all of these students just graduating as of now or some of them just catching up and graduating so three of the students were um C they had caught up they were fifth year seniors and finally met the requirements for graduation so they had caught up the two two of them that are current Juniors they are at seing graduation okay kind of wondered about that any other questions about that now can we have a motion to accept early graduation for the list of students as provided I have a motion from Chuck second have
031a second from Margaret all in favor say I I I that looks to be unanimous also okay um um just a a comment one more comment check I just it just dawned on me if we're going back to a six period Day next year we probably won't have students graduating early they won't be able to earn enough credits to do that Mr that is correct um you may you there could be a possib ility with current Juniors and seniors or current Juniors but we would take a look at those students and Coach them and and make sure that they're making the decisions that's best for what their scenario would be but for next year's Juniors they would have to take a yearlong class so it would I I don't even anticipate that happening yeah Mr
032web when when they decide to do this do they have to bring a parent in with them and you all talk together that is correct all right item uh 3.3 oh that we just did item 3.3 item 3.4 um Dr Wright do you want to explain this or Kimberly you want to explain this I think this is just an housekeeping item yeah it's just a housekeeping item the Navajo County school um superintendent office um developed a Consortium to help schools in Apache and Navajo County um get services for physical therapists occupied therapists speech therapists um and psychologist and this is just the contract that that we have with them that says that we can use their services um if we need them they're just one resource that we use though to get those services but
033we do need to have this approved by you so that we can continue to use them next year and there are set fees for each yeah there's set fees for each service and that that check um are we using all of those services or just a couple or um from the Navajo Navajo County Consortium no um we're using some of them but not all of them we get um services from other vendors as well this is just one source any other questions or comments if not then we have a motion to accept item 3.4 regarding contract related services from Navajo Navajo County Consortium so moved motion from Chuck I have a second Margaret all in favor say I I I I have to ask a question on this really fast okay um it is a
034white Mountain Physical Therapy part of that organization CU if so I need to recuse myself from voting as an employee I'm not sure I'll just recuse myself yeah I think that would be safe for Jennifer I'm not sure I don't think so but if you do recuse yourself then then we'll know for sure that's probably the safe thing to do Jennifer so make make it be noted that Jennifer Brimhall recused recused herself from uh voting on this item okay next item 3.4 is the uh superintendent's General District update Dr Wright yes sir thank you so uh most importantly we have completed our consolidation and reduction in force effort and through that districtwide there are approximately 20 fewer positions now that doesn't mean 18 or 20 people were um non-renewed and lost job a vast majority
035of those folks retired and another group resigned and so we had either three or four people that were ultimately impacted without a job of the 20 or 22 that were identified so I just want to make that clear I think we see our friend from the newspaper here we didn't have there were not 20 people that were terminated we did have 10 or 11 people at least to my memory that are now doing a different position we consolidated positions so for instance M Mr archet who's over there is our beginning next year is going to be our vice principal and the athletic director we took those offices and we combined them and that's because of economy a scale we have to do that um there was an Associated assistant position position as a as a
036support position we could no longer afford that position was eliminated we eliminated three of uh three teaching positions we couldn't find jobs for frankly the program or their course was eliminated in about 12 other instances teachers moved and taught a different subject or moved to a different grade level or a different School we've had some cross polarization we've had people that went from one campus to the other and so a vast majority of the people were able to retain their employment and that was always our objective that doesn't mean that it's not important that we lost three or four roles cuz that that's always sad and it's never easy I think that a point that needs to be made though is classroom sizes will grow larger because we'll have fewer teachers and we've been saying
037that since uh I don't know last 12 months and we've been we told the community before the bond this last request to have some additional funding that this would happen so it did we're performing on what we said we do we'd have fewer people and fewer positions we can't have any fewer facilities people or maintenance people or bus drivers or food service or administrators and teachers was the only place we had left now the question would probably be are we going to suffer a similar uh adjustment next year the answer is no we're we're going to get to where we are we're adjusting and aligning our finances with our headcount and our average daily membership so I don't anticipate you want to explain why we had to cut back yeah we we've been operating on
038some funds that aren't going to be available now that's true uh we had for the past three and a half years we had over $5 million of federal funds that were provided and we knew those were going to expire this year and so in advance of that we asked for a bond and two years before that an override both of those elections failed and so this is the result of two failed elections and we have to bring our spending in alignment with our resources so those are the some of the painful decisions that we made but the good news is we're in a much better spot going into the upcoming school year and so does the board have any questions on the specifics or any anything I can answer with respect to the consolidation effort
039questions Jennifer Diana no not at this time okay thank you the the next is our state testing begins next uh this month on the 25th and 26th at the uh Elementary level and then the junior high is April 2nd through the 12th and then our high school will start a combination of March April late April so this this is when we're getting into the the part where the rubber meets the road all those folks Seated on your left and be very busy administering those tests and making sure that all the kids have been supported and those are really our our main updates are there any other questions that we the board might have that I could provide additional detail if not that concludes my report Mr President any question Jennifer Diana no not at this
040time all right so the next item on the agenda is our call to the public anybody that would like to address the board at this time we would ask you to come and um f out uh form giving your name and address to Mary Ford uh if there's nobody here we'll move to the next item on the agenda which is item number five which is just a notification of our next board meeting which will be on uh April 9th in this location at 5:00 p.m. any conflicts with that all right sounds good hey next thing we need is a motion to adjourn moved I have a motion from Chuck second from Margaret all in favor of adjournment say I I I I that looked to be unanimous also thank you very much folks