001[Music] Hey, [Music] hey, hey. [Music] Heat. Hey, Heat. Heat. Heat. N. [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] Heat. Heat. [Applause] Heat. [Music] [Applause] [Music] Heat. [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] Heat. Heat. [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] Hello. Hey. [Music] Hey. [Music] [Applause] [Music] What was his age? Excuse me, ladies. Oh, that's why. I'm calling. So, I call to order the workshop for Bullhead City School Board on Monday, October 13, 2025 at 5:30 p.m. Roll call. President Melinda Sebastian, Charlene Diaz here, Fred Rushton here, Barb Zarziki here, Judy Reid here. I think that all we're doing in workshop today is just the first reading of a bunch of things. We're going to look at some uh yeah, we're going to look at some policies. Um a short list uh but I also want to say to you that uh
002ASBA has been going through the entire uh master policy list and has sent us uh over the last few months updated for each section. The good news is tonight you're going to see the only one from section A that I thought really applied. Um and then uh next month we're going to start working through those other sections. So it's going to mean uh some reading and homework. We'll put them in the draft agenda early so you have lots of time. Um sections B and C are not very long. Section uh D and then section E is really long. We're not going to put them all, you know, all of them at the same time. But the good news is that when we're doing that many where we're really reviewing a whole section, we can treat
003it like we are doing the entire manual and so you won't have to vote on each one separately when we get to the when we get to the second read. Um uh but it will mean some homework in advance. So I just wanted to give you an alert on that. So that Fred homework homework Fred now homework Fred sounds familiar. So, uh, the first one is, uh, aa, um, and, uh, if you'll get that one up for us, Cass. And typical of any of the changes, uh, anything they're recommending that we delete is, uh, is a strike through. Anything that's new is underlined. And uh so you can see that um they added a a second sentence to this one because they also recommended that we uh delete policy AB which is the actual description
004of the boundaries of our district. Um I didn't present that to you for consideration because I thought maybe you might want to just leave it in there. Um but you know we can consider that. You can look at it and decide if you want to do that or not. Um we certainly can leave it. We don't have to delete something. Um, you know, we don't have to delete a policy if we don't want to. We just take the C off of it, uh, indicating that it's not copyrighted. Okay. So, there's an AB that you that you AB. Yeah, the AB policy AB. It's about this long. Um, it actually defines the boundaries of our school district very specifically by longitude and latitude and and uh other descriptors for the county. So, um, you know, and
005this one just says that the legal boundaries can be found in the county school superintendent's office. Well, that would probably be just as accurate. Oh, yeah. Okay. So, all right. And and the thing is is if we have something that publishes our boundaries are this, you know, this this and this with the way the area is growing and stuff, our boundaries might expand and then we'd have to go in and make those changes, wouldn't we? And stuff like if we were to take in other parts of the Well, they haven't changed since 1947. So, okay. I think it's unlikely. Yeah, it's unlikely that. Okay. But if you know, I'll put it in for next month and you all can decide if you want to if you want to keep it or not. Okay. Uh Okay,
006Cass, what else do we have? Um okay, this one came from uh from an an a policy advisory um that has to do with the bidding process. And once again, um this page looks very much like nothing has changed. And then um we can see that on page three uh that they've they've deleted some paragraphs that have to do with uh who we can purchase from without the bidding process. And I I don't know the background on this. Um but essentially there are some there's some other government agencies that we used to be able to purchase from without bidding and they have removed those. Don't know why. Maybe for accountability. maybe. Um and then uh and then in the list at the end, Cass, is there a change in the No, there's no change in
007the laws or the or the um references, the cross references. So, they didn't take any of those out anyway. So, that's really the only change here. Okay. Okay. and uh staff grievances. This one came through a policy advisory um excuse me and um and the change has to do with the changes that were made in Title 9 uh in 2024. the the sentences that are struck are actually already covered in policy ACA and in a CCA um which are um the um harassment and title nine harassment policies. We just did those not too long ago. So they're covered elsewhere. Okay. This would be redundant because because I'm sitting here looking at this and reading this and I just went through this Title N harassment thing at college that I had to take and I'm going,
008"Wait a minute. That was one of the things that said it had to be there instead." It is. And it's and we have it covered in another policy. This would be redundant. Yeah. Okay. uh support staff qualifications and requirements. And this also came from uh one of the uh policy advisories. Um the section on school bus drivers uh is removed because it's covered elsewhere. Okay. It was redundant as well. But it's still in there somewhere. It is in there. Yeah. It's just in a different place. I would definitely want them to have Absolutely. And then you can see um uh the fingerprint clearance. So this is much more explicit than it used to be um about fingerprint clearance and that it is an IVP clearance. um it is possible to get fingerprint cards that are
009not the level of um background check as what is required for school district employees. So um this enumerates um all of those things Okay. Okay. And oh, and then I borrow right. Sorry, I did it out of order. Um, this is about those other policies that will be coming. Um, some of the policies. Um, I had Cass check this with ASBA because I literally went through every single one of them. I am going through every single one of them as they send the advisories to see if there's anything of note that we might want to consider keeping a policy we currently have. For instance, we have some policies that uh are unique to us um for our district's purposes and they're not copyrighted by ASBA, but they were vetted by our attorney. And so I
010just want to make sure we don't go back and overwrite something um that we want to keep uh or um have that we have questions. I also noticed in these advisories that some of the policies, regulations, and exhibits that we have that are copyrighted um are not mentioned at all in the policy advisory. And so Cass checked with them if they're not mentioned at all, they have not changed and and ASBA is not recommending any change in those. So, we wanted to be sure that we keep the things we're supposed to keep as well as revise, possibly revise anything we need to revise. So, um it'll be homework and um um you know, you may or may not have questions about some of them. Um I will be sending you a version that has a
011few highlights in them um just to call your attention either to what we how it differs from what we currently have so that you can make those comparisons as well. There are also some policies uh particularly in section B which will be coming to you next uh where we have choices and so you'll need to think about that before um before you actually decide in the first read and certainly before the second read. So for instance, there is a policy that has to do with board self-evaluation and then it has a regulation or an exhibit, I can't remember which, but you have to choose one or the other and not both. Interestingly enough, in our current policy, we have both. So somewhere along the line, we weren't as diligent as we should have been in
012terms of uh selecting uh selecting when there was supposed to be a selection. And that's an example of some of the things that u we'll make note of and and I'll have notes for you on. Are you are you going through them by yourself or Yeah, because it's really time consuming to sit there and and I just I do it between other things and actually for some reason last week I had some had some extra time and got through two sections. So, um, uh, you know, and and if you all have any questions and we and you want them sent to our attorney to review, we certainly can do that. But, um, yeah, it's pretty standard stuff. But, yeah, it's it's pretty lengthy to try to sit and go through with somebody else. I'm learning
013things though. I'm just thinking we might learn something. We might help be helped or went through. Well, you might. You might. Um, I just thought it would be helpful to for you. It would be helpful for you if I at least identified some things that I knew you were going to have to decide and not just, you know, read it through and go, "This is okay." I'm not saying that. No, no, I know that. No, I know Melinda, you're not. But, but the, you know, because there's a lot of stuff. The good news is that they've uh is that they have combined some things and are deleting a number of redundant policies. So that's really nice. The the ending document will not be nearly as long as it is right now um because of the
014way they've combined some things. So um but we also we also want to know that that we have we have those things to back us up on the decisions we make as a district. So, I just keep thinking that, you know, um we're we the five of us are ultimately responsible for that. Yes. And um that's why I want you to have lots of time to look through them. Um uh because Yeah. I mean, especially when we get to section E because it's it's very long. And when we get to G, they haven't even gotten there yet, but when we get to G, that one's that's the biggest section in the in the entire U policy, so that will take time. The good news is that section F only has four items and section H
015only has four items. And so, you know, kind of kind of evens out. Uh, do you have anybody have any questions for Dr. Stewart? Can I have a motion to adjourn the workshop then? I make ahead. I make a motion we adjourn the workshop. I'll second the motion. All those in favor? I Melinda Saski. I Charlene Diaz. I Fred Rushed. Hi Barb Zarziki. Hi Judy Reed. Okay. Now we get to wait for [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Mhm. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Applause] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Hallelujah. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Nothing. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] Heat. Hey. Hey. Hey. Yeah. [Music] [Applause] Heat. [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] I'm here to go. [Music] [Applause] Heat up
016[Music] here. Heat. [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] Heat. [Music] [Applause] [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] Mhm. [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. N. [Music] Mhm. [Music] Mhm. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. N. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] [Applause] [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Everybody [Music] wonder. Heat. Heat. [Music] Nat. [Music] Hey. Hey. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] [Applause] ready. Okay. I'm calling to order the regular meeting for Bullhead City School Board on Monday, October 13, 2025 at 6:00 pm. Roll call. President Melinda Saski, Charlene Dia is here. Fred Rushton here. Barb Zerziki here. Judy Reed here. Would you please stand and say the pledge of allegiance? I aliance to the flag
017of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Citizens present. I hope you guys have all signed in in the back. Please print your names. Um, donations. Who is the Switzer engineering laboratories? Switzer family member that has always his family worked there and has continued to donate after she need a special special thank you. Huh? Because now that this the work or the family member isn't even working there is still donating. Thank you. Dot foods. Oh my gosh. Wow. Yeah. For McKinty Vento. Yeah. So, we got lots of new serving spoons later stuff. Well, the two Mavericks, particularly the one on the Parkway, did some remodeling and um uh got a bunch of new stuff. And so, uh Lance
018stops there pretty regularly and the manager said, "Could you use some of these things?" And um of course the answer was yes. And so um uh they donated a a number of utensils, some of which we've put we put in the den housing and some of which were bigger things that went to Chartwells. The Smith's over here. Perfect. Thank you very much to all those people who donated. Um again, it's it's just phenomenal. I just I really appreciate it. I think we all do. Call to the public. Do we have any? Okay, I'm moving on then. Superintendence reports. You might want to adopt the agenda. Oh, yeah. I forgot. Come on, clerk. You're supposed to help me out. Oh, sorry. I need a motion to adopt the agenda as presented. Adopt the Make a motion
019to adopt the agenda as presented. I'll second the motion. All those in favor? I Melinda Subraki. I Charlene Diaz. I Fred Rushton. I Barb Zarziki. I Judy Reed. Now we're at superintendent reports. U Madame President and board members. You can see the usual reports. Um excuse me. Um I would like to uh well I'll answer any questions or try to answer any questions you might have. Um, but I would like to point out JHD-E. Um, as we've discussed in the past, when I have uh recommended or have changes for exhibits and uh regulations, I will report them and I decided this was a good place to do so. Um, we have the policy that has to do with chronic health conditions and uh we've updated this form. Uh so I wanted you to know that
020we had updated it um uh in compliance with um uh some changes that were made in policy and in the law and uh so it's just you know it's just an updated form and I just wanted to report it to you. Thank you. And then for miscellaneous updates, um since we didn't have students here to show off tonight, I would like to show off some pictures from Saturday's uh safety fair. So, I don't think that was the first one I had. I think you've got them in reverse order. Um there we go. So, uh, Lance always has a booth for our district at the safety fair and in the past we've used some high school students to assist him. Um, this year he invited the student council members from Fox Creek Junior High and uh,
021so he had great help this year at uh, at the uh, fair. this uh their little booth is can you identify what might be a poison and what might not. And the handout for them uh for anybody who comes by is um what to do if you think you know you if you think you have somehow or other gotten into a poison of some sort. Um so these are student council. The individual standing here is Prince Salis who is a teacher at Fox Creek and the sponsor for student council. Um, I love this one because the look on the little boy's face. I'm not sure what he's looking at. I don't think it's anything on the table, but man, is he intent. Um, and then um and then Sparky stopped by. Uh, so the students
022enjoyed uh in enjoyed uh having a little time with Sparky. And you can see the little boy in the front is trying to identify which things might be might be poisons. Um, this is another angle on the table. And looking down the concourse from the fieldhouse, um, in the bottom of the picture is the booth that had to do with fa face painting. And there was this long line of kids waiting for face painting. Um, and and then they would just come just naturally come next door to uh to Lance's booth with our kids. Um, and so you can see there's pretty pretty much interest in uh in what was going on. Um, and so again, the u parents and the kids there Uh, no. I think you skipped some. Yes, you did. That's That's
023Yep. Okay. So, the kids had the opportunity because there were eight of them. I think eight or nine kids. Nine. Um, so they they would work, but they also wanted to take part in some of the things. So, this is two of the two of the girls down uh at the Mojave Electric demonstration uh pulling on something demonstrating the some electrical stuff and obviously having a good time. I bet they got a charge out of that. I bet they did. And then there's one more there. There we go. And then they they couldn't resist um they couldn't resist being in the pictures. And you also noticed that somehow or other they went to the face painting next door. You're not going to miss out on that. No. And then the last picture is of the
024new uh fire safety house. Um um I was around when they got the first one, right? And then they raised money and got some grants. And this is the new fire safety house. It's about half again as big as the original was. And um uh I didn't get to go in. There were kind of crowds of kids waiting to go in and and see whatever. But um u we're real happy that they've got that. Really happy. It was very much a success. The other thing I would like to point out is that at the end of the uh end of the fair um the four students who were working the second shift uh with Lance um uh asked if there was anything else they could do to help. And um there was popcorn at this
025event. And so needless to say there was popcorn all over the floor. Um, and so, uh, they reported to Barbie Barrett and, um, uh, Lorie Vials from the fire department and also the custodian for the fieldhouse. Uh, they swept floors. They helped put away tables and chairs. Uh, they stayed to to do that and volunteered. And so that makes me proud of our kids. Are are they identified? Uh, Lance would have Lance would have the identification for the which kids they were. Um, do you have the names with you, Lance, by any chance of which kids they were? I got the list of all nine figure out who the four were. Who the four were? Yeah. I don't uh I don't want to know who they are, but I think we should do something to
026acknowledge their extra effort. Absolutely. I would think that would be appropriate. I don't know what would be suitable. We'll figure out something. We'll work with it. Yep. Work with Mrs. vote on it and and uh do something for those kids. But I I was I was impressed that um you know that they volunteered. Nobody had to ask them. They thought that it was the right thing to do. And and that makes me proud of our kids. We hear too often about the handful of kids who cause us problems and not enough about the many many kids we have who do the right things and and make us proud. Yeah. Awesome. So if you have questions, I'll try to answer. Enrollment's holding kind of steady from the beginning of the year. Kind of steady. Where is
027I lost it incidents report. Okay. Yeah, the Yeah, the incident report. That one. Yep. Um, is there any simple explanation because I know that there's always of why things just jumped. I mean, 91 boys at Fox to 174. Yeah. And yeah, from that's the total for the year, but yeah, from 31 to 64 in a month. Um, we've been pretty busy. I don't know. I had asked them if those were correct numbers. I don't have any particular reason to doubt it, but um but yeah, it's huge. It was a huge jump. Uh it doubled. Yeah. And I I don't want to put Julie on the spot and ask her to say anything right now, but um I I will look into it and see if I can find out more that we can do to
028help. Right. We should be doing that. Right. And if you if you notice we have kind of a spike one one number in each school kind of spiked. Um don't have any idea why. So you know at Desert Valley the second grade boys or boys spiked and third at Diamondback and uh third at Sunrise and fifth grade at the middle school. I mean they didn't spike as much as the junior high but we did have a spike in incidents. So, I was just double-checking with them all to find out to make sure that we were reporting incidents and not u violations. Okay. So, we'll double check on that. You know, I'm not being critical. I'm just No, no, I know something. It's questionable. Yeah. I will say how big of a jump is absolutely. I
029will say again that I am very very impressed that things must be doing better because we did not have our first disciplinary hearing until after October 1st. So we were eight weeks into the school year before we had a hearing. Yeah. So, um um and I told the principles that when we met, I said, "Whatever it is y'all are doing um that you know that is resulting in students being better behaved and fewer serious incidents, keep doing it. We like it." Yeah. Okay. I just was curious. Yeah. Me, too. Curiouser and curiouser. If you'd like to, Julie, come up. Just come up so you can get to the microphone. So the streaming people can hear you. Do I have to? First of all, Julie, you understand that I'm not being critical. Um, what we have
030been seeing is when our students, because we walk the classroom, Sandra's been walking the classroom. We aren't seeing it in the classroom. So classrooms are running smoothly. There's no discipline going on. However, it's the recess time and other times when students are getting together. So when we have an incident, it's usually involving 8 to 10 to 12 kids that are involved in an incident. And that's why the number is so high. So an incident might be with multiple of people that are doing something like pressing a student, doing something that's more aggressive, those type of things. So the incidents aren't like a lot of incidents. It's usually like an incident with a lot of students that are involved in an incident. Does that make sense? That makes sense. So that would be the increase in
031numbers if it it was increase in numbers like um the staff laughed at me one day and it wasn't very funny because um Corey was dealing with something and then and then left for the day and um somehow another got out that I had suspended like 18 kids in one day. But there was an incident in PE and it just it was all these kids in one thing. But I will tell you for the rest of the week the kids were extremely quiet because they were like uh oh jeez on the prowl and it was just an incident where the boys had decided to do um WWE wrestling in the PE class. Oh jeez. So so it was a large number of kids but it was like one incident. Yeah. Thank you for straight. Thank
032you. I don't know if that helps or not, but yeah, it does. But please, please let us know if there's something we can do as a board. Okay. Board member updates 2.9. Madam President, appoint a privilege. Of course, Miss Kate, would you like to come up here? Uh oh, now you're in trouble. And I think Miss Amanda's out there somewhere. Yeah, there she is. Is this a birthday or something? Do this surprise. Holy cow. There were Madame President, members of the board, uh it's my privilege to introduce Dr. Cheryl Paul. from Grand Canyon University, one of Dr. Stewart's friends. Uh she uh has got some comments that she'd like to make. Oh, welcome. Good evening, Madame President, members of the board, Superintendent Dr. Stewart, staff, and guests. I am sincerely honored to be here with
033you tonight to make this very special presentation. My name, as already stated, is Dr. Cheryl Paul and I serve as the assistant vice president for K12 strategic alliance at Grand Canyon University. GCU is proud to partner with the Arizona Rural Schools Association to present the LC Tols Woman in Rural Education Leadership Award. My heartfelt thanks goes to this exceptional Bullhead City leadership team who can sleuth like nobody's business for their dedication and teamwork to make tonight's recognition possible. Special thank you to Lance. And I cannot let this moment pass without expressing sincere appreciation to all of your principles who lead each and every day with courage, compassion, and commitment, especially during National Principal Month. As we honor those who give so much of themselves to their schools and their communities, we thank all principles. I
034would also like to recognize, although I understand he's hunting, John Warren, who preserves many of the artifacts and stories of Elsie Tols for those who wish to learn more about her remarkable life. Elsie Tols, for whom this award is named, was born in 1888 in Bisby, Arizona. She is a proud member of the first graduating class at Bisby High School and went on to earn her degree from San Jose Teachers College. Upon returning to Arizona, she taught in both Bisby and Douglas before being elected Coochis County Superintendent in 1916. In 1922, Elsie Tols ma made history as the first woman elected as the Arizona State Superintendent of Public Instruction. She devoted her life to education and public service, paving the way for generations of women in educational leadership, especially those serving in rural committees communities.
035Tonight we honor a leader who so beautifully embodies that same spirit of advocacy, innovation, and heart centered service. Dr. Carolyn Stewart, superintendent of Bhead City School District. For more than 40 years, more than 40 years, Dr. Stewart has worked tirelessly to ensure that rural students are seen, valued, and given every opportunity to thrive. She joined the Bullhead City School District in 1989, serving as principal at multiple campuses and teaching at both Mojave Community College and NAU. After briefly briefly retiring, she was unanimously selected as superintendent in 2019, stepping back into leadership to continue serving her community. Today, she leads a district of 2400 students, 300 staff across six campuses, each one a place of growth, innovation, and care under her tulage. Beyond her district, Dr. Stewart's impact extends across the state. She is an active
036member of ARSA, ASA, and Bullhead Area Chamber of Commerce, Education Forward Arizona, and multiple local and county committees. She also gives her time to nonprofit boards, including Mojave Mental Health and the Lions Club Camp, enriching lives far beyond the school walls. Her leadership is marked by innovation, compassion, integrity, and deep listening. Expanding access to technology, building career readiness pathways, and creating a culture where every voice truly matters. Just as Elsie Tols broke barriers and championed opportunity for all, Dr. Carolyn Stewart continues that legacy through her steadfast commitment to leadership, advocacy, and community service. She exemplifies the values this award represents and inspires us all to keep investing in the promise of rural education. It is with great pride and genuine admiration. It is my privilege to extend heartfelt congratulations to you, my friend, Dr. Carolyn
037Stewart, recipient of the LC Tols woman in rural education leadership award. Congratulations, Carolyn. This honor reflects your extraordinary dedication, your heart for service, and your unwavering belief in the power of education to transform lives. We thank you for your commitment. We thank you for your daily impact day after day. Dr. Carolyn Stewart [Applause] And I would also like to thank everyone for wearing purple tonight in recognition of GCU or could be someone's favorite color in my usual purple. Yeah. I was wondering. No, why not? You guys were quiet back there. Did you know this was gonna happen? Huh? Ask Melinda. Ask Melinda. Melinda. Absolutely. Sure. Sure. All of us or just you guys? Or we can just stand behind you. Why don't we just stand in the back? We'll just stand behind you. We could
038just stand here. That way you don't have to rehike. Yeah, we're we're fine up here. a cute baby. Yes. [Laughter] over here. Get everybody in. Thank you. Oh, absolutely. No problem. Absolutely. That's the first thing that went through. Oh, you're welcome. It was lovely. Oh, thank you. Congratulations. You guys are I was about it. That is so hard to follow. Yeah, thank you for representing us so well. Yes, appreciate it. It is my pleasure. And since I couldn't be there that night and was very nice that uh several drove up to accept for me that night and really nice to be here tonight. So, wow. For them to come from Phoenix for this is amazing. Makes the whole night special. Uh any more points of privilege? No more. Okay. Thank you. Thank you for doing
039that for us. Yes, Charlene. Um I need a motion to Thank you. approve the consent agenda. I make a motion we approve the consent agenda. I second it. All those in favor? I Meinda Saskki. I Charlene Diaz. I Fred Rush. I barber Ziki. Jody Reed. I made the motion. There is no old business. So, we're going to go into new business. I need a motion to convene into executive session for the consideration of student discipline pursuant to ARS 38431.03A2 03A2 discussion or consideration of records exempt by law from public inspection, including the receipt or discussion of information or testimony that is specifically required to be maintained as confidential by the state or federal law and ARS 1584A, um 15841B and D and 15843A and F8. H regarding suspension or expulsion of pupils. Do I have
040a motion? I'll make a motion that we um adjourn to executive session. All those in favor? I Melinda Sabraski. I'm Charlene Diaz. I'll second the motion. Okay. All those all those in favor. I'm Melinda Sabraski. Hi, Charlene Diaz. Hi, Fred Rushton. Hi, Barberski. Hi, Judy Reed. I thought I heard Fred Heat. Heat. [Music] Hallelujah. [Music] Hey, [Music] hey, hey. Heat. Heat. [Music] Let the man [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Number [Music] n. [Music] [Applause] Heat. Heat. [Applause] [Music] Heat. [Music] [Applause] [Music] Heat. [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] Hey, [Music] hey, hey. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] Hey, hey. Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Mhm. [Music] Mhm. [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat.
041[Music] Mhm. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. N. [Music] [Applause] [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. Heat. [Music] I can't [Music] Hey, [Music] hey, hey. [Music] Number [Music] one. [Music] Hey, [Music] hey, hey. Number [Music] one. [Music] into public session. Make a motion to reconvene in public session. I second that motion. Um, I Melinda Subraki, I Charlene Diaz, I Fred Rushton, I B Zerziki, I Judy Reed. Item 7.2, the fiscal year 25 uh 2025 annual FIS financial report. Madame President and board members, uh, each year we must, uh, complete, excuse me, the financial report. Don't we have to do 6.3? Pardon? after we reconvene back into Oh, no. I'm sorry. Never mind. No. If we do, Casselie didn't make it pink. Yeah. Um, so this this report is uh another way of reporting
042uh not just our budget last year, but how what our actual expenditures were uh and where they fell and all of that kind of thing. Uh Jenny Beck is the one who uh puts this together. And then uh we have it reviewed by uh by the accountant, one of the accountants with Heinfeld Meech. Um and so uh it's as close to correct as I know how to make it and the accountant knows how to make it. Um so just keep in mind this is this is how we actually spent last year's budget, M budget, um and our other budgets. It it reflects grants, um capital, all of the monies that we had last year uh for fiscal year 25. So this is the wrapup budget. This is the wrapup. Isn't it's it's the accounting of
043how we use that budget. Okay. I have I have a question, but it doesn't apply to this budget. Somehow somehow I uh I didn't read the top. Okay. Yeah. So we need your approval so that we can get it filed tomorrow in advance of the deadline which is Wednesday. Which is why we had this meeting early. That's why we're meeting today. Um, do we have a motion to approve the financial report? I have a question. Sure. I'm just noticing on line item for Tetridge, which I believe is the DEN project. Yes. If I'm correct. Um, apparently there was an overage there from the budget. Was that something that uh was unforeseen or or what happened? It was a bit unforeseen. This is this is not the actual building process. This is the operation of the
044den project. And if you recall, uh the landscaping came in considerably higher than we expected. Uh we have been uh collecting some donations and and that will end up in the black, but um it ended the year in the red and um uh we had to move some money over. Um actually what you do what we do is we move expenses from that account over into M. Um and u so we make sure that make sure that things are in the black at the end of the year. Okay. But that was that was the big thing was the um that the landscaping was considerably relatively speaking considerably higher about double what we thought it was going to be. I'm particularly interested in that that project you know that. Absolutely. Yeah. Absolutely. I was just curious.
045Thank you. And it's always good to ask questions. Thank you. Was the landscaping mostly the sign the signing? No, actually the the um uh the purchase of the stone was was part of that. Yes. Um the actual uh engraving and those things which have not been done which is one reason we which is the main reason we uh postponed our ribbon cutting. I want that sign installed before we do our ribbon cutting. Um no I actually the biggest expense was the stones you know the ground cover. Oh, you know, because that's tons and tons and tons of rock, granite or whatever it is that we had as ground cover. So, um, and the labor labor the labor of spreading all that stuff around and and making it happen. So, um, we have had some donations.
046Uh, I think right now we've had about $10,000 in donations to help cover that. So, uh, we're we're still we're still hopeful that some other folks will come through with some donations and help us out. And I was reading an artic or reading something the other day that somebody was on next door and stuff. They were talking about six months ago they' gotten a quote for uh rock for their yard and was $39 a ton. And when they called this week to get it done, it was $49 a ton. So it had gone up $10 in less than six months time, right? Per ton. So yeah, things are going to get busy here. So costs are going to go up. Yeah. Yep. Supply and demand. Okay, I still need a motion to accept the financial
047report. I make a motion we accept the financial 25 annual fiscal year 25 annual financial report. I'll second that motion. All those in favor? I Melinda Subski. I Charlene Diaz. I Fred Rushton. I Barb Zerziki. I Judy Reed. We have 7.3 revised salary schedule for classified employees. Does this reflect the new Yes, it does. U madame president and board members uh I was feeling very good about when I presented the salary schedules to you in the spring uh that I had anticipated the minimum wage uh change for January and was wrong. So um uh so uh the first two columns reflect um the change. So essentially what happened uh is that both of these columns just moved up one notch. I had them both, you know, I had the first column 30 cents less than
048uh than what the minimum wage is going to be. Um because the minimum wage went up, I mean the uh cost of living that they use to calculate the minimum wage in Arizona went up 2.9%. As opposed to the 2% uh increase that we get from the legislature. So um that put 1515 as the base for column 1 and uh the base earlier this year for column 2 was 1510. So I needed to move that one up as well. So both columns uh the base went up 30 cents and then of course each step um um it's not prohibitive in terms of our budget. Wouldn't matter if it was. I'd have to find the money someplace anyway. U but it isn't prohibitive in terms of the budget. So those are the only two columns affected
049by uh the change in minimum wage. Question. Any questions? And I need a motion to approve the revised salary schedule for classified employees. I make a motion that we approve the revised salary schedule for classified employees. I'll second the motion. All those in favor? I Melinda Saski. I Charlene Diaz. I Fred Rushton. I Barb Zarziki. I Judy Reed. Item 7.4 revised job description for pair professional instruction. Madame President and board members um uh Mrs. Lot uh requested some changes in this job description for the paraprofessionals in title one positions and uh so I'm just simply recommending that we uh approve this revision. So, is this a new job description? No, we've had a and we've had a paraprofessional instruction job description in the past. Um uh but she made some uh recommendations for uh some
050changes in the qualifications and uh and then a couple of descriptors in the performance responsibilities for title one. So we have we have different job descriptions for uh different paraprofessional positions. Um we have a separate description for u paraprofessionals in special ed classrooms. Um and um and then we also have um pair of professionals in the positions like the BRC uh supervisors and those things. So we have we have there are some differences in the duties and responsibilities in those different roles. Um and uh this just brings this one up to date. any ideas which ones were changed? Um, in the qualifications, we got very specific. She got very specific for items two, uh, two, three, and four. Uh, as I recall, we weren't quite as specific about, uh, I'm sorry, uh, two, and three,
051um, two, and three because, um, the folks working with our students in title one, um, you know, have to have the skills. they simply have to have math skills or language skills to be working with students in those two areas. Um and um uh so we we prefer that they have an associates degree, but of course we don't always find folks. So then they have there are two tests that they must pass. Okay. Any other questions for Dr. Stewart? Do I have a motion to approve the the job the revised job description for paraprofessional instruction? Madame President, I move that we approve the new title one math par profofessional job description. It's not math description revised. I'm sorry. I'll second. It's seconded. All those in favor? I'm Melinda. I Charlene Diaz. Hi Fred Rushton. Hi
052Barb Zarziki. Hi Judy Reid. Item 7.5 approvals approval to add another Is this a new position? This is a new position and add a title math pair professional for Fox or at Fox Creek. Madame President and board members. Uh we've not had pair professionals in the title one classrooms at um at the junior high in the past. Um, after all of our angst about uh funding for title programs and and other grants, we had some rollover funding. Um, and um, Jen always consults with the principles about, you know, how they how they would like to use those funds. Um, we have some issues obviously with math and language arts at the junior high. And so, um, Mrs. Vote requested a pair of professional to help with the in the math title one classroom. Um, good
053good way of spending those extra funds. Another body always helps. I need a motion to approve uh the additional uh title one pair professional at Fox Creek. I make a motion we approve to add the title math professional at Fox Creek. I'll second the motion. All those in favor? I Melinda Subasi. I Charlene Diaz. I Fred Rushton. Hi, Barbar Ziki. Hi, Judy Reid. Item 7.6, adult meal prices. Madame President and board members, u we've not uh increased the prices of meals for adults uh for our breakfast and lunch for I don't know three or four years. Um, we get information each year from um from the state uh office that handles our food, you know, our food service money and the expenses that we have. And um we've learned that we're now not meeting uh
054the cost. And so, um, uh, I recommend that we increase the prices, um, from $3 for breakfast to $4 and from $5 for lunch to $6. Um, it really did not go up a dollar in each of those cases. Um, but it's kind of a nightmare to have to deal with change and that kind of stuff. The other thing is that this this would should stand us in good in in good standing for several years. Any questions? Do I have a motion to approve the new adult meal prices? I'll make a motion to approve the uh new adult meal prices. I'll second the motion. All those in favor? I Melinda Saski. I Charlene Diaz. I Fred Rushton. I Barb Zarziki. I Judy Reed. Item 7.7 ASBA policy advisory for AA school district legal status. first
055reading. This we we looked at them in the workshop. This is just first read. So, um, you know, there's no action for you to take other than if you would like, uh, to mention any changes that you might want to make in it or references that you, you know, or anything you might want to refer me to to check with the attorney and and that kind of thing. That's kind of the purpose of first read is for you to make initial changes. Anybody see any changes that need to be made? Nope. Okay. Item 7.8, ASBA policy advisory for DJ bidding purchase procedures. First reading. Anybody know notice any changes that need to be made? No. 7.9 ASBA policy advisory for GBK staff grievances. This is the first reading. Does anybody have any that needs to
056be changed? No. Okay. Item 710 7.10 ASBA policy advisory for GDFA support staff qualifications and requirements. This is the first reading. Are there any questions? No. Or changes that are needed? No. Item 7.11 consideration and direction of ASBA bylaw change proposal. That came to us in in our envelope here. In the envelope. And um I worked on this with the with a a rather large committee. It seemed like forever and we um basically these are the changes that were made and I know you guys haven't had a whole bunch of time but we've had a whole bunch of emails about this. Are there any questions that I might be able to answer? Nothing jumped out that was earthshattering to me. It just seemed to me to be kind of clarification a wording. Exactly. That's what
057it was. It was just a rewarding of things to make it put it into better English. Making it more understandable. I didn't really see any content changes. There were some changes on Oh, well, they talked about um uh reservation and how they were affected, but I think they're they were basically just wording. So, I need a motion to approve to turn in for Cassie to turn in our approval of the changes on the on ASBA bylaws. I make a motion that uh we turn in the approved uh direction on the ASBA bylaw changes change proposal for Cassie to say that we approve it all. I'll second the motion. All those in favor? I Melinda Saskki. I Charlene Diaz. I Fred Rushton. I Barb Cersiki. I Judy Reed. Okay. Future topics. Um, I would really I'm
058not sure that you can even answer this because it's so brand new, but it was on the news today that the the federal department of education has now completely closed the IDEIDA office, special ed office. How I'll have to find out. Yeah. And see if that is fake news. sure whether it was coming from um I'm sorry, what? Yeah, that's what they basically closed it because they laid off everybody. Well, they didn't lay him off, they fired him supposedly. So, it might be something. I'll look into it. I figure out somebody has to be operating those funds. I mean because we know the law is not the law has not gone away. Is this is this in reaction to the budget crunch the budget well it may be like it might be for instance I
059heard they were doing the same thing in other departments but we've been seeing that you know things are moving from uh from the department of education. So um you know it's it's not necessarily that things are that things are going away. Some of them are being moved to other departments, but I haven't seen this particular thing. Um, the issue will be the issue will be the law is still there. So, somebody has to be somebody has to have a hold of the purse strings and somebody's going to have to be in charge of making sure that districts follow the law. So, just kind of bothers me that if all the staff was fired, if if the news is true, and you'll check that out. I will that there's nobody left who knows what's going on.
060Exactly. Yeah. And months ago or two months ago or whenever um uh when some of the first things started happening in the department of ed um the federal department of ed um when they when it was all said and done there was one person left to deal with um uh to deal with EL students and EL programs. So, it's entirely possible that what you heard, scary as it might be, would be true. We'll investigate. Okay. Thank you. Um any uh one uh question, Carolyn, is I got my tax bill this month and why did we take an $11 decrease in our tax rate for the elementary? Sure. It gets determined by the county based on our assessed valuation. Um I don't know quite how it gets calculated. I I have a form I have to
061fill out relative to that whole thing. Uh but it has to do with the has to do with the assessed valuation within the boundaries of our district. So pretty much just in Bullhead City, we have that whole stretch that goes up the river, but that's all federal land. And so, you know, we don't get any tax money from that at all, but we get some federal u uh reimbursement in in lie of taxes from that. Um I just know that it gets calculated at the county level and because we don't have any say. What I was noticing was all the other districts, their tax level from last year to this year went up. So, they were getting more money and ours dropped the $11. And I'm going, why do we have and and such a
062big drop? It was almost 10% of our Yeah, the rate dropped. Um, as I recall from looking at the budget when I presented the budget to you last month with the revision, um, the we were like$165 per 10,000 or what? 100 thou whatever it is and now it's a$159. Yeah. So, you know, that six cents per 100,000 or per 10,000 makes a big difference. Um, but it gets offset. we we get the equalization money from the state. So that's part of the that's part of the reason that states have equalization formulas um is when when you are in a tax poor district. Okay. Um and somebody might say well you know you have 315 billion dollars in top property um you know how do you consider that tax poor? Well, compare that to some other
063places in the state. Yeah. And then there are places that are more poor than we are. You know, there are districts that are much more poor than we are in terms of tax uh tax poor. Um um the formula then the equalization is then the state funds make up the difference up to our uh our expenditure limit. And uh so for example um if if you looked at some of the cells in that AFR that you approved a few minutes ago um you will see that we have what's called a balance in the county of something like $7 million. Okay. We can't touch that. the only the only piece of what we can touch is any new taxes at the new tax rate up to the our capacity for budget. And so that's an ongoing
064conversation that I want to be having with our legislators about um uh you know I I don't think it's very responsible for us as a district to have $7 million sitting in the county treasury that we either can't use or can't give back to taxpayers. Um and so um uh it's one of that started growing when uh when they went to real time budgeting. that didn't happen when we had the hundth day, 40th day and 100th day. And so, um, they're just it's kind of a complex little thing that somebody needs to address. And I don't like it that that keeps growing. I don't even know how it keeps growing. Yeah. But we can't touch it. Can't touch it. Thank you. Great question. And I'm not sure I gave you a very good answer, Barb,
065but it's the best I can do. Totally understand. Thank you. Lance, do you have information on it? story. True. Yeah. But on our tax bills, the secondary taxes are listed separately. So, for instance, the high school district has their base tax for, you know, M um and then they have the the um the bond the the tax rate for the bond um uh that kind of thing. And and several of the others um you know, several of the others. I don't know about you, Barb. I'll make I'll make just kind of a personal statement. Um, when I looked at my tax bill, uh, for my property, um, I can't complain about the taxes. Okay. I can't complain at all. And when I look at what I'm paying for, uh, to help this district operate, uh,
066it's almost embarrassingly low. Yeah. No, I I was that the thing I was looking at was the fact it went down from last year and I'm going, wait a minute, we can you have we need more money to to pay our teachers and stuff. Why is it going down? You know why isn't you know that's what I was like is the fact it went down and not up. If it gone up that wouldn't have bothered me but going down I'm going wait a minute they're taking money that we could use in our school district. Exactly. Exactly. Yeah. I think that about that 7 million too. You know I don't want the whole seven million but can I have a little of it to spend for our district? Yeah. But no that's what I was looking
067a minute they're taking money from us instead to us. That's right. Okay, I got a question for Cassie. I think this is future topics. Um, have you heard anything from ASBA on our board? It's still on. Okay. I haven't heard yet from first. Yeah. The workshop's coming up, right? Yeah. November 1st. November one. Yep. Yeah. Saturday. Um, yeah. I had it on my calendar. Yeah. Goodness. Are you okay? I've done shine. I say after I've done trunk or treat at the shrine on Friday night. Any any other future events questions that you need to have answered? Okay. Uh item 8.2 upcoming board events. This is Glance's list. Yeah. Lance, is there anything on here that I should spa should pay specific attention to? Legacy Foundation. No, Saturday. Or is it Friday? Friday. Yeah. When is
068it? Friday. Oh, okay. Mojave Mojave Valley. So represent of course. Could you send me the address for that, please? You just send me one. Yeah, I'll see if I can go represent. Thank you. Casically sold out. I would love to go, but it's too expensive. Yeah. Okay. Any other questions for Lance? Item 8.3, date, time, and location for future meeting. Um, basically we have it down for November 20th, the Thursday. It's our regular meeting night. The auditors will be here that week. What fun. The auditors are going to be here that week. Yep. Oh gosh. I'm good on the I am good, too. Yeah, I leave town on the 21st. Good for the 20th. Okay. And we'll be back in town. So, our next meeting will be October or excuse me, November 20th, 2025. Doors
069will open at 5. The workshop starts at 5:30 and the regular meeting is 6 o'clock. Okay. And I will drop the I will drop the um uh section B um policy advisory into the draft agenda as soon as Cass has it set up um which you probably will be tomorrow. Yeah. So uh so that you can start looking at those and have plenty of time to consider them. Okay. Thank you. Item 9.1 adjourn the regular meeting. Do I have a motion to adjourn this meeting? I make a motion we adjourn the meeting. I'll second the motion. All those in favor? I Melinda Saskki. I Charlene Diaz. I Fred Rushton. I Barbara Zarziki. I Judy Reed. We got through by 7:30. for you, James. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Number [Music] n. [Music]