001w [Music] la [Music] n [Music] [Applause] [Music] so [Music] oh [Music] I [Music] I'd like to call this meeting to order I'd like to call to order the workshop for Bullhead City School Board on Monday December 9th 2004 at 530 p.m. and we have some special people here would you like to introduce the group roll call roll call oh roll call well they're here all right president Melinda saski Charlene Diaz here Fred Rushton here barbariki here okay would you like please introduce some sure all right um so today well first of all my name is Valley school today our fourth graders are going to be performing Jingle Bells for you miss Ed has been working diligently with the fourth graders for the past few months they have a holiday show um next week for our
002fourth grade students and parents and so we're super excited so she's here to showas some students from Miss's class and mr's class and all the things that they've been working on so all of these people here are parents nice of you to be here thank you thank you thank you thank you everybody yes inde for showing up obvious and just inic class we're always really excited to show all parts of our school thank you looking forward to this I bet you they do better on bells than you do I know they do [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] w [Music] [Applause] wonderful thank you Miss Edge thank you fourth graders that's wonderful thank you Merry Christmas thank you parents mer Christmas thank you thank you for bringing the kids that was wonderful and you're certainly
003welcome to stay you don't have to leave just because they're done but that's up to you okay thank you oh that was one that was that was good now if I could have only have done that will on Sunday bills are not easy to play they're not thank you Miss wiie I got I lost I I lost track after the four first four the first four measures yesterday at church okay I was just kind of lost you I didn't know what bell to ring or where I was it was like I ruined it for everybody but it was just like so I am impressed I am impressed did a really good job that was awesome what time ises next Wednesday next Wednesday at what time and it's on it's on the community calendar at the
004end okay that'll be fun that'll be fun I think I'll try that good look at all of them taking pictures I love it yeah I don't know okay item 4 point 1.4 pressures of the on the general fund duee to school [Music] funding I don't know why my microphone won't move but there we go uh okay so uh earlier well in November when we had uh um an ASA superintendent uh superintendent meeting and uh we have those every couple of months um I didn't go in person I did it virtually but one of the superintendent in the state uh uh Dr Annabelle opella uh put together this information and at the time I thought oh I'm sure the board would like to see this uh because it talks about how we how funding is done
005in Arizona but it's comparing it's also giving us information about public school funding charter school funding and esas and uh how that all plays together so uh I thought that she did this in such a way that it's pretty accessible uh which makes it really nice for those of us who are not necessarily um uh on top of all of this stuff so um here's her report uh for for uh K12 total revenues for fiscal year 23 so keep in mind that's two years ago um okay so here in the leftand column you can see uh how funding works for um districts like ours okay so the blue on the bottom is the funding from the state the Orange is the primary tax rate now keep in mind that these are averages so it might
006be a little different from school district to school district um so I'll give you an example uh the on the left in that First Column school districts like Scottsdale that get no State funding so where it's red where it's orange and blue it would be entirely orange there are three school districts in the state that do not get State funding at all don't get any Equalization funding they fund their schools completely with uh property tax uh money from their you know in their County or in their school district okay but most of us the rest of us 20 230 some school districts get um some kind of state funding so this is the average okay and then uh the light orange uh is for so the Blue Line shows for most of us okay so
007for us it would be the blue and the orange that's it for uh some districts that have secondary um or bonds or overrides or other local money um they get um that light orange and then there are federal dollars now we do get federal dollars because we have title funding uh we've had eser funding recently uh whatever so any of the federal dollars so for us uh it would be something like the dark blue the orange and the green okay okay and this was for fiscal year 2023 so you can see how it is that sometimes they say in Arizona that districts have between 14 and $15,000 funding for each student okay um uh and the blue part uh adding the blue and the orange makes it about 8,000 uh I will tell you that's
008not us um but it gives you an idea of how the state funding and the local the county funding and the other funding streams work for public school districts the second column is Charter Schools so Charter Schools draw no funding from the county from property tax all of their funding uh the blue part all of their funding comes from the state so that means from the state budget that's approved by the legislature each year okay um and then in some cases they get some local or County money okay I don't know how that's determined I don't I'm not sure that Annabelle told us that she may have and I didn't put it in my notes uh and then they can apply also for uh Title One and some of those funds as well so U
009so you can see uh that uh that funding okay then you can see the esas so in fiscal year 23 the esas they were drawing all their funding from the state from uh that state budget and you can see it was below the blue line so it was about $99,500 doll a little over $9,500 um and for fiscal year 24 for which they did uh she could get U data uh that went up to 9782 uh and this is per student okay per student so for all four columns we're talking about the amount of funding uh and this is averages but for uh for each student Okay so we've talked in the past about um uh what can happen and what can be beneficial for those districts that have uh bonds and overrides and so
010when you look at this this average of $2,400 for those districts that per student that they can get because they've passed bonds and overrides um you can see that that can make a significant difference in the funding available uh in a school district um and clearly arizonans um uh support public education uh 78% the bonds and overrides that were on the ballot in November did pass okay so there's strong support in Arizona for public schools and that's a good thing we want that um you know we want that for any school district okay um it's interesting though that adding up the the our column District column we get about $9,600 and then 98 and 97 uhhuh not quite right but that's okay keep going well and and the thing is that's part of what we
011have to look at here because what you're going to see is then what happens when for instance when we lose students to a charter or we or Charters lose students to us or we all any of us lose students to the esas um and that's part of her uh part of the point of this um but keep in mind that all of that blue when that all adds up in the in the um uh the state budget uh the Constitution limits the percentage of the annual state budget that can be spent on education okay so if so if you think about my examples of the jars of marbles okay so even the legislature each year when it approves a budget only a certain percentage of those marbles in the jar can go to education and
012they can't go over that or they have to change some other things Okay so so the core State responsibility for for Equalization formula so this gives these are examples of um um schools so on the left you have District a uh which has low wealth and in this case the uh the blue still indicates uh the State dollars that come out of the state budget and orange indicates uh property tax County property tax okay and then you have a medium wealth a district of medium wealth and then you have a district of high wealth and then you have those three districts that are not represented here where that entire amount of money 100% is blue because I I mean is orange sorry for those three District it's orange because they fund their schools those three
013school districts completely with property taxes um uh we are kind of between on these examples we're kind of between districts a and District B okay we're kind of in there it's not we're not at 5050 U uh but we uh we get a little more money so I'm going to give you kind of round numbers in our $18 million budget about 10 million comes from the state and about 8 million from the county roughly okay and then you can see over on the right charter schools are entirely funded with um uh with State monies and uh and get an addition amount of money so they get the 100% that the rest of us get with the combination of State money and local tax money and another 20% okay so any questions or comments about that
014um just because I don't know why do Charter Schools get that extra 20% I I don't know the reason I just know that's the way it was built into the the legislation that uh authorizes Charter Schools okay kind of goes against the uh the equality that the government uh strives to force down our throats right thanks FR I that's a good conclusion or the equity if you would um I mean and the whole idea of the State uh equal ation and I will tell you Most states have Equalization because they recognize that they have districts that particularly rural districts that don't have the you know the property tax funding and U and and so you know 40 or 50 years ago Most states recognized wait a minute if we want quality education in all of
015our districts in all of our schools we better figure out a way to make sure that there's pretty equal funding per student in all of our school schols and so I think virtually every state has some kind of an equalization formula uh to make that happen of those three schools who don't use this funding source who use just property taxes do they have the same rules we have yes absolutely the same rules we have Charters not so much yeah not so much there are there are some things that U uh that they don't have to do uh but pretty much they match the public schools pretty much um there are enough differences that some of us whne me included sometimes uh that that it would be nice if not only were there equity in funding
016but equity in expectations and accountability okay so it's you know it's like it's like okay let's play football U but this group is going to play by these rules and and it's kind of like a VIN diagram you know here here's the rule here are the rules for public schools here are the rules for Charter Schools and so there's there's a lot of overlap but then there are some differences out there and you kind of go can we can we get these lined up can we just get them lined up I'm just thinking about Scottdale that doesn't have any state funds are they still dictate or dictated to by the state absolutely they have all the same regulations we have even if they don't get state funded absolutely okay absolutely all right okay I just
017was curious okay so um okay so this gets a little more complicated but we're we're we're talking here about non-sp special education we're talking about regular classrooms and uh and the funding and keep in mind that on on these other graphs okay so even on here this includes high schools so now you're going to see because I'm sure you're saying wait a minute Stuart you told us our our basic funding per student was about a little over $5,000 well okay so this will explain to you why so you can see here that the base amount for elementary for us uh it says 5805 I will tell you that when I calculated our adjusted budget it was about 5,15 so again there's an average here but you can see that High School base pay is over
018base rate is over 6,000 so that's why on that first graph it looks like there's more per student than what we actually get for our district okay okay and then there's additional uh District additional assistance daa which is capital and we get funded at roughly 4 $550 per student and high schools at 685 um and I will tell you that that because we were really good this year about salary raises and and those kinds of things um what we get this year for daa is in fact our capital and that's less than uh less than last year and and you'll see that you can see that when you look at the budget um revision that I you know that is now posted and that we're going to approve uh hopefully on Thursday um uh that
019you can see that our Capital uh amount for this year is down simply because uh we're using all all but about $20,000 is from the daa okay District transportation uh is the same there's a an equal amount there for Elementary and high school and then and uh there's the the capital uh the charter additional assistance um for Capital things um at 20 290 for elementaries and 2435 for uh high schools so that's that additional uh 20% okay so then uh base formula of total for the district rows 1 through three so you can see it's 6598 that's the average for elementaries uh and then for Charters 7 895 and then you can see what the esa formula is and what the legislature approved was 90% of what they fund Charters okay okay now just like
020public schools Charters don't have to have transportation um uh and of course esas don't have to have transportation um uh so if they choose not to transportation um if they don't have it do they still get that no they wouldn't get that okay so you can see though the the uh dise Equity of um particularly line five and line seven uh for the esas and here's the other thing the esas any any student who's receiving an education in Arizona through an Esa there are no rules yeah so they don't don't have to do State Testing they don't have to use State uh uh curriculum or state standards there are no rules and there is very little accountability so if you've noticed in some of the news releases last year there have been some things like
021oh we purchased uh we we bought ski tickets or um we bought a baby grand piano or you know I mean those are some of the some of the more outlandish ones uh we heard recently that um three individuals who don't even live in Arizona uh established Esa accounts for a number of students uh for some reason 12 students comes to mind but I'm not sure if that's accurate or not um uh and and collected the money they don't the adults don't live in Arizona they have they enr they have no children they enrolled children in Arizona esas and received the money now the good news is they got caught yeah and well you know the the state will take them to court to get the funding back but think about how much money that
022that really was that went off to people that were you know have no kids in Arizona or Arizona schools never okay so so there really are no rules for even applying not much not much and the fact that you know it's three that they caught how many more are out there that they haven't caught yet exactly exactly Charlene you had a question comment yeah I I just want for clarification when you're saying ES say you're talking about the homeschooling yeah it's not just homeschooling it's it is the esa is the uh um the empowerment scholarship fund so parents who have their children who've had their children in private schools forever can apply and get the money for esas and in fact of the 70 plus thousand students who had esas this past year about 58
023thousand of them have never been in public schools never they've never been enrolled in public schools so their parents could afford to pay for the private schools and um and now they are getting paid for having their students in private schools and there's still no there's still no there's still no accountability for those students okay the intent was uh originally the intent was to make sure there are opportunities for students who have maybe special needs or and keep in mind these dollars don't even have to do with special ed these are just general ed students but the original intent was to make sure that students who had disabilities uh if their own School District could not provide the education for them that they needed um that there would be a way for them to go
024someplace and have those you know have those opportunities um or for uh uh or for St students who were in low performing school districts to be able to you know to go to a a school either a charter school or a private school or whatever um that would have the opportunities uh for them to get equal you know equal opportunity some equity in in their education okay um uh so you know so there's there's some I see some disconnect between the intent and the and the way it's functioning and I think a lot of people see that you know that disconnect does this money have to be spent within the year like hour yes so that means if somebody got the 7,000 78 whatever for Esa 7100 M well it's supposed to be I was
025going to say I don't think it's supposed to be but I'm not sure that in fact we've heard stories now these are rumors so be careful here and and uh but we've heard stories that some of those folks who have been paying tuition for all of the years that their kids have never been in public school are socking those funds away for uh or what they're doing is they're paying for they're using their esas to pay for their students to go to private schools and socking Away what they would have been spending to send their kids to college okay um we hear that um I wonder if that's true it sounds you know it sounds plausible to to me that that that that's happening um uh can I prove it no and I'm not not
026sure anybody can but uh you know but that's one of the things that that can be done with the funding okay okay well here's here's the the thing that I really wanted you to have a chance to look at about the additional cost to the state and oh by the way the uh the funding this is all for kids who are nons sped so any student who spe has special needs there is a waiting Wei G HT i n g waiting for them that they get more money and uh uh and so uh I think the highest is like 35,000 per student per year um that would be a very very high need Student um uh so you know the range goes up significantly from the 7,000 to you know a much a much higher
027amount okay so um this is fiscal year 25 so any school choice away from a school district meaning a public school district is an additional cost to the stated uh state fund state general fund so if a student moves uh from a district school like ours to a charter so let's say we lost three students this year to one of the local Charters um uh in terms of State funding um that is costing for elementary an additional almost $1,300 to the state budget okay per student okay so so I'm going to flip to the next one and no not that one this one and then come back so if you think about each of these columns as being 100% of the money available okay then when you think about this okay so the money available
028each year is whatever the legislature decides that's 100% all right when a student moves from a district school dist from a public school district to a charter that balance changes by 1,300 bucks roughly 1300 bucks because the 100% doesn't change it's there okay and at the high school it's about 1,500 okay if a student moves from a district to an Esa so um uh so ad is including teacher experience index in this um it costs the state about $57 okay if a student moves from a no state aid District to a charter so that's Scottdale Cave Creek and preset look at the cost to the state budget per student per year $ 7895 in elementary and O and almost 8,800 in high school because keep in mind that that Esa is 100% from state budget
029and the student if the student was in one of those three school districts that where it was being paid for by the county by county taxes and the whole then the whole cost goes to the state okay to the state budget and so that means for every one of those students the amount of money available to other schools either Charters or Public Schools goes down because that 100% is still 100% okay if a student goes from a no state aid District to an Esa it's slightly less but it's still pretty significant if a student goes from a charter to an Esa the state actually saves some money okay it sounds kind of counterintuitive but it's it it's um uh the truth if a student goes from private or homeschool to Esa it's that same $715
030because prior to esas parents who homeschooled their children received no funding mhm okay no funding at all okay so when we look at the uh K12 U revenues this really is the same as that first graph thanks Cass okay okay this shows you how much the the budgets have gone up from 2004 to 2000 actually to the current fiscal year and you can see that the current fiscal year total is less than the previous fiscal year okay so the once is all based on that whatever the Constitution or the legal says of the percentage of the budget yeah and we're going to see on the next slide where where you you know where you level that out and and see that 100% and how the 100% whatever each Year's 100% amounts to how that breaks
031out but in this case you're actually seeing the actual dollars um uh uh so 900 uh 9 9,000 million what billion dollar uh um that doesn't sound right but um you can see still the blue is the general fund so that's the state money the light blue uh what is s right now I can't remember what setr s t is well it looks like it's a it's kind of it's pretty small it's pretty small and you not well and it's disappeared actually doesn't exist in the last 3 years then we have have the turquoise which is education sales uh I'm not even sure what that is okay um uh and then uh permanent state aid is the purple um I think that's uh I think that is uh classroom site fund okay okay so that's
032sales tax and then the qtr is the county you know the county thing okay okay so now when you consider every year at uh at uh 100% whatever the total dollars were for that year here's how they break down so as an average for the current fiscal year the state is funding 65.8 7% okay the county is funding County on average funds 64% and then you can see those other um the other things the purple stays about the same because uh uh sales tax has been pretty healthy in Arizona for the last few years you can also see that it was pretty slim in those years after the uh after the bubble burst the um real estate Bubble Burst okay H State Equalization tax rate oh that's the rate and sunset2 oh yes and it
033sunsetted in 22 okay thanks Lance I should have looked that up well that's why it disappeared that's why it disappeared it sunset it it was a it was a one of those timed things that the legislature passed and said it you know it can looks like passed right after the the upheaval yeah yes oh yeah and then sunsetted okay so this one shows you now what's happened with uh how this has changed with uh esas so down at the bottom you can see so now 8% of the total school funding budget school funding 8.2% now is going to esas so look what that has done to the blue the dark blue okay so try your schools are even feeling a pinch aren't they absolutely okay now once again as a as a personal and as
034a professional stance um uh it wouldn't make as much difference to me in terms of our district if at least we were all planned by the same rules you know have the same accountability for the use of the tax dollars okay um uh and I think that that's a fairly common opinion among Educators you know if we're going to do these things to help educate our kids any all of our kids whatever then let's at least have everybody have the same accountability uh and play by the same rules okay so truth and Taxation keeps the qtr relatively flat uh with no connection to cost uh of the education formula so we don't really determine our um uh tax rate um that's determined by a formula based on the um uh assessed valuation in our district
035so um while I can say over the last five years our tax rate has gone down um it wasn't anything I could control I mean it's determined by the assessed valuation and a formula at the state level and that's true for every District in the state every Public School District increases to anything in the equalization formula results in additional cost to the general fund okay that's an important Point increases in anything in the formula result in additional cost okay so when the uh when they anticipate or um uh estimate what the uh state tax income is going to be so that the legislature can determine a budget um then and it changes all of these formulas doesn't change the formulas sorry it changes the amounts the numbers that go in the formulas so if you
036recall this current year fiscal year 25 the anticipation was that state tax revenues would be less than last year so when the Constitution says you can only spend this percentage of the state budget on education if if the state budget amount drops then the amount then those dollars drop okay that's very logical but I think it's the thing it's one of the things we don't necessarily think about when we hear that the legislature is talking about the budget is recognizing that whatever that budget does affects the amount of money that is in that maximum that can be spent for education in Arizona okay so let's say it's 48% so if the Constitution says the maximum of the state budget that can be spent is 48% okay every time this raises or lowers that 48% raises
037or lowers and then affects whatever it is we're doing in you know in our um calculations Caroline do states typically have a percentage that can only be can only be spent for education I I don't really know that I just know that in Arizona it's in the Constitution yeah I mean so it's not like it's not like the legislature can just decide you know oh this year you know schools need X Y and Z so we're going to increase that that it's just it's dictated okay it's kind of like the AE is dictated from a constitutional amendment that was uh that was made now that that piece of the Constitution at least has a a a safety valve that lets the legislature uh wave that on an annual basis um there are some proposals that
038say because the way that is written is based on $1 1980 um uh and and a formula related to that but there's uh there is an opportunity that the legislature could without having a referendum of the public to change the Constitution or that Amendment could change what's used for that formula that would mean that we would not have to calculate that every single year and you know and and get a waiver from the legislature every year so uh each year uh the alphabet groups encourage the legislature to look at this alternative way of calculating that you know calculating that so we don't have to go through this every year so we're hopeful that um you know as school districts we're hopeful that the um uh the legislature will look at that you know that change
039in uh in how that's calculated at what numbers are used to calculate that tie it closer to the cost of living increases and those kinds of things as opposed to a finite number that it is now okay um now the daa which is that District additional assistance which is for Capital the the legislature has to has to determine that every year and this past year there was a struggle to get it approved and there was some conversation that this current fiscal year 25 would be the last time they would approve it now of course each legislature gets to decide you know each session of the legislature gets to decideed but it was in the conversations so for us that means that we would have to move whatever it is we are currently funding from daa
040into our m no okay so right now that's a million 15,000 no a million 115,000 and if that went away then that means for us to continue to do um uh to to lease our xrox machines to consider purchasing a bus to uh the number the the 10 or 12 um uh ongoing uh technology programs that we use like visions and Panorama and um Synergy all of those programs that help us function as a district are funded out of capital okay because they are considered leases we'd have to then take to continue those we would have to take a piece of our M budget and move it over to Capital to continue those things okay so U of course we're always you know we're always encouraging our legislators uh to continue the daa uh because
041for us it would be it would be pretty drastic it would be a pretty drastic change that's a lot of toilet paper well and it's I mean and no toilet paper supplies that well yeah but then we might not be able to buy as much toilet a lot L I should have said less toilet paper I mean or pencils or whatever classroom supplies yes and considering that and in fact I just calculated this today for something else that I'm working on okay uh 57% of our budget M budget is salaries another 21% is benefits so salaries and benefits represent 70 8% 78% of our budget okay and then so then that leaves Okay so that leaves 22% we have fixed costs that we can't control you know electricity and sewer and uh you know and
042and all of our utilities and our our uh disposal no insurance is in that benefits it's in that 21% um building insurance and stuff yes you're absolutely right those are part of that 22% that we have left okay uh repairs any supplies that we use for repairs any toilet paper any any cleaning supplies Any teacher supplies any office supplies okay or advertising or I mean there's a whole laundry list of things that fall in that 22% travel expenses um but some of them we don't we can't really control we can't control what happens with utilities we have to make sure we budget enough for the utilities okay so it ends up leaving only about between 5 and 8% of wiggle room there okay um so then 5% of our $18 million budget you know what
043goes away if we have to move that million one over to over to Capital okay not that we can't do it we can those are the only two budgets where we can move money back and forth okay those are the only two um uh and we could do it but what goes away well okay I think we still need toilet paper and you know there are some things like that that we still need we still need cleaning supplies we still need some of that and so then it boils down to okay what do we do relative to salaries do we cut you know do we cut the number of people because we still want to give raises every year so somewhere somewhere some Mar marbles in that jar get moved okay and I'm not complaining
044I'm just talking facts of life here all right and what we have to consider okay um and so then you can see the other pressures that that are on the legislature when they're talking about funding for schools okay okay and you've asked really good questions and I hope you don't ask any more difficult ones because I probably can't answer them but I can certainly find out U because I know that Annabelle and Annabelle U was gracious enough to share all of these uh share her slides and her research with all of us um so that we could share it with with you and with anybody else who wants to know so uh she would be very gracious about answering questions and helping us and I'm sure she would be able to answer them is the
045state doing anything about esas about limiting because I'm sure that they've recognized this somewhere along the line has been pointed out to them at least well pointed out um uh but when when an amount of money that's that's budgeted to the uh Arizona Department of Education so that the state superintendent of public education can promote esas it's doubtful that that a whole at this point the Outlook is that is that there's not you know that there's not much of a move to put some restrictions and some um accountability on this the truth is that the folks who really want to promote the esas are not interested in having accountability because they useit because they use the esa for their family yeah and some of those folk and some of those folks own schools that benefit
046from the esas but don't our rules Come From the state department of Education well from the State Board of Education through EXC through them but only based on what the what the legislature um passes as bills and as as whatever so they have to function within whatever laws the the legislature passes okay so besides helping you be informed because I will tell you this was very informative to me I could not have told you these things on my own I haven't done that much research but I will tell you it kind of guides me in what I want to be saying to our local representatives and Senator about you know please look at some of these things does that mean that the the little church schools that suddenly cropped up here in Bullhead yes are
047getting almost 59 or $7,900 per student yes that's what it means when if their parents have enrolled them in those schools with esas yes that's exactly what they're they don't have to follow any of the rules no the curriculum doesn't have to be followed zero they don't have to do State Testing more money than we do they don't have to adhere to state standards they don't have to no no that's why I'm saying Melinda that that this would be an easier pill to swallow if we were playing by the same rules yeah okay good and as a passionate ad advocate of public school education you can see why my opinion is very is very focused on this and it is my opinion it's my professional opinion it's my personal opinion as a parent I would
048resent the fact that my neighbor's child could be going to school paid for with tax dollars and no accountability so I can say it as a parent and I can say it as a professional it's not so much the tax dollars you resent it's the fact that there's no accountability that you resent right yeah but as but as a taxpayer yeah you know um uh okay so U Mark Scott who is our facilities director okay came to us out of Private Industry came to us as a former owner of a you know of a uh construction company and a um uh developing you know he owned the company and so if if if if costs were going up or or there were expectations and rules and regulations for uh for electrical installation and plumbing and
049all of that stuff he could change his budget change what he charged to to accommodate that and he didn't have to answer to anybody because he owned the company okay um so when he came to work for us it's a whole new ball game and and um you know and and he's been very nice about about it and has learned a whole lot and is and and is really on board at this time but at the beginning he's going why can't you just XYZ and I said because it's tax dollars and taxpayers hold us accountable they hold me accountable for having that budget that you're going to look at on Thursday they hold me accountable for keeping that balanced okay um uh and for us projecting down the road you know there Washington school district
050in Phoenix just determined last week that they're going to close five schools for next year okay and of course that irritated a whole lot of parents and neighborhoods and whatever because they are neighborhood schools but they are looking at a $5 million deficit in their budget so they're trying you know so they're planning so they don't have A5 million doll deficit in their budget okay that would be like us looking at having a million doll def or you know somewhere in the range of a million dollar deficit well you're not going to let me present to you a budget that is a million dollars in the red and taxpayers don't want us to be functioning that way they hold us accountable so Fred you're right but part of me as a taxpayer says wait a
051minute you know I want to know I want to know as a taxpayer how my dollars are being spent and that somebody's checking on that to make sure that it's legitimate expenditures okay so it's a number of those factors that I kind of all group together with a let's play by the same rules right okay so um uh I hope that's not too much of me pontificating but I get pretty passionate about the fact that we do great things in public schools and um and try to do everything equitably so that every student that we serve has the opportunity to as good in education as we can provide okay every kid um and and um and that gets harder and harder when the dollars are not there it gets harder and harder it's kind of
052off topic but just curious if you have like a private school that they don't have to test they don't have to do all the things we you know they don't have the follow the state standards whatever how does so they're not accredited how do those students benefit from that to get into college you know say just to get into High School some place well yeah exactly except some of them are high school schols M if you're talking high school if you're talking high school and and it's a private school so they don't have the test they don't have to do any of those things they don't have to they don't they're not accredited some of them are some of them have sought accreditation there are some I'm working with a student teacher right now she's
053working at a private school it is an accredited school and they do have to adhere to State Standards but there are some that don't so I don't understand the parents Ben uh thinking because if it's not accredited how do they get into you know what I'm saying typically that's a family that wants her child to go to Harvard or yes whatever how do they get in if they're not going to a high school that's accredited I suspect that that's where some of the like act and the SAT test you know sat act and those testing help yeah so they still have to take those have to I guess but well unless the University or the college requires it and most of them do so you know somehow they're going to have to demonstrate demonstrate proficiency
054of you know to get into the college uh or the university you would think because it just logically it doesn't make sense to me it doesn't we even a trade school yes you know if you can't do the math you can't get into a a trade scho that's right that's right if you can't uh so a trade school is considered a still a college of no tra well no it's just it's another level of it's another level of higher education it's postsecondary and trade schools are not going to let you in without some kind of evidence of what it is you're capable of doing I'm sure that if you're going to a carpentry trade school that they're going to make sure that you know how to use a ruler well one would hope that yes
055um although I've had some construction done that not sure they did okay maybe we should move on and thank you for the extra time to do that but I I really felt that this was valuable information if nothing else background information for you and also um also I don't like to be completely uh in unable to I me you know could I could I bound on this a lot no I'm depending on annabella's um Annabelle's uh research and she's clearly taken the time to do it um so you know I'm not going to go out and expound on it to lots of people but I I appreciate the fact that I can now at least answer some questions if a you know if a Community member or a parent comes in and says you know
056you know that they say in the news that you have X dollar to you know per student and and I can say well not really or yeah yes you're right or no we actually have a little more than that um uh but at least I can be a little bit intelligent in in my ability to respond to people um and then honest enough to say I don't know the answer to some of it but I'll find out for you um and I and you all get asked questions Melinda mentioned something to me before we started tonight that somebody in the community had asked her so you know we we want to at least be able to to respond intelligently to people okay so thank you okay do I have a motion to adjourn the workshop
057I make a motion we adjourn the workshop I'll second at the motion all those in favor I'm Melinda sabraski I Charlene Diaz I Fred rushon I BB ziki okay I'd like to call to order the regular meeting for uh Bullhead City School Board on Monday December 9th 2024 at MH roll call I pres Melinda sabraski Charlene Diaz here Fred rushon here Barb Zar ziki here and I don't see oh we're going say pledge ready pled to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation indivisible with liy and justice for all I always forget where that is there is no well that's where yeah okay um all citizens present I don't see any so I'm just going to skip that call the public I'm going to
058skip that because we don't have any of that um adoption of the agenda how about donations we got donations donations oh yeah I was looking at that can we bring that oh yeah what was the one that I was looking at festal There He Go Ellie and Mitchell zler of festal Center Museum selected Valerie deloo yeahuh as one of the 500 what what is her um she's a teacher at Sunrise we actually have uh teachers at Desert Valley oh gosh now I can't remember we have teachers we have I think we have four teachers who uh got the uh $2,500 uh fiestable really what do they do what do they doing with the 2400 uh different things they're doing uh things for their classrooms so I know one of the teachers is um uh increasing
059the classroom library and um materials another teacher is creating uh kind of a reading Nook um in the classroom and so uh uh some bean bags that meet fire standards and some carpets to designate an area for that because keep in mind we you know removed carpet wall toall from classroom so it's kind of nice to designate an area in the classroom um uh I looked at valer part of Valerie's list today and uh she was looking for some bookshelves and some uh storage you know units for her kindergarten classroom because you have lots of things in kindergarten classrooms uh so a variety of things that they're that they're doing for their classrooms but it's very nice they just did she just write for it or what did she do they did and then it's
060just a random drawing oh it's a random drawing of all the people who uh you know who put in and then it comes through uh donor's choose so Festival Charities um um sets it up with donors choose and they send their you know send their orders through there so it's very nice it is that doesn't mean that the shrine and oh no all everything all the rest of these guys on here are not appreciated it's just that I was really astounded by 2500 bucks right there were um yeah there are 500 recipients in the state each year from fiestable so you know so not only does festable do cool things for a couple of colleges or universities to come and play and bring their folks and uh does things for tourism in Arizona um but
061there's also the give back to Arizona schools which is wonderful wonderful I appreciate it every donation is appreciated any other comments on donations okay now we get to adopt the agenda can I have a motion to adopt the agenda as presented I'll make a motion to adopt the agenda as presented second it all those in favor I Melinda saski I Charlene Dias I Fred rushon I Barb Zuki okay superintendent um can we go down to the fiveyear comparison the last one Mal has been around a long time I mean lot longer on this side um right I think what we're seeing from particularly last year and this year um are a couple of new Charter Schools the private es the private schools sorry not Charters the private schools well and also effect of one of
062the charter schools uh you know desert star added to High School this year added freshman sophomore of their high school and uh in a few cases the parents of students who they Cho the parents chose for the students to go there the high school students then it made some sense I'm sure for those families to take their elementary students there as well so I'm I'm sure we lost a few there um but the other thing is right now the in Arizona part of the issue is the drop in the birth rate and um uh so we're being affect Ed by that as much as anybody so um you know there's not one single cause for this drop but in four years we've lost 400 students 300 300 okay 300 300 students yeah students and over
063the course of time with uh over the the the last few years probably the last 10 years we've lost 900 well I think of the economy because a lot of people moving out even when I was still working the parents were leaving with their children to go back with to live with other family members and so that's I think created a lot of movement in the population too I I find it very interesting that um uh 2122 uh 2021 was the year the full year of covid MH and um that 2122 that our numbers went back up and um which was nice but I don't know quite why why that happened his parents were excited to get them back in maybe I think maybe that was part of it although we had kids in school
064all year on 23 uh in 2021 although a third of our kids were were um you know at home and virtual but they were still enrolled in our schools um um but I also think we had we had some folks who were you know moving in multiple families in you know in households because of because of the after effects of you know of covid and whatever um uh but yeah the the drop since then but there's not one cause there are multiple multiple reasons um if you have questions about any of the other charts or or tables um I I'll try to answer those I only have one item for an update um the Auditors were here the week before Thanksgiving and that full week before um they were done on Wednesday afternoon I I've
065never I I mean in you know in the five years six Fifth Fifth time of doing this for them to be done in three days was amazing um I mean literally they were done and we did exit report on Wednesday afternoon before they left uh we usually do exit report on Friday morning and uh so that was pretty amazing um it was a clean audit and um we had 10 minor uh 10 minor little you know fix these things some of which were fixed before um some one item of which because of course it was the audit for fiscal year 24 one of the items that you know that they reported to us we'd already fixed for this year so uh it was fixed before they even before they even saw the the data and
066stuff um but we've already worked on everything else so um uh you know those items will be cleared for for next year so it was a it was a clean audit and uh was good good kind of nice to hear very nice to hear yeah that's great okay any and you will I'm sorry you will get the formal audit report when the written one comes and and it will be on your you know on the agenda so you can see all of the you know all of the information including the 10 items that they want us to to work on so do anybody need to see anything any of those reports anybody okay not today um moving on then to 2.9 board member updates has anybody been in the schools not since last month I
067was this is a good one for you Fred I was talking to the guy from IE or EI I Kevin Kevin he says that we need to be up at uh Sunrise talking to our third grade teachers because they have shown some real enthusiasm not necessarily Improvement but enthusiasm to at least looking at Improvement and well actually doing some improvement so because that was one of the schools that you really like going to wasn't it I like going to them Mall well yeah I mean that was but I was impressed by the sunrise campus yeah and but you might want to go up there and I CU he's he basically I I what was I doing um I was over at Desert Valley or we were going to give Santa stuff Santa Clauses to people
068who the Kinders who were caught being kind and uh he caught me in the parking lot so I thought of Fred at that time uh oh your phone's ringing excuse [Music] me this fure out sorry I apologize for that but anyway Fred third grade and Kevin was mentioning the third grade teacher's enthusiasm about uh about the EI stuff yeah about improving he he didn't say that they had reached any kind of specific level right but that they basically were attitude more than results yeah and I thought you got to start there got to start somewhere start somewhere and I was really I was really happy that he stopped me and he said he was talking about this with with usual Kevin enthusiasm you know sometimes I'll swear that he takes pills for that but he
069but he's he does you know he was very enthusiastic and I did think of you Fred because okay you had talked about Sunrise thank you um item three consent agenda anything on the consent agenda you guys want to talk about that we need to pull or can I have motion to accept the consent agenda I'll make a motion to approve the consent agenda as presented I'll second the motion all those in favor I Melinda saski I Charlene Diaz I Fred rushon I Barb Zari and there is no old business so we're going to move right on to new business and Wells Fargo this is the same thing right we do this annually um uh this is this is just to give us a financial cushion in case uh for any reason the state does not
070deposit for us the you know the monthly monthly uh dollars uh We've not had to draw on this at all since I've been in this position but it's always nice to have a parachute yeah is 7.75% is that a is that a pre I think that's typical yeah right now yeah okay I don't and frankly I don't pay much attention to it because as I said we've not had to use it U but as I said it's nice to have a parachute so I have a motion to approve the uh establishment of a credit line with Wells Fargo for school year or fiscal year 25 I make a motion we approve the line of credit with f Wells Fargo for the fiscal year 25 I'll second the motion all those in favor I Melinda saski
071I Charlene Diaz I Fred rushon i b there zi property donation now this was interesting yeah um yeah Cass would you put up the there you go thank you so much so uh uh the um there's a better map of this yeah there's a better map on the next page so oh there we go yeah you might want to bring it down a little bit now there you go um the realtor uh contacted Cass and asked her about this uh and um of course she asked me and I said well I think we need this on the board agenda um you can see it's immediately adjacent to the football field at uh Fox Creek um the elevation is a little lower than the football field but certainly not as low as uh down in that
072wash so it's it's not at risk of flooding or you know any of those kinds of things uh it is rather an odd-shaped parcel yeah um and uh so it's it's kind of understandable why U they were having uh you know they've sold some other Parcels in along the parkway for uh businesses and whatever um but U one of the advantages for us is not you know is that if we have it as part of our uh property um then then there's not a chance of something being built there you know some business being built there which becomes kind of an attractive nuisance for our students we like it another Circle K yeah yes is it is is it something that's usable or I mean I think it would be I don't know I you
073know I don't have any ideas right offand what we might use it for um but yeah I think it would be you know it's even just as a buffer zone you know if it's and stuff yeah yeah um uh I mean you can kind of tell from this areal view that that there's some changes in elevation there and they're pretty they're pretty pronounced too they they are when you drive when you drive by and look at it um uh but you know we just we don't know who knows we might end up with some great idea of what to do with that little piece of property mhm is it going to increase um property taxes or anything like that it doesn't change property taxes we don't pay taxes on our property and um uh you
074know we don't pay tax we don't pay property taxes on any of our properties and um uh at this point it's not going to it's not going to increase our uh insurance rates or any of those things because there's you know there's nothing on there right now to uh to be insured that's probably going to be a real tax advantage for the donators well and I think so too um um and um you know and certainly no harm no foul to anybody else oh absolutely right right um so it's it's one of those where I kind of go well don't look at gift horse in the mouth exactly it's not it's not U something that it is very there's no on it it is kind of a funny shape isn't it it makes me kind
075of wonder why uh why originally our property wasn't didn't include that to begin with you know um but I have no idea I mean that's you know that's that's ancient history 25 years ago so I have no idea um do I have a motion to accept this donation I make a motion that we accept the property donation from Avalon reality LLC for the parcel of land uh adjacent to the southeast corner of the football field at Fox Creek junior high I'll second that motion all those in favor I'm Alinda sabraski I Charlene Diaz I Fred rushon I Barb Zar Zuki okay okay uh Cass would you put that regulation up please when I read this I didn't see anything weird with it yeah I I skimmed it I it's very long it is but I
076was and it's our current regulation the changes are at the very end I didn't notice any difference in type or color or anything I'm sorry I had a long weekend it's underlined but it's there it is okay so one of the things are the blue things which are the references to regulations um uh they're not laws they are um they're Administrative Code regulations and um and the many of them have to do with graduation which does not affect us at all yeah uh Cass if you scroll back up just a here okay wh okay uh establish implement make available to its personnel and parents written procedures regarding access to special ed we do that already uh I think mostly this is just to reference some new things that were put in the uh administrative regulations
077and you can see the multiple references there and then whoops there's one okay and again it's graduation so it doesn't really affect us and I saw this I I didn't see and these all have to do with uh uh things for uh special ed students yeah so it it very much defines uh School District's UH responsibilities for uh continued education and um and a plan for students um uh services to students beyond the age of 16 um so these changes really do not affect anything that that we would do differently at elementary yeah do I have a motion to adopt regulation ib-r special education special instructional programs MO to adopt I'll make a motion that we adopt regulation ib-r special instructional pro programs all second the motion all those in favor I'm Melinda saski I
078Charlene Diaz I I Fred Rush i b ziki okay item 4 5.4 uh going into executive session do I have a motion to move to Executive session I'm sor you have to read that whole thing that you love what happened to you I have to read the whole thing yeah oh yeah okay I you're right I don't like this item 4 or 5.4 convenient to Executive session pursuant to AR ARS 384 31.03 A1 discussion or consideration of employment assignment appointment promotion demotion dismissal salaries disciplining or resignation of a public officer appointee or employee of any public body except that with the exception of salary discussions an officer appointee or employee May demand that the discussion or consideration occur in public meeting did the person want a public meeting no okay so do I have a
079motion to to convene I'll make a motion that we convene to Executive session I second it all those in favor I Melinda saski I Charlene andas I Fred Rushton we are in executive barar ziki I'm sorry I had a m full lemonade [Music] a [Music] he [Music] n [Music] [Applause] [Music] for [Music] he [Music] he [Music] nah [Music] you [Music] [Applause] [Music] I have a motion to reconvene into public session make a motion that we reconvene into public session I'll second the motion all those in favor I Melinda sabraski I Charlene Diaz I Fred rushon I biki um item 7.2 establishing the St superint stup super sorry Carolyn superintendent Prof or per yeah performance goals do I have a a motion or anything I make a motion we table 7.2 until our special meeting on
080Thursday o uh December 12th at 10: a.m. I'll second that motion all those in favor I Melinda saski I Charlene Diaz hi Fred rushon hi barbariki closing items 8.1 future topics was there anything that we would like to to dis have discussed Barb and I have decided not to go to annual conference so we are not going we're not going it's 4 days before Christmas and it's like cuz it's the 19th oh and it's like it's just an ugly time didn't work out right for being too close to Christmas so yeah and with everything else at this time of the year we we've opted not to this year [Music] um item 8.2 upcoming board events I think that's yeah Desert Valley holiday show that's what I want 18th at 5:30 is anybody else planning on
081going to that what's that the Wednesday 18th yeah for the um I will be Lance even if two of us are there you might want to put out a notice that we that we may have a quorum oh okay I just want you to just want us to be thank you yeah um got to go support members yeah just 5:30 I think that would be kind of cool to see yeah um um that's the only one I see on here are there any of the other schools having is Junior High having one tomorrow sunrise has a couple Sunrise concerts tomorrow at 5:30 oh I could go at those no I can't no not tomorrow not tomorrow maybe Wednesday maybe the Wednesday one tomorrow we got VR so 12 12 1211 at 5:30 sunrise and you
082may want to set your January meeting tonight yeah not wait till we is January meeting is that what you're saying yeah the regular meeting the nth theth I don't have any trouble with the 9th I'm okay with that me check real quick come on phone works for me January 9th works for me yeah um that will be the night that you will that will be the night that you consider um any anybody who's interested in uh School Board School Board vacancy MH [Music] um when does the Science Olympiad happen is that we're not doing Science Olympiad this year we had no we had no sponsors that's too bad those kids were inspired yes is that an after school program mhm and they should have been working on it all year long okay I was going
083to say oh man I wish i' had known that because I probably would have volunteered to do that um okay we'll keep that in mind for next year okay so we're going to go for January 9th and we're going to start with a workshop at 5:30 and have a regular meeting soon after that right yes okay do I have a motion to adour well let's remind everybody that we have a meeting on Thursday morning at 10:00 a.m. to discuss the budget revisions and to take care of our tabled item do I have a motion to adjourn I make a motion we adour the meeting I'll second that motion all those in favor I Melinda saski I Charlene Diaz I Fred rushon I meeting is now adjourned