BCSD Board Meeting 03/14/2024

001[Music] a [Music] w [Music] yeah dogs have a great time with this board members please make sure your microphones are on the green lights on thank you Barbara sure you give Ethan a signal I'm in one of those winds tonight I'm tired okay I'm Ur I call to order the workshop for Bullhead City School Board on Thursday March 14th 20 24 at 5:30 p.m. roll call Melinda sabraski here Charlene indas here Fred rushon here Barb ziki here Sheila Barnett here well we are all here physically there were there were like I want to say a million but there really weren't a million board board CH or policy changes did anybody have any questions on them when I read through them they all kind of made sense to me did anybody have any questions no okay

002so can I that's just information um I think the only one I saw was was the high school one that said basically and we don't have anything to do with high school so yeah so it didn't matter yeah no um item 1.4 District spending analysis this is this was sent to us by I believe it was ad no you forward I forwarded it to but came from ad right uh no it came from the auditor General's office all right uh oh that won't work for this will it so yeah so you asked to have this on and for us to have a little time to talk about it yes okay so one of one of the things that I want to say to you uh is we had long conversations off and on uh when

003when the auditor General's office was seeking information from us to complete this report and uh uh because they were asking for salaries and those kinds of things uh it seems pretty obvious that this time they Chang the way they calculate the formula for instruction in the classrooms and that was part of the conversation we had with them since I came into this position uh I calculate the salaries the actual salaries for instruction as teachers contract amount plus whatever it is that they uh that they get from classroom site fund AKA prop 301 because everyone gets those um in the past the auditor General's office seems to have included in their calculations um some of the supplemental pay so if some people go to professional development for which we pay salaries but other people don't it

004seems that in the past they've included some of that and so that has elevated the average salary but not everybody attends that to me it it needs to be you know something that everybody's eligible for the other thing that seems apparent this year um it was optional this year that uh we use the new coding um that uh the auditor General's office has um created it will be required for next year the optional is um that they only consider in teacher salaries teachers not Librarians not the instructional coaches not the uh not anybody who is not a classroom teacher okay and um and so uh in our calculations we've used anybody who who is in the code book at the current time 6112 which includes Librarians and coaches and uh uh counselors and whatever uh

005support people who really do provide services directly to students but with the new numbers that is restricted now only to teachers classroom teachers so that would reduce the number of folks who would be used in these calculations so I I believe that that's part of the reason that this looks like such a drop in spending for uh for instruction uh but the section then that is student support is a little bigger than it's been and then some folks that they obviously consider as Administration uh I'm not sure who but some people that they consider as Administration that we don't uh because clearly we have not increased the number of Administrators we have in our district so um I think next year will have a little better idea of how to compare the the spending uh

006splits uh when they use the same formula next year as they're using this year so I think part of it is a different use of the formulas this year but every school district in the state used the same basic formula that we did right not in the past I don't think no for this oh for this yes they're using all the same thing but that doesn't mean that those districts weren't also using different different things like I I mean a different definition what they what they've gone to here is is really closer to what I've considered um uh in some ways closer to what I've considered um uh the you know the investment in classrooms uh because they've because they've dropped out now all of those supplemental things in their formula they've dropped out the

007P the extra PDS and the extra duties and those things but the other part they dro out was other folks that I have considered to be anybody who's been 6112 uh in the code uh to be an educator in the changes of the code all of those people will no longer be 6112 so they've already taken those folks out but yes they are using the same one for all school districts I'm thinking though that each School District had its own way of figuring out you know on their own what they posted on their website or whatever they did so well there's nothing in here that says that that's that happens so well I'm basing that on I'm basing my comment on the conversations that I had with them when they were asking us about this

008and they kept saying no we want you to send us this no we want you to send us this and so I ended you know I sent them what they wanted so based on the conversations that I had um uh both email conversations and on the phone conversations um it was clear that they were using the new optional numbers this year so and that doesn't mean that we might not be spending in less this year in instruction although I don't think so on the other hand think about how many people we have paid salaries from uh from eser3 and from uh you know those things so I'm not sure how those factor in because they also ask us to separate those out so basically what they were asking are just the people who are in

009the classroom right okay so they ask that from for in the state so go down to to to where it said where it says um next one right there right here right right here yeah fiscal year 21 was before any of the Esser okay okay and uh uh and so you know we had some differences I mean we had some differences in Staffing and whatever um but yeah it looks like a huge drop it looks like a huge change because that was the biggest year and this current one is the smallest year um I'm sure also the other thing that changed is some of the percentages our fixed costs have gone up over those six years we all know about inflation and those kinds of things so uh whatever I'm not trying to defend it

010I'm just trying I'm trying to get a handle and I've been for since this came out trying to get a handle on how it could be so different um uh than for instance when you look at uh farther down where it shows the fiveyear how it could be so different in in just the last year stop right there stop right here yeah so how the how instruction could drop 6.7% the only reason the only thing that I can see there because our people have had raises every year that I've been here um uh is the only thing I can think of is is excluding the people during those five years that we paid out of grants that we did not pay out of grants in the past so we've paid for Title One people for

011years that hasn't changed but we had at one point we had um 13 14 teacher positions paid out of Esser uh and and we're now uh down to five this year um so I I don't know I I don't know it has to do with the way they calculate so on down farther a little bit farther Cassie down to where they they're comparing the keep going keep going keep going wait a minute wait a minute let me see what this is spending per student yeah okay our peer average is $155,000 Right $1,500 $1,500 excuse me I'm sorry per Administration it would be different would for administration okay so we're below that we're above the state average but we're below that so they consider that comparable okay so keep going down well and before you go

012too far cast first of all well point out first of all the spending per square foot uh for the district and uh remember these data are for last year they're not for the current year okay um uh so that was essentially what we were spending I think isn't that right go back up Cassie let me see to be sure yeah fiscal year 23 okay if you'll go back down to that so if you remember we had uh ABM through October um I guarantee you that amount is going to go up for the for the current fiscal year because we are fixing things like crazy um so I think that will go up um you can see our square footage per student is Right dead on the you know the state thing um I I don't

013know why our uh Food Service spending per meal is so high um that's one of the things I want to investigate because that is pretty high uh Transportation Transportation I understand that yeah going down now whatever keep going down right yeah that one that's the one that makes me crazy instrues yeah they took out the coaches they took out some of our people who are our highest paid what we considered teachers well I find it real interesting that they took out Librarians or um yes um you know what I'm talking about the special teachers so Librarians art well they didn't take no they didn't take out art and music librarian yes because Librarians are coded if they are coded as a librarian they're coded as 2200 but they're still teaching of course they are our

014our Librarians are now we know that there are places where Librarians are Librarians and you know classes come in and out of their um uh so to me they yeah they're absolutely teachers um to me the coaches are teachers too again everybody in the state had their Librarians taken out everybody in the state had their instructor coaches taken out so this leaves this is the residual after all that stuff is removed from every District in the in the state so we are $10,500 below the average in the state and we've been below the average in the state for a long time but not by that much we wonder why we don't keep and reping teachers exactly so basically we need to look for $10,000 per teacher yeah if we think that $10,000 per teacher is

015going to get us the results that we need as I've said our teachers have had raises every year for the last five years okay and has the quality of our work improved I that's rhetorical question but it's one of the reasons you know my my thing is obviously not our assessment data indicates that we're not getting what we want and if we want to get what we want or what we need for our kids we can't keep doing the same old things that we've been doing okay now we switched we switched up the subject yes we have and I and I'll go back to this okay but salaries alone are not going to do it will they help yeah would help us recruit some folks yeah we can't compete for salaries part of that that

01652,000 for the average includes those districts down state that are property rich and have overrides like Mojave Valley had but Mojave Valley doesn't have B override anymore they don't but they have been continuing some of those salaries and gearing them back slowly okay but it's why they got people when they had that's why they recruited I mean that's why they didn't recruit so don't get me wrong they did not recruit our teachers but at the time they passed that override to begin with they got a bunch of our teachers okay and those property Rich districts wherever in the state the overrides are almost always for salaries and if they lost those overrides they would be in the same boat that Mojave Valley's been in since they lost Lo the vote for their override is that

017they would have to fall back it's unlikely to happen in those property Rich districts um you know even even though it goes to a vote but it's unlikely to happen in those districts that's one of the things that remember I shared those data with you last year that showed the differences between the districts that have um the overrides and the ones that don't um so you know but yeah you're right salaries are a Factor that's why we've worked hard every year to make sure that we had raises and in fact when we talk about the in the agenda tonight when we talk about the the uh salary schedules that I'm proposing to you you will see big increases in base pay for those folks that now cannot be coded as teachers that we've coded as

018teachers in the past because the only way we will keep those people is if we can offset part of what they will lose because they will not get classroom sight fund because only people who are coded at 1,000 6112 will get the classroom site fund oh my God only those people so they won't get site funds no and that's not right no it isn't to me it's not right the counselors the the instructional coaches um uh we can we can figure out the librarian thing because the thing is our Librarians teach yeah okay they teach every single day all day all right so we can we can code them we can we can leave the we can Co we can code them 1,000 okay we can fix that we can code them at six because

019they're already coded at 6112 we can code them as 1,000 because to me they're teachers first M do do the instructional coaches have the ability to go back into the classroom to pick up that up well if we put them in classrooms to teach but then we have no coaches well that's crial we'll get to that because what I've been seeing I don't see over the last three cycles of of testing is they somebody's not doing their job well they are this year and I will tell you they are this year they are being coached and they are coaching they are not doing things that they have done for the past several years uh and one of the things actually one of the things Melinda that we could do that would help them because several

020years ago I don't even know but it was when I was retired um uh the district chose to have the instructional coaches also be the title one teacher at each site yeah that's right and they supervise the Paras in those positions that's right okay that's a big p we used to have separate Title One teachers so essentially they took a job and they piled it on top of another job and said guess what you get to do say two jobs for the same pay but if they did that now they would get the site the site funds right but they couldn't coach and it's critical the research is very very clear any of us can go to a workshop or a profession appli to Bullhead City yes it does absolutely research because obviously obviously I'm

021having some very very serious problems I can go back and pull the data for you from the four five years of reading first and the difference it made having people who actually go into classrooms and follow up with teachers once they've learned something there's very heavy research every place that you can go to a workshop I can go to a workshop I can make notes I can go back and have the best intentions I could try try something if it doesn't work I give it up but if I have somebody come in and observing me trying to do those things and coaching me and supporting me in that role the difference in in implementation of what I learned in that Workshop changes from 5% to 85% I just need to see that data I will

022try to find it I you know I I'm not seeing anything question but Melinda we are less than a year we are eight months into systemic change and that's what we're going to talk about next is systemic change and difference I understand systemic change okay okay I understand that but if the coaches are now doing exactly what they're supposed to be doing then we should be seeing some kind of movement you won't ride away it doesn't happen in immediately we see changes in behaviors we don't necessarily see changes in outcomes for three to five years that's systemic change and if we're doing it quickly we'll be really happy to see systemic we to to see dramatic outcome changes next year next year not this year my my question is how many hours a week are

023those coaches in classroom right now yes way more than they used to be when they were doing Title One and doing other things that they had no business are they in a classroom continually all day long I'm going to say 80% of the time is that reasonable Jen I mean they're meeting with teachers so they're not just observing also having coaching and they're also sitting in on PLC meetings to help with planning so I can't say that they're actually observing classrooms all day no and part of what we found Barb is that our folks somewhere along the line in the last in the last 10 years in the last 10 years lost sight of the state standards they lost sight that the state standards are the curriculum textbooks and all those other things are resources

024that we use to teach the curriculum and they've lost sight of that so in about September or so we realized that they didn't have a clue what they're they weren't even looking at their standards so we changed the plc's which are the planning and uh you know the professional learning team meetings where they have to sit there and look at the standards and design their lesson plans as a team for the for two weeks from now based on those standards they have to and right now they're doing it for language arts and math not so much for science and social studies that would be a too heavy a lift right now to be doing that um and and so it means some real big changes in what they're teaching and and how they're teaching besides

025how they're teaching it um because they weren't doing that and we recognize that because of the outside eyes looking at what we were doing so yes they are coaching coaching is not just being in the classroom watching what they're doing it's giving feedback it's it's modeling for teachers what they need to be doing it is sitting in on those meetings and and listening and making sure that they are addressing the standards and staying on task and doing what they need to do relative to instruction and less conversation about um um so and so's behavior and whatever else used to be and in fact it's proved valuable enough to our teachers because we require it one time a month I mean one time a week one of their prep times a week that virtually every team

026virtually every team is now on their own meeting the second time each week the second prep time because they recognize that they need to and that they and that they need to do that to improve so in other words for several years now we've been doing it as service to our students I think that's safe to say and I think the other thing that's important with that barb is what IE is saying to these people and and please understand and I'm going to say this again it's going to seem kind of out of out of order here but in terms of what we're talking about here but it's really important we do not employ a single teacher in our district not one including our substitutes our long-term substitutes because I will tell you in some

027of our schools the long-term substitutes are rocking it okay we don't have a single employee in our district who is not capable of doing what we're asking them to start doing okay not one all right I'm not questioning their intent in the past but I will say to you that the direction we are going right now is based on the same message from IE that Jen and I have been saying for five years that we started saying when we came on board is that fair John yeah sometimes you have to hear it from somebody else that's the same in our classrooms too you know uh you got you three were teachers you know you could you could be teaching something and it didn't seem to be working and Barb could come into your classroom and

028and say exactly the same words and kids would go oh I get it that's the way it is with us sometimes when we're learning well and I I would add on to that is is that you know any kind of change people have a hard time with change yes and you're not going to get 100% of the teachers on board first first round n i mean you're just not because you're going to have resistors and you always will and so you have to kind of focus on those people who are willing to try it and okay let's do it and maybe that's half the teaching staff I don't know or or three4 of the teaching staff but then you once you get the majority of the people working and and doing what needs to be

029done they start showing some results then you'll start pulling in some of those resistors are you going to pull in all of them no you're going to have some that are going to resist until they're you know blue in the moon whatever but but until they go someplace else or they go someplace else or retire or whatever they decide to do um but I you know I think we have to we have to give it a chance you know historically going back a few years and is that Bullhead City school district has been notorious for trying to program working it for a couple years not seeing the results they want and then let's change everything and then they do that again and let's try it for a couple years doesn't work let's try something else

030okay Charlene I'm going to stop you right now okay and the reason why is cuz we're off topic okay okay okay we we're going to talk about that a little bit later so you just you just keep that up um I am very very concerned okay okay um I think we need to do something I look there there you also published or gave us uh a list of teachers and salaries and those are current salaries for this year and there is one that you need to know it looks very low and it's simply because that person only came on about 6 weeks ago and that's the salary for the remainder of the year it's not the annual salary okay and and that's that's okay sure um but there are some salaries I do question okay

031and this is this is not it's not appropriate to talk about no I understand but there are some so you and I probably need just to sit and talk maybe maybe that that'll straighten me out but the thing is I am very concerned about this Bullhead City is where I live we should be top of the pack at any time or at least striving to be top of the pack if there are only four school districts in Mojave County or three that have comp comparable size to us there there is no other District that has comparable size to us in in Mojave County but I understand what you're saying the three cities yeah okay we should be at the top of that we should be at the top of Mojave County well I want us

032to be at the top of Mojave County academically yeah but absolutely but we should be at at every level we should be at top that is that's why that's my feeling about this okay please keep in mind that well that's it's another topic well no it's going back to salaries so we'll talk about it when we get to salaries okay I'll explain part of that thing so do you want more on this thing sure I mean on this one uh no okay Cass would you uh get the other one up for me please okay thank you okay okay well you kind of uh you kind of uh jumped in on my this is where Charlene can jump Inta I'm sorry Charlene no it is it's fine it's fine okay so the change process uh just

033a definition and this is not just for you it's for anybody else out there you know the people in the public and so they know what's going on it's a planned organized approach to managing the transition from the current state to a desired future State and that's exactly what you're talking about Melinda is our desired future state okay there are two main kinds of change one is adaptive and that's usually small incremental changes adopted to address organizational needs that evolve over time so for example uh we have all kinds of forms we use in the district uh some of which you're very familiar with because we've brought revised versions of those forms to you um uh there are procedures that change some disciplinary procedures that change there are things like that that change those are

034adaptive changes time happens things happen you make changes to accommodate that transformational change on the other hand is larger in scale and scope and those changes uh involve major shifts in mission strategy structure performance and processes and I've highlighted or I've put in italics the three the three of those that really are what we are addressing this year and started this year our mission has not changed our mission is Student Success for life that's you know we have a mission statement that's more this lengthier than that but that's really what it is we want our students to be prepared to be successful in life so the mission hasn't changed but the strategies to get there the performance of those of us who work with kids and the processes of doing so are what we're focusing

035on uh at this time please stop me anytime you want in this okay cuz I don't really want to be lecturing adaptive change is a a methodical approach within a system so it's a piece of the system okay uh if we're talking about uh the whole idea the whole terminology for systemic and systematic change uh started in medicine so you know if I want to change uh uh change the way my nose looks I might go to a plastic surgeon that's a that's a systematic change it's changing one thing transformational change is a whole system approach to inherent pervasive ingrained often subconscious biases and habits so if I don't like my weight I change a whole lot of things I make a systemic change in my life to affect my whole body for health reasons

036for appearance reasons for whatever adaptive change is frequently both desired and annoying at worst it's annoying because we have to learn some new form or some new process transformational change on the other hand is always painful and eventually rewarding it's painful it's what Charlene said a minute ago people don't like this kind of change it's hard it's painful it means a lot of work losing weight usually means lots of work uh you know you you don't do that overnight so graphically it looks like this now this is a a kind of cartoon approach to some pretty heavy research that's been done or was done probably 40 years ago uh about what happens um you've got the old situation which we've had for years in our district and we've introduced a foreign element we've introduced some

037serious change and so at first there's resistance and then there's some chaos there's lots of stumbling around uh there's F there's there's oh there's a transformational idea there is a change a Sy systemic change and we start working on it we start climbing back up we integrate that change and eventually we get to a new status quo we get get to that desired future right now among our uh teachers administrators and coaches the blue arrow on the right we have about 25 to 30% of our folks there they're working on that starting to get it and integrate it we've been calling that the Coalition of the willing because those are the people who from the very beginning said I'm all in and so they've been working on it um U Charlene referred to those people

038as you know the ones who I I can't remember the term you used but it's the it means the same we have about we have about a third or so in the transforming they're starting to do the things they're starting they're going oh I can do that and it's partly because they hear the ones who are in starting to integrate the changes hear them talking about what results they're getting and they go how did you do that how did you do that and then they're told that you know those teachers say here's what I did and they oh I could do that and so they're moving in that direction and then we have a few maybe not a third maybe a quarter of folks who some of whom many of whom have been around a

039long time and remember what Charlene was saying and okay here's another new idea and it'll only be here for a couple of years and we'll work really hard at this and then it'll go away I need to know that it's going to stay before I commit so this is kind of where our folks are right now and this is very typical of 2/3 34s of the way through the first year of change it's very typical this is how it looks to employees themselves okay so can I cope with this uh at long last something's going to change because there are folks who've been wanting it to change what's it going to do to me uh we have some folks who are in denial those folks are yep I was here when I was here when

040this started and I'll be here when it's gone um and then all of the things in between the red arrows right now those are the folks who are kind of resisting that's why um the green we have folks who are going ah I'm beginning to see how this might work and fortunately a few people who are going I'm going to make this work if it kills me um and then they'll be back on the they'll be back on track and we have some folks who are already this can work and be good so I used the red and the blue and the green arrows on this one to show where our folks are for students the change process is exactly the same what they are learning to do is they are learning to own their

041own learning growth the difference is that because they don't have so many ingrained habits or ingrained expectations it happens faster for them so you see I have the arrows all converged there because we have kids we have we have kids who started with the like where the red arrow is and they're already over where the blue arrow is um and and we have kids and everywhere in between because the process of change is much less painful for for younger people you know they don't have all the habits and that's a good thing that we're seeing okay so I know you want to see the data it's not what you're going to want to see but there are some high points keep in mind this was in February and it's end ofe test in February and

042it's one of the reasons that you all agreed that in the future we will do beginning in August middle in February and end in May okay this year we will actually have another test in May um so that we can compare uh compare our data uh Jen got that arranged with Galileo people uh I enlarged the bottom part so that you could see um much better than uh in the past the um what those ranges are and you can see how the ranges have gone up and up at the top you can see the um uh the the graphs for the three tests and this is second grade math I'm going to go there are a b bunch of these so I'm going to go through them fairly quickly unless you ask me to stop

043you saw this graph before or this chart before and wondered why uh there were no kids in the red when we had so many kids who were minimally proficient it's because the system the Galileo uh assessment and scoring system does not put anybody in the red until three consecutive tests so yep a lot of kids over there right now this is really the important graph to me um because it shows what we want to have happen so it's in quadrants uh the end test scores are on the left the expected growth or maintained uh is on the bottom and so the dots that you see in the lower left quadrant are represent students individual students and in uh for those students um they had lower growth and lower achievement the students in the quadrant above

044the upper left are students who hadow lower growth um but Higher Achievement in other words they did much better on the third test um uh but it wasn't huge growth for them the lower right quadrant are students who had higher growth but still low achievement so they made big strides from where they had been at the beginning um uh but it was still not where it needed to be and in the upper right quadrant are students with high growth and Higher Achievement when we report these data to you in uh in May or after the testing in may we will compare that chart this this same chart at that time with this chart and um and Jen even has it for the you have it for the first test too no it' be for the

045second one huh because it has to show growth and change so we will have all three so you can see where kids moved this year year uh at the end of the year obviously our desire is to have the most dots in the upper right quadrant okay uh the other thing I will point out for you here is uh if you notice I wish I had a poter if you notice at the upper left uh in the words it says average growth that's the growth for our district for our students it was 73 and and uh down at the bottom where it uh identifies the red dotted line the expected growth was 81 so we were below our students were below um that expected growth our second grade math students any questions about that one

046okay here's third grade math and you can see the third test came back up some and that is including the fact that the range of scores increased um looking at that one the first uh Benchmark M they had uh basically 50% of the students in the passing proficiency are above high proficiency yes now however in the third one we only have 44% mhm so there really isn't any growth there but there is Barb because look at the proficient range uh in that in that lower table proficient is is 666 to 717 and highly proficient is 718 to 1109 but for the third test the proficient range the lower the lower limmit of that raises to 738 and the lower U uh end of Highly proficient raises to 810 it raises almost 100 points so that's

047why that's why this not this one well first of all this looks better than the previous graph that you saw because many more kids in on OnCourse low and low rather than moderate and high but that's why this one is uh one that um uh shows us uh the swoop that we want to see as the year goes along so what I want to see in the future is something in from the second test that looks more like this and then the swoop moves over and up for the third test okay so that is moving kids over beyond the expected growth and up above the cut score and now with this one the average grow growth was 64 and the expect it was 80 so we're way under there we're are we are under there

048and we have some others that look more Grim than that I know but we have but we have some that look really uh very encouraging as well uh and I'll Point those out as we go here's fourth grade math am I going too fast or too slow this is number of students right it is number of students good question J this is a less happy graph yeah fifth grade math we have yeah quite a few substitute teachers long-term Subs at the middle school and I'm not blaming them because I will tell you that they've all been working hard sixth grade math however I will point on on this one this is seventh grade math that our average growth is 32 and the expected was 34 pretty close a small ray of sunshine uh could you

049go back one one back one on that one for me please one back one more Cass that one but we're still staying at a performance level of a minimum proficient in seventh grade so that's okay it's because it because it works as averages okay that's why I think this one is especially when we'll be able to look at comparisons this one really tells us more about what's going on with our students I think uh because it kind of lets us look at without identifying them looking at what's going on with individual students this is eighth grade math don't have a chance MH that right negative growth yeah this is the this is the saddest one this is second grade ELA a bit of happiness there third grade and this one of course concerns us because

050student students must pass the uh Ela portion of the state test to be promoted with a few exceptions 50% this is third grade ELA oh it's the it's the same same group yeah you know I noticed you gave us third grade twice and no fourth grade results oh well this is fourth grade oh okay we're coming to fourth grade yeah and this one's a bit of a happy because our average growth was 38 and the expected growth was 30 so despite the fact that it's still minimally proficient you can see that test three went up and keep in mind it's end ofe test so a bit of a a bit bit of a positive there but I understand now the these tests were taken the end of February so in one month we start the

051State Testing so if this is what this is looking like at the end of February this is basically what our state testing is probably going to look like it may uh but with teachers uh uh really attending to standards and the kinds of items that are on the state test um um yeah but we're in year one of systemic change this is fifth grade ELA our average growth was 49 Target was 30 so we have uh we have lots of kids who have moved from the left side of the red dotted line to the right side of the dotted line they've not moved up into above the green line like we would like but they certainly have moved to the right so this should help you understand a little bit more about why I want

052to see a swish okay ultimately a swish and then eventually a cluster in that upper right hand sixth grade ELA I would invite you to go to the middle school and observe fifth grade ELA I would invite you to go to Fox Creek and obs OB erve seventh grade math because in both of those sets of people we have high numbers of the Coalition of the Willing here's sixth grade seventh grade ELA not at all what we want to see although I'm really happy with the number that have moved to the right of the red line but still no swish this is 8th grade ELA a very our most shining group and I will tell you that we have I would invite you to go visit the eighth grade ELA classrooms because we have people

053who have been on board from day one expected growth was only five and we're at 29 why such a low expected growth rate I have no idea somehow the formulas that Galileo does needless to say we have been focusing on Ela and math now the students for on the state level are just third and eighth grade aren't they for Science fifth and eth for testing or fifth and eth rather for science but we don't want to wait till fifth grade to see what kids are doing correct so definitely not we don't have the growth charts for science so other questions not the best news not the news we want not the news I want um on the other hand uh some some rays of sunshine among those clouds um that we can connect to what

054what's going on in classrooms and the changes they doing another test though just for our information kind of thing at the end of the year we're doing a test in May uh and hopeful that kids aren't tested out at that point but um uh and it will be Jen will it be this the same test again because galile only has three tests per grade level they created a new one for us for for me so um and and worked with us to have you know that fourth one for this year so okay uh because those are important data for us to have in make you know instruction continues even during testing and certainly through May so and and there's a big stretch between early February and early May in terms of instruction and and um

055uh learning so well I I think the May test is probably going to be um a a better um look because that gel test if I'm if I remember correctly is is a full year so when they tested the first Benchmark in whenever it is August it is a full year of whatever the subject is so the full year math well half the stuff they haven't even been taught yet so well in August they haven't taught any of it well yeah but so by may it should be a better give us a better view of of I don't know if it's accurate but or or closer to what's as accurate as we can get when did they change Galileo to be basically a full year test at all times throughout the year it's always been

056that one no it hasn't because when I started with Galileo has no okay CU When I cuz I work with Galileo for 10 years years and with the 10 years we worked for it we had it set up basically that the first quarter when we tested it was on the standards that had to be taught for that quarter and each quarter and as it progressed then it became more you know the last one of course was a year one but each quarter was was tested on the standards not this T testing kids on stuff that they've never even seen or never had you're of course you're going to have these kind of scores so why to me this is not even close to being an accurate testing thing well but it's the way you can

057show growth you can't if you if you just show and I and you know I mean to me that's the value of this is showing growth um uh so yeah and you're right I do recall that that originally it was so you but if you took the test if you took the test at the beginning of the year you hadn't even taught it yet hadn't even taught first quarter um and I don't remember if we did it right away in August or if we waited till the end of first quarter we might have was I know it was always the and then and then we but then I know I do recall that the second one which was for second quarter was usually done in January after kids had been gone for a couple of

058weeks and and uh so again it was what was taught right then I don't recall when the third one was but still even if it was given third quarter as you say it was for the standards for the whole year which many still had not been taught so uh I don't know at some point you know I don't know how long that's been since we changed that I don't know it may have been when I was Acts fire and then when we came back to Galileo was when we went back to year long so has that been how many years has that been go back to it when we came yep five years it had been Aire during those yeah yeah that's what was used after after I retired and before I came back so

059for four years so um it it just depends Barb on how you look at it so you know one way of looking at it is like what you were looking at if we had it at the end of each quarter then there would be some real value in in having it be just on the standards taught like first quarter and then second quarter or combined first and second and then combined first through third and then combined first through fourth that makes sense to me um uh if we're doing it that way but that would require for test um and then U otherwise otherwise it strikes me that it is it's more effective more useful to us to show that growth uh if we're going to do it you know if we're only going to do

060three anyway now see we when we were when I was using it both here and in Mojave Valley we we were using it as a tool that you would test and if a student I if your your classes came through with not having accomplished or passed a standard that was being tested then you knew that the next quarter you had to hit that standard we here when you've got all these standards there they're not passing because of course they're not passing you haven't taught them yet so it isn't a good technical tool for the teachers to be able to use for evaluation because there's all the standards they're saying well you know they're not sufficient in these and you know a lot that same information they just look at the standards that they've taught and

061look and see where they're at and build their interventions and things around those standards they don't worry about the ones they haven't taught yet and that's one of the reasons that we would never consider using Galileo as part of the grading system yeah because you know because it's oh yeah yeah you can't they so go see you know I taught these standards and this one is still really low they do retach it and then they pull a CFA from Galileo yeah and they use that and then and then like two weeks later they'll they'll test test that just that standard to see if they ret um improve the scores so they are using it in between for wasn't that at some point that the state um changed their focus on the as Merit and growth

062was a big issue it's a huge issue and so I I think that was about the time the district said no we're going to we're going to do Galileo this way because then we can track the growth yes and and it's and it's a huge factor in the um in the calculation in the formula for our school's letter grades uh because somebody finally recognized that um what's really important is is getting kids from wherever they are with as much growth as possible um uh that you know that that really tells us more about the quality of instruction than uh than having the label of where you know where they fall in those four categories um uh and and uh especially when you're starting with students who are low it getting growth is amazing if you

063can get a Year's growth I mean think about it the intention of each year of school is that you get a Year's growth okay for student students who are below grade level you want more than a Year's growth because you want to help catch them up you don't want them just to stay static at you know at a Year's growth and continue to be you know behind where they need to be um and and so you have to have methodology for tracking that growth um uh rather than you know just especially when the target moves you still have to be able to show this kid went from from here to here or from here to here from here to here is not acceptable or not what we want from here to here is what we

064want and and when you can and and the teachers teachers can look at the individual student data uh we're not going to show that to the public and you know and you certainly don't want to see for each kid um we don't want kid in you know kid identifiable data U but the teachers look at kid identifiable data to know what strategies to use with those kids we're at 6:30 y we're we're a bit beyond okay now did you want to continue with your discussion Charlene are you done oh I'm done I I think Caroline kind of summed it up for me okay thank you I didn't want I didn't really want you to think I was cutting you off was just thanks for going back to that Melinda I appreciate okay item 1.6 adjourning

065the workshop I need a motion to adjourn please I make a motion re the work CH I'll second that motion all those in favor I Melinda saski I Charlene Diaz I Fred rushon I barar ziki a Sheila Bernett okay I'm calling the regular meeting of Bullhead City School Board on Thursday March 14th at 2024 at 6:3 is it uh 6:36 p.m. roll call I presid Melinda saski Charlene Diaz here Fred rushon here ziki here Sheila Barnett here would you please stand ups say the Pledge with me conratulations to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liy and justice for all citizens here present um I'm hoping that you guys all printed your names on the on the paper in the

066back of the room it's nice to know who's been here and who hasn't okay okay donations oh sorry excuse me ignore ignore you no I don't ever ignore you that's not uh item 2.5 call to the public uh go for it this is the time that the public may speak to the governing board regarding issues within the jurisdiction of the governing board and subject to reasonable time space and manner restrictions as the governing board May establish see policy B DH comments will be limited to 3 minutes per individual unless specifically waved by the governing board at the conclusion of the call to the public individual members of the governing board May respond to criticism made by those who have addressed the board may ask staff to review a matter or may ask that a matter

067be placed on a future agenda however the governing board cannot take action on matters that have not been noticed in advance as part of the agenda um I have one Shea do I need to go down there yes okay Dr Sheila Barnett is going to talk to us my name is Sheila Bernett I am here representing the Ladies Auxiliary from uh AmVet post 19 in Fort Mojave and basically we just would like to announce a contest that we are going to be doing um for the students uh it is the national americanism contest and um there will be cash prizes for the students uh there's three categories uh the first category is for kindergarten and first grade it's actually coloring a flag and then having to answer some questions about the flag uh that will

068be each category will have first second and third uh Place winners um so we will go from 15 for first place or or third place 30 and then 50 for first the second is a contest for um a poster and the theme for the poster is why is it important to vote and that is going to be 2 through 5ifth grade and again 1530 and 50 for the prizes but my favorite one personally um is the essay contest and that is going to be 6th 7th and eighth grade and again it's going to be why is it important to vote and this one we're going to do 30 50 and $100 so we will be passing out um to the younger kids to the art teachers to the older kids um I believe the students

069themselves and we're going to try to get them in the next couple of days after uh School comes back in and then uh announce them I believe May 9th at the board meeting possibly if we can get the kids here to hand them so um it's a cool project I'm the secretary so it's kind of been a really neat project for me because I'm a baby vet from my dad so um it's just kind of cool thank you m thanks are there any other um people in the public that would like to speak with it speak to us okay I'm going to close um call to the public and go on to 2.6 donations um early on when you when we took the carpeting out and all that kind of stuff I was in a

070classroom at the very beginning of school and somebody suggested putting tennis balls on chair bottoms and then just recently I was in a classroom and they had the tennis balls on the chairs and there was so much difference so I'm wondering if maybe we should look into getting tennis balls for whatever class wants a tennis ball on their chairs because there was a big difference and I One um it was a kindergarten class and there's always scraping and stuff going on in um I'm I really appreciate the United States tennis Association giv us 200 balls but I think that we need about 200 more of those or maybe 2,000 more of those since there's four chip four legs on the chair and I think that it would be a really sweet thing to do thank

071you very much um to the Ed Brandt whoever Ed Brandt is I wish he was here to say something to him husband because it does work it does work um I have a question on on donations I've been reading on our Facebook page and in the newspaper and everybody who's been reading to our kids M that's donated time it is I'm thinking that we should include something like that on this page that would be good for next month we could certainly get from all the sites who they had to read and I think that is donated time because it is donation it's a donation of time it is and um it's not there's not it's not monetary especially for some of us who are are retired no but time is money but it's it is

072so I would I would I'd kind of like to see that I think it's a good idea because we know we had lots of people reading at our sites lots of people and not everybody got recognized so this would might be it would be a good place to do it okay thank you um adoption of agenda 2.7 adoption of the agenda I need a a motion to adopt the agenda as presented I'll make a motion to adopt the adopt the agenda as presented I second it all those in favor I Melinda saski I Charlene Diaz I Fred rushon I Barb ziki I Sheila Bernett Dr Stewart 2.6 2.8 excuse me 2.8 I would point out to you that this time I made sure that I had both uh this year's and last year's cumulative reports

073for uh discipline uh and uh and I actually sat at my desk and did uh um did the pluses and minuses uh we were doing we were doing great up until winter break and uh anywh and then we had uh we had a little hiccup uh in uh because we were we were down 20% for first semester from last year yeah we did really well we did really well um and um I I know that the principles have told me that kids kind of came back from winter break a little wound and it shows in this in the discipline report so January uh January was up some and uh February was up quite a bit um so we'll we'll watch what happens next in terms of uh we're still we're still at total lower than

074we were a year ago total is low the total is still lower it's not it's not 20% anymore but uh but it's um uh it's still better than better than a year ago so um so you guys are on top of the uh Trend yes very much so um so I wanted to note that for you um uh you have the financial reports and uh if you have any questions about any of those i' I'd be happy to address them um um would it be possible oh okay Financial reports um I have down here the daily the 100th day that's on here isn't it yes it is right there it is yeah yeah and uh interestingly enough we were back up a little bit that was very nice we were is there a chance on

075this kind of thing to do it by month you get it each month oh no you don't no no you don't would it be or by qu or to show to show the changes so that maybe we can figure out if there's a trend that we're having more people come in or more out at this time and maybe try and figure out why that's happening so to show so like the First first day which was happened to be the end of the last day of July but um so show a so then show August September octob we can do that a simple bar graph just a simple bar graph we can certainly do that because I know that there was a diff you know there was some ups and downs in in there it would

076be really kind of interesting to figure out where the influx really came from came at at what position and especially if we use this as a base year but actually I think probably Jenny Becker could go back and do last year and we could I'll ask her if she could do last year I'm not I won't swear to it but I think she could go back and do last year and then we could compare M uh to see if there are any Trends otherwise this becomes kind of a base year for us to figure out what's going on and and that's a good idea that's fine Bas years are good yeah it is got to start somewhere yeah got to start somewhere um otherwise did you have other questions yeah okay on the food food

077food service I'm trying to find it here I know I had it I I copied it off um are all the kids eating still yeah we're still C which is everybody's free and we continue to we uh we we apply for that on fivey year in fiveyear uh rounds and I think we're in year two of your of the fiveyear round okay so the kids when they're eating how much of it gets thrown away do we have any idea I don't have any idea some things get put on the no thank you table oh okay there is a no there's a way to rec anything that's package or uh or like milk none of those things could be you know I used to think I used to think years ago gosh if kids aren't drinking

078the milk why is it going in the trash you know could it not be used but once it's sold it can't be it can't be resold so we started the No thank you table and uh at each of our sites so if they're packaged things so the milk cartons if they've not been opened um brownies or whatever granola bars um uh can go on uh the no thank you table and then uh kids who bring their lunch because there are still a few kids who bring their lunch or other kids who want a second milk uh or you know or a second whatever that's been packaged can go can go do that uh you know get more food um and then I will uh remind you also that the snacks we have at the end

079of the day in the after school program uh are also part of this program so uh you know that's a that's a free thing for our kids who stay for after school programs MH and that's all part of the Food Service okay I was just thinking that for giving giving food food away or giving not giving it away that's that's a bad way to say it I'm sorry um if we're providing food for free that we have some way of of keeping things from going into the trash that perhaps can be reused and guess I guess you've already solve that problem and then as a footnote to that uh if you recall last year um occasionally the Chartwells did uh test foods with kids and they've done that this year uh particularly up at Fox

080Creek and um uh have added a couple of items to their menu rotation um be based on the feedback from the students because they were things that uh had not been on the menu before and so they you know they they test drove it test drove those items with the kids and uh and the kids oh that's that's pretty good so they put it on the on the menu and and what that does is it it does increase student participation especially at the junior high level because they tend to be the ones who don't eat yeah or don't eat as much and so you know if you can figure out ways to get things on the menu that they like they're much more likely to eat and I remember on during the workshop you know

081the gra where the the food was down um so we have no idea why I have no idea why yeah I have no idea why I'll have to investigate that and find out why our costs are higher um I don't know if it's because of you know we we contracted out um I don't know we'll we'll find out and yet we've had uh we have started using some of the uh uh for some things that we need to either repair or replace in our kitchens and our cafeterias but particularly in our kitchens um uh We've now started charging that off to this account as opposed to M so our our wonderful facilities people who've been out fixing things and you know fixing electrical outlets and you know all kinds of things in our kitchens repairing

082uh uh the motors in the freezers all kinds of things um that we've been charging those expenses not the salaries but the expenses for the items against this account as opposed to M um because we've you know the accountant has said you you guys need to spend more of that money and um so we are so um you know we learn all the time how how to better use our budgets okay um the the actual M budget can you pull that one out where is EI on this uh it isn't on here okay you mean I.E I excuse me no it isn't on here because 100% of it for this current year was paid with grants perfect 100% that's what I that's what I wanted to know okay thank you not on here at all

083thank you thank you that solve that problem okay it has actually if you recall I gave you three of the 48 budgets in in the financial report so uh you know if I if I brought you the all of them or brought you in in that case Sr two Sr three and s two and the governor's Grant one and title two and title one but if we we saw the grant one we would have to pay Jennifer more right okay so we don't want to see it okay uh the only updates I have for you because I've been very busy the last three weeks working on salary schedules and uh uh calendars the Cal the actual work calendars because we want to get contracts and uh work agreements out and I have to determine start

084dates and end dates for those uh for their for work agreements and contracts um and uh and working really hard to get uh those salary increases and make sure that we uh could cover them um uh even though our enrollment is down and so our you know our funding for next year the base funding is going to be probably a bit lower or break even if they give us an increase because of course the legislature has not decided on that so anyway I've been busy with that so I don't have a whole lot of updates but I will tell you uh that uh when we sent the resolution uh out to the education committees for the legisl lure and to the governor's office uh the only response we got was from the governor's office and

085uh they thanked us for that information and um uh would certainly work it into their uh their work process uh and then I also learned uh today that uh topac uh governing board adopted um essentially the same resolution at their last meeting um to support U those things that you all had said so um okay that's nice of them it is nice yeah do you did anybody else have any questions on any superintendent report no okay um board member updates anything new um I just went and read at the middle school and uh besides reading I went and I observed a couple math classes while I was there and stuff and um I was very impressed by one of the Math teachers that I observed uh it was a sixth grade math class and he

086was extraordinary and he did a a very very very good job and had fantastic classroom control it was interesting I I went to a Kindergarten class and one of the kindergarteners was actually reading at a third grade level so we did Dr S as a play I took uh we were doing cat and hat so I took um the narrator the kid took the the fish you know the fish that says no no no Mom's going to get upset yeah and um she she did an excellent job we had more fun in that class that was really kind of neat to yeah neat to do there were several classes though that I mean Mo or desert desert valy had me so booked that I have to go back there on Monday to finish because we

087took took too long to read the book but anyway and you were there you went in I was at Diamondback they had me do all of second and all of third there you go and then I went to the middle school yeah but I think we were all at the middle school some I mean they they wanted us badly Fred where did you go I went to uh PR School Miss Alvarez's preschool and uh got to read to three little classrooms there and I'm telling you those kids are just just so much fun and amazing um and then I also went to middle school as well so I was very I was very impressed with uh uh Middle School I read the the lady that was helping me selected suggested a Dr Seuss book for

088them and lo and behold as it turned out it was very interesting book one I'd never heard of before or read before but it had very a very U appropriate message for the kids but I was I was really so impressed with their behavior and their attentiveness to to listen to this old guy read this boring book and uh but it was it was really uh very enjoyable I'm glad I went yeah at the middle school I actually just passed the book around I started it and then they started getting restless so I said and then they started started uh reading and it was you know I think that's why it took us so much longer because passing the book anyway Dr Bernett did you get a chance no I plan on going Wednesday morning

089to probably diamond back way cool all right I forgot how hard Dr Sue's books are to read and upside down reading them upside down and you know with my dyslexia and it's like whoa read Dr Seuss in my class I learned the true story of The Three Little Pigs from the wolf side that's kind of cool it was anyway it was a good time I had a good time and so that the public doesn't think you all were ignoring the junior high junior high students went to read at Diamond I was going to say so they they they flipped the rle so they were involved as well yeah had they called and said would you please come up and read to us I probably would have said are you kidding you guys read better than

090I do um but I would have been there yes yeah of course I would any other updates okay so we can all honestly say we are going to be or have been in the classroom during March Yes Yes we finally got something accomplished 100% 100% 100% okay uh consent agenda um we've already talked about 3.3 I was going to ask that that be pulled but we've already discussed that we discussed that in uh in our Workshop probably 3.6 as opposed to 36 3.6 okay um um could I ask that 3.5 be pulled okay and can we move that to an executive session no no we can just pull it okay let's I'd like 3.5 to be pulled okay anybody else okay I would like to talk about 13 13 yeah 13 Madam president could I

091ask a question please yes um uh 3.5 is in information only it's not an action item okay is there oh I just I don't know if maybe should p i I'm just wondering um why this one was even brought to us it has to be by law I have to notify you that I have that I have issued those notifications so anytime we have an underperforming teacher the school board is notified of it ified yes that I have sent the letter I have actually presented the letter because I do it in person okay okay and in that case let's not pull it let's go ahead and leave it there okay so we're not going to pull that one and it and by the way it I mean it's you know I could inform you in

092some of my informal email updates that I send to all of you but those are informal and and and it has to be documented that I have that I have shared that information with you okay then I withdraw my request to pull that one that was new information thank you yeah yeah um I still want to pull one 3.13 okay okay okay pull that okay um you need a motion we need a motion to accept the consent agenda with the with exception of 3.13 I'll make a motion to um approve the consent agenda except for 3.13 we're pulling that that one point of order point of clarification was not 3.6 asked to be pulled as well 3.6 I thought we decided I I was going to pull that one yeah we already talked about that

093during Workshop did you want to talk to it again no I missed that part it was 3.6 right no three okay we already had the a presentation on that not a very happy presentation but presentation no no no 3.6 certified employees I think you were talking about it's all employees 3.6 is the one that asks you to authorize us to offer contracts and work agreements to all current employees who are listed there uh and that the salaries there are the current salaries not the salaries that would be offered to them for next year okay yeah and that some of the those salaries are inaccurate because uh as annual salaries because people came late okay so their annual salary for some of those folks M besides the one that was just 19,000 for a teacher um

094uh some of those salaries are going to be short what we would pay somebody for a full year because they came late and didn't start uh you know in July understand okay okay did you want to pull it Fred no because we can discuss it even more nope that's good I'm good thank you did you get a second yes get a second yet and then I asked when we were doing the uh approvals uh I what is it I'm supposed to say you're second no you were seconding I thought we did the roll call yeah yeah we have we haven't done that yet okay all right sorry would you like to start the roll call sure okay do it all right I Fred Rush do hi barbar Zaki I Sheila Barnett hi Charlene Diaz hi

095Melinda saski see all right equivalency okay um or equality equality is not equivalency yeah 1.3 No three I'm so sorry I woke up left-handed today and that is always a bad thing because that means that I start reversing things so please forgive me I I apologize and that's why I said play it play it there's no way I can read it um I was just really curious on this one can can you show us this and Madam president could we have uh Mrs lot come and respond to any questions or comments that you all have glad for there's a there's a a chart or something a graph isn't it with this Cassie is there a graph with this or a chart a table oh that was in your board report that's okay can she can

096get it oh there it is scorecard report I'm but it's basically the same thing isn't it it just breaks down oh you can I guess I just never have seen this before so this is a school like a school health index and by policy we are required to go through this every so many years we hadn't been through it for a while we used to do it with the high school when darene Brown was the high school so all throughout the year our committee has gone through each module they've taken the module back to um a committee at their own school and they've rated each of the indicators under each module to see where our strengths and our needs are as far as health and wellness in our district and so in some cases like

097if it's PE teach like like related more to PE teaching and health and fitness that kind of thing our PE teachers would fill it out um the health attendants filled out the Fe on the health attendant Fe and then chart will didn't fill up the nutrition pce for us are we moving to pull some of the things in the red over to Green yes okay yes all right now go to her chart thank you I'm I thought they were both in the same place uh have you guys seen this stuff before this is interesting isn't it mhm I think we did it more formally this year than what's been done in the past okay yeah because it hasn't been done for a while so they decided Well my question obviously was on the the table

098that just saw um and and this is in policy okay the wellness is you know there is a wellness policy and uh and truthfully the this process is supposed to happen annually and so um they've done it more informally the last four years and I think Jen intended this year to make it much more formal okay I just have never seen it I'm Jennifer I really don't I had a question on the the red green and and then that stuff but I didn't have I really don't have a question on this but thank you thank you anybody else have questions though before I before she goes and sits down and no like you said was something i' never seen before yeah thank you thank you thank you now do we have to we have to

099vote on this one right um I need a motion to accept item 3.13 Wellness Plan please I make a motion we accept item 3.13 Fisco year 25 Wellness Plan I I second that motion is does somebody want to start the roll call Sheila hi Sheila Bernett hi Barb ziki hi Fred rushon hi Charlene Diaz hi Melinda saski going to confuse everybody see everything backwards tonight it's it's like um Charlene says change is hard yes it is would you would you put that calendar up please thank you at this time we were we are going to convene to Executive session we' got the did I forget bus old business I got new business up here Cassie yeah no I'm just kidding um we have a k in front of us Madam president and board members you

100did approve a calendar for next year month or so to a couple of months ago uh but one of the things that we have recognized uh as uh as I've kind of indicated to you in the workshop is that we really need to address the standards for science and social studies and uh and we got a late start on that excuse me addressing standards for ELA and math this year um and so um two things have happened one is that um uh our leadership team and all of the sites have um uh talked about what we're doing on professional development days which were already on the calendar uh and devoting three hours of each of those days next year specifically to uh pulling the the teams together particularly from our three elementary schools uh to

101to work on standards and but to work on planning and so that we can have some consistency across the district we do have kids that move regularly back and forth between among our elementary schools particularly and uh so there's real value in having those complete teams work together which they can't do during the week so that was already in place but we recognized that that was probably not going to be enough time uh for that kind of planning uh for science and social studies uh to take place so uh I'm proposing to you that we add um four quarterly half days uh for that kind of planning and there would not be other professional development there would not be other things going on there would be additional planning days uh for all of our teachers

102so you can see those dates uh in the columns on the left and the right they're in red uh so there would be a day in August uh they would essentially deal with first quarter a day in October to deal with second quarter a day in Jan January to deal with third quarter and a day in March to deal with and and they're half days they're 4H hour days uh and this would uh this would fall into the 1488 uh contract hours uh that our teachers have um uh so and be very targeted for um for planning so I'm asking approval to add those four half days to the calendar it doesn't change anything relative to students or what parents need to to do but uh it does it is part of the formal calendar

103do I have a motion to accept the calendar as revised Madam president I would like to move that we accept the calendar that is presented to us this evening I'll second that motion all those in favor I Melinda saski I Charlene Diaz I Fred rushon i b Zar ziki I Sheil pernet now we're going to ex we the go okay we're go we're going to convene to Executive session pursuant to AR ARS 38 43103 A2 it's a discussion or consideration of Records exempt from by law from public inspection including the receipt or and discussion of information or testimony that is is specifically required to be maintained by law by state or federal law um I need a motion to convene to Executive station executive session I make a motion we convene to Executive session I

104second that motion all those in favor I Melinda saski I Charlene Diaz I Fred rushon I Barb zeri I Sheila Burnet okay we're now in executive session [Music] for [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] a [Music] oh [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] he [Music] he [Music] [Applause] [Music] l [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] yeah [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] a [Music] n [Music] oh [Music] a [Applause] [Music] yeah [Music] oh [Music] a motion to reconvene or to come back to regular session please I make a motion reconvene to regular session I second that motion all those in favor I Melinda saski I Charlene Diaz I Fred rushon

105I barbariki a Sheila Bernett um 7.2 do we have a sorry yeah do we have a motion we just did I make a motion that um the parent request for early start of the kindergarten student is denied I'll second that motion okay all those in favor I Melinda saski I Charlene dasas I Fred rushon I Barb Zari I Sheila Bernett thank you item 8. one GCO evaluation of professional staff members uh this is the additional first reading C if you'll put it up um Madame President and board members um in reviewing this after you had the F first reading last month uh I realized there were some other things that probably needed to be changed and updated so there are now some significant changes in this uh that are in red and uh so I'm

106recommending that um I'm recommending that you consider tonight a second first reading um so that you have an opportunity to think about it if you need to uh and also if there were any feedback public feedback which almost never happens but sometimes you know we have to be a we have to be aware that the public is out there and has the opportunity to let you know their thoughts on these things okay I appreciate the idea of second reading on this or the first second first reading yeah whatever um on this I appreciate that I would I would think it needs more time with it um other than defining a a a 10 I I always called them 10e teachers the teachers been here three years and continuing teachers okay um is there anything major

107with it well the um uh C if you'll I think if you'll go down a little bit um okay so okay so here where you can see the the things that had to do with inadequacy of classroom performance um um that to me the way it read was confusing and it made it difficult for me to to Knack the policy when it was confusing yeah and uh so I looked at the policies from other school districts and and um you know to to try to figure out some wording that made sense um to what we really wanted to do and um and so that's why you have the wording the wording that's here you know I didn't invent it I I kind of stole it and and mushed it around a little bit from others

108but um but tried to make it so it was just very clear what what uh what an what inadequate classroom performance is um uh and uh and how we would deal with that um you know in a way that's obviously Equitable and fair for employees uh but also but also U maintains the expectations that we have for folks okay we don't need any action on this we'll see it again item 8.2 asba policy advisory 763 to 786 first reading this is what we saw in the workshop in the workshop um first reading that means we get another chance to read them again um I thought you I thought we you were going to pull the uh high school we hadn't I didn't tell Cass to do that for this time but we'll pull it before

109the second reading okay thank you doesn't apply to us any questions ikf we pull on the first for the first reading okay gives us another chance to read that stuff item 8.3 Science Olympiad team overnight travel request holy cow where do these guys get to go Phoenix M oh man how many of of them 10 whoa y they've qualified again for the state level um and last year they did the little they did really well last year last year was phenomenal yes and last year uh they did the wildlife uh the zoo in the aquarium yes no aquarium the Sea Life Aquarium yeah last year and and um so that's what makes it an overnight trip um but it gives them an opport Unity to for lack of a better word see some science yeah

110um you know that they might not otherwise get to experience wonderful wonderful you want you really do want a a tired night right hurting these cats yes do I have a motion to approve the their travel I make a motion to approve Fox Creek science thead team to travel to uh Phoenix to the uh state tournament and see Wild Wildlife World Zoo and Aquarium and when is the date of that April April 5th and 6th oh that's coming up yeah do I have a second be in Phoenix that week I'll second that motion okay all those in favor I Melinda saski I Charlene Diaz hi Fred rushon hi Barb ziki I Bernett and good luck and we expect to see ribbons and trophies and smiles on their faces and probably on yours okay thank you

111for taking care of our kids 8.4 authorize the superintendent to sign legal documents with the city of Bullhead City uh Madam president and board members um I think probably we all agree that you've already given me that authorization by hiring me and it is in policy that uh that I can do those things however um uh with some things right now with the den project um the City attorney uh uh wanted a little more formal authorization and so uh I'm asking you to do an authorization that uh lets me uh represent legally and you know have the authority to represent the district with other business with the city that might come in the future uh but in this case specifically for these two uh these two items and they happen to be um uh easement

112Grant granting easement for utilities at the Den project U but we I'm sure there will be other things in the future and i' prefer not to have to bring them all to you separately thank you appreciate that do I have a motion to authorize um Dr Stewart to assign legal documents for city of Bullhead City I'll make a motion to authorize the superintendent to sign legal documents with the city of Bullhead City I'll second that motion all those in favor I'm Linda saski I Charlene Diaz I Fred rushon I Barb ziki I Sheila Bernett okay item 8.5 intergovernmental agreements with Colorado River Union High School school district for Music Academy is this something new or have we done this is new and it's pretty exciting to me um The High School uh superintendent approached me

113oh probably about 6 weeks ago um with this idea if you'll put put the um I mean this this is the formal language but the idea is that um uh to grow our music programs so to help grow our music program and then to uh continue to grow the high school music program um uh to have some connection between the two districts and so uh they were offering to um to teach our students the last two periods of their day of their uh school day um which would Encompass the last period of our Junior High School day and then some time after school um and they would transport um uh the students who sign up this would just be another elective for our junior high students seventh and eth grade um the high school would

114transport the students down to the high school to participate in band or or uh chorus or whatever various music things um and then they would bring them back um uh we won't have after school programs next year so we won't be running after school uh Transportation so um parents of students who would be involved in this uh would have to agree to come you know pick the kids up um but it's such a good opportunity for our kids to uh you know to have a Continuum of music instruction starting in sth grade and then going on through the high school um uh that excites me because you know I I grew up in a tiny tiny Community with a K12 school and and started in high school band as a seventh grader so uh you

115know to have six years of that experience was wonderful and uh uh so it's exciting to me that we have this opportunity to work with the high school on this do we currently have a band at yes we do we have a band and and we have a small chorus um and U we had very active uh program at the at the middle school and at the Junior High um uh three or four years ago and uh we had we had uh strings and uh then the high school did not have a strings instructor and and we lost ours he retired uh and so some of that has just kind of and we don't have you know the music position at the middle school is one of our vacancies and uh so you know the

116the um the the pipeline into the junior high is a little weaker the pipeline then into the high school is weaker and uh so this is something that will kind of reestablish that uh you know that uh Continuum of Music plant our the program no no we will still offer band and we will still offer the the full program that we offer at at Fox Creek what we probably would do I'm I'm kind of speaking out of turn perhaps for Less although he and I have discussed this um that last period at Fox Creek would probably become the prep period for the music teacher so the music teacher could go to the high school with the students um and um uh you know and be part of that process so um it's pretty exciting um

117for us pretty Innovative kind of program so the high school would transport both ways to the high school and back to Fox Creek and Par pick at Fox Creek so no cost to our district at all they would put all the costs um and our kids would get all the benefits so would this be every day or just four days days a week M four days a week that's it is a good way for them to to get the kids ready and excited I love opportunities that are win-win win you know this is a win for kids and it's a win for both districts and and you know you you try to take those opportunities whenever you can find them do I have a motion to approve I make a motion we approve uh the

118intergovernmental agreement with uh Kor river river Union High School District for the Music Academy for the junior high students I'll second that motion all those in favor I'm Melinda saski I Charlene Diaz I Fred rushon I Barb sariki I Sheila Bernett item a point six agreement for with educational exchange Partners this is this is explain explain the H1B and the J1 for me okay um uh if you recall a month or so ago I asked for your approval to um look at uh uh an an additional way to recruit foreign teachers since finding teachers from the US is is problematic and uh and I was particularly looking for special ed for preschool uh because that's a very difficult those are very difficult positions to fill you authorized that and kind of indicated actually beyond what

119I asked for which was let's look into this for everything so U Jen and I reached out to uh four agencies one local and three uh not local agencies to see okay what services do you offer uh in this in this uh realm um what are the costs to the district and uh and and why should we consider your agency as you know as the best because the costs are uh in terms of are fairly similar across the board the differen is the J1 Visa is a cultural exchange and uh so the folks who sign who who get a J1 V so the idea is that they come they share their culture with us they learn about teaching and learning in the United States and they go back and they share that in in in

120their home country um and it's and it has a time limit so usually it starts as a threeyear um and um uh but they can apply for extensions so this year and we've had teachers apply for extensions in the past and we you know and they have have stayed uh we were fortunate I think in some ways fortunate that the pandemic allowed some folks to stay without even a a real extension because either they couldn't leave the US uh because there were times when you couldn't leave the us or they couldn't return to their home country because their home country wouldn't take them so uh we had a we had a couple of people for six years and and uh when it's ordinarily three this year for the first time I authorized that our district

121would pay for the the uh request for extension and that's part of our plan for retaining people uh once we get them here um and so uh we have a number of our Filipino teachers who have who this for whom this is their third year who are requesting uh two-year extension uh and so we we're paying for that the the uh but then when they go back they have to stay two years they cannot request coming back to the United States for two years okay the H1 Visa um is a working status visa and it is for folks who are needed in the US for positions for for which uh it is difficult to find people for the jobs so we know that in the US right now uh it's very difficult to find enough

122people to fill teaching positions that's not just an Arizona problem it's not just a Bullhead City problem um uh this started I think originally because they there were not enough people in the medical field and in some of those fields so uh in this case we have to make the request for uh uh uh for somebody to be able to come with an h1v a H1B visa and there are there are expenses U there are legal fees attorney fees uh and some other fees um and uh so it runs around around there's a first time fee and then there's an annual fee uh usually uh from some of these companies and so it's $6,000 or so uh per person uh for us to say we need teachers in these positions and we'll pay to help

123get them here okay the other thing is that uh that it's automatic for six years uh as opposed to the three and uh in that in that time uh the individual can apply for a green card which is a legitimate work card in the US and can apply for uh start the application process for citizenship so usually the folks who come to the US under an h11b want to come and stay and so they could be here on the visa for six years but then they could also achieve citizenship and uh or be in the citizenship uh process and be able to stay longer um so um uh we we reached out to these companies we got information uh this company educational exchange Partners um is a national company it recruits from around the world

124um but they have an offices in Las Vegas and uh not only were their fees lower than uh for the other companies uh but they also do some things that um uh pick up some of the tasks that we've been doing with our j1s and they also do j1's as well but we primarily want to do business with them because of the H1B um but they'll meet the the teachers at the airport excuse me transport them here and we've been having to do that um and then they follow up they do some classes on classroom discipline uh classroom management uh and then they come and visit the teachers in the classroom as well so uh we think their services are uh are you know very uh worthwhile in addition to what we saw from the

125other companies so um I'm requesting your permission to um actually Melinda would have to sign it but um uh for us to set up an agreement with this company and then any of our folks who are currently here um if they're looking to change uh sponsoring agencies we would recommend that they work with this company and um uh um and you know try to try to get to the place where we're really only dealing with one agent we're not going to make anybody do that but uh you know we're going to support that if that's the case now if we we go with these and they they bring teachers over for us is there a commitment from that after we've paid this money to get the teacher here are is there going to be a

126commitment from that teacher that they have to be here for the full six years that they can't you know work for us for a year and decide they want to go to another District or something exactly if we're paying the fee then they must stay with us and and we have had a little bit of that with the U with the J ones um uh particularly last year we had a couple of folks who uh came and were here for a year and and uh chose to go someplace else um for various reasons so yeah if if we're paying the fee they work for us okay I H1s were the petitioners so when they come over they have to work for us j1's were not so ones can can move around good question well do

127I have a motion to approve I make a motion Madame President that we approve this measure and agree to allow educational exchange Partners to represent us and recruit teachers for us all those in favor I'm Melinda SAS second oh we need a second I'll second thank you I'm Melinda sabraski I Charlene Diaz hi Fred Rushton hi barbariki hi Sheila Bernett okay 8.7 security features for site in district office Madam president and board members um I bring this one to you partly because it mostly because of the high amount of money we're talking about spending here um I don't usually bring you things in the $10,000 range but when we're approaching 100,000 I think I need your backing on those um we have addressed a lot of things with fences and Gates and procedures um but

128uh it has left us in a situation where our now our most vulnerable uh spot is where people come into the office and uh and the way our offices are designed of course we want our employees in and out from on campus and students too um uh but that but currently that means that anybody who might might endanger our folks can come in the front door to the office and literally have access to the entire campus uh very easily not that they couldn't jump jump fences and those kinds of things we know they could do that but um we all know from what we've seen in the news that frequently the folks who want to create problems will come right in the front door and so uh we're looking at a system here where um

129for uh would control folks entrance into the office from the outside pleasantly you know we'd have a we'd have a voice box and whatever but they would be buzzed in so there's an opportunity for our folks to see uh if there's a danger before somebody comes in but more importantly uh once they're in the office uh we we want a system that uh uh would prevent anybody in the office uh from just going through other doorways and getting on on to campus um but we also want that to we want not to make it so um awful that our employees can't get into the office when they need to so this involves a variety of magnet locks and and those kinds of things and badges that um right now most of us have the key

130fob that get us in these doors um but we would embed them in uh we would embed that in the in uh ID badges makes it easy for people to clip on and whatever and I don't want to go into a huge amount of of detail because of course this is a security issue um part of the work has already been done just as part of what we do to make our campuses um operate and so uh the the locks and the doors have have been uh upgraded already this would be all of the software and Hardware that's the technical part uh for us to do uh for our sites um I don't think it's going to be 100,000 um I overestimated it on purpose um I think it's going to be significantly less than

131that but I wanted to leave a little wiggle room so I'm asking for your approval of not to exceed $100,000 uh for our safety of our our campuses do I have a motion I make a motion to approve the security features for the site and district offices and for it not to exceed $100,000 I'll second that motion all the those in favor I Melinda saski I Charlene Diaz I Fred rushon I biki I Sheila Bernett item 8.8 renewal of medical pharmacy insurance with Kyros right kyos Kyros for school or fiscal year of 25 2025 uh Madam president and board members uh we're not ready to bring to you yet the uh recommendations for dental and vision and uh life insurance uh but we'd like to get started with this one uh the committee uh the

132meet and confer committee uh had a presentation from our representative from kyus uh last month and uh and then uh she brought me the these prices uh after it the prices weren't determined yet last month but the committee was very very much in favor of let's not start over uh because anytime we start with a new insurance company uh you start with Excuse me with their best guess uh of what what kind of expenses they're going to have for our district and um uh and frequently they will give you really good rates for the first year and then after a year of data uh those rates change um we've been with chyos now uh for uh four year uh three years and next year would be our fourth year um and so they we have

133a history with them already uh our our loss ratio was 74% and so um Insurance always goes up um but that loss ratio brings us in at a 4% increase as opposed to the 7% increase that I had intend uh in uh had estimated and in fact 7% increase uh is what's happening for the rest of uh for the rest of the chyos uh clients um most of the rest of them um we've done really well this year so um you can see that uh what we pay excuse me historically what we've paid as a district is the amount under co-pay and uh and then employees can buy up to the core program or to the HD uh HP 1500 program uh on their own um and so uh and historically we have paid for

134the employee only uh and the and employees can also buy up for family and and those kinds of things so um I'm recommending that uh that you authorize us to renew our contract with chyos for medical and Pharmacy uh for next year and that the district pay uh the co-pay uh rate for excuse me pay the coate co- pay rate for employees any questions I guess I have a question coming from the medical background here I'm looking so right now we're estimating that three employees will pick the employ and children plan of the co copay plan is that what that means that's yeah that's who's that's how many are enrolled right now right now and we always um we anticipating your next question um we always have the request in the conversation and meet and

135confer about the district picking up some of the family insurance and and first of all because it's expensive but the other part is um you know folks can go down the road and work in Needles uh or anywhere in C well no we found out it's not true everywhere in California but in Needles our employees could go down and get a job in Needles and they pay uh 100% for the employee and families um but they're also they're also funded at three times the rate for per student for Budget um we could say we could ask chyos to give us rates um uh that bring down those rates for the employee and a spouse or employee and children children um but for every dollar that they bring it down for the for the other family

136members would raise our rate for the employee and um so that's not to say that you couldn't say to me okay let's let's invest 7% instead of 4% and uh and and balance that out uh in which case I would go back to them and say okay let's you know let's negotiate these pric again um but I'm not sure that it would bring down those family rates to a level that most most um employees can can pay for they're high they're High um Family rates on on the open market are much better yeah than uh than this by the way uh in the legislature there is a bill in the legislature um uh for a study to be done about a Statewide insurance program for educators good um and I I don't know where it

137is in the process I don't know if it got out of committee or not but I was encouraged to see that as a you know as a consideration that the legislature was making because if we could put all the Educators in the state in one plan it would the rates would come way down way down so uh you know that was that was an encouraging uh bill so it'd be sort of like like a Medicare for teachers yes kind of like Medicare for teachers yes it would be excuse me do I have a motion to approve you started this I'm sorry I'll make a motion that we approve um the medical pharmacy insurance with chyros for the uh fiscal year 25 I'll second that motion all those in favor I'm Alinda soski I Charlene Diaz

138I Fred rushon I barbariki I Shaya Bernett item 8.9 salary schedule recommendations for school or fiscal year uh 202 25 2024 2025 yeah it's always confusing because the fiscal year number is always the second half of the Year Cass if you would show the classified one I'm sorry the frog is not leaving it's not going away um okay so for the classified salary schedule um I am recommending a 50 cent raise on base uh for the last few years we've done a 30 cent raise on base and then in the middle of the year had to reconsider because of the because of the minimum wage so I'm trying to be I'm trying to be ahead of that this time uh so that we can start this from the beginning of the year and um and

139then on the right you see that I've added several columns we have a number of folks uh who have who are on uh essentially on uh they're salaried and in the in the business uh software um they've not been on a salary schedule and so we've had to calculate every year what kind of you know what their raise would be um the other thing is that these are folks all of these folks are folks who who have to work whenever we need them to work and um uh so uh I'm proposing and and in the in the salary system in the um software um because they don't fall on a salary schedule haven't fallen on a salary schedule you look at that and it says min max minimum maximum and it doesn't tell me anything

140about doesn't tell anybody anything about what their salaries are going to be so I'm recommending that all of those positions be salaried as opposed to hourly thank you and oh thanks I've got my own um um and uh that we actually have a schedule for them um uh and these numbers are based on their current uh their current hourly and or salary uh uh amounts uh with the commensurate um uh raise uh that is on the left hand side of the chart uh item uh line 17 is our uh is for our current occupational therapist and um I've put it here because uh we're honoring uh a longtime agreement um salary salary schedule for that individual um and uh uh and we will continue to honor that as long as that individual is here um

141but I've also put another the the newly approved occupational therapist uh on on a different salary schedule um uh for future you know for anybody who comes in the in the future um you'll notice at the bottom um that I've also noted that uh at the sixth uh the 6th the 11th and the 16th year and I've added that third step um that we would uh we would pay an additional 30 cents an hour for longevity this is part of our plan for retention of employees currently uh we're paying for uh this the 6th and the 11th and uh so I'm recommending that we add that uh additional 30 cents uh per hour for the people who've been here 16 15 more than 15 years 16 or more do we have a facilities director um

142we don't we have not had that primarily because we hired U Mr Scott as the pro as the uh uh project manager under Esser 3 uh primarily for the den project but then when we took back our facilities all of our facilities in custodial and Landscaping we needed a boss and uh so he's fulfilled that role so his salary for the past two years has been paid out of Sr 3 and of course Sr 3 is going away uh so uh we're rolling this back into this is one of the six positions that we are rolling back into our budget uh from uh Esser from grant funding uh for next year what does the facilities director do he supervises the uh facilities workers so our HB uh person our plumber the plumbers helper the uh

143construction person all of the custodians um primarily the head custodians but all of the custodians um he is out on sites literally most of the day every day uh finding things that need to be you know need to be replaced repaired whatever and making sure that the work that our internal people are doing um meets code um uh is and is the quality of work that we want um we are exceptionally fortunate to have in this position right now an individual has 40 Years of back ground in in these kinds of things and um and he regularly shares with me the his findings so I'll give you an example uh today he brought to me uh the gear that goes into um one of the rollers that moves the bleachers at Fox Creek and um

144uh and it had been um there were things on the floor and there are three three of these units that move the bleachers so but they all run on the same switch so you turn them on and if one of them gets hung up on something on the floor it keeps turning and keeps trying to go forward while the others are actually going forward um and so what happens is it sits there and Spins and it chews up the gears that's what happened to this uh another example is uh we're doing uh we're doing more of the floor work at the middle school and um one of the rooms that they're doing right now had two layers of floor tile so pulled the floor tile up and found under the floor tile uh an electrical

145outlet in the floor uh that uh originally hooked up to a stove or something it happens to be in a in a room that way back was rooms and um and so it had been covered with these two layers of tile however the the electrical outlet that was in the floor was hot oh Jesus and because of cleaning and mopping and whatever water had gotten in there so here we have this Outlet this hot Outlet in the floor with a with water getting to it and it's all rusty and it I mean it was horrible um okay there's nothing that says that anybody who was tearing up that tile and who was doing that floor would have done anything about that if he hadn't been there to say this is coming out we're going to

146we're going to you know cut the power off find out where it is cut it off take those things out fill the hole um those are just some examples of literally every day um uh that uh he's finding because he knows to look for it and um uh the rest of us don't you know we just walk around it or P it or whatever um so uh uh yeah it's it's part of the reason that our facilities are finally coming back to what they should be and um and and because of a lot of his um uh what he sees has ALS has also resulted in a supplying to sfb for funding to replace things and um they've now agreed uh for instance to replace Place The Chiller at I'm sorry it's not a chiller

147I was corrected it is a cooling tower at Desert Valley um and his recommendation had been that thing is so old and the pipes are so full of rust and and and here are all these issues let's not replace it U let's do away with it and let's put individual cooling units for the rooms in that building so that if one cooling unit goes down it's not the whole building that doesn't have cooling uh I wouldn't have known to do that uh or to suggest that and um but his expertise led to that discussion and uh the expert that sfb sent in to evaluate uh ended up recommending exactly what Mark recommended so um a whole lot of supervision and a whole lot of uh um Quality Control uh what type does he hold any

148type of licenses yes as far as contractor each yes and multiple he holds also multiple inspector licenses so does he hold a general contractor's license yes and uh and we we could not begin to compete for for salary with the open market with the private in Private Industry out there I mean you know out he's he is interested and likes this job because it's Monday to Friday for the most part and he doesn't have to go stay someplace for two months or 3 months to go you know build big buildings or do whatever it was that he used to do um uh you know he likes having a having pretty regular hours life yeah and having a life so yeah he could easily he could easily make double these salaries in the in the private

149sector if not more I have a quick question um they have not announced if there's going to be a 2025 salary a minimum wage increase yet I do not think um but right now we're at 1435 for minimum wage so if they were to increase that by a dollar which is what I've heard they're talking about um are we going to have to revisit then we would revisit yes we would um and I would have recommended my first thought didn't even have to do with that minimum wage my my first thought was um we need to be as Melinda says we need to be competitive and whatever uh I'm not sure that we're competitive on the busing line as it is but the problem is right now there aren't people out there anyway um uh

150so you know but yeah we would have to revisit it if that's if that's the case um so that's that one um would you please put up the teacher one okay during the current year the heading for uh this salary schedule or the similar the corresponding salary schedule said teachers slpas Librarians counselors um had had that whole list of people um I've now paired it down to the teachers and slpas um and including the Librarians because uh they are teachers and we can still uh we can still put them in 1, um so uh I'm recommending a $500 raise here um on base and um we would continue uh at this point continue to pay the additional 1,500 from classroom site fund um I um classroom site fund committee and I are talking about a

151variety of things for next year relative to that plan uh and I have something relative to this that I want to discuss with them so I left it like it is because of course it's the plan that comes to you and gets approved by the board uh so I can't unilaterally make any changes in that um and then uh I also added to the explanation at the bottom uh the longevity uh the longevity steps and added um that third longevity step uh this year uh here as well as on that on the classified so for instance somebody who has uh I'll just use as an example somebody who's in column A and is at going to be at Step 11 uh for next year would have $1,500 more from classroom site fund and would have

152an additional $1,000 for having been here 10 years questions yeah I'm um I'm looking at this and how can we find money to pay these teachers what they deserve is there I mean I know it's a loaded question but I mean I just figured out somebody with a PhD with 11 years experience we're we're we're talking not very much not in the state average that we saw tonight yeah I mean is there is there some way we can have a committee formed or something to figure out how we can maybe somehow take money from that's why I have Mee and confer to talk with them and and um uh if you I don't and I'm sure that doesn't include though their benefits and everything or does no this is just salary based salary so U

153benefits um the uh insurance that you just approved uh will be about 14,00 ,000 a year for next year and the benefits that the district pays uh are 22% okay so um so if you calculate that out you know and those are those benefits essentially are non-t taxable um income because we pay them and the insurance is a non- taxable income uh because we pay that and I'm not disagreeing with you Sheila I would love to do it the thing is that we can I can afford to do this and present this to you now even though the legislature has not taken action on what they're going to you know what what our our budgets going to be I can do this and understanding that our budget that the legislature will give to us may

154be less than what they gave us this year because of our drop in enrollment um I can do this and and and U recommend this because of that two .5 million that I've been holding in case of a which means that it's a one-time thing you know if we use it this time then then I I don't know that I could guarantee that we could sustain it that's problem okay so and we have to think about that too um if we can up the facilities um manager by $1,000 it seems to me that we should be able to up the Sal the base salary for teachers by $1,000 keep in mind that his contract and I'm not arguing with you because I would love to do that okay um keep in mind that he works

15512 months 280 hours compared to 1488 we all know teachers work more than 1488 hours going to say I get I I totally get that okay um uh totally understand that I'm just trying to share facts with you so that so that you're aware of that um Cass do you are you logged into uh board docs on your own so we can pull up on my memo to them or are you logged on just as general yeah would you please because I want to show I want to show them those other numbers so that I'm not just reading them to you I have them in front of me but I don't want to just I want you to be able to see them while she's doing that um I will also share with you some

156information relative to the third salary schedule that I want to show you where I've actually built a schedule that includes uh that puts the coun we already last year did a a schedule for the the coaches the instructional coaches uh but puts the counselors and the other therapists sorry I had to think about it and in other words all the folks that are now removed from eligibility for uh uh for the classroom site fund so um last year we paid over $6,000 uh to the people who qualified for classroom site fund on top of the, 1500 another uh $6,000 um from classroom site fund the amount this year will be similar uh uh so that's another you know so on top of this salary schedule and whatever there there's that amount of money next year

157let's say it would be equal that that total will be divided among fewer people because of the people that we pull out of eligibility for classroom site fund so that might go to $77,000 on top of on top of the you know the salary schedule okay um in that in that new salary schedule for those people that I pulled out um I did as much as I thought I could to increase those columns so that it made up for part of what those folks are losing by not qualifying for for um classroom site fund so the columns for the counselors and the therapists move them up $5,000 move their salary up $5,000 and the column for U instructional coaches moves them up 30 750 to help make up it doesn't totally make up because we

158don't know from year to year how much that's going to be um but um uh you know I wanted to because otherwise we would lose these people we would lose the people we have we need to figure out ways to to retain and those are that so now that is money that is coming out of M okay to make up those differences that's money coming out of M um uh that has been paid out of um classroom site fund uh yes and would you get it big to show just this part please just just looking at figuring an hourly wage if you take a beginning teacher first year teacher with the salary we've got right now they be their hourly rate wage is right around $26 an hour you take the top one of the

159PHD with 11 years their salary is $36 an hour yet we're paying our maintenance guy $46 an hour our facilities manager there's something wrong with that picture when our teachers can't even come close to making what our facilities manager is making and you're paying me $50 an hour so and I'm and I am cognizant of that I am very cognizant of that I have another question though too you you said that the benefits that they're getting on top of their salary is about 14,000 I'm sorry Sheila that's okay you're saying that the benefits are about $14,000 per teacher for the medical and Pharmacy insurance for for any full-time employee do they they automatically get it do they opt can they opt out they can some get it some don't well some opt out because maybe

160their spouse has better insurance or like me they're on Medicare and don't you know don't need it uh but that doesn't mean that that that they opt out of the other benefits so you know like retirement and those things um we're still paying for folks so but that's not take-home pay Sheila that's not take home pay take home pay it is not take-home pay it is right right I was figuring if we added that on to the 1488 hours I was just trying to figure out how much that would be and that's like $9 an hour is what it looks like if they take all the benefits if they get all the benefit okay so you do the 22% okay so calculate so what I have cash showing you here is uh is uh the

161breakdown of this so to the raises for teachers so the people on that teacher salary schedule that you were just looking at okay um uh a $500 on on uh $500 raise on base is $341,000 the pair Pros who are classified um the raise would you know the the essentially 80 cent raise because 50 cents on base and 30 cents for step um would be um 100 would be 29,000 special education which looks big but I have notes down below if you if you read my memo uh because I included in this uh two positions that we did not fill this year and we've contra tracted out um but I have to build them in because we would prefer to have in-house people doing these people these things um that increase that I told you

162about for um actually that's low and I didn't go back and fix it uh the increase for coaches and counselors is really more than that 10,000 that I have listed there uh site support Personnel is our office people at all of our sites business office you know who those people are uh the total increase for facilities other than the facilities manager is uh 87,000 Transportation Administration and then those longevity uh any of the longevity payments and this would be for both classified and certified um this year we're paying about $75,000 in longevity which is good I'm really glad we're doing that that's a great thing and I'm really happy to be able to say that we would be spending a 100,000 so we're talking about uh for salaries alone $857,000 for increases on the on

163the proposed uh schedules I've given you um I calculated the benefits a bit low because it doesn't it doesn't always it doesn't always equal 22% um so that would be 171,000 which is 20% of the $857,000 um medical insurance is going to cost us 110,00 ,000 additional this is not what it's costing us folks these are additional dollars okay so like the $ 340,000 would be the raises only okay the 171,000 for benefits is the increase in in benefits not the total cost of benefits we pay we pay about $1 million in salaries right now how many for that 341,000 how many teachers is that for it's for it's for all of the current teachers minus minus three because of drop in enrollment we need to cut three positions plus five that we are absorbing

164from sr3 and those are the five eel positions and so those folks tend to be have higher salaries because they are more experienced teachers so a net a net increase of teachers of of two because at 341,000 you said we're giving a $500 raise that's base and so everybody everybody moves up a step yeah so that's so they essentially any current person is getting a $1,000 raise because they're getting the 500 on base and and another 500 on step So when you say how are we paying $1,000 to our facilities manager we're paying $1,000 to our teachers too so I have a problem here because that you're saying we're increasing the each teacher's pay by a th and it's going to cost us 341,000 so we have 341 teachers in the district no but we

165have some people who are uh we have some people who are uh well we have those we have those positions that we're having to we're having to pay so that's part of it so we're having the two teachers that we are the net of two teachers that we are hiring from uh uh from Esser um that's about $100,000 of that okay so you're you're okay because that's a total salary that's not just an increase that's a total salary the new teachers that are bringing in yeah great Point Barb thank you for thank you for me clarify that yeah okay yeah because I'm look going I know we don't have 300 teachers in the district no we don't making sense yeah no so uh uh we're increasing uh the staff at at Desert Valley by one

166okay because of enrollment we're decreasing the staff at the middle school by four because of drop in enrollment at those grade levels so that's a net Lo a net drop of three mhm we're bringing back five two teachers so that's two teachers so in this 340,000 is the total salary for those two people those two teachers okay plus the raises for everybody else yeah thank you for asking me to clarify that it's kind of like looking at the special ed one you know where the 193,000 when when we have about 22 sped teachers and you go wait a minute and how can 22 sped teachers get that when it's only 341,000 above the thing is that 193,000 includes a full salary for uh a school psychologist and a full year SC uh three4 of a

167salary for uh the new OT position because we're really only paying a fourth of a year for the for that person right now so you know so the numbers look a little skewed because of what what's involved can you show the new the new salary schedule you made up for the specialist then sure would you do that so you notice that total was a million almost a million to okay so um uh so to partly make up and I mean if you you know if you want me to I can totally I can go closer the thing is we don't know from year to year so there have been years when the classrooms site fund has really only been about $5,000 and uh so that's kind of why I picked that number um because we

168you know that's never guaranteed that's based on sales tax state sales tax and it's a certain amount uh it's about 400 and I think it's $485 per student um this year and um and that so because of because of what happens with sales tax that goes up and down plus our enrollment is down so um uh so uh the salaries columns o and P are new brand new and I started those numbers with what based on what we are currently paying people in those positions I was not going to set up a salary schedule that was lower you know than there than what they're making now right plus the 5,000 so uh That's the basis for those two columns and then the column k for the coaches who have qualified for classroom site Fund in

169the past um I increased um by uh 3500 30 3750 for columns l m and n I just moved them up one step just like we did for teachers so the certified death District director who do we have one of those we have two they're sitting right there Jen and okay and Kate who essentially in our district function as assistant superintendents I mean as you know that's really the role that they play so we are paying the coaches a higher hourly rate than we are paying our beginning teachers a beginning coach gets a higher hourly rate than our beginning teachers do they tend to have they have higher degrees and they have much more experience as a teacher they don't come onto this schedule let's say that they've been teaching five years they don't start

170on step six on this schedule they start on step one and so uh in some cases it means they're taking a loss to come into the position okay um and ask Jen about that because she took she took a huge salary cut to be to go from being a kindergarten teacher to being an assistant principal we've tried to rectify that a little bit for you know for all of our folks but that shouldn't that shouldn't happen and the other thing is that these people have uh the coaches have higher education and years of experience as teachers most of them have administrative degrees as well don't they some of them do yeah I I I'm going to make a motion on this and whether it dies for a second I don't know I move that we

171um put forward the recommendations for the classified and a certified specialist that we accept those recommendations but we send back the certified teachers and ask for $1,000 on the base instead of 500 I second it all those in favor I Alinda saski I barbariki I Sheila Bernett well I certainly would like to see the teachers get more but I have to believe that Dr Stewart is doing the best that she can so at this point I'm going to say no for me I'm worried about the sustainability mhm that's that's that's my concern I I don't know that I want to vote on this unless I have the figures in front of me that says yes we can sustain this if I withdraw my motion should we table it I would rather table it than than

172vote on it then I will I will withdraw my motion can Barbara will you withdraw your second yes I'll draw a second then I move we table the salary recommendations for school fiscal year 25 that gives the do stwart time to go and MH it does and that's that's a perfect sharpen her pencil that's a perfect solution to that thank you Charlene and I appreciate that there's motion so we don't need a motion it's tabled and she'll bring it back to us she knows she knows what the the motion was and she'll fix it somehow I'll bring you new data well got it or I mean she may come back and say you know what we can't do it absolutely but it's got to be something that's sustainable I don't want to dig AO I

173mean I'd love to pay every teacher $100,000 that would be wonderful yeah but you know but okay 8 point 8.10 continuation of the partnership with instructional empowerment year two is this one going to be paid under a grant also or is does this now come out of our pocket basically she says $300,000 will be paid out of a grant at least 300,000 okay uh I'm appealing to uh uh the state department for some funding um but I didn't want to I didn't want to jinx it assume by giving you an amount okay um and um so you had in front of you or you had available to you uh the actual um uh information from them M and uh and what all is entailed in that um and um uh Jen has assured me of

174300,000 from Grants there's always a possibility of a few more Pennies from those grants because she runs a real tight ship um but um like me she's conservative in her promises and um so uh so we're looking at um a commitment from um and right now of course it would be a one-year commitment because once again this would be funded from that 2 three 2.5 million that I have in uh kind of in reserves well that would take half of that 2.5 million You' got in reserve and the salary raises would take the other half well most of the other half and leave us a leave us a little wiggle room for uh for instance if teachers we hire um uh because I estimate what what a salary is going to be for those vacant

175positions that you saw in there on the board um and so if we hire somebody who's a little more expensive than that you know I've got to have some wiggle room I have to have it's not petty cash but I have to have some contingency money to play with with that when are these guys going to be back in town uh next week Monday you you met Kevin cuz he was here here uh and presented information to you um uh is the whole team going to be here next week yeah they're here about every other week weekly they're here weekly so I mean essentially they're embedded in our schools and I would encourage you when they're here to come see what they do um you know that would be if that would help you to

176table this one to go see what they do Shadow them for a couple of hours um I'd like to table this one until next month too so that we can so we can get yeah we can do a little more research on it because that costs just too much so how did the rest of you feel I hear Barbara I mean I'm five with tbling it is it going to hurt anything to table it well I was going to ask Jen are we are we under the gun for a uh signature on this we're not are we yeah um the other thing that I would say to you is having paid for year one excuse me with grants one way of looking at this is our 1.2 million is 600,000 for this current year and

177600,000 for next year out of our budget which certainly you know and and that's not playing games with it it's it's talking about what our District's commitment is to improving instruction and improving Student Success and so when you think about this 1.2 million that I've had sitting there U for other reasons but now we we need to address it when you think about it that way it's 600,000 for the current year and it's 600,000 for next year um and um from my perspective it's it's us as a district putting our money where our mouth is I oh I I I understand car the the thing I have a hard time is that's why I want to come and sure Shadow him and see because I have a hard time understanding why our coaches couldn't be

178doing some of the stuff they're doing because they didn't know some of it and they're learning too they knew a good bit of it okay but now they train is there some way we can cut back so it's not quite so much you know that take more six there are six elements to this training okay six is that right up to 600 okay our teachers have been trained in one and two the plan for next year is three and four no just three three and four three and four depending on where the site is okay the reason that originally it was set up as a three-year thing is that is that our teachers get a third of the training the first year and implement it get good at it get the next set of training

179the second year practice it implement it get good at it and then add the last two elements the following year um and and uh so that's why it's a three-year thing so but I really I encourage you to go Shadow so you suggested that we table this I'm okay with that um does anybody else I would love to go and Shadow this in fact yeah with some of the data that you showed us earlier we can pretty much pick the classrooms or the at least the subject area and the grade level that is is doing well well I would want you to I would want you to uh visit in classrooms where the teachers have embraced this okay who are farther the change process so you can see what is possible after one year okay

180I would encourage you to go uh uh and this would this probably means an all day commitment for you but to go be part of or observe the standup meeting the daily standup meeting where the coach and the principal and the assistant principal and the IE coach process what has happened that day and where they are in their goals because they set 45 day goals and then they break that down into 15-day Sprints if you will okay and and when they go in classrooms and I will tell you that the coaches and the principal and the assistant principal ask Mary back there are in classrooms daily daily now if you're really observing you can't be in 30 classrooms every day and observe what's going on in 30 but over the course of the 4-day week

181you're in every single one of those class room seeing seeing what's going on so I I would encourage you and I know this is tough but to go spend the entire day at one of the sites um where they're doing can you tell us when what days we could do that like I could do a Wednesday that would be an issue Mary Wednesday's work I can do a Monday PLC day is the planning and the planning day for them and where they're looking at the standards and planning their lessons for 2 weeks from now not next week two weeks from now okay so that's a good one Thursdays are good and and many of our schools also do it on Tuesday also do PL an extra PLC on Tuesdays we don't have a form one

182but teams on yeah if we and I would and I would recommend either Desert Valley or the Middle School Valley does not have anyone there next week oh okay Jen could you get us could you get me a schedule yeah so that and then my other question is there anything that we can get from IE that would give us like other school systems data that would show their absolutely their Improvement so we can have more of a yeah person Kevin shared some of that when he was here but I know it was it was totally new stuff for you all and so U you know it wouldn't wouldn't have made a whole lot of sense at the time but I'm sure that Kevin can get us what we need what you helpful as absolutely Kevin

183might want to come in and talk to us absolutely and he's he's he's here almost every week isn't he Kevin yeah Kevin's here almost every week because he supervises the rest of them and he also coaches himself so um uh so when you go uh it would be perfect to um uh be his shadow would we be able to I don't know if it has to be formal or off the Record or how we can do that is there a way for us to like just meet meet with him as a board oneon-one we could set that up we just announce it as a we would just announce it as a workshop we would just need to do that you know 24 hours in advance but there's no there's no problem of doing that what

184do you guys think about that that way we have time set aside if Jen will get us a schedule and we will put that on for a future topic I really want commit to this but I want to make sure that I can right we'll put that on topic I think we're all on board with that excellent and and I I absolutely embrace the idea that you're doing that I I first of all I think you have a a responsibility to do that kind of thing but I also think that um uh you will be amazed at some of the things that are I'm with kids and with teachers and with coaches okay so we we've tabled that 8.11 convenient did you vote to table you need to vote to table do we yes do

185you have to make a motion yes I'll make a motion that we table 8.10 continuation of the partnership with industrial instructional empowerment year two I don't think we made motion for the other one too so why don't you add that 8.9 also oh can we do it all in one sure sure sure table them both in one okay and then also table 8.9 salary schedule recommendation for fiscal year 25 for teachers for teachers oh yeah for teachers for certif I second that motion all those in favor I Melinda saski I Charlene Diaz I Fred rushon I Barb Zari I Sheila Barnett but we didn't vote on the non-teacher one and you probably should do that yeah yeah no I thought you didn't did they vote on the I we just oh you went through it

186okay I move that we accept let me go back here and make make sure that I get this right the salary schedule recommendations for the classified combined and the certified specialist do I have a second I'll second that motion all those in favor I'm Alinda sasi I Charlene Diaz I Fred rushon I Barb ziki I Sheila Bernett okay I think we're caught up with ourselves thank you 8.11 convenient executive session pursuant to ARS 384 31.03 A1 discussion or consideration of employment assignment appointment promotion demotion dismissal salaries disciplining and or res resignation of a public officer appointee or employee of a public body except that with the exception of salary discussions an officer appointee or employee May demand that the discussion or consideration occur in a public meeting and I obviously it was not demanded that

187we do it in public well I could say to you that well I didn't in advance I mean this has to do with my goals it's going to be a very short okay unless you all have other things to discuss I my report to you is going to be very brief so I could say I could do it in public I it'll save some time and you're okay with it I'm okay with it can we do that legally yes okay even though yes you can you can decide not to do an executive session okay do vote on we can't yeah we probably do no I don't think so I think you can just I mean since I've said that I would do it publicly oh I don't think you have to vote on all right

188well let's listen to what you have okay so the two goals that you all have for me uh that that we've been working on are the Strategic plan and the grading committee uh strategic uh planning committee met recently um and did quite a few things um uh I wasn't ready even to bring you a draft because as I looked through uh the notes and the and the written part that cast pulled together from all of those four committees um they had not written uh two of the Committees had not written smart goals and so I need to work with them to write smart goals and and the fifth committee which was not part of that process that day has to do with u with improved instruction and student a achievement um and that's not all

189pulled together yet from what's been going on at our school sites so uh I'll have a I'll have a a draft plan for you at the April meeting per okay with all of that pulled together the grading committee uh has met and actually had a working session uh recently A A 4-Hour working session uh and got through um uh not quite the same at the elementary and the and the upper grades the two committees two subcommittees um because they were going through all the standards um and identifying what they want on the on the rep the new report cards um and uh that's kind of exciting what they what they've worked on with that uh and um so they still need to meet they're you know they and the two committees are going to do

190their own meetings because of timing um to uh continue that to finish the things that they want identified on the report card um Diana verley is on that committee because she is the one who's going to coordinate all of these decisions with what we can and cannot do in Synergy and the good news is that she went to some training and found out that we can do everything we want to do in Synergy um and so uh uh so we're moving along with that um uh the next meetings the next meeting together oops I'm sorry the next meeting together will involve how we want to roll that out to staff uh when we get there and how we want to roll it out to the public public to parents particularly when we get there so

191we're on track uh with with uh both of those committee activities so okay excellent thank you yes that's a nice report okay so we're going to move to 11.1 future topics do we have any future topics that you guys would like to talk about the items that we've taed oh of course there you go FR thank you Fred you're welcome for keeping us on try anything else not right now okay then I guess we're on [Music] to upcoming board events our activities upcoming board events I looks like we have a a registration for the Summer Conference for asba when we need to have that turned in by April 15 that's when it opens oh that's when it opens MH the registration opens then yeah okay do we know what the date date is for that

192yet during the during the regional policy Bridge training you ever done this one oh um no I haven't but that's usually the kind of thing that Cass would do oh Cassie does that one okay I knew somebody did usually does it yeah because it's about how to put when we make changes how to put them in the system right this um uh Regional policy Bridge training has asba no but I think it's intended like for the I think it's intended for the admin assistant uh Cassie uh do you know when the reg uh when the uh summer conferences like the top of my head okay um you I'm sure I can I can look it up too have they arranged have they said anything about the spring meeting for Mojave County no okay I think

193maybe I'll work on that one um superintendent president yes sir uh the answer to the question on the summer Leadership Institute June 6 through June 8th 6 to8 Flag Staff thank you thank you America it's June yeah it's June 6 through 8 thanks Lance what's on down below here case oh okay M presid there's one item in from that second page uh on April 10th if you're interested in attending uh the uh it department is going to be hosting uh an evening workshop for parent view training yeah that was that's coming that's coming about because of uh part of the action plan for the strategic planning committee it would be interesting to see that yeah so um for uh that one is parent resources so that committee has a number of activities planned for the

194next year um but wanted to get a head start on uh helping parents who need it with uh how to use parent view which is uh parents access to Synergy interesting that would be interesting but what time is that what time 7 PM 7 school or here coyote coyote oh was it coyote in the gym at Coyote yeah I think it's in the cafeteria yeah you're right cafeteria yeah oh April to April 18 oh yeah I an hour to yeah they're serving food so it's April 18 ail 18th in the library library okay huh four o' 5 O 5 o' in the library no with the lead pipe sorry what time did you have 5 o' five wa make up a time and just go I have 5:30 on my calendar for for the for

195the workshop no no the tech Workshop I have 5:30 5:30 yeah the door open at 5 yes start so if we want a good seat we'll be there at 5 I hang out before you can come hang out with the reason for five is for parents who who don't have access to uh technology at home to get help them get signed up to even start yeah and then at 5:30 starts the how to use how to use the parent view all right okay that would be fun we'll see what but that's on April 18 Thursday night okay a Thursday night M okay yeah okay April 11 okay that sounds good anybody not be able to show up on April 11th 11th oh for our next I will be here but I will be tired but

196I will be here for our next board meeting okay next board meeting do you have any particular topics you would like in the workshop oh I am sure we come up something let me know okay other I will punt usually you send us something that Spurs me spurs me on okay excuse oh yes and and for that Workshop Jen has to do a a title one meeting oh um so that'll be part of that Workshop got she's required to do that part for the grant got you got do I have a motion to adjourn I make a motion we adjourn I second that motion all those in favor I'm Melinda sabraski hi Charlene Diaz hi Fred rushon hi ziki hi Sheila Bernett are I'm way past my [Music] b