001[Music] h [Music] he [Music] oh [Music] all [Music] he there's the beach that was in front in front of the cond microphone still forget my this is our patio right here this is let James know when you're ready yeah board members please make sure that your microphones are on for the entire meeting Barbara yes I'm calling the workshop to order at this time roll call presid Melinda saski here Charlene Diaz Fred rushon here barbariki here Sheila Barnett here okay we have something special tonight right a presentation is that what this is I hope no no that's ours from asba oh do we have a presentation yeah okay we do okay okay um the artwork presented from Fox Creek High Junior High School finalist for the seventh and eighth grade division of the first annual asba
002student of artworks contest and we had a winner Chelsea are you here please come here talk to us did you bring your artwork with you so we can see I think you all ought to go down there and have your picture taken with her would be nice come on you guys let's go have our picture congratulations Chelsea that's awesome makes us proud picture that is beautiful good job so what did theba do for you they just give you a certificate very nice what did you use the Amazon gift card [Music] I excellent so get get her to turn around and get a picture proud no that's only one no and then you all pose with so um so Lance can get a nice picture of all of you with Chelsea and her artwork excellent Chelsea
003do you have a did you title that or do you have a name for it and I know she has proud parents too yes yes she has every right to congratulations Mom and Dad excellent we have um item 1.4 MH um a whole set of policy and regulations exhibits instead of going through individually I'm sure that we all saw them were there any questions on anyone that we could bring up they were pretty straightforward there were transportation and office rules and it's just our continuation of you know moving through the policies we kind of got sidetracked with other important things going on for workshops and so we thought this was just an opportunity to you know resume that resume that process for for you all these are pretty straightforward um I think my only question
004was on the one of the Food Service ones where they said that um we would get to set the the amount of that kids are charged and and we can do that but since we're on the program where we don't charge students anything we haven't updated that or haven't needed to update that for several years that was my question we were still doing free lunches we're stilling yes we still qualify for free meals for all of our students breakfast and lunch and after school snacks when we have after school programs uh and those kinds of things so we haven't needed to adjust those in several years however if the need does arise the policy is in place yes it is in place and uh and if we were to need to do that what would
005happen is that um uh the the Department of Agriculture determines how much they re verse for those meals you know reverse the the district for those meals and then um uh we would recommend something let's say they recommend I'm just going to pick a a number it doesn't mean anything but $232 well we're not likely to charge $232 because who has who has the change so we might set it at 250 to make it a around number so you know we would come with a recommendation that would be close uh to that reimbursement amount and uh but a you know something that would be fairly easy for people to pay that's how it's been done in the past nobody has any questions on them okay get to see him again you will will yes we
006will um and so uh depending on what we put on the the workshop for next month um uh you know we'll bring another set of policies and and try to review them and see if they're if they're pretty standard like these we might give you more uh simply because you know it might not be uh things that you would have a huge amount of discussion about so but it looks like a lot so we're we're just going from a AA to zzz yeah whatever they are it doesn't go to Z though so you can it goes to h i j k I think it goes to K yeah it only goes to K so we're just going going to k um but total that's still over over 700 pages of stuff so um you know
007to get through them so about the time we get done we'll want to be looking at the beginning again want to start all over again we'll start over thank you thank you for helping us out in that um item five 1.5 adjourning the workshop I need a motion I'll make a motion that we adjourn the workshop I second all those in favor I'm Alinda saski I Charlene Diaz I Fred rushon I barbariki I Sheila Bernette okay so we're gonna wait just a few minutes and start the next [Music] meeting [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] yeah [Music] e [Music] h [Music] oh [Music] you [Music] oh [Music] oh [Music] he [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] yeah [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause]
008[Music] h [Music] oh [Music] you [Music] a [Music] w [Music] n [Music] he [Music] a [Music] [Applause] [Music] oh [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] all [Music] oh [Music] h [Music] all [Music] oh [Music] w [Music] n [Music] I'm calling the calling to order the regular meeting for Bullhead School District on Thursday January 11th at 6: p.m. roll call present Melinda sabraski charaz here Fred Rushton here Barb Zari here Sheila Barnett here would you please stand and say the Pledge of Allegiance it off I Al to the flag 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 presid would you make sure that you have signed the uh
009sheet at the door the signin sheet at the entrance because we like to keep track of who attends our meeting item 2.5 election of governing board officers I nominate Melinda zosi for president I was hoping that okay I nominate Charlene Diaz for president one one at a time oh for president excellent okay is there a second for for Melinda sabraski a second for Melinda sabraski is there a second for all right she's shaking her head second you're second Tony pass we're just doing this by voice right the vot yeah yeah okay um all those for Melinda saski I I I nay nay okay do I get a vote you did vote I did vote okay you did vote it's three to two it's three to two you win you're so you're still in no I
010didn't vote yet he said saski okay do we should I call for Charlene too come on parliamentarian no because everybody's voted and I'm they're going to change that I'm opening nominations for clerk at the board I nominate Charlene Diaz for clerk I second that nomination all all those in favor of Charlene being our clerk for the continuing as clerk I I Melinda saski I Charlene Diaz I Fred rush I biki I Sheila Bernett I think I'm going to have to practice this you've only had a year to practice it only come once a year or something maybe next she'll get it down better 6 point uh 2.6 brief resets to reset name plate we don't have to I don't think we that was a very brief that was AEF that was very brief 3.1 establish
011date and time for board meetings for 2024 our current board is on Thursday at well workshops are at 5:30 and boards at six does anybody want to change that it's the it's the second second Thursday excuse second Thursday is everybody still okay with that affirmative Okay so we've established that call to the public I don't think you need to do it if you don't have any notes okay okay so we're going to skip that part too adoption of the agenda I need a motion to adopt the agenda as presented oh will somebody please I make a motion that we accept the uh adopt the agenda as present it I'll second that motion all those in favor I Melinda saski I Charlene Diaz I Fred rushon I barari I Sheila Bernett I think we all going
012to need some practice the New Year seems to have changed brain or something the cells are not engaging tonight for some reason yeah it's too cold out there they've Frozen them froze my R um we have one fantastic donation from the Art Guild uh for almost $1,000 do what were the kind of items that were purchased for the yearbook do you remember uh I don't know we just got this and in fact we just deposited this money in the bank today so uh uh the uh teacher involved is working on her wish list great well that's that could purchase some real wishes yes thank you very much to the guild and the community is just incredible Community always comes out and supports us thank you um item 3.5 superintendent reports uh Madame President and board
013members who have the typical reports uh I would call your attention to uh two of them and then if you have questions um uh Cass if you'd put that cumulative discipline report up please um uh I didn't share with you this time the uh the one from last year but I will tell you that uh we're halfway through this halfway through the fiscal year the Cal school year and 943 uh last year are total for the year was uh just over 2200 uh so if we were on the same track we would be at about 1,00 right now and we're at 9:43 so uh um there continues to be really good work going on at all of our sites relative to uh student behavior and and helping kids um U manage their behavior better than
014uh than in the past so I thought I would call that to your attention and then uh Cass if you would would put up uh the last one that Financial Risk analysis uh I did send this to you as board members uh for you to look at but I thought I would also um mention it uh for the for the purposes of the public um there are only four school districts in the state um this was mentioned at a I was at the asbo meeting which is the association of school uh School business officers uh bimonthly meeting um yesterday and um uh there's always a report from the auditor general eneral 's office uh during that meeting so um there are four school districts who are at high high risk in the state and um
015the reasons for those have to do with budget um budget capacity and that kind of thing um you'll notice that we are at high risk relative to only relative to change in student count uh and we have discussed that before but I wanted to uh I wanted it you know wanted to mention to you and it's because of our continued drop in enrollment U but as we stated earlier uh we lost 90 students this year to the two new schools in the in the community so um that's that is our you know most significant reason for our drop this year um but you'll notice that we are in very good shape in all other uh all of the other areas uh budget limit uh Reserve uh capital budget for both operating in capital budget uh
016we're in good shape for um uh our general fund operating and um uh and our margin our ratio um and our general fund uh change in fund balance so um uh you can see that you know we're we're in solidly good shape in all of our financial areas other than that um I thought uh i' see if you had questions and then I'll give you a uh an update two Updates this was part of the attorney general part or paper that you sent to us right yeah the auditor general sends this out excuse me yeah they do this each year uh to you know after they've looked at uh started to look at our uh AFR from uh from the previous year and that's the um Okay so we've seen this you have seen it
017I did send it to you in an in an email update but I also recognize that um perhaps some of the things that I share with you that way because I want you to have the information as soon as possible uh probably I should also include in my in my report uh at these meetings because um it's information that the public would be interested in exactly okay it's kind of nice to know that we're solving absolutely uh in terms of updates uh first of all my apologies for um uh cancelling tomorrow's strategic planning meeting uh uh totally totally fluffed the timeline on posting uh the agenda uh because that is an official board committee it is subject to open meeting law which means that the agenda must be published uh at least 24 hours in
018advance and in my head I was thinking four and not eight and uh so totally fluffed that so the meeting uh right now is scheduled for February 15th uh which is a Thursday um and uh because when I looked at the Fridays there wouldn't be a good Friday between now and until after spring break and we don't want to wait that long so uh the Thursday of February 15th happens to be parent teacher conference and so I don't feel particularly guilty pulling principles away from their campuses uh for a few hours on parent conference day so February 15th uh 8:30 to 11:30 a.m. here in the district office the second update uh is uh is good and bad news um uh this week at our weekly meeting with gcon about the den project project um
019first of all they did actually move equip they moved equipment in this week and my understanding I haven't been home today but my understanding is that the equipment was moving dirt today so uh that's a good thing we've been waiting for them to get the electricity uh the electric pole that's on our property moved uh off the property so that they can do the underground electric work for our property and then getting water uh so that when they're moving dirt they can be sprinkling water and keeping the dust down so those things are happening uh we actually got a breakdown of our uh costs uh this week finally and um uh disappointing news to me is that with all of the increases in materials and deadline and timelines and whatever Sheila and I heard that
020this morning from the city um that timelines for delivery of things have tripled and costs have tripled um the cost per house for our construction uh is now at $262,000 per unit so right now we have two houses in this uh in this uh uh plan and that's because it has because of the timing and all of those expenses have increased uh there are some contingency funds uh that would that would fund part of another house uh or would fund landscaping and irrigation um I also will be talking with the the local Realtor Association and through them with the to the state and the national to see if um they will in fact follow up with some commitments that they made uh two years ago to help us out with some things we'll see if
021we can get some funding there um and I will probably be going out and meeting with um uh all of the landscaping and irrigation people in the area that that I can find to see if we can uh partner with them to help us with some of this so um uh a little disappointing to be two houses instead of three four five or 10 um but uh it's a start so uh that's kind of where we are right now so um yeah Dr Stewart a question in the event that uh the the completion schedule for the project is approaching and we might all of a sudden get additional funding are the facilities in place for uh for not necessarily this contractor but another contractor or the one we choose to continue on and to keep
022building in other words the infrastructure is going to be there yes that's the idea is the infrastructure would be there yes for the whole development yeah we would have the we would have the we would have the street we would have water we would have sewer we would have electric um you know write up to each they're not individual properties but up to each site uh housing site so yes we would have uh the infrastructure would be there for the whole project and are these going to be like duplexes or three no these are the three-bedroom houses and in fact uh we saved a little money by staying with just one floor plan um uh that saved us about $22,000 to just stay with just have one floor plan for all of the houses so
023they're three bedroom two bath um uh carport um units Standalone units Standalone units yes no common walls no no common walls thank you yeah and that was one of the things that the board in the initial conversation said that they really wanted it to to not be an apartment complex to not have common walls to to make these free standing houses so um and of course we'll be looking for anybody who wants to partner with us to uh you know to help put money in the kitty to uh for more houses so um and if that if that were to happen uh while the project is ongoing then then those houses would just continue you know we' just keep building them during this process so that um uh and that that brings down the cost
024of each houseold a little bit when the more you have so thank you okay that's all I have with having only two houses yeah is it going to be self- sustaining yeah it would be the um uh yeah I don't see that as being I'm sorry I don't see that as being an issue uh uh the we might we might decide with only two houses to not have uh to say not have a property management company initially when we only have two uh but uh that's for us you know that's for you all to help us decide whether we want to do that or not but I'm not sure that that would be worth the expense to have a property management for two houses um if we had five or more then I think that
025would be a great idea and I hadn't even thought about that piece about the property management um but um uh yeah once you've got the infrastructure in and you build into the the rental price what we're going to ask for rent um uh then it should very much be just self- sustaining I I don't see any there's no particular reason for lots of additional expenses and it's going to have to be self- sustaining anyway because it has to be in its own budget okay kind of sad M I'm yeah I have to tell you I'm disappointed but um but I also understand that you know the that cost have just skyrocketed and um uh that's what's happened so any questions for Dr Stewart okay um items 3.6 board member updates did did anybody by chance
026and I did not so did anybody by chance get out to the schools in December no okay the intention was there but yeah all right well we have January here and we're almost two weeks in the January myself blocked off so so we just need to block off some time and get up there because that was part of our goals you guys part of our goals um anything else that we need to talk about out okay consent agenda I need um a motion to accept the consent agenda as written or as presented I'll make a motion that we approve the consent a agenda as presented I'll second that motion all in favor I Melinda saski I Charlene Das I Fred Russ I Barb Zari I Sheila Barnett item 5.1 B DB agenda second this is
027our second reading of this and I think this is the agenda for the school board it's when we follow school board meetings MH and it had um what got added was um that we needed to uh State when the the doors would be open and um is there anything else on there on down yeah that we needed to uh that was the change that was um made in the law this year that we just needed to be sure that when we post the agenda that we State when the doors to the you know to the meeting room would be open any questions I need a motion to approve BB agenda I make a motion we approve bedb agenda I second that motion all those in favor I Melinda saski I Charlene Das I Fred rushon
028I barbariki I Sheila Barnett item 6.1 recommendation to award the school school year 2023 2024 eate internet to Frontier and authorize the district to to apply for eate reimbursement for the service uh Madame President and board members last month you approved the um this process for the WAN link and um uh and we uh then we didn't present at the same time the internate internet um option um and went back and reviewed those um uh bids that were made and um and got some clarification from the biders uh and so uh the low bid is for Frontier and th thus that's the recommendation we're making to the board tonight can you Cass can you open that for a minute yeah that uh can I ask James a question on this absolutely James um we're we're
029looking at Frontier and I know we we've had Frontier here at the school correct yes we did have FR we have had froner uh how has their service been for us and stuff that was a very large concern going into the evaluation and we did have a representative from Frontier come and speak with us and the the best way I can expl the difference is this is Fiber service so it's not coming over twisted pair and she the representative from here did provide some local references who utilize the same service and I got very favorable feedback and those are from our peers in in the area so it wasn't like uh somebody that's in a different line of business that was from schools in our local area and so I'm a lot more comfortable moving
030forward with Frontier okay um and we were very direct with them about some of the service issues that we've had in the past and she did address them uh very openly and honestly um and we will very similar to how we did the the transition from uh Sudden Link Alti to tww will leave the tww service operational for a period of time during that transition period so if there are any quality issues or service issues we can roll right back to the other service provider so it it will require that we come out a budget for one of the services e rate will not pay for two internet connections simultaneously but the uh the price is not worth us being down for right days or or weeks and we're actually working with TW when on
031that transition period pending uh your decision tonight and so we expect it to be a very smooth transition and we will have a little back plan you will also notice that tww is not represented here and uh that was because when they filled out the forms someone forgot to fill out that section oh and uh uh so not much we can do about it when that happens the other thing is that James and I had the same concern that you have Barb about um the previous service from Frontier um and so that is one reason that James questioned them very thoroughly the other thing is that we have built a severability clause into the contract with them so that if there are in fact issues um that we're not going to be stuck for a
032whole year uh with you know with service that's not acceptable to us um if that were to happen and we had to sever that relationship then uh as James said uh if we went to another another vendor if we went to say Optimum or to back to tww um we as a district would have to pay the full fee the full price we wouldn't um uh rate would not pick up the 80% or the 85% whatever it is that they do with this U we would have to pay the full price um but in my judgment if we were to have to sever this um um picking up that difference in price but having good service uh would be a reasonable trade I wasn't even aware that Frontier had fiber optic as I understand they
033recently built out some Fiber Optic infrastructure in the area for the city of Bullhead City so fortunately that that infrastructure is then built so we'll get the benefit from that we were not aware of it either I mean we had lots of questions I will tell you so uh James spent a lot of time digging into this to make sure that we were actually comparing Apples to Apples but not just Apples to Apples that we're looking at Jonathan apples and not three different types of apples so uh we he did due diligence on this and there will still be a significant investment on Frontiers part to bring the fiber actually into our facility and the account manager went to their approval board internally to Frontier and got it approved for us for no cost so
034they will be you know basically footing the bill for all the the infrastructure improvements that they'll have to make to bring the fiber up to us so even if the the Fiber goes down Hancock Road for instance it would still be thousands of dollars to extend that into our facility just because of the the way that construction prices are and the cost of the fiber and everything else okay um it was the best option for those who replied to the RFB mhm and is that the actual price at the top yes 55,000 versus 16 yeah yes for one for one year service mhm that's a pretty large difference I think um if I may I think Sheila the conversation that we heard this morning at the chamber business and government Affairs meeting uh where one
035of the individual one of the other individuals in that meeting indicated that he had been told that you know that uh Optimum has said they're not you know they're not going to pour a lot of development money into this area and um this kind of shows that right kind of shows that too um based upon the information I got I received from tww had they submitted a b their price would have been higher than what Frontier submitted um not quite 55,000 but it it would have been probably over 20,000 wow so Frontier did come in with very aggressive pricing and I will say in the past their pricing has not been aggressive and it was not comparable to other service providers um I remember one of the rfps that we did some time ago with
036uh in partnership with the high school district their monthly fee for service to River Valley was tens of thousands of dollars per month so you know it it kind of shows that they're trying to get a little bit of aggressive and the competition is working in our favor the the price for multi- gigabit fiber internet has dropped significantly in last 10 years okay great thank you thank you thank you James H is there a chance the oh never mind I need a motion to approve um Frontier as our provider I make a motion that we approve Frontier as our uh internet provider I'll second that motion please also authoriz also including the E rate too the E rate R rate thank you yeah okay all those in favor I Melinda sabraski I Charlene Diaz I
037Fred rushon I Barb zarii I Sheila Barnett okay item 6.2 addition of a par professional position for the preschool Madame President and board members um as difficult as as it has been we finally have a teacher in the Third special needs classroom in the preschool and um uh so we uh we would like to have a pair of professional in that room as well uh keep in mind that these are preschool students with special needs uh some of them um typically you know in year uh quite a few of them have some very high needs and um we need to have that second U body in there so I would ask for approval for this position for the remainder of the Year question Dr St yes how many students will there be in this classroom
038well right now we have 45 student special needs students in our preschool and we have had them in uh two classrooms and then some of the speech students some of those 45 are speech only uh and they have been in some of the other uh classrooms but uh several of the high needs students that we have um or medium needs students that we have have also been in the regular uh the regular preschool classrooms because we just did not have you know we just could not put so many um uh we have one one of the special needs classrooms uh has uh only I think five at a time five or six at a time because those students are such High needs and so there's a teacher and a parah in that classroom and the
039students are only coming for half a day so uh six in the morning 6 in the afternoon in that classroom so that's 12 of the 45 the other classroom had uh has um a maximum we have about six or seven special needs students in each session yeah so um the needs are the needs are such that we really cannot have uh you know 10 or 12 or 15 a fairly typical preschool classroom so it's it's really uh nice that we finally have this third room um but you you really need to we really need to have two bodies two adult bodies in that room and in each of those rooms to be to be working with the kids and the and we know we're going to have more we know that our 45 right now
040is not the Max uh because any of the student or any children who reach the age of three who need special needs qualify immediately at that age so unlike unlike kindergarten or first grade where students uh have to be the age before the 1 of September you know which means that they could have turned five September 3rd last year and and they can't start until the beginning of a school year in this case with our special needs kids as soon as they hit the age of three they qualify to be get services and we must serve them so uh we know that we have kids I don't know six or seven still between now and the end of the year just another got two more over Christmas break so we're looking at between now in
041the end of the year we're proba going to end the year with over 50 um students in preschool that are of special sounds to me like we need to start planning for a fourth or a fifth classroom we we that conversation already yeah we've had that conversation and as you recall last month when when you authorized us to to look at uh the H1 Visa prog H1B Visa program um that's part of that's part of this conversation is um uh you know if our resources for that program are from you know from outside the country um and then then that's where we need to go but then we also want to look at being able to keep those folks you know that they don't just come you know that they can't just come for three
042and then leave that um that that um you know the serious recruitment of folks to come and stay what is the the maximum that we could handle on the district is there no maximum for for special needs for special needs um nothing we could have aund and we would have to find the Staffing to provide services for those hundred students so do we get more funding as the students are coming in yes but it's not it's not enough to pay get the funding from October 1's count oh from yes I forgot that October one's count so the students that we had as of October 1st we are funded for them for the um for next school year um and so all the students we get now we're not we won't get funded for for next
043school year because they weren't here before October 1st so it's um that's really this is something to put on this is something for the legislature to be really be addressing because um uh and it would be nice if the feds would address it as well um uh you know because the kids the kids come regardless of that October 1st now I know there is some conversation about changing that date um uh I heard that at a meeting last month it used to be in January and then the state moved it back to they mo it back to October 1 I A lot of people are starting to question that October one count because the students now are a lot more um migratory so um they're coming and going all of the time and um it's
044making it difficult to provide the services that they need and that they um you know require the occupational therapy speech therapy all of that we get an influx of students that receive occupational Beach Therapy we're now going to have to go and you know look at other ways to provide those services and those other ways are not and there's no way for us to recoup that money for this and just to be just to be clear the preschool handicap students are part of the the ADM count that uh is that build that builds our M budget the weighted part of it is what is what's connected to October 1st but just like with kindergarten we're only funded at 50% for those preschool students so but because I don't want you to think that we're getting
045no funding for any students that have come since October 1st we do get funding but we don't get the weighted funding for uh what their disability might be um you know so a student who has multiple disabilities if they were here before October 1st not only do we get the base amount which is 50 50% but we get the base amount but then we get a percentage above that for those kids before October 1st so it's that extra waiting that we will not get for kids who've come since October 1st so our October one count for preschool was 33 as of today we're at 46 there's 13 okay this whole that whole I don't understand the the state on that that doesn't make sense to me that we need to provide more services for those
046kiddos and we're getting 50% to begin with it doesn't doesn't compute we agree we agree Melinda did you have a question or for for Kate yeah I just out of curios osity what kind of OT do you give a three-year-old um she works a lot on fine motor skills um being able to pick things up and put them in a cup or you know put puzzles together things like that so they have that hand eye coordination a lot of the children um aren't able to cross that their midline maybe they didn't crawl before they started walking and so they are are lacking that ability to cross the midline so she works on skills like that um she works on muscle strength um hand strength um arm strength and um sensory integration skills and strategies to
047help them when they're feeling um over stimulated and and needing a break how they can self self assume and inappropriate okay and and a little more about that crossbody thing um uh it's critical for learning to read MH it's absolutely critical for learning to read so so you know if if a if a student is is drawing say on a piece of paper here and they start drawing and then they have to move the paper to do the other side which means that they're not really doing crossbody and so crawling is a critical part of development for crossbody because of the way you know the way we crawl and that kind of thing so it's that is an absolutely critical skill uh for students learning to read and just on a medical side note basically
048they're doing everything they can to train the cerebellum yes so that they can do all these things yes so it's not even the fine motor skills it's retraining your brain to be able to do the things they need to do yeah kind of kind of cool okay I need a motion to approve Madam president I move that we approve an additional par professional for the preschool services for our um handicapped children special needs children I second that motion all those in favor I Melinda saski I Charlene di I Fred rushon I barbariki I Sheila Barnett item six .3 to convene into executive session to ARS 38 43103 A1 discussions or consideration of employment assignment appointment promotion demotion dismissal salaries discrim uh disciplining or resign reassigning oh excuse me resignation I'm sorry that's okay of a
049public officer appointee or employee of any public body except that with the exception of salary discussions an officer appointee or employee May demand that discussion or consideration occur at a public meeting do I have a motion to um go into executive session I make a motion Rec convene into executive session I second that motion all those in favor I Melinda soski I Charlene Diaz I Fred Rushton i b Zar ziki I Sheila Bernett we are now in executive [Music] session [Music] you [Music] h [Music] oh [Music] oh [Music] [Applause] w [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] yeah [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] n [Music] oh [Music] yeah [Music] h [Music] h [Music] he I'm moving or I need a motion to return to public session I'll
050make a motion that we return to public session I second it all those in favor I Melinda saski I Charlene Diaz I Fred rushon I barbariki I Sheila Bernett I need a motion to accept the resignation that we discussed Madam president I make a motion that we accept the resignation of the employee that was discussed in executive session I second that motion all those in favor I Melinda sabraski I Charlene Diaz I Fred rushon I Barbara Zuki I Sheila Barnett item 9.1 future topics are there any topics that we would like to have research for for us to discuss Madam president I I don't know if it's appropriate since there's already things that are going on but um you know I I just I I see the empathy and the concern that uh our staff
051has for these uh the dis not the disadvantage I'm sorry the special needs children and I I would hope that we're doing that we can but is there something more that maybe we can be doing like writing our legislators or taking some kind of as as a group as an executive board is there something more that we can do to to get these people to um give the proper and appropriate consideration for the education that they are expecting the school districts to provide that you know they have to carry their part of the weight and it doesn't seem to me that they are I think you could always um bring those topics to our legislators um at the state level particularly relative to timelines and um those kinds of things U either individually as board
052members or you know stating your a board member or collectively as a board do a uh a letter to the legislators about um you know please please consider um some beefed up funding for special needs students would that be a good Workshop thing to do might be to draft uh to work on drafting a letter draft sure FR would that would that be a good thing for us I'd love that okay I'd love that let's do a workshop on on funding for special needs yes absolutely draft a letter next time I know you guys do a lot with grants is there any more that we can do as a board as far as that goes like searching for the grants or well that falls usually on Jen to do we is there anything we can
053do to help you on Jen I guess is what I'm asking I don't know if you if you hear of it definitely let me know because I app forever okay particularly for our preschool programs the first things first uh grant that um has been going on for years which is has is funded with uh tobacco tax um first of all the good news is that fewer and fewer people are smoking and using tobacco the bad news is is that that that that tax you know that that tax pool has shrunk uh significantly and um so I think and I'm on that um that Council for the Western Regional Council um and so uh currently I think we have 12 students these are not special needs students but I think we currently have 12 preschoolers funded
054um excuse me in our preschool with first things first uh funding um that's likely to drop to zero next year uh because um the budget for the state um first things first um uh they've recognized that there are a couple of areas particularly in our region where um that have been underserved by uh first things first and so they've targeted those those um two areas in in Mojave County and laas County but primarily in Mojave County uh for that funding for next year um perfectly understandable perfectly legitimate uh but it means for all the rest of us who've had those uh those grants um you know those slots funded um that those will go away so you know we might get one but I doubt I think we will have zero next year so that
055changes the that changes the nature of our entire preschool program as well of of what we can you know what we can offer to the community and so it may be uh we already know that two of our classrooms two of our preschool classrooms we will need to have for fees next year um and it may be that we will have more classrooms that if we continue to do offer them as preschool we will have to have them for fees so uh the landscape for our preschool uh will change significantly next year so yes we're looking for any grants and that's not I want you to know it's not just us this is Statewide um since Co the the uh the landscape for preschool uh in the entire State and not probably even just in
056Arizona but for sure in Arizona uh funding and and uh offerings and uh whatever you already know that the other preschools in the community all have waiting lists and it's not because they don't have room it's because they don't have people uh to you know to uh to be in those uh in those preschool classrooms so um and expenses of course are up and and that kind of thing so the nature the landscape of preschool education uh is is very different than it was even five years ago um uh and very difficult for you know for uh folks to get this what they need Dr shter is there any discussion about um looking for on using something other than the tobacco to funde preschool we have the the preschool classroom at Sunrise and the one
057at Diamondback uh we actually fund with title one uh but the students who are in those classrooms have to qualify as Title One students uh with the with the you know with the same kind of regulations for title one that we have for our schools um so those depending on how Title One funds and how Jen you know works out that budget those probably will be fine we have one Title One classroom at Coyote um and um and so that may survive we have two classrooms that we are currently funding out of M and uh have been told that that's we should not be doing that and so for next year we will uh those will be for fee classrooms so we could have a number of for fee classrooms uh to help accommodate uh
058you know uh the students and the needs we have M but in terms of funding we're going to have to look you know elsewhere we oh yes right now we have one one classroom from hqu which is that high high qualifi yeah that's what hql stands for was it highly highly highly qualified Early Learning and that was a huge Grant uh but it but it was only for one classroom I mean huge amount of money but only for one classroom and that Grant goes away at the end of this year so um uh we're we're going to try to be creative but um uh it's it's going to look different and so you know and we try to make sure we try to make sure particularly at Coyote where we have the special needs kids
059and we you know and we have to have those programs and we want to uh but we also try to make sure that we integrate some of those students into the other uh into the other preschool classrooms because in the real world you know all kinds of people are together and uh and and our special needs kids need good role models and you know uh or typical student Role Models as well so um uh so it's not like it's two separate things they're not it's all one big program uh but the funding streams are you know to to do it are different how this been affected by the by the E I don't think this has been directly affected by Esa um uh any other than how our entire uh the possibilities for our entire
060budget might be affected by esas uh given that the state uh Constitution says that uh X only x% of the state budget can be spent on education um the esas are eating into that that's where that's you know um because if if the you know you Pi you just pick a number so if the if the state budget is10 billion um and I don't remember the exact percentage but let's say that only 51% of that can be for Education um then uh if out of that bucket if things are going to esas and so we already know that it's you know it's Way Beyond what the legislature budgeted for esas um then that takes away from what's available for public schools and for public charter schools we also are required to discuss any student Ona
061attend yes res Z we don't have to provide services but we are required to test so uh if once a year so a parent on an Esa can come and ask for a new evaluation every at our expense to try and either continue their student getting services in in the community or um to get a higher level of pay because of the weighted measurements so depending on the disability category depends on the percentage of weighted and it's much more weighted for esas than for our budget so for example um and we've talked about that our base our base for uh uh State funding or for funding for M budget is just shy of $5,000 per student okay the esa lowest rate is 7,000 so if someone decides they want their you know they want their
062student they want to do an Esa um then they then they're they're getting $7,000 um and if that if the student or if they think if the student has or they think the student has a disability as Kate says we have to do that evaluation at our expense um but then the family or the that family gets increased Esa funding for any disability and the rate of that the rate of that uh uh increase in funding far exceeds the waiting that we get if we were to serve that child so the impact it's not impacting directly our our preschool in the sense of can we put a dollar amount on what it might or might not keep us from doing in the preschool no but it does it could affect us in terms of our
063total budget and and um uh and how that's calculated and what dollars are available and it could affect very definitely could affect the aggre aggregate expenditure limit which is still an issue by the way uh even though the the legislature voted early last year to uh to uh suspend that for the current year it will be back for next year if there is not some solution um and and there are a number of groups out there who've been working together and working with some of the legislator legislative leaders uh for a a a possible solution to that uh that would not require a constitutional amendment so um all of those all of those factors affect us so if we have a four fee classroom if it's preschool or first grade or whatever grade you might
064consider can we apply for Esa no we're Public School we're in public school yeah I know but we still have a for fee thing no could the parent no because the esas as far as I know don't apply to preschool they start at kindergarten exactly and then also canot charge any student to come to our schools that are disabili because it is our federal obligation I provide those services for free for the for the special needs kids but for the other for other preschoolers and our district has had for fee in the past um uh so it's not a new thing it's just that we we need to go back to that so the only way it's going to affect it is that we can't because right now in our classrooms we have special ucation
065students within classrooms if we can't put any special education students within those four Fe classrooms because we have to keep those spots for only students that can do the four fee then that takes away some of our inclusion that we've been working on at KY Canyon that makes the special education students once again in a classroom with a lot of special education students and maybe one or two um P mentors in those classrooms lots of moving parts and we wanted and I will tell you that right now uh our preschool program has an absolutely Stellar reputation in the area because we con continuously get applications not just for our uh typical students but we get requests for special needs students to come to our preschool um because because our folks are doing such a good
066job so um that's a real that's a real feather in the cap of the district is the reputation of our preschools um uh and we don't want to lose that so you know we want to make sure whatever moving parts we fix or change around for next year um that we don't change the dynamic and the quality of the programs we're we're uh providing just for my edification what what do Esa and 4C what do what do they stand for what Esa uh originally stood for ow scholarship yeah thank you empowerment scholarship uh and originally uh when it started excuse me um uh it was intended for two re two things my understanding is the original um so for instance um uh students on reservations particularly at the edges of the state um could um
067perhaps the the school the public school that was uh that that they were in the attendance area for might be 20 miles away and perhaps right across the state line um and I'm thinking in this case and I know it was elsewhere but I know uh up on the Navajo reservation um uh say a student's a uh school district of attendance would be Window Rock but maybe that was 20 or 25 miles away from where the family lived which is literally a mile or two miles from a school in in uh New Mexico and so um so essentially it was a tuition you know a situation to to for the student to go to school in New Mexico on tuition and and so it was that um the esa um and then it and then
068it expanded to be for special needs students uh for for whom there might only be the type of program they need uh say it might be one of our students and maybe the program our student needs is in Kingman and so you know so there could be an Esa for the student to go to that to that program uh it has it has ballooned in the last two years uh to essentially be uh uh here here's a voucher here's money for you as a parent for your student to go to any private school or be homeo or be homeschooled and this is this is when those 90 kids disappeared from our district they took that $7,000 a hair we think so we think they did they're pretty much I mean we're pretty sure that that's
069what happened is that they've taken that the $7,000 you know to be to go to those schools okay and that's the way those schools run that's the money they have right the um but the statistics are um prior to this ballooning thing uh is that there were about 50,000 students in uh private schools in Arizona about 50,000 and so it meant their families were paying for them to go to private schools um now there's close to 60,000 students in uh getting esas but that 50,000 original are students whose parents were paying for them to go to private schools and so the additional number of students um uh you know are the are are students whose parents have made those Choice choices so what's happening is that those original students families are now getting those $7,000
070per student and many of the private schools have raised their fees raised their tuition because now they know the families have that extra money so uh the legislator's intent or stated intent was to give options to poor families um uh uh families with students with disabilities whatever um who's really the ones that have really been benefited are the students who were already in private schools and um uh and we're funding that you know we're we're funding the education for students in private schools many of whom were already in private schools most of them so and I state I'm trying to state that factually without being political about it but it does impact us oh Audi yes indeed thank you sure CU a four Fe classroom put us in competition with the other daycare pre preschool
071programs avable it could but we're currently in competition with them anyway I mean for for students who come you know who come to our preschool um and there's in any of includings unless special it's hard to find open and if you recall one of the reasons that we jumped so quickly on uh on our child care situation you know for our employees um um yes that's younger children but it's for the same reason is that our employees were um were anxious that there would not be a place for their children in the in any of the other child care in the community for the same reason they have rooms they don't have people and um uh so that translates into the same thing in the preschool okay so we're going to do a workshop to
072draft the letters of legislature for funding sounds like a me me too 9.2 upcoming board events you have all kinds of things on there but I think one to to point out right now is bowling yes when when is that it's not on there it's January oh it's not on there January 27th Lance you missed bowling o00 6 o'cl Arizona time Riv oh Rivers how many teams do you have so far we have seven actual teams but we have a bunch of others that are coming and want to be put into group or not b and where is this at Riv Riverside the Riverside so this was uh this is uh you all as a board are paying for uh the actual bowling part and uh uh those participating are are donating some funds that
073help with the prizes and the um those kinds of things and um so it's partly your recognition of good things that have been happening already this year and um uh also part of our uh retention plan was to have some uh employee events activities activities excellent one thing that's not on in there we have the Kanis wine and Jazz coming up February 3rd it is a Saturday start okay and then oh you have you have leadership class on there already I I do have 's one of the weekend things slabber that and because I know that there's participation and um oh and taste of B because they're usually board members who [Music] will um on February 16th we're also doing like our fish F thing again this year so what is that um where teams
074from committees from each School get together to help create our school Improvement plans for next year what was that date again Jen um February 16th February 16th thank you and I all of you Sheila wasn't on the board yet at the time I don't think but the rest of you all were there for at least a little bit of last year's and Fred had just come on the board so it was kind of your introduction Fred to the um kinds of things that we do for planning and and those kinds of things so I was very very impressed is it here it's at Valley at Desert Valley the structure will be a bit different than last year because what the state the format that the state has us doing is a little different um but
075the but it's the same you know the ideas working on uh site um goals and Improvement plans [Applause] okay item 9.3 State location for the future for next meeting make sure the regular meeting would be on February 8 it's not on my new [Laughter] calendar I'm fine with it how about to rest you guys you fine with February 8th yep at 5:30 for workshop and 6:00 reg meeting okay yep all right and 10.1 adjourn the regular board meeting I need a motion to I make a motion we adjourn regular board meeting I'll second that motion all those in favor I'm hi Charlene d i Fred Ron I Barb zarii I Sheila Barnett we are [Music] now [Music] h