BCSD Board Meeting 12/14/2023

001[Music] oh [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] oh [Music] you [Music] [Applause] [Music] oh [Music] all I thought you said he was giving me no I want to remind board members to please make sure their microphones are on during the whole meeting please all I'm calling to order the workshop for today I call the workshop to order for Bullhead City School Board on on Thursday December 14th at 5:30 p.m. um roll call pres Melinda saski Fred rushon here Barb Zar ziki here Sheila Bernat here and Dr Stewart I think you're going to be presenting Galileo tonight actually I'm going to have Jen do some presentation first and then we'll talk about some things that the leadership team uh and the instructional team have discussed relative to these data

002okay okay thank you thank you Miss good evening good evening good evening good evening Jen so we are going to go through our Benchmark 2 Data um the dibles well the first part is is Galileo and that's k through eight math 2 through eight Ela and then thir through eth science and then some of our dibles which is K through 4 meeting and K4 reading and ended um actually the window ended today but most of their testing was done um at the end of last week and then Galileo ended right after Thanksgiving so all right so a couple weeks ago I met with um our instructional Empower empowerment um people and Galileo because we had some questions about Galileo um and how the program actually worked so we met for about a half an hour

003with them um I had some questions but they did tell us that the questions in Galileo are like similar to the state like filled to the state standards and generally the same blueprint as the test will be that we do in April um with this amount of Standards um tested on that um there's similar in difficulty as much as possible they can't take the same questions they have to create their own but they're similar um and it's based on item response Theory um I put the definition there um I am not a master of um data stuff so um the but um it it basically is it gives us a way to look at how the students answered each question so you can go in and see how many students have answered A B C

004or D and see what the misconceptions are and uh gear your your instruction towards the misconceptions it also helps them create um questions so that if they see there's a big skew in how students are answering it they can adjust their questions within the test on that um what we did find out which we suspected but we didn't know for sure was that the developmental levels are a moving Target so I might I can show you when we get to those slides but um to be proficient might be 800 points on the test we take in August but it might be 900 points in in when in the mid year one and so you not only have to make that growth to stay where you are but you also have to make additional growth to

005move up in the in the ranges depending like on your proficiency ranges and then Galileo told us to pay attention to the risk levels when we're reviewing the data so there's a specific report in there that shows us the risk levels um but we do need to keep in mind that when we look at the data we tested early in November before Thanksgiving um and then had um the week after Thanksgiving for makeup test so really honestly we only taught about a third of the standards as of that point the test is for the entire year so just kind of keep that in mind so there's some extra things on here that I usually didn't show you um the top is what we generally do give you so that is um the percentage of students

006who are at risk uh minimally proficient proficient and highly proficient on the first Benchmark and then on the second and this happens to be kindergarten map in the middle you it shows you what the the ranges that they need to score for each of the categories so um you can see that if I was um like partially Prof proficient on the first benchmark test and like the low end of partially proficient so I had like 382 points in order to stay partially proficient on the second I would have to have an additional 33 points and then if I was going to move from partially proficient into proficient I would have to actually grow a lot more than that 79 points I believe um to actually move category so they basically that's telling you that their

007expected growth for a student from the first Benchmark to the second is about 33 points um if you're in that partially proficient range to make you know the equivalent of that amount of time's growth um which in the end we hope would be a Year's growth added up and then at the bottom um it it shows you overall the proficiency of the grade level in the district so overall it ended up as the average being proficient can and then this is the the risk levels that Galileo told us to look at so on course means the students are right where we need them to be and they're progressing exactly the way we need them to be in the standards um low would be kind of what we call your bubble kids so those are like

008kind of on the husp so they might be just need a little bit of a push to be proficient and then the moderate students would need a little extra help so they might need your like tier 2 or your tier three assistance we have have no students in the high the high range which is a good thing you no students that are that high at risk all right so first I'm going to just kind of show them and you can look at them and let me know if you have any questions um this is the first year in a long time we've done first or or kindergarten or first grade math with Galileo so it's a new experience for the teachers and for the students Jen I have a quick question so this is not

009a state test this is something we give to the students to see where they're at yes okay it's we use it as a diagnostic so it usually has like two two questions are still per standard um one to two questions per standard and it lets us know where kids are struggling and where we're doing well so we kind of know how to focus our instruction rest of the year cool I have a question please yes so I'm looking up at the top MH and I see the division between not passing and passing mhm and um I'm I'm just trying to understand and relate this to the the graph that was just shown M and uh so it it looks to me and I'm not an educator but okay I have looked at graphs and it

010looks to me like for example on grade 1 math benchmark one mhm that we have approximately what 64% of our students who are not passing their math test or their their their grade level expectation that was in the first the first Benchmark yes that's the top graph and then the the one on the bottom is the second graph is from the November test so there there was some some improvement that's shown there and it's not really passing and not passing because we haven't taught all of our standards yet so for the first test for um uh uh for the first test all of the items have to do with the standards that students are in this case are supposed to learn in first grade so we're right at the beginning of the school year and

011they haven't been taught any of those standards yet right so we have some students who clearly already know some of those you know already are proficient in some of those standards and we have a a bunch of students who are not but they have not been taught them yet so the The Benchmark number two would indicate that the uh the Educators the teachers have provided information that is helping those students to get green and blue it moved about 20% over right and they and and so we're talking about then what was taught in half of half of August September and October and then they did the testing in November so about 10 weeks of school which is about one quarter of the school year um um they were taught you know what essentially because this

012is essentially a midyear test MH that in those 10 weeks what they taught then again is the test has uh questions for the entire year standards and so yes they've you know they've learned things that they've been taught in that period of time so the expectation would be in in the next benchmark test we're going to see some more movement to we should green and blue right and we're going to talk a little more about that when Jen's done giving all of these data yeah thank you I know that I know that the ladies are familiar with Galileo and I'm trying to we all have we all have to re we we have to review these all the time and actually the information that Jen is sharing with you about the um uh with that

013other chart uh with the at risk chart um we've not used that before so that's a new tool for us uh and helpful information for us good now the the tricky the tricky part will be if you see the growth on this chart and then if we go to the next one um you would technically if you would have expected the blue to be higher because we had so much growth but it's not and part of that is because we haven't taught all those standards yet yeah so it's kind of confusing a little bit but so it's not it's not really a measurement of knowledge that they've acquired it's a it's kind of an indicator on the progress that they're making yes yes and then how much assistance we need to give them in order

014to get them where they need to be perfect thank [Music] you can can you go back to that slide I'd like to ask is it is it would you like to go through your whole presentation and then then take questions or do you want to take questions per slide I don't whatever works for you we can go through them okay we have we have some insights we would share with you and you will see some Trends as we move forward so you may want to hold your questions and then and then ask after you've seen the whole set u because then then you'll understand some of the things that that we're going to say about what these data led us to make some decisions on there's a lot of perfect go back one slide just

015yes just for clarification there's a lot of red on here okay there's 23% of the kids and then if you move to the next slide Cassie M you're showing high as being none a zero High means high risk high risk right so those so the colors don't correspond between we're looking at growth so it means that the students we don't have we have students they're making growth they made just not be making enough growth to move either outside of the color category okay so this color pattern isn't the same one as the gra okay why I say it is confusing because they're showing you different things I wish they had different colors so they're showing okay all right I beg thank you that's okay okay um we're going to stop here just for a second

016just because you see that there's once again a drop and they went from like as a whole in second grade from partially proficient to minimally minimally proficient as an average um but once again if we look at growth we notice that overall the students made an average of 48 points growth from the first to the second Benchmark so I mean there's growth happening even though it looks like the proficiency rates are not um growing but if they were say at the bottom of the um proficiency and they needed to go like we wanted to move them up to Prof to the next category they would have needed to grow 124 points so it's just showing or making growth they just aren't making the growth to move out of the categories from like minimal proficient to

017paral proficient Etc uh an example is excuse me in the middle bar of information where it says minimally proficient uh DL range so for the first test it's 399 to 547 for the second test the bottom number only went up by one to 400 but the top number went up to 641 so we had a we had a lot of kids who Moved within that within that range but not enough to get to 641 I'm using that as an example or 642 to get them to the next to the next number so uh when you look at at partially proficient uh you know the range is from 548 to 595 and it changes to 642 to 719 so I mean there's not even an over there's not even an overlap there there's an expectation of

018this hum us growth uh in that in that process thanks Jen similar to The Great similar to that much better seems to be a trend and it's very similar to last year I did look at last year's to see if we were where we were as compared to last year and it's very similar now okay you you say it's very similar to where we were last year as far as the growth or the yeah yeah but on unfortunately as I recall last year we didn't do so well in math on the state testing and stuff so shouldn't we be wanted to be looking so that it's better than it was last year of course we are absolutely oh that's bad I'm I'm just having a hard time believing that nobody is highly high risk yeah

019in this data I'm just having a hard oh yeah it's because they're making growth they're making growth they're not stagnant the kids are moving they're just not moving enough right they're not they're coming in with deficit yeah I understand that and they just can't get over that hump because that Target's moving got it they can get close to it but they just can't get to it and we're also dealing frankly with none of us has a degree in uh in test analytics and that kind of thing but we all do know and and particularly our Educators know that the folks who work on these things uh who develop these tests um do all kinds of things to uh uh to make them as valid and as reliable as they can um and so um we

020kind we kind of have to uh believe that part and I understand what you're saying Melinda especially when I look at this one but we're also talking about fifth grade so Cass if you go to the next slide um it still shows zero but look how many are in moderate and and you're going to see this trend clear through eth grade that things are moving to the right um so I don't know what specifics you wanted to talk about Jen on these but we just we wanted to share these with you and then and then talk about where we think we need to go that is sad mhm that beautiful seems to be getting worse as we progress up the ladder MH they're not even getting close to moving can you go back one slide

021I just want to see what the range is for that one 47 that's a lot of points it on this Slide the the problem I have is okay I can see I know I understand we're testing on movement but when we go go from 71% to 90% in not passing in uh men uh minimally proficient I to me what I'm seeing there is that the kids are not moving up at all they're moving back when when we have a 20% does seem to be showing much growth that I'm not seeing any growth when we have a 20% loss well actually if you look at the bottom it's the numbers they did I mean their average developmental score did go down any yeah this one is the one that does not show growth yes most definitely

022go back to the seventh grade there was even a bit of growth in seventh grade a bit points let's let's let's talk let's talk minimum okay um anything is it go ahead can can we go through the language too then please and and Jen before you go too far into that so at at 5:55 we do need to stop and have the hearing okay you can continue the workshop there's nothing that says you have to start the regular meeting right at 6 o'clock um but because we announce the hearing at 6:55 we do need to stop the workshop to do that and then we can come back and take as long because this is a really important all of this is important information for you and it's important for anybody who happens to be um

023uh watching our [Music] meeting just so I understand Ela is English language those that it's not their native no no this is everybody English language arts it's reading reading writing okay thank you yes great question eight points six points worth of growth the last one was eight yeah this is not this is not I hope you guys hope you guys got some ways to go with this because this is we do six six points of growth is basically the kids haven't learned anything better there S no down there's no growth there so grade went down eighth grade went down too no eighth grade stayed the same no no they went down three oh yeah I'm sorry yes pretty much stayed the same stayed the same man in this in science for the state assessment they

024test in fifth grade for third fourth and fifth and they test in eighth grade for sixth seventh and eighth grade standards so even though they may not be testing in like fourth third and fourth grade what the teachers are teaching does affect you know what the test scores are for the state assess I will tell you with science for both seventh and eighth grade at least on the top graph is a huge I know it doesn't look real positive um just looking at the graphs when compared to years past we usually do not make growth in seventh and eth grade science this time of year so that was actually a good thing that they maintained her grew a little bit um not the norm science for okay um so what you might want to do

025is uh adjourn the workshop yeah uh for a few minutes um at this time I we need a motion to adjourn the workshop I'll make a motion that we adjourn the workshop is there a second second all those in favor I Melinda saski I Fred rushon I Barb ziki I Shila Barnett okay at this time I'm going to open the public hearing I guess there's nothing special I need to read for this one um 555 and this is dealing with our budget changes okay uh Dr Stewart do you want to do we have to have a vote on this to open no it's just uh it's just you're calling to order okay I'm calling to order um we have attached the uh expenditure budget revision and uh uh there are minor changes in the total

026for M and uh uh only a very minor change in the expenditures for um unrestricted Capital outlay the changes are based on the changes in our average daily membership since our enrollment is down um the other thing is that there were some miscalculations and some misinformation uh in the first budget so it also provides Corrections for uh for those things the amounts are very similar to what you approved in July uh but probably a total of maybe a couple of $1,000 difference uh total in the in these that's a lot where did we take the $100,000 out of um it spread across okay spread across we had uh a couple of teaching positions that we ended up not needing and so you we put those on hold so we could remove that those amounts of

027money from the budget um uh and we just you look for the placees you know you make you make your best estimates for line items in the budget at the beginning when you're setting up the budget and by this time in the year you know where you sort of have over budgeted uh in categories are under budgeted so you you move some dollars around or you cut some what did we cut out of school sponsored Athletics do we do anything with it how come it's down 28% um because this is based very much on uh what we've allocated to pay okay uh and uh you know for those for those sponsored athletic things the other part is that last year we still had some funds uh some budget in there for the middle school and

028um they're not doing they're not doing some of those things paid out of our budgets what they've been doing has been paid out of 21st century after school programs okay so by losing how many students did we lose it's right around 110 I think for our ADM it's about 110 Cass would you go back up to the top we can see in terms of their calculations what it is um oh this is the one that has it wrong okay so the number where it says 2024 ADM uh on this document it did not self it did not populate correctly and the number is 2051 so keep in mind that that is that's this is average daily membership so it's not necessarily the same as when we when we say what our enrollment is uh but

029it was right around 100 and as I reported to you last month uh about 90 of those students uh have gone on to the two new private schools and that's that's about if if you look down at the bottom that's about 8% 8 and a half% probably yeah about the same the other thing that um we did have in this budget uh is the legislature um gave all districts in the state a one-time um uh boost of and ours was just over a half million dollars and so that made up some of the difference in the losses in ADM there were also some changes in the formula for special ed uh which increased some of those dollars um sometimes you calculate those out and you go well okay there's only one student in this category

030but the thing is every dollar does count in terms of uh educating our special needs students so um that's pretty important um you know all of those things so lots of factors in those Melinda all right so we need to close the public hearing huh you guys have any questions on the budget we're going to get to vote on this later think call I'm sorry we have to call what yeah yeah call if anybody has any questions okay does anybody in the audience have any questions okay then basically going to call for an adjournment um does this take a motion it probably does I need a motion to adjourn the work the U public hearing please I make a motion we adjourn the public hearing I second that motion all those in favor I Melinda

031zaski I Fred rushon I barbariki I Sheila Barnett and then you can resume work regular you can resume the workshop yeah but doesn't the regular meeting it does not have to start at the announced time okay does not I would really like to to re go go back to yes some of the most important you can reconvene your Workshop we need to reconvene the workshop I think I need a motion on that I make a motion we reconvene the Workshop second all those in favor I Melinda soski I Fred rushon I Barb ziki I Sheila Barnett okay take up where we ended up I think we're on science seventh and E science we talk about seven now if I remember correctly you said it's only third and eighth grade that test for science on the

032state testing or fifth and E grade and grade test in grade band so fifth grade test third fourth and fifth and then eth grade Test sixth seventh and eth okay okay good if you want to look at dibles first or do we want to talk about first what are Dibbles so DBL dibles is um like a basic reading skills assessment for K through 4 um not really comprehension there is something called The Maze they take but it's a paragraph and they have to choose the correct word to fit in the lines other than that it test like basic reading skills okay thank you and we've been using it since 2006 for particularly for uh K through 3 and then we've added uh fourth grade recently so fairly recently All Things Considered it's a nationally recognized

033reading um uh reading skills assessment and this is this reflects what's currently going on in the classroom right it's not something that is it's reflecting down the line yes it is it's well so just like Galileo benchmarks move so does DBL so benchmarks Al move um as far as um like how many letters students can name and so they're they one minute time tests so um each section so kindergarten takes a bunch and first grade takes a bunch and as they get older they just move into oral reading fluency which is how much of this paragraph can you read in a minute um and how accurately do you read so how many mistakes do you make while you read the little the little ones they do like letter naming U phonic awareness is just hearing

034sounds it has nothing to do with print um uh reading nonsense words um and reading whole like site words is the different test of okay okay so like just like Galileo benchmarks increase so to the dibble's goals um very similar um and far as far as the color coding goes for them and just as a as an example phic awareness um is actually one of the most important things for students to learn to read and it's just hearing the sounds so it's if you tell a student cat they should be able to say act has nothing to do with seeing a word it just has to do with hearing the sounds um so but if you see I mean there was an increase in the green and the blue a little bit of an increase

035though also in the red which is the below Benchmark but just like I said as Galileo moves so today so like the beginning of the year they were supposed to be able to do five sounds at the mid year they they're supposed to be able to do at least 29 sounds so it grows but overall um when you see the squidly lines it means they were not ready for that test so they were exited out of that test oops keep going cuz it's there you go that was mix up that's supposed to be the less fun here's first grade I know it's a lot of information but but generally we're doing pretty well as far as the basic skills go um to so is it the same red yellow green blue the same meaning yep

036what is the difference between the boy and the Moy okay Boi is beginning of year Andi is middle of year middle of year a good question okay and then the numbers to the right uh for example 228 and 208 is that the number of students that were tested yes thank you oh it says total students maybe I need to take one of these tests I don't know there's a lot to look at on that page so one of the things that we did recognize is well that we've known that we've been working on with instructional empowerment is um we our our Educators don't know the standards very well so they've been following some of the adopted programs and resources that we have but they don't always match those resources and programs are created for National

037use not for each state that has different similar standards but different standards so you do have to adjust you have to look at the standards and what the standards and how deep the standards want you to teach and look at your resource and and you need to adjust they're just resources so a lot of work has been being done in our PLC meetings which are planning meetings and our data meetings within the school days to actually align what the standard tells us we need to do what resources we have and what we're actually having students do because we also are find have found that they may be teaching over here but when they ask the students to do something it's something that's not directly related to what the standard says and so we're working very

038hard at aligning all those pieces together but we also recognize that 45 minutes prep time is not enough time to do all that work so we will be doing PLC meeting we met and decided that on our professional development days at least 3 hours or half of that time once a month will'll be spent with the teams doing this at elementary we are going to pull all like first grade teachers together all second grade teachers together because across the district we need to have the same expectations um it's a little easier at the middle and Junior High because they're already together but they also need the extra time and then um because depending on the calendar that's adopted we may not be doing FX Fridays next year um if we are not then that time

039we're red Fridays could be used and we have we could use grant funding and other things to bring teachers into also that work to do the alignment pieces um we do want to continue to work with instructional empowerment and then um changing our Benchmark schedules so we we test in August which is you know the beginning of the school year then we do again we test again in November for a mid year but it's really not mid year and then we test again the end of February and historically that's been so then we have the results and we know what to really pushing push and retach before we take the the state assessment but we never do an end test so we have the um State assessment but it doesn't really break things down by

040standards for us and we don't get the results till the students are gone so we would like to rearrange that and still do the first one in August do the second one the end of a um January February so that we have the results ready for conferences when we meet with in February and then do an end ofe test um in May so I was going to give you a timeline so think about uh if we test early in August and then we have those 10 weeks before we test again currently in November 10 weeks is one quarter of the school year and yet when we test in November we're testing for two quarters of learning and we've only had one quarter of teaching so in discussing this issue and trying to figure out how

041do we have data that uh that really tell us how well we've done so for instance um one of our principles mentioned the other day that on one of the first grade tests there are 30 items okay only 14 of those items were on standards that had been taught at that point so that means that if everyone one of our first grade students had gotten all 14 of those items correct they would still all score below 50% because well most of them because we hadn't even taught the rest yet so we feel that those data to say midyear test in November is is just not accurate um when do we have time to teach we teach in Aug I mean we test in August and we test again in early November we really need time

042to teach so so the leadership team felt and for the same reason that Jen was saying we need an end ofe test too we don't stop teaching after we do the February test we don't stop teaching even during the State Testing because usually there's only one test a day during that time we're still teaching so we need to we need an end of year to say okay we've now actually taught for four quarters let's see where we are in four quarters where we you know where we've had the opportunity to teach all the standards so we feel that that's part of the reason that these data look the way they do they're testing for 18 weeks of instruction and we've only had 10 so it's going to be more reliable then it will be more

043reliable and more valid and teachers have had time to teach and kids have had time to learn um and so that's why we want to change that schedule so we'll still only do Gile Leo three times a year we'll do it at the beginning and we'll do it where it really is in the middle which is early February and then at the end in May and then we get those results right away so teachers already know the changes they need to start making for the following year and and changes in their instruction whereas right now when we wait for State Testing we don't get that until July we'll have a better handle on what how students learned all of those State Standards if we actually test them in May on everything we yes the other

044thing we're talking about doing this not this school year but then next but next school year because well and we we could still do the the May testing this year okay yeah we still want to do that because we need to see where we're going the related information that I'd like to share with you too is that um uh you're hearing lots of pieces so we also we already know that our folks are not as familiar with the standards as somehow or other we have a assumed they were so we want to fix that problem and ie is working with us and helping us with that they're also helping with all of the changes in the systemic changes not the Cosmetic changes but the systemic changes in instruction and that takes time and then to

045see this happen to see the results with kids takes time so um can we predict any any dramatic changes in the results that we see in May for Galileo no we're not going to PR predict huge changes but we should start to see little changes and by by next year mid year we should see more changes if you noticed on those um at risk charts for the younger kids it was skewed to the left and the older kids got the more it was skewed to the right which reinforces the the process that we've already put in place that we we are not using the best instructional strategies for our kids what should happen over the next two years is that what you've seen in what you saw in those charts for K through 2 for

046instance um uh first of all those will even look better but each year a grade the next grade will get better because of the cumulative effect of it of improved instruction better alignment of standards and resources and our own assessments and our instruction but it takes time systemic change takes 3 to five years so U we should start seeing changes but we're not going to see big leaps I don't think um historically we haven't seen big leaps um I will also say to you that um I I say those things with some real confidence um uh in 2006 the district uh received um a grant called reading first and U we had that Grant initially for 3 years and then uh an additional 2 years uh Jen was at first a teacher and then assistant

047principal for me when we when we started that process or maybe assistant when we started it um and and it was in place at Mountain View school and uh at uh Desert Valley for third grade and at Coyote Canyon I will tell you that in those 3 to 5 years our students grew Leaps and Bounds and the things that are being taught to our teachers or retaught to our teachers right now with ie are exactly the things that we were uh were using and learning and teaching then it works I guarantee you it works but it takes 3 to five years to be seeing what you what you need to see and then you have to maintain it and that's part of what's happened is that it has not been maintained in this District uh

048in in at some point it started dropping off and it's dropped way off so our commitment is to to reinstitute those things plus any of the new research that's been made in that in in the time since then I mean we're talking about a lot of years and so there's there's some additional research um but Jen and I can say with confidence that if we stick to this it will work it will produce results um and fairly quickly and also I mean as far as reading goes the things we did in Reading first are now being brought back we have um 33 students going through letters training and letters training is a science of reading that teaches it's not a program or a curriculum um it is it just is best practices that can be

049applied to any resources but it is bringing back all the things we learned in Reading first it's kind of cyclical it came back but it's all very much research-based um uh it's not a bandwagon thing these are not bandwagon oh let's jump on new math let's jump on what was the Hong Kong math or whatever you know let's not it's not a band bandwagon kind of uh TR trendy thing this is now at this point 30 years of of research that somehow or other in our district has fallen by the wayside and uh uh we're committed to bringing it back so as long as you have us um we're going to keep pushing that if you have other questions we'll try to answer them uh what what are we going to be that that's great

050for the reading and stuff but what are we doing as far as helping the math and science it's the same thing Barb it's all the same thing the it's instructional strategies and they work for any subject they work for it's not just that we're doing these things we know it works from when we did reading yeah okay um um but when we applied way back then when we applied some of the same strategy IES and I will tell you that teachers did apply them across the other subjects because once you get into the into the habit of of good instruction you don't turn it on when you teach reading and turn it off when you teach math you do it across the board and uh and and so we should see our math scores impro

051improve increase we should see science um uh if we did some assessment for social studies we should see that increase as well we also part of instructional empowerment also is teaching our teachers to allow students to have productive struggle which is hard for us because as teachers we want to rush in and rescue when they don't know the answer but they're being taught to give them problems and let them work through them because it's the only way they're going to learn so why give a student a problem if you're going to solve it for them and so they're learning different ways to even teach math um sometimes it's giving them an equation or showing them a connection from something they learned and then having them make that connection to the new learning but having them

052make the connection to the new learning because they're the ones who have to make the connection or they're never going to remember it but that is something that that we're having to Rach and that's what they're doing that's not new St new all I did that 30 years ago guys so well and if you know you're right it's not new if we kind of pull an example you know Melinda you've talked to me some about the struggles and the frustrations you've had with some of the college students that you were teaching and um and I would I would venture to Guess that for some of them they had not had productive struggle that they were used to having people step in and tell them how you know how this needs to be done or how

053this how to do it and and I may be totally wrong with that but I'm kind of thinking about the conversations you and I have had about that and the frustrations um uh if we think about our own experiences sometimes we learn the most when we've been the most frustrated yes in our learning processes because whatever it is that we then figure out man we remember so we don't have that struggle again okay so tell me what I'm going to see in in in May am I going to see more growth in this we do have another if we still want to go forward we do have another test in January or in February we have a test in February it's still scheduled okay um um there won't be much on but because we've had

054we tested in November we had Thanksgiving break we've had three weeks of December yeah that's and then we're going to test again and so that's the problem with our current schedule there will be only six weeks there will be these three weeks since Thanksgiving and three weeks in January and then we start testing again no we test the end of mid February oh mid February okay so maybe maybe seven or eight weeks but it's still that short time and that's the test where historically we've looked at that as being the end of your test as that's being the the last test um so you know as long as you keep in mind that it's February and there's only been this other little brief window we may or may not see much change we typic we

055typically historically see change from the first to the third first to the second is usually not real strong as you saw usually we see bigger gains from the if we compare the first to the third but I think where we really would see things if we actually did one in May let's just hope we see change yeah yeah it will be it will be slow not pretty it isn't pretty but it's also why we're committed to to doing the things we're doing and and I will tell you that it's not easy it's a struggle and uh uh it's a struggle for our teachers it's a struggle for our kids but we also see kids who are embracing the the process of uh of owning their own uh their own growth and their own uh setting

056their own goals uh uh one of our sites had uh had data walks with their fourth graders and the fourth graders looked at their own data and made their own goals for the next test so it will be fun to see where that goes okay thank you very much appreciate your time thank you Jen um I need a motion to adjourn the workshop I make a motion we adjourn the workshop I second that motion all those in favor I Melinda saski I Fred rushon i b pres zi a Sheila Bernett okay now I get to call to order the regular meeting of the Bullhead City School Board on Thursday December 14th at was it 626 6 623 3 oh on the computer 623 thank you Fred um let me get back to where I'm supposed

057to be here don't you have to B yeah I have to do a roll call here um I Melinda present Melinda soski Fred rushon present barar ziki present Shila Bernette here would you guys please stand and stay the pledge with me I pledge delg 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 amen okay um citizens president I hope that the two of you guys signed in and uh that kind of stuff are you going to play this statement me read 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

058May 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 be 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 okay hearing that um Mr Barber you would like to speak to us yes okay so I looked at the same I looked at the same data he needs to introduce himself oh I'm sorry would you please introduce yourself James Barber okay thank you okay so um I looked at

059the same data that you guys were looking at and my initial reason why I'm here is because of that plus I've looked at the state the state uh test up until 2022 I'm having I'm having difficulty finding the state testing for 2223 I got seen that and it it did not bod well for this District nor the high school now uh my issue is uh on that report that you guys showed and it showed the three bars and I remember glancing there was the red column not one I looked at the I looked at the whole thing not one student was placed in the highly the highly critical area or high risk highrisk area now one student was placed in that in that column I'm like but I'm looking at 55 70 70% of the

060students did poorly uh minimally proficient and I'm thinking that does not translate I'm a data analyst that did not translate but in in in understanding how she explained it the test that was given in November that Benchmark number two should be at the half year mark okay I can understand that that explains why almost every test the students did worse than what they did in the in the previous one now I remember me growing up we had killer drill I tell every parent that I meet I said the first thing you need to do is teach your child how to multiply hm I tell him multiply well he's only five still I learned how to multiply at five never had a problem in math in my entire life until I got to differential calculus but

061I solved that problem too all right Dick and Jane readers they worked but they're out of favor because it happens to show two white kids where's the replacement where is the quality replacement for those readers they worked I would imagine some of you guys on this board learned from Dick and Jane readers and uh I see one some someone's a superintendent and the other person there's a doctor on this board and I would imagine you guys did well in life also so it seemed to work now uh I'm glad to see the district understand their problem but the real thing is are the parents going to be proactive L informed on how well their children are doing Bes besides their their quarterly report card or year a halfe report card they need to know when

062a child is failing and not later not not in December or when the test comes back thank you Mr Barber thank you sir I need um a move to move for the adoption of the agenda please I'm I make a motion that we adopt the agenda as published I'll second that a motion all those in favor I Melinda saski hi Fred Rushton I Barb ziki I Sheila Bernett again the community has stepped up and donated really huge donations hugely to our to the school we appreciate everybody out there who's who's doing these kind of things and um I'm hoping thank you notes have been sent and I I just can't say enough it's just really neat to see what the community does yes okay Madam president if I may um since the items are on

063there relative to the um uh the food uh distribution programs alarm Tech alarm Tech sorry we're getting we're getting an alarm um I want to mention to you that uh the uh if you notice the donation from the Aquarius yes our district has a long u relationship with the Aquarius and uh this year um because of both this event and our publication or our promotion of this event in the public and out in the Press um that Lance did um the parent company of the Aquarius has uh increased their participation to include Arizona Charlie in the Las Vegas area and the program has increased in Nevada to 7,000 families wow and it all started with this little project which is not so little if you know if you notice it's not so little but started

064with this project and uh because of uh because of the nature of this project and its success has now grown to cover Nevada so um I will tell you that sh it is it's a feather in Sharice cap and all the folks who work with her in the homeless program so I really wanted you to know that um um something that's big for us is now bigger for uh for others as well so when I caught her stuffing stockings today it was a good thing thank you for bringing that up appreciate it superintendent's report um you have multiple reports here we have discipline and whatever uh if you didn't compare the uh discipline report for November of this year compared to a year ago um uh uh there's a significant difference and um that's something

065that's ca for celebration of course and you all are are doing that next month um but the other thing I will say to you is that when we have students in engaged in the learning process there are fewer discipline problems and so U this is an early indicator that the things we are doing in our classrooms uh uh is changing the culture on our campuses um you also saw the work ticket report and our facilities report probably the biggest thing going on right now is resurfacing our parking lots and uh two weeks from now uh we're hopeful that that project will be done so um we're pretty excited about that that uh the trailer has been the construction trailer and uh and a u portable ouse have been placed on our den project property and

066all of the permits have finally been approved from all of the various County and City things uh there should be big equipment on that uh site within the next two weeks and dirt moving so we're pretty excited about that um I did want to let you know that we um have a new agreement um um uh a memorandum of uh of agreement with NAU uh to participate in their grandparent volunteer program so in the community in our community there is at least one grandparent who has been vetted this is a this is a program where the folks who participate are um uh you know screened and that kind of thing um but we have a a grandparent in our community who wants to be a volunteer at Sunrise and we hope that this program grows

067as well as well but it's managed by uh uh a department at NAU so we're pretty excited about that new partnership um and then finally I wanted to let you know that um as of this week our child care center is full and um uh so uh but we also know that we're going to have some additions to that Center in January and so we have some wiggle room for growth is particularly in the infant room uh but right now the infant room uh has five and we'll probably have a couple more in a month or so so um that program is very successful and um we're pleased with it and we are in fact discussing um uh some additional modifications to that for next year so we'll be bringing those to you later good

068okay any questions okay we're to the point where we're supposed to update each other what we've done um I went remember one of our goals was to visit schools y m okay I actually visited three schools well I went to kindergarten classes because I wanted to them to know that I was available to do any kind of reading after uh after in star in January um and I I really enjoyed getting into the classrooms and and seeing that um I met the assistant principal up at uh Diamond Diamondback and she is very busy very busy um I came back and talked to doctor Stewart about about diamond back and was fully satisfied with what is going on up there so is there any other reports that you guys would like to make Fred did you

069get the visit I did not I had intentions but I caught a bug here and I was down for a week that's no excuse I could have gone I didn't how about you Barb fix no unfortunately I have not been able to okay Sheila I have not but I have planned on every Wednesday to try and do that now that my schedule's cleared up all right so we're working we're still working on our own goal to get into the schools and don't forget your reelection um I haven't seen any paperwork on that so I'm not going to say anything until I see some paperwork okay um consent agenda it's really a full agenda is there anything on there that you guys would like to talk about specifically we've already talked about the the the Galileo

070of points M um trying to remember where where the employee retention plan was was that on the agenda it's on the agenda it's on the agenda itself yeah okay is there anything that you would like to pull no I if not then I needed um a motion to accept the consent agenda as written I make a motion to accept the consent agenda as presented and written I'll second that motion all those in favor I Melinda saski I Fred rushon I Barb ziki I Sheila Barnett moving on to 6.1 since we have no old business um this is the the budget revision that we just heard Dr Stewart explain to us um it looks like an 8.5% reduction because of student enrollment um am I getting that right yes it's primarily primarily uh reduction in enrollment

071okay all right so do I have a motion to adopt or do you have further questions I make a motion that we adopt the revised um budget I'll second that could we make it with the correction to the uh 2024 ADM number I make a motion that we accept the revised uh budget with a correction to the 2024 ADM all second that all those in favor I Melinda saski I Fred Rushton I Barb B ziki Aila Bernett item 6.2 purchase of a special education bus um is this a bus with a lift and all that it would be yeah um and we're looking at uh we're not looking at a huge bus but we're also not looking at one of the small buses we're looking at what I consider a midsize midsize bus but it

072would have a wheelchair lift on it uh a couple of reasons one is that the current one that has the wheelchair lift uh is over 20 years old uh and is in good shape and continues to run well because of the good care from our maintenance our vehicle maintenance department we did have to replace the lift on it this year um U because that broke but we have increasing numbers of students in our special needs program and increasing numbers of students who uh need door-to-door curb to curb um Transportation uh we know that it's unlikely for us to actually take possession of this bus for at least 18 months so it's a good idea to get started on it at this point uh and then that way we've earmarked those dollars from the current budget

073to roll over into the next budget uh and then you know who knows there might be increases in prices in the meantime and I would come back to you and say I need more than the 200,000 to pay for this um because that happened with us on our one of our most recent buses that between the time we ordered it and the time that um uh we took possession of it um lots of things changed and and there was an increase in price so uh I just want to get the these dollars earmarked and get the bus ordered so that we you know so that we have it down the road and this 200,000 would come out of our current budget the budget we just it would come out of this budget yes and it's

074there I've got it earmarked in the in the budget um but what it allows us to do then is um is just simply say this is earmarked for this it the money because we I can't imagine that we would get this by June 30th of this year so it's going to be in the next budget year but we would then say we know that these $200,000 from this budget are going to roll over and they're already designated in that budget for this purpose Dr stur might there be a way that uh wherever we order this vehicle from that we could lock in the price if we placed an order you do that but but the contracts are always written with uh you know unless there's some extraordinary you know there might be some extraordinary change

075so as I recall with the bus the last bus that we purchased uh we had a locked in price U but then um due to all of the uh uh supply line problems and whatever the costs of some of the some of the things relative to that bus went up um we were really fortunate that the company with whom we uh uh had that contract um uh they came to us they came and met with us in person and said the costs have gone up this much as I recall it was in the neighborh neighborhood of $60,000 they ate the cost of most of that um uh we agreed to pay the 27,000 extra I had it in the budget it was from uh savings from um paying off what we owed on the what

076we call the Volkswagen buses the Volkswagen settlement buses we paid that off early and so I had money in the budget um in a separate budget because that was uh uh interest that we saved so it had to go for you know for buses so it it was a wash um but it happens and so you know yeah we can say it's locked in but there's always a loophole are we intending to uh utilize the old bus even when we get the new bus yes we will need to um the advantage this gives us though is that we would have then two buses with the wheelchair lift and so if one of them broke down we could at least revise our routes and make sure that we were still picking up our kids who needed

077that kind of a lift right now for the several weeks that we had no lift on that bus um it was a scramble you know to to serve our kids are we going to be considering Diesel and gas and hybrid and electric we'll put we'll put it out to um we usually in this case we don't usually put it out to a bid or a um an RFQ but we go to the vendors that are on the state contract list uh we send them uh you know here are our specifications um and we usually say give us your best price on the various uh fuel options do I have a motion any more questions do I have a motion to approve the purchase of a special education bus uh setting aside about $200,000 I make

078a motion that we approve the purchase of a new special education bus uh around $200,000 I'll second that motion hi Melinda saski I Fred rushon I barbariki I Sheila Barnett item 6.3 proposed 2024 2025 school calendar Madame President and board members um excuse me um I met with the superintendent uh advisory committee employee advisory committee and then subsequently with of course the leadership team which involved our directors and our principles uh to discuss the calendar for next year this calendar is very similar to the current calendar uh beginning uh in this case because the calendar dates changed but the Monday the last Monday in uh July and ending uh the last uh the next to last the the fourth Thursday in U May uh this gives us 150 student contact days which we must have

079um uh in the past we've had 148 149 but the last couple of years we've had 150 and certain of our grants require that we not uh have fewer days so we have to have at least 150 um you see no flex Friday's on there um the administrative team the leadership team um uh had some discussion about that are some of our funding goes away for that and um and frankly we're having some difficulty uh having finding people to be working on those Fridays and for some of our after school programs um our funding for 21st century uh expires at the end of this year we can reapply U but we all thought it might be a good year a good time to just have a year off take a year off give people some

080rest and um and then uh reconsider for the following year it would also give us um some Fridays where we could have additional professional development uh where people could be paid for those additional uh days because they would be outside of contract and we do have some grant funding U Jen's really good about uh finding grant funding to pay pay some uh extra dollars to folks for PDS that was that was going to be my question whether we were going to pay extra bugs for that yes we would that's outside of contract um the uh the only thing that changed between the discussions and the recommendation from the superintendent's uh employee advisory committee and the leadership was to move the fall parent conference um uh the advisory committee had it as I recall on the

08126th of September maybe it was even early in October but to move it back to the 12th of September so that we would have an opportunity to meet with parents before the end of first quarter and that's that was the only change um the advisory committee had uh initially recommended that we move spring break a week later um uh but uh they also recognized that the high school district had already approved its calendar for next year and many of our students many of our Littles are supervised by uh older siblings uh when there's when there's no school so if we had our spring break at a different time from the high school we'd have a lot of kids who might not be supervised so not a good situation comparable to it is comparable so the

08210th through the 14th of March is the same as the calendar for the high school and you notice that winter break moved uh a week later so we actually have three weeks in December as opposed to two this we this year um uh because of the placement of Christmas and New Year so um that changes a bit uh now uh Thanksgiving break uh does a high school have that full week off too the same as we do I don't really know but I think so I think somebody would have brought it up if that were not the case I think that they do uh we did in fact have uh they do okay we uh we had some discussion about uh about making that a three-day school week and or a two-day school week and

083having another you know another long weekend um uh but the majority of our employees said no let's leave Thanksgiving week the way it is so it becomes sort of a fall break it is kind of a fall break um and and we don't have we don't have the best attendance when we have a short week so you know we try to have as few short weeks as possible some of them are unavoidable because of Monday holidays but we really try to have as many you know as few short weeks as possible I recommend adoption this calendar do I have a motion to adopt the 2024 2025 calendar school calendar I make a motion to adopt the 2024 2025 school calendar as presented I second it all those in favor I Melinda saski I Fred rushon

084I Barbara sariki I Shaya Bernett okay item 6.4 recommendation to award a school year 2023 2024 for eate management lit fiber contractor tww and authorized the district to apply for an e-rate reimbursement for the service um uh regularly we have the opportunity to apply for eate funds if you recall those uh usually pay about 85% of the expense and we pay 15 um but James is here to answer any questions you might have about uh this application in the application process James who do we normally contract through good evening um in the past it's generally been uh sou L Altis Optimum um last year uh tww won our RFP for manage lit fiber and internet access uh primarily due to price and again this year on the P that we sent out um tww and

085Optimum were very close on price tww was just a little bit better of a value for us so this really isn't a change from what we're currently doing correct um because of some of the changes between the Consortium with the high school district and Elementary District we went back out for RFP on those Services because some of those services are moving from the Consortium to being solely uh Bullhead Elementary um Services starting July 1st okay so we had to get names changed and and that sort of thing okay any questions for Mr mcnut okay thank you I need a motion to approve the recommendation to award a school year 2023 2024 e rate management lit fiber contractor tww and authorized the district to pay to apply for an eate reimbursement for the surface do I

086have a a motion I make a motion to do what you said okay yes do I have a second I second that motion all those in favor I Melinda saski I Fred rushon I Barbara zeraki a Sheila Burnett item 6.5 revises employee retention plan can I say a couple words first absolutely you're the president that doesn't mean I get to say a lot of words words um Mojave daily news this was November 28th and I would I would really like people to go back to this page this was very interesting there are two articles on this page for Teacher shortage both of which have a lot of interesting unreliable wrong facts in them compared to what we have been experiencing ing I would suggest that you guys read this maybe Lance can find us and

087send us a copy of it or something but it's really really good the 28th you say it's it's just it's what's being pres what was presented by these two authors um as being fact and it's it's not um so I would like you guys to read that um the employee retention plan that is is here did you guys get to see this no okay you approved it several months ago that okay yeah um um Cass would you but we need up yeah please this actually came out of came out of a committee that uh that Jen uh chaired or worked with uh from last year and uh lots of work went into this um uh and it's it's good but as with any new uh set of procedures um you find as you go along

088oh we never thought of that or you know those kinds of things so um we've already made one Revision in it and relative to uh uh paying our long-term Subs just like we pay our teachers when they have to cover for somebody else so um and we pay by the way we pay for that out of our our m&o budget just like we pay substitutes out of this part we're paying our long-term Subs out of this other part the same part where we're paying our teachers when they cover for somebody else okay so it was brought to my attention um a month or so ago that um well first let me say both of our speech therapists our certified speech therapists we are Contracting with the two speech therapists that we've used for the last

089several years they were here in person they both had to return to the Philippines but we contract with them uh and they provide the services to our students virtually uh the benefit of that is first of all they know our kids secondly our kids know them and uh and so that's been a very smooth uh situation this year however um uh when there are needs for uh evaluation of uh students for speech those evaluations get done but then there needs to be a meeting with the parents an IEP meeting an IEP written for speech uh and that paperwork done because uh those two individuals are in the Philippines um uh they're not available to do those things so our uh special ed teachers one special ed teacher at each of our sites sits in does

090the meeting writes the IEP does that paperwork that's above and beyond their contract uh their current contract so it's it's similar to covering a class for another teacher so I'm proposing that we add the section um I'm thinking it's on page three but I could be wrong oh right there on page two that we add uh this section uh that we give a supplemental stien to special ed teachers who participate in speech only IEP meetings and complete the pre uh the requisite paperwork on behalf of the speech teachers who work virtually at a rate of $35 per student um and the difference between this $35 and the 25 or the 50 during the day is this is outside of school time and uh most the I meetings are either before or after school um uh

091and $35 an hour is what we pay for uh teachers non-contract uh time so for PDS and those kinds of things for which we pay a separate uh rate it's $35 an hour so in this case uh I'm proposing $35 per student an hour hour and a half is probably what's involved in this um but I think that folks and Kate and I've talked about this and I I think folks will be very appreciative of getting the per student to do this is there are you going to prop this doesn't propose a limit like no it's however many we have to do we can't predict in any given year how many uh spee well we can for students we already have who have uh you know are in speech and have an IEP but we

092don't we can't predict how many new students we might have and I'm also proposing that we do this retroactive uh to pay them for the the hours they've already spent this year doing this any questions so these two ladies in the Philippines or a man and a lady a man lady excuse me I I'm that um are actually working with our speech kids virtually yes they are kind of middle of the night for them but they are they're doing it say that's no issues right Kate no they they adusted their lives in the Philippines to do um Services we tend to um use them more for the older children and not so much the preschoolers or kindergarten first grade because they're a little bit more difficult to work virtually um and they've been doing a

093fantastic job Mr R he um has been helping me survive at Coyote Canyon with all the um preschool IEPs and things like that um and so they Rex and Michelle agreeing to this and you know working with us it kind of guarantees that they can come back to the United States they will come back to bhead City so all of the time effort the professional development all the things that we've done with them and for them and they've done for us will get to re those benefits for a long time um and that consistency is good for the special education program and we do have two SL slpa slpa working they're working with this the younger students um and and officially they're supervised by two uh certified speech therapists so they have the training they

094have the language uh development training um they both have bachelor's degrees in in that so they're both well trained and they've been with us a long time um but they have to be supervised by someone who's a certified uh speech therapist so um and as and as Kate says this is kind of a win-win for everybody it's been it's been very nice this year because the services um you know for students just have rolled on with the people that they know and and um um and um you know after they've done their two years back in their country both of them have indicated an interest in coming back so um you know coming back to the US so um some long-term benefits well if they came back here then at least they would start gaining

095their sleep back um any other questions for Dr Stewart okay I need a motion then to approve the revision of the employee retention plan I make a motion that we approve the revision of the employee retention plan as presented I'll second that motion all those in favor I Melinda saski I Fred rushon I Barber ziki I Sheila Bernett item 6.6 authorization to Pilot an H1B or Hib excuse me H H1 it is H1 H1 mm H1B H1B V Visa petitioner program too many P's for me Madame President and board members I apologize because I typed the Hib and it's H1B sorry um this is another uh Visa program so the J1 uh is the Visa that most of our in fact all of our current Filipino teachers are here and that's a cultural Exchange program

096um excuse me where they can be here a maximum of five years uh initially it's three and then they can they can apply for two additional years um uh but it's an exchange program and so the idea is that they come and work with us teach us things about uh what they know that we you know maybe don't know they learn things from us both uh professionally and culturally um and we learn from them culturally as well and then they they go back to their country and have to go back for two years the H1B uh Visa is um the Visa that folks get to come to the states initially be employed in positions that are high need uh low volume so nursing we all know there's a nursing shortage in the United States um

097teaching a number of other professions where there are not as many uh folks available for those jobs as there are jobs and um and the folks who apply for H1B are usually folks who want about the fourth year to get their green card and then apply for citizenship so these are folks who want to come uh tend to be folks who want to come here and stay here uh We've not participated in this in the past uh we didn't even much explore it because there's some expense I will tell you that we're looking at just about anything we can think of to attract teachers and uh so Jen and I have um had meetings with uh at this point too and probably in the future at least one other company that um uh would look

098to bring us some H1B um teaching candidates um and so the reason I have it on the agenda is because there is some expense so initially uh the expense uh is uh involves some lawyer fees because in this case we're not a host we're not a uh we're not just a destination we are a petitioner we are petitioning to the federal government that we have positions that we can't fill we have we have openings that we desperately need certified people in and we can't fill them so we are petitioners for employees H1B folks can be from all over the world and in fact one of the companies that we uh have met with to to get information um uh currently has in their in their teacher pool uh uh folks from uh uh Spain uh

099Sri Lanka um Uganda um India Canada Canada Canada's a new one actually they just signed their contract with with a group of teachers in Canada last week um so you know this would give us some a a pool of folks from all over the world to help us with uh with our teaching thing the expense for us uh the cost for four years per person would be about $13,500 um that's an investment and so it while in the in the terms of our budget is not a huge amount of money it is something we've not done in the past um but we we think we're going to have to think outside of the box to start attracting folks and um so the reason we're asking for a pilot rather than just full-blown let us go

100after this is that we are having extreme difficulty finding anyone to teach pre School specialed classrooms because that requires folks to have a degree in special ed and a degree in early childhood so it's difficult to find those folks it's difficult to find them in the United States and um and even when we've asked about it for our Filipino teachers um uh we've been told we didn't understand quite how this worked but that's how it works is that they have to have both of those degrees that is right now we have two openings yeah J1 W let and J1 will not let folks do this so um so we'd like to that's where we'd like to start we'd like we'd like to Pilot this program with one of these companies and we'll talk to a

101number and figure out you know where we think we have the best fit um but to try to find specifically preschool teachers who are certified to teach special EDS so that we have uh uh certified people in those positions and you're looking for two people we're looking for two right now if our numbers keep growing we might need five we have we currently have 48 yes we currently have 48 three and four year old special needs students holy in more art will be starting in January like January 2nd we have two starting three starting January 2nd so they have to be a certain age to come into the preschool program at three or 3 years N9 months years old at 3 years old if they have special needs they can be in the preschool program

102and so we have three starting uh January 2nd there's another two that haven't that we've already qualified and said that they can start um but they can't start until they turn three which will be mid January um and then there's a couple more asip which is the program for birth to three years old that the state runs um we have a few more of those on the list for like February March April um and it's not counting any of the kids that just walk in off the street um every day they're coming in and we could have 60 before the end of the year and some of the students are very high needs um ordinarily we have 10 or so in in each section we are now running half day sections for these students uh

103in our classrooms and um and for the very high needs kids we we probably only have five at a time in those classrooms so um uh you know we first of all we want to serve our kids we and we particularly want to serve the kids who are uh High needs you know our special ed kids and we're obligated to do that by law anyway um but we also want to have highly qualified people in those classrooms how many people are currently serving these children we have a well we have substitutes in the preschool yeah yes what we're talking about in the handicap yeah in the preschool that are special I have one certified special education teacher and she has six kids in the morning and six kids in the afternoon starting in January because

104the new ones are going in her room and they're the highest need they're the ones that we would consider like the life skills kids at either Desert Valley or Bullhead middle so their needs are a lot higher than some of the other students um I have a long-term sub in another classroom um and then one classroom that's taken so um we've been really good this year about being inclusive and sep them into the other programs the other classrooms on campus um but that's a lot when you have three-year-olds mixed of four and 5-year-olds and threeyear olds with disabilities mixed with four and five-year-olds of typical behavior and things like that so there's been a lot of growing pains um but like Dr sh said they they just keep coming people are moving into our community

105for our program um we're getting open enrollment for even the school age programs open enrollment on a daily basis I had phone calls this week of parents want open enrollment from Kingman and from Fort Mojave wanting our specialized programs here in our district so we have that we have that kind of reputation for our special needs kids sounds to me like we're a minimum 10 teachers short my teachers would tell you absolutely yes yeah I mean it's we have really high numbers like our district numbers are going down of you know Dr St and our ADM is down and I I question it came back up it came back up we just have more temporary after things giving break you know so and each of those are raising um each of those classrooms also has

106at least one pair of professional um and and we're looking at uh we're looking at an additional shifting from someplace else an additional uh pair in the room that has the really really high knees kids um because there's a tendency for uh them to be runners uh you know so you know you if you've got one that runs out of the room and runs across the playground somebody's got to go and then that only leaves one person so uh we we really try to address the needs and and the fact that we have folks requesting to bring their children to our programs indicates the quality of of of what's going on but that still leaves us with a minimum of six short well if you're doing those numbers yes but the but the funding is

107not there our our legislature we've been school districts in Arizona have been fighting for years for increased funding for special needs uh to to bring the funding up to the level of uh to bring the funding up to the level of the expense and um unfortunately the legislature did increase some of those uh weights they're called weights uh for students uh uh a year ago U but it doesn't begin to it doesn't begin to cover um some of the expense the the way they have it weighted doesn't make a whole lot of sense because autism self-contained so those would be students in a re in a one of the life skools classrooms gets funded at a lesser rate than an Autism resource student so the self-contained student in that life skills type classroom requires more

108service they're getting occupational therapy Physical Therapy speech therapy you know there's a teacher with two Paras in that room um whereas the student with autism resource is going is in gened and then coming into the resource room for services and things like that but they're funded higher so there's a little bit of a backwards makes on that um and then the state has to base their funding on what the federal government's giving and they aren't funding special ed to the complete amount that they're supposed to be funding it to the states either maybe we should ask for some of the money back from Ukraine we we need to um what what can we do about this I mean I'm sure you guys have some ideas well we talk program rating our congressman and pH sure

109we talk we talk with our legislators and and um and of course you know our various alphabet groups have lobbyists who you know and and you all put those these things like this on your list of legislative topics uh for for asba for instance to you know to present um and as I recall this is one of the items on on the list whether it was one you all gave or somebody else in the state but it's it's on that list um this has been an annual uh request for I will tell you Fred as long as I can remember um and um uh you know the the increase that was made a year ago was the first increase in like 10 years in funding so when you think about um and and this is

110I'm not complaining about this is not a piece of complaint this is fact um uh for a teacher and a pair professional in a classroom with high needs kids um just salaries and benefits alone are right at $100,000 okay and um uh and then you factor in OT occupational therapy you know however many times a week you factor in the expense for speech therapy you factor in the expense for uh Physical Therapy um of those add-on things that's not even included in that uh and so um you know it's one of those where you kind of want to say to somebody here's the situation do the math you kind of want to say that um but that's kind of a rude way to say it but U you know it's it doesn't get thought through

111the the unintended consequences of inaction don't get thought through and we're really blessed here we have our inhouse occupational therapist who is bursting at the scenes with her case Lo we have a contract with a physical therapist that has worked with us for as long as I've been in the district um and she keeps her rates very reasonable very low our speech pathologists we were able to get from the art from the Philippines that saved us $350,000 right there we were having Therapy Services were over $500,000 for the number of students we have that receive speech therapy services Kate did research on that because we you know both of those therapists had to return and so we looked to Outsource that and she's not exaggerating they would tell us the per hour rate and for

112the number of students we had it was half million dollars a year the lowest one was 300,000 a year so you know so to contract with our two people that to continue the services that they were already doing with our kids at 120,000 looks like you know looks wonderful roughly 12,000 so um uh you know we play all the angles we work all of the we blend all the dollars we can find and and we do what we can do and pretty amazing to do wonderful things with with what we have awesome thank you I have a question about how how would you contract that because if they're going to come we're going to pay this money for them to come here is there going to be some sort of a contract that they're going

113to be Here For Those Years yes yeah the um the J1 for the h H1B yes um uh yes because we are the petitioner they are agreeing to come to work for us okay um uh yeah and and when I quoted you that amount $1 13,520 that's for the that's the total for uh four to five years uh in there is uh 20 2420 per year um so there's the initial uh uh attorney fees um and and the companies handle that they have the attorneys who know all of the immigration law and all of that stuff uh and then we have our annual annual piece of that but that also I will tell you that um the applicant ends up in that same period of time paying at least 8,500 So currently with our J1

114Visa uh employees they all pay in the neighborhood of $110,000 to come here um and for for you know considering what the economy is like the Philippines because that happens to be where we've gotten our folks uh that's a huge amount of money um some of our folks have have had to morgage their homes to be able to come um you know and and they're all well Tred they're all experienced we we don't get any firste people you know from uh uh from the Philippines and I'm sure that would be true whether it was Spain or Uganda or Sri Lanka or any of those places um so this is not this is not uh us just pay paying our piece the applicant is paying a big piece too so if we don't get the preschool

115teachers but somebody else comes in line who would like this H1B are we going to look for a science teacher or a math teacher a language arts teacher if you want us to Pilot something else or if you want to say to us let's try this and for as many positions as we get I was willing to ask you for a pilot um you know I don't want to to go too far out on a limb on this at the same time we have we have a dozen positions that we could fill right now exactly and now that all of our schools are C or better um uh we don't have that limitation anymore um uh you know we don't have that limitation of uh where we where we place teachers so I was asking

116you for a minimum um uh if you want to give us more we would love it let's be reasonable though in terms of the budget well how much how much will the budget allow yeah how much will the budget allow is that not a fair question no it's a very fair question I just hadn't thought it through because I was thinking the you know I was thinking the less than 30,000 here for you know over the course of four years four five six and and what are the hardest positions how many of the hardest positions that we have to fill are there well those preschool um math math math math middle school math because we all love math even our two speech people yeah both of our speech people are interested in the J in

117the H1B Vis visas both of them basically I may I make a suggestion that we go ahead and approve the pilot program for right now and have and ask Dr Stewart to look look into adding as as she gets to check on the budget cuz she's just off the top of her head spouting numbers would that be okay AB awesome okay so can I have a motion to approve um the pilot for the H1B Visa peti petitioner program um at this time for just preschool special needs Madam president I would like to uh ask for approval to submit this plan for approval and backing okay for this pilot program thank you is there a second I second it all those in favor I Melinda saski I Fred rushon I Barbara Zari I Sheila Bernett okay

118we've given we've given permission for the two but we're looking for more okay okay so find us some more money okay well and that gives that also gives us some wiggle room in our conversations with these uh these various companies and um uh you know we'll look for the best fit as I said we've we've had information from two at this point we'll we certainly want to hear from at least one more we like to have at least three three proposals you know in front of us um but then we're going to look for the best fit with our district thank you item 6.7 bedb agenda this is first reading so I don't think we need a motion on it um did you guys get a chance to read mhm okay to read this when

119I read it I I it just is very logical yeah yeah very much so I mean it's not really nothing new in there that we don't do or the cast doesn't do well we added that we had not in the past put the time that the doors would be open we we have started doing that as soon as we saw this so uh this is just formalizing the the process so this is just first reading are there any questions for Dr Stewart no okay we'll see that again item 6.8 convenient to Executive session presant to ARS 38- 431.073 an officer appointee or employee May demand to have a discussion or consideration occur in a public meeting obviously they decided not to have it in public right well so this is on my performance goal so

120rather we not you don't want it in public okay I need a motion to move to Executive session I make a motion we move to Executive session I'll second that motion all those in favor I Melinda saski I Fred Rush hi Bari hi Sheila Bernett we are now in executive [Music] session [Music] h [Music] [Applause] [Music] oh [Music] what [Music] a [Music] [Applause] [Music] oh [Music] d [Music] w [Music] a [Music] n [Music] [Applause] [Music] oh [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] he [Music] a [Music] [Applause] [Music] h [Music] all [Music] [Applause] [Music] sh [Music] what [Music] a [Music] [Applause] [Music] oh [Music] oh [Music] the [Music] he [Music] m [Music] a [Music] l [Music] he [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] all [Music] yeah [Music] oh

121[Music] you [Music] all [Music] [Applause] [Music] he [Music] n [Music] w [Music] B [Music] m [Music] oh [Music] what [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] all [Music] oh [Music] oh [Music] reconvene into public session please I make a motion to reconvene into public session buun those in favor I Melinda sabraski we didn't have a second I'll second oh we did have a sec Oh I thought I heard a second I'm sorry I beg you pardon well I'm going to Second it oh thank you very much Fred you're welcome you're you're just right on top of this thank you I'm Melinda saski I Fred rushon hi Bari I Sheila Bernett um 9.1 future topics what would we like to see I I just have a comment something

122that I I want to recognize at this meeting um there was a asba had a student artworks contest oh yes yes and a young lady at Fox Creek jior High was uh uh listed in the as a finalist for the seventh and eth grade artists uh although she didn't win she was up there with five other students throughout awesome the entire State wow and I think that she needs to be uh in fact what I was intending when I was planning to visit I was intending to go there and congratulate her and I'm still going to do that that is a good idea it might be interesting even Fred for her to come to us with her Arts yes invite her yes yep uh her name is Chelsea in is her last initial I'm just

123going to leave it at that because I don't know that I could say it right but congratulations to you Chelsea well done thank you Fred I've forgotten all about that I had also it was on my original list to note but thank you for remembering are there anything any special future topics we'd like to discuss not present okay upcoming board [Music] events Lance has probably collected everything in every let's see what things I'm supposed to go to yeah want to see one thing that listed I do know on February 3rd our quanas club is doing our annual wine and Jazz which will be a night of aore um all right so that should be some fun for scholarships and whatnot that we're raising good all right do we I don't see the bowling night on

124here yeah I was just looking for that myself I don't see the it's January 27th okay January 22nd 27th 27th January 27th I um and no you don't have to bowl yeah I'm G to tell you that because I don't plan to bowl but I'm going to be there cuz I think it's going to be fun I think it's going to be I think it would be amazing keep us updated on on what's going on yeah my question is Cassie are are you needing prizes for best bowler or best dressed bowler or somebody with the funniest gutter ball you just want to give something away even do we get to do bumper bowling I'm in then are you are you guys looking are you guys looking at prizes so I am not going to be

125able to atton but I would be more than happy to donate Jen are you looking for prizes we will be yes okay keep me in mind yeah keep us in mind so we can cuzz I would love to be there to award somebody for the most gutter balls cuz that's would be mean all right uh time and location for our next meeting [Music] um the 11th I believe it is 111 January 11 huh oh yeah 111 111 I already have down anybody have any problems with that no 5:30 for workshop and 6:00 CL for regular meeting then I need a motion to adjourn the regular meeting I make a motion we adjourn the regular meeting I second that motion I Melinda saski I Fred rushon I Barb Zer ziki I Sheila Bernett everybody have a

126safe and happy Merry Christmas have a merry and a happy and happy Hanukah yes happy what well we're in Hanukkah right now aren't we huh hanukkah's right now isn't it I was going to say tomorrow that's what I thought I saw [Music] yeah [Music] oh