BCSD Board Meeting 07/13/2023

001uh make sure your microphones are on see I got smart I called to order the workshop for Bullhead City School Board on Thursday July 13 2023 at 5 30. is it 5 30 P.M um I think we have one item isn't it do you have a roll call you need to do oh we do a roll call how come that's something I'm sorry president Melinda sabraski Charlene Diaz here Fred rushed in here Barb zarzicki here Sheila Burnett here I think we're all here um physically yeah now we're talking I think we have one item and that's Coyote Canyon it is okay uh Madam president and board members I thought this was a good opportunity to use the workshop to give some background on an item that's on the agenda and it has to do with

002the status of Coyote Canyon School so you have in front of you the front page of the board minutes from the Bullhead City School District governing board meeting of January 25th and on the back you have one part of that agenda some of the old business and at that time the governing board was making decisions relative to I suspect the drop in enrollment in the district and efficient operation of the schools and uh and so that so this had to do with a decision that has become called grade banding so it was essentially removing Elementary classrooms from Coyote Canyon Distributing those students among the other three elementary schools determining that well had Bullhead City Junior High would become Bullhead City Middle School with fifth and sixth and Fox Creek would be the junior high was

003seventh and 8th um and uh so over the past three years all right so just a little background on this um at the at the Arizona Department of Education schools in Arizona public schools in Arizona and I suspect other schools but certainly any schools that receive funding from uh from state taxes the schools are designated what grade levels are served at those schools and those designations affect funding but they also affect funding for Grants so anytime Jen is working on Title One Grant or any of our other ongoing grants the uh the grade level served at specific schools make a difference in terms of how those Grant funds are you know whether we're eligible for them at different schools and how they get distributed so one of the things that we figured out early on

004was that for example neither the Middle School nor Fox Creek in this process in 2018 no one thought about the fact that at each of those schools we have one of our one-of-a-kind district-wide special ed programs and so in this process Fox Creek was designated as 7-8 Middle School was designated at five six s56 but each of those sites serves students in the other the other grade range in those special programs so I sent in information to it happens that it goes to school finance and had those changed with board approval we had it on the board agenda to make sure that both Fox Creek and the Middle School were designated as eligible for grades five through eight and it was so that we could have those programs at those two schools okay so then

005then we learned that somehow in the process Diamondback the preschool that's there was missing so I filed a request for that change it got fixed um there was a change for Desert Valley right off hand I don't remember what it was and there was a change for Sunrise so we got all of those changes made and at the same time I had submitted a change for Coyote Canyon because in the part that I could see it showed that Coyote Canyon was Pre-K third through eighth grade third through eighth grade and what Jen could see was still showing that it was I think pre-k through fifth grade or something like that which it had been at one time so sometimes the various divisions at Ade don't communicate with each other very well and some of this

006information you know just doesn't get spread so I set about trying to correct Coyote Canyon to just be preschool and kept getting getting that kicked back to me finally in I wrote it down oh I didn't yes no I didn't write it down about about five weeks ago someone from a man named Tim from the division of finance School Finance called and said we're not granting this because our records in school Finance show The Following and so he showed what it was what it was listed at in 1998 and somewhere in the early 2000s and then he said it currently shows as Pre-K third through eighth grade in our records based on this decision in in 2018. so I tried to explain that you know that that our life Academy is not an alternative school

007it was never intended to be an alternative school it's a program that serves all of our campuses and he said well this is the way it's listed in our in our records and so you need to open it as you need to open it as a Pre-K third through eighth grade school that's problematic because then it makes it a School site just like our other three like our other five schools which means it's subject to open enrollment it's subject to having to have a school Improvement plan and a whole committee and do all of that process that you all witnessed our schools going through in the spring that happens every year it's then subject to having a letter grade as a School site and and probably other things that I haven't even thought of but

008just those things are problematic because we're talking about uh preschool you know preschool doesn't affect any of those things but if we're talking about the school being designated as third through eighth grade then we're talking about all of those other things and we're talking about two teachers two classrooms actually four sessions because we do two sessions in the morning and two in the afternoon so essentially four classrooms two teachers four classrooms and having all of those other things from the division of accountability applying to the school and that just struck me as being uh and overwhelming and unnecessary and unrealistic expectation for a school or for a program that is not a school it's not an alternative school we use the same curriculum and we have the same expectations as as the home schools for

009those students so to have a school then that would need to have would end up with a letter grade based on students who are not even there for a full year the intent is for students not to be there for a year and very few students are um so it means State Testing would we do stay testing those students do stay testing just like all of our students but their test results are factored in to the test results at their home schools in this case then they would be factored in just to this school and so we're talking about three or four or five or six students at each grade level a minimum number of students at each grade level most of whom would not have been enrolled at that school during the first 10

010days of school and the students who have the students whose test scores really count in all of that calculation of a school grade and whether you need Improvement in those things is tied to whether or not the students were enrolled during the first 10 days of the school year so you can see that the falling dominoes create just this kind of nightmare of a situation especially when that was never ever the intent and I'm sure it was not the intent and Melinda can probably speak to it because she was on the board at the time I'm sure it was never the intent of the board at that time to consider this an alternative school it's an alternative program so I wrote a letter and I at the time I sent you a copy of it

011the letter I wrote to Joseph Guzman who's the associate superintendent for accountability research and evaluation I sent that on June 20th I've had no response so last week I contacted Mike file our County Superintendent who tends to be able to get through to people eat more easily than I do and asked him if he would follow up on this he as of yesterday he had placed three phone calls to Mr Guzman and not had a response and so at that point then I'm talking with our attorney to say we need to you know I need to move forward with this I need to present it to my board because the gentleman from the division of finance said uh that we would need to open coyote this year as a Pre-K third through eighth grade school

012and so that's the basis on which you have an item on the agenda but that also gives you a little bit of history about about where this has been I think if you look at the way the motion was made in 2018 you can understand how the division of finance read it the way they did partly because of the way it's worded create an alternative school campus for K through eighths grades in association with crushed Academy at Coyote Canyon and so they read that as it being a a K-8 and then crushed Academy and that being a a an alternative school combined uh of course I'm sure that was never the intent of the board at the time I don't think it was the intent of the administration at the time I just think it's

013unfortunate wording and so um this is our opportunity as a boy this is your opportunity as a board tonight with the item on the agenda to make it very clear what the intent is for coyote and um uh you know that that this is a program that really is an extension of our curriculum and our programs at all of our other five schools as opposed to being its own School so if that's if I didn't make anything something clear or you have questions I'll try to answer them no I may be real clear I'm sure you do and I because it was great banding yeah um and I don't remember talking about an alternative school but then I can see why it would be because we were including crushed Academy my question is how come

014they're saying through third to eight and it says here k-a probably because in uh in a memo that I had said in the there's a it's not a memo but it's a help desk email and that I had said in that one that our life Academy served third through eighth grade students so I suspect that that was them combining what I had shared with them relative to this program and I and I said to them this is a program this is not a school so I suspect they were combining what I had said to them and and what they read here and by the way for for all of these uh requests that I made to them for changes uh where they had errors you know where it didn't match how we're actually operating they

015asked for a copy of the minutes so that they you know so that they could see that board the board had actually taken action on each of those things and then in the instance of us correcting the middle school and the junior high as being five through eight we sent the minutes you know for those meetings to to clarify so uh every they were consistent in asking for proof that the governing board had made these decisions and you've been in contact with a lawyer yes and what did the lawyer say the attorney says that that we should be able to do what we are currently doing having a program that is an extension of the programs at our other sites and that we should we could be we could have multiple programs that are extensions

016of programs that we have at our other sites that does not mean that this school then becomes a school because of those those extensions he didn't use this example I used it with him and he said yes similar so my example was when during the pandemic when we had uh during those 33 days that our schools were closed at the beginning of the 2021 school year we had students over at Boys and Girls Club because that was the safe environment okay so that's an alternative location it didn't make it did not make the Boys and Girls Club an alternative school and uh it's you know it's a classroom in another location and so he you know he said similar to that and so you know he thinks that this is uh that we should be

017able that our board should be able to determine how we're using that facility and should be able to determine no this is not an alternative school and it's not its own School it is uh it's the site for the preschool because that's already been approved but it is a site for an extension of program from all five of the other schools so is it right to say that it's basically comes down to semantics and how they're actually interpreting the wording that's how I would say it yes yes so basically we just need to make a motion that would correct give them the correct wording that word so that Carolyn can take care of business understood did somebody have something like that well you can't do it during the workshop but you know it's an item

018on the it's an item on the agenda but I wanted you to have all of the background uh you know and an opportunity for if anybody in the audience wanted to talk about it it just seems like it's it's kind of dumb it is not silly well honestly that's and I know it just it's odd because this is back in 2018 and this is 2023 and it's just now coming up as an issue well it if I started the issue actually about a year and a half ago it's take I mean this has been over a year of back and forth with between me and you know with that help desk question thing and uh and then you know saying well we need blah blah and I would send it to them and we need

019and I would send it to them and um uh so you know I I it's been about it's been over a year of working on this and so finally when the individual called me in person from from the division of finance that's the first actual conversation I had with anybody so on the phone you know and in kind of a person-to-person conversation and um that was a frustrating conversation I'll kind of leave it at that okay he kind of gave me he gave me an either or you know either you enroll these students well his other suggestion was well move this program to one of your campuses one of your other campuses and I said first of all we don't have room I don't have I don't have space on other campuses to do this

020and I said secondly because it is because it involves a a behavior diversion program part of the issue is not having those students on on their home campus or on a campus the idea is to keep them in school but not but not necessarily in contact daily contact with their you know their Chums and their friends and and the people they've been around and um and so he said well you know you can you can have your board and specify that it's preschool through third through eighth grade or you move those students to one of your other campuses well this program has been imminently successful this past year it has it has become what all of us intended for it to be all along and uh and it just uh it strikes me as an

021educator and in fact I put this in my letter to Mr Guzman as an educator it's very frustrating to me that something that is in the best interest of students is is being challenged for something that seems to be an administrative or a you know an administrative kind of reason and um as an educator I get passionate about those things and kind of have to bite my tongue because I tend to get you know I tend to get wound up about those so I was hopeful that we would get some real support from the division of accountability that you know about this that it's good for kids and if it's good for kids that's what we should be doing so okay okay do I have a motion to adjourn the workshop um I have something

022I don't know if this is the time to bring it up or not but I was speaking with another teacher talking about the um issues we're having with trying to find teachers and retain them and she had written up just some suggestions because she doesn't like to public speak and um I don't know if I should email them to you best okay that's what I figured yeah it's not on this agenda so you know it's fine that you brought it up but we can't really discuss it in this Workshop send it and then point you know we can put it on we have places that we can get some action gotcha okay I'll make a motion that we adjourn this Workshop I second it all those in favor I'm Melinda sabroski hi Charlene Diaz hi

023Fred Rushton hi Barb zarzicki I Sheila Burnett okay looks like we have to wait about five minutes before we can call the public hearings order okay [Music] I'd like to call to order the public hearing pursuant to ARS 15 948 C and D in 15905 15 905.1 and 15996 d and 1596 1103 C which requires school districts to make all revisions resulting in budget limits either increasing or decreasing conduct public here I conduct a public hearing the purpose of the public hearing is to provide an opportunity for questions and discussion of the proposed expenditure budgets for 2024 fiscal year okay superintendent Madam president and board members and the public this is a public hearing to consider the um budget uh for fiscal year 24. the proposed budget was presented a few weeks ago to the

024board uh and submitted uh to the records in the ADE with the corrections that you all approved at that time so for instance if you recall we didn't have the information there for ADM and um and some other information so um and at the time I also said that there probably would be a few revisions so this proposed budget reflects those Corrections and it reflects some revisions based on review of all kinds of data relative to employees and possible expenditures um Cass if you well we don't you don't need to right there you can see that um the the budget limit for our district is 19 million three hundred seventy three thousand two hundred thirty five dollars and this budget reflects exactly that amount the classroom site fund budget limit is two million 200 2

025539 and this budget reflects that budget limit the budget limit for unrestricted capital outlay is two million two hundred five thousand nine hundred eleven dollars and this budget reflects one million six hundred ninety three thousand five hundred nineteen um and then uh on for the more specific things as you go down it shows the percentages of increase and decrease for each of the major line items for the budget um and uh if you have questions about those or if the public has questions I'll address those the second page um the second page shows expenditures by funds a little different breakdown and then our budget for special education and then our staffing summary um I would like to note that and I saw this in the paper today in the precede the line under proposed Staffing

026where it shows teachers 170 FTE and student staff to pupil ratio is 12.2 please understand that the folks included in teachers are some other folks as well so instructional coaches counselors some of those folks so no one should expect that we have class sizes of 12 in our class classes that this just reflects that we actually have a really wonderful ratio of professional educators to students in our district and if there are other questions I'll be happy to happy to address all of this oh and then the the bottom of that page or the third page indicates some of our other budgets and that we work with each year um and one that I would call your attention to our current budget and actually it's now greater than this but during this current fiscal year

027we received building renewal Grant funds from the state facilities oversight Board of a million 27 000. it's now higher than that they've been very responsive to our needs and I put that in this an idea I left those as zeros but the idea is we're probably going to be asking for about the same amount for next year Cass if you'd go back to the first page please thank you on the bottom of that page I would note to you that this budget is six percent the mno budget is six percent increase from last year's Dr Stewart on one of it I don't remember what page it was but it was a breakdown of the special ed um categories and one of them was um gifted and the other one was something else and I can't

028remember what it was yeah but you had she had them highlighted and there were zero is that I had them highlighted on the proposed budget because uh um and that's that's in the document that is the BSA 55 which is the uh which is the information document from which we build this budget and I had them highlighted because uh it was it's listed in the budget document but it's not listed on the BSA 55 and so I was concerned that we would not get appropriate funding for those two categories it turns out that on BSA 55 that report there's actually a line on another page that says here's the funding for your district for gifted and whatever that other item was it was free and reduced yes I just wanted when I on those when

029you get those and they have the highlights it means there's either something I need to go back and recheck or that I think is missing from some of the data and I want to make sure that I want to make sure our district gets every penny that it deserves and and so that just reminds me to go back and double check and I did go back and check that and it's it's kind of buried in some other data on another page yeah okay yeah thank you sometimes the form that comes from the auditor General's office does not match line by line the things that are in the the reports that we get from Ade they try to make sure that the that things are lined up but they're not always sometimes you have to look

030for them in a different place thank you and I will and the other thing that we corrected up at the top cast of this page uh one of the other thing I corrected I I told you on that proposed budget that I was absolutely certain that the average salary for teachers in 20 uh for 2024 uh calculated low when I presented you the proposed budget and uh and I went back and found all the data and you can see that in fact instead of one percent increase it's a three percent increase in the average salary so that got corrected as well in today's paper I think was today's paper the high school district is splitting with our technology yeah as when we've considered when we've been reviewing each year the intergovernmental agreements that we have

031with the high school for a couple of years now you know things have been dividing up and dividing up and so um it's just it's part of that agreement and it's part of what's been happening for a couple of years so is there's no reflection of that in the budget or anything no okay no there's no there's no negative impact on our budget um I noticed that the primary rate is yes yes um so how do we get a six percent increase if we're picking their primary rate down the increase that we're getting is because of the funding uh the funding per pupil funding that the legislature has approved so that went up and that allowed us to plus what I anticipate for rollover if you recall I held out about three million dollars this

032year in the in the fiscal 23 budget didn't hold it out but I parked it because we were concerned about the aggregate expenditure limit and that I would not be able to use it so as we've gotten to the end of the year and when you look at the financial report in in the regular meeting you'll see that that the mno looks like there's about two million eight hundred thousand but we're now just we're just now closing purchase orders and doing those things so I anticipate that that's going to be right at three million dollars so that rollover of that amount of money into this budget is part of the reason as well so the increase in the per pupil allocations by the legislature and our rollover of funding how is the average salary for

033all Teachers Community computed I don't think there's anybody who's getting 54. we have a few but based on uh and if you're just thinking about the salary schedule you're right yeah so if you look at in the comments section this is the calculation method that I've used since I started doing the budgets three years ago so I take and this is similar to what the AG's office does when they calculate and do that annual report that you know gets publicized so there's a little different but it's similar I take the contract salaries of all certified employees excluding administrators and I add the classroom site fund base pay which is fifteen hundred dollars per teacher and I add the classroom site Fund performance pay so this year that was uh the gross amount of that was

034uh about I was just shy of eight thousand dollars okay the gross amount so the 1500 and that gross amount actually I think it came out those things added together was about nine thousand nine hundred and ninety six dollars so if you add that to the T to whatever their teacher's contract salary is and then we and then we divide that by the number of FTE teachers so the same people whose contract salaries and classroom site fund amounts the same number of people then are divided into that and that's why it is that high I don't include any of the things that are addendums because not everybody gets those you know not everybody's a coach or a leadership team member or whatever this is these are the funds that every teacher every certified person except

035for administrators has access to okay okay any other questions yeah then I need a motion to adjourn the public hearing I make a motion we adjourn the public hearing I'll second that can we go immediately into our wedding yes you can okay okay I'd like to call to order the regular meeting for Bullhead City School Board on Thursday July 13 2023 at six with a 609. P.M taking roll call present Melinda sabraski Charlene Diaz here Fred Rushton here if there's a key here Sheila Barnett here so all of us are here would you please stand and say the Pledge with me I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all all citizens here

036present we ask that you print your name on the attendance sign-in sheet at the entrance it's nothing more than knowing who is here we have a call to the public are there any oh 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 Mana restrictions as the governing board May establish see policy b e d h comments will be limited to three minutes per individual unless specifically waived 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

037however the governing board cannot take action on matters that have not been noticed in advance as part of the agenda I keep forgetting how nice that is not have to read them um we need a motion to adopt music do we have them do we have one we do oh I'm so sorry did you did you face a paper did you fill out the form in the back now there's a form in the back for you to fill out now that's can we do it without the form well we still need give her a second that's okay that's okay thank you and thank you for hearing me my name is Jody Corelli I am the music director over at Fox Creek Junior High School um I have a proposal for us to be a sister

038school to a school in Haiti um I have a letter to read and I'm sorry I'm going to do this I'm going to get emotional about this um this was said to me uh by a gentleman named Johnson uh St Louis via email says ladies and gentlemen thank you in advance for your time and consideration in this manner my name is Gibson St Louis I am the owner of E coli classic mix do revage child development foundation in hinch Haiti since 2010 I've had the opportunity to help children in my community after a great earthquake sorry a great earthquake shook Haley with a 7.0 reading on the Richter Scale along with eight aftershocks this left many children without homes or without someone to care for them also Hurricane Matthew hit heart in 2016 and in

0392021 again Haiti was hit with an earthquake of 7.2 with at least 2 200 confirmed dead with another 334 people missing many more homes were destroyed children from part of Prince which is near the ocean was moved to the plateau Central which is more centrally located in Haiti as it is a safer place for them to live with limited resources my mother and I started the school for these children in 2000 square foot space to support this school I made small arts and crafts to be able to support the school and pay for the teachers we now have about 200 students from different Villages and we have five full-time teachers our goal is to develop an orphanage as soon as possible and there are many other things that he would also like to have for

040these children he's looking at legal aid counseling services for them to be able to um cover from the the trauma also after the earthquakes many families had died and they're trying to do reunify their students with family members they have an annual budget excuse me a three-year annual budget that is less than the average teacher salary sorry average teacher salary for one year for our district I have a budget plan here excuse me this shows um if you'd like to see that I could pass it on sorry I don't have more copies but I underlined his teachers are the most important thing to him he has five teachers they get paid 90 a month um and sometimes he has trouble coming up with that uh those funds and then he has um different items on

041his budget for Learning and instruction okay and then there's uh he has a upcoming projects as well so I don't know if you want this page now I can kind of can be here anyway um I would like to partner with this school and I would like to do some fundraising either like through How We Do how we do uh fundraising through life Culver's or even you know some kind of dinner night or something like that even if we did like a site fund and teachers pitched in five bucks a piece we're going to be more than able to make that goal that he has for him so thank you for your time thank you for the information um I need a motion to adopt the agenda I make a motion we adopt the agenda

042hi second the motion point of order and I have a question please first before we vote um I'm sorry I don't remember the lady's last name that was just Crawley Crowley Miss Crowley um did I hear a request in what she was saying that the board considers something to allow something that that would Fred basically we cannot act on that what what you what you can do at the end of this meeting is to put it on the agenda for next time to direct Dr Stewart to investigate it I thought we could do that now from what I just read no okay wrong place you cannot take action no at this time understand yeah all right at the end of the meeting when it says board member input or whatever it says future topics yeah

043future topics thank you and would we be able to do that at the July 18th special meeting perhaps if you want it on that agenda so there is a possibility for that but at this time the answer is no okay thank you so do I I have a motion wait a second in a second all those in favor I'm Melinda sabroski aye Charlene Diaz hi Fred Rushton hi Barb zerzicki hi Sheila Burnett I want to thank you to everybody can you put put that up oh yeah here it is yeah um IKEA utility carts wow sunrise what are you going to do with those we want to thank everybody who did this Maverick and this Anonymous donor that was a really sweet thing to do thank you to Maverick here in Bullhead City though also

044we have a community that seems to give at the drop of the Hat item 3.8 superintendent's report Madam president and board members we have you have the written reports I would highlight in case if Cass if you would show the project tracker it's really nice to see some of those nice purple lines and some things that are now at 100 percent and uh and I'm going to share with you in a minute some things that are not even on the project director that I never got on there I'll share some information but I thought you'd enjoy seeing uh movement on on some of these things right now and then Cass if you would show the um the work ticket report um and this wraps up uh the fiscal year and from October when we began

045our own facilities Department um and through to the end of the year you can see that our facilities folks have made a huge dent in the in the inherited job requests when we started in our program in October there were 1075 outstanding work orders with ABM and we're close we closed the year with 324 of those remaining so our folks have just been whittling away at those as the year has gone along in the meantime there have also been all of our own reports and and you can see that we're consistently getting a lot of those you know we get new Lots new in and then taken out each each month and then the chart at the bottom shows you on a day-to-day basis when things come in and when things get handled so I

046wanted to call attention to the fact that our facilities people have been very busy and are trying to address everything in a timely manner um thanks um there are the financial reports mno unrestricted capital and food service and I I'm not going to have her pull them up but I will tell you that they will look very different in a month for closing out the fiscal year for 23 Because by the end of July we will have been closing paying off invoices that come in from from the previous year and closing out purchase orders and we'll have a better handle on what our financial status is at that time I would I do have a lot of miscellaneous updates and I'd like to share them with you because I think their cause for celebration um

047not on the project tracker so here are things that have been accomplished in the last month all of all of our sites that were still needing to have flooring work done excuse me have been tested for asbestos and we have no other asbestos in our district from for Fox Creek and Diamondback the Middle School offices where we had the flood and had the asbestos issues and whatever this week they are doing those floors hopefully by the weekend those floors will be the the sealer will be cured or dry and we can start to move back into the middle school offices probably by Monday and maybe have it open by Tuesday um yeah and they're they're excited to have that happening because it's been oh it's been a mess yeah Julie's really happy um the library

048the floor in the library and and I'm calling attention to our various libraries because those are huge areas and um and it's required moving shelving and books and tables and all kinds of things out of those areas so the Middle School library is done the floor is done Julie has said it looks wonderful and so things will be moving back into the library all of the floors are done at Coyote Canyon that were scheduled to be done they're really happy and getting ready to move all the things back into the preschool classrooms and um and they look really good Sunrise flooring project is done completed so we have one campus done well two campuses coyote in Sunrise are done I will tell you it's really nice to be able to use that word um and

049I will tell you that the Desert Valley Library is done and that's a huge area so that flooring is done and things are being moved into that Library so three of our libraries are uh are uh complete we were very concerned about the library the library at Diamondback will be done next week and I will tell you that those areas are large it takes five days to do the libraries so uh Diamondback will be done next week Fox Creek will be done the week after and then the rest of the campuses because it's a classroom or two at a time we can do on you know on weekends on Friday Saturday Sunday but those huge areas take a lot of time so we're really glad to have those done before school starts um let's see

050the child care center is I haven't been over there yet Jen visited yesterday and the word that everybody is using is amazing amazing and I'm planning on going and visiting tomorrow and taking some pictures that I will share with you and they're going to have they're going to have their DHS inspection DHS inspection on Monday so if we pass that inspection we can open on Wednesday come up with a name no we're just all calling it The Child Care Center I made some suggestions the other day because I kind of Googled it when I was kind of silly and goofy at 10 p.m one night and they didn't like any of my suggestions [Laughter] they the one they really didn't like was Cactus Maximus shocker [Laughter] um but I I did that simply to try

051to get people's creative juices going but obviously at 10 pm I was just being I mean I was getting a little goofy so uh whatever um at Desert Valley the four life skills classrooms we were doing uh some I don't want to say renovation because that isn't really the case but some repairs in there we were putting uh some plastic things around the wall to protect kids because they have accidents and they kick things and they break holes in this drywall and stuff so we did that we also had every electrical outlet in that room was low well that's not a real good situation when you have most children but it's really not a good situation when you have highly at risk kids so all of the electrical things have been moved up and as

052we speak well maybe not right this moment but certainly yes today the floors and the carpets being removed and those floors are being done in those four rooms so those rooms are going to be like new by by the end of next week so we're pretty excited about that um the playground the life skills playground is in progress so it meant removing the the equipment that was there leveling removing the the ground cover and leveling that ground and pouring the concrete for the sidewalk they've poured that and and the sidewalk goes all the way around because that's going to be the tricycle track okay the tricycle track and then um uh the equipment will go in and then the soft flooring for two-thirds of it we're going to have the the part that's under the

053shade structures will be the soft flooring and then there will still be pea gravel in a section that's outside but we're all really excited about about the progress of that project and it will be it should be done about the time school starts about the time school starts um let's see uh lost in all of this somewhere along the line was the fact that we're replacing some Roofing at Desert Valley and that's in progress that's paid for by sfob and so that's a pretty hefty project that's been going on for for about three weeks now and so we'll be happy because there'll be some classrooms that won't get wet this year if we have rain there was some serious Plumbing issues outside those life skills classrooms and and was and it was creating problems in

054the restrooms that are by those life skills classrooms come to find out that we have we had a section of of sewer outside those classrooms that extended North from there and then just stopped it didn't go to anything it was just pipe and then it just stopped and it was uh it was old pipe and the Trees of course found that water oh yeah so uh when they dug dug up the sewer to find out why is why is the sewer not working the four inch pipes were literally full of tree roots literally full it looked like spaghetti in in that whole thing so that's all been repaired and needless to say that pipe has been capped off so it won't create any more problems and the joints for the joints for the sewer line

055will will be uh are are so that tree roots cannot get inside because that's where they come in it's where the where there are the joints and if you don't have uh the correct joint they find their way in they force their way in so that's been taken care of and I will tell you we have an amazing plumber who who takes care of these things for us and and the other facilities people help but he's primarily the one who takes care of it um so we don't have to Outsource you know all we're paying for then is supplies which is wonderful um okay The Chiller at Desert Valley uh we're having to do Band-Aids to keep that thing running and they're managing to keep it running we have applied to sfob to either replace

056it or instead of replacing the chiller which has with Bullhead water has to be replaced about every 15 years and the cost right now for a chiller system like that one is probably depending on what all would have to be replaced between 500 and 750 thousand dollars so we have proposed sfob that instead of replacing the chiller that is that is cooling 24 rooms on that campus that we put 24 HVAC units instead and it doesn't take a math genius to figure out that even with the cost of HVAC systems right now that's going to be a lot less than half a million to 750 000 so we'll see what sfob says but in the meantime we're band-aiding it and uh keeping it running so that we have those 24 classrooms cool for school um

057okay the den project uh passed uh got the recommendation from Planning and Zoning it goes to the city council on the 18th which is next week I'm hopeful that some or all of you will come over there and and buy your presents support it uh and I'll answer any questions that the city council might have um and uh and real really good planning uh in that process is going on if you're interested in kind of seeing what right now the project will look like I'll have Cass put up the uh the engineers drawing so you can kind of see what the direction we're going and on the left at the bottom where you see this chart the dotted line represents the elevation on our property right now so you can see that there's a very

058low place on the left and there's a pretty high place on the right the solid line shows you um uh how it how they're proposing to move the dirt and have the elevation look on the property um and so it's Much More Much More Level it isn't level but it's more level up above you can see the engineers drawing and and you can see that where the houses are and the proposed dog park and the proposed Clubhouse will be somewhat level and then areas on the edges that that drop back down and you can see the retention areas because we must have a water I have must have water retention um and so this is a little different than the drawing that was originally presented to Planning and Zoning but similar enough that you know

059the decisions that will be made next week will will let us proceed with this so you can if you can read it at all you can kind of see the spots for 20 houses eventual 20 houses a clubhouse in the upper left corner a little place for a dog park across the street from the from the clubhouse because we want this to be a neighborhood so we want it to be pet friendly and nice for our employees I thought that would give you a little taste of of what we're talking about here so when do we need to meet the city Tuesday tonight Tuesday Tuesday at our special city council starts at 5 30. 5 30 5 30. yes so but usually Planning and Zoning things items are usually fairly early on that agenda that's

060also the evening that you all are planning to meet for us to talk about goals and we can still set we can still set that or have that meeting we can set a meeting time but we can announce that the meeting might not actually our meeting might not actually start or you know until after that after after that meeting because I presume you want me to go and even if none of you go you want me to go and be there to answer questions and and with the city council for this here for the planning and zoning so okay okay so uh finance things um as I already indicated to you we've wrapped up or we we are wrapping up purchase orders and payments from fiscal year 23. uh academics and instruction updates uh we

061the leadership team which is our directors our principals and assistant principals we met for two full days Monday and Tuesday uh we reviewed expectations uh plans for the year and a number of policies that that principles really have to be familiar with employee evaluations grievances disciplinary kinds of policies we determined some plans for dealing with our classrooms for uh in which we do not have certified teachers at this time and all of our sites actually Fox Creek has a full faculty and Desert Valley has a full faculty we have vacant positions at Sunrise Diamondback and the Middle School fortunately our principals have been in touch with uh with ESI and with some of our well-known folks to be long-term Subs in some classrooms people that we've worked with in the past and so that will

062take care of some of the situations in other cases we will combine classes for the time being and continue to look for teachers obviously and continue to look for some long-term subs for some of those positions the principal ship at Diamondback is currently vacant we did receive an application today it's the first one we've had for some consideration for that position in the meantime Miss emlin who is the assistant principal will be in charge and both Mr Roy and Ms Wilsey have indicated that they would go to that site one day a week and assist with what needs to happen up there so you know so we have a plan um is it the you know is it great nope but our people are really good about stepping up and and helping wherever we need

063we revised part of part of what we did in those two days in a whole list of things we did but one of the things we did was discuss and have ready to propose to you and in fact it's on the agenda a revised scoring on the teacher evaluation instrument um to reflect higher expectations uh for how we for determining who is proficient um and who is you know who is developing who's proficient and who is distinguished and um uh and and uh that you know was a collaboration amongst uh the whole team uh so the proposal you you have on the agenda is from the team and I certainly support it or I wouldn't present it but it's very nice when we can have all of the folks who have to implement something on

064board and and first of all participating collaborating in the decision-making process but then on board with the final decision I think that is better for our students and it's certainly better for our employees um and then a collaborative commitment amongst the group for um instructional empowerment our our professional development program that that's coming in and for uh the school integrated action plans that you all heard about in the spring so A Renewed commitment to making sure that all of those things happen and it's really important for us to have done that because we have some new folks on board and uh it's important that you know that everybody's on the same page with that um and then Jen and I met with the folks from instructional empowerment Wednesday yesterday was that just yesterday who yesterday

065to establish the expectations on both sides so what do we expect them to help us do and what do they expect us to do in return so that was a good meeting for us to have and in fact they are starting their work with us next week and we'll be here uh in person coaching our folks and starting starting that process we did training also for the use of the title one crate that's it that's its name but essentially that is the reporting system that our schools use to Ade in terms of what what do we intend and what are we doing relative to our school integrated integrated action plans and that's an ongoing process through the the whole year so they had training in using that tool that online tool and then finally we

066had a finally we had training on a program that we purchased this year called panorama um uh Jen used we used Esser funds to do this it is an absolutely incredible program that pulls data from Synergy so it pulls student information data it pulls data from our Dibbles testing it pulls data from Galileo testing it pulls all kinds of data about each student that allow us to see everything that impacts that student's educational program and and ties That to the to the results so it makes it so our folks can can really drill down and say student X is doing this in math and these are the areas that need additional assistance for this student so it essentially helps us determine small groups it helps us determine interventions for our kids it is an incredibly

067comprehensive and robust program Gathering data that would take any of us oh my gosh days and weeks to pull together and I watched the and you know we had the trainer but she gave each of our people a little time to play in it and and play as you know to work with it to see how it works and I looked around and it was like it was like kids with a new video game they were you know it's like oh look we can do this so uh not only is it a really incredible program it's easily accessible for them but it also they were excited about the kind of data that it would give them so it was that was a really good training so we had a very busy two days uh focusing

068on kids so uh let me make sure I didn't leave anything out of this actually very long report that's it and I'll answer any questions or I'll try we've been busy yeah any questions moving on then to uh three item 3.9 board member updates anything that we need to talk about anything we need to talk about yeah okay no item four consent agenda Madam president if I may before you have a motion to consider the consent agenda I have a couple of Corrections in the personnel um list under new hires John Valencia is actually will be a special ed teacher at Desert Valley not a fifth grade teacher at the middle school and James ocean Bauer will be at the middle school he is a sixth grade math teacher but Eileen forgot to put the

069middle school on there and then under the items for the item for handbooks um I said I would like you to for the time being to pull the preschool handbook there were changes last minute changes that Tammy sent to me and I failed to get them in there and so if we can maybe put that on Tuesday's agenda and then I failed to attach the sunrise handbook and I failed to attach the employee handbook so uh but in terms of affecting this agenda I would recommend that you pull the preschool handbook approval for now and we add it to the next agenda thank you okay so we'll pull the preschool handbook is there are there anything is there anything else that you'd like to have pulled I think that I would like to have Paul

070is it the state assessment results is that uh that's is that under the special letter where's that ahead I'm sorry is that on the uh under uh reports administrative reports no not yet you'd like to have that pulled for discussion okay please so put that in your memo I mean in your motion do I have a motion to pull the preschool handbook and the report on state assessment from the consent agenda I make a motion that we pull the preschool and Child Care Center a handbook and the state assessment results for uh for 23. not the child care just the preschool preschool just the preschool yeah do I have a second I'll second that all those in favor I'm Melinda sabrowski aye Charlene Diaz aye Fred Rushton hi Barb zarzicki hi Sheila Burnett okay now

071I need to have a motion to accept that to accept the consent agenda without those two items I make a motion we accept the consent agenda without the preschool handbook or the state assessment results is there a second well second I'm Melinda sabraski hi Charlene Diaz hi Fred Rushton hi Barbara zarzicki hi Sheila Burnett no we have to go back now and discuss the okay so uh you want to you want to discuss the I I would you want to I would like to discuss the some of the results that was the testing results so now you can pull that up and I would ask Jen to step up and answer maybe any questions or I'll try but I mean Jen's much more familiar with it than I am I I was really truly concerned

072with go up to the it goes to eighth grade because these are the kids who are sending to the high school we have 84 of our kids who are not proficient in math now you know why we are really wanting why we are working on and emphasizing instruction why we are working with instructional empowerment and because the outcomes are not matching the outcomes are not matching some of the other data that um you know that that we get from our schools and we are very concerned about this now Dr Stewart does this data at all correspond with what the Galileo testing has been showing throughout the year for these students it does so Miguel Leo we've been seeing this type of failure rate on the Galileo testing throughout the school year it's similar and and

073one of the interesting things uh Barb is that when we were looking through when we were doing the training for Panorama the other day because it incorporates these data and so I um less is uh I I'm not sure if Julie you were doing this too with the middle school they were looking at the the Galileo graphs and the State Testing graphs and said exactly that that they are consistent you know they may not be exactly percentages but you know they're within the they're within the they look they look the same and um uh that's the value of being able to compare those data is to be able to say okay our Galileo results that we do that those tests three times a year really are predictive of what's happening on State Testing and so

074that tells us we really need to identify what is it how it what are we teaching are we teaching our standards excuse me and how are we teaching them for students to actually be learning what they're supposed to be learning and that and that involves doing uh inform informal assessments uh much more often to know our students our students getting it before we move on to the next thing so you've identified exactly the issues that we have seen do we have the right programs in place do we have the right resources for the teachers it is my opinion that we do the Eureka Math is well researched and uh and uh and there are huge data that support it what we suspect is that our folks are not teaching it with fidelity and if you're

075going to use any program any materials any resources you need to use them with fidelity you can't pick and choose you can't you can't skip some things you can't uh say uh I don't think this is you know this is the good way to do this unless you have actually done it for a while you know have actually done it and we suspect that that is part of the issue and not and I'm not picking on eighth grade here so you know if if Cass Scrolls back down through the grade levels because keep in mind we started Eureka the year that Jen and I came on board I think that was the year that it expanded to seventh and eighth grade um is that right am I remembering correctly because it had been in place

076in the lower grades for a couple of years okay so keep in mind then that you know as kids progress through the grades then we should start in three to five years we should start to see uh improvements in outcomes and so if we go back through those grades we're not necessarily seeing that so another star these eighth graders have been through this program basically because if you started five years ago they would have started in third grade with it yes but they started in third grade cold but yes they've had some of them but they but you're right better than 84. absolutely absolutely so Cass if you will scroll back down we're not just concerned about no the other way back up I'm sorry um okay so uh you know starting with third grade

077because that's where State Testing starts is that third grade um uh so yeah if you look at this record you know this this continuing thing um yeah we have issues and they're clearly the ones that we have been concerned about and uh and have been you know have been trying to address and certainly with our commitment to working with E.I I.E I.E I never get it right I have to think about it instructional empowerment these folks who are going to come in and Coach coach our coach our leaders coach our coaches coach our teachers coach Jen and me coach all of us who who are responsible for our academic outcomes um to sometimes have uncomfortable uncomfortable conversations with us okay so we're working from the top down we're working from the teacher down to the

078kid yes okay are we working any up from the students are we putting any pressure on the students to learn this stuff or are they just out there absorbing what they want to and kissing off the rest of it well I think we're putting on this I think we're putting the same kind of pressure on them we always have um I I don't know that that's the I I am truly truly truly embarrassed to send an 8th grader to the high school so maybe those eighth graders don't get to go to the high school and that's one of the issues related to uh if you recall our long conversations about the grade the grading system and um and I think you weren't back on the board at the point where in court maybe you were

079but when When Corey and I worked with a committee of people and really worked to emphasize in the reporting system how students are doing with the standards and and if we could have if we could have uh we re we really wanted to get rid of the letter grades we really wanted to say because the letter writes tend to reflect uh assignments in class or um but in some cases faulty assessments so I'll give you an example if pick any subject it doesn't matter but let's say it's math and we have taught this standard and then we use and and we've taught it to a depth of knowledge that that is part of the standard so in other words we have said the students should be able to whatever it is and it's not just

080recall and it's not just computation it is a process more more sophisticated than that more difficult than that but then we give the students an assessment and let's say the assessment has 10 items on it and the first eight items are a recall level and the last two are really at the level of rigor that we want students to learn okay most students many students can get those first aid items and don't do well on the last two which are the items that really matter it's those last two and yet on a 10 item assessment getting eight of them correct is going to be considered in the in the grading system as as being proficient so then we have a disconnect between proficiency at the rigor level that we expect students to have and rigor

081at the level that gets reflected in the grade book and so we've identified that as one of our issues and one of the things we will be working with our teachers and I'm sure our folks from IE will be saying if you are teaching to this level of rigor then that's the assessment level it should be and that should reflect in the grade book not the fact that the student got 8 out of 10 when or seven out of 10 when the two critical ones were the ones that the students couldn't do and uh and and I have simplified I've oversimplified that a bit but that's part of it so Gradebook things that that you and I have been familiar with as students and even as educators um I don't align with the expectations of

082the standards and we we built into the re the grade reporting system for parents the information about meeting those standards but I will guarantee you that most parents don't look at that section of the report they look at the grades they you know my students a b student my student's an a student my students a c student pick one of those letters and it does not correlate necessarily with how the student is doing relative to being to being proficient on the standards so the reporting system is part of the issue and that reflects to kids as well for the grades where we use letter grades you know if the parents say oh he's getting a b that's good enough what message is that for the student what message is that to the student in terms

083of working harder in the class doing doing better in meeting the standards so part of it is educating families to say now let's pay attention to this I don't care so much about this grade over here what I care about is you are minimally proficient in this skill or you are partially proficient in this skill and I I want you to be proficient in this skill so lots of P lots of moving parts to this to get it to work so Melinda what I'm saying to you is a whole lot of influence for how students uh how how rigorously students work towards learning is attached to the messages they get from home as well as the messages they get from us and I'm not trying to pass the buck I'm just saying what we all

084kind of know which is you know a lot of students do really well in school because it's expected at home yep it's expected at home and other students don't do so well because it's not expected at home so then in my to assume that 84 percent of the families don't care about no no and and that no and and I'm not trying to imply that at all um because kids still can make their own decisions yeah kids can still make their own decisions but I think that if we are if we are doing the job we need to do in instruction a whole lot of those kids are going to do a whole lot better and it's one of the reasons that as a team our leadership team and I are recommending to you as

085a board a greater emphasis in the evaluation process for our teachers a greater emphasis on instruction what is happening in the classroom what is the teacher doing and how is the teacher instructing kids um and and um okay so effective instruction I know you do I know you do completely understand exactly everything you've said yes parents and teachers yes absolutely the thing is I've also witnessed in in my years at in elementary especially Junior High and I've also witnessed it at the Community College that we give a lot of trophies you know um trophies for participation and basically we need to make sure that the kids understand that they don't get those exactly so Kathy show me seventh grade please please yeah yeah so next year what can we expect out of here this group

086of kids this this should look better is it going to look dramatically better in one year no should it look a lot better than this yeah difference between a lot and dramatic right so can I expect sending these kids to the high school can I expect them to be in at least 50 percent can I can I make that prediction for you no I would be lying to you if I made that Melinda would I like to make that prediction absolutely Dr Jenny did Jen did you have something yes strong and we do look at growth we want to look at growth so I understand what you're saying we want for next year this this cohort of students who are currently seventh graders that that percentage uh that is right now at 68 percent to

087be much smaller which in turn means that that the percentages for those other two are higher we would want those students in the 19 to be moving up and we would want that's that proficient group to be moving into highly proficient can I predict a percentage no so what I'm listening to is that we have we're putting more pressure on the teachers to evaluation in a in and and we want that to be in a good way because we want them to improve and we want them to understand that this is about Improvement not meeting them up with a club I know no no you did not I just want to make that clear for the public that we're not trying to change the evaluation points to beat teachers up we want to do that

088so that folks who maybe are have false because because just like with letter grades for students the designations on our the designations we've had on our current teacher evaluation system and I'll share those data with you when we get to that item but have been false indicators so all we're really wanting to do here is say to teachers we want you to do the very best job you can do and offer you the opportunities to learn things that will help you do those things better so if we're offering that to the teachers which is Carolyn I know I'm preaching to the choir here um I get it you know I I think that that's a good step but shouldn't we be doing the same thing to the kids yes we need to be telling them

089what our expectations are absolutely yes thank you everywhere the students do set goals track goals the teachers Cycles with kids and they track them so it is going to hold them accountable and part of it is trying to motivate because the big issue we're having right now is a lack of any kind of motivation with some of our kids coming back from being at home and being online and I know it is starting to happen before covet but it just seems like that was a huge thing and now that the students are back we're having a really hard time getting them motivated that's one piece that they're doing another disconnect we had was that our teachers do professional growth plans in the past and I'm guilty too as a principal um our teachers would set

090easier attainable goals so let's say I'm going to say I want five percent growth you know and say double scores well that could be two students that I'm going to improve with so our discussion when we were the last two days was aligning our professional growth plans with our school Improvement plans so if we're going to say we want to see 30 growth as a school teachers need to see 30 growth in their classroom those of us if we're only working on a five percent growth in the classroom we're never going to reach 30 as a school so I mean it's accountability all over the place and to me being more visible in schools and being in and seeing what's going on and not being stuck in my office is a big piece as well

091so the fiber the five of us have equal accountability maybe we aren't doing our job well I don't know but the thing is what I'm seeing from Seventh and 8th grade here puts us if not in the D category we are in the F category as far as the state goes we will be if you look at our subgroups as well to have 22 percent growth and look at the students and you know I'm hoping that I'm hoping that the teachers realize that with that grade comes a whole bunch of other stuff right down the the road and it takes us basically out of the picture it puts the state in control and that's part of the reason that we that we would partner with ID ahead of it before the same post and we

092need to start seeing those improvements and your role as a board is is not to be in the grass on this no your role as a board and I know and I and I know you don't and but your role as a board is not to be in the grass you're rolling the boar on the board is to do what you've been doing you have you have you have supported in this case a huge financial commitment to this process and you've and you've taken genomia's word on this that we need to go this way to get this changed and so I cannot over emphasize how important it is that you have collectively and unanimously backed this kind of uh this kind of thing that's that's the overarching responsibility and and support that you all can

093do but it also gives a message to our our employees that you expect results you know you're making a big Financial commitment you're making a a professional commitment to our staff you're saying we know you can do this but now we're also going to hold you accountable that's my opinion of the of the role of the board and this kind of thing and it's pretty powerful when it's a unanimous board Dr Stewart is there any way because obviously these students need extra help you know they need something here to you know uh this idea of flex Friday why aren't we making this more weighted on these kids that you know because we can't make them come we cannot make them then we we should have a contract out there with the parents and stuff that

094says if your child is not passing they have to be on Flex Friday here and if they do not come there's a good chance they will be retained and start retaining some of these students and we do say those things to them but have it in a contract to them and you know and we need to start following through on the retentions and if this is what it's going to take to wake up the students because if this is if they see their friends being retained maybe it'll wake them up too and the parents and when the parents rather than just idle threats that well if you know if your student doesn't pass these things you're going to be be retained so we need to get something out there somehow put some bite and some

095teeth into the retentions and into the fact that if these kids don't do it it's going to happen and and uh and I will and I appreciate what you're saying Barb um I think then that it would be it would be really helpful if we revisit that idea of the grading system because it's really difficult it is really really difficult to say I'm going to pick on Charlene because I know she can handle it because we've known each other a long time it's really difficult to say to Charlene as a parent we're going to retain your student in X grade whichever grade it is because your student is not is not proficient on the state's standards in language arts for example and she can say to me but my student has B's and C's right

096my student has B's and C's it's really difficult to do that so uh to to manip manipulate it's not the right word to uh to get people to understand that the standards and being proficient in the standards is what is critical then we have to we somehow have to downplay that abcdf thing that we all grew up with that probably didn't mean any more than it means now yeah exactly right and and that's a huge step that will we would want to have Town Halls about that we'd want to have parents here because we need to teach our parents and our community about what that means and there are school districts in the country that have completely abandoned letter grades that completely do this kind of reporting standard grading standard you know based on standards

097um yes so somehow and I'd forgotten that thank you Joan but somehow then we have to figure out how that gets tied to this that it's not that it's not uh you know this thing over here well the the fact that a um Ade or AED requires a letter grade could we not have it such that when it comes to the grading purposes if they have not for for their math grade on their report card if that when they take their galiles if they are not proficient then they get an F or they get a d they don't get that A or B because they've been doing their homework or having their brothers do their homework for them and stuff that they're they're great on their report card depends on how they do on their

098galiles if they're proficient or not in the standards yeah I would not want I would not want it all to be resting on that it that's kind of like resting it on one day of State I mean you know one state test but um but could it could the could those grades in that decision be uh somehow could great letter grades and proficiency on standards be uh be put together yes they could and we would just need to work out how to do that or do something aligned very much aligned something that you know fifty percent of the grade defense depends on their galileos and the other 50 percent depends on you know the Galileo is predictive for us and it's and it's a summary but keep in mind Barb that on on the Galileo

099and on the State Testing there might only be one question related to any of those standards any one of those you've taught that so you know so so it's more predictive and more helpful that way but in terms of I would not I would not want any students uh determination of on this standard the student is proficient in this standard based on one item yeah and and so can this be worked out yes it could be worked out we could figure out how to do it but it means revisiting it and that might be something that you as a board could say to us could direct us to do it's not on tonight's agenda so I'm sorry you can't direct us tonight but but you can put it on a future agenda and you can

100say Stuart I want you and your leadership team to come up with a plan that that aligns proficiency on standards to uh to the letter grades you can do that in the future just something just popped into my head um which is not often so um I'm gonna go with it here when when you are working with teachers and and administrators one of the things that um I think might be helpful is when they are doing in class um assessments that they're utilizing questions from the Galileo right right because then at that point you know the teacher can see oh okay they're not getting this whatever it is because they can pick and choose those questions absolutely and and make their own tests that way and so they can pull from test Bank and that

101might help align do a little more of a lining of those of what's happening in the classroom and what's happening on Galileo you know I I don't know it's one of the things to factor in yeah it's just something that that and I don't know how many teachers actually do that but it might be worthwhile to kind of emphasize it be important to do that and I know that this past year our teachers worked quite a bit on aligning instruction and and assessments we had a number of of day you know a number what four days this year that they met to do those kinds of things to drill down and look at here's here here are our data here's what we've been doing what's the connect or the disconnect here and what do we

102need to do differently that doesn't mean that there shouldn't be more of that done yes yes because it it connect right here obviously very much a disconnect so for experiency's sake we'll put this on can I just ask a quick question sure is it sounds to me almost like the greeting that's happening is not stringent it's like they're not rigorous with the grading it sounds like they're giving them a b when they maybe deserve a d so how is that get reflected I guess that's what we need to talk about is how is that reflected right um because yeah if that just that is a disconnect it's huge my example to you Sheila was was a really one that we have seen happen um in the last two years when we've been out in classrooms

103and and um uh Jen used the example the other day uh because Eureka Math has a really comprehensive formative assessment tools but maybe it's got 20 items and or more than that and so are so for and I and please understand I'm not trying to beat up our teachers because I can remember doing this so I'm guilty too but okay so there might be let's say there are third there's a bank of 30 questions and so it's easy for me to take the top ten and not pay attention to the fact that as you go down through the 30 the rigorous questions are at the end you know and so instead of picking the first 10 I should have picked the last 10 or if it's formative and I'm not completely done teaching this standard

104I'm only halfway through I picked the ones in the middle to see you know am I am I moving down this progression in terms of the progression I'm teaching am I moving down the progression the same progression in my uh my formative assessments and so you know so I I don't know that it's intentional that um that you know they're not it's just not thoughtful it's you know we're not being mindful of of what this means and that's part of that's part of this process uh rigor rigor is a very frequent word with ie is this rigorous and uh and so I I think we will start seeing a shift in that that's our plan but I your your uh your comment is dead on yeah okay important conversation yeah we need to have important

105conversation we need to continue but not right now item five old business item 5.1 second reading of a revision to policy CBI evaluation of the superintendent this is where we move the dates right okay yeah you want to show that yeah this is your second reading yeah did anybody have any questions on this one could I have a motion I make emotionally accept the second reading of the revision of policy CBI evaluation of superintendent I'll second that motion all those in favor I'm Melinda sabraski aye Charlene Diaz hi Fred Rushton hi Barbara zarziki Sheila Burnett item 5.2 second reading of gcd professional support staff vacations and holidays and I think we've seen this one yeah this is the second reading yes yeah any questions or further discussion no may I have a motion please I

106motion to approve the second reading of the gcd professional support staff vacations and holidays as presented I will second that all those in favor I'm Melinda sabrowski hi Charlene Diaz hi Fred Rushton hi Barbara zarzicki aye Sheila Burnett item 5.3 second reading of asba policy service advisory 744-747. Madam president and board members this is your second reading we did receive another update from asba for three of these policies to just strike on one word from what you read on your first reading so Cass if you would if you would show IGA please okay so the underlined part was the new section for this policy that you read on first reading last month um the attorneys reviewed this and felt that it was a bit ambiguous ambiguous to have the word board in there and so

107uh because that would imply that it only applied to board a board authorized in this case textbook selection committees when frequently it is the superintendent who's who sets that up because by other policy the board extends that responsibility to the superintendent so they felt that it was a little ambiguous so you could go ahead and approve this and consider it a second reading even with just the Striking of that one word and it's the same in the other three they've just taken that one they've they're recommending to take out the word board because essentially the same sentence is in those other other two policies well I make a motion um that I'm president that we accept the reading second reading of IgA with the notation that the recommended Crossing out of the word board be

108part of what we do accept and approve tonight could I could I get you to amend your motion to include all of these policies the 744 through 747. you sure can so amended is there a second I second it all those in favor I'm Melinda sabrowski hi Charlene Diaz aye Fred Rustin hi Barbara zarziki aye Sheila Burnett item six new business 6.1 adopted budget board members this is the budget that was reviewed in the hearing and uh is the proposed budget for the fiscal year uh 24. uh I will I will say to you that um I anticipate a revised presentation of a revised budget no later than September once we clear out uh the current year and we identify exactly how many you know how much rollover money there is and those kinds of

109things it's very typical it's very typical you just you do the best you can with the data you have when you set it up and then as you know as the other fiscal year wraps up that changes the calculations that you're using plus by then we will have some data relative to enrollment and I guarantee you the state will have changed some of our enrollment numbers and and that kind of thing so it's fairly typical that that we revise sometimes we don't revise until December um but I I already anticipate some changes in September before we before we adopt this thing I want to give you a compliment um I think you I was very good it was very good to see six percent increase with a reduction in taxes very very nice very nice

110thank you for looking and crunching the numbers well the county helps us with the with the tax rate yeah um and and so that's really helpful but uh you know in in our in our in any of our current situations this is the this is the second year in a row third year in a row that our tax rate has dropped for our district uh it was it was around 350 or something when I first came on board and so it has you know it it's almost like half of what it was three years ago and I don't have anything to do with that but uh but to be able to continue to do what we do and create the kinds of budgets that we do and and support our folks and decrease that tax

111rate is very very fulfilling so thank you for the compliment I appreciate it there's were there any more comments on this may I have a motion to adopt the budget I'll make a motion that we adopt the 2024 budget fiscal budget for um as presented okay I second that motion all those in favor I'm Melinda sabrowski aye Charlene Diaz I Fred Rushton hi Barbizon aye Sheila Burnett thank you item 6.2 contract addendums District committees site leadership schools or Club sponsors and coaching Madam president and board members this is an annual an annual annual presentation for your authorization for us to pay employees for additional duties beyond the teaching day and we've had some discussions this is part of our discussions with leadership team Cass if you would put up the district committees please uh so

112for a long time we've had the classroom site fund committee and we've had a curriculum in professional development committee but since we are not re renewing or reviewing curriculum for this year um uh Mrs Lott suggested that we do the other half of what we did this past year so we had the retention committee uh in fiscal year 23 and that we have a recruitment committee functioning in this coming year so it's simply a name change for that committee however I will tell you that I'm recommending that we add coyote Canyon's participation to this because at this point with preschool and the child care center and the Life Academy the number of employees on that campus is to the point where they need some rep representation in in these committees as well and then I'm

113recommending that we add a committee called District staff event committee if you recall from the retention committee um uh recommendations and plan that they want to have a district-wide staff events and that means somebody's got to do the planning and the carrying out of that so I'm recommending that we have a committee for that uh same with the district family events to increase our district-wide events for families in our in our district and place a little more emphasis on district-wide events in addition to site events and then Cass if you'll go to the next page and then we are required to have a wellness committee this committee reviews policies that have to do with student wellness and and it's uh the committee is required by by Ade it's not been a formal committee for us

114in the past with pay but they have a number of tasks and so I'm recommending that we actually make this a formal committee and then we have the meet and confer certified committee and meet and confer classified committee both of which have been in policy forever and um uh and once again I'm recommending for any of these that we have Coyote Canyon employees in involved and then the last committee is an ongoing committee for exceptional student services because there are things that have to be discussed and con and considered and recommended for our exceptional students so we're talking about a total total commitment of fifty seven thousand dollars for these folks the other thing Casa fuel scroll back up to the first page and then down to this District committees well actually any of those

115other than meet and confer the leadership team recommended that since we have two folks from each site on these committees that one one individual will be certified and one be classified and that is a change so I think that's a good thing it's a good change it's a good change so we have both sides of the house if you will represented on all of these committees and and the leaders the leadership team is also committed to getting as many folks as possible involved as opposed to having you know some individuals on multiple committees that doesn't mean it might not happen but as much as possible to have as many different people on these committees as possible so there are changes in that one I guess my question is with with that um people at Coyote

116Canyon how many people are going to be there or how many teachers 789 10 10 or 10 or 12 teachers and just as many paraprofessionals plus we have the office staff or the uh Kate and a couple of other folks are speech therapists people are those folks so they're getting to be almost half the size of Diamondback so the question then is if they're half the size of Diamondback and Diamondback only has has two Representatives shouldn't they only have one they could but then we designate it's certified or classified I mean if if that's what you all want I will do what you want but I'm just yeah throwing that out they all seem classified at the other and certified because we have such special programs at our site that we are people can bring

117a different perspective to these needs entities Advocate you know and that's a good thing on this side you only have your certified they classified our you know the other side to the camp it causes distension and and conflict between well I see I can see the conflict happening between schools you know like you have half the number of people and you get the same representation as we do and I and I would understand that if I had brought this to you without discussion with the leadership and and so this was all uh this was all discussed and determined by the leadership team as well recommended to me uh Cass if you would also show the um the one for leadership uh uh no not this you can X Out it exit out of this and

118the one that's the leadership addendum is yes um this one's very similar to the Past although I will tell you that we have added to each site the tat team leader tat teams are the essentially the teams that consider students who are really really at risk and and are discussing what what are we doing to help the student what should we be doing what can we try out and uh and and if those things work then great you continue to do them but if they're not working then this leads into the discussions for uh determining whether the student has special needs and there are many many many meetings through the year for this person numerous meetings for this in the past this was uh this way these were positions that could earn points for the

119classroom site fund um but the way we restructured that program it really did not recognize the amount of time that this person has to put into to this effort and so we're recommending adding that at each site and then you will also notice that the the team makeup for Fox Creek um if you'll scroll down there you go Mr Eastman uh requested that we restructure his leadership team to be actually a little bit smaller and excuse me that he have two Folks at seventh grade two folks in eighth grade and then and then a kind of a campus cultural leader uh position for his team he felt that his team was a little bit too big and unwieldy to get to accomplish the things that they need accomplished and I couldn't argue with that you

120know so the commitment for this for this addendum would be a total of eighty four thousand and then there are no changes in the other two uh from the from previous years for the club addendums and the coaching addendums but Cass can show you those if you would like to see them and I will tell you that philosophically for me for those first two lists anything that we can do to a get as many of our employees involved in in collaboration in the decision-making process and in developing them as leaders is positive for the district and then beyond that any opportunity that we have uh to remunerate our folks for these extra hours and extra efforts and that stuff are good opportunities for us so philosophically for me this is this advances our employees it

121Advance advances the district and it advances it enhances the students too absolutely that's the ultimate goal that's the ultimate goal do I have a motion to approve the contract addendums District committee psych leadership Club sponsors and coaching I'll make a motion to approve the contract addendums District committee's site leadership Club sponsors and coaching addendums I second it all those in favor I'm Melinda sabroski aye Charlene Diaz hi Fred Rushton hi Barbara hi Sheila Burnett 6.3 certified teacher evaluation revisions and documents scoring for school year 23 24 and school year 24-25 um Cass if you would put the document up thank you okay so the leadership team and I spent we spent quite a bit of time talking about this Monday and Tuesday and and it all comes back to that discussion about improving instruction and

122our principals have said and we have said for a couple of years now that this domain three that is instruction is really the heart of of teaching and yet in this scoring system it is equal to or has been equal to domains one two and four and so our recommendation is that we not change the point values for domains one two and four but that we triple the values for for domain three so that the real emphasis is on what is going on in the classroom when students are there and teachers are teaching so um and we felt that we we all discussed this that making a drastic change in the labels that attach to these points in one year for you know from one year from how it's been to where we would like

123it to be was probably a pretty drastic change for one year and so that's why we set it up for two years and we'd make a partial change in those designators for this coming year and then the ultimate change for the following year so we're really talking about two things happening here one is a recommendation that the points and the uh that the point values really be emphasized in domain three that's the first change and so that would take us from in the past what the values were and right now I don't have the X the number in front of me but to 476 points I think it was 360 points in the past um and uh and um and then that changes so where you see that it says teacher performance 075.6 pgp for

124a teachers and this is one group of teachers and SLO for another group of teachers um they don't score teachers don't score in both of those they score in one or the other and then student achievements so changing the point value for domain three has increased the from about 67 percent to 75.6 percent of the overall score for the whole instrument okay and um and then those teacher goals and student achievement added together still equals over 22 percent which is what's required by the state for that piece of the evaluation so that's the first piece is increasing the emphasis on instruction and I don't know how much detail you want but I can give you an example um down in domain four for instance 4A is student attendance and verifications so if the teacher is

125if the teacher is doing that uh at a distinguished level they get 12 points for that it is the belief of the of the leadership that that 12 points is not equal to 12 points that they would currently receive under 3A instructional communication okay so 4A is really clerical are you taking attendance every day are you know are you are you collecting absence notes are you going doing those things for the same 12 points that you might get for instructional communication well they're not equivalent things and so that's that's an example of the basis on which we're saying that domain three should be worth about three times the I you know the other three domains okay so that's the first part the second part in case if you scroll no no no backup uh there

126you go the second part then is is changing the pers changing the percentages of points to be proficient or distinguished or developing so I will tell you that currently in the evaluation system we've been using that um to be a developing teacher you only had to have 32 percent of the points to be proficient you only had to have 57 percent of the points to be distinguished you only had to have 82 percent of the points so to me distinguished is like an A plus not just an a an A plus if we're talking about the grading system well I'm sorry but 82 percent is not an A plus okay and uh so we're proposing that for this coming year that the point values for distinguished be at the 90 level because going from 82

127percent to a 95 percent is a huge jump in one year that would be very discouraging for folks a proficient going from 57 percent to what we kind of see is uh to me you know I want I want my teachers to be proficient now first-year teachers I'm going to see developing okay I'm going to be seeing developing teachers and that's perfectly okay I don't want any teachers to feel badly any first year teacher to feel badly about being developing they're starting out things are tough I'm up through year three we better be seeing some developing things you know moving up changing from year to year but we're still we're still likely to see something developing in year three so you know we're not once again this is not an instrument for beating up our

128people this is an instrument for growth and for recognizing when they grow and that they are getting to the place where we really want all of our teachers to be so developing for this coming year would be 50 instead of 32 percent that's a big jump and then we're proposing for uh year 2425 that those percentages be 95 75 60 and below 60. um the item on the right the two columns on the right where it says the point totals just for domains one to four I will tell you that this was a suggestion from Mrs Ayman um that from her experience as an administrator a leader in in another District that when she just showed the teachers the points from these four domains and how that would play out against those labels that that

129was very reassuring to teachers and and very helpful and so I didn't see any any issues or any problems and the team liked the idea that we that we would share that with teachers as well it's information okay it's information so on behalf of the leadership team I'm recommending to the board that that we adopt these changes we've not changed anything in the rubrics anything at all other than the point values for any of the domains and any of the descriptors so I'm recommending that the board approve these changes in the teacher evaluation do I have a motion to approve the the revisions for the certified teacher evaluation I'll make a motion that we approve the changes to the teacher evaluation form I'll second that motion all those in favor I'm Melinda sabrowski hi Charlene

130Diaz aye Fred Rushton hi Barbers zarzuki hi Sheila Burnett item 6.4 Personnel Improvement plan revision Madam president and board members we realized as we were working on with our teams and as Jen and I were getting ready to work with the teams this week that the actual instrument that we use have been using in the district for a few years uh for the for the Improvement plan uh uh is not the one that's uh an exhibit in the uh in the board policies and um and in the board policy if you go to policy bridge and it has the identifier at the top and then it says to see the form click here so we clicked there and we saw the old form and so uh we thought oops it's time to update this so

131uh uh the the leadership team discussed everybody likes this form prefers this form anyway it has the same information it's just in a little different format and so we're recommending that we're asking for your approval of this uh this exhibit and then we will make sure that the link in um at policy Bridge attaches to the correct document do I have a motion I make a motion that we accept the person Personnel Improvement plan revision I'll suck in that motion all those in favor I'm Melinda sabroski hi Charlene Diaz aye Fred Rushton hi Barb zarzicki aye Sheila Burnett I am 6.5 possible action to clear to clarify the status of programs housed at Coyote Canyon School Madam president and board members this is um this is the topic we discussed in the uh in the

132workshop if you have additional questions I'll try to answer them and this is our opportunity your opportunity is the board excuse me to straighten out this situation do I have a motion to straighten out the situation I do you do all right I moved to restate and clarify the intent for an actual operation of Programs located on the Coyote Canyon School campus as follows although the Coyote Canyon School campus operates a pre-school program it is a location that houses and serves a curriculum and programs of other schools in the district is not a separate school this motion and resolution supersedes and clarifies the actions of the governing board on this subject as stated in the governing board minutes of the January 25th 2018 meeting do I have a second I'll second that motion all those

133in favor I'm Melinda sabrowski I'm Charlene Diaz hi Fred Rushton hi Barbara zarzicki aye Sheila Barnett item 6.6 asba policy service advisory 744-747 regulations and exhibit these this is what goes with what we just passed these are yes these are the regulations and Exhibits that go with those policies that you approved earlier okay um do we need a motion for this yes you do I make a motion to accept the asba policy Services advisory 744 to 747 regulations and Exhibits presented I'll second that motion all those in favor I'm Melinda sabroski aye Charlene Diaz hi Fred Rushton hi Barbara zarzicki I Sheila Burnett and in 6.7 first reading of policy gdo evaluation of support staff members I guess if you'll put that one up please uh in the process of discussing evaluation of support staff

134members on the earlier this week it was pointed out that excuse me that the old labels were in the policy and that uh we had in fact approved the board had in fact approved a year or so ago those designators to match across the district in all of our evaluations so that we have a distinguished proficient and in this case ineffective and developing rather than uneffective or unsatisfactory and needs needs Improvement so we're just asking you to as this is first reading but and next time next meeting to approve making the policy match our practice okay okie dokie closing items future topics 7.1 Madam president I was touched by what uh Miss Crowley had to say and and I uh I would ask that we would see what we can do to consider her request

135I don't know what kind of uh official sources are are available I'm really not familiar with the fundraising efforts among the school district but uh I definitely think that it's a plea worth considering and I would request Madam president and Dr Stewart that we put this on an agenda for a future description or discussion perhaps it could even be an agenda item for our next meeting next Tuesday um and if I might Madam president miss Crowley had in fact shared this information with me it does not necessarily have to come to the board for Action I had described for her the steps that she could take with this this could in fact be decided at the school level in terms of fundraising in a student uh you know a Student Activity kind of thing so

136I was a bit surprised that she came to the board this evening with this if you'd like it to be an agenda item it certainly could be but it could also be handled administratively do you think that's the best course of action I think it might be more efficient then I withdraw my suggestion it would be nice though if you wouldn't want to you would want to have a report on where it's going um it's the kind of thing that would be presented to uh uh to the student council at the Fox Creek campus and um you know for consideration and a pro and a plan um and so since the student councils are not going to be meeting before our meeting on Tuesday and perhaps might not even meet before our meeting in August

137but they might I doubt that you would have a report on Tuesday in fact I know you would not have a report on Tuesday because there won't be any student council members until August maybe in September but I think this can be handled administratively and um and and give the the students a chance to be the leaders on this I do believe so um I would like to see us discussing uh grades yes okay the grading system oh yeah so if you put that on choice agenda anybody else have a future topic they'd like to talk about okay upcoming board events what happens at our backpacks backpack buddies for our kids what do we do um they it will be happening at Coyote or yeah coyote uh next week no following yeah and families will

138come to the families will come to the cafeteria at Coyote for from our district not just from coyote you know but from our district because first of all it's a central location secondly we have the room available to do it third the the backpack buddies lease rooms on our campus for their storeroom and whatever so then they don't have to move things very far so logistically uh it's it's pretty uh you know it's pretty helpful to have that on this campus or on our campus so how are kids chosen for that um there is a process and I can't give you the details I know that Jamie Cottrell Who is the first of all who received from yes yeah students who are identified by Des are the first you know are the first ones and

139then we make sure that uh any that siblings and anybody in you know in the family is represented there's a there's a process it's all developed by a legacy Foundation but we have employees from our district and from the other districts in the area uh who all part work with Legacy on this because it's handled differently now in each district but they all participate in the Committees that that make these determinations and this year for the first time there's a there's a set number for each district a set number eligible for each site in each district that there have been some changes this year in in our in numbers okay and that has to do with Legacy funding because yeah you know they're the ones who round up the funding I'm sure it was probably

140feeling like it's getting out of hand um so am I supposed to understand that we as many of us as possible are going to be at the city council meeting well I think that would be nice if you could do that okay um and and then we would you know once our little piece is done we could adjourn over here to uh to proceed with uh the things that we intended for the the that you all intended for the meeting on Tuesday and add a couple of uh actual action items that I messed up for tonight um also upcoming board oh never mind that's not the board wrong board it's the other board well I plan on being there I plan on being there yes I do too I have to go to the Boombox

141parade meeting at 5 30. that's okay you'll post it okay yeah we're we're in good shape to post you know that there might there's a possible Quorum at various things in the community it's a small enough community that you know you all are likely to show up at things always yeah exactly and and um so yeah we're pretty good at having kind of a blank statement out there that uh it's you know it's possible that you all might be in the same place at the same time we've got a year-long courtesy Foreign Motors that explains like for example if one of the council there could be three of you know UCSD action but for things like city council you are there because the city council is addressing PNC PNC is going to be dealing with

142a school board or somebody would need to report and I'm not even sure whether or not London I can to me if we're not acting as PNG board members can we still be there I think you can be there in the audience it's not like you're going to be voting or right I mean we have no power there right you recused yourselves at the pnz meeting which my understanding of how things work was an appropriate thing to do but I don't I don't particularly see a reason you can't be at this meeting right what they have recommended something for that person to then go to the following city council again I went to the one on chickens you did but that was before yeah yeah but I can talk to John okay well any other

143yeah you might want to discuss the next the August meeting and make sure everybody's got that open on their calendar but I want I want to invite everybody to the new teacher oh yes yes can you put that back up please the new teacher induction on 19th can I invite them for breakfast you're providing breakfast I guess so well I'm not providing no no no no women's chemicals is it breakfast or lunch no well we're providing breakfast if you want a dang donut coffees come see us we're going to to meet the new teachers I just thought that we should meet the new teachers and be able to Glad hand shake hands and say thank you for coming and being with us yeah I have it down for lunch lunch time lunch was lunch that

144day too no it was lunch then we were invited no we were invited to lunch for that day as a board member all right so if you want lunch you could do both yeah or we could do donuts or we could do both it would just be nice if we were here myself 7 30 um 7 30. 7 30. and where is that held at right here right here in fact on Tuesday night when you are here you will see how it is set up for new teacher induction okay okay I just wanted to make sure that everybody was aware of that that you know whether you come to breakfast or lunch and we're here to kind of say thank you to the teachers who showed up and then keep in mind that on the

14524th when all teachers return there is breakfast at uh this year it will be at Fox Creek welcome back and 7 30. 7 30 to 9 and it will be very informal just as it was this current year and the just this past year our folks really enjoyed having just a very informal welcome back get to talk to each other we will have a number of excuse me VIP groups that Lance has been inviting on our behalf you know to to let folks know of services that are available in the community and those kinds of things so it will be at Fox Creek at 7 30 on the 24th women's Council have a table there because I'm running it there you go there you go okay and I will Carolyn will not be at that

146meeting okay okay or that that's fine yeah good to know okay I am 7.3 date time location of future meetings well we have one on Tuesday the 18th um says followed by executive session well part of you wanted to have an executive session to talk about my goals and stuff but then but then you would need to come back into public sessions to to put them you know to State them for the record proposed meeting on August 10. it's a regular meeting or regular your regular meeting date is the 10th yeah okay okay is there anybody who's going to have problems being here on the tent no no no I won't be able to be here on the 10th I'll be in Flagstaff sorry Fred have fun and play thank you enjoy the cool weather

147that is the same you can have some good discussion tonight some very good discussion tonight appreciate your you're talking to me about it and everybody else so I put up it's time to leave so could we have a motion to adjourn I make a motion that we adjourn the meeting and I'll second that one I think I've been the second all night all those in favor I'm Melinda sobroski hi Charlene Diaz hi Fred Rushton I bear hi Sheila Burnett the meeting is now adjourned