001[Music] so [Music] [Laughter] [Music] he's got him you don't have to lean in no leaning in just project i call to order the workshop from bullet city elementary school board on wednesday september 14th at 5 30 p.m roll call corey burgess here amanda amen here charlene diaz here anna boyd here we are just missing ms sabrosky all right moving on to our workshop uh item 1.3 uh 2020 asb policy service advisory dr stewart mr president and board members each year asba gets their lawyers busy as soon as the legislature is done with all of its bills and submits and recommends new or revised policies so what you have here are with the exception of the policy that has to do with graduation high school graduation uh the ones that do apply to us so it's
002a chance for you all to go through them i did make available to you all as well the the kind of explanation notes but i thought i would touch on them a little bit for the for the public's benefit as we go through them so you know a little bit about how they might affect us as a school district and and then they i had cass put them on the agenda put the policies on the agenda for first reading tonight and then next month you would have the policies and the exhibits and the regulations and and and for consideration might be so anyway oh gosh i don't have them in the same order no no you're okay oh accounting system why are my notes not in the same order they're not in the same order
003that's okay the accounting system has to do i think as i recall primarily with school districts that are going to have either the county or the state do their accounting and those things so that does not affect us at all okay uh can we do can we do jrr please okay uh student surveys so uh the biggest change in this we do have this policy there is a new regulation but this has to do with times where in the past where we might have done surveys with students and had asked parents in advance for you know just blanket approval now we have to notify parents what the survey is going to be uh parents you know with a timeline and uh parents can have their children opt out okay so we have some legal advice
004it's not part of this but i went i was in a training uh superintendent's training that had to do with um what this could involve so there is some speculation that it could even involve situations where say the assistant principal or the principal is talking with a student about a disciplinary situation and having to be very careful about asking a question that's not directly related to that disciplinary situation so the example that we were given was you know i'm i'm doing whatever with the student students telling me some information and and then i might say you know so how are things at home can't ask that that's a survey now that's based on the legal advice that we had in that training that we should not ask that and i'm thinking oh that makes things
005a little difficult for counselors and in some cases maybe even for for you know principals and teachers and whatever that may be a little overkill but i will tell you that those attorneys are the same ones who help write these the policies that follow the law so it's just a procedure we'll make sure that we have the procedures in place for for student surveys official ones okay any questions about those okay uh k.i and i did include uh some little uh anecdotal notes to you in in the part that i sent you the separate part that had all of these little explanations so you would know this one has to do with visitors to schools and it essentially is saying that school boards and school districts must have procedures for allowing visitors we do have
006procedures they're just not as formal as this is going to require so we have procedures in all of our handbooks we'll just work on making sure that we have something that we've brought to you that is that will meet this qualification okay kb parental involvement in education and to quote from this the law requires school districts to create procedures enabling parents to request access to school district and employee electronic records that relate to their child and so there are and then there's a corresponding amendment to the parents bill of rights and and then a corresponding piece about access to library materials so they've made some significant changes in this in this policy we have already talked with our administrators for sure and will make sure the word gets down to our teachers and the rest
007of our staff but we've been reminding them that it is not good practice to communicate for teachers or administrators to communicate with parents on their cell phones and the reason for that is that if if we do that that is now a public record and if for anyone any reason somebody requests a parent or an attorney or somebody requests the information or what was the communication on that cell phone they can confiscate the phone and everything on the phone then is becomes public record so if if we're not doing anything wrong we probably wouldn't mind that but i don't think most of us would want to give up our cell phone for a period of time while such investigations so each of our sites in fact all of our site all of our elementary sites
008use dojo or synergy as the appropriate and approved way to communicate back and forth with parents and to avoid using their cell phones okay i-h-a-m-e yeah i don't think this one particularly applies to us because we don't do any family life education kinds of things but it doesn't hurt to have it in policy jlcb uh the main thing about this one is that school districts cannot require uh vaccination for um coved 19 and um and then it says an immunization must be prescribed by rule adopted pursuant to ars 36672a before it may be required for school attendance and that means for any immunization not just copin i don't think that's going to be an issue for us those usually have we already have those other things in policy and so i don't it's it's really
009not going to affect us much jlcc this one codifies the the fact that we cannot require masks without parent or guardian consent and um it applies also to other communicable diseases not just to copin 19. so that is a change on the agenda tonight you see you see a recommended revision of our back to school our return to school plan and our coven 19 protocols and i made sure that these were in compliance with this policy okay um i'm i i'm just rolling through these so if you guys have questions or things to say stop me okay uh g b g c b which is staff health and safety and again it is saying that we cannot require any of our employees to have covid 19 vaccine and once again we've made sure that our
010protocols comply oh there's the accounting responsibility and i didn't even highlight it because it doesn't particularly apply to us so iha and this one establishes 911 as an education a 9 11 education day and requires that schools dedicate some portion of that day or an adjoining non-weekend day to teaching in age appropriate fashion about the terrorist attacks on september 11 2001. similar to a law from a year ago for sandra day o'connor citizenship or civic stay civics i think it's civic stakes jlda simply has to do with a change in the requirements for school psychologists their licensure or certification and that doesn't particularly pertain to us we've not had those issues j i c f a hazing and this is now a class 1 misdemeanor unless the victim dies and then it is a class
0114 felony and then there's a change in the definition now links directly to the statute okay ikf is graduation requirements i don't think we even included it because it doesn't apply j j i a intra mural sports and then there's j j i b and j g a i b r which you don't need to go to which are interscholastic so those latter two really don't apply to us the intramural one does and it just simply says that when we announce to students and families that we have intramural sports we must designate that they are uh girl sports boy sports or mixed um and then but then it's kind of confusing because it's kind of um it it states that it's an optional policy for those districts that have intramural sports which this law applies
012so that's a little ambiguous to me and we'll want some um better legal advice on that excuse me policy ee transportation services and this enables school districts to contract for vehicles and other transportation services including electric vehicles i'm not quite sure how the first part is different because there are plenty of school districts and in fact we have neighboring school districts that contract for transportation services but i think it's it's aimed at the urban areas where they can contract say with city transit as for transportation as well doesn't affect us it also expands the type of vehicle permissible to transport school children and and in this case to vans use of vans to transport students has not been legal in the past for for school day kinds of things we have one situation where we
013use one of our small vans we have some students who live up the mountain from catherine's landing and it's quite a ways up there it's four miles and uh so last year and this year we are using a small van because taking a bus extends that bus route not just the mileage but the time dramatically to go up there and come back so i think it's three students that we transport that way otherwise i certainly wouldn't recommend that we would be transporting students to and from school in vans because they they're not constructed the way they should be for you know transport of students so so we will avoid it as much as possible okay and then eea bus driver requirements training and responsibilities so for the the van for instance which is not a
014school bus a person with doesn't have to have a cdl to drive a van and um so that that allows us to have one of our transportation employees who doesn't have a cdl to drive that kind of thing and this just kind of formalizes that process jf student admissions there's an application process a certificate for educational convenience and this allows students to apply to attend a district outside their home district if they are precluded from attending the home district because of distance lack of adequate transportation facilities or a parent or guardian's employment so essentially this adds some other stipulations or allowable conditions for open enrollment requests even though it's not in the policy that has to do with open enrollment ijl library materials and selection and this makes much more specific how parents can request
015looking at library materials and and anything that we are looking at purchasing for our libraries must be on display very much like our curriculum materials must be on display in advance of purchase and that starts in january it does not apply to any books or materials in the library that we we are replacing due to damage or loss those kinds of things it only applies to new things new materials we would add to the libraries ijnc again resource centers media center school libraries and this this comes from the law that says that we need to adopt procedures that provide parents access to school library collections and a list of the books or materials their children may have checked out and it provides that parents seeking access to the school library collection or a list of
016their child's borrowed books or materials may utilize a request form and so essentially they're saying we need to develop a request form so that it's you know so that it's not just somebody coming in on monday morning and saying i want to see all of this right now because you and i know that that's not necessarily going to happen in the next 10 minutes you know to round all that stuff up imd school ceremonies and observances i personally found this one interesting because the current policy says that we set aside a time for for silence a moment of silence but this makes it a very specific amount of time and and then very very much specifies that teachers may not tell the children what to meditate on or think about and they must encourage parents
017to discuss with their children how to use the moment of silence but in the law itself it also uh indicates the kinds of things that can and cannot be done during that moment of silence and that was part of that training session that i that i attended before relative to the impact of these laws and so we shared that with our principals before school started and had them convey that to teachers what can and cannot be done but it must be at least one minute in the past it said you know a moment of silence so you know that could be 10 seconds it could be 30 seconds and you all probably know that one minute 60 seconds is a pretty long time for a five-year-old so but this does you know this says it
018must be so we we make sure that we're doing that uh imb teaching about controversial or sensitive issues and this was amended to reflect that teachers have a great responsibility to educate students that but that parents ultimately direct the upbringing education health care and mental health of their students and so it has you know some some change in the verbs and other descriptors and that is this list for this year shorter than some years all right any questions on those no okay okay with that uh we just need a motion to adjourn the workshop i'll move that we had during the workshop i'll second that motion and avoid all in favor aye corey burgess aye amanda ayman aye charlene diaz hi anna boyd we are adjourned [Music] so [Music] [Laughter] [Music] [Laughter] [Music] do [Music]
019so [Music] so [Music] [Laughter] [Music] [Laughter] thank you i call to order the regular meeting of bullhead city elementary school board on wednesday september 14th at 6 00 pm roll call corey burgess here amanda ayman here charlene diaz here anna boyd here we are just missing miss sabrowski if you will all join me for the pledge of allegiance i pledge allegiance to the flag of the united states of america and to the republic for which it stands with liberty and justice for all citizens president if you please sign in the back uh call to the public this is the time that the public may speak to the governing board regarding issues within the jurisdiction of the governing board and subject to reasonable time space and manner restrictions as the governing board may establish comments will
020be limited to three minutes per individual unless specifically waived by the governing board at the conclusion of the call of the public individual members of the governing board may respond to criticism made by those who've addressed the board may have staffed to review a matter or may ask a matter be replaced on a future agenda however the governing board cannot take action on matters that have not been noticed in advance as part of the agenda do we have any calls the public today all right item 2.6 adoption agenda we get a motion to adopt the agenda as presented i'll make a motion to adopt the agenda as presented second that motion all in favor aye corey burgess aye amanda ayman aye charlene diaz hi anna boyd so moved out of 2.7 donations we received several
021donations from the community which are always greatly appreciated we had donors cho choose donated 16 classroom projects to sunrise elementary for nine thousand four hundred and eighty five dollars and fifty four cents uh incredible opportunity thank you very much for that item 2.8 superintendent reports dr stewart mr president and board members you have the written reports financial building discipline our student count our attendance enrollment which is staying pretty stable which is very nice because it's up from last year and for miscellaneous updates i have a couple first i'd like to introduce to you uh elena hildreth who is the new our new director for chartwells and a lot of times astella is the one who comes to our board meetings but i was i'm happy to see that she's here and you would know who
022she is secondly i had the first meeting of the year this week with the superintendent's employees advisory council and we talked about some background on insurance so we can get started on that process early this year and have time to really consider a lot of things we talked about [Music] the issue of the district paying for health health club membership we learned in the audit this year that that is a taxable benefit and so i wanted the employees to have to weigh in on whether we should continue that kind of thing or not and so they're going back to talk with their the people they represent about that and then we had an initial conversation about the calendar it's my understanding that the high school has high school district has adopted a calendar or has
023proposed one at least and so we don't want to be too far behind in that discussion so they're going to be discussing with the people they represent calendar options and those things and then finally this letter came today that i'd like to share with you dear dr stewart i want to express my deepest gratitude to the bullhead city school district especially sunrise elementary principal chris roy after one of the worst wind storms to ever hit bullhead city which took out power to all residents the city knew that an emergency cooling center would be needed for hours and possibly days days ahead the plan for more than a decade has always been to use sunrise elementary school as a potential emergency shelter in the worst case scenario this was the first time the system was ever
024needed within moments city emergency crews sprang into action mr roy responded and gave full access to the school facility so we could get the generator started and welcome residents without power shortly thereafter a gentleman who needed his oxygen tank charged was the first to arrive at the shelter hundreds of people came to the sunrise shelter over the next 24 hours the city would like to commend principal roy and the entire bullhead city school district for its unwavering partnership for the betterment of the community we hope we don't have to use the generator again in the future but if we do we know we have the community partner putting others above themselves to help those in need signed by tom brady city mayor awesome thank you thank you yes yeah we can do that all right
025do we have any other questions for dr stewart no okay 2.9 board member updates uh did board members have any updates for us at this time sir okay item 3.1 right three the consent agenda we need a motion for the consent agenda we have a motion to adopt the consent agenda as submitted i'll make a motion that we adopt the consent agenda as presented i'll second that all in favor aye corey burgess aye amanda aymond aye charlene diaz aye anna boyd so moved item 4.1 service agreement with avm industry group llc dr stewart mr president and board members last meeting we discussed some issues that had to do with the service being provided by abm for maintenance landscaping and custodial services at your direction i sent a letter to abm indicating correction of deficiencies and
026failing that an intent to terminate the contract they have not substantially met the requirements set forth in the letter that i sent to them in the 30-day notice of deficiencies and therefore i'm recommending that we terminate their contract on 11 october do we have any questions for dr stewart we did our due diligence gave them their time frame yes okay all right then i would like to move that we terminate the service agreement with abm industries i'll second that all in favor aye corey burgess hi amanda amen i'm charlene diaz hi anna boyd so moved item 5.1 uh revised governing board policy ebaa and regulation ebaar first reading mr president and board members this was a policy and a regulation that we reviewed in the workshop last month where we did not have matching numbers
027for the number of hours for notification for um uh pest control or application of pest control so these now match uh to be 72 hours and uh so it's first reading of the policy it was the policy that did not match the regulation so to make that change you'll need to have this back on the agenda next month any questions it's just a first reading so no action needed item 5.2 regulation ebcr emergencies first aid in reference to policy ebv mr president and board members as we went through those policies last month there was for this particular one as i recall uh this is i think this is the one where we where it had a referral to another policy and there was nothing there and so we did not have a regulation um so
028this is uh the regulation that we gave to you last month as a sample from other districts and you all liked it so i'm submitting it to you this time for approval to add to our policy book any questions uh then i will make a motion that we approve regulation ebcr emergency first aid in reference to policy evb i'll second that motion all in favor aye corey burgess i'm amanda ayman aye charlene diaz hi anna boyd item 5.3 the 2022 aspa policy service advisory first meet first reading mr president and board members these are the policies that we just reviewed in uh in the workshop and so we put them on here as a first reading to give you an opportunity and the public an opportunity to review them prior to you considering adoption of
029them at the next meeting any questions no all right moving on to 5.4 new position maintenance custodial transportation dr stewart um mr president and board members having terminated the contract with abm then i'm recommending that we bring these services back in-house as district employees and so i'm recommending that we have these positions so a director of maintenance and operations and then at that person would be in charge of all the rest of these people directly an hvac technician a plumbing technician an electrical technician and a construction laborer and those four positions would be district level positions for maintenance of all of our facilities in the district that does not mean that they will necessarily be able to do all of the work because there will be some some tasks or some some situations where we'll
030still need to outsource those and that's been the case even with abm and then i'm recommending two landscapers for the district again those are that would be a district-wide positions and then for each site a lead custodian for the day and two custodians for the evening and that includes the lead custodian for coyote and then two night custodians that would do coyote this facility and transportation so so we're still getting the coverage that we need without having to have another lead custodian so i'm recommending that we create these positions questions my only concern by going in-house i just want to make sure that we get everything in a row um i don't want to see us get in a situation where we need certain parts and now we have to wait and get those bids
031in that we get all of that stuff ahead of time we will get it all lined up um there are some things absolutely there are some there are some issues there are some situations where we have to pay attention to procurement if we're over ten thousand 000 a year but for things like um i'm just going to say plumbing repair things for toilets for instance where we need the ball and the whatever those things are you know though we're not gonna we're not going to need ten thousand dollars worth of those things a year and so we can set up uh just like we do in transportation where we set up um an unopened po for uh parts for cars or buses up to some amount of money we can do that relative to this
032and so we would get those set up as quickly as we can and as we start to approach that we get ahead of that we'll get ahead of it the other thing the other thing we're learning this week because i've sent mark out to really really start looking at what we have in our custodial closets in the district and that kind of thing and we're finding an amazing number of parts that are just sitting on shelves in various custodial closets that we are then planning to relocate and set up our own shop if you will a warehouse a maintenance warehouse and we would do that at the facility at mountain view that's still our property and and we would do that with pieces of equipment that for instance a plumbing snake we might have two
033of those in the district well okay it's much better for our plumber to know it's always down there as opposed to oh which school has it today and that kind of thing so we've already got in in the works some things to streamline and make more efficient what it is we're doing with with this process carolyn how soon do you think you have all these people hired well with your approval we'll post positions tomorrow and they must be posted at least five days i suspect that some of the current abm employees may apply for some of them and of course we would give consideration to some of those folks if they've been doing a good job you know we would we would certainly like to keep them um and then it's just going to depend
034on what's out there on the in the information that i gave you about the costs um where because i wanted to be very transparent about this this move is not going to save the district money what it's going to do though will allow us to break even we should be able to do all the things we need to do and not spend more than we've been spending but if you notice and get our stuff taken care of and the advantage of that is if somebody's not doing their job we can terminate them and and we've not been in a position to do that you know if they're and obviously there are a lot of things that have not been done and we're going to be bringing to you a plan for how to start addressing
035those things because of course we can't do them all in the next month you know even if we had employees but we want to have a very definite plan on how we're going to address these many things that have not been addressed and still address any emergencies you know because things happen things happen um and and have that if you notice charlene in the uh the paperwork that i gave you for the first month um because we really want to take some time looking for a plumber a plumbing technician and an electrical technician the electrical technician particularly has some definite qualifications that have to do with safety for that person and for everybody around so at for at least a month we we can we can do with a director and an hvac we can't
036we've got to have an hvac person as soon as we can find that person because every single day we have an hvac breaking down literally every single day so um uh and then you know hire these other folks as quickly as we can and get them on board i like the statement that you made is this is not about saving money but we're not according to the our projected numbers we're not spending more so this isn't going to cost us more money um according to our projected numbers it is a savings but that's not we might need more people we might we might need more people and that we would be able to work that into this two landscapers was a concern four days a week i'm like we have more campuses than that so
037well but we have when when we get to the next item where you're looking at job job descriptions um had the lead custodian in the daytime can also help with that you know so and there's some cross cross duties going on and i and i did increase it i mean historically this district had one landscaper one well those of us who've worked here knew know that that wasn't adequate we might have to think about a third one we don't know we're making our best judgments here i do want to note to you that the expense of rolling over to this program is being helped immensely by the fact that mrs lot has has some funding in our grants in our esser grants to help us with with some supplies that we might you know we
038might find that there are not enough supplies in certain things not enough hand paper towels to get through the rest of the year but helping us with that but also with some of those expensive pieces of equipment if we need them one of the other things that marcus found walking around and taking photos of those custodial closets is that there is equipment sitting in those closets unused and so we may not even have to replace some things or purchase some things new now we'll make sure those things are working because if they're not they don't do us any good and then we really do need to look at vehicles we've got to have a way for these district level people to get around to do their jobs and and so each one of those needs
039a vehicle so we're looking at our current inventory of vehicles out in transportation to see if we have anything that's not being regularly used that we can either repair or put into service uh i did get some information back from dennis circu who's the director of the lead mechanic and those items are all in pretty bad shape uh and and maybe only one of them would be worth repairing to use but if that's the case i don't want to use car lot back here let's sell them and then that money can you know that money has to go back into that same account and that would help us purchase um some vehicles so um a lot of people a lot of moving parts to this whole this whole thing any other questions all right then
040we need a motion to approve item 5.4 i'll make a motion that we approve item 5.4 new positions for our maintenance custodial and transportation i'll second that motion all in favor aye corey burgess aye amanda ayman aye charlene diaz i anna boyd so moved out of 5.5 job descriptions dr stewart mr president and board members we went back to the historical record of job descriptions for some of these positions and started with those and then revised them to bring them up to what we think needs to happen so these are the job descriptions for the positions that you just approved any questions on the job descriptions then can we get a motion to approve the job descriptions am i missing what vehicle attendant is um we have a vehicle yeah and that's the one thing
041that is transportation and i'm sorry i had it on the other one the vehicle attendant is the one who is the person who keeps all of the particularly the white fleet functioning um you know when we check out cars and we've been checking them out a lot lately to go pick up our filipino teachers at the airport and take them down to social security and whatever so this person makes sure the car is clean fueled has few you know has fluids um uh and keeps the records for them being checked out and checked in uh so you know it's it's very much a part-time job that's what i had assumed it was it just wasn't on yeah so yeah and it's and it's uh and the hours are it was kind of hard to bury
042put that it's varied you know we may need the person on monday and not need them until thursday so you know it might be that instead of two actually two hours a day they might work four hours on monday and six hours on thursday and nothing in between so um it's a it's a floating kind of hourly thing any other questions all right we get a motion to approve the job descriptions i move to approve the job descriptions amanda ayman oh it's like for that motion charlene diaz all in favor aye corey burgess i'm amanda ehman aye charlene diaz hi anna boyd and mr president sorry to back up on this but this is not a new position this is a position we've had it's just that we never had a job description and so
043to post this for uh for the public you know for people to see if they want to apply we better be telling them what the job is so it's not a new position item 5.6 bid for new fire panel at bullhead city middle school fox creek and diamondback mr president and board members if you recall and you may not but uh we had originally built into sr3 replacement of fire panels at every site that needed them we woefully underestimated because all of the fire panels are obsolete so there's no way to replace just a fire panel it means replacing the entire system at the school so that means pulling wires putting in new pulse stations putting in new uh lighted horns and all of those kinds of things so much more expensive than we expected
044you may also recall that about six weeks ago the fire panel at coyote went off on a friday when i was not here and they couldn't shut it off and when and the only way to shut it off was to totally disconnect it so we filed with sfb and sfb is replacing is replacing the fire panel at coyote we put out bids for the three other sites that need immediate attention and and you can see the prices that they came in we managed to jen managed to rearrange funding in essers so that we could do two of the sites and then we have submitted the other one to sfb and it has been approved so we will be replacing these systems just as soon as they can get all of the parts and pieces if
045you approve these and we couldn't get the other two through sfb we could have but we well we might have been able to but we already had built it into esser and and felt like we really needed to follow through uh with you know with what we had originally started so i think it would just take a little bit longer if we were going through sfb and we have been hitting them hard for air conditioners yes we have been uh jenny beck has done a marvelous job of of applying and um i think we're already in this fiscal year i think we're already into sfb for over half a million dollars okay so any other questions and i move we approve the bid for the fire panels for bullhead middle school fox creek and diamondback
046i'll second that motion charlie diaz you all in favor aye corey burgess i'm amanda eamon aye charlene diaz hi anna boyd phil moved item 5.7 revised cobit 19 return to school plan and protocols mr president and board members we needed to do this anyway we're in a new school year and about a month ago cdc actually too late to get on last month's agenda cdc came out with some new recommendations relative to how we handle these so um i'm submitting to you the revised return to school plan and it we need to continue to call it that even though we've been in school all of this time because that that title is connected to the approval of some of the grants that we have we have to verify for esser grants that we have up-to-date
047return to school plans and and then we needed the protocols for students and for employees relative to covid19 and these do comply with the the policies that we reviewed during the workshop do we have any questions do we have a motion for item 5.7 i'll move to approve the return to school plan for 22 23. right i'll second yes i'll second that motion all in favor aye corey burgess i'm amanda ehman hi charlene diaz hi anna boyd so moved item 5.8 being your executive session ars 3843103 a2 discussion or consideration of record exempt by law from public inspection including the receipt and discussion of information or testimony that's specifically required to be maintained by state or federal law so we need a motion to enter into cons executive session i'll make a motion we enter
048into executive session charlene diaz all second amanda amen all in favor aye corey burgess i'm amanda eamon i'm charlene diaz hi anna boyd so moved we are in executive session [Music] [Laughter] [Music] do [Music] [Laughter] [Music] so [Music] so [Music] so [Music] [Laughter] [Music] i'll make a motion that we reconvene to our regular session second amanda amen all in favor aye rory burgess hi amanda amen aye charlene diaz hi anna boyd um there's no need for a motion at this time so moving on to item 6.2 discussion and consideration for kindergarten request um actually mr president this would be 7.2 yeah and uh the family of the student has requested that this hearing be in public so you could offer them the opportunity to um share their appeal to you hi good evening everybody my
049name is latina white i am petitioning for my son to go to kindergarten he's three days off of the cut-off date i inquired about preschool and there's no spots available and i really feel that for his development his emotional and mental well-being that he would really thrive being in a structured school environment right now he's just going to day care which is not the same so i i really think that would be in his best interest also i'm a single mother so um so my ability to maintain my employment and stability and security is really important for the success of my family so i really hope that you guys can see that perspective of things and help me out did he attend preschool beforehand um he has in the past we came here from colorado
050and he was in preschool in a montessori school with kovid he was out of school for a while and then somehow he did get enrolled into kindergarten and phoenix when he was with with with others but i don't know how they allowed that because the cutoff is the same throughout the state but he did start in a kindergarten classroom for this school year and then he had to go back into daycare so just to so you understand where i'm at with situations like this oh sorry just so yeah they're under my mic wasn't on i apologize where i'm at with these situations um i'm a pretty firm believer that that's there for a reason um and kids need to be ready for for that early education because that sets the pace for their entire educational
051years is those first three years um we had your your son tested and he's not ready can i comment on that i just want to say that i think that the lag in education due to covid caused a lot of that i don't think it's an incapability um i think it's simply the fact that he's been out of school and i think had he been in school he would have showcased that he was knowledgeable in school-related information and and i understand what you're saying and and the problem being is that right now we put him in a kindergarten classroom he is going to be very frustrated because he he academically lacks those skills that he needs for kindergarten he really should be in a preschool right now um i worry about i i'm like mr
052bridges i am a firm believer in kind of sticking to those those time frames for a reason i worry about even if he was academically great right now five years down the road he's going to hit a wall and maturity wise he's going to hit a wall and so it's in my opinion just my opinion that it's very difficult and very not always wise to push a child into an a in a grade that he is not mature maturity wise ready for if that makes any sense but um yeah academically though you're right he's probably that may be part of it pandemic but he's not ready for kindergarten right now i think that's an opinion and i think i understand that you're looking at like five years from now but what we're talking about is
053right now and i think he just needs the opportunity to catch back up and i think that he if placed in a kindergarten classroom he would do well he has a first grade sister i mean he has a sister who's in first grade so he's not [Music] it's not like he's not used to being you know around school-aged children or in that environment he he does well with other kids he does well in a structured environment but with him not having that not only is he combating the loss of school from from covid and other things and a lot of trauma that we've had in the last year but then he's going to go a whole nother year without getting that introduction and exposure to not just the academic side of things but being around
054other kids his age i mean there's like a baby right now in his daycare because every it's a small town there's minimum options and um i would like to point out that i did apply for a preschool position i mean a preschool uh slot um when i signed my daughter up for preschool and i was told that there weren't any and then i got a letter saying that there was one and of course when i went in there it's gone so i feel like i did my due diligence to get him into kindergarten and i was not given that same information because i was flat out told we don't have any spots that was going to be my question because and i filed a complaint regarding that so now that's why i'm in this position
055so i was i was going to be my next follow-up was did we try to do a pre-k route because yep we've got some awesome preschool programs that i yeah benefit him because it you're right it's his age group it would be within his his age yeah i agree so i did and i was not given that information um i don't know why i i came came in i i think multiple people can attest to that and i filed a complaint about that because i there was a spot at diamondback that nobody told me about and when i went to come in the monday after i received the letter friday it was taken already and he probably could have got that spot so because nobody gave me that information when i came into coyote canyon
056for it then that put me in this position yeah those spots fill up fast right but i asked while the spot was not taken i asked when it was august 17th i got a letter that friday and then i went in monday because nobody told me they told when i went in on the 17th i was told there was no spots but there was one at diamondback so i filed a complaint regarding that so i feel like i've done everything that i could do and now this is my option otherwise i'm going to be faced with a financial hardship among other things i do did anybody else have no i do understand your situation we do have a waiting list for the preschool and i'm not saying that's the decisions being made i'm just giving
057information that i know of um and i do sympathize with your situation but my where i'm at with this situation personally is he's not ready and we're asking to move him into a class that he by age group shouldn't be in any ways if he was there and and honestly i i think in all my years i've done it once or twice once i've ever moved a child into in up a grade because i that's my feeling now the other board might be another way but that child was ready and i personally really have a hard time with that because those first years are so important educationally and to me that that that's kind of where i'm at they have to be ready to be there and by that deadline age-wise he's not supposed to
058be in kindergarten so we're we're asking for an exemption to a rule so if that exemption there has to be extraordinary circumstances to do that in my opinion thank you for your opinion i would just like to say i think it is extraordinary circumstances um i'm a single mom i have no support i am paying 600 a month for him to go to daycare which i really cannot afford to do um also i would like to say that in my opinion was an error on your guys's part i know you said something about a wait list but um the person who filled the spot probably wasn't on the wait list they were coming in off the street just just like i was and had i been informed about that one spot being available my son
059would most likely be in that spot i mean in your letter to me caroline you said he would likely qualify for the title one or whatever spot but i wasn't afforded that opportunity unfortunately um okay so i can 100 sympathize with what you're going through um my husband is disabled he was bedridden for two years and during that time i was going to college nonstop i could not afford daycare and i had a baby like he became bedridden two days after our third child was born and he was bedridden for two years so i can completely sympathize because not only did i not have a job i was doing full-time college but now my husband i had to take care of him and he couldn't get out of bed i discovered that there were grants
060that most a lot of preschools and daycares actually have you can ask them about them that will pay for a year of them to go to preschool um the one that we went to i think was it was the one that's no longer there like a stepping stones or something i don't know what it was but near walmart area it's not there anymore but i've heard of other people who've gotten this grant even tiny t-birds has this grant available so i'm just going to let you know that i'm 100 sympathetic to what you're going through but at the same time we have to keep in mind the child and i do believe that those cut off days are there for a reason but there is help there out there if you can't get into this
061preschool if you or and you need to get him into a daycare and you cannot afford it i do know that there are grants out there you can ask about those um you know if that if you if you know he can't get into the preschool right away or something like that but the thing is is is there's a lot of people in this community that are there's a reason we're title one schools and there's a lot of people who have children who can't afford to put their kids in daycare and who are going through situations like yours i've been through that situation and i would not have been able to survive and finish college if it wasn't for the grants that are out there and the help that i was able to get um
062but as an educator i look at these things and and i go you know there's there is a reason that cutoff is there and i know that sometimes it's desperate you get desperate and i understand that i very much do thank you for your opinion um i would just like to add that um he's three days shy of the cutoff um i just want to point that out is he's not like super far off he's three days from the cutoff secondly i would like to point out that while there are a lot of people dealing with the same rough circumstances single parenting whatever it may be this is i'm here right now trying to come to you guys and appeal you guys with my case just like anybody else has the ability to do um
063the biggest thing that is upsetting to me is i love that you guys have those grants like title one title one um what's upsetting to me is i could have had a spot for my son but i was withheld information about an available spot so i'm just curious how my community is going to support me now that they made an error where i lost out on a spot that i needed for my son so you're okay with him being in a pre-k classroom at this point it's it's not necessarily the fight for kindergarten but it's it's a fight for the education so when i first signed my daughter up at sunrise i asked them first do you have any pre-k spots they said you'll have to go to coyote canyon like immediately after doing being
064at sunrise i went to coyote canyon i talked to tammy alvarez and i talked to jamie cottrell i said are there any pre-k spots anywhere available they told me no meanwhile there's one at diamondback which i found out when i got my letter on friday this was wednesday that i went into coyote canyon so when i went in i'm not even kidding when i went in monday to go apply for the spot that that was literally i walk in and somebody else is taking the spot so had i known about it wednesday my son probably would be in that spot so now i'm having to petition for him to go to kindergarten because i feel like i was jaded out of that spot do you feel that he's ready for kindergarten i feel like absolutely
065absolutely absolutely i understand that you guys did a little test but i just feel like it's not accurate because he's been out of school give him some like me maybe even a month with me working at home on on school work which i've already been doing or with some extra supports in the community or you know whatever that looks like he'll be he'll be at the level he needs to be he's a smart boy he's a smart boy so i'm not i'm not worried about the academic side of things i i think that he's more than ready honestly and once he gets into school then he'll be trying to slow him down um but i think that he's ready to be in school whether that's a preschool setting or kindergarten i think he can handle
066either one any other questions and just to confirm we are full in all pre-k uh and the last time i checked um kate we are full yeah yeah so kate works very closely with uh with mrs alvarez and uh on this program partly because she's our sped director so a lot of the kids you know that we that we have to place are special needs kids and that's that's not your child so um uh you know so she they work very closely together and every spot is full and miss white so you know um the the day the day between when you were there and the day i sent you the notice somebody had withdrawn so that created that vacancy and then as you're and you're right then it immediately filled so um that that
067is a piece of knowledge well i i just wanted to point out i'm not offered a preschool slot that day i was not and i also want to point out that i asked jamie monday when i followed up about the spot i asked her how long that spot had been open at diamondback and she told me a while so i don't know if that's misinformation but that's what she told me so that's that's my perspective is according to my experience and what people said to me that spotted diamondback was open for a while do we normally have people drop like that for pre-k like is that a normal expectation that you know one here one there that no usually we have them lined up waiting i mean and and um yeah and one of the
068reasons one of the reasons we do that we are full right now is that one of our preschool classrooms that is funded with a grant excuse me we don't have a teacher so if we can find a teacher we have 15 new slots okay any additional questions do we have a motion to consider a kindergarten request i apologize but with no motion what is the process to appeal there is no appeal what do i do next because i don't feel like this is just i i apologize that you feel you were wronged but this is the final step the board we are elected by the community we make that final decision um at this point i would recommend that you see i didn't even know about the grants yeah but those are those are for
069daycares i want my son either in preschool or kindergarten she did mention tiny t-bird has one and tiny t-vert is a preschool it's a it's a it's an infant through preschool um it's located at mojave high school's campus um and it has infant one twos threes and preschools so you know how you said your son is in a classroom with an infant right now it wouldn't be the case there i know that one for sure um i can't speak to others i think new day also has a preschool don't they and just scooters and all of them do have grants that i am aware of because i know people scooters want to accept my son but i will look into the other ones i just want to clarify so if i am not happy with
070this decision or if i want to explore because there's i filed a complaint where do i where do i go with that okay the decision to enroll your child as a final decision is here i understand that but i want to make sure that my voice is heard on the injustice of not being offered a spot and i handled that already because i investigated and i was told by several of the people who work in the coyote office that the day that you brought him in for testing um you were told he did not do well on that and that he was into that preschool classroom and that you declined that at this point what i would suggest is that you get on the waiting list because we hope to find a teacher for that
071other classroom that's a lie you just said you just said they said i was offered a spot i was never offered a spot well and so what's the story and i'm listening to multiple employees at that campus who are telling me the other way so you know right listening to both sides and um and i go with you know i'm i i chose at the time to go with what they told me that you had been offered a preschool slot and that you said i want to appeal to the i want to appeal to somebody because at the time i'm sure you didn't know you needed to appeal to the board but no i didn't appeal to somebody i did kindergarten when i went to sunrise i knew that if if they didn't take him
072i would have to appeal and i was in and this makes me further upset because they're lying now i was never offered a spot which is why you gave me a letter when somebody withdrew apparently but i was never offered a spot so i'm just confused by now you're saying that they said i was offered a spot when they told me there was none available because that's what i learned when i followed up on your complaint and with that complaint if you filed that you did do the proper procedures okay i will i'll i'll i'll handle it on my own thank you thank you item 7.3 future topics do we have any future topics okay 7.4 upcoming board events uh september 14th is this well that's today we have to set a future meeting october
07313th so far so good for the 13th sorry no big conflict unless you are really hoping for that block party you have one look like full head shape or block right yeah for upcoming board events i think you've got the aspa function at the end of the month um at the end of the month isn't it september 29th ish county meetings oh there is the county meeting and and i'm melinda indicated she would go um and i'm hopeful that some of the rest of you can go i i'm already committed um i committed to being a judge for the caas and awesome so i'm already booked for that one not available okay i won't be able to make that one that's the county meeting so it would be nice if somebody represented the district and
074i think melinda indicated that she would and if anyone else is able to go just please uh let us know and we'll get you scheduled for that but at this point october 13th looks good for everyone sure and if anything i'll work on it thanks and if anything does change please let us know yeah so we can we can we can make that happen so let's pretend i said that for now um october 13th at the 5 30 workshop at a six o'clock meeting okay that's did we need to make a motion for the kindergartener no no no only make a motion if we're going to accept it okay it die it died for the lack of emotion okay all right with that we are adjourned [Music] you