001For example, in that we're going to work on the career literacy or the career awareness standards where students are focusing on standard one which is communication and on standard two where they're problem solving. So they're pitching their designs to their audience. We integrate both ISTY and state standards by having students synthesize information into digital multimedia presentations. So, for example, the second graders might use Seesaw to demonstrate their floor plan and their ideas for what an ideal classroom would look like. And the third graders might actually go a step further, create Google Slides or maybe use Canva to show their flow uh to demonstrate what their flow plan looks like based on the needs of their students. the um the media standards under the engage foundation, students will show how to use um new knowledge and
002mix it with a real world audience making their making their and so that includes read aloud which is very important for our media literacy piece where students can listen to books, look at um role models within those books and use some of those ideas into their projects that are upcoming. In order to maintain good quality and high quality instruction, we're using the project-based learning model from University of Pennsylvania, which really looks at four pillars of project-based learning. The first pillar is disciplinary. We're really looking at what does the discipline, which is the career awareness standards. That's our discipline. That's our lens that we're using. And then we're looking at what are the careers and in in that career how does that discipline really look like. Moving on to the second pillar, we're looking at authenticity.
003So we're providing real world problems that mimic what the um what the actual career would undergo. And so that also brings in the technology standards that we would be highlighting along with that. The third pillar is collaboration which is the the hallmark of our career awareness program. Our portrait of a learner has all of those aspects to it where we're talking about communication. How do you work as a team? How do you um divide up responsibilities and how do you provide a product at the end of that time? And the last one is iteration, which is the fourth pillar of project- based learning. Is how do you teach students that not every time your first product is your best product, but that you have to keep iterating and how do you work through that iteration
004process and how do you demonstrate you're learning about that career through your product? And the products can be varied. um it can be an actual thing that they do um a structure that they make or it could be as simple as a graph paper and a design on a graph paper. So we want to make sure that they have the ability to choose what kind of product works for their project menu. This project is just one example of how we're making career awareness a positive, a factual and an easy to implement um place. We're aligning existing standards to real world applications to make learning far more tangible. Um, we want to make sure that by the time our students leave elementary school and are ready for middle school, they are ready for the next step,
005which is our career exploration. So, thank you for your time and I'm going to have our assistant director talk about Madame President, members of the board, superintendency, I'm going to talk to you about the >> You want to introduce yourself? >> Yes. >> I'm Patty Fernandez, assistant director of curriculum instruction. >> Thank you. And our support plan. So, since we started uh two years ago working in this project. Our goal has been to partner with the sites with the leaders and the teachers to make sure that we co-create uh what what we're presenting to you now. And throughout this work, we also identify different needs for support. So uh we have support for teachers but also for our uh administrators. And we recognize that each site has a unique need. So our plan is trying
006to meet the different needs for all of our 31 elementary schools. So uh we are providing quarterly release days. We're going to continue to do that next year where we bring our teachers to provide uh professional learning but also planning time with the coaches and all the support that they need. We want them to be successful and that is our goal to make sure that our support allows them to deliver instruction, implement uh with success. And with that in mind, we also added the one-on-one coaching assignments. So we have one coach serving three schools right now um because we know that once the PD is over then the teachers go in there by themselves right so we want to make sure that the supports not only when they come to us but the support also
007goes to them so the coach has the role to come and meet with planning coaching um principles have been very generous and even given additional time for meetings for planning and it's the idea is that each side has their little design team for to meet the needs of their schools. Um our leaders are going to share a little bit more how they're doing that and uh what DEA presented which was the curriculum menu. So it's a starting point but this curriculum menu also has the intention to allow for autonomy. Different sites have different needs, different realities and maybe one idea, one context might not really be applicable to another campus. So what we say is preserve the standards that we are want to address, preserve the career um cluster, but then we're giving them some
008flexibility in which context you could do that and also how far do you want to go into a lesson. So, um, we went with the two-year rotation to minimize the, uh, planning because we recognize it's one or two people doing this for all K6. So, the two-year rotation allows them to to um uh have more time to emphasize uh the the planning in one project. instead of doing seven different things is four uh with uh the different grade levels and also we are providing so we recognize too that with the autonomy also we want to keep some pieces consistent. So we know that all kindergarteners are for sure being exposed to certain standards certain career cluster. So what we did is we fully developed four lessons for the teachers and those were calling them required
009for the year. The teacher chooses when if they want to do quarter one, two, three or four. It's up to them when they see it's it fits better in their year. But we are fully developing. So they don't even need to think about it. They still have autonomy on some pieces but we are modeling how this can be done. And then for our administrators, something too that we want to provide is professional development. So when teachers come after a PD, we're all speaking the same language and also our site leaders can support their teachers, but also we have our own um opt uh optional office hours that we schedule every quarter and they are virtual. So we know that principal's time is very precious and and limited. So we try to make it accessible and
010this anyone who wants to just connect and let's see how we're doing. This year we did it with the 13 schools next year because it's everybody now we're going to transition that to our PLC's um and be able to also provide that support to the site leaders so they can talk to each other. How are you managing this? How are you working this out? And just creating that space for collaboration. And with that, I'm going to introduce our first uh leader from Patterson. Our principal will share more. >> Thank you, Patty. Madame President, members of the board and superintendency, I am Sarah Stevens from Patterson and I'm so excited to be able to go over this one slide with you because the um impact this has had at Patterson has been so positive in so
011many ways and has been exciting for me as the principal to go through this transition. Um so as Jessica said we all have a cool name for the CSL standards and um we are empower university at power at Patterson to empower our students to find their strengths to find their interest empower the collaboration the creativity the design um and here's some positive things that we are seeing and one of them starts with a standard align excellence um as Patty and Deepo were sharing with you um we have dove into the units and the lessons that the IRC has already created for us and have been implementing those throughout the year. Um, it's the integration of career awareness, technology, media, very similar to what a general education classroom teacher would do when they're integrating maybe a
012social studies standard into a piece of a reading standard and then they apply their knowledge into a reading standard. The lessons are so fun. They're creative. The kids love them. They are welldesigned to include universal design for learning to reach all types of learning for all of our students. Um, and we've been able to take these units that have already been created to um extend outside of the classroom space going to Junior Achievement. We're taking our kids to a field trip um called Biztown if any of you have ever heard about it, but it's uh yeah, so we're so excited um because we have never done that before until this opportunity arose. And so our empower you teachers um are doing those biz lessons and the kids are so excited to extend their learning on
013a field trip. We've also been able to connect our empower you classes to vehicle career days where we've had many community partners come out and inspire our kids with career awareness with their vehicles and give presentations and they are also learning about those careers um with those vehicles in class. Uh but again, um the well-designed lessons that have already been prepared make it easy for our teachers. Everything is lined out with resources that are easy to get, materials that are easy to find. Um so it it's been an exciting process. Um obviously the hands-on innovation, which you've all been hearing about several times, the collaboration, um students are inventing, they're problem solving. Um, and it's been a great transition because some students perceive that traditional library and tech space to be a little bit more
014passive learning. Um, you get those, um, older kids who want to be more active and and involved with hands-on projects. The littles who thrive on creativity and innovation. Um, they're like, "Yeah, Miss Business is awesome. I'm just not typing in tech lab anymore. I built a backpack today." So, you know, you're hearing um the excitement of not so much a more traditional library and tech setting at my school. Um the behavioral impact that we have seen has been so positive with students um improved classroom management, with their participation rates because they're engaged. Um you know, you've got um your lawyers who like to be busy bodies. We've seen a lot of interest in our male students um who get that hands-on experience rather than again just sitting and listening to a library book which has
015a lot of benefits as well. But the engagements with our littles, our our older kids and our male students, we have seen they are just all in and they love it. To my next point with the extended learning, a lot of our kids, they are choosing to bring their power university projects out to recess. I'll be walking out there uh you know monitoring basketball as always, but I'm going you guys what are you doing? We're building on a roller coaster, Miss Stevens from uh from our our How are you class? And so they're extending their learning and they're enjoying this um design, this innovation as a thing to do at recess. And so that's something to celebrate that our students have more things to do at recess in that collaborative creative space. Um and then
016last um we can demonstrate success. It's a little bit harder to show parents the growth and a library class or a technology class, but when they're building projects, we can have things to display. We have things to post on social media to tell our story of these amazing projects that are being built. Um the parents love coming to band concerts, orchestra concerts. We've got projects display throughout the hallways. Um our students are also um cheering each other on when we do um kind of tours throughout the school and kids can see the other projects that other grade level bubbles are doing and they're like, "Oh, I can't wait to build a greenhouse next year." Um so it's really fostered a community of excitement with the students. Um I'm just very excited about it. Um so
017those um are some of the positive impacts um that we've had at Patterson. Um, but I've got to say, um, a huge thank you to Jessica and the IRC because really the units that have been created is what we stood on this year and it has made the transition so easy for our teachers to have everything just there for them and um, they can be creative with it as well. All right, I think I probably passed my three minutes. Thank you. >> Thank you. And now we will have our principal from home. Madam President, members of the board, superintendency, my name is Josh Kaggel. I am the proud principal at Hull Elementary. And at Hull, we have a beautiful synergy of this curriculum in our space. We were fortunate enough to be in the first
018round of reimagined spaces in Chan Unified. And we transformed our media and technology area into this beautiful like ginormous space for kids. We call it our spark center. Um our eagle's name is Sparky. So we try to get there. Uh so our spark is stands for study, problem solve, apply, research, and question. Those are all things the kids do while they're in that. We don't call it library. You don't call me. It's spark. Um in that space, it was designed uh before we even knew about this to fit this project or this uh curriculum. Um lots of tech space, lots of open floor space, lots of storage space. Uh and we still are able to have a library immediate area so our um kids still have access to the books and have access to the
019research. Um that area is where our teacher presents her lessons and things like that. Um there are zones within almost like a neighborhood within our school. Um, and another beautiful thing about that neighborhood feel is that there are windows all around which increases the engagement across the campus because as kids are walking to and from uh recess lunch, you have it. Um, they can look inside and see the kids creating a building and they want to do like Sarah's mention roller coaster. That's the big one. Um, it is definitely a resource for all grade levels to come in and utilize. Um, combined with our spark teacher, she does a whole class group activities. Um we also offer uh what did I say? I forgot the word interventions. Uh we offer interventions in there. Our specialist
020teachers provide interventions. Um and really it is a multifunctional space and we take all the things that we talk about with these careers with the specialties and we we build on it and and we have the space to perform on it. Um and so we take everything from public theaters online Tinkercad. Um, and the the quote down there that the learners to creators is what we're really looking for for our kids. So, we provide the space, we provide the organization, um, and they can learn about the career, learn about the space, and then create amazing things. And I did provide a picture here of our space. Um, some of you were there when we opened last October. Um, you're welcome to come back April 23rd for business day. Uh, feel free. So, if you're standing
021in the center of our space looking to the left, that's our media center. So, you can see the books are still there. We have lots of space for kids to meet, collaborate, play, build, and uh present. And then on the right side is the more building, maker space type area with functional modular tables, um a place for robotics. We have higher tables with the power tools, all those neat, fun things that kids like to do and fit perfectly with this multimedia career various position. So, thank you for your time. >> Thank you, Mr. K. And now we will have our principal from Anderson Elementary. >> Good evening, Madam President, members of the board, and Mr. Narduchi. I'm Christine Kinghorn, and I'm the proud principal at Anderson Elementary. And I know I've seen some of you
022recently in the past week, so welcome. Good to see you again. Um, tonight I am joined by some of my amazing Anderson Astronaut students. And together we get the pleasure of speaking about guest speakers and the alignment to careers. So guest speakers and partnerships played a huge role in the success of our action lab. So we we are the action lab. Little different names everywhere you go. Not only does it help get the word out to stakeholders in Arizona and beyond about the innovation that's happening right in our Chandler schools, but these experiences allow our students to make real world connections to careers that they can study and pursue in the future. This year, our fifth graders took a field trip to Thunderbird School of Global Management where the students from the school and members
023from the Arizona District Export Council collaborated with our fifth grade students to connect their exhibition topics to careers, identify skills used in those careers and global impacts those careers may have. And if you want to save the date, May 8th will be our IB exhibition day where you'll see all of those career or all those projects on display. Currently, our first grade students are in their who we are unit, which is an inquiry into skills people need to do different jobs and how jobs help our community work. Students hear straight from uh hands-on experts in their field. They're able to get their questions asked and they connect with the community members to explore various jobs that interest them. So, I could go on and on about all that we're doing to utilize partnerships to make
024connections to career awareness, but I think it's best that you hear from the students who are directly impacted themselves. So, it's my pleasure to bring up James Johansson, Danny Lada, George Adsets, and Mason Chapper, current fourth and fifth grade students. Uh, good evening members of the school board and madame president. Uh, my name is James and I'm a fifth grade student at Anderson Elementary and I'm very interested in engineering. In fact, I chose to do um my exhibition project on it. I did a lot of research on my own, but I also had an amazing opportunity to learn by interviewing experts in the aerospace field. My teachers helped set up a video conference with engineers from Moog, Blue Origin, and Honeywell, including people from both Phoenix and Mexico. We also invited other interested fourth and
025fifth graders to join us. Before the meeting, I was in charge of creating the agenda. I had to think about who the timing, who would be attending, and the goal of the meeting. I also collected and organized questions from my classmates. Um during the meeting, I was who led it. The adults stood on the sidelines while I practice communicating in a in a professional setting. It was exciting because I got to interview people who have the job I want when I grow up. Listening to them helped me learn more about engineering and it and inspired my thinking. It also helped me understand the real world skill I skills I need like um planning, communication and leadership. They inspired the wrote about >> Good evening members of the board. My name is Danny. I'm a fifth
026grader in Anderson Elementary. I'm a multi language learner. I'm proud to speak two languages. I also was part of the interview room the engineerings. One question asked what are the skills you need to be an engineering? I I want the engineers needed to be strong solers and good at work with 18. I also asked how they make an impact in the world. They shared that they make travel safer and which make helps people all over the world. Something else I thought really interesting is that two speakers from Honeyville but one is in Phoenix and one was in Mexico. They show me that they are global citizens. They have open minded respect to different ideas. They also adapt the communicators. One of the engineers told us that he speak both English and Spanish every day depending
027who he talk to. That made me think about myself. I'm also adaptive communicators and made me will use both my garage in my future too. This experience show me that what we're learning now is connected to our real jobs in real life. Thank you for giving us this opportunity. I am witness to your adaptive communication at the A+ celebration at Anderson. Um Danny very confidently said yes on the spot to a Spanish interview um from the media that was present. That was so impressive to me. So great job. >> Good good evening members of the school board. My name is George and I'm a fifth grader at Anderson Elementary. Before starting one of my action lab projects, we had the opportunity to hear from guest speakers who work as shoe designers for Boba Fett and
028UGG. It was exciting to hear from them because it was nice to see cool people in my job who were making the world better. After hearing from them, I was inspired to create my own shoe in action lab. One important part of the project was showing empathy. We had to design a shoe for someone else and think about what they needed. I decided to design a shoe for my sister because she needs comfortable shoes. This helped me really think about how my design could solve a real problem. After that, I had to plan my design, gather materials, and build a prototype of my shoes. I also created a commercial to advertise it. During this project, I used many different skills. I used research skills because in my classroom, I learned about force, motion, and friction
029in science and I applied that to my shoe design. I also used self-management skills. I had to manage my time and materials and I even changed my design a few times when I realized I could make it better. I used both. I also used communication. I wrote out a plan to organize my ideas and I used persuasive communication when I created my commercial to convince others to buy my shoe. This project showed me how what we learn in school connects to real careers and real world skills. It made it made me feel proud of what I created and excited about what I can do in the future. Thank you for listening and for supporting learning like this at our school. >> Good evening members of the school board. My name is Mason Chapick and I'm
030a fourth grade student at Anderson. I am here to share how we learn about exploration in our classrooms and in the action lab through guest speakers and design. In class, we studied exploration and history. We learned that long ago people explored new lands for reasons like finding resources, making money, and gaining freedom. I think learning about exploration is important because it helps us understand our past and how our world became what it is today. Through Chandler Unified School District, we also had the opportunity to go to the Chandler Center of the for the Arts and hear from NASA engineer. This connected really well well to what we were learning because he represents the present and future of exploration by exploring Mars. Even though his career is not my uh personal career choice, I still find
031it very interesting and inspiring. After that experience, we worked on an action lab project where we describe designed our own ro Mars rovers. During this project, I had to problem solve and take risks to come up with new ideas. I also had to plan carefully and create a budget. If we ran out of money in our planning, then we could not buy any more building materials for the project. I also built a prototype of my design, which was my favorite part. This project helped me develop important skills. I use self-management skills to manage my time, money, resources, and full safety. I also use thinking skills like problem solving, and creativity. I practice my written communication skills by planning and organizing my ideas. Thank you for all supporting my learning opportunities like this. They help students
032like me grow and try new things. Speaking of trying new things, I'll be honest, I'm a little nervous in speaking by speaking in front of you today. But I'm proud of myself for stepping outside of my comfort zone. And who knows, maybe I could even add this on my resume someday. Thank you for your time. Fantastic. And thank you, Kristen Kinghorn, principal of Anderson. That was amazing. I really appreciate all four of you being here tonight and sharing your experience in the action month. Next, I want to bring up a couple of our business partners. First, I'm going to start with Matt Lions. Mr. Matt Lions is from McCarthy because in this space of career awareness, connecting with partners is very important. So, Mr. Matt Lions is going to speak a little bit about our
033partnership with McCarthy. Uh, thank you, U, Madame President, members of the board, superintendency. Um, I'll admit I'm a little nervous talking to I don't know whose idea it was to have us follow them. Um, my name is Matt Lions. Uh, I am our business unit leader for education uh for McCarthy Building Companies. Our business relationship with CUSD is really to be your builder of choice, but we're also proud community members and also really big advocates of all the work that you're doing in developing new pathways for these students. Uh down the street here in Chandler, we have our workforce training center and uh that's where we train all of the craft workers that we employ on a day-to-day basis. Right now, we employ about 850 full-time craft that do various things from electrical to concrete
034to building information systems, some modeling, things like that. But it's really cool just to kind of see how all the work that's getting done here transfers into the work that's being done done out there. Uh being being an employer of so many craft professionals and then also a builder in the community, we have a strong sense for the work that's taking place in the community, but also what's coming. And so as we look to one of the questions that we were asked of today is how can you help the district? What are some of the relationships that exist that we can leverage to help move your your pathways forward? And that's one of the things I think about is just being in the community, understanding the work that's taking place. Being able to see what's
035out in front of us can really help can really help identify the programs that you want to instill within your schools. Maybe what some of that tooling looks like, what some of those pieces of equipment look like, and and how we can how we can help identify those opportunities. Uh we we do all of that just recognizing that the passion that that our people build with that we get to train and teach on a day-to-day basis, that passion starts with what we are seeing here today. And I think it's so cool to see it on display because the earlier we can engage our students in in the things and identifying the things that they love to do every day, that absolutely transfers into the work they get to perform for us later on in their
036careers. And so one of the ways that we can help is we we do a lot of things around career affairs. It's really about identifying what that student's passion is. How do we speak to what makes sense to them? We do a lot of things around career fairs, but we also do a lot of things around construction clubs. A lot of our a lot of our superintendents love to participate in construction clubs after school with students to identify, you know, it's just building general things. We'll build a birdhouse or a toolbox, things like that. And just being a community member and being involved in the community that we get to, fortunately enough to build in is really important to us. Uh we're also really involved in base mentorship. That again is then the ability to
037engage with our students and help them identify what what type of career they might be interested in further down the road. And then as they start to get further into their career into into high school and things like that, uh we we do a lot of internships with students and helping them identify what their postsecary career education might look like. In a lot of cases, it doesn't necessarily need to be, you know, a college path, but a lot of the CTE programs guiding them. into the trades that they develop that passion for. So, just want to thank you for your time. I want to encourage uh the board to leverage us to the degree you feel is is necessary because we're really we're really passionate and excited about all the all the programs that you're
038you're standing up within the district. So, thank you. And our next partner and it's actually her anniversary tonight. So thank you for coming is Miss Angela Cton from Intel just sharing a little love tonight. I guess president school board members superintendent and our chief thank you so much for inviting Intel to be here tonight. Uh this is a a long-standing partnership. We've got over 45 years in Chandler. Uh we grew farmland and here we are today. So, we've seen some ups and downs, but if things have grown and we've developed quite quite a bit over the years, but it was a few months ago and I want to say it's probably nine months ago that I sat down with Dr. Edgar and the superintendent and we discussed our relationship and we wanted to take it
039just a little bit further than where it was today. We want to look at it a little bit more holistically. How do we develop the workforce of the future? knowing what we're facing. We've got AI. We have a change of advanced manufacturing uh approach. How can we look at this and how can we grow and develop together? So, we have all of these different programs that we're supporting, but we wanted to pull it together and make sure that it was going to be a fit for the students of the future. We saw the talent for today. That's that's incredible. And thank you for your shout out to Bistown. We also support this town. Um but that was actually what what the approach was going to be. We wanted to develop that together and it wasn't
040about you know how much funding can you provide what can you do here what can you do there how can we do it together and that is the secret of success in Chandler it's because we're doing it together so we have the opportunity now to work on career literacy career awareness I guess I have to pick up the new language there um and when we had the opportunity through our semiconductor education pathway program we jumped on we wanted to bring the the experience in a fab into the classroom. So, we have VR headsets that were being are being funded through the Intel project. So, we can give them that clean room experience without actually having to go into a clean room. Lots of opportunities to get that experiential learning and that's really what it's about.
041We need them to see that advanced manufacturing isn't the manufacturing of the past. It is something unique and different today. And so as we grow, as we develop as a community, I really am very very grateful for this partnership because it's grown so much more even just over the last few months. And so we're very proud to be a participant with the school district. Thank you for the opportunity. >> I just shared with her she'd like to go start her anniversary. She like, but she's staying. Uh I want to just conclude before we get to our last slide which is questions and we are running a little bit late here but I just want to conclude by saying this has been a long process a good process. Many people have sat at the table and
042collaborated to get to the space that we're at whether it's principles it's teachers uh it's our business partners and now our students which is fantastic. So the idea, the designs, the iterations that we have, the empathy that we're looking at uh from our portrait of a learner, but what this brings to the table is an avenue to make sure that we are really hitting those skills that will transfer to any job, any communication piece, whatever that our students decide to do as they grow up and live out their dreams. So I do want to say thank you to our strong leaders that are here, our site leaders. Uh teachers aren't here. If you are a teacher though, you can raise your hand. Okay? it. We don't have any right now, but I'll tell you what,
043those teachers work really, really hard and we have some very committed teachers. Um, and then I also just want to say thank you to our partners as well. Most importantly, thank you to our astronauts that came here today because you are the future and you are going to be able to put this on your resume, my friend, because you did a fabulous job. All four of you did. So, with that being said, with that being said, I just would like to move to questions. And so, President Sran, >> uh, this was phenomenal. I too want to thank our A+ Anderson astronauts that are here with us tonight. We had James who I think might have had to exit on a school night. Understandable. Um but Danny, of course, George and Mason, thanks for being with
044us tonight. You each did such a good job. Um and I do want to ask, do you have parents or any family members here? They could raise their hands. Anybody here? All right. Well, shout out to you. with us tonight on school night. I know that's not always easy. Of course, um testimonies, right? Miss Stevens, Mr. Kaggel, Miss King, thank you for your work and commitment to these projects and being the examples, right? You guys are the the beta testers, I guess, and show that it works. Um so, we're short on time. I I do want to address just one one question I had and then we can um communicate later Dr. Edgar with the department if that's okay on insuming questions. But um I love the idea of the flexibility and the autonomy that
045exists within the curriculum and the menu. I just wonder if that maybe not purposely, but if it could create some type of inequities related to funding and accessibility of projects that, you know, school sites might want to do. And that's just a little bit of a concern that that I have. um you know we have our dreams and wish lists and I'm just wondering when projects are selected and there's funding that's needed to make them happen what does that look like since each school site you know has their their autonomy on that so with the um math that was shown there are certain projects that are what do we call um specific what would you call it required I was going to have a more like special name but required projects for the grade bands
046and those are going to be supported by the district as far as the resources and the support uh like that space. I will say though in our um at our sites it has started with those foundational curriculum components and then as they move forward it's like oh we can do this and we can do this which is a little bit different but should there be a concern from the site that they don't have the funding for what they might want to do they will partner with curriculum instruction and teaching and learning and we can help make some of those connections for them and look at the funding component. >> Okay. And I think we all heard, you know, some concerns that exist from schools that aren't there yet and just ensuring that we are being
047transparent, communicative, and just now that contracts are out, right? Uh letting those positions know what to expect. >> Absolutely. So, we did have a PD plan for April 1st, and we had several parent or I'm sorry, principal requests saying, "Please don't pull our media tech teachers. We need them for state testing." And we said, "Absolutely not." So, we did push that back. Uh so that was a PD that was planned that didn't didn't go um at that time but it will be in May early May and so it's really fantastic that we have our uh school sites that have done the interviews and individuals that want to be in that media track position are there and ready to learn when we have that PD making sure that we also provide that support with the coaches
048that are assigned as we move forward. So it's not a oneanddone PD. We plan on having quarterly PDS the following year and direct support from our coaches as we move forward because we want this to be successful for our students as I'm sure you do as well. >> Thank you. >> And any quick questions Mr. >> Yeah. One thing we had the career literacy standards been renamed career awareness standards. Was there any major technical change or textual change in there or change? Actually, there was a change in title and Patty Fernandez as well as one of our CTE coaches, Lisa Wisen, were actually at the table at AD making some of those shifts and changes. And so, if you would like to come to speak a little bit about that, that'd be great. We were
049invited to be part of a committee that uh revised the original standards. The first standards were released in 2019 and then 2024 is when the revision started. So they were published last year, earlier last year and the name was uh shifted from Korean literacy to Korea awareness. And also the grade bands the it had a a different breakdown like for example they they had K2 standards and then two four standards and then it there was a lot of overlapping. So then they changed it to K5, 68 and then 912 now to to be more consistent. All right. The only other thing I say is the the internships are absolutely key. All these discussions are going on about internships for kids. That's what keeps them engaged. I want to encourage you as much as possible just
050to get them in the building even if they're sharpening pencils or caring neighbors just so we can see how the operation works. I think that's how you get fantastic. So, thank you. >> We'll wrap up with a question for Mr. Heare. >> Thank you, Madam President. So, for our I was principal Patterson. I haven't memorized names. I would uh >> Sarah. Yes. Um on your slide you talked about positive behavioral impact and uh I'm a firm believer that when we get kids um aligned with something that they're passionate about that it has you know um positive ramifications for them in terms of just focus with their schoolwork and whatnot. I was curious um on the statement, was there something specific that you did to to measure that behavioral impact? For instance, were there students that
051teachers had had um maybe some difficulties with challenging behaviors that they specifically reported fewer incidents after instituting the program? >> Yes, you're absolutely right. some of our students who typically struggle in high sensory environment sometimes um recess PE music sometimes students who struggle when they're not engaged enough they're bored behaviors start um start poking their partner start messing with things um we don't have to be called to those classrooms during empower you time um for those students who might typically show those behaviors in other areas it's kind of a perfect a perfect blend of both it's not completely high sensory environment um because there's lots of calm collaboration, discussion, teamwork, team building going on. Um and then you don't have the behaviors because they're not bored. Um and so it's been um an observational type
052of data collection of oh my goodness, I never have to be radioed down to empower you for any of these kids. like I would have to go pull them out of library maybe or they were having struggles in computer lab because they were bored and they were so it's it's more of of the observational data that we've seen um and um you know just having conversations with kids. I eat lunch with our students a lot. We always talk about their favorite part of the day. um you know, elementary kids a lot of time it's what PE music uh recess time and now they're like oh it's it's empower university is their favorite part of their day and so um you know we see those positive behaviors um in in that class as well and it's
053just not PE that's the best part of the day anymore. It's awesome. >> Thank you. >> Yes. Sorry, sometimes I wish I had telepathy. Um, well, thank you so much. I want to acknowledge the time. Um, I also want to acknowledge everybody, especially for the KD. Uh, we had family members watching from home. Our live stream is not working tonight, but the recording will be up. So, please share and brag all about your kids. You'll see yourselves on YouTube. And with that, um, I do want to take an executive decision of with our next presentation. Um, I just let Dr. Brener know, please complete your presentation as planned. Um, we will have to start our regular board meeting a little late, but we're not live tonight, so I think it's okay. All right. Thank you
054so much, Dr. Ed. And thanks again everybody who participated tonight. You did great. >> Thank you. participant of it. But I think we're finally It's the district, right? >> So, everyone's going So a little historical context we start having conversations to review what we're offering because we do offer robust programs throughout the prek through 12. Um we were starting to notice that our enrollments were decreasing in some of our programs. Um given what we were able to fill capacity wise and what we had identified as a need academically. Um there were some inequitable costs between our programs. We were also seeing some increased competition um being offered near us and that our students were taking advantage of that. Um we also as we started talking um we have a lot of options within our district
055and not even our own staff were aware of what we had. So there were inconsistency there. Um we identified some scheduling and flexibility. Some of our costs were prohibitive. Um there was some concern raised about engagement and whether or not the programming we were offering while robust was meeting our students, our community needs. So um from that um we started just asking more questions and in asking questions to give you kind of an example. This is a chart. This graphic shows what we were offering from last summer. And so this is a high school example. We offer you inerson credit recovery. We do we were doing online options and we were doing what's called our high schools. And if you take a peek at this chart, you'll see some of the kind of concerns we
056identified from prior slide. Um there were inconsistent fees ranging from $80 to $225 depending on what platform and where you were taking advantage of our summer programming. Um the even the payment and registration platforms were different by each type of offering. Um some were a little more cumbersome to navigate than others. So we had parents or families that were frustrated with that. Um we believe some of that is what led to low enrollment which meant then we were having to cancel some of our programs or offerings or reduce them. um some of the scheduling concerns. An example being we we noticed that in um our in-person credit recovery program, if a student had failed, for example, algebra 1, they were taking semester one of algebra 1 in the morning and semester 2 in the afternoon,
057but they were running concurrently. So, they didn't have prerequisite skills to be successful in the afternoon because they needed the morning instruction. So that was another problem we identified. Um our high schools weren't all unified in what they were doing or how they were offering it. We were trying each counselors were trying to explain to parents, but one counselor would know some options, another would know other options. So it it became evident we need to bring a bunch of people together to start evaluating what we're doing and how can we clarify and improve. This is data from last summer just to give you a little what we did last year. in lift lab last year. Uh it was offered at most of our high school campuses. We had 38 unique courses across our sites with
058152 students participating and they had an 86% successful completion rate. Some of our students took the same lift class more than once last summer because they weren't successful the first time they took it. So they took it again. Then we were offering inperson summer school is at Chandler High School. There we had 270 um courses attempted. 62 were completed successfully. So we had a 97% success rate. Junior high we had 75 attempted and 73 completed also 97% success rate and the credits earned were 131 out of 135. Um the in-person summer school primarily is a credit recovery program. It's not a acceleration program at all. When we offer that we're also serving students at IPS 504s that are current or former EL students. a pretty diverse group of kids coming from around the district that
059enforce the program. Then in our Chandler online program for summer um 2025, they offered 44 different courses serving 3,835 students with a 93% pass rate. Something important to note here is that this past summer, Lift Lab is far more credit recovery. Um in person is far more credit recovery, but COA was offering advancement and credit recovery a little bit more flexible because they can do it online. um they come in person for lift lab and COA to do their final test. That's their inperson component. Some of the other trends with our junior and high school, junior high and high school that came out were um the number of students that were taking courses from external providers, so our competitors, right? And so we were seeing those credits being transferred in started asking questions. why are
060they going somewhere else to take classes that we offer? Um, and some of the things that came up were cost, flexibility, they were offering classes that we weren't offering. Um, I shouldn't say that health is a big one that they got outside the district for. So, um, they they were taking health and then we were noticing that, um, when they were doing that and it was transferring in, sometimes they didn't take the right class and so they took an incorrect health class, wanted to transfer it in, and so we had to a challenge test for that student to take the challenge test to see if they could get our credit. So, there were just some inconsistencies. So, based on that, we looked at priorities. What's being taken outside of the district? How can we try
061to meet that need? Um, and as you can see here that we have a high demand for PE and mouth partly because it is a half credit and they want to get that completed and out of their coursework to open up their schedules going forward because that half credit sometimes messes with it. um social studies, math, and science were consistent areas of credit recovery we're going for. And um we think that those out those outside enrollments were reflecting really a need for the semesterbased structure versus that concurrent enrollment uh greater flexibility in their online free. We did meet with uh registars at the high schools to get their feedback on how this was impacting them and in asking them I want to say on average they were telling us or self-reporting right so it's informal
062that they were spending upwards of 50 hours at the start of the school year just entering transfer credits so besides sharing ADM with kids going outside in the district for courses and a very small piece of that right we were also taking manpower for that challenge test scoring the challenge test entering into transcripts getting those credits in. So, it became evident that we need to do a better job meeting our needs to get the kids here with us. In the elementary side, I'm only addressing the title one component. In elementary, we have a community ed programming and then we have our title one inperson enrichment um intervention and destination college. So when we're speaking here tonight, we're really not talking about the community piece. Just so you know that elementary title one, in the past,
063we planned for two campuses, two sections at each grade level, so about 160 student capacity at each site. This past summer, we planned for that. Weren't getting the registration, so we dropped it down to one campus, two sections per grade level, 160 capacity. You can see here on the left of the slides that we actually enrolled, we had a um We had 160 when you combine K6 and camera bound. I should clarify that. So K6 we had a capacity of 140. We enrolled 106. 91 actually attended. So not quite meeting the need. If we were meeting the need, they would come. If you build it, they'll come. Kinderg, that's our incoming preschoolers or sorry, incoming kindergarters that didn't have an opportunity. We're trying to target those who didn't have an opportunity to attend one of
064our preschool programs. We had capacity for 13. We enrolled sorry capacity for 20. We enrolled 13 and seven attended. And even then, they weren't attending. As you can see by those average attendance and median attendance, they weren't attending consistently. So again, we went why not? This is a free program to students who live in our title one bounds. They're invited based on data. Um why aren't why can't we get them there? So these are the questions we started asking. We had quite a committee. Um we had business department, community ed, teaching and learning, um site administrators, counseling, special ed staff where we came around and sort of saying what is the cause of this? What isolating the secondary component, the elementary component, what's causing some of the challenges that we're seeing. Um so we were
065tasked as a committee to kind of evaluate it. And actually at the off offsetter when we started it was um to innovate it. Well, it became pretty clear that at the secondary level we needed to kind of stand up straight and get things aligned first before we could look at innovating. And at the elementary um it was a little easier because I have direct access and work very closely with those title one principles and they were providing a lot of feedback along and having been a title one principal we were able to very easily say these are the things that we don't think are working. And so we you'll when we get going here that there's a little more innovation on the elementary side, little course correction on the secondary before we can start innovating
066this slide and I know it's small um you have it in your packet. It's really just to try to understand um in working with the business office it became evident as well that we have all these different titles for what we offer in the summer. And so from even a marketing standpoint, we would say you have community and enrichment, you have title one intervention, you have summer, you know, lift lab or COA. So the the discussion became how do we create something we can market, but then also we can track expenses by program to see what's coming in, what's going out. So the proposal there or the the concept became calling it summer academy overall. Then we have summer academy enrichment through community. We have summer academy enrichment title one and under that even further
067we have our program this coming summer will be at and then we also have destination college our summer academy intervention what does that look like in elementary secondary just to kind of show you that chart this is just an more of an organizational how it's breaking down Patty and Renee will share with you more of the details and the proposal for this upcoming year um my my piece I was tasked with bringing that group together and getting the feedback far more logistics um idea getting things together and then they have the opportunity to execute it as a good collaboration across our so president members of the board my name is Patty Fernandez assistant director of curriculum instruction and I have the pleasure to to work with different departments because this has been a collaborative effort
068to make sure that our summer learning experience is uh productive for our students but also brings them opportunities that they may not have throughout the year. So um with that I'm going to present on our first um program which is our elementary summer academy the recovery part for K6. And this this summer we're going to have it at Conley Elementary. And through the funding of Title One, we are able to provide everything for free. And part of the pieces that we are keeping is our rec, free lunch. The recovery now uh we used to do half a day and now we are able to extend those hours uh from 8 to 2:30. Now students will continue to receive math, reading, and science that has been in place, but it was a shorter time because of
069the half day. And now the new piece we're adding that is the innovative part is instead of having kids travel outside of their current uh recovery site to other sites to receive some enrichment, we're bringing the enrichment to them because also before parents had to pay if they wanted anything um any classes that were through community ed. So now through title one funding we're able to bring the enrichment to them for free and they have out of the four classes they have two choices and um so that's from 2:30 to 5 we have a fabulous uh team of coordinators who are really working hard to make all these new pieces work hire the teachers we're we're trying to hire as many teachers as we can because we received so remember those numbers that Dr. for
070shared. So now we received 416 requests and we have been able to hire enough teachers to enroll 320 students now. So we still have 96 students on the wait list. We're hoping to hire more teachers. So then our goal is to accommodate all 416 students. Um and yes and one more piece that we're are very excited about this is bringing uh library collections for the students to take home and um Dr. Brener has been working really hard in getting funding for that as well with a parent engagement guide uh how can students not only be exposed to it in our summer program but take it with them home. Um we have a team of coaches from our curriculum department too that are working in making sure all these classes have uh the curriculum the scoping
071sequence everything they have been re revising making sure that is meeting the needs of our students. Now before it was only open for students that maybe were at risk. Now, uh, we open this program to all students who are attending any of our schools receiving title one funding. So, that's another piece that changed. Um, and so the best part is we want to give a field trip experience for the students. We know that's always something they look for during the school year and summers are hot. So, and also bus uh transportation So like why don't we bring it to the school? So that's what we're doing this year. We're bringing that experience for the students to the site so they still even though it's three weeks we are it is like a mini mini school
072year. So we're bringing all the experiences that we can so our students continue to to learn and also have fun. Um then one change we made this year so we used to use the same platform as community edio sometimes our families had um many challenges that's feedback from our families that we receive in our principles as well that sometimes when they got to the platform it was challenging for them to register so this year we we tried to change that and used cold tricks as our platform for registration so it's easier for families I won't lie to you it is a lot of work on the back But we can do that like if if it's easier for our families and also this translates to whatever language they want to use. So that was a
073plus for us and working uh with our research team. They're helping us making sure that our enrollment uh we're we're keeping up with our enrollment and making sure our students get in as soon as we have a spot. Um the next pro uh program that I'm going to talk about is destination college is one of our very popular programs and uh this program is at Chandler Gilbert Community College. So we built a partnership with them where we're able to bring our fifth graders also coming from our schools receiving title one funding so they can have a little bit like the career literacy that you the career awareness that you heard but See, I still have to but um this program brings uh it's so innovative. Students are engaged in our classes are Shark Tech, CSI,
074Chandler, Mission to Mars, the Final Cut, and the new one. In partnership with Intel, we're able to bring the AI spa space boot camp. So we're working with with Intel to make sure that this new class uh is ready for our students within this classes. The students are learning about business entrepreneurship uh forensic science. Um we have uh guest speakers that come in talk to the kids. Last year we were able to connect um astronaut u Mark Kelly and talk to the kids because they are taking the mission to Mars. class. So he was able to show them their space suit and talk about the career, how he got into the career and it was really nice because he even talked about how he struggled when he was in elementary. So that resonated with a
075lot of our students and our students were able to ask questions. Um so we are going to also offer a field trip but now this group of students will go to the uh CGCC Williamsville campus in partnership with ASU too. Last year they were able to offer some sessions for the kids. So, it was like a mini conference and this year they're going to offer a tour to see the dorms and it it is a a a true collaboration with uh community partners to bring this learning experience for our students. So, save the date if you are around on June 11th. We try to keep this program close to the experience they would have from the minute they apply to the very end. So they start with an application um and they have to submit
076references. So they need two adults references and then once they get accepted they receive a letter a welcome to college letter. So then the kids are all like celebrating and then through the program CGCC does a beautiful job receiving the kids. The whole staff is outside with their pom poms welcoming the kids. And then the last day we celebrate with a graduation. We invite the families. We receive uh again all free and CF supports us with refreshments for our families. So it it is the full experience that we try to give to to our students. Um, and it's a little bit old this video, but I we wanted you to have uh to kind of see a glimpse of what Destination College is. So college is a program that is offered to students that are
077going into the sixth grade. They get to come to town community college and participate in classes and listen to guest speakers and talk about college and it's just a great exposure to college. I wanted to be a part of Destination College because I heard a few sixth graders talking about it. Um, and after a presentation with the teachers, I thought it would be a cool idea to see what it was like. PSI is my favorite class because I can solve crime scenes and investigate, see what happened. I taught the great outdoors and the students got to learn a little bit about water conservation. They got to come out and study the ecosystem, birds and plants and then they got to talk about archaeology. >> The benefit of this program is that it allows students to
078see how attainable and how accessible college can be for them and just in their local community. So, it's not far out of reach and we have a lot of partnerships even within district and for high school programs that allow for college sports as well. >> I would tell them that it's a really fun experience and they should definitely try to get in. All right. So with that I will hand it to my students to speak about secondary. Madam President, members of the board superintendency, my name is Renee Sweden. I'm assistant director of curriculum instruction here in Chandler schools. And thank you for the opportunity to talk about summer school. I'd like to start off by saying that um one of the biggest changes that was made was the movement from uh registration platforms from Elio
079into Qualric and uh Miss Fernandez mentioned it but it really was a game changer and so I just like to thank the team especially Lauren Randall u from the business office and Dr. Fletcher your Alyssa and Thomas from it for getting that together for us. So, thank you. >> I'm sorry. >> All right. So, the first secondary summer program I'd like to talk to you about is uh junior high credit recovery. And this is our inperson option. Um Kyle Dar who's currently assistant principal at Academy is the coordinator. Uh this program is located at Chandler High School and it is required for students who did not pass English and math for the entire school year. The junior high principal and the counselor both recommend transportation is available. The courses offered are English 7, English 8,
080math 7, math 8, and then there is a math seven prep course for students uh who are incoming seventh graders who struggled in sixth grade math. Um we offer free breakfast and free lunch. And if students successfully complete the program, uh their fee is waved. In addition, new for 2026 is the lit camp uh idea for the English classes. Lit camp is based uh in research, the science of reading research. It involves explicit instruction. It is interactive um and it is focused on structured fluency practice. When the students finish the program, they will be able to take folks home with them as well. So, Miss Fernandez mentioned that for the elementary, we'll also have that for the junior high. In addition, uh the junior high teachers will receive training on this program. Um, in addition
081to the academics, we also teach some soft skills. We teach students how to ask for help and we teach students collaboration. We're really trying to uh teach them some skills that will help them be successful as they move on. We also have acceleration at the junior high. Chandler online academy offers junior high courses. Um, seventh and eighth grade English, seventh and eighth grade math. Other sites also have their own individual summer programming. So, ACP uh middle has a summer bridge camp for math. Fashia High AMS has a math boot camp as well as a science camp. Vocal has a summerbridge math program and Castile has an accelerated math academy. When we move on to high school and we're talking about credit recovery, we're talking uh about our in-person program first. And again, that is at
082Chandler High. We found that having both programs, the junior high and the high school on the same campus helped uh minimize costs. And uh the program dates, the the new for 2026 with the high school program is that rather than going the entire 15 days, three weeks, uh students would in the past in the morning take a class for three weeks. In the afternoon they had an opportunity to take another class three weeks. In this particular model, they're going to take one class for the first seven and a half days. So, session one is uh June 1st through June 10th. When you finish that class June 10th, you're finished with that course, semester 1. If you have a semester 2 course you need to take, then you're going to pick it right up and continue
083on. We wanted to see if that model would help uh with enrollment. If students perhaps had to work, this would minimize the number of days that they would be unable to work. Um it also I think because of our shorter summers with year round um that we are making it more possible for students to have uh vacation with families to have opportunities for other experiences. So in addition new for 2026 is if the student successfully completes the course the tuition fee will be waved. Transportation is also available and we offer those core classes you would expect to see the English, math, and science classes. In addition to having that in-person onsite program, um, our high schools offer summer lift labs. Summer lift labs are generally computer-based instruction. They're oftent times a hybrid. The student comes
084in, works on the class, but may be able to work on the class from home. But the main thing is that they have an adult at the school who is there uh for help and support. Again, uh if the students are successful, there's no fee associated with it. Um, this started with uh an effort to help seniors get to graduation and over the last couple of years we've asked that it be expanded to the other grade levels and it's helped it's helped quite a few kids. So, we found that some of students because of transportation reasons really needed to attend the school closest to them. So, and as you can see that that regular slate of classes that you would expect. Finally, on the advancement side for high school, Janet Hartoff uh is offering a
085semiconductor summer camp. And over the different summers, Janet has offered different types of camp. Um this one is is a little bit unique. Uh it is the semiconductor summer camp and she's working with um different companies to actually host it. Um there will be companies coming in on the last day around stations. There will also be companies coming in to talk about jobs um future trends and then CUSD will be in there to talk about programming and pathways. So in addition to uh that Chandler online has advancement uh opportunities as well. As you can see Chandler online offers two different sessions. Uh this year health will be tuition free and they have quite a lot of courses that they can offer students. So questions. >> Thank you so much everybody. I really appreciate a clear
086debriefing and just acknowledging the deltas and room for improvement and taking action on that. Um that is really refreshing um to hear acknowledge and the the solutions that you brought forth. Um we are short on time so I'm going to check in with my board members. Um, and I did want to just quickly ask for the K through six academy, we have a wait list. And something that we've heard in the past, right, is the drop off when there isn't consistent communication um, checking back in with those families so they don't go elsewhere with the acknowledge competition that exists. So, are we really, you know, handholding and making sure that we are in constant communication with those on the wait list to make sure we keep them hopefully? >> Yes. I uh recently sent an
087email update to the families just letting them know uh a little bit of our timeline for hiring teachers so they have an idea by when. So, we told them by the end of April we should be able to finalize uh classes. So, we're keeping them and they're emailing uh me directly. So I am in direct contact with families um for our kinderbound program as well. Uh we have some recommendations and we those are sometimes even phone calls we make to make sure that have you seen our email because sometimes if they're not checking their email they might not know. So we we are making sure they know we're still working on uh hiring teachers to be able to open more spots and also they can see because this time that we're using Qualrix. So it
088communicates with infinite campus. So students who are already enrolled, parents, we notify them too. If you want to see what is your enrollment status, go to your infinite campus uh portal and you should be able to see there if you have been registered. If it's not showing, it's because you're still on the wait list. >> Okay. Thank you, Miss Hernandez. >> Thank you, Miss M. >> Yes. on the I really like it that um you are refunding the money um for the students who pass the classes um that are uh the um credit recoveries. My question is the logistics of that um are they uh paying for it in advance and then you refund them or will you build them afterwards and then how do you make sure you get that? >> Good question. We
089worked with Lauren Randall was a part of our committee director of purchasing. Right. Thank you. Business services, sorry. Um, so we worked with Lauren in that and so the plan is that they will not be assessed the fee until the end of the program. So if they're successful, it won't even be assessed. So it's not needing to be waved and that we'll use a spreadsheet to communicate back with her and Michelle and they will then assign that fee. I think the concern in there is that then that the responsibility or the follow through on collecting it will then somewhat fall on the sites. So that fee will remain outstanding for that student and kind of follow through with them year to year until it's collected. So they would have to leverage things like prom tickets,
090things like that, earbooks, right? Um our hope certainly is that uh parents will help us motivate students to be successful because it'll save them money, too. Um and we're doing that by braiding our federal funding sources and our instructional improvement funds. That way we just so you know how we're doing that. That's those are the funding sources. >> Thank you. and we'll look to Mr. >> Just real quick, I noticed that his health class, which is a half credit requirement you have to take, which is a real schedule buster. It's a real problem. So, I noticed that you're having that online free of charge, which is a really good idea. So, thank you for that. >> That was a proposal. I'll let Dr. Edgar respond if there any questions that was on her side taking
091that over from our proposal. We have a lot of kids enrolled in it already. I had the numbers, but it it's they're skyrocketing. And and again, we have to remember when our kids go outside of district to get programming, we are now also giving those competitors access to our families. So then they market to them hardcore. So by keeping them with us, we're working to make that. Also, I want to add the quality of our we lose the quality of what the kids are actually getting once they go out. That was a big thing on the table is we think we can do the quality better and if an outside free it's a schedule buster kids take it to get out of the way and why can't we? And so that we question that why
092why can't we do that? I just I'm proud of the group because they thought with some outside the box thinking and actually competitive model was sometimes competitive model is getting things away from >> Thank you superintendent. Um thank you so much Dr. Brener. This was very comprehensive and just for folks who may not know health is extremely popular. It is the go-to class that we recommend to help students clear a course for this uh for their semester as an elective. So, they have to take help. If they take it over summer, they can select an elective the following um school year basically for each of those semesters. And it's really helpful to get them into a course they want to take. So, that's why it's very popular. We do encourage that to uh clear that
093space if people desire that. Um well, thank you so much um Dr. Brener and Patty Fernandez and my I have to say this my former English teacher Renee Sweden. I I hope my language someone makes you proud of your time tonight and board members. Let's take a five minute break just because we've been here since 4 and we'll be back at it for a regular meeting. Thank you. for a minute. Then I saw your How are you? So the eyes All right. It's question. Sure. >> I'm excited. It's really good. Just remember that. by the last field trips how a class field Hello basketball. Oh, All right, we're going to call everybody Thank you everybody for your patience. We're clearly running behind tonight, but I suspect that we'll be able to catch up on some
094time um through our program this evening. Uh good evening to all. Welcome to this evening's regular board meeting this Wednesday, April 8th of 2026. April means it's ArabAmerican Heritage Month, a month to celebrate and recognize the rich culture history, achievements, and contributions of the nearly 4 million Arab Americans in our United States. Arab Americans are a diverse group representing the cultural heritage of 22 countries across Southwest Asia and Northern Africa or commonly known as Swana and West and Southwest Asia. The Arab National Museum has some wonderful virtual tours available online along with other learning resources and our very own Chandler Library has a creative list of children's books to check out by and with ArabAmerican protagonists. I want to thank everybody for joining. We appreciate your time and engagement with our board and its business.
095If you are joining online, please bear with our single wide view for this evening's meeting. We are experiencing some technical challenges, but we're glad to be able to live stream our meeting. And with that, we will now initiate roll call with Mrs. King, please. >> And Missa will be joining us later in our program. We will now rise for our pledge of allegiance and a moment of silence. Tonight's moment of silence, we honor the tragic loss of a high school student who passed away in an accident on Arizona Avenue. Our board extends its heart heartfelt condolences and support to the family, friends, teachers, and staff impacted during this incredibly difficult time. To the flag of the United States of America and to the stands and justice for all. Thank you everyone. You can have a
096seat. So tonight we will start per usual on item number four which is our report and information. I'm very proud to introduce um two of our student body presidents that are here to report on their high schools tonight. Noting that this is their last presentation and report with us. We're first going to hear from ACP High School's uh student body president, Aisha. >> It's a pleasure to be here tonight. My name is Aisha Mood and I'm student body president of ACP High School. I'm so grateful to be back to present everything our school has accomplished during the third quarter and the final quarter of our school year. To begin, our student government has been coordinating and sponsoring various successful activities. Last time I was here, we were in the midst of a random acts of
097kindness week, which was themed You've Got a Friend in Me following a fan favorite, Toy Story. Our council had decorated the entire campus based on this theme in order to help bring the student body into the spirit of Rack Week. We kicked off the week on Friday before the morning with assembly on our football field where we acknowledged students and staff who went above and beyond on our campus, played exciting games that had great crowd involvement, all while setting the tone for the upcoming days. The week was full of lunchtime events, student bonding, and sending kindness where students are able to anonymously send kind notes to students and staff, which helps promote a connected and compassionate community. We also held a fundraising event where student students had volunteered to shave their heads in order to
098collect funds for the Special Olympics. Overall, the entire week was a success and it was full of music, collaboration, and kindness. Our student government had also spent a morning at ACP Middle School throwing a pep assembly for our incoming freshman/ the eighth grade class. We wanted to replicate the feeling of a high school pep assembly so the students could see what's in store for them. We have performances from our spirit line, dance team, theater company, and our marching band. The kids really enjoyed these acts along with the games, and we can't wait to see them again for our freshman barbecue welcome in May. Moving on, our extracurriculars are nothing short of amazing. Our night's theater company had a successful showing of their musical Charlotte Webb. There were amazing reviews all around from praising the music
099to choreography and our school's thespians pulled off an amazing show. They had also hosted our annual ACBs Got Talent in which various students were able to sign up to show off their amazing talents. Ranging from signing, self-written songs, playing various instruments, dancing, and magic. The night was full of entertainment and energy. We began the fourth quarter with ACP's fourth annual dance concert directed by our dance teacher, Miss Danis Zuitta. Our dance classes have been preparing for this recital for weeks, so it was mesmerizing to see all their hard work come together. It's incredible to see how our school arts programs continue to grow in the talent of our students. National Honor Society has pulled off in another amazing nights in training which is an event where clubs reach out to title one schools through the
100district to allow first graders to spend a day with high school buddy and engage in fun activities ranging from science experiments a ping zoo club booth so showcasing dozens of different opportunities and ideas. And overall it was an amazing day for the first graders and their high school buddies as well. Now, we can't forget about our athletics at ACP. Finishing off our winter season, our boys soccer team had battled the way to the top, being crowned 5A state champions. Our girls soccer team fought their way to the state championship game and came away with a state runnerup trophy. But we didn't get the championship. The girls played their hearts out and made our school proud. Our wrestling team had also gained two state champions this year, and another 10 wrestlers got to the podium. Congratulations
101to them all. Our spring sports are working hard and playing hard. Our varsity boys and girls tennis teams are fighting along their seasons currently 6'2 and 6'4. Our boys volleyball team is currently 9 and five. Our baseball softball and beach volleyball teams are also playing very well. And it's really fun to watch my peers compete. Baseball is currently 125. Our varsity softball team is 136. And our boys beach vol and our beach volleyball team is 54. Finally, our track and field team are having a great season with numerous personal bests and school records being broken. Our spring sports are making us proud and we look forward to seeing how they do with this year's state's tournament. I'd like to take some time to recognize achievements that our students and staff have received in these past
102months. I would first like to recognize ACP DECA for their efforts at the 2026 state career development conference. They took 125 students to compete at the SCDC with 45 of our students qualifying to go to the International Career Development Conference this month in Atlanta. Our academic decathlon team had finished in third place at their state tournament, but second place overall in individual trophies. This year is the first year they've qualified to nationals as a team. I'm also extremely proud to announce that our speech debate team was crowned 2026 AIA Division 1 state champions. In this year's tournament, the team had eight individual state champions. This is the team's sixth state title in the last seven years, which is absolutely wild and an amazing achievement. ACP also has a ton of upcoming events. the first Wednesday
103this week with our annual international nights festival where students volunteer to showcase their culture to the student body to celebrate diversity and unity. Every year there are always amazing performances, delicious food, and so much community involvement that comes together to learn more about one another. This Monday, we had a fashion showcasing different types of cultural clothing and it was a lot of fun to watch. Our nights theater company also has a new show coming up next week called Let Me A Tenner. They've been working long and hard and I'm so excited to attend a show. Opening night is next week, April 16th at 6 p.m. I would love to see some of you there. In only a few weeks, we will have we will be having our junior senior prom at the con lakes with
104a theme of a midnight midsummer night stream. Our student government has been working extra hard to create amazing decorations for the campus as well as fun activities throughout the week. This includes our prom assembly, lunchtime activities, and spirit week. We are so excited for this year's prom. I would like to thank my advisor Nora, the administrative team at ECP High School, and the district board for providing me with the opportunity to share all the wonderful aspects that make up ACP's culture and community. It saddens me to know that this will be the last time I will be sharing news about my school and campus with you all, but I'm so incredibly grateful to have had the opportunity to represent what it means to be a night. Moving forward, I plan on attending a Arizona State
105University through their bear honors program. I will be attending WP Kerry their school of business and pursuing a bachelor's in business, majoring in supply chain management, and minoring in food industry. I know all the skills that I have learned throughout the district will stick with me, but the memories I made will definitely stick with me longer. I have no worries for the future of ACP, though, especially with the rising student body president who has also joined me here today. This is actually her first district meeting and I hope I helped with any nerves she has for her future. I know that she'll do an even better job than I did. I wish you all a great rest of your night and thank you all for what you do for ACP and CUSD. Have an amazing
106evening in the district. So all we're going to hop over campuses over here um about Basha High and student body president Lizzie Kangas is with us on her last presentation with us as well. What's been going on at FASHA? Good evening. Mr. Narduchi, board members in all of CUSD. It's truly an honor to be here tonight for one final time. Uh serving at Basha High School as a student body president has meant so much to me. So, I'm so excited to tell you what Basha High School has been up to for quarter 3 and quarter 4. To start, we had our spring sports assembly right at the end of quarter 3 where we able to honor all of our spring athletes through the game snatcher relays with balloons and movie trivia as well as our
107prom reveal that everybody was really hyped for. It was so much fun to be able to play the game sock snatcher where you had to have a pool noodle out of your back and a sock at the top and people had to run to grab it. It was so much fun because people got prizes after. Then we had our Jackson Lamper Week. So this is where we honor one of our past Stasha High School students who passed away from cancer. And every year student government works with his foundation to honor his scholarship of going into law enforcement, which is what he wanted to do when he uh grew up. So what we did this year is we did a SOA senior. So myself and many other senior volunteers were soaked with ice and it was
108so much fun and we raised just over $800 in only two days for the Jackson Lantern Foundation. Moving into our sports, our winter sports, I would like to acknowledge that our boys basketball, girls basketball, boys soccer, and girls soccer all made it to quarter finals and sadly lost. but they worked so hard and it was so incredible to see all four of them make it to the final four. Uh moving into our spring sports, we had our baseball who's currently ranked 25th in Arizona. And then we also have softball keeping the momentum from winter sports and ranked third in Arizona. Then we have our beach ball volleyball holding a seven to3 record and our boys volleyball who just got a recent win against ECB 2 to1. Our track and field is also doing very well
109and our boys uh overall score one at nightmare at the nest at Highland High School. Um in other extracurricular events, our culinary 2 student Gunnar Wy entered the food styling competition reflecting his heritage by making a coconut, pineapple, and mango tart inspired by his family's heritage. He this was placed into a competition that was all over the country and he is the only person from Arizona to actually win uh from Arizona and he earned third place overall. Uh upcoming we have prom. Student government has been working really hard on our prom events and our theme is story nights on April 18th at Salt River Fields at Talking Stick. There will be plenty of food, live music from a jazz band, dancing, a photo booth, and lots of food as well for a fun night under
110the stars. Uh we also upcoming or just had our dance recital program themed Wizard of the Oz, No Place Like Home, and they put in so much effort. It was such a talented performance from all of the dance program at Basha High School. I would also like to invite all of you to our upcoming Spongebob musical presented by Bashid Drama. It is from April on April 20th 22nd through the 24th at 6:00 p.m. And it is they put so much work and hours into it. It is going to be incredible. Upcoming events, we have our senior sunset on May 15th at 5:00 p.m. on the Rigsfield. student government has been working hard to put together uh food trucks and just a fun time for seniors to be together one last time before we leave our
111high school journey. And then we also have our teacher appreciation week where we'll be able to honor all of our staff at Basha High School and show them that we appreciate them. So as as we come to an end, um I just want to thank all of you for this opportunity to serve at Basha High School and to be the student body president. Um, in my future, I'm going to be attending ASU and I will be going to the nursing program, hoping to attend um to become a PA, a physician's assistant. So, thank you all so much for this opportunity and it will it will be with me forever. So, thank you and have a wonderful EVENING as well. Please uh support this if you guys will. Well, you'll be at honors probably at the
112dorms. Are you going to be at the dorms as well? All righty. So, we will continue on with our agenda for this evening. Moving over to item 4.02 and that is checking in with our superintendent to see if we have any correspondence. >> Thank you. Great job, students. It's been great working with you. >> Good luck. >> Thank you so much, >> Madam President. support. There's no correspondence at this time. >> All right. And that moves us to 4.03 Superintendent Current Events. >> Madam President, members of the board, um we're launching a safety and security advisory committee to evaluate the current landscape of the Cher High School campus and explore feasible modifications to the school's daily operation. CHS students currently have the option to leave campus during this uh during their lunch periods. that's been
113historic um to that campus uh for for quite a bit of time. Um the uh through through committee work, we're looking to evaluate the future of the practice among other possibilities. Committee members will include C agents, parents, students, staff, school district administrators as well as I contacted the chief of police and city manager. They will participate as well. While the open lunch practice at channel high school is deeply rooted in tradition, by generations of families. This group serves as a proactive step towards honoring the school's unique history while ensuring the campus safety remains our absolute priority. So we'll be looking recommendations from this committee. This weekend is the inaugural Chandler Pow at Chandler High School coordinated by the Chandler School boosters. The grand entrance of this event occurs at 100 pm, but doors officially open
114at 11 a.m. and will go until the evening and there will be performances by Native American groups and clubs uh from around the district and community as well as vendors and food. We hope you can attend this free showcase of Native American culture in the Chandler and within our own COD. July is going to be here before we know it. So, please save the date for the annual operation back to school event where students in Chandler and the Chandler District can get backpacks uh and other school supplies. Uh this event will take place on Saturday, July 11th at Compass Christian Church from 8 to 11:00 a.m. Um school in COSD starts. Sorry kids if you're listening to this. I know we're not even out of this year, but we start July, well, you all start
115July 15th. So, um, get ready for that. And the backpack drive, like I said, if you keep that on your calendars, that is going to be Saturday, July 11th at Compass Christian Church. Today was a special day for for all many of us at Hartford Elementary School. We celebrated the beginning of the school rebuild. Hartford Sylvian Cenis Elementary is the oldest elementary school in COSD built in 1957. Thank you to our governing board, our community and voters for supporting this wonderful bond project. Here's a quick video recap of today's festivities that just happened this morning. This is what This so exciting to see the city of Chandler and the district working together to uh really improve um our opportunity to um build a new school, work with parks and lighting and streets. This is a
116joint project that we'll do the school part, they do the community part, and we're going to really see that community jewel um in phases work. So, please um our Harford students need need to know our phase one is going to take a year. So, phase one will be done by um July of 2027. It's hard to believe that, but phase one will be done. During a recent meeting, the Chandler City Council celebrated schools for their creativity, their passion, and innovation during February's Chandler Innovation Fair. We also want to recognize the winner of the Arizona the winners of the Arizona Science and Engine Engineering Fair. Um, our kids just did amazing in the senior division. This year, we had nine student projects qualify for the International Science and Engineering Fair. This represents 60% of the international
117fair nominees for Arizona. CUSD students are pretty smart and they show what they do best. And so that's 60% of every one representing Arizona will come from Chander Unified High Schools. Thank you board members for attending the Anderson Elementary A+ School of Excellence ceremony. Uh the good news is you have four more to go to and they're coming up. Uh board, we hope you can attend those as well. We know you're invited to a lot of things and very busy, but I it seems like the whole audience cheers up when they see your support there. Again, six CUSD schools earned this prestigious honor simultaneously, which is an incredible accomplishment and I believe most of that in one school year. We would also like to take a moment to recognize and get by two COD bus
118drivers and a COSD Tarwater parent showing our students an example of collaboration, compassion, and making a difference. Jade Cunningham explains how some valley second graders received an unexpected lesson on teamwork. March 25th was a big day for second graders at Chandler Unified School District. >> That's great. They were excited. They were ready to go. >> It was their school field trip to Shamrock Farms to learn about life on the farm. >> I was really excited about it to spend the afternoon with my daughter in her class. We didn't know what to expect. They just knew there were cows and they were really excited to see the farm and tractors and things like that. >> But the biggest lesson of the day came unexpectedly when bus drivers Michael Randall and Doug Rogers saw something in need
119of help. >> I look over to check my ride and I see something in the in the canal. I thought it was a deer. My first thought it looked like a coyote. I didn't know. And I looked again. Then I heard the kids say, "It's a dog. It's a dog. It's a dog." Me and one of the teachers, what I did, it was like an unspoken eye contact and I literally looked at her and said, "Looks like we're sleeping." >> Which is exactly what Randall did. >> Does it surprise me that he would have jumped up? Not at all. Not at all. >> Once off the bus, he saw the dog exhausted and in distress, stuck in the canal. >> Every time I would go one way, the dog would go away from me. >>
120Chaperon Julia Valenci sprung in help. In my opinion, she's kind of the hero because she literally just jumped in the action. >> The dog was sort of frozen in the middle in between us and I thought, "All right, here we go." So, I took off my socks and my shoes. >> As Randall tried guiding the dog from above, Valente jumped into the water. >> I did not realize how strong the current was. I did not realize how slippery it was. The sides are so steep, I have no idea. I couldn't even get out on my own. >> The two work together. You see an animal in distress. Do you want to help? >> And after 10 to 15 minutes, the moment came everyone was waiting for. >> So I scoop it. I've got one leg
121in the slippery moss. I've got one leg on the side of the canal. And I'm just holding it up and getting just one, two, three all together hoist it up and the dog gets out. >> For the students watching, >> it was a total teachable moment. >> It wasn't just exciting. It was unforgettable and became a real life lesson in action about stepping up, working together, and showing kindness when it mattered most. >> There's still good in the world that people still want to do the right thing. Um that we can come together and work as a team. >> For me, I just think it was good that they saw like something good as far as like teamwork and collaboration and talking to each other and working on a situation. It wasn't just a lesson
122for the students, but also for the adults. Rogers tells me he hopes it'll inspire students to jump in if something or someone is in need of help. Chandler Jingham, >> you know, talk about our our portrait of a learner in action by staff and by students and support they gave each other. That's what Chandler's all about. And uh just a neat example, we have 5,000 employees like that. and uh our parent u parents uh across the district are that and so it's just so proudful that um they were they were able to um capture that you know as well and I'm sure um any of our employees would would have done that chance. So again thank you for showing that 70 appreciate it and that's my update. >> Thank you superintendent. That brings us to
123this evening's comments and we'll check in with Mr. Inkerson just to confirm. Um, we have no comments that I'm aware of. >> I have not been given any comments for president. >> I have not. So, >> looks like we're seeing nods. So, um, no comments for this evening everybody and we'll jump over to item number six which is presentation of our consent agenda and that will be presented by Superintendent Arduchi. Um, Madam President, um, and members of the board, I present the consent agenda for approval as printed and as published. >> Thank you, Superintendent. Do I have a motion on the presented consent agenda? >> Madam President, um, I move that we approve the consent agenda as presented in item six. >> Thank you, Mr. Heat. Do we have a second? >> Second. Seconded by
124board member Mon. We have the motion on the table, everyone. Just checking in. Looks like Mr. Boris has a comment or question. >> Yeah, as I'd like to do, I like to uh present the people that uh do a lot of the volunteer work for us, but the ACP softball boosters donated $2,600 for a shed for a team there. And the Haley Elementary PTO donated $2,700 for project. So, we always want to recognize thank It's a lot. Um, it's very important to keep these schools going this way and so we really appreciate their efforts. Thank you. >> Thank you, Mr. RS. With that said, we'll go ahead and take a vote on item number six, our consent agenda. All those in favor, please say I. >> I. I. >> Any opposed? The motion passes unanimously.
125This brings us to item number seven, which is our action items. Um, And I do want to check in. Mrs. King, can you confirm if we have board numbers, can you hear me? >> All right. Well, we have arrived to our action items. We will start with item number 7.01, designating a CUSD representative. And superintendent, you'll be presenting this. >> Madam President, members of the board, um we would um recommend designating Mrs. Lander as a board's representative for negotiations, settlement discussions, uh and in Apache Junction versus East Valley Institute of Technology. Um um at-63 um 8885. >> Thank you, Superintendent RG. Do we have a motion on item 7.01? >> Madam President, I move that we designate um Mrs. as the board's representative for negotiations settlement discussions campaign pack junction at LB East Valley Institute
126of Technology CB2025-06355 sorry 3885 thank you Miss Monson do we have a second >> I will second the motion >> seconded by Mr. We have the motion on the table and I'll check in to see if there are any comments or questions. It looks like board members are ready to vote. Mrs. Mendoza, any comments or questions from you on 7.01? >> No comments or questions. >> Thank you. Um we have the motion on the table everybody and we will take a vote. All those in favor of Miss Barry being our designated representative um as our CFO, please say I. I >> I >> Any opposed? And I hear that motion passes unanimously as well. >> We are now at 7.02 confirming instructions given in our executive session. And back to Superintendent Arduchi. Madam President, members
127of the board, we're asking the government board to confirm the direction provided in executive session to the board's designated representative for purposes of negotiation, settlement discussions, contract discussions in Apache Junction versus East Valley Institute of Technology. >> Thank you, Superintendent RG. Can we get a motion? Madam President, I move that we confirm the direction by an executive session the board's designated representative for purposes of negotiations settlement discussions contract discussions in Apache junction at Al versus East Valley Institute of Technology CB2025-06385. >> Do we have a second? >> A second. >> Seconded by Miss and we have this motion on the table. Any comments or questions? Miss Medusa, comment or question? >> None. Thank you. >> Thank you for confirming. With that, we will take a vote on item 7.02. All those in favor, please say
128I. >> I. Any opposed? Hearing? None. The motion passes unanimously. That brings us to item 7.03, Gabriel's and Dr. Fletcher will be presenting us with this. >> Thank you, Madam President, members of the board. The memorandum of understanding between CUSD and Gabriel's Angels effective July 1, 2026 through June 30th, 2027 is attached for approval. Gabriel's Angels provides registered pet therapy teams, a human handler, and a registered therapy animal for inperson visits to identified CUSD schools provided with parent garden permission. Gabriel's Angels provides the following programs. Cause for resilience where therapy teams visit a small group of youth during a semester to promote resiliency through animal focused skill building activities. Activities and lessons focus on core strengths such as teamwork, relationships, self-regulation, kindness, celebrating differences, respect, and obviously resilience. Animals, books, and children. The ABC program
129therapy teams visit three individual youth in first, second, and or third grade during a semester to improve each youth fluency while enhancing their confidence and motivation to read. And finally, community support visits. Therapy teams visit typically once during a specified time of need to provide joy and canine comfort in times of stress. Thank you, Dr. Fletcher. Do you have a motion for item 7.03? Madam President, um I move that we approve Gabriel Angels the memor memorandum of understanding between CSD and Gabriel's Angels effective July 1st 2026 through June 30th 2027 as stated in item 73. >> Thank you Mr. Heat. Do I have a second? >> I'll seconded by Miss Mod and have the motion the table and I'll check in. It looks like Mr. Norris has a comment or question. >> Yeah, I actually
130had this pulled off a from last meeting. The reason why is that this is an extraordinarily popular program. In fact, we had um had them presented at our club meeting last month as well. Um I think this is an incredible effort. Uh really grabs the attention of the kids. Uh, I think it really helps particularly when there's a real stressful situation at campus and being a very big district. Stuff happens all the time. So, I think they're doing a lot of good out there. So, I just want to make sure we recognize their effort. Thank you. >> Thank you, Mr. Morris. Any other questions or comments? >> All right. Well, I'm happy to see this um resource available and appreciate the partnership from Gabriel's Angels. It really does make the difference and we ensure that
131our students needs are met in multiple ways to meet those needs. Um, with that we have this motion on the table. All those in favor of item 7.03, please say I. I. >> I. I. >> Any opposed? Hearing none. The motion passes unanimously and we're at item 7.04 everyone. That is consideration and possible adoption of a resolution providing for all matters relating to the sale and insurance of school equipment bonds project of 2025 series A and that will be presented by Miss Barry with some support I see here. All right, Madam President, members of the board consideration and possible adoption of a resolution provided for all matters related to the sale and issuance of school improvement bonds of the district including delegation to the superintendent and chief finan financial officer of the district to determine
132certain matters related to their two. The resolution before the governing board authorizes the issuance of bonds to the district to raise funds for capital projects of the district. The bonds represent the first installment of an aggregated voted principal amount of $271,500,000 to school improvement bonds authorized at the election. Proceeds from the sale of the bonds will be used to finance improvements and renovations to school facilities, including security enhancements, acquisition of land, and new construction, purchase furniture, equipment, and technology for instructional purposes, purchase pupil transportation vehicles, and pay the cost of issuing the bonds. Remember, those are the four specific things listed um in the voter pamphlet. The resolution authorizes the district administration to move forward with the steps needed to execute the bond transaction. The board's approval puts the district in a position to execute
133the transaction when the timing is right, considering the district's needs for the project dollars and the conditions in the taxexempt bond model. At the time the district is ready to sell the bonds, the professional finance team will analyze the market conditions and work with the district administration to execute the transaction in a manner that will minimize the district's bond interest cost. District administration recommends flexibility at this time as we work to meet the district's needs for project funds and determine an appropriate time to sell the bond. Um, and now at times I'm going to talk to you and give a little bit of kudos to to Grant Ham. He has been with our district uh for three decades, which is pretty impressive. He has put us in great financial shape for years um and has
134just been a really great ally ally to us and a great partner for our school district. Um and we're in great financial shape because of him. Krea, and am I saying that right? That um is a partner also helps us um as we're getting ready, you know, when we're putting our bond packages together. um he's been instrumental in helping us too. I've determined our tax rates when when is the best time. How much should we put um together in the package to not impact our taxpayers to try to keep it as minimal as possible and as flat as possible because we know that a lot of times taxpayers have, you know, people are on fixed incomes, our community members are. And so we want to make sure that that tax rate doesn't go up or
135down um significantly that impacts them. And so again, both have been instrumental and with our district as a great partner for a lot of years. So I'm going to turn it over to them. They're going to do a short presentation and answer some questions that you might have about the upcoming sale. >> Oh, I'm sorry. I think the mic might be. >> There we go. >> Thanks. >> Thank you, Lana, for that introduction. President, members of the board, Superintendent Narduchi, as always, it's a pleasure to be here before you this evening to talk about the inaugural sale of bonds from the district's November of of 2025 bond election. And I'm joined, as as Lennon said, by my colleague Ken Sherup. and we look forward to going through this presentation and really responding to any questions
136that the board has regarding the the process of issuing these bonds. You'll you'll notice on the cover page that we refer to these bonds as the project of 2025 series A 2026. I just wanted to mention in case there's any confusion confusion, we always reference the project of 20 2025 as referencing referencing the year in which the bond election passed. And then for this first sale, we're designating the sale as series A 2026. That suggests as as Lena alluded to that there will there will be future offerings associated with the bond election. We're not quite sure when those will be, but those will be designated as series B, series C, and so forth. And we always like to start these bond presentations to talk a little bit about, well, what is the district's current legal
137bonding capacity? As a unified school district, the the district's binding capacity is the greater of 20% of net full cash assessed value or $1,500 per student based upon the last fiscal year. And as you can see from this uh table, we we we do those computations. We subtract what is currently outstanding as far as district metades. And you'll see that the current bonding capacity for the district is a little over $983 million. And this is a a schedule that's um very important. As as Lena alluded to, this is a reflection of the district property tax rate over a 10-year history. And we've colorcoded these bar charts to to show the three primary components of your tax rate. We've got uh reflected the district's primary tax rate, which is reflected in orange, and then we have
138two secondary tax rates. One that relates to the district's current override that is in place. And and the secondary tax rate has to do with bonds, and that is the blue portion of these bars. You'll notice on the right hand side, the current bond tax rate is approximately a dollar per $100 assessed value. And you can look at this chart and obviously see that over the last 10 years, the combined tax rate of the district has been steadily going down. That's a combination of a couple things. One, managing the amount of debt that's issued by the district and also the growth in the in the district's assessed valuation. So it's trending in the right direction. And next we wanted to just show that specifically with this series A 2026 bond sale u which Lena referred
139to. This is the first sale of 135 million from the 2025 authorization of $271,500,000. The remaining authorization following this sale will be 136,500,000. The projects to be funded are the ones that Lana mentioned and all of these imp uh projects were those that were reflected in the district voter information pamphlet. The bonds will be issued over a period of time. And what we're anticipating currently is that the maturity range will be from July 1 of 2026 to July 1, 2045. We expect that with the issuance of these bonds, the debt service will drive up that component of your tax rate from about a dollar now to a$128. And that was the tax rate that was referenced in the in the voter information pamphlet. I'll pause there for a minute just to respond to any questions
140that the board may have so far. >> Thank you. And I see Miss Matson is ready with her question. So, um it's April 8th and if we are we really having a bond maturity on July 1st of this year? >> We are. It's going to be a very short maturity and basically we've uh we've structured that Miss Mustin to absorb some additional cash that's currently in the district's debt service account. So there's some surplus money there and we're basically going to use that just to pay off debt uh right right after the bonds are issued. >> Okay. >> And that will reduce the amount of debt that's amvertised over time. >> Yeah, I thought it was a little unusual because it looks like really short term. I have the same question myself. >> Okay. >>
141When you prepare the documents, >> thank you for that. Um, any other questions, Mr. Morris? >> So, I know we often talk about tax rates, but I think people out there are paying taxes more concerned about how much is going to be on their tax bill. Um, I get tax bill, too. I pay taxes to the district. How much is are my property taxes going to? Well, with regards, as I mentioned, with regards to that component that relates to bonds, the the the dollar tax rate is going to rise from where it's at now, as I mentioned in that bar chart of approximately $1 per 100 $100 assessed value up to a$128 with regards to the bonds. Now, as you mentioned, um, board members, what does that translate into as far as the actual dollar
142cost with regards to this bond? It equates to about eight or nine dollars per month for the average homeowner in Chandler. >> So, we could roughly say 100 bucks. >> Yes. Per Yes, per year. Thank you. >> I think we are good. Miss Mendoza, are you still there? Yes, I'm here. I have another question. >> Okay, thanks for having on there. Miss Mendoza is very ill, everyone that is meeting her duties here with us. Um I think we can proceed. >> Okay. Thank you, Madam President. Um this is a schedule that shows uh a couple different things. One, the blue portion of this bar chart represents the annual debt service associated with the bonds that the district currently has outstanding. And then the orange portion of the bars, this represents what we estimate to be
143the annual debt service costs associated with the 2026 A bonds that we're um we're speaking to tonight with regards to the resolution. Now, we also added in what we anticipate may be the annual debt service associated with a future bond issue. We don't know exactly when that may happen. has suggested that it could come in 2028. So, we wanted to include what an estimate would be of the debt service associated with that bond issue. And the reason that we're showing that is that we want to always be mindful of what the tax impact will be of of the bond program over an extended period of time. So, when we look to construct the debt service of this 20 26 financing. We're also taking into account what the future debt service may be of of the
144second and perhaps final issuance of bonds associated with the election last year. And again, that could be in 2028. Uh or it could be a later date. We really don't know. That will be completely dependent upon what the district's financing needs are in the years ahead. Um now, as as debt service goes down over time. This of course creates some capacity for uh future initiatives to go out to the voters for additional bonding down the road. We we have no idea when that might be. But as debts as debt services retired from existing and this bond issue, then there will be capacity generated for future voter initiatives that the that the district board may elect to pursue. Now, the one thing we wanted to touch upon are the district's credit ratings. Uh the district board
145staff citizenry should be very proud of the fact that the district has the highest credit ratings that are available in the country and that is AAA ratings from both Moody's and Fitch. These are the two of the three national credit rating agencies that assign ratings to tax exempt municipal bonds. And of course, the highest credit ratings that translates into the lowest interest cost when the bonds are offered. Now, you may say, well, how did the district achieve the highest credit ratings? We identify a number of the strengths. I'll just mention a few. The district has capably managed expenditures to match enrollment losses to maintain its very strong financial position. The district thanks to uh its excellent CFO and CFOs of the past have have generated and maintain strong fund balances and liquidity levels. So the
146rating agencies understand the fact that the bonds are payable from a tax on your assessed valuation but they also appreciate and give credit to uh high fund balances that are maintained by the districts because that provides liquidity. It provides flexibility especially in an environment where um the ADM may be trending down as it is at this district and many other districts in Arizona. So again that's a real tribute to the staff for maintaining that and also there's a very strong and stable management team that also includes the board of course but it also uh relates to the the great management of the district by the superintendent and the CFO and to senior staff. So, we certainly expect at this time that we're going to maintain those AAA ratings, but we have not met with the
147rating agencies yet with regards to this bond sale. And of course, staff will keep the board apprised of the results of those conversations that we expect to have in the next few weeks. And we wanted to show this. This is a graph of of tax exempt interest rates over the previous 12 months. And what this line represents is the yield of aa rated bond that matures in 10 years. As you can see over the course of the last 12 months until recently, interest rates were trending very much in the right direction. Interest rates were coming down. But as you'll see on the far right hand side over the course of the last month, the inflation worries associated with the war in Iran has driven interest rates up by about a half a percent just in
148the last uh four or five weeks. town. I'm I'm pleased to record that before leaving the office and as a result of the temporary ceasefire that was announced today or yesterday that interest rates have started to come back down. And when I left the office, the interest rates uh had had come down by about 10 basis points. So that's about onetenth of 1%. So if if If this ceasefire holds, we expect that interest rates will continue to start to trend down and it's mainly because it will mitigate to some extent the fear of inflation asso associated with higher oil prices. So that's kind of the volatility that we're seeing in the market and we will of course be watching this very closely before the bonds of the district are offered in the market to make
149sure that we have a very strong investor reception to the bonds. Now lately and we represent most of the school districts in Arizona on their bond issues. We've seen very strong demand, but just in the last few weeks, we've seen that demand still hold, but at higher interest rates than we had a couple of months ago. So, we'll of course keep our eye out on that. Finally, we just show an estimated timeline with regards to this process. Um, of course, tonight is the governing board meeting to consider the resolution to issue the bonds. We will uh upon the passage of that resolution tonight, should the board decide to go forward, we will plan to meet with the bond rating agencies and look to potentially go into the market with your bonds sometime in early to
150miday again subject to market conditions. Um after the offering of the bonds, we would look to close the issue and deposit the proceeds into the district building fund uh probably towards the end of May. And at that time, monies would be available for any of the projects uh that are to be funded with the proceeds of these bond. And with that, that concludes our presentation. Madame President, members of the board, and Ken and I would be very happy to respond question. >> Thank you so much, Mr. panel. Um, so I'll check back in to see this was pretty straightforward, I think. And I just want to echo our appreciation of the fact that we are only in this healthy state because of the execution and care that we've always had throughout our bonds. Um, I
151did get to serve alongside uh Joe Worth and I know that he is um key to what we built here and Miss Labberry has continued that. So um I really am thankful for that. U so any other questions? Uh Miss Matson go >> um if interest rates do uh slide just a little bit um what is would be the impact on the tax rate from the the extra 28 cents that we're looking at? >> Yeah. passport member Boston and members of the board. Um that that estimate that we did of 28 cents was pretty conservative. We we typically use fairly conservative interest rates when we make those kinds of projections. So we will be watching that pretty closely to make sure that if it varies very much from that 28 cents, we'll of course be
152in discussions with staff regarding that. But at this point and with what we're starting to see in the market today, uh our anticipation is that these tax rate objectives will be uh met or exceeded by the time that we actually offer the bonds. >> And when you say conservative, um are you saying higher than the 3 uh whatever it was >> higher than the 3.2 to is what you're estimating. >> Yes, member of Boston, members of the court. >> Yeah, that's exactly right. By being conservative, if the district today could borrow in the market at around three and a half% on average, uh by being conservative, we may utilize a 4% rate in making those projections or four and a quarter% rate. So, we w always want to be more conservative in what we're representing
153to the board. And that's also true when um the voter information pamphlet was put together uh back in November um that we would always look to always be either at or below what the tax rate was that was represented to the districts at that time. >> Thank you. And so we'll just have to wait and see what the interest rates are when this all gets solved. We're in a fairly unpredictable period of time as you all. >> Yes, definitely. Thank you. And Mr. Rice, >> so you just kind of wrap this up for people out there. Um, in November, we passed the bond at $271.5 million. Uh, it's, I think, a three-year authorization. So, that should we ask this for the next couple years and then we'll probably be at this again. Typically, it's a
154fiveyear authorization, but short this time. And what I'm seeing is that we're authorizing issuance of the first trunch 2026 roughly half of that. And I think you're speculating that the next trunch would be two years from now, 2028. Most likely the other half. Um, and that would kind of hit two of the bond authorization approved last. Is that correct? >> Yes, sir. >> That's correct. >> And I can add a little bit to that too. um member roars. So the issuance we think will last us four to five years for the voter initiative in 2025. Um and then we t we think we're going to have two cells. This is the first cell and then in two years our staff is planning on selling the other portion. Now that could change and we might want
155to do a third cell but we do believe uh what we predicted when we did the voter pamphlet um Ken had helped us put together um the conservative estimate on where the tax rate would be and then when our sales would be. So we have that in 2028. So um when they were talking earlier on there and you saw the charts when we were selling in 2020 it would be going to sell the second portion of the 271,500,000. So um we do plan in on projects. We have $135 million worth of requests finishing those projects. You're supposed to have those done within three years. Um and so we do think we will finish those projects in the next couple of years and then we'll issue we'll go out to sell again. We have to wait
156on markets. We'll work with our fantastic finance team, determine when the best time to sell that is based on our cash flow um that is left in our bond account. Um and then that should be the final cell. Again, we could change that and do a third cell, but typically with this amount, we'll probably only do two cells. >> Any other questions? Mr. >> Thank you for presentation. It was curious on the timeline. So, um should the board move to approve the resolution to issue the bonds. Um, is there a certain time constraint um, which your firm has to kind of hold and wait and see should those interest rates uh, continue to demonstrate volatility until we make sure we're keeping to that$128 estimation for the tax burden? Yes, board member, Mr. H, members of
157the board, very good question. Um, we have complete flexibility to move forward with the sale depending upon both market conditions and from a practical standpoint also when does the district need to have the money that will probably ultimately drive the timing. But um with the way we think that the market conditions stand now we think we can adhere to this calendar. However, if rates shoot up and we're not able to meet our tax rate objectives, we would work to potentially delay the sale. So, we're not locked into the schedule, but this is would be your typical time frame to proceed with the sale barring any unforeseen conditions of market. That answered your question. That answered my question. >> Can if you don't mind, can I add one thing too if that's right, Mr. Um, so
158I think for us is that we do have projects started that you're approving for the 2025 bond. And so um the fiscal year, you can't cross fiscal years with in the sense of this year to next year related to um funding sources. So for us, it's important to finish before um June 30th because um we need to be able to code that to our bond funds related to the sale of the 2025. So we'll work with staff now. Um I know that our attorneys can also write language in there to reimburse. There's some other pieces, but right now um we hope we think we will be able to before the end of the fiscal year which helps us in the sense for example Harford just broke today um that is part of the 2025 expenditures
159so there are expenditures of 2025 right well I think we've cleared our questions we have a motion on the table in relation to items 7.04 members all those in favor of item 7.04 Please say I >> I do have a question. Um I'm like kind of spacing out here, but um was there an actual motion to >> Sorry. So, Madame President, >> I move that we approve the adoption of a resolution providing for all matters relating to the sale, excuse me, the sale and issuance of school improvement bonds in a not to exceed principal amount of 135 million. >> Thank you, board member M. Do we have a second on 7.04? >> I'll second. >> Seconded by Mr. Heap. And we now have a motion to vote on on the table. Thank you, Awesome. All
160those in favor, please say I. I. >> I. >> Still I. >> Yeah, I'm still I too. >> All right. Hearing none opposed. The motion passes unanimously. Thank you, everyone. Um, we're now at 7.05. That's our annual comprehensive financial report for 2025. And we'll visit with Miss Mary. >> All right. And thank you, Ken and Grant. Appreciate it. >> All right. Madam President, members of the board, the annual comprehensive financial report and the single audit report package for the year ending June 30th, 2025 is presented for approval. Also presented are the uniform system of financial records compliance questionnaire and the questionnaire findings response. So tonight you're going to have Josh um jumper. He has been an auditor at least with me. I've been here 13 years. So he's been here auditing our district for 13
161years. Beach has been auditing our district for a couple decades now. Um, and we have a great again partnership with our auditing team. Um, and so I'm going to turn it over to Josh. She's going to go through um, our audit communication and governance report to you all and then I'm going to follow up with our findings and those responses to that and then we're both available for questions um, once the presentations are done. >> Great. Thank you, Miss Barry. And Josh is awesome by the way, is a great auditor and has been really good with us. So, thank you Josh. >> Josh looks excited. present too. All right, wake me up, Josh. Here we go. >> Good evening, madame president, board members. It's my pleasure to be here. Uh again, uh another year, another
162audit. Um and so I am again here to present the audit results for the year end of June 30, 2025. So we are looking backwards uh for from LA for last fiscal year. Uh just to uh let you know uh we are the external auditors. Our audit contract is procured through competitive uh proposal process follows district procurement regulations and rules. Um and uh fiscal year 25 was the fifth and final year of that audit contract. The audit timeline. So our audit process began last May of 2025. uh we were on site in June and October uh performing audit procedures in person in addition to performing audit procedures remotely in between those time periods. Um in November the draft of the financial audit report uh was sent to management. Um and then the financial statement report
163was issued in December and the USFR compliance questionnaire. Uh and single audit reports were both issued in February. So when I speak about the annual audit uh what does that entail? So there are four reports that are issued as part of the audit process. Um the first is a communication to governance letter. So that is a letter directly to you the board. I am going to uh go over the highlights of of that letter as well. Um additionally the annual comprehensive financial report the ACFR that is the district's audited financial statements for the fiscal year. The single audit reporting package. So that is a result of the federal dollars the district receives. Um uh the single audit is required to be issued to the federal government each year reporting on the spending of those federal
164monies. And then the uniform system of financial records compliance questionnaire. Uh this is a report required uh to be submitted to the Arizona auditor general. Um they supply the questionnaire each year. Uh And it is our job as the external auditors to go through that ensure we can answer each question then report it back to them. Uh the scope of audit services. So uh we follow lots of rules and regulations. Um government auditing standards, uniform guidance which is federal rules and then generally accepted auditing standards. And then again to answer the US form system of financial records USFR compliance questionnaire. Additionally just listing off all the various standards that guide the annual audit. So there are many different rules and regulations. So we have OM uniform guidance that's federal uh guidance and requirements that guide
165the audit. Governmental accounting standard boards that's financial uh requirements for governments statement of auditing standards. So as auditors there's several standards we have to follow that guide our audits and our procedures. And then more specifically there's specific government auditing standards. Audits that are done of governments have additional requirements that we follow at heel beach. Uh so just delineating uh the responsibilities of us the external auditors and uh district management. So as part of the audit process each year we have fraud communications inquiries regarding fraud and knowledge of fraud and non-compliance uh with various members of management including a board member each year other employees. That's standard audit practice. But the annual audit is not geared to uh find fraud. But if fraud is found during an audit, we incorporate it into the audit. But ultimately,
166the responsibility of fraud rest with district management and the board. Additionally, uh our audit is designed to provide reasonable but not absolute assurance. Um and that uh the financial statements that are issued that do have an audit opinion are responsibility of the district management. Um so starting on uh district results. So please report that there were over the course of the audit there were no uh audit adjustments to the district's uh audit accounting records to ensure uh clean audit opinion. So if there were audit adjustments that were found, essentially known financial statement errors that were found during audit procedures, we would be required to notate them at this time, but there weren't. Additionally, uh we had no disagreements with management over the financial accounting audit matters. If we did have disagreements, we'd be required to
167communicate that with you, the board. Uh, additionally, um, we, uh, have an engagement letter that's signed at the beginning of the audit that delineates responsibilities and then a representation letter signed at the end of the audit process which the district signs and provides authorization that audit is everything has been submitted to the auditors as required and the audit opinion can be issued. So the annual comprehensive financial report um very large report uh the independent auditor's report was an unmodified opinion. So that's accounting lingo in non-technical accounting terms the district received a clean audit opinion uh which is uh the desirable audit opinion to receive but the technical term is an unmodified opinion. I don't plan to particularly go through any of these pages in particular, but just notating the highlights of the different sections of
168the report in the annual comprehensive financial report. The single audit reporting package. Again, this is uh the reporting on the schedule of expenditure of federal boards. So, the federal dollars the district receives. Um there were no material weaknesses in internal controls noted. We did notate and report one significant deficiency related to a title one eligibility worksheet issue which I believe Miss Barry will touch on in a moment. The major federal programs that were the focus of our uh audit procedures this past year were title one special education cluster and supporting effective instruction state grants. So those specific federal grants that the district hadn't expended monies on and then finally USFR uniform system of financial records. So this is a approximately 170 questionnaire that we are required to fill out and answer yes or no for
169each question. It entails a host of different district operations mainly focusing on financial operations but not solely including uh governing board management procedures, accounting records, cash and revenue, uh reporting, procurement, student attendance, travel, credit cards, uh information technology, transportation. There's a host of different uh operations and departments that we work with. uh each year to ensure we can answer the questions yes or no. There were a few questions answered no. Uh I believe Miss Barry will touch on those and responses to those as well. That's my prepared remarks. Um uh I'll take a pause if you have any questions for me at this time. Otherwise, I'll pass it to Miss. >> Any questions from our board? Miss Mossa, >> little question. >> All right, I think we'll go back to Miss Barry. Thank you so
170much, Josh. I appreciate it. >> Well, Madam President, members of the board. All right, so you got to hear a little bit about the um annual financial reports. Um, a couple things I want to talk about are the compliance questionnaires. So, um Josh's team comes on board for about two weeks uh in the summer and then comes back in the fall to finish up um our audit. It's a pretty comprehensive audit and so their team works on site to review and go through the comprehensive um compliance questionnaire and there are findings within those and I always think audits are really good because you take a look at what are you doing your best practices and then how can you improve um there are a couple different findings and so I wanted to talk about each
171of those. There's five. Um the first one is related to the budget. Um it our budget is required to be posted in a notification uh on the Arizona Department of Education's website. Now when I first started 26 years ago, we had to post it in the newspaper um certain days ahead of time on a certain size with a certain font. They do not require us to do that anymore, but you have to post a link um in uh the on the Department of Education's website. Um, and you do that with your proposed budget and adopt the budget, but then when you revise your budget. So, in December, um, the link or the file to upload to say that your budget was posted was not posted until the 14th when we presented on the 11th. So,
172um, that's just an oversight. So, there just needs to be two sets of eyes to make sure that that that gets the little link and upload gets done on that piece, but you need to upload it. The documents are still there. It's the revision of the budget, but it is formality and you still need you need to post that. So, that was One finding that we had um again district oversight double check on that just to make sure it gets done and it gets done 10 days prior. The second finding was on student attendance reporting. Um this one was related to our elementary and our junior high students. So um they uh reviewed three of or five of 15 elementary and junior high students um that were reviewed for partial day attendance. Absences were reported
173incorrectly um resulting in an overstatement of absences. So absences don't impact our funding, but you still have to report them correctly according to the uniform system of financial records. So it doesn't it used to when I first started for the first handful of years attendance actually impacted your then um how much you got for average day of membership. Um so there was a rate if you were underneath a certain percent back then it was 93% then you got impacted and they reduced how much money you got. Then they got rid of that um and so now we don't get impacted by it but it is used for a lot of different things at the state and state superintendent report. So it reported in. Now, it is a calculation. So, for example, if you have a
174kindergarten student who comes, they're only funded actually at half time. They come a certain part of the day and they're gone for half the day, your your register has to go in and manually calculate how much time they're there and what that absence should be. And if you're off by that, if you calculate a half a day and it's only supposed to be 0.25, then you get a finding for that. So, you're we have 49 register registers and they have to manually put that in. We do have some bindings on that. Um, so again, they go in there's a calculator chart that they have. And what we're learning as as those positions turn over, just constant training in those categories because they have to go in, use the calculator, and go back out and manually
175input when somebody comes in like you have a dentist appointment and you come in at 9, 14. Does that mean you're off for a quarter of a day, three4 of a day, full day depending on half day, full day, those kinds. So calculation of that doesn't impact finances, but you're still supposed to have that accurate. And I think almost everyone in the state gets that finding, right? and might be a couple that are perfect data but not too many. Um the next finding or below that is they took high school students. So if you were to look at our high school students, three of our students that are reported in that finding again um are reported uh by again an FTE or an absence calculation. So for example, if a child comes two periods out
176of four because four periods is equivalent to full time. They come two out of the day out of four, they're really a five. you take half a day of of an absent, but if that kid came in in the middle of that period, but they were there for two periods, but they came in the middle of one of those periods, they're really absent for three out of four according to the state. But for CUSD, if the child is there for more than half of the period, we don't mark them absent. That's an internal thing that we do based on what our parents working with our parents because they drop their child off, they think they're there for the day. If they get a phone call saying they're not there for the day, it causes confusion.
177So our consistency in our in our high schools, if they're there for over half of the period, they're present. If they're not, they're absent. But if you don't calculate that correctly using the calculation, you get an absence. It doesn't it doesn't get calculated correctly on the absence chart. That is electronically done um with if you're absent or not absent. So you manually have to go back in and overwrite that in our system. So again, all of our high school registers have to do that. So you're going to have some manual um errors with that. Again, just lots more training constantly on that and review. We're looking at our programmers to see if they can just update that. Again, does not impact us financially, but how do we just make sure that that's accurate? The next
178finding was uh student is number three is called student attendance finding and it's related to our CED students. Very similar. It's our satellite kit. So, the kids that are on our campuses um that go to our campuses, they never step foot on an EV campus, but again, we have almost 7,000 of those classes uh related or students who go to a class. Um and again, it's reported the same. So, they're in attendance for one out of two, what's the absence rate then on that? So, for example, we would calculate maybe thinking if they were there for one out of two, we would calculate a 0.5. But if that day was a block day or if they came in late on one of those periods, but we're we're kind of just there's a difference and and
179the attendance work didn't go back in and fix it, then you're going to you could have a difference in that over or under. So, sorry, very complicated, technical, and uh just constant trainings with our registers on that um on on each of those reportings. So again not impacting ADM that is correct just on on the absent side. Uh finding number four uh was on uh governing board uh management procedures. This is related to conflict of interest. Um we have an employee who has a husband who is has owns uh it's called All Valley Media Last. Um and so um she did not know that she had to report on the conflict of interest that her husband worked for that company. we do business with that company. Now, we have a programmer who writes a script
180to make sure that social security numbers are checked so that we don't have a 1099 and a W2 and we are constantly checking that. But her social security number necessarily doesn't match the vendor's uh um EIN number, social security. So, you can always check that too. You are relying on your employees telling you that piece. Um so, then what happens too is they come in and they'll look at we have other things, addresses, we check different pieces. So, sometimes they they don't know employees don't know. So, it's constant education piece. They go in and they watch a video on it. They have to sign off on it. We have a pretty comprehensive program, but again, there's always someone. We do have 5,400 employees and sometimes there is um those pieces. Now, that's fine because you
181are required um to have that and disclose that piece. Uh I don't think she has any she doesn't have any significant um impact on that purchase order or anything like that. Um but still have to disclose that. So, that was finding number four. And then finally, number five is related to that on the procurement side because um if a board member does a I'm sorry, if an employee or a board member has a conflict of interest, then you have to go out and you have to do a a hard bid um or an RQ. You have to actually procure it, bring it back to the board and do the process. You can't just um do a purchase order and do quotes for example. So since we had that violation up there, we have a violation
182permit in that sense um because we did not procure it formally and take the time to do the hard bid, have it outstanding for a period of time, come back, go do the workable process for that. And then um question number six on the findings um are related to um due diligence. Um so when you use cooperative agreements meaning that another agency has done the bidding and has procured and we use procurement documents and approve those. We have to go through and do a due diligence to make sure they've done the proper procurement process. We do do that and what we found though in our audit was just the documentation of all of the part where we showed that we did the due diligence. So, we did do the due diligence but however we have
183to show in our paperwork that we did all the proper steps and so it's just change of like documenting it and I think formalizing it and then scanning it and getting that process in there. You can see that our staff did it, had an approval of it, but two of our contractors just not the proper documentation that supports the backing of that. So again, just cleaning up our procedure in that and documenting it, but we did have the procedures in place. Nothing was wrong with there, but we just need to make sure we have an exact paper trail. Really, it's now on computer um for those due diligence. So those are the six USFR compliance questionnaire. That's actually a really good audit. Very proud of our team. Heather Caviar and Lauren Randall um are the
184two leaders who do majority of that, but again, they still have to get help from um a number of our leaders up here. Uh their teams work no matter if it's from our tenant systems um to transportation to our technology to all the different pieces. So a lot of different team members are obviously um following all the US far and we appreciate um all their hard work but again Heather Caviar and Laura Randle do a great job running our team. There is one other finding that was on the single audit report package um and that was related to our federal federal programs title one specifically. So, title one requires you to report your title one, your low or your free and reduced low um students. And for us, we report that you have to report
185it to the Arizona Department of Education. And so, when reporting that number, there wasn't a capture of that data that was sent and then um uploaded to the Arizona Department of Education and they didn't capture and again scan that number from that day um and put that into the system. Um and um there was some emails that went back and forth between our ADM person um and our director, but ultimately with our email system um your emails go away after a certain period of time. And so that documentation was not captured and then um put into our into our files for title one. And so we couldn't replicate exactly that number. It didn't impact the per puper per pupil allocation that you have to do with title one, but ultimately we couldn't get that exact
186number even when replicating it. So again process for us to just make sure we scan that number. Um we come very close and that and it doesn't impact how the allocations where they were done correctly. We just can't get the exact number by reproducing it because those students are are updated on a regular basis. So process with that we had a new change in staff with our ADM specialists. Um and so it's just again documentation process to make sure we scan those documents stick the audit file for that. So there's just a lot of documentation, scanning, filing, updating, and again processes and procedures. Our team is really good at it, but there's always ways to get better. So that was the update on the title one single audit file. So again, our team is doing
187a great job. Really appreciative of every single person who works hard on that. And our audit team um really does a great job working with our staff to make sure that we have um you know, that they get them the things that they need and then um we have a great partnership to ask questions and then find ways to get better. So, it's been a great partnership. >> All right, any questions for us? >> Thanks, Miss Barry. So, just to clarify, um there were some findings which for a district our size, it's not surprising that there may be some, but none of them were, you know, red flags or significant. The work had been done. It sounds like these were more administrative like entry type of errors. >> Yes. And I think for se almost
188a $700 million budget with thousands and thousands of transactions from fixed assets to accounts payable to payroll to HR to procurement to technology it's it is impressive when you only see like seven findings total six findings for the USFR and one finding for a single audit. So again we're always proud of that. I think Josh could probably talk to where we stand or how our team functions um and and the work that's being done here. >> Great. And um I can attest uh quickly just because I happen to have a high schooler right now. I truly freak out when I get my parent score notification that my kid was absent from a class when I know he was late but he wasn't absent. So then I'm, you know, chasing him to confirm he's really in
189class. And it is exactly that situation. the teachers, you know, to no fault of their own to get their classroom started um take attendance at the top of the period and then it's just too much to revisit. And so it's not until we call to uh excuse the the lateness that it manually has to get registered and sometimes it may not. I honestly I don't check back to see that. But um definitely a practice that I could see, you know, it's just a barrier I would say for keeping accurate. >> And I'm sorry, Josh, were you going to uh give some input on something? >> Uh yes. What I would just add is uh you know, the the questionnaire that's submitted to the Arizona auditor general. Every district has the same questionnaire. It's submitted for
190every district by their auditors. Uh and the questionnaire is very black or white. It's yes or no. uh and if there's a no there's a comment of what the instance of the non-compliance was uh the auditor general will then take that data and analyze it and do what they wish with it. Uh but in my opinion the number of nos in the questionnaire for unified uh is impressive considering its size and its level of operation um and it is probably lower than the average number we see uh for the audit report. for that. And for the public just to know, you can always visit this is public information. So the Arizona Auditor General has their website. Um it's recently been refreshed with these inputs and so you're welcome, you know, to visit information on Chandler
191Unifi and it shows comparisons um to our peer districts and then the statewide average. So, um, super informative and we'll see if we have any other questions or comments. >> Oh, I'm sorry, everyone. I'm getting ahead of myself. I can't I'm thinking of my bed. All right, let's see. We are discussing item 7.05. And I apologize for opening discussion prior to the motion. Um, but let's get a motion on the table on 7.05. Madam President, I move that we approve the annual comprehensive financial report single audit reporting package year ended June 30th, 2025 as presented 907.05. >> Thank you, Mr. Heath. And we'll open for a second. I'll second. Seconded by Miss Mson. All right. Um I will check with everyone see if we have any additional questions. Mr. >> uh two things. Um just
192an observation. our outstanding debt at the end of last year June 30 about $41 million. I'm sure you know this right off the top of your head and we just added another 135 off which now so our outstanding debt by the time we sell all those bonds should be about 536 million correct >> no thank you for that actually we acrew our principal and interest during the year and then I think it payment on July 1. So I think what you saw earlier on the presentation from steeple um current outstanding is 344810 um currently plus then our new issuance of that piece. So there's principal and interest related. >> So that's because you made a payment by July 1. Okay. Well, thank you. >> Yes, you're welcome. >> What was the number again? >> Uh
193well, off the top of my head, I can if you go back to Sele's presentation. Sorry about that. That's fine. >> Okay. Sorry. It's 344 uh 344,810,000 for our class B. >> Um the other thing I was kind of leaking to the the report here while we're talking. One thing that's always interested me is um the reserve calculation which was in there um and the outer general told how to calculate that. Hopefully everybody's doing the same thing but it's not there anymore. So did I miss it? I went through it twice. >> I'm refer to Josh on that. Um I guess uh thank you for the question board member or uh what I the the data that the auditor general in their dashboard puts together on reserves um may look a little different than what's
194in the annual comprehensive financial report. Um I can't speak to if they're using the same time frame on the auditor general website June 30th or if it's more up to date um or if it's un audited data versus the comprehensive report is the audited uh data. Um but the the fund balances are in there. Um I I'm not sure if you're speaking on a specific table more specific. Um when we had the report last year, there was a note in the financial section. It says here's how you calculate your reserves like four different funds or whatever and here's the number. But it doesn't seem to be there unless I don't think I missed it because I went through it twice. >> So why don't we figure this out? >> Sure. >> Okay. >> If you'll
195show me or send it over to me, Mr. >> Sure. No problem. If you'll show me what you're looking at, we'll definitely do a comparison and give that to you. >> Okay. I will scan it and send it. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Mr. Did you have a question? Good. Miss Mendos, are you hanging in there? >> Yes, I'm here. All right. Um, hearing no further questions, I think we can take a vote then. Um, we are going to go on 7.05, the annual comprehensive financial report as presented by Miss Barry and the help of Josh. Um, do we have the motion on the table? Sorry everyone. All those in favor, please say I. >> I. >> Okay. Any opposed? Hearing none. The motion passes unanimously. And next, um, thank you so much, Josh. Have
196a good night. Uh, we are at item 7.06, some updates and requests related to the Hartford Elementary design fees with Mr. >> Good evening, Madam President, members of the board. On September 13, 2023, the governing board approved all via one GPA contract 23-8P-9 in the amount of 1,730,160 for the design of New Hartford Elementary School. District is requesting an increase of 400,000 to cover related design services including traffic impact study on-site civil design, building energy performance, food service design, special systems design, structural special inspections, and ground regulation testing. Approval of the use of the cooperative contract is for the procurement method only and does not oblige the district to expend funds or guarantee any level of purchasing. Any expenditures made utilizing this cooperative contract remain subject to budget availability approved thresholds under district policy and
197Arizona law. Recommend approval for the increase of 400,000 for estimated expenditure utilizing one GPA contract 23-8P-9. >> Thank you for that, Mr. D. Um, let's get a motion on the table, folks. >> Madam President, I move to approve for an increase 400,000 for estimated expenditures utilizing one GPA contract for elementary design. Do we have a second? >> Seconded by Mr. and we'll open up to discussion. >> Mr. D, I was not here on the board when that one get approved. Can you offer some comments as to I mean I see the bullet points but >> sure um the increases in anticipation of additional expenses so what changed between I guess in the two and a half years a lot can happen yeah a lot a lot has happened yes so the original p uh agreement
198of the 1.7 is for your basic design of architectural and consultants which then the consultants at that time would be your mechanical your electrical and your plumbing engineers and then from there once the design is uh uh in schematic. Then they bring on further consultants and then we meet the city of Chandler and they in this case require traffic impact study. We then work with the civil design for all of our drainage um food service design. We have to have a kitchen consultant come on after the architect has engaged our community. We have schematic design to know what type of kitchen we're designing. So you bring on these other services as the design process for others. >> Thank you. You're welcome. >> Any other questions or comments? >> Kind of had the same question. So,
199these are all add-ons kind of after the fact because other entities require them or something. >> Correct. Or and just the process itself um up front. We don't know um what the city might u require or what the design might entail to know what other services would be required or what the amounts would be. Typically, that's really the issue is the amount. >> So, they were unanticipated, I guess. >> No, they're anticipated. This is a part of your normal design process. We just don't know the amounts of the amount. >> Correct. So, once we uh we accumulate them, then we bring them to you one time. >> Okay. So, can we put an estimate next time or >> we certainly could. >> Yeah. Just so we know that half million. >> Absolutely. >> Okay. >>
200All right. I'm excited to continue with our progress on the rebuild of Hartford Elementary. Uh we will take a vote board members on item 7.06. All those in favor please say I. >> I. I. >> I. >> Any opposed? Hearing none. The item passes unanimously. >> And that brings us to our last action item everyone. 7.07 07 is the safe contract 33-23-27 that's screen printing banners graphic wraps embroidery and awarded letters presented by Miss Madam President members of the board requesting governing board approval for $300,000 for state contract 33-23-27 screen printing banners graphic wraps embroidery and award letters awarded to MC Square Wraps Marty's trophies and awards game one and think for projects at various sites for the remaining of the 2526 fiscal year. The total amount spent districtwide to date for this fiscal year
201is 224,51,000 or 5001, while the amount falls within the district's delegation of authority threshold of 250,000 and did not require prior governing board approval. The requested amount will cause the total expenditures to exceed that threshold. The due diligence for this cooperative has been reviewed by the purchasing department and is compliant with the Arizona school district procurement rules. Approval of the use of the cooperative contract is for the procurement method only and does not obligate the district to expend funds or guarantee any level of purchasing. Any expenditures made utilizing this cooperative contract remain subject to budget availability and applicable approval threshold under district policy in Arizona law. We're recommending the motion to recommend approval for an increase of $75,499 with a total estimate expenditures of $300,000 utilizing save contract 33-23-27 for the remaining of the 2526
202fiscal year. Now, I just want to kind of remind you again um when we get to those thresholds, we come back to the board for approval. Um as we approved a lot of the projects that are coming up and as people are awarded or additional dollars come in from boosters or we have amounts that we spend those thresholds go up for a lot of those projects. So, uh just coming back to the board for approval center. >> Thank you, Miss Barry. Um let's get a motion on the table. Madam President, I motion that we approve the increase of 75, $499 to the total estimated expenditures of 300,000 utilizing state contract 3-23-27 for the remainder of 2025 26 fiscal year. >> Thank you, Mr. Heat. Do we have a second? I'll second. Seconded by board member
203Men. Um, with the motion on the table, I'll just check in to see if we have any questions for Miss Mr. Rice. >> So, just want to make sure I think I know what the answer is, but this would be all the banners and stuff see football games or events and all this other stuff including, you know, the big paper thing that the football players bust through and destroy every time that we can't reuse, I guess. So, is that what that's all for? >> Mr. Roor, good great question. Actually, a lot of those items are bought by the boosters, but a lot of these are like the wraps. When you go into our schools, you'll see the wraps that are at the schools right now that are on doors or other places. They're related to
204trophies that are related to our big scoreboards or things that are actually district purchase. But capital items all come through the district. So, if the booster has to buy an actual capital item and it's required to come back through the district, we have 195 boosters if you can imagine that. And all capital items have to go through us. But supply items or consumable things go through the boosters they are able to purchase through our Chandler school boosters. Uh but uh most of these are things that are are more expensive. It's wrapping some of our vehicles, our um doors, it's trophy pieces, it's signage, it's different things that we have throughout um that are capital items or that we have that are usually longer than a year. >> Okay. In that big nonplayable pool that very
205run through. Okay. Or is that the boosters? That one I think because it's capital on but some of the ones that are like the paper stuff that they run through there's different things but the big I think that one is a capital item the blow up inflatable line. Yes. >> Oh okay. >> Unless it was bought years ago before we put we made sure that the money's gone back. >> Okay. >> No Mike knows he probably purchased some of those items. >> It was more recent. >> Okay. I thought I jumped a little le >> great. I think we're clear and excited. supporting these um baneras and more. So all those in favor of item 7.07 please say I I >> I. >> Any opposed? Hearing none. The motion passes unanimously. This brings us to
206tonight's item eight. I'm sorry, agenda item number eight, information items. And we have 8.01 1 science curriculum specifically for seventh grade is open sed presented by Dr. >> President Serrano members of board open sed is an open educational resource providing high quality science education materials for K12 students these standards align curriculum include unit and lesson plan student videos simulation library and on demand teacher support while the curriculum is free of charge consumable consumable items will be purchased to further support students in a hands-on learning environment the total cost for materials is 77,42186 including estimated tax, shipping, and processing. In accordance with ARS 15-721, the curriculum will be placed on display for the 60-day review period for comment at the Palima Romero Instructional Resource Center starting April 9th, 2026. After the 60-day review period for public
207comments, the curriculum will be presented for approval. >> Thank you, Dr. Ed. Um, and we'll open up for questions if that's okay. Um, I I was just curious. This seems very vast uh curriculum K through 12 and I mean the amount doesn't seem like it's high for covering K through 12. So I was just wondering is there a focus on the curriculum even though it's available K through 12 but we know we're going to utilize it a certain way. >> Yes. So this is actually just for seventh grade which is why so minimal but we have it in sixth grade. We rolled it out to sixth grade this year. Seventh grade will continue to eighth grade in the future. >> Okay. Thank you for that. Um any other questions from the board members? Miss, is
208this just for one year um for seventh grade then or is it also for um the sixth grade consumable because you said consumables and non-consumables? Um so obviously there's going to be an ongoing and a nongoing for the non-consumables. So could you explain to all that? Yes, the dollar amount right here is for consumables because um this is an open education resource which means it's free. So the actual textbook or the the teacher pieces, the student editions is open education, but this is just for the consumables for the actual labs. So this will be an ongoing charge for every year to make sure that there are new labs and the consumables. Okay? because our our item here says consumable and non-consumable items will be purchased um to further support student hands-on learning experience. So, so
209it's so clarification is it's only consumables at this point. >> I should tell you I should revise what I saying consumables but a non-consumable item would be like a Bunson burner that we need for that would be the noncon. >> Okay. So then so the amount should be less the following year because you'll be able to reuse those type things. >> Yes, you are correct. Thank you. >> All right, perfect. Um, so we will see this on a future agenda item for approval and that brings us to our CUSD board agenda road mapap. Um, as we all heard, we've been celebrating our A+ celebrations. So those will continue over the next couple of weeks, everyone. Um, this uh the 17th we will be at Navarret. um a reminder about Saturday's inaugural powell that we will
210be celebrating here. And then leading into the end of the month, we'll be back here on April 22nd to hear um some updates on workforce development followed by some more A+ celebrations over at Conley and Knox Gifted Academy. And then we'll arrive to May which is our last month of the school year. Graduation celebrations um continue to keep us busy. So, let's wrap up tonight's uh meeting with our board member current events. And we'll start with you, Mr. >> Thank you, Madam President. Uh just keep it short. Thank you to the district for inviting me to um the Hartford Elementary groundbreaking. Feel like I'm going to event where I don't deserve any credit or honor and it's wonderful to participate in those. Um, also just wanted to offer a shout out to the principal um
211at Rice Elementary, Miss Matthews. She's retiring this year and she's still hosting the uh hygiene kit drive that uh they did last year um in partnership with uh the church I belong to. It's just a fantastic way to help uh our community members um that use the Chandler uh Care Center. So excited about that. Thank you for sharing, Mr. E. This yours. >> Yeah, I'll try to keep it short, too. But the hard thing this morning was fun. The hard hats, shovels, cool deal. It's It was a lot of fun. Um on Monday, we had a dinner here. Uh the schoolboard coalition dinner, which is where we bring school board members from all over East Valley here. It's good to see these people. I don't know if most people realize we all work with we
212all face similar issues and it's really good to sit and talk with with them every once in a while. So, uh and superintendent come as well. So, I think it's a really great dinner. I appreciate you hosting that. um this Saturday county fair and we have our future farmers in America people particularly out of channel high school is well organized here but um you know we'll be seeing the judging of the bulls and the beef and chickens and the goats and what else we got rabbits and a whole bunch it's a lot of fun so if you can get out there this weekend that would really be great >> yeah well it's tough to step on yeah So, we're really looking forward to that. >> Hey, Miss M. Um, I will echo the um fun
213part of going to Harvard and Zenus for the groundbreaking and also uh went to the A+ um award ceremony at Anderson Elementary and it was really great to see how excited the kids were and the staff was and it was um a great day. Um, additionally, I really do like the East Valley Consortium that we had here on Monday because it does um allow us to uh network with other boards in the East Valley and um really kind of share some of the um experiences that we we are all um encountering. So, it has been it was a good good meeting that night. So, thank you. >> Thanks, Missa. Miss Sosa, I selfishly want you to get better. I don't want you to use up your voice, but I'm still going to check in to
214see if you had anything to share. >> No, I don't. I'm sad that I had to miss some of these events, but I was definitely there in spirit. >> Thank you so much and thanks for making a a priority to join tonight. We really appreciate that. Um, feel free to drop off whenever you like and get some rest. >> Thank you. Good night. >> Good night. All right. Well, um I just wanted to share we talked about at our last meeting uh the required testing, mandatory testing that was coming up. We are halfway through that. So halfway through mandatory state testing time for our freshman and juniors this week. Um congratulations to our freshmen who wrapped up today. Two straight days of testing. Juniors have completed day one for themselves. One more to go. So,
215I hope everybody gets some good rest for our last day of testing tomorrow at our high schools. I also wanted to share um we have been learning about our new grat tracker that is now out and released for some of us. Um you can find directions to access the parent or guardian portal through our infinite campus to review your students grad tracker because this is new to all of us. You'll also see that we're welcoming feedback. Um, so you can test out the system and let us know what you think by April 30th. There's a short six question Google form that we'd love to hear from you about. Um, or if that's not convenient, feel free to email or give us a call and just let our COC counseling department know how that experience is
216going. Um, I'll just echo I hope to see our community out this Saturday at our channel's inaugural powout. Um, there will be a lot of fun um and performances that we get to be part of. And then echoing Superintendent Narduchi's introduction of preparing for our operation back to school again this July 11th, please um visit the website. You will start seeing opportunities to support with your voluntary time and donations coming. I have been doing Operation Back to School for a handful of years now and I have attended other operations similar back to school events throughout the valley. And I have to say, gosh, we were outstanding. It's extraordinary the amount of resources and support that we provide at our operation back to school. Um it's not just about the backpacks, the haircuts make all the
217difference. The shoes, um undergarments, and I'm just astonished at what our community accomplishes through this effort. So if you've never experienced it. Um, please seek out a way to get involved. There's many ways and we really appreciate the continued support for our students. All right, folks. With that, I think we will adjourn. Everyone have a good night and we'll see you back here. I know about it. All right. >> See, Scott, good job. people watching at one time. I just registered for >> I hope so. Are you Maybe Yeah, just a few. >> Have a good night. Okay. All right. No worries. That is my life. Like every night I'm like going out and dirty like >> I wish I could tell you I had a solution but I don't know. I even I was
218putting like I'm a person. I was doing like sticky notes. I'm just my choices. >> Yes. And I've had to like totally come to terms with that. like what's important obviously had issues over this was like we've been together forever like 10 years ago we had about And I just said tonight was like I was there like They don't always have their phone on them now. And so I was growing moment for me >> because Is it still great about I don't like the roundabout. I don't do the roundabout.