001Wednesday. >> I have to look at the schedule. 120 to 220. because some folks are getting redirected on it. >> Okay. Before we get started, I just want to thank those of you who are here uh for attending because we have a comfortable sized crew. Uh we're going to invite you to gather in the center section if you don't mind u gathering closer together and we'll maybe be a little less formal that way. We do have to keep the microphones on however because folks are tuning in from home and this way they'll be able to hear uh your side of the interaction. We'll start momentarily. Apparently, there were some folks that parked uh on the other side of campus. And so, um Stephanie asked if we could stall for about four or five minutes to
002make sure we don't start without somebody who might still want to show up. Thank you. Okay. Good evening. Welcome to the Chandler Unified School District Superintendent Search Community Forum. Thank you for taking time out uh to join us here this evening in person. And to those of you um tuning in from home, thank you uh for taking this in. We do have microphones set up. Uh we don't have an overwhelming crowd tonight, so we've asked folks to kind of gather up close with us in front of the venue. Um and we do have microphones on. So we will ask folks when it comes time to share your input to speak up. So these two microphones here can capture what you have to share. U if needed, we'll go ahead and paraphrase as well. Uh tonight
003we're going to start with uh some introductions on who we are. Uh my name is John Bash and I'm the lead associate for this particular search uh as part of the Hazard Young ATA and Associates team HYA for short. Um I'm in year six uh conducting superintendent searches for this firm after 35 years of service in public education in various leadership roles uh as well as uh teaching and I'm pleased to welcome two of my colleagues here tonight and if you want to come up we'll have them introduce themselves briefly. >> Good evening. Uh Chris McDuffy and I've been in public ed for 43 years. uh teacher, principal, uh superintendent for 17 years in the state of Washington. Um also taught in higher ed prepping principles and superintendent for about 26 years. Um so we
004were honored to be selected by your board as the search firm for this very important decision that the board has uh in front of them. And uh again, I've been with HYA for about six years, same as John, and we do uh mostly superintendent searches. So, pleasure to be here tonight. >> Hi, good evening everyone. My name is Lori Casey. Um similar to my colleagues, I've been in education was 35 years um teacher, principal. I was in special education for a long time, superintendent. I'm from the Chicago area. So, um I got tired of the winters. I moved here with you all. So now I'm in Mesa. Um, so it's a pleasure to be here tonight and thank you so much. >> And our colleague Sylvia Barara is also in the district this evening. She
005is hosting the Spanish language forum that's happening right now as well. Uh, so she wasn't able to join us. Uh, but we're glad we're leveraging her bilingual skills to make sure that happens for uh that population tonight. Um just a little bit on the search timeline. I'm not going to read this whole slide to you, but I I do want to call out that this process includes four phases. Uh we are recruiting at this time uh while also conducting uh a variety of engagement activities including this event tonight. uh throughout the day. Today we hosted focus group uh listening sessions and uh tomorrow on the holiday we actually have three virtual sessions scheduled. One for students who want to pursue that particular option. Um and then we'll be back all day on Wednesday of this
006week to host additional focus groups. Um, in addition, on October 30th, the district launched two survey opportunities, and some of you may have already participated in that. We're approaching 2,000 participants on the survey. So, we're delighted that folks are taking advantage of that, but we bring that up, and I'll show some links here uh in just a minute. uh if you want to weigh in that way, particularly those of you at home, um you'll see that this uh search timeline has us conducting engagement uh through the 14th of this month and then we'll be presenting a leadership profile report. We'll get uh some more information on that here in a moment. That will lead to the third phase which is the select phase where your governing board will utilize the input you've provided along with
007the position announcement that includes minimum and preferred qualifications um to help guide their screening work uh and their selection decisions. uh as your firm, we will also use this information in our recruitment effort as we look at candidates who are the best match uh with their talent for what uh Chandler needs here in the future. So, your voice truly matters. Um your school board was very clear uh that they want to have a transparent, inclusive process where all voices have an opportunity to be heard. Um so we've invested a lot in this engagement phase and as you can see on the slide uh it does this qualitative data that we are gathering between our engagement sessions in person and our online survey results in a leadership profile report as John mentioned we'll be sharing that
008with the board on the 21st um and it's used throughout the rest of the phases of the process as you can see as well it can help drive, you know, what interview questions should be asked of these candidates, right? And uh so in during the select phase, for instance, and finally during the transition phase, what does the district need moving forward? And uh we are here through the transition phase to help with that, the board superintendent workshop to help them reset their team um and develop priorities moving forward. So we're here for the long haul. But the leadership profile report, we hope you watch for that in a couple weeks. Lori, >> sure. So, I'm gonna start off. You have um the questions up here. Uh I believe they're on the screen if you're watching
009at home and then you have them in front of you. So, what we're going to do is I'm just going to have you um think about the first one, which are what are the strengths of this district um with the mindset of because you're looking for a superintendent. So, if you have something you'd like to tell us about those strengths, if you could come up to one of the microphones again, just so we can make sure that it's um everybody can hear it. those at home and so we have it um for our notes and everything. >> Sure. And I think with our sound folks here, if they speak loudly enough from their seats, do you think we're okay? >> Okay. Um that way we don't have to ask you to get up and down
010here as you're speaking. But we would ask, especially if you're in a a few rows back, um use your outside voice. U I did just so we don't lose it. Uh we were told to anticipate um huge crowd tonight. So um we had some parameters. We're going to forego that because we think we can handle your input within the allotted time tonight. Um so we're going to forego that. But before we start, I also want for the viewers at home to show these uh links to the two survey opportunities already mentioned. Um there's one for family members, uh students and staff who have a parent square account. That's the first one there. Uh and then the second one is if you're a community member, um there's a open opportunity for you to complete the survey
011um that way. So I'm going to leave that up just for a second so folks have a chance to capture that. And while uh I'm hitting pause, I want to recognize our student crew helping with the broadcast tonight. Um help me again with the name from the back. The Basha Basha Bear Network. All right. Credit to you guys. Thank you. All right, go ahead. >> So, back to the question. I had some time to think about it. The greatest strengths um of this community in this district. You just want anybody wants to start and to break the ice, sometimes it's helpful. Um we're doing some recruiting uh for the district. So, if somebody was not familiar with Chandler Unified School District or the community, uh, think about it in the frame of marketing. You know,
012what is it that makes this place an attractive uh place to bring your student to school or to bring your family uh to live? What What are the upsides? >> Okay, I'll go. Thank you. >> But I would I will speak to some of the strains. Um I believe that there's a wide variety of educational choices available from the CTAs to gifted to, you know, traditional um schools. I think the community supports the schools a lot even though I know tonight we're not really seeing that. It's probably because parents are, you know, busy taking their kids to all their different activities. I think we do have a strong parental involvement. A lot of um we just passed the bond >> um although it was closer than I would have liked but um so I think
013there is general support you know for the school district and I think the city of Chandler which I know you're not asking that but if it is somebody new the city of Chandler is a very strong I think has a strong foundation is very fiscally responsible and I think invests in important in the quality of life and the financial um health of the city. So it recognizes that the city is made up of multiple areas and the school district does as well including like focusing on mental health and culture and arts and additions. >> Thank you. >> Other strengths? >> Yes. So I actually used to be a student here. I graduated in 2008. Now I have one daughter. She is in kindergarten special. So, I've been out for a while. Now that my daughter
014is a student, I'm here to see what I'm see. >> Okay. Can we pass this around or Okay, let's do that. I'm happy to be >> You can be Vanna White. >> Yeah. >> So, we're gonna ask you to repeat that. So, sorry. >> Sure. That's okay. >> Yeah. >> Hello. Wow. Hello. My name is Karina. I am a mother of a kindergarten student and I am here to be involved. I have a very young daughter, so the greatest strengths of the school district and community. I My daughter hasn't been a student here for very long, but I can tell you that she's in special ed, and she does have an IEP, so all of the staff, teachers who help my daughter and me create the IEP do a really good job. They always have
015time to answer my questions. I always have someone to speak to, whether it be a principal or the dean or a teacher or student aid. So, the communication between any and all staff is great. And again, my daughter's just in kindergarten, but I feel like a lot of the staff knows her by name. So, that's really nice. So, I would say that's the greatest strength so far in my daughter's time here. >> Other strengths Patty. >> Hi, my name is Patty. Um, my kids graduated from Chandler Unified School District and and I enjoyed being in the district so much. I'm still years later a volunteer and and so forth. Um, we were brought to Ch or we came to Chandler on our own voluntarily and chose Chandler specifically because of CUSD and everything that it
016offered at that time 20 plus years ago and I've only seen it grow um as far as the quality of the education, the teachers, the the opportunities ities that are offered to the children and and so forth. It's just it's amazing to me. Miss makes me wish I could still go back to school and take advantage of those things because they were not available when I was in public school. But Chandler overall, uh, the diversity of the population, whether it's cultural, economic, there's such a rich history here that I am glad that we celebrate and and Chandler Unified School District makes the most of that. On the economic side of it with the diversity, we have the halves and the seriously have nots. And I have always appreciated the extra help that the district gets
017for title one schools and so forth and and what is available to those schools through the district with the extra help. >> Thank you. pass it next. Sure. >> Hi, my name is Alicia and I have three kids at Basha High School and um we we've loved uh Chandler Unified Schools. So many opportunities. Um some of my kids were in the gifted program and other my kids have um volunteered and helped with um the the special ed program as well. There's a lot of really neat ways they intertwine all the different programs and so many opportunities with sports and clubs. They're in um some are in the Spanish club and just all different kinds of clubs that they get to interact with people and the teachers have always been wonderful. Um I can't say enough
018good things about it. I love it. >> Wonderful. Anybody else? Yes. Hi, my name is Barbie and as a member of the community I can tell you I've had the opportunity to attend some of the school functions at the giftedmies and it's really impressive how involved the teachers and the students are and when guests come in and walk through to see their projects that they're doing. They're so excited about it and they're anxious to show you how it works and how they put it together and they just have so much fun. They had a fashion show they called Trash and Fashion >> that was absolutely hysterical where they taught them, you know, they use trash to make creative costumes and it was just very very impressive and the the excitement and the enthusiasm of the
019students and the teachers and the interaction between them was fabulous. >> Thank you. Other strengths. Yes. Um, hi. I wanted to basically when it comes to strengths, I want to make sure and by the way, I have um two kids that have already graduated CUSD. one is at CUS or um SDSU in SA San Diego and the other is up at NAU and I still have an 8-year-old in the district. So, I've been able to see Chandler Unified go through quite a few changes. Some I like, some I do not. And um I do want to highlight I think one of our greatest strengths in CUSD are our students and the whole reason why they are here is to be educated. And I understand there's a lot of extra um you know extracurricular things that
020we focus on in in our district and I think that's great but our students are where we really need to put our focus and the education is where we need to put our focus so that they can become stronger. The world is not getting easier. It is only getting more challenging for a lot of our youth and they need to be given all of the tools and the education to be able to be successful in the real world once they get out there. and having kids that are in college and things that are expensive and being on their own. It's extremely important to focus on the students and know that they are 100% capable in this district no matter what at any school because the other strength that we have are our teachers which are
021my second focus. Our teachers really need to be appreciated. Our children are with our teachers 30% of the time and when they are with them they are they are the ones that are teaching them. Some of these children when they are home don't have the tools that they need to continue on. Some of them have we all have it's like people have said it's a very diverse community. So um not everybody is the same. There are very many differences in a lot of households. So, we need to focus on the most important things when our when our kids are in school, and that is to focus on their education and make sure that we're giving them the tools that they can use going forward. >> Thank you. >> Other strengths and if you think of
022it as the night goes on, you can always come back and say, "Oh, I forgot this." And I'm happy to run back there. Um so anything else on strengths and that we can move on. Okay. So the next item are challenges. The new superintendent what challenges do you see um or opportunities do you see the district facing moving forward? Challenges opportunities the greatest ones. Yes. Um, I think the greatest challenge that's going to be faced by whoever comes in is the fact that we have ESAs, empowerment scholarships accounts in Arizona. So, the state government is basically paying people to keep their kids at home. Um, I don't know if they're getting educated or not. We'll never be able to tell. will eventually be able to tell. But the um but that's taken a lot of
023money away from the school districts, all the school districts, and they still have to maintain all these buildings and roofs and parking lots and fields and and systems and air conditioners and everything and and and pay their and pay their teachers and pay their people. And if the funding's not there because the kids aren't there, then they're have they're going to have to make a lot of adjustments because we're going to have schools designed for 800 kids that are only going to have 400 kids in them. And we have that in a few places now, but it's going to be a lot more of it going forward if they don't, you know, something doesn't change there. But if that's something the superintendent is going to have to deal with. >> Thank you. >> Other challenges?
024Sure. You know, I'm gonna run back there and I'll come right back. I'm not going to run, but do my best. >> Sure. So, uh I'm Lena. I have two boys, one um in middle school at Basha and one in high school at ACP. And they have gone through elementary, middle school, high school curriculum. And I'm really really proud to be part of Chandler School District. I I think with no matter which school you go to, you will never go wrong here. So I'm really proud to be a parent of you know CHD uh boys but I think one of the couple of things I see as a challenge is I know we are short on teachers uh funding and whatn not but I think the quality that we are maintaining for past few years
025um having really educated and uh you know knowledgeful and willing teachers uh out there I think to maintain that quality of incoming new teachers um you in recent I mean I don't think it's necessarily with my kids but I see that you know uh so so all really it's I I just want to say it's an opportunity or it's a area of challenge that may come in future years uh so that's something to look out for I think my kids will be okay but just for future generation um uh so just be mindful of just don't hire someone just because they have a degree and they're right after the college but look out what really needs of that district or that school is and uh see if they are a good fit to our culture
026and then hire. So that's I think one of the opportunity to look out for and then the second one is I think just it's a great curriculum uh so far that kids are able to my son is going to go to college next year and I think he's well prepared um you know he has enough diversification of his curriculum wise as well as people wise he has seen enough I think being in the district um but that's another I I think something to look out for is uh you know uh let me let me find the right words uh basically uh you know not only having uh good curriculum but to keep up with the time right we have a lot of AI related and kids are getting smarter just because of the how much
027um they explore outside of school how much you know they are open to the information now uh to accommodate in the in in their curriculum basically right not necessarily AI or computer related but in general in all other areas. So keep up with the curriculum that we have with you know quick incoming changes so it gets them ready when they go out to college. Um so I think those are the two areas I would see we have opportunity to keep up with the curriculum and keep up with the quality of teachers. >> Thank you. >> Yes. >> Thank you. >> I wanted to touch on in addition to like the ESAs that are just stealing money from the districts that are not given enough money to start with and so forth. We also have to
028plan for um declining enrollment because we're basically built out and you know we are losing students otherwise families moved here and then their kids graduated and aren't involved in USD anymore and some of us are not moving from our houses where we raised our kids and and so forth. So, I'm and I'm not going to add any more kids to USD. Um, but we do need to plan for the declining enrollment and I would hope that we could work with the city and and others to put out the marketing efforts and included in COD materials as well to market um COD is the place that you do want to raise your families and so forth. So, keep bringing those kids in here and we'll find a place for them to live. >> Thank you. >>
029Okay. Other challenges? >> Yep. >> Sure. um to kind of go on with the ESA um scholarships that some are talking about, I think, um instead of focusing so much on the ESA money, Chandler Unified needs to focus more on why these parents are leaving because there are many reasons. And I, like I said, I've been in CUSD for many years and I'm still here. I appreciate our teachers. I appreciate our schools. I appreciate our parents. Um, but there are valid reasons why people are leaving and some is that's why our enrollment is declining. I mean, our math and ELL ELA scores have gone way down. Um, I'm not sure exactly where they are right now, but there's also things that have been and people who are put in positions who are not focusing on
030education. They're focusing on things outside of education that our children do not need to be learning or they do not need to be aware of at certain ages. I think when you get into high school, it's a little bit different, but in elementary, they need to be learning academics and that's it. And when you start speaking of at the district level or on the board about politics or you know other things in that nature, you lose people because they want their children to be children. They want their children to learn math and ELA and reading and they want them to be smart. And then once they become of age, they can have their own opinions and they can do what they want with them because of where we live and what we are able to
031do. But a lot of the parents that I have spoken to who have left the district and are either doing their own thing or have gone to an ALA or they've gone to a charter type of school. Those are the people that I'm talking to and I'm hearing from them. So, I guarantee you some of them are are sad that they had to leave. they had their other children in or they still have their child in high school and that one's going to graduate but now they have the littles and they are going to keep them home or they're going to do something else. That's where the focus needs to be put. You need to find out why people are leaving not just because there's money because there's many many people out there who I
032think take advantage of it for the good and for you know I know teachers that are no longer teachers now that are now teaching their kids at home. So, um, when it comes to challenges, I think a big focus needs to put on be put on where what can CUSD do to keep the students that we have and to then bring more students to Chandler and Chandler is a hot spot, so to speak, but because not not brand new families aren't able really to move right now with little ones and put them into school because of housing prices and all that kind of stuff. So there's a lot of different aspects to it, but when you make CUSD what it was before, they will come. >> Thank you. >> I'm okay. >> Sure. >> I
033would agree with what you just said. Um I think that there has there have been some detractors in education. I've I've seen it over the last 30 years. Um they need there needs to be more focus on reading, writing, and STEM. Um and actually in the state of Arizona, we have Arizona Revised Statute 15-241 that requires schools to ensure the focus is on education fundamentals to meet state academic achievement standards in reading, math, and STEM. um the proficiency is is low and I'm I would be amazed that anybody would be satisfied with where the scores are currently in Chandler. So there isn't a great opportunity there. Um at the last board meeting they had some exchange students that came in and there were about nine of them and they were up there in front of
034the DAS and they had them all talking and you know introducing themselves and they said so what do you think about you know your experience here and several of them actually made the comment oh we love it here the curriculum is so much easier and the rest of them all shook their heads yes absolutely that was disturbing to me that these students students from other countries are coming here and going gee it's a holiday I don't have to work and that that's an opportunity I think there are also some other opportunities in um for safety safety in the schools um we had a situation down in Tucson over Halloween where the superintendent thought that this was okay for his math teachers to wear to I know it's okay. It's um it's Veil. >> Okay. Um
035it's uh it was Veil School District in Tucson, Arizona. And they were wearing bloodstained or you know it looked like blood stained t-shirts saying problem solved. The whole math the whole math team. And the superintendent down there uh defended that. I mean that the imagery if you see the picture you can go out online and see it. Uh the imagery is extremely violent and in this environment of of violence that we have in schools and I will tell you I experienced violence in high school back in the 70s. So it's nothing new but it still needs to be prevented not addressed after the fact. And there, you know, we also had a student, uh, not in the Chandler school district, uh, but a student here in the area, uh, Preston Lord that was beaten to
036death. And the CUSD school district repeatedly said none of the CUSD students were involved, and that was just not true. and it was so easy to go find out, but they kept stating that narrative that they weren't involved. That kind of lack of transparency is extremely discouraging. Um, and that that came, you know, well, I won't say, but it's it's something that the superintendent that we get has to have the fortitude and the courage to stand up when it's not convenient and address issues, serious issues, and be proactive on them and not just try to sweep it under the rug to keep the district um, you know, the district looking like there's nothing wrong, you know, address it. I I have a whole lot more respect for somebody who comes out and takes responsibility than
037someone who tries to hide it. So, thank you. >> Thank you. >> Other opportunity. Yes. And I've neglected to introduce myself before. My name is Julie and I have a seventh grader at Santan and she's been in the district since kindergarten. And um I just I yeah I've really appreciated hearing the different viewpoints that have been shared. I think that one of the challenges for the superintendent or facing the district is how do you create a space for all of these different opinions because we clearly don't all agree. I mean there's some pretty stark differences. I mean I think it's interesting that the test scores were brought up. Um and again I'm not an expert. I don't have the data in front of me but um I think yes we need to look at text
038text um we need to look at scores and academics and a child is more than just reading and math and I think all of our educators know that you can't learn how to read you can't learn math if if your mental health is you know not stable and I'm not saying that the teacher's role is to be a psychologist or therapist no definitely not but you know we come to school as whole people. Our children are coming in with everything that happened at home in the world. So, we don't operate in a bubble. We are part of a whole uh city, a state, a country. And so, I think it's really important to acknowledge that it's not just about learning one uh subject. I personally think we do need to educate the whole child. And
039since students are at school 30% of their time, that's a place where we learn socializing, we learn respect, we learn how to treat each other. And I I know I want that for my child. You know, I know we talk a lot about bullying or um you know, some of the things that happen online outside of school. And I think school is an appropriate place. It is an important place to address those issues because it might not be happening outside of school. And I'm not saying there is one right way, but I think that's important. So, I think that being able to see all of these different viewpoints and it's not black or white. There's gray and we're never going to all agree and it's can be messy, but that superintendent is going to have
040to, you know, be able to speak to all of us. So, >> thank you. >> You're welcome. >> Any other challenges you can think of or opportunities for this new person um at the moment? Yes. Thank you. So, as a new parent, um I don't I I don't know if there are opportunities for parents to be involved at school. Um but if there are few opportunities, can there be more opportunities for parents to be in school with their kids during the day? Maybe not every day. I don't know how much of an ask, you know, like what's doable or not doable. Um, I I would like to have more parental opportunities if I could throw my voice in the mix. >> That's awesome. I'm sure there's a lot of parent that would welcome that very
041much. >> Yeah, we uh we have a district representative here tonight. So, before you leave, if we can get your name, maybe we can get a connection going there for you. It's great that you're interested in helping. Thank you. Because I want to say that there's plenty of opportunity to be at the school. I was at the school every day all day to the point my kids started telling me to stay home. So >> do you think some Oh, sorry. I do think um some of the opportunities went down with um co like I know my kids were at Santan um Oh, sorry. So I think it was decreased at that time just for obvious reasons and now they're building back up. But beforehand I was I was really involved like parent um every going
042in every week and helping with preparing the packets or doing whatever and then like I said it was restricted for a while now. I think it's ramping back up again hopefully. But yeah that's good. Yeah. >> Thank you. Okay. So moving on to our our next question. What attributes, qualities, or characteristics do you believe are the most important for the next superintendent? Attributes, qualities, characteristics. >> And we are uh capturing your comments tonight and so some of you have already kind of drifted into this uh prompt. Thank you. >> Uh we've heard things like transparency and focus on u improving academic outcomes. um other qualities and characteristics that you believe will be important for the board to prioritize as they consider candidates. >> Yes. >> Having worked in HR, I know the importance of job
043descriptions. So, um I think that we need a superintendent who is mature, honest, ethical, intelligent, transparent, knows, follows, and enforces all state statutes that apply to education. Is responsive in a timely manner to all requests from constituents, including all members of the board, parents, teachers, and the media. Someone who is a good role model for expected behaviors of teacher, staff, and students. An independent thinker who will stand up to anyone, including the board, when being pressured to do something that violates his or her ethics and/or state statutes. I know the district image is an important consideration, but doing the right thing should always prevail. Um, they also need to be able to ask questions when information is is provided. You know, just because somebody gives you information doesn't mean they've given you everything. Sometimes they
044give you only part of the information. Um, we need someone who's not just going to be a rubber stamp. They need to really be involved. Um, we talked about ARS 15241 making sure that they know all of the state statutes that apply to the school districts. They understand them. They know them. They follow them. I think that those are some of the attributes additionally that I would look for. Common sense. I think that's probably a really crit critical one. So, thank you. >> Thank you. Yes. >> Hi. as a parent in the district. I have two kiddos and I have a unique um kind of I have one in a gifted program and one in a CTA program. So, it's kind of get to see different worlds pretty much. But as far as a new
045superintendent, um I wrote down accessible and transparent are very important to me just like everybody else has kind of mentioned. But as a parent, I think all parents want to be heard and listened to. And whether it makes a difference or it doesn't make a difference, you still want to know that somebody listened to you. And so if I have a challenge happening and I go up the ladder, how you're supposed to go and you get through your school and you're not getting what you really need, you want to be able to know that you could go above that and beyond and still be heard and listened to. I think that's very important. >> Thank you. attributes, qualities, characteristics. Sure. I agreed with everything that you had said, but I just want to go ahead
046and add a couple that weren't mentioned. Um I think that um a superintendent needs to have a great level of toughness because of all the differences in people and it's very it's very important to listen and um I agree with my friend next to me here about being parents being heard. When you don't feel like you're being heard anymore, it's a very helpless feeling. And your most important people in your life are your children. And that's typically what you're going, you know, that far for. Um I also think um resilient is somebody that we need. Somebody that is very resilient, who has been through things, who who can still, you know, get back up and keep going. and um the ability to hold parents accountable because parents also need to um understand that they're a
047very important part of their children's education as well. It takes a village. We are obviously all here for a reason. It is not just the teacher. It is not just the principal. It is everybody. And when you work together in conjunction with each other, you will have a better outcome. Um, and then I, um, along with that, I just, I honestly think, um, I love COD, but I think that it could be brought back to where it once was, and I think that we need somebody strong to do that. >> Thank you. >> Yes. I hope in a new superintendent that we have someone who um actually listens to teachers as well. I mean parents, yes, teachers because teachers are out there, you know, doing their continuing education and getting their masters and and so
048forth. And we need if they have suggestions, we need someone who listens to their suggestions and implements them as as appropriate. >> Thank you. So, circling back um pretty much to all three questions, is there anything else you'd like to add? Anything else that you feel is important for us to know as we put put together the leadership profile? Yes. just to kind of couple up on what she was saying. Um, parents rights Arizona revised statutes 15-112 and 113 requires all school employees and board members to respect parents rights for directing the education and the upbringing of their children. They are not the pro uh property of the state or the school district. Rather, they belong to the parents. Um, they know this new superintendent must know this statute by heart, embrace it, follow it
049to the letter, and enforce it fearlessly with all teachers, principles, and others who may try to circumvent compliance. Thank you. >> Anything else we want to circle back to? >> Sure. >> Um, this is a slightly different, but um, this kind of goes back to the whole bond initiative. So, you know, we recently just passed a bond to increase money for schools. We've all some of us have addressed that. That is a big challenge is having enough financial resources, you know, to run our schools, to pay our teachers. As we know, teacher salaries are quite low compared to the rest of the country. And um so I think it's really important to communicate the value of public education and the purpose because public education isn't for everyone. and it and um and so I think
050to be able to say this is where our tax dollars go. This is why they go here, you know. So um I think to have a clear philosophy about that, you know, we pay taxes so we can have services that support us. Um public school is an interesting thing where you don't have to go to public school. So um I think saying like what's the value of our education? Who this education is for? Yes, it's for everyone. Um, and but sorry, what I'm trying to say is like everyone can access it. It's available to everyone because it's free and it's in your community, but not everyone might want to follow that path and that's okay, you know, because there are other paths. So, I think just having that clear, sorry, philosophy about kind of the
051purpose of this. So, >> thank you. And I think um in summary again um if you have not taken the survey, please take the survey. If you're encourage your neighbors or anybody you know that has not taken it, the more responses we get. We're getting a great number, but if the more we get, the better. Um if there's something you get home tonight and you forgot to tell us, our emails are here. Um please feel free to email us. We'd love to have you know any anything else that you'd like to tell us. Um what else am I forgetting? >> I think you captured it. We just want to make sure we Oh, Chris, did you have something else? >> Maybe just a final reminder um on the dates. Um please mark your calendars for
052that last week in January. That's when the finalists will be in the community and in the district. Uh and opportunities for you to meet those finalists. So the 26th, you know, through the 30th, the board has not yet determined what that format is going to look like, but make a note on your calendars and we hope to see you actively participate at that stage as well. >> I did think of one more thing. >> Yeah. >> Um, watch the website because that's constantly being updated with new dates. We just got some new dates this afternoon of clarifying dates. So continue to watch that. The board meetings, um, we give updates at the board meetings. So feel free to watch the board meetings to to get an update on um where we're at with it. Um
053so those are just great ways as you're thinking about it if you want to continue to stay informed. Um I think they're doing a great job of putting it out there. >> Two questions. >> Yes. >> Okay. >> Well, first of all, thank you again. Thank you for doing this. I appreciate it. Um could you just tell us quickly since we have a few more minutes. Who were some of the focus groups that you've been meeting with and are you asking them the same questions? >> Um sure. Yeah. So I'll answer the second question first. Yes. Um this is this does mirror how we are uh hosting the focus groups and the ideas standardize the questions so that as we look at the input um across the different strategies um we're able to you know
054identify those themes and patterns that emerge. Um the focus groups we're meeting with include uh student focus groups and this is across all three days and the survey. So, uh, we'll be going out to schools on Wednesday to meet with student focus groups in three different, uh, settings. In addition, tomorrow there's a remote, uh, focus group opportunity for students if they, um, choose to pursue it that way. Um, several staff groups, so, uh, administrative staff. We met with support staff from the district office today. Uh there were three opportunities today for uh that were just open staff opportunities. Uh excuse me, six. We were in two locations, three each. Thank you for the math correction. Yeah, that six. Um we also uh are inviting advisory committee members from the community um current and former. Um
055we uh also are inviting um former schoolboard members and administrators who are still connected um to the district to weigh in. And then obviously tonight's an open opportunity. So if anybody wasn't uh included in a specific focus group invitation, that's what really tonight was intended to be an a wide openen opportunity for anybody that wanted to come and weigh in the same way. And then finally the surveys obviously but uh you asked about focus groups so yeah >> so I know it's too much to hope that we would be able to ask questions of the candidates but will the public have the opportunity to submit questions to ask of the candidates? >> Sure. Yeah. So um as we near the planning juncture for interviews that will be a question for the governing board. Um are
056they open to inviting topics or questions from the community that they would like to see included as part of for example a finalist sequence where there might be a a community forum like this where the finalists come. We have often seen that as part of the planning process for those activities. Similarly, if we have a group of parents, for example, that uh the board wants to see uh have an opportunity to meet with each finalist, we invite those parents to submit topics or questions they would like to see included. So, it's a a routine part of the search processes we have conducted in the past, but we also are careful not to decide those things for the board. We ask the board what their desires are as we collaboratively plan that with them. But we
057have found it, you know, very successful and important for communities to have a forum like this with the finalists uh where you can submit your questions usually on a note card because we need to be able to sort it and make sure it's not redundant and make sure it's legal and um but opportunities for for the community to take part in a in a forum just like this. >> So stay tuned. >> Yeah. And you mentioned note cards. Uh Stephanie Eagerol reminded me there are some index cards here because not everybody's always comfortable speaking in front of a group. Um and so if beyond the survey you wanted to leave us a comment or two on the comment card uh we will collect those from you. They're on the table behind the tech crew back
058here. So feel free to weigh in that way if you're more comfortable. Thank you all so much for spending some time with us tonight. Multiple ways to follow up with us if you think of anything else. So, wishing you the best and we hope we see you in January. >> And for those of you at the live stream, thank you for tuning in tonight.