April 21, 2026, Governing Board Meeting

001Testing, testing, 1 2 3. >> [laughter] [laughter] >> Oh, everybody got the same one. And I put got this mama cuz you know, she's my mom. She's a badass. And she's got a picture of you right there, too. Yeah. I love that. She she told me that we need it while she has it because because every time she looks at >> Mhm. >> Good evening. Buenas noches to everybody. Thank you so much for everybody's patience. We were in executive session and we're going to go ahead and get started with the meeting. It is 6:36 p.m. Creighton School District understands that our community of schools is located on the ancestral land of the O'odham and Akimel O'odham people who descended from the Hohokam and have inhabited these lands since time immemorial. The O'odham, whose name translates

002literally to people, are a vibrant culture and communities bounding countless generations into the past, continuing to thrive in the present, and carrying a powerful legacy for generations into the future. With this acknowledgement, the Creighton School District formally recognizes that the traditional care and keeping of these lands by indigenous people is an aspirational model of community stewardship that we are committed to honor with practices, our policy, and human relations. That brings us to our roll call, item B. Ms. Heather Ayers, Ms. Gibson-McLean, myself, Mr. Jones, and Ms. Marquez are present. We want what we want to welcome everyone to tonight's meeting and remind the audience of the request to address board cards that must be completed and submitted to the board secretary if they wish to speak to an agenda item. Board policy provides for two

003cards, white cards, to be submitted in order to speak to a specific agenda item, and blue cards to be submitted in order to speak during public comments. Due to our open meeting laws, board members are not allowed to address items that are not on the agenda, and this is per our policy 1-302. That brings us to the approval of our agenda. I move the governing board approve the agenda as presented. May I have a second? All those in favor? I. Any nays? Hearing none, motion passes. And with that, that brings us to 3A, governing board reports. And Ms. Marquez, I will go ahead and start with you. Hi. Good evening, everybody. All right. It was a fairly busy busy month. Um I got to attend this month our district-wide PTO meet up. And again, it's

004great to see how how much that those groups are growing and what our PTOs are doing and getting their feedback, sharing that with the superintendent on what some concerns might be, what's going good, what what, you know, they could use support with. Um also got to go to San Antonio for the National School Board Association conference. That was my first national conference. And um yeah, a lot lot of good stuff going on there. Got to attend a workshop on um uh special ed as well as uh career technical education. So got some great great information from that and and ideas for hopefully things that we may eventually be able to implement in our district to improve outcomes for our students. Um also attended the Copper State Educational Alliance EdTech Summit. So that was a a

005local-based um uh panel discussion um seeing how uh our our schools can integrate technology to make our our students more prepared for the workforce. Um so that was that was nice also interacting with other board members, superintendents, and folks within our local community here. And um our uh family resource center had their community closet grand opening ribbon cutting last week. So that was cool to to see to go help our volunteers. We got to set up our community closet. Um and a big thank you to the Legacy Foundation for for providing those those racks and bringing us a whole bunch of clothes and stuff for for kids and our families in our community. And seeing what a great um group of volunteers we have helping out at our family resource center. And really at all

006of our schools. So with the PTO, with the family resource center, there's just so many um great people who are out there wanting to support our kids and our and our district. So huge shout-out to all of our our district volunteers. And um yeah, looking forward to eighth grade uh promotions and our little kindergarten graduations coming up here in the next few weeks. And I'm looking forward to shaking hands and handing out the little diplomas to our eighth graders. It's always heartwarming and does bring a little tear to my eye, especially the TCA one. So um yeah, so so that's about it. Thank you so much, Ms. Marquez. Mr. Jones. Hi, everyone. Yes, I also attended the NSBA conference in San Antonio for the first time. First time in any national conference outside the state.

007And uh it was a very edifying experience as a board member. Uh mainly meeting uh other board members from around the country. And um hearing about other people's problems really puts your own into perspective. So I'm very grateful to be a board member on this district and just dealing with what we have to deal with rather than what's going on around the country. Uh I did uh attend a session put on by the website Ballotpedia that collects all sorts of political survey information and tracks candidates, but they did a really good school board member uh survey. And I was able to They recommended signing up for their newsletter, uh the Hall Pass, which tracks school board elections and school board issues all over the country. And it was a great opportunity to listen to not

008only the presenter, but the uh other board members who ranged in ex- experience of like 2 years like me to 40 years. So a lot of great minds at the conference. And lastly, and probably most important, I got to see our President Corrio uh present at a session on SOFG with Dr. Crable. Um and then lastly well, that's all I have on NSBA, but I could go on. Uh let's not forget the Creighton Community Council meeting this Thursday, 6:00 at Excelencia. Thank you so much for that, Mr. Jones. Ms. Gibson-McLean? I did not go to San Antonio and I don't know what we had a advisory committee that got canceled, so I feel like I haven't done much since the last board meeting. My apologies, everyone. I don't know. >> [laughter] >> That's What was

009that? Oh, yes. For part of the See, things blend into my professional day cuz I left the jail, went to that, and then went back. So, Not [laughter] because you >> No, exactly. So, yeah. No, I did go to the Copper Educat- Copper State Educational Alliance. Saw me in on tech- technology in the workforce or something like that. I'm so sorry. I'm the worst at the names of things, but it was There Mr. Mann was on a panel, Sophia was on a panel, and then I had to go. >> [laughter] >> But, it was very informative and there were other board members there, and other community leaders, so it was a good break in my day. I look forward to the end of the school year. I feel like the longer I've been on the

010board now, the faster these years are flying by and we are working on getting signatures so that you don't get some random person on this board, but so that is something I've been doing over the last month. And then I will say for some reason my youngest, who's in preschool, has the last 3 days of the school year off of school and my husband somehow some bosses decided that they had to like have some big meeting the last 3 days of the school year, so I can't go to any promotions or anything like that, but I hope everyone has a great time. And I know that it is quite the push in these last few weeks. You know, I never did elementary ed, but in high school there were just so many days in that

011last month especially getting kids to graduate was quite the nightmare. Just even the little the little things that go on behind the scenes on a daily basis in these last few weeks are are a feat in of themselves. So, you've got the steam, you can make it, and then hopefully people have some personal time, have some things they've planned for themselves, and have some things going on. So, you're almost there. Thank you, everybody. Thank you, Ms. Gibson-McLean. Ms. Ayers? Good evening. I did go to San Antonio and I think my favorite one was actually given by Pendergast School District. It was their student um They're they call it the Superintendent Student Council. And and they were the they were the ones giving it and talking about their leadership roles and and how they they serve

012um and how they get elected and that there are two that sit as students on the board. And I I really hope we get to that someday cuz I would love to have student voice with us. So, I really like that one. And then of course they went to the one that Sophia was on that panel as well. And a couple other ones. And um I do understand about teaching in elementary school the last few weeks of school because it's just absolutely nuts because you're trying to get testing done and the school year is almost over and it's sometimes hard keeping them retained for a better word. And and and to keep up the momentum of learning so we don't have any lost time. So, good luck to everyone and I look forward to eighth

013grade promotions as well. Thank you so much for that. Um I do not have a board update today, so I will turn it over to Mr. Mann for the Superintendent Report. Thank you, Madam President. Just a couple of other things that have been happening here in the district. We hosted last Saturday, we hosted Teach for America and all of their Teach for America teachers around the valley including those that work here in the Creighton district. I had the opportunity to stand in for Principal Earl cuz she was not available that morning and I was really glad that I did because one of the things um you know, sometimes you show up and people think they've told you what you're going to talk about and in this case I had no idea what I was going

014to talk about which as you all know I'm fine with, but it turned out what they what they wanted to know about as a group was the renaming of the school. And so, so it was really nice to be able to kind of share with them the great work the equity team at the school did, the board's partnership with the principal and the equity team at the school, and how that change came about and some of the things that we learned along the way. So, they seemed to be very appreciative of that. Also got a comment from two teachers who don't work in our district how shocked they were to see an administrator actually show up on a Saturday for something which was kind of fun for me. But, um We also have coming up

015pretty soon here in addition to our community council this Thursday, one of the other things that Teach for America has brought to us as we are the pilot for the We Grad program in partnership with ASU to bring um exploration of career options for students in middle school. Um the pilots are at Gateway and Loma Linda school and I think those two commencements are coming up on the 28th and 30th of this month. Obviously, the the board's invited and parents and families involved with the students are invited as well. So, we're pretty excited to have been able to be sort of the pilot district for that program. >> realize that we were doing that and one of my best friends' mom, who's an alum of the district, does the We Grad instruction and I've been

016a guest speaker for her before and it's a really great program. And I'm so That's great that we got chosen for the pilot. Yeah. Yeah, it's really really pretty pretty excited about that. And then I know also coming up on May 6th, we're going to have our staff award ceremony. So, excited for the board's participation in that and the opportunity to recognize some of the great people in our district, which we have a lot of great people in our district, and also some of the great things that are happening in our district. So, a lot coming up, but to kind of double down on some of the earlier sentiment in the K-12 space, we often refer to May as the 100 days of May. Once once you hit the end of April rolling into May,

017it just there's so much with all the performances and all the commencements and all the wrapping up the year. So, keep an eye on your calendars and communications from the district. You won't want to miss. I mean, there's all sorts of amazing things happen happening with end of the year celebrations and performances and things like that. So, as a community, please be paying attention to that cuz we want to see you at these events and we want you to see the amazing things that our kids are doing. And then lastly, I know this is a long one for me, but this one was just so moving because Ms. Ayers mentioned, you know, that we got to see Pendergast program in action >> [snorts] >> at the conference, but when we were looking to stand up

018our own Creighton Kids Congress, that program was already underway and our former Assistant Superintendent, Dr. Doppen, who at the time was looking for some information on how people do programs, actually went and visited with the Pendergast School District. And so, our program's a little different than theirs, but we really did benefit from their experience as we built our program. And very excited to say that we had our final meeting with the Creighton Kids Congress students, got input and feedback, some of which you may hear about tonight related to our student outcomes focus governance goals. We learned a lot about kids' experiences in math class and some of the pilot programs that we've been doing with inputs and how they feel about those and the impact that it's had on them. They provided us with, as

019always, amazing insights to the student perspective. And I think for me, it's one of the things that really makes me want to do this work because I also see what incredible leaders they are and it just makes me think about the bright future we have with these incredible kids stepping up into leadership roles outside of the school in the future. Right now, they are certainly leaders within our school or within our schools. And we just [clears throat] it was just really great to have that opportunity to have that final connect with them before we send them off for the end of the school year. So, that's all I have this evening. Thank you so much, Mr. Mann. That brings us to 3C, which is the governing board purpose and guiding philosophy on interest-based meet and

020confer process. Um we were in executive session before here and we're having some discussions in the meet and confer and it is the board sentiment and we're so, you know, pleased to see all the innovative actions that have been happening. I think for the first time me in my 6 year of being a board member, I've seen some very different innovative things coming out of that meeting confers. So, all of us are really pleased with all the innovative ideas that we are doing to address the needs of compression, special education, and other areas. So, we have really appreciate all the work and continue doing the work and look forward to the next final recommendations for the board's approval. And that brings us to 4A, which is our student outcomes focus governance update. This will be

021on goal three, report three, and I will turn it over to Dr. Pombo. Thank you, President Carillo. I I'd like to invite Dr. Dodds-Carillo and also Teya Stanford. Thank you. Oh, let's see. Okay, so the the report that we're sharing with you today is from our November-December assessment. So, we're excited to share with you what we our scores from that time, but also what we've done to address those scores the last couple months. Our um our end-of-the-year target the Azella results come out in about a couple weeks, so we'll know um how we did at that point, but this is what we did in between before they took the Azella in February. Uh so, goal number three is increase our English proficiency for emerging multilinguals. Uh and then this is our annual target for this

022year is 34%, so we're just staying on track. Uh the first year we got 33% of our students um increased one or more levels. Last year was 35%, and then this year to continue on that track of our students continuing to increase levels is at 34%. And I'm going to turn it over to Dr. Dodds-Carillo and Teya Stanford. Okay. Thank you. Good evening. Um looking at interim measure 3.1, our goal is to increase one or more levels um on the DNA assessment for our multilingual learners who are in grades 3-8. We um aspire for a post-test to increase from 12% in May of '25 to 25% in May of '26. For this assessment, we track growth on D um DNA ELA assessments for our kids in grades 3-8, and this slide shows the change that

023has occurred over time. To the far left, you can see the pre-IBM one two and post-test from the '24-'25 school year, followed by the pre-IBM pre to the IBM one, and then the pre to the IBM two. What I want to um make sure the board understands is that when we are doing this comparison data, we're looking at kids who took that pre-assessment, and those same kids who took the IBM one, and then also kids who took the pre-assessment and also took IBM two. So, imagine um Teya enrolls after we've administered the pre-assessment, we're not going to see her data pulling into this because we are doing a true comparison from the pre-assessment to ultimately the post-assessment. Um May I ask a question, and if you don't have this answer, it's okay if it's given

024back, but do you know about what percentage of kids were actually capturing from that pre-assessment to the first benchmark and so on? Yes, and I'll tell you that in just a minute. >> Okay, awesome. Sorry. Yes, thank you for reading my mind. Uh so, while we see here from the pre-assessment to the IBM one to pre-assessment to IBM two, we see a 1% increase, we remain below target, and we will need an additional 9% of students to gain a level by May. 1,057 students took that pre-assessment in grades 3-8. Um therefore, pending, you know, any enrollment shifts, approximately 95 students would need to increase in proficiency when we um take that post-assessment. Um interim measure 3.2. This is the percentage of first through third grade emerging multilingual students who score at the 50th percentile on

025the FastBridge oral reading fluency, and our goal is to increase from 6% in May of '25 to 12% in May of '26. For our younger learners in grades 1-3, we monitor oral reading fluency. This graph shows again that change that has occurred over time, and we've even gone back an additional year into that '23-'24 school year, so you can see those patterns. The December assessment data indicates that 6% of our students scored at the 50th percentile, which is lower than the performance seen in the last two years during that winter assessment. Therefore, we are below target to reach our goal. To achieve the goal, we would need to increase oral reading fluency by um 6% pending enrollment patterns, that's about 54 kids. And this is the um interim measure that we didn't have previously, so

026this is the one we just started monitoring this year because of the um oral reading fluency for not just for the uh Azella assessment, but also for our state assessment. Yeah, if I could just point out really quickly what's important, too. I think it's important to notice that when you ask a question about numbers, unlike years ago, the team actually knows not only how many kids took the test, but how many kids need to move to achieve the goal. They haven't kept that a secret to themselves, so that's a little preview for later. >> [laughter] >> Um I I if we just go back, I know that I had talked to Mr. Mann about this in my um one-on-one, and it was explained to me that there may have been a correction somewhere, but when

027I looked through my emails, I didn't see that, so maybe it's like a published correction. But in the first report for interim measure 3.2, there's a data point for '25-'26 fall that says 13, and then in this it says eight and then six, and so I just don't remember what happened there, why it went from 13 to eight, or what the issue was there. Yes, um Vice President McLean Gibson, we did quite the deep dive along with Tyson, um who is our assessment coordinator, to go back in time to remember for us as well what were those changes. So, I'm going to read some of my notes to make sure I get this correct, um because there was confusion for us as well. There were a few nuances um in that first presentation um back

028in September. Initially, it's um when we first shared it with you, I think it was September 20- sixth or something to that effect. Yes, 9/26/25. Initially, it stated um a target goal of 13 with a rec- I'm sorry, with a initial score of 13 with a recommended goal of 16 because we felt the 14 that was there was a little um too within reach, so we wanted to create a stretch goal. However, we then also realized that the data pull included students who were low risk, not just students who were at the 50th percentile. So, when we look at the risk bands as a district, we also um set our percentiles a little differently than the typical um state reporting of low risk, some risk, high risk. So, that was an adjustment that was made,

029and it was ultimately amended prior to that October board meeting. So, what you are probably looking back on were the initial slides that Hilda had sent out prior to the board meeting, but when the actual board meeting took place in October, the information was corrected with the starting point at 8% with a recommended spring goal of 12% of the students scoring at the 50th percentile. Okay, cuz yeah, I had said that we received the same slide both on the 26th and the seventh, so then I thought I was losing my mind. >> Nope. Okay. Not for that reason. >> [laughter] >> But thank you for your careful attention because it did cause us to really draw back as well. So, you're saying at the October board meeting, we were presented with eight, and then we

030voted on switching from 16 to or from 14 to 12. Correct. Okay. Thanks. You're welcome. And I think I think that was it. Sorry, I want to go Sorry, just to go go back. Um Well, are we addressing I'm confused on whether we're actually addressing the questions we submitted even though they were submitted late or at the end? >> We haven't got there. Yeah, some of some of it may be captured, but when we get to the end for questions, any questions that haven't been answered, please feel free to ask them. The team did spend time, you know, being prepared to respond to them. We just weren't able to get the responses put together in time to include it in the slide deck. Okay. Okay, this slide illustrates that Sankey graph, which shows the movement

031between the different grade bands. And what we just wanted to highlight here is that we can see that 24 students increased in their oral reading fluency. So, that's where we can see the students, for example, if you look at that red band, you can see some students popping into the orange band, and um you even see a few students who go from red into green. We also note that 425 students remained in the same proficiency band, and 20 students decreased in proficiency, and that's where you see some of the downward movement. The very faint green line that you see from the top left. Thank you, Dr. Pombo. Um that again illustrates that the student did not take the assessment. So, it's not that they had a complete nose dive, it's that that student did not

032complete that assessment. Uh a feature in EduClimber is the ability to create thresholds for academic growth. We mentioned that briefly during our math presentation. And utilizing that tool, we are able to help identify what we're calling focus students. And these are our students that um are real close to making that movement into that next band. And um in working with our leaders, helping our teachers to understand who our focus students are, we can help to maintain the rate of proficiency and increase to help um increase the movement between those bands. While we do strive for proficiency for all of our students, again to meet this goal, we would need to ensure that 54 students show growth in their proficiency to achieve proficiency. Is there something um specifically different that you do with the students? Like

033once you have identified the students that are closest to their growth, what like an example? I'm not saying you have to go into depth of what you're doing, but what's an example of something differently that you're doing that may get them to that finish line. Well, I'll highlight a little bit of the tag team. So, this is really a tag team goal with our literacy team. Because what we know is it's not just going to happen in the targeted instruction time, that pull out of the 1-hour or the 2-hour model, but when we are thinking about oral reading fluency, we're looking at what's happening during literacy instruction within the classroom as well. And so, our literacy coaches have been really keen in the primary grades looking at the data and working with teachers and making

034sure that we are utilizing our resources to help build that capacity. Another resource we have available to us this year through the direct services grant is a tool called Amira, and she is an AI reading coach that the students can read to, and they do specific lessons, and she's adapted to the student. And so, that practice of that oral reading fluency, where children are um reading to someone else, um is able to happen. So, we're layering it in with the support of our literacy instruction as well as some digital tools, not to mention all of the work that is happening with our SEI teachers as well. And I don't know if you want to elaborate on any of that. I And the only follow-up question that I have from that is um what do you

035know where Amira is being implemented right now? Do we have um samples of actual schools that are doing that? Yeah. Yes, and we can certainly provide you a board update with those specific numbers, but Amira has been rolled out in partnership with our technology team um at all of our campuses. Okay. Awesome. Thank you. Mhm. And I should note in second and third grade. Okay, interim measure 3.3. This is specific to students in grades 4-8 who score low risk on FastBridge auto reading. Our goal is to see an increase from 21% in May of '25 to 24% in May of '26. Auto reading for our fourth grade students includes foundational reading skills like encoding, word identification, and vocabulary. The data follows a similar trend to what we've seen in previous years. To reach our goal,

036we must increase by 6% to reach the goal of 24% of our students in grades 4-8 scoring low risk as measured by FastBridge auto reading. To achieve this goal, we need approximately 132 students to score low risk on FastBridge. And again, this Sankey graph illustrates the different types of movement that we see between our proficiency bands for our students who are in fourth through eighth grade, our multilingual learner students. While the majority of our students have stayed within that same risk level, we do see some dips um with about 90 students decreasing in their proficiency band, but we do also see where we can see growth, the red to the yellow, the yellow into the green. We do see movement, um which is an indication that some of the adjustments we've been making along the

037way were leading to some change, which we anticipate will have even greater change in the in the next assessment. Have you identified what some of those changes are? I know that changes is a very broad term, but specifically I love your face right now. >> Yes, we do. And Taya will share those with you in just a few slides. >> Okay. >> [laughter] >> Uh here on this slide, this is again the school comparisons that we've been sharing with you. The first um column, of course, are the schools. The second column, this is the pretest to IBM 1 by school for our students in grades 3-8. Thank you, Dr. Pombo. The next column is the pretest to IBM 2 for our students in grades 3-8. The third column, these are our winter scores. Again, the

038winter scores were in December, right before we went off to winter break. Those are our oral reading fluency scores for students in grades 1-3. And then lastly, uh the last column is our FastBridge winter assessment data for our students in grades 4-8. Now, this year it has provided us some valuable learning and a lot of continuous improvement. As we build our own knowledge of EduClimber, continue to pick Tyson's brain to help us learn more and more and ask the right questions, and then also to really align our systems between our different content teams, our professional development, and the use of our curricular resources. So, Taya is going to talk about the timeline and some of the action steps that we've taken since December. So, what she's sharing are real-time things that have been in action.

039Thank you. Um one of the first things that we looked at was we have we we have created a pilot, an Azella mimic pilot for this year that was administered to students in November. And using that, um we were able to establish a baseline to help us predict performance on um the We're going to use it eventually to be able to create a correlation between how students perform on the actual Azella. Um but it also this year afforded us an opportunity to dive into the data at a um at a percent correlation. I um as opposed to proficiency correlation. So, out of uh percent correct, essentially. And so, using that, we then offered support to sites, the language acquisition team, to really do a deep dive into item the item analysis. So, what were the

040questions, what types of things were they asking, and then also to look at student misconceptions on those questions. Um and we were able to identify some specific learning gaps. From there, um coaches then supported teachers with um identifying things that they could do within their classroom right away to support students as we got closer to Azella. So, one of those was looking at the rigor in student writing, as well as improved test-taking stamina. What was really eye-opening for many of our teachers and also our language acquisition coaches was that this was an assessment given to K-8 students, as opposed to DNA, which is given to third through eighth. So, it gave teachers an opportunity not only to see how students might perform on the individual questions and the content that those questions assessed, but how

041students might be able to take the test. Because for kinders through second grade, they've not had to take something of this caliber. So, coming down to actual administration of the test, what supports might I need to continue to practice in my classroom to support students with their stamina in taking the test. Um and then also how to use additional tools within um our curricular resources to be able to support that as well. And then um just taking those steps to between Febru- for testing that happened between February and March. The team looked at this closely because the DNA assessment measures the state standards by grade, and this assessment is measuring language acquisition. And this is the Azella mimic that we wanted to pilot this year, so that hopefully we could use as an interim measure

042next year for language acquisition that's more aligned to the goal than the DNA or the FastBridge, which are aligned DNA's is the state standards, and FastBridge more about skills. So, this is our first opportunity to really examine the mimic. Because Azella um addresses four areas: speaking, listening, reading, and writing. Um and the mimic it does not afford us the opportunity for speaking, which is going to be on the next slide, how teachers were able to address that within their classroom. Um but it did look at reading, writing, and listening as well. So, slightly different in skill base for versus DNA. So, then um as I mentioned, through discussion and that item analysis, teachers and coaches then leveraged district materials to integrate test-taking skills. Looking at what is available within the core content and resources that

043we have to be able to again mimic what it is that students might have struggled with on that Azella mimic. We um also teachers and coaches looked at increasing the complexity and frequency of their daily writing tasks, because that can be um an area that students lack the stamina to be able to fully perform in in area, as well as looking at some of our AI tools within Seesaw. That was one of those things that we leveraged to be able to create authentic speaking and listening practice for students. Our tech team had made some really great templates that mimicked very much what students would have to encounter on the task. So, for example, hitting the start and stop button. What does that look like? How how do I practice that? And then they could also

044listen to their students' responses through Seesaw. So, that they could get a better idea of what it was cuz that again was not something that was available within the mimic. Um and then we also redesigned our last Creighton Professional Learning Session to be able to address detailed writing, specifically around some of that um to create more rigorous writing. So, noun phrases, complex sentence structures, and then also higher-level questionings or high-level higher-level questions from the teacher for the students to elicit those more rigorous responses. And then the next piece that the language acquisition coaches have been looking at is the our long-term action plan and inputs. First being looking at integrated structured English immersion support. So, students have, depending on the model and the campus and and even the grade level within a campus, there could

045be the pull-out model, the 2-hour model, or our two campuses with DLI. But, integrated is when students are receiving core content as the focus, so math for example, with language acquisition supports to be able to access that content. So, what our language acquisition coaches did was they went into classrooms just purely to get a gauge of what are the strengths within those integrated classroom settings and what are some areas that we can start to develop for next year in terms of professional development for teachers because our students do spend a lot of time in integrated instruction as well. So, how can we better support our teachers to better support the students to access content while also increasing their language production skills? Um in addition, we continued to with our initiatives such as the teacher cohorts

046with our SEI consultant. We had year two and year one, um as well as our Creighton Professional Learning that was around targeted instruction. And then strengthening the home connection through our family engagement, our SEI family nights. And then on the next slide will be a more detailed representation of what we did over between January and March. Any questions before we move there? Do we have any um questions or wonderings? We added this slide because I know your feedback from the last time was to be more detailed, like specific of what we're doing and because we had done more general bullet points last time. So, that's why it's a specific just to what we've done since we had that assessment before they took the Azella assessment. I have a a question. So, with the Azella, both

047the test and the mimic, for the writing portion of it, is that a typed writing or is that a handwriting writing? So, it depend on the grade level and it truly did try to mimic the Azella. So, for our younger grades, it is a handwritten, um whereas 4-8, it is typed. Okay. Oh, so K-3 younger, 4-8. Because that one is a hybrid when they um take the state Azella. Okay, thank you. Yeah. Did you have another question, Ms. Marquez? >> Um yeah, are we are we getting into like the questions questions now or we sticking to this slide? Um it's up to you unless you guys have any other information on that slide. No, but you can go ahead and ask your question. Um Which page? Okay. Um So, and and apologies for for being

048late on getting these submitted last week, um but I wanted to put this out there. So, as we prepare for future SEI family nights, are we tracking whether students whose families attend these sessions show higher engagement or growth in their assessments compared to their peers? Essentially, how are we measuring the return of investment in these engagement events on actual student English proficiency? I can answer that question. Um so, the purpose of the SEI family nights is really to bridge that classroom community connection. So, although we provide strategies that families could be using at home with their kiddos, they they are meant to create a space where families can ask questions about the assessments to then um be able to best support their child in the best way they can. So, the core of the learning

049is going to be from the classroom. So, we provide information around the different models that we have within our district, the Azella itself, helping families analyze the data. That was our second section. They received their students' data and um looked at where they might be able to capitalize on some of the strategies that we provide families. But, the goal is really to foster that collaboration and connection. Um so, no, we we haven't been tracking them because the goal is to be able to create community. Um we wouldn't expect there to be a tremendous amount based upon that that we're really bridging. Thank you. Um I'm going to go ahead and ask my question and I want to thank the team for um still taking the time to research these questions even though they were past

050the the timeline that we had set for ourselves, but I love some of the growth that we have and a lot of the conversations we've been having is about bright spots, right? And what we are doing to replicate those bright spots when we are having good outcomes. So, my question is in the students that we are, let's say, in the the one of the bands that are showing growth, what specific stuff are we seeing there that's being implemented in other classrooms or other areas? Have we been at that collaborative state yet where we're seeing certain things working maybe in one school or one cohort and how are we duplicating those efforts across other systems? When we are Thank you for the question. When we're looking at teachers, we haven't been able to identify a direct

051teacher-student outcome pattern, but we have started to notice a pattern in the structure for the model. And we do see that the 2-hour model appears to be yielding a greater output than our other models in our initial look at the data. I guess my follow-up with that, and we haven't thought of that, is if that is true, how are we leaning into that to make it seem more to see if there is efficacy in that wondering that we have. I think one of our greatest challenges is the staffing component of it and the number of students that is um guiding the decisions that principals in working with Teya, in working with Dr. Lauren on the staffing. Um however, I think that leads to what Teya shared earlier about the focus on integrated instruction. Because if

052we time is what's going to help us the most. So, if we can empower our classroom teachers with as many instructional supports that we can so that all day, every day, students are being um taught in ways that scaffold their language development, their content acquisition as well, that we will see um continued output. So, some of that initial observation work that Teya and the team did was to help to guide recommendations for new cohorts for next year for continued professional learning. Because we know our SEI cohorts one and two have been very impactful and now we would like to consider the opportunity for what we would call like an integrated cohort for language acquisition. Okay. Thank you for that. Um the only thing that I'm going to say is that um I think part of

053this work is that adult convenience portion of it, right? And when we see out of the box bright spots, even though it it might cause us major headaches, I think it's worth looking into. And I know that you guys do all the time, but sometimes if we see something that's effectively working, how do we a little bit stretch whatever we can to duplicate those? And I know time is very very hard, but sometimes it'll take something crazier out of the norm to be like, "Hey, maybe there is some kind of immediate correlation." So, that's just a thought that I have, not that I I know it's it's hard with the limited resources that we have. So, thank you guys for looking into the bright spots and trying to figure how we can duplicate those um

054throughout the system. I was going to say what I what I do want to share is that um when we were looking at the targeted instruction, we were we were doing observations to see what the teachers needed to figure out our professional development and coaching. And uh like Dr. Dotson shared that it's been we've been getting feedback from our teachers from cabinet and going in classrooms are scoring better on the learning walk. Um so we were it was Teya's actually idea like how can we replicate that with our integrated instruction? So then she had the team the last couple months go and observe in there to see what supports the teachers need because um you're teaching let's say math or something but also you have students that are still learning English and so how do

055you support them in the classroom? So that's really been their focus on replicating what we did with the targeted to now doing that with integrated like how can we support our teachers that have our students in there that are trying to learn the content and the language at the same time. Yeah and I know I get to refer for the higher grades and I know that that's been a huge gap in the past especially when it comes to our middle school students. So I appreciate all the efforts in trying to fill in those gaps with the limited resources that we have. And President Correa I I really appreciate the encouragement cuz obviously you know we want to find those bright spots and replicate them. I think one of the things I'm hearing from the team

056too is that we also have to be cautious about like why is it different, right? So is it because it's two hours or is it because there's a difference in practices or is it that because maybe there isn't a difference in practices and the different models need different functional elements. So one of the things I really appreciate is that the team's not just you know saying we have three models oh look this one's performing better. They're actually dissecting the which is why they went back into the other types of classrooms to say okay they saw here what we can what can we learn that could help us improve instruction under the southern model, right? So there's a um a concept that is one of my favorite things cuz like the one of the best words

057ever that's called exogenous variables, right? So these are the variables in the situation that aren't evident and so sometimes if we just look at the surface we think we're seeing a pattern but the pattern may actually be being affected by other things and so digging in deeper into it it really helps us figure out like if we're going to make a change is the change going to have the intended effect and what can we learn from one model we can bring to another rather than just assuming one model's actually superior to the other. So So I think you know it's that old saying like two things can be true at the same time. Your encouragement like absolutely we need to be looking at that but at the same time I think we also need to

058be digging in deeper as the team's doing to try to figure out like is there a way to transfer some of the success into the other models. And I would add to what Mr. Mann just shared. Speaking of bright spots last week I think it was our consultant Heidi Koski was in town and it was a bright spot to be in the professional development being facilitated by Heidi with teachers who um are confident are excited and feel empowered to apply what they're learning and it was magic. I was texting Teya during it and I was like this is magic because the way she was modeling for the teachers a language acquisition exercise with a verb tense study it was just really powerful and the teachers were very very engaged. So again regardless of time Yep.

059having the pedagogy where a teacher can go back into their classroom and transfer it I think that is a bright spot. The commitment our teachers have demonstrated um to be able to attend the professional development be fully engaged in the professional development and um also willing to have others come into your classroom to be able to see you in practice and give you in real time feedback. That's that's always um nerve-wracking as a teacher so they're pretty great group of teachers. And and >> But I yeah our investment in our teachers I think is going to pay off. And to wax a little political and I apologize but this is something that's like on the horizon here. There I know in the legislature they're trying to pass a bill to put on the ballot an

060initiative to require 60% of school district funds to be in the classroom but the way they define in the [snorts] classroom is very narrow. If that does get to the ballot and it does get passed by voters a lot of our neighboring districts we've really dug into like what the impact will be and this actually is related to our topic right now. It will completely strip us of our ability to be able to do these types of things. So when when you hear Dr. Dodds Karen talking about the impact this has on teachers and how it truly supports them and their effectiveness in the classroom it's not only good for kids it's good for teachers as professionals and so the fact that that other groups want to control what we're doing which may not be

061in that best interest for whatever political purposes is highly problematic cuz the last thing we want to do is lose this progress and this ability to provide this type of support to our teachers cuz cuz instructional support is lumped into a broader classroom category but it's not considered the narrow definition of nor is student support. So when we bring an OT into the classroom that doesn't count towards that even though the child needs that OT. So [snorts] um so and this is absolutely related to this conversation because as this board works so hard and as this leadership team and our principals and our directors and our teachers and our staff are all rowing in the same direction with our students and our families to improve outcomes one of the key strategies to be able to

062do that is to be able to deliver the types of professional development that our teachers need to ensure their success. We're not a district who says the kids aren't performing let's blame the teachers. We're a district that says things aren't going the direction we need them to go what supports do we need to put in place so that way all of the adults in the system have the resources they need to provide all the resources that the children in the system need in order to be successful with their outcomes. So I have a quick question. Um so are the students in there whether it's you know the two hour or one hour model are they are they placed by their grade level or by their like proficiency level? Yeah. Um so through ADE guidance it's

063either grade level bands or proficiency level but we do ours as closely to grade bands as possible. So the grade bands are kinder first two three four five six eight. Okay. Thank you. Mhm. Any other questions or comments on this board report? All right hearing none. Thank you so much for all the hard work. I move the governing board adopt progress monitoring report for goal three report three. May I have a second? Second. All those in favor? I. I. Any nays? Hearing none motion passes. Thank you so much for the work. Thank you. That brings us to item five which is public comments. Miss Juarez do we have any public comments? Thank you. That brings us to item six approval of consent. I move the governing board approve consent agenda items A through D and

064F through M. May I have a second? Second. All those in favor? I. I. Any nays? Hearing none motion passes and that leaves us with with agenda item six E up for discussion and I will turn it over to Miss Marquez for this discussion item. All right. Um I with my one-on-one with Jay yesterday I got a lot of my questions answered but then I had some more pop up um in since then. Um so [snorts] I I know this this this expenditure is funded through bond money and that there's a specific like a a time frame in which that needs to be spent. Um when by by when does this need to be this these funds need to be approved and spent? I I would have to defer to Miss Shapiro on that cuz

065I haven't been tracking that that closely. I believe the rule is that a certain percentage of a bond sale is supposed to be expended within three years because they the bonds are sold as tax-exempt bonds and the tax exemption is on the basis of the use of those funds within a certain time period but I'll um defer to you. Yes. Okay, fair enough. I got something right. Okay. When I consider it >> So within three years is this the one that of the bond sale from the sale for what you sold it for. Okay. So what So these funds would be from our first bond sale which I believe we did November Yeah. 2020 November this last November. >> November of 25 correct. Okay. Type on my notes. Uh Can we use those funds for

066anything else? Uh you You have some leeway. It's a 10% leeway overrun for the um bond sale dollars. So we had a $31 million sale. So 10% of those could be used in the different voter approved categories. Um that that's the extent of it. so. However, if I understand correctly, because of the cost model with inflation and whatnot with the Biltmore project, it was my understanding, correct me if I'm wrong, that we're on track to use the entirety of that 10% >> for the more, yes. So, hypothetically [snorts] speaking, if we wanted to use funds like this whatever 2.5 million for iPads, switch it over to Chromebooks, would that be allowed? Allowed? Well, I mean, if no, if proper steps being taken to It's part of the life cycle capital planning, so committees have been

067meeting for multiple years. I took on the committee when I came on board 3 years ago, and so the capital planning committee works with the individual operational departments for life cycle rotations, and this is part of the approved life cycle that we brought through the capital plan from the committee to the board in the I'm not sure which I'd have to go back and look. >> Okay. For specifically iPads. >> your question correctly, you're trying to get across like if we're spending two something million on technology, whether it's part of the capital plan to improve or to rotate the life cycle. As long as it's being spent on technology, regardless of what the product is, that would be a permissible use of these funds under Yeah. Yeah, okay. Okay, that's >> Absolutely the question you

068were asking. It would it it would require like a massive shift because all of our systems are currently designed for iPad, so there would probably be other costs because most of the software that we have in place is really designed for that platform. Some of the things are transferable between platforms, but there would probably be other costs we would incur in the migration including a significant amount of staff cost to do a changeover, and it would also require a significant amount of professional development because I've worked in districts that use, you know, some other platforms like Chromebooks. Going from an iPad to a Chromebook is not from a student perspective, it's relatively innocuous. From a staff perspective, how you support it in the classroom is very different because some of the tool sets for monitoring

069student use would be completely different software platforms. Uh does that include state testing? Um I believe I believe if we got adequately capable Chromebooks, they would be able to support state testing just like the iPads. And Russell, you are free to jump up here and correct anything I say that's wrong. Um but so I believe that would be that would be potentially possible to do. And some districts do use Chromebooks for that. Yeah. Um It wouldn't be an even switch, though. I mean, there would be a lot of work to do it, but yes, for the technology piece, there is a technology furniture, fixtures, equipment, and technology line, and within that line, we can purchase hardware for the technology. Okay. Um So, sticking kind of with with the state testing, I know we use the

070iPads for our state testing. What is our state testing like window? Like how soon can we begin or when does the testing need to be completed by? How many days do we have to to do our testing? Um I'm sorry, I'm going to interject because the agenda item is the on the approval of the amount of iPads. I believe, and Ms. Flores, correct me if I'm wrong, that convert that question's a little bit out of the scope of what it's agendaized. We can ask that, but Yeah, and and so it was, you know, it's my understanding that one of the main reasons we need to refresh our iPads is because when the state test gets whatever their update is, then we need to update those iPads or the needs um they need to sync up.

071So, if our if our iPads aren't up to snuff or up to the right >> We have to have hardware that meets the minimum specifications for and beyond that, we also were are currently dealing with the fact that like over the life cycle of the devices, we lose devices. We have a certain amount of attrition, and so I don't know where we're at now, but I'm assuming our numbers are starting to become problematic from wearing out of the devices. The iPads are far more resilient than some of the other platforms like the Chromebooks, but still over time with the type of use that they take, you know, in a classroom, they do eventually some of them begin to fail, and then over time, we have to replace them. So, if we were to not do

072that, we would both have fewer units. We also have the the challenges of if they don't meet current hardware specifications, they may not operate adequately with the software platforms, and it's both the state testing and some of the other tool sets that we use in the classroom um both in preparation for state testing, our benchmark assessments, all of those different types of things, you know, they're constantly maintaining them. And then the other thing that I'm always concerned about, and Russell could probably speak more eloquently to this, is there is a certain point at which Apple no longer supports the devices for updates, and then what you do is you create security risks in your environment because [clears throat] if Apple's not releasing security updates for the devices, then you have um they're not called loopholes,

073but you have basically exploits that are available to hackers to be able to, you know, take control of devices that are in your network. But again, I'll I Sorry to I probably should just have you come up and answer all this, Russell. >> [snorts] >> Yeah, everything Mr. Mann said is absolutely correct, and we're approaching that date where operating system updates are likely going to be um end of life for the models that we have, and that's when we run into the the software, especially with the assessments and the state assessments, not supporting those older versions of the hardware. That's the that's the largest risk, and then if we continue security updates, other software or other apps become less viable for use. Uh and it's absolutely correct. Our the the devices themselves are aging, battery

074life is reducing right around 5 years, that becomes a more significant issue for aging hardware. And President Gade, I just to clarify, I do have reservations on on approving this, so I wanted to try to get as much information as possible. You know, studies increasingly show that that tablets tend to reduce student outcomes, so I want to make sure that, you know, if we're going to spend this big chunk of money, that it's indeed um going to help improve our outcomes and and be worth it, you know, because again, like I I kind of dove deep this last week knowing this was coming up on the agenda to see, okay, well, how beneficial is this technology? And unfortunately, it seems like a lot of screens, whether it's tablets or and even to a certain extent,

075well, even Chromebooks are have have negative impacts, so I want to make sure that I'm doing my due diligence with our our funds. Um So, yeah, I just wanted to to make sure you knew that. Um I'm back to my other questions. Um so then going back to that that question, um cuz we we had discussed yesterday, Mr. Mann, um that, you know, sometimes we need to have we have a certain window that we need to make sure we get our testing done and completed, and if we don't have enough tablets or they're glitching, and it takes longer, right? Yep. So, that's why I was curious, how long does the state give us to administer our tests? I believe off the top of my head, it's about a 2-week window, but I could be wrong

076about that. And I understand, I'm sorry to interject, and I understand the questioning, but the what's on the agenda is the on the approval of the amount of iPads, not necessarily how long it take tests for the funding. So, although your question is valid, it's not in alignment with what we're trying to specifically approve. Now, you're getting into the weeds of a conversation of testing, how long, which they're all valid, but not specifically for the agendaized item. So, this is more of an approval of a budget, and getting into the weeds of testing or agendas, that that's not aligned specifically to the approval of the amount of money, if that makes sense. And I think it's important to share that we hear and share your concern about the impacts of screen time on students. I

077know Mr. Donalt and his team, one of the things that they've been working with teachers on is, you know, ensuring that, you know, time spent with screens is intentional, purposeful, and important. There was a time in this district as in all districts, especially coming out of the pandemic, where, you know, screen time became more ubiquitous, and people kind of got lulled into the sense that you're spending a certain percentage of your day on the screen, and our attempts to not only create intentionality, but continue to look at the research that's coming out in order to set appropriate guidelines at varying grade levels is definitely on the table for us, and I don't know if you want to elaborate on that additionally, Mr. Donalt. I think intentional is the word that we use most often when

078we're discussing technology and student use of technology. Uh while these are one-to-one programs, one-to-one means access at the appropriate time as determined by the teacher to facilitate the learning. Uh and I I also we talk in terms of learning to be intentional not just through instruction from the teacher but using devices and technology effectively and and having that access and working through issues of digital citizenship and appropriate use and and regulation of time is important for the learning that's happening in our classrooms but also the the people that are developing that are going to be using this technology in their life and in their profession and in their own own development, too. I I I was just going to add a little bit because Russell and I started with this work like when I started

079a couple years ago and then I know Dr. Dodds-Cairn has come in but we've been collaborating a lot with observing in the classroom so Mr. Donnell has gone through learning walks with us to see how technology is used in the classroom and the first year I mean we saw a lot of iPad use and so we changed our training and set guidelines about when you use iPad. So for instance if you're doing small group instruction there's a group with the teacher there's a group that's writing there's a group that's reading from books and then there is a section where there what Dr. Dodds-Cairn shared with Amira like they're practicing they're using it as a tool to help them practice with their speech but the technology is just used as a a tool at certain times

080it's going to help enhance the learning but it's not the vehicle for learning and so we've been giving our teachers guidelines on when to use it when not to use it and that we always go straight to the standards and the and the technology is just a tool to help get some of help with some of the standards and prepare them for the future. Yeah. And um what >> to ask do you have more questions or Um well let's give Ms. Gibson-McLean a moment to speak since she hasn't spoken to this item. I was just going to say you know um um my husband and I are both former educators my husband used to be a math teacher he's a software developer um has been coding for years taught himself how to code was making

081iPad apps and paid for stuff in college for us and is gung-ho about technology obviously right? My kids don't use phones they don't use tablets they have a desktop computer he set up for them and and with some Linux thing and some games they play. Sounds on point. Yeah but at the same time you know we both have been in education and were in schools that used one-to-one technology as well and I think that just as many studies that are out there about screen time I think there's just as much or maybe not just as much but there is research out there about all screen time not being created equal right? And so I think passive consumption of you know doom scrolling or or just playing random games that have no like real educational value

082or benefit is a lot different than what what we're hearing here which is intentional use of of the screen time for specific purposes and to achieve specific goals and and things and as far as I know I mean I ask my kid every day what I ask him when he says if he says he's been on the iPad I was like what did you what did you do in there? And I've not heard that he's like playing Roblox or like going on there and doing random stuff. So that's kind of where I'm at cuz I'm also not into like people just be on a screen all day obviously and so I think as long as we're like keeping that balance at the same time we're having to prepare our kids to operate in a world

083where you can't be screen free as a professional or as somebody who's working really in any field even in blue collar industries these days and so there's going to have to be that like happy medium no matter what you end up doing as an adult you're going to have to have these skills and I get it things are intuitive and it doesn't take that long to pick it up but I still think practicing and using it in a and especially practicing and using it in a way at school that's like very intentional and and and positive to you is a lot different than obviously all the passive use that goes on. We obviously can't control what goes on at home and I'm not saying we need to dip our hands or foray into that obviously

084we can have those conversations but um we can control what goes on in the classroom and it sounds like we're doing a pretty good job of it. Yeah. So something prior to the the agenda even coming out so my we just my daughter's third grade so she has had her first round of standardized test and I remember speaking to her after it one day and asking her about it and and so she had some frustration I was like oh you know did you write it or did you use the tablet? She goes well we used the tablet but they wouldn't let us type our answers on the screen we had to use the keyboard and I didn't know where any of the letters are. So my thing is like I remember in school like you

085were doing typing class and if our kids are taking you know our goals are all based on standardized tests all of our kids are getting administered these tests and they're having to type their answers if we haven't taught them where the keys are or how to properly type and they're taking a timed test then of course we're setting them up for frustration and lower test scores. So I'm not I'm not trying to say I don't want iPads at all but I again thinking with intentionality like are we really teaching them how to use it like we cannot be completely screen free and these kids are are going to figure out how to use a a tablet or a laptop but again you know so so you know the reason for all the questions I is

086you know for we're using them if one of the main important parts is for for the testing then let's make sure they know exactly how to use use it properly for testing. I know at PXU when they get to PXU they use laptops so perhaps it would behoove us to teach our six seventh eighth graders to be using laptops and be responsible for that you know I'm glad that yeah we do have iPads but I'm glad you know at least we're not sending all the kids home with them you know like I they don't need to be having access to them at home but however maybe seventh and eighth graders if they added laptop it would be good for them to to learn that responsibility. So anyways um I I agree I think that's a

087good point and maybe that's something we can put on a future agenda or have meetings with Jay about. I think one of the one of the downsides of the iPad is kids who have no idea or concept of how to use a mouse or a keyboard um which does become an issue for people who've never touched one especially if they don't have access to that in their home or they don't go to the library and so all they're using is iPad and a screen keyboard so I think that is a valid point that is something that could be addressed in the future just maybe not with regard to this purchase. Yeah and I I'm not saying and we certainly can have those conversations um but like the choice for the iPads doesn't come in isolation

088because we actually at one time had iPads for the lower grades and had Chromebooks for the middle school grades. I think I don't know if it ran up to when Mr. Donnell joined us or we had migrated already when he joined us. Noticing from the the shake of a head in the back of the room the team the technology evaluation team that made the choice to change interviewed students and the level of student frustration with how unreliable the Chromebooks were was ultimately what caused us to switch to the iPads. It was and actually there was a presentation in this room and I remember it wasn't Mr. Donnell it was one of his predecessor pred- predecessors Ms. Dodson who came and gave a presentation on the feedback we received from students about their frustrations with the

089current devices that they had. >> it means in the future exploring buying accessories for an iPad that help them understand how to use these other devices. And we could even look at laptops again times have changed maybe it's time to look at something different like I'm not against looking at something different I just don't want people to think we randomly chose iPads and we're just unwilling to change. Like the the choices that we're making have come through a continuum of development over time as we initially brought when we initially brought in curriculum that required and as the state initially required us to have technology for testing um our original model was to have a split of the two different types of devices. I just want to add real quickly if I may all of our

090iPads do have keyboards mouse in the fashion of iPad laptop. Oh that's right that's right. The mouse thing is the weird I will say that my kid my especially my kindergartner goes on his desktop and is like doesn't touch the mouse and just uses the >> [laughter] >> on his keyboard he's like I don't know what this device is. Yeah. Um I appreciate all the comments and the conversation and if obviously if we want to talk about more about what's going in the classrooms um based off of this then we can have a deeper conversation but at this moment I would like to call for the motion and the motion would stand as approve the purchase of Apple iPads for district refresh from Mohave contract. May I have a second? Second. All those in favor?

091I. I. Do I have any nays? Nay. All right Ms. Juarez that was Mr. Jones and Ms. Marquez as nays. So 3-2 motion passes. All right that brings us to our next agenda item which is um item 10 which is the business and plan to consider and discuss and if it deemed advisable to adopt resolution approving the governing board's argument in support of the special district additional assistance override at election and also um in And also the governing board's argument in support of the special maintenance and operation budget override election. And with that, I will turn it over to Ms. Shapiro. How I'm just looking to for some guidance from Mr. Mann on how we should navigate. Um I've taken all of that I've received so far from the board. Do we want to uh

092put it The The board could So, if it if it doesn't match what's in the packet, the board could amend a motion for the for the updated version based on the feedback received. So, um if you want to go ahead and project that on the screen and walk the board through it. I keep forgetting not to press back on this thing. It's cuz you were on an eye. It's I'm on a Dell. No, I'm I'm teasing. Bless you. >> Bless you. That's not it. I can't see. The only uh changes that have occurred at this point from what was sent out to the board, um was we did get feedback from our um election and uh attorneys uh to change here. It um did say originally um will not increase, uh but as our attorneys

093have pointed out, the tax rates are set by an outside entity and um while we plan our tax rates very carefully and we work with the county, uh unexpected things can occur and he didn't recommend that we put in there a definitive statement. Um he said it that the district uh would be better served to put in that it is not expected to increase um the current tax rates. We have uh no intention. We're continuing these as is and we will monitor and manage and work with the county to set those tax rates to not uh be increased based on these two initiatives. Are those set by the county treasurer or the board of supervisors? County. It's actually set through the county superintendent of schools. >> Schools. Oh, so >> There's a school finance division

094within the county superintendent of schools and then there's there's actually, I believe it's the county board of supervisors that ultimately votes on it. >> That would make sense. Well, considering the political makeup of those things, I doubt there's going to be an increase in taxes. Well, it's it's not entirely political. Sorry. Go ahead, Jay. You know. Yeah, tell us more. >> [laughter] >> I just said tell me more. So, she's blaming us for increasing taxes? I'm You go. Well, she's not going to claim I'm increasing taxes. She'll blame us for it, but >> [laughter] >> the the point is it's driven by the number of dollars that need to be raised and then they they calculate it for us and then we review it. One of the challenges we've had over the years is the

095calculations are not always perfectly accurate. >> formula-driven process and so we check those carefully, um but even this last year there was an item um that was supposedly it was $15,000 that randomly showed up in our tax calculation. Um and when I went back to the county to say, "What is this?" Um they thought it was uh the lawsuit with uh Kismeyer, um but we had taken care of the lawsuit through um another through our dead cash. >> Um so, I was very surprised and and just kind of like I needed to try to find the details and was unable to find the details. Eventually, um the next uh version that came back to me didn't have that amount on it. So again, we just we really, you know, carefully work with our county to

096ensure that our tax rates are set and that we can explain why the rates have been calculated at at what they are. But there are a lot of calculations that go into it in order to collect the proper amounts for um all of our voter initiatives, but also those primary tax rates that we don't control. And when it's off, that's where the where some of that dead cash accrues from or we could come up short, which I guess now that we've got dead cash, we'll probably be able to tap into dead cash rather than having to raise it the next year, but it would depend on the amounts. It's dependent on the amounts, yeah. And then um the other uh request uh for changes came, um but this was the district additional [snorts] um assistance

097override argument. So, this hasn't changed other than that statement that we put in there. Um we also uh change it's it uh said such as and we changed those words to which may include um just in order to have that flexibility. These are the types of items that the our voters have um given input on in the past that were important and uh ensuring that we capture uh those needs in our uh pro statement. And then the maintenance and operation override, we had received feedback uh from the board that we wanted to have support. There are um I I don't know if we want to go into the details about full-day kindergarten, but um full-day kindergarten obviously is um there, but we also wanted to expand that to other opportunities for early childhood programs. Uh

098we know that that's a struggle for our parents in our community. And so, when we have opportunities to um invest and maybe support those programs more fully, we wanted to make sure that that language was included in here. So, we did add early childhood programs including full-day kindergarten, uh but if for some reason something occurred where full-day kindergarten was covered through some other funding source, we wanted to make sure that there was uh language em- embedded in here that would allow us to support other opportunities for early childhood. Now. >> Um it takes a certain type of special person reads the election manual but our booklet, whatever. I do. I Yeah, you know, but what I am asking is generally speaking, do we aim for a certain reading level for these because I will say

099they are quite advanced compared to like a newspaper reading level. These are what has gone out from the board in the past. So, we've just And I'm not trying to be >> I was just going to say USA Today is written in an eighth eighth-grade reading level. >> Yeah, yeah, and I think this is higher. I think the especially the first one is higher than that. And and also just as a reminder to everybody that our SWAG framework does say that our information should be at a sixth-grade reading level. So, I'm just trying to cuz there are some big words and concepts in some of these and I just don't know that that's going to be as effective if we're if we're trying to meet that, I guess is what I'm trying to get at.

100I Hm. I hope I'm not crossing the line then if I am, you guys let me know, but I think with the language given right now, it's gives the PAC great opportunity to teach and use this as an educative space on letting our community know what each thing means and maybe that's a conversation we can have with the PAC when this comes up that we want our voters to actually know what this stuff means. Uh that's a another thing it So, we're not really worried about changing the language. That could be another avenue. And and word count is a factor, too. So, I'm not saying you can't you can't write at a lower reading level with a small word count, but one of the things that tends to happen is a lot of the the

101vocabulary that's in here that's a little more complex, it's more complex cuz it captures a more complicated item. And so, if you were to take it down to say a fourth-grade reading level, you might need eight words to replace two words and that becomes I'm I'm I'm try- not making an excuse. >> lower the reading level though, what what would they are they really going to trust us with this, you know, That is a very interesting perspective and point, right? Cuz this is written by our governing board, so it also reflects the board's writing, right? Yeah, um and I just want um the board also to notice that early childhood programs including full-day kindergarten, I think it's the first time we've had language in early childhood programs. So, that's that's awesome that we're thinking about

102that and I think that's been great advocacy work through this board on the direction that we want our district to be in. So, that's a big off- I I just think that's great. So, I appreciate that. And I do think Oh, sorry. >> Sorry, I was just going to say I would I encourage those who have the power to fund full-day kindergarten to fully fund it so that way we have a little more money we can flex into other early child- Sorry, I couldn't resist the opportunity. I Yes, and I would say um also uh there's intentionality in both of the pro- the arguments of pro statements with the bulleted content. I think that's what's uh the focal point um and that really drills it down to what the intent and is of what these

103dollars will cover. This is again, um we come back to the board annually and report back uh what we spent those dollars on and we align with the voter pamphlet. So, when you have these bullet point items, that is what's called out in the pamphlet and that's where the um the details of the pamphlet lie. So, the statement I think is what the statement is. >> Bullet are above um expansion fleet support is not something everybody's going to quite understand. And I'm not trying to like I'm just being like real right now. And I think about, you know, working with adults that have a lower reading level on a daily basis. Like if I were to give this to some of my clients, they're not going to know what the hell it's talking about. You

104know, if I'm just going to be real with you. And and as Mr. Man stated, I You just said transportation. I think that's too broad. >> Yeah. Um But this is and just to be clear, this is the statement. It's not what goes in the actual language on the ballot, which is what we're held to the language on the ballot, not the support statement. That's what I'm getting at, right? Yeah. This is where we can be a little more flexible with what >> Yes, absolutely. Absolutely. Yeah, it just has to be factual. It can't be opinion, whereas the PAC can speak to opinion. Mhm. Yeah. Um question, um sunder uh access to or sorry, um would would like exceptional student services will this funding be allowed to be used for exceptional student services or or

105sped? Is that something What I What I'm thinking is also like it is a an increasing number of students are being um I guess not not targeted, but you know, we're we're we're seeing a lot more students come up with special needs. It is a big thing for parents when they're looking for school to to find um a school that, you know, can work with their students with special needs. Anyways, I'm just thinking that can we put that language in there somewhere as is as the funds being able to support in addition to like, you know, where we have um full-day kindergarten early childhood Oh, for the All right, I wasn't sure which one. Yeah. Um so these are for all students and it's there it is. Yeah. for support There it goes. Yeah, support

106for special needs students. Right right. So one of the things >> for special needs classroom that we get guided on is to try to create to make it as broad as possible so we don't box ourselves as needs shift and change. So let's say, I know this is going to blow people's minds. Let's say the federal government didn't fund only 40% of the special education funding required to comply with the rules and laws that they've set around special education and they funded 100%. We wouldn't want to limit ourselves in any way to that. And so the way the language is currently constructed is to be broad to all students so that way where there is need to provide resources and supports to special education. I mean, our all of our teachers and staff including our

107special education teachers are partially funded out of the M&O budget or out of the M&O override. And when we talk about the resources through the district additional assistance override, a lot of the equipment and resources that are required in special education are funded through through that funding source as well. So these do apply to special education. We're just not limiting it or Right. I mean, I don't think putting the words up there would limit it, but it might attract some people to be like Oh, yeah. >> It would limit it though. So if you just say, for example, the way that I understand this and please correct me if I'm wrong. Um you know, an early childhood program could be specified to our special education department. That's how those dollars could be swayed into that.

108If you specifically say special education and let's say something happens or I I don't know what happens, we could only use those dollars for that specific special education. With this language flexibility, it gives us an opportunity to do physical education in the special education space, right? But then that becomes more of a I would say operational district of how we're supporting those spaces and those can be deeper conversations, but for the most part they do have to be broad because they do hold us accountable to what we're saying. So it would completely limited us just to that specific area. Early childhood programs could be birth to three, could be birth to five, five, it could be special education services. That is broad in enough language that gives us access to meet all those separate needs.

109But I mean, if those are still up there, I'm not saying replace it. I'm just [snorts] saying put it on there and I'm I'm I'm I'm looking at it as someone like reading through it. Like, okay, am I going to vote for this? Oh, okay. Okay, cool. Yeah. And if I if special ed is something that's near and dear to me, then that might sway me to vote yes. Also, if I'm in a a parent who happens to live in the district, my kids don't go to the district, but I read like, oh snap, they're going to put more money to sped. Yeah, I'm going to send my kid there. I'm looking at it through that that Couldn't couldn't that be put in an argument though? Like if you wanted to write an argument for,

110like that could be listed in there. Yeah, I know Yeah, I I'm just putting it up there cuz I know we Cuz this just has to be very 193 out of 200 on this one. Yeah, but what I'm talking about is like when you write in the pamphlet, like people that are for or against. >> Yeah, yeah, yeah, but this isn't argument essentially. I'm just I'm just saying Yeah, this is the four. That's what It has to hold more weight. I I would just suggest we need to remove something if we're going to add that cuz Vanessa's initial count is 193. We try not to run right up to 200 because sometimes the county's word count is different. So we try >> [laughter] >> I'm sorry. can't take any risk that something gets truncated cuz

111what they'll do is they'll truncate from the bottom. Yeah. If you don't make the requirements, they'll toss the whole thing. >> They'll toss the whole thing. It won't get in the pamphlet. >> But we have it reviewed by our attorneys before we turn it in. Just just so you know, to be super sure. Yeah, that should become an education I'm just And if we're if there's still room or if we're still going to maybe edit it down again to kind of make it more readable, then let me get cut out some other words or anyways. Do you have a a recommend like a an example of something for Um for special needs students or special classroom or I mean, it already says support for. So if you put it as a separate bullet, then it's

112>> special needs then it becomes specific and so we have to we have to ensure that some of the funding is siphoned away from the other bullets to that item. So if we wanted to add that, I would add it into So could we add it to the opportunities and Correct. Yeah. Or I mean, gifted and high-achieving students seems to me redundant. Isn't a high-achieving a student a gifted student? So we could say opportunities for gifted and special or whatever. That's true. Cuz gifted is a is a specific identification. >> Yeah, yeah, yeah, you're right. You're right. Can you use an Oxford comma? Right, gifted {comma} high-achieving {comma} special education Yeah, I don't know. Yeah. Yeah, that was a bad geek joke. I chuckled. Put it after high-achieving. >> [laughter] >> Not a Jason. Like

113that? >> [laughter] >> Opportunities for gifted, high-achieving Oh, I got the and. Oh, I Can we use an ampersand? No? Nobody? >> [laughter] >> I'm tricking It's a word count. It still counts as a word. It's not a character [laughter] count. Yeah. It's a word count. All right, let's just see where we're at. They They include all of it um and the board signature. So Does the space count at the end? No. Okay. 195. That's not bad. I know I know I know what you're going to say. Go ahead. Any other comments or wonderings on this so we can >> [laughter] >> August Well >> Yeah. >> We'd have to not approve it tonight then if you're going to continue to work on it. >> Oh, yeah. Okay. And we we we could choose to

114do that. We could choose to do that. I mean, that's >> reading. I'm just kidding. No, I mean, I mean, we could, but that's going to put the PAC behind and we don't want to do that. Does a disservice to our community. Yeah, the the county needs it by a certain date, but the PAC likes to have it like in late early May cuz they build their statements off of what the board And we build our fact sheets and our do's and don'ts from that. >> is looking at it. after this I would I would guide that the board might want to approve it and pre-approve any changes request or any changes identified by legal counsel. Then that way those changes could be made without having to come back to the board. And I just

115make that within the motion? Mhm. I would just add it to the end of the motion. Yeah, okay. And um just a comment um in our departments, they are called exceptional student services student services. So, not special needs. Yeah, I understand and I was going to make that point and at the same time I don't know that people outside of the education world understand what exceptional students are. It is what it is. Yeah, I'm just going to keep harping on my heart tonight, y'all. >> Harping on the harp. [laughter] So, no takers for exceptional needs? I know that word's big. How how how many how many word What's the word count? >> Students with exceptional needs. And students with >> That will take us up to 196. That's going to put us at 209. Just

116kidding. How about I'm going to make the motion and approve it and if there's another word that keeps us within the same word count that our attorneys can figure out, then we'll do that at the end of the motion. Obviously, there's a conversation happening here. Something's going on over there. So, my question is is what is the suggestion? [laughter] Is it an Is it and exceptional students? Or what what's the wording? Does our Does our team have a recommendation from students Students with exceptional needs. Yeah, cuz then somebody might read that and be like, aren't they all exceptional? True story. >> [laughter] >> I mean, and I think if we're again going back to like who's reading it, who we're trying to get to vote for us, they know special needs. They don't know exceptional

117so much in that context. I just think exceptional students, I mean that includes gifted kids, it includes like it includes all of those people. I just I don't I don't like how we're like changing all of this and just does it makes me feel uncomfortable. We could just put opportunity maybe for exceptional students. Done. Delete all the other stuff. If that's what we're saying, folks. And I think it's a conversation once again when we go out with a pack and we're talking to parents and we're talking to community members and and people like you know >> Because it is true that exceptional student services includes gifted talented and special ed. So, if we're doing that, then technically we're including everybody with that one statement right there. >> Right, that's why I just think we should

118leave it that way. We have some students who are twice gifted. >> Well, that's different than the original statement and it's shorter. Yeah. Yeah. Done. Okay. Perfect. >> It does broaden it, which is something that we always recommend. The broader is better. Um it just then it gives us the flexibility to help whichever I mean >> exceptional student needs the most help. If it's if it's really in our gifted program, we can lean there. If it's in some other one of our exceptional student programs, we can lean there. So, I I like it. Doesn't everyone love group word smithing? Isn't it so much fun? So fun. Got to read to it the same time. I love that. Okay, any other comments or Yeah. For the DA and then for the money and yeah. Okay. >>

119changed this one, so we only need the approved statement for this one. No, we need to approve both of them. No, I meant like we only need the future changes from the attorney for this one cuz we didn't alter the other one. Um the other one was altered based on board board feedback since [cough] it was put in the So, Vanessa just brought it with the changes, correct? Or was it posted in its final format? Um it was posted >> it was posted in its final format because the one that I have is separate from what's posted right now. I think it did have a minor change to it. Which was which may include Okay. Yeah. Do you have the attorney Just do it for both. Okay. All right. 10A, I move the governing board

120approve the governing board's argument in support of the special district additional assistance override election pro statement and any amendments per our legal counsel. May I have a second? I second. All those in favor? I. I. Any nays? Hearing none, motion passes. B. I move the governing board approve the governing board's argument in support of the special maintenance and operation budget override election pro statement with any amendments that legal counsel may have. May I have a second? Second. All those in favor? I. Any nays? Hearing none, motion passes. Amazing. That brings us to 11A, which is the legislative political report. Do we have any legislative updates? I have a few quick ones. Oh, did you have one? No. Are you sure? I was just saying no. Oh, okay. Um I have a quick few ones. The

121first one that I want to do is that the city of Phoenix is in huge special trial budget negotiations right now. For the first time, they are looking at allocating $5 million to child care, specifically to help Phoenix residents. And another one to combat homelessness, our vice mayor Kisha Hodge-Washington, who is our council member as well, is beginning um I think what's called a master leasing, which basically would allow the city to be the sub hold sub holder lease holders of apartments and then the individuals would be a sub holder through the city, which would allow individuals who do not have their correct credit score or first month's pay rent or second month's, the city would take care of all of that and individuals would be able to have access to housing without all those

122additional barriers. And it's a first initiative that they're doing of $2 million. So, I let everybody know this because the final budget hearing is on May 7th from 2:30 to 5:00 at city council. So, any public comments in this that can actually support our Phoenix residents are great because it also bleeds in and intersects with the work that we do here in Creighton. Um and that I was going to say at that same hearing they're they're going to consider again all that work on the ordinance regarding providing health care and food assistance to people in parks. They got tremendous pushback at their last one. They were supposed to go back to the drawing board and create something that was more acceptable to the community. It doesn't seem like they've met that need quite yet. Um

123and so it'll be very interesting to see what the heck happens on May 7th. Uh May 5th. May 5th. >> Uh May 5th from 2:30 to 5:00 at city council offices. So, anybody interested in that, that would be great. Um another update that I want to give to that has to do with Phoenix Union High School District, us and Roosevelt. Some of us are starting to get together. Superintendents and board presidents are convening together and having conversations on how we're aligning our SOAR framework. And I would like to say that's part of a legislative or a political report because as elected officials for the first time, we are really trying to start working together in what even a tri-model would look like for us as feeder districts as we start feeling the restraints or the

124constraints of the federal and the local levels of funding that we're getting. So, I think that's great that we're actually collaborating with our our Phoenix Union High School District and we're so thankful for their superintendent and their board president that has taken the time to start this journey with us. So, that's great feedback that we have as well for that. Um those are kind of the only updates that I have as we know right now. I don't know if anything's changed, Katie, but our governor has stated that she will veto any of the bills coming up as until the Republicans decide to come up with some nice budget. So, we're in a contentious moment right now and I know that a lot of that um is going to be dependent on what we do here

125based off of what our legislature is doing. So, any of you guys that can have use your advocacy voice out there, that would be great. But, I'm really proud of the city of Phoenix for some of these small things that they're doing. They have a surplus right now. A lot of cities are facing cuts in their budgets and we're having conversations at the city level of actually expanding some of the programs because they have a little bit of surplus. So, I think that's just a little bit of bright spots in a lot of the chaos that's going on around us right now. Do we have any other legislative political updates or reports? One thing that came out fairly recently, I'm not sure how this is going to affect us, but the um education department is

126dissolving the office of What is it? English language acquisition. Um so, that's going to have a huge effect on English language learners. Um and they're even cutting back the Department of Education even more and cutting stuff. So, I again haven't dived delved into it, but yeah, it's it's kind of grim. Yeah, I thank you so much for bringing that up and I just want to I appreciate Copper State Education Alliances reports that we've been getting lately on the federal impacts and just to attest to with Mrs. Marquez said is that K through 12 education funding through the mega bill, which is make education great again, is facing a loss of $7.3 billion altogether. So, that's a 17% reduction of the $43 billion dollars in their K-12 budget right now. So, those are just some of

127the federal implications that we're dealing with. So, um we we I I like to share this information not to bring some scare tactics or fear to individuals, but really that we hone in and appreciate all the work that we're doing here specifically in Creighton because as all these external um budget cuts are happening, we're still remaining in a place where we can have meet and confer conversations on what we're doing with our dollars and that just shows great stewardship of the dollars that we've cultivated here in Creighton. But, yeah, um just to acknowledge what Ms. Marquez said, um a lot of those programs through mega will be absorbed absorbed and that would be title two, title four, our 21st century grants, our state assessments that help title one B, and our McKinney-Vento. McKinney-Vento is a

128huge federal program that we have for youth that are in our district that are unsheltered and that is in the process of being completely wiped out, which is a 120 million dollars in reduction. So, there's a lot of things that we're facing right now. Um but good news is that we have a city council. We need to really start working with all our local electives and really start working and figuring out what we can do to better serve our families and our communities and I think this conversations that we're having with other districts and superintendents is one great way of starting to figure out how we can really support each other when we can't really depend on our federal or our state um um legislatures our let's legislators. Um yeah. I was just going to

129quickly add that most of the crazy education bills at the state legislature have been vetoed or died. I'm pretty sure that concurrent resolution you mentioned is dead. There have been three or four bills that have actually been signed that implicate us in some way, but they're really not anything super important. I will say this though, um a lot of this stuff can be resurrected from the dead during the budgeting process and and become you know, bargaining chips, concessions. And the biggest thing you can do, uh you know, we say to talk to your elected officials, it's going to be supporting them in holding their ground when it comes to non-negotiables for education funding um at in the budget because this is it's an election year. The governor wants terribly obviously to be reelected and has

130made lots of interesting concessions in in in furtherance of that effort and I think there's plenty of state lawmakers who are willing to do that as well. Uh at at the risk of looking like you know, holding up this budget is going to piss people off. I don't know. At the end of the day we always you know, people get worried about how late the budget's coming out, but then we always end up with the short end of the stick. So, I say push them and tell them to hold the line. So, if you have it in you to talk to your lawmaker and be like, these are the top three things that are important to me about schools and school funding, do not bend on these. These should not be things that are sacrificed

131in our budget just to get a budget passed, then please do so. Whatever those things are to you. I know where they can find a billion dollars if they're if they're desperate. So. >> [laughter] >> Me, too. I was going to say something there. [clears throat] Say the Phoenix police budget. I I was I was referring to the hand the money that's being handed out. Um vouchers. Yeah. All right. Um hearing no other political um legislative updates, we will take that to our item 12, which is future agenda items. Um do we have any future agenda items? All right. Hearing none, I move to 13A, which is our adjournment. I move the governing board adjourn. May I have a second? Second. All those in favor? I. I. Any nays? Hearing none, muchas gracias. Buenas noches.

132Thank you, everybody. Have a great night. Good night. Oh my god.