001Good evening. At this time, I'll call the meeting to order and we will stand for the pledge of allegiance. Thank you. Our first item is the audience with individuals. I don't believe we have any. Okay, great. Uh, next we have uh item C1, superintendent update. Thank you, Madam President. Uh, just some quick updates. Um, the summer's been very busy so far. As you know, we finished our summer workshops where our teachers, administrators, a bunch of staff got together to uh look at our standards, uh make sure our curriculum is aligned to those standards, data analysis, and and just uh talking about a week of uh improvement on how to week of discussion on how to improve student learning. So, I just want to thank everybody involved with that. It was a great this is our
002third year of doing that. So, it's something great and uh I'm glad to see everybody. It's really starting to starting to take steam. So, great on that. Uh we next week going to the professional learning community conference coming up. Um that is one of our strongholds uh in this district. Also going on about three years of redoing it. Uh very excited that we have uh leadership teams from every campus going and uh really looking forward to uh furthering our uh PLC journey. So, um, we will fill you in when we get back on that. Uh, July 7th, believe it or not, we welcome all of our administrators back. So, that's right around the corner. July 14th is our new educators. I I know the governing board has been invited to come and say hello to
003all our new educators. So, if you can make it, please let Jenna know. And then right on the back of that um, is all our teachers are back on July 28th. So, it is a quick summer. We are busy busy busy right now. Um getting ready for all that but um we are looking forward to it. So uh that's all I have. Thank you. Thank you Dr. Cto. And next up we have governing board update. Um the only update I have is that I'm also looking forward to the PLC conference next week. um excited to um have an opportunity to be a part of that again. And that is all I have. Uh next item we have is the consent agenda. I'll entertain a motion. I make a motion to approve the consent agenda as
004presented. Second. motion carries. Okay. Um, next we're going to move to information discussion item F1. Dr. Croto. Thank you, Madam President. Uh tonight we bring to you an information item requested by the governing board uh for information on our no pass no play our athletic eligibility and Mr. Mui will conduct this presentation. Mr. Mui. Thank you Dr. Crow. Madame President, members of the board. Uh this uh presentation will provide some background to the academic eligibility that we use here in uh Daert Unified and uh wanted to walk you through uh where that comes from and some of the background information specifically to some of the procedures and practices that we use. So starting with this, this comes from the uh state board of education and this is the policy that is uh adopted by the
005state board of education and you'll see as you look at this specifically that it applies to uh and as they set that up for any grades 6 through 12 um for you know when we look at this uh primarily we're talking about the Arizona Intercolastic Association so AIA when we talk specifically with this but extracurricular activities are defined for you there as you'll see. So those activities are competitive in nature and involve some kind of championship winner or a rating is determined for a champion. Um this uh any type of extracurricular activity is not awarded credit. Uh and you uh you you do not use that to in order to meet a graduation requirement um or a promotion requirement. And then also those activities that are defined under here would be organized, planned and sponsored
006by the district. So the district is really responsible for doing that. So it's really important to point out when we talk about academic eligibility that the district unifi's grading scale is is aligned this way. You'll see that the grading scale points out that a zero over to 59 is an F and then that's that would be ineligible. So everything above that you see 60 to 69 is a D, 70 to 79 is a C, 80 89 is a B and then 90 to 100 is an A. So that's that is the adopted uh uh when we say that this is the adopted practice and what are we have uh for the district for grades that are handed out in you know and that would determine eligibility for our students specifically as we start to dive
007into what is the overview and then the procedures that are used um we require that all students who participate in an extracurricular activity maintain passing marks in all subjects um and that's on a cumulative basis in all classes. in which the student is enrolled. So, they have to be passing in order to participate in the extracurricular activity while the season is in session. Diving in that more specifically, you'll see that students grades will be checked on that communive basis every two weeks. So, the grade reports are run every two weeks. Um, so there's a specific start date once the season starts. They run it every other week. um if a student has a failing grade in any class, they'll be placed on a on that pending list. Okay? And they're now a it's considered a
008at that point now they're um they're a failing student, so they've got to bring that grade up. Written notification then goes to the parents and the coaches. It is a responsibility that all staff um under the direction of the administration provide a bimonthly academic report for determining that the uh the standards are set forth and the procedures are being met. So, there's a practice of making sure that if a student does fall in that um in that um category of a failing class, now they have to they have a failing grade. They've got to bring that up. And what what gets more specific on this, as you'll see, is that the student is still failing at the next twoe notice. They're placed on ineligibility. So, the idea is is that a pending list gives us
009the notification that they are in trouble. Then we place them on an ineligibility list. Okay. So that gives now now and usually your triyouts and your season doesn't start for four weeks once tryyouts start. So a kid that's that's ineligible that ends up on that failing list. It usually happens right as a season is starting or a couple weeks into the season starting as well. So as you're running it every other week. Okay. And they're not allowed to participate in any athletic contest um until they receive a passing grade. Ineligible students uh shall be determined at the conclusion of each twoe period to be reported on or before a Friday and any change in that in that status shall begin on the next Monday following the last day of the previous eligibility period. So when
010you run that report then it's it's starts on the Monday and that's going to it's going to be in place that they can't participate unless they can get that grade up. Okay. support shall be made available to help those students in those extracurricular programs um and helping those students that were also any type of pending ineligibility and failure to raise a failing grade twice in the same class during the same season will result in removal. So if they can't get that grade up in the same class twice in a row then they are not going to be allowed to continue um participating for that season. So, it's really said that if a kid is struggling in a specific class that at that point they're not going to be able to part participate if they've given
011been given that multiple opportunities and it appeared twice um on that failing report. So, just to kind of give this in a in a basic summary, grade checks are conducted during each sport season. They're ran every two weeks. Ineligibility is communicated to coaches, parents, and the student. Students are eligible to return to play once they have improved the failing grade to a passing grade as reported by the teacher. Ineligibility twice during a season in the same class. I want to be very specific with that. Results in removal from the sport. And middle school also conducts academic eligibility checks. So that's that's a basic summary of how it's conducted and I will stand for questions. Okay. Thank you. Um I have several so just be prepared. Um I'm going to start off when we go into
012slide um three for the grading. Um 60 to 69 is a D. Correct. That is correct. and a student you're saying with a we're AB-rated schools correct and we're allowing students to participate in extracurricular activities if they have a D-grade. Is that correct? That is correct. And and that's and member Destitch that's a um you know as I say that too that's a that's a practice um not just here but that is a common practice that on the grading scale um that a 60 or 69 because that is considered a passing grade that that has been used as a mark right and under the ARS 15705 the school board does get to establish if we want to change those grades correct Yeah, that is that is something that is that is up to the governing
013board. Do we have a record of the percentages of students participating in extracurricular activities by the grade level that we at the board can see? You know, is it like 20% have D's? Um 40% have B's. Do we have anything like that to kind of assess how our students are? Um, Madame President, member Dist, we can uh review that. We don't um track that per se. Um, this has not been a problem and on our radar. So, we can put something together and I can send that out to the governing board. Correct. I would like that. Um, also, you're saying that we the students grades are checked on a cumulative basis every two weeks. Who's checking those grades and why are we doing it bi-weekly? uh to to the first to the first question that
014practice was identified and it's it is a again I would say it's a common practice you'll see districts do out there where they'll check it every other week when they're looking at it. Um probably I would say that that's a philosophical standpoint of if a kid is actually to get a a judge of where a kid's at um you're using that two week span um that's the the practice as to why they're doing and the cumulative is obviously because you're basing it on them how their grade is progressing right so that's the first part of it um the philosophical I'm just saying is is that's a common practice say giving the kid enough time uh to achieve success uh the second part to your question I'm sorry can you Repeat that please. Who is who's
015Yes. Sorry. And who's doing that? The local campus does is required to do that. Um we have the athletic directors that work with their office that do that do run the reports. So we provide information to them to showing them how to do that. They run the reports and then they do hand that to their once it's ran that information is then communicated out from the local campus to their to their um coaches and their parents. Yeah. And you say that um under the direction of the administration to provide a bimonthly academic report. Is that by ac bimonthly academic report pro provided up to the superintendent's office or to the school board or is it just where does that go besides to the parents and the coaches? That's for school use. We don't track that
016at our level. Okay. And then it says that if a student is failing at a two-eek notice, the student will be placed in on an ineligibility list but still allowed to practice, right? They just can't participate. And um I'm concerned with that because to me, if a student has a D, we should be really focusing on getting their academics up and not just getting them to the bare minimum so they can participate. And so based on that, um, I I'm recommending that we look at possibly forming an advisory committee to get standards as to how many students are excelling and participating and how many are not, just doing the bare minimum or, you know, look at um, holding a public hearing or something as defined under the ARS 1570. 5. Thank you. Just a question
017on slide three. Um with the DAER grading scale, I I know as a just as a parent, I I received a notification today even where um the grade was 89.83 and that is an A. So at what point do we round? I mean, is it just the standard rounding at 0.5 or what's our system for that? Madame President, and I and I don't have the exact language in front of me yet in the handbook right now, but I can double check this for you and get back to you, but I believe it does say that rounding indicates at the 0.5 level, but I need to double check that. Okay. I just think that if if I mean I I know that this presentation is for the board, but if you know if we have parents
018that are going to hold us to that, it would be nicer to see like the exact number. Um the the other question I had, let me find it again. Sorry. um with with the twoe check-ins or reporting. So, say for instance at that first two week report uh the child is sitting at an F. They um turn in some homework the following day. So, their grade is up to a C or better. Um, do they need to wait two weeks before they're eligible or is there a reversal to that as well midcycle? Madam President, once the student is eligible and it's been reported by the teacher, then the student can begin participation again. Okay. Okay. So, they're not withheld or punished for a full two weeks. That is correct. Okay. Um, this might be a
019little off topic, but does the attendance of students have anything to do with whether they're eligible for athletics or not? Uh, Madame President, members, uh, the attendance is not part of eligibility for athletics. Um, I would say that would be that would probably be more impacted by the coaches and playing time, but that's a whole different topic. But no, attendance to your point, if it's a part of the actual participation status, no, it is not part of it at all. I just got one simple question hopefully. Um on the academic availability continue slide it says support services shall be made available to students who become ineligible for extracurricular act programs as well as the students notified of impending ineligibility. Those support services what do they consist of? Um, and are we providing something that would
020not be provided or we just have like an afterchool program that they can be thrown into or are teachers volunteering their time to help that student? Yes. Um, uh, Madam President, members, that when I'm thinking about that question, I would say to you that there's multiple things. I mean, obviously when we say support services, we're saying teachers available to assist the student. um having um assisted tutoring programs that exist on our campuses a lot of times for that. Um talking to our athletic directors, uh many of the coaches have uh study hall times that they set up for students um especially when there's gaps between times of practice and so they'll set up other things like that, but a lot of those support services are what's offered as far as the tutoring sessions or things
021that they have available on the campus to provide supports for the kids. Um there's might be more, you know, like there could be some schools may have um um other additional program might have a different program from another one, but they're all set up and designed to give the student an opportunity to bring up the grade. So it's it's a lot of it's after school um focus. Excellent question, Clerk Gavara. Now I have a follow on. Do we just bring them up to a D? Is that what the support services do? Just bring them up to the D so they're eligible. Yeah, Madame President, member Destich, uh technically because if the student does have a D passing grade at that point, they would be eligible to participate. Okay. Thank you. And to piggyback on that,
022the goal is not to bring them up to a D. The goal is to bring them up to passing. So depending on the amount of work or the type of work that they would hand in, it could bring them back to an A. um it all depends what's missing um and how they hand it in and the late policy for the grading. So there's a lot of factors. So the goal is not to bring them just to a D. It's to bring them back into the passing zone that they're favorable in the class. Correct. Thank you for the clarification. And I wasn't just but that's the eligible is D or above. So even though it could bring them up to a higher grade, that's why I think getting the numbers on percentages will really help
023us to evaluate. So I appreciate that. Thank you. Yep. Um so just a quick question. Um I think it's a quick question. So slide two speaks to you know any interscolastic activity of competitive nature. Um but then um it it also talks about where did it go? Okay. Then page or yeah slide six speaks to any athletic contest. So when we're talking about intercolastic activities, are we specifically talking about athletics? Madame President, yes, we're talking about athletics. So if you're referring to clubs and other things like that, that does not count. Okay. When you say club, I mean, but you're als but we're also talking about, you know, we have other Okay, speaking of like marching band or, you know, something like that that's competitive in nature. I believe band does follow them. Okay. They
024do they do grade checks for band. Gotcha. Okay. And do we have like debate clubs or anything like that that do competitions? because would that also apply to them? Um, Madame President, member Dage, I would have to check on a debate club. Off the top of my head, I don't know that we do, but I have to check. I'm not going to go on record saying that's the case, but I I'd have to check exactly how far that goes with that. But speech and debate does have a competition, so I would imagine they do fall under that if we have our schools doing that. And if we get the percentages, if we could get a list of any of the activities within the schools that do are part of this program, that would be really
025beneficial. I would appreciate that. Thank you. I know a club uh National Junior's Honor Society does require it because when my son was in it, he had to keep his grades up. So that is one club that does require it. Right. We probably do have clubs that do require it, but they're not a requirement under the under the rules. So, some sponsors may choose to add that in. So, this is just an information item. Obviously, we can't take action on it today. Um, I know that there were some recommendations or, you know, in requests. Should that be um officially requested at the end of the meeting when we're requesting for future agenda items or is that just something you can follow up with the board with? I will follow up with the board on getting
026it. And I thank you guys very much for indulging me with this. I appreciate it. No problem. It's a great discussion. Thank you. All right. Everyone's okay to move forward. We're go we'll move to action discussion uh item one. Dr. Croto. Thank you, Madam President. Um tonight we welcome some new members to our administrative team. Um and Mr. Mattingley will take the first uh couple um action discussion items. Mr. Mattingly, thank you Dr. Croto. Uh, madam president, governing board members, it is the pleasure of cabinet to recommend to the governing board an interim position for the Daart High School a position of a principal and that will be Samantha Centenno. And if she's here, can you stand up, please? You have to stand. Sorry. I'm sure. So um Miss Tenno has approximately 10 years uh
027all here in in education and it's all been here in the Daart Unified School District and approximately four years uh one year as a TLS and then three years as an assistant principal. So uh it's definitely our pleasure to recommend to the board consideration as an interim principal for Daizard High School. Thank you. I motion to approve the appointment of Samantha Centenno as interim high school principal for the year 2025 2026 school year. I second. Denise got it. Sorry. Motion carries. Congratulations. Just want to say I I'm so shocked to see you in red. You're usually in purple. Congratulations. Go ahead, Mr. Mangley. Number two, please. Yes, sir. Dr. Curdle. Thank you. Uh, Madam President, governing board members, it's a pleasure to u make a recommendation to the board for consideration for Jessica Torres. You
028have to stand too. Sorry, Jessica. Thank you. Uh, Jessica has a total of about 11 years in education. Uh, she uh has uh re recently with currently with Daar Unified School District academic interventionist dean of students. Uh and so uh she came highly recommended and we're excited to recommend to the governing board as assistant principal at Surprise. I motion to approve the appointment of Jessica Torres as interim elementary assistant principal for the 2025 2026 school year. Second. Motion carries. Congratulations. Right. Next up, we have item G three. Dr. Cto. Thank you, Madam President. Uh, tonight we have a recommendation to approve our proposed budget and Miss Spidell will take us through our proposed budget. Thank you, Dr. Cto. Madam President, members of the board, cabinet, and community. Tonight, we are here to bring the proposed
029budget for our fiscal year 2526 um, school year coming up. So, as you know, this process, it does take many months over the course of this past fiscal year. We've brought you many recommendations through IBA. We've brought you the benefits package. We brought you just many um items that go into the into the budget process. And so um at that point in time, we also through the last few months, our finance department meets with every individual department. They go over all the upcoming needs, work on compiling that. So it is months and months that go into this. So we are very thankful for all their hard work into it. And I know a couple are here. So I do want to recognize Miss Francancy Wolf Bowman, our director of finance, and Matt Robertson, our budget
030analyst. I mean, I know the amount of time that it takes to put this together. And so we're really thankful for all your hard work. So, um, as you know, and as you may be aware, our legislation is still in session. So, they did, um, as you see up there in the asterisk, we got these preliminary budget forms at the very end of May. And it was really the auditor general kind of pushed them out just so the districts at least had something to present to their governing board so we can have a proposed budget and ultimately an adopted budget by that July 15th deadline. As we know, they are still in session. And so, these are very preliminary numbers. Um once we do get those final results um they actually we started getting word
031that they are back in session that really their focus this week is to get a budget finalized. Um so once that's all um wrapped up then we will be presenting a revised budget earlier than normal. We usually bring it to December 15th. Um we do have the option to bring it to you by September 15th um just to reflect what those final final numbers are. And so that is the plan. I I know I personally would like to bring it to the board so you can see in it sooner rather than later and you can have just a better um decision on a final budget. So that is the plan. We will still be bringing to you in July 14th the adopted budget. This is not going to change from that um when we adopt
032it, but we will be revising September 15th. So what's included in the revenue assumptions? Obviously we estimate those inputs. So at this point it's very difficult to estimate things that we still have not um seen final final decisions made on yet. Um, we still expect that we do anticipate a 2% inflation funding adjustment. However, that has not been finalized. And so, um, at a later date, we will be embedding that into the system, into the budget. Um, we were pretty conservative with our average daily membership or ADM counts for this upcoming year. Again, knowing that throughout the year, we do bring you revised estimates. Once we have those students show up and the enrollment counts are accounted for and updated, we will be bringing those updated estimates to you. And then finally, these last two
033line items. Um there's been conversation and legislation of Prop 123. It's been funded the last 10 years or so. Um does it go away? Does it get embedded into our ongoing funding system? So there's conversations on that. Um as well as the free and reduced price lunch and district additional assistance. Those um this past year it was a one-time about $1.8 million that we received as a district. Um it's slated to go away for this upcoming year, but there's conversations of potentially them restoring it and having it continue. So it is very challenging to present a budget when there is so much up in the air but obviously we will definitely make adjustments um as final decisions are made at the legislation level. What we do know is there have been um many decisions made
034over the last few months u and brought to the governing board um that reflect what is in the expenditure line items. So, as you know, we um brought to the board, you approved the 2% base pay increase for all current employees, the 3% retention statement for current employees who remain continuously employed. We brought to you um in early February uh the benefits package, so that was about half a million dollars um to the budget, as well as what we estimate the minimum wage increases upcoming year. That continues to go up every year. And then also estimated utility rate increases. I know personally I just saw that there's just proposed rate hikes again. And so we do know that as a district we will incur those expenses and so those all of those items are embedded
035into the district budget. So ultimately they flow into the maintenance and operations fund. So this is just I'm going to just very high level go over a few of the funds. You do have the entire budget package um that you've been provided for your review as well as it's attached to the agenda items for our public as well if if they'd like to look at it. But this is where you see the various line items. Um and so ultimately we have an estimated $220.2 $2 million budget for the fiscal year and knowing that we will be uh providing an updated estimate once we have known legislative action taken. Our capital budget, our unrestricted capital fund budget limit, we estimate coming in at about 24.9 million. And then you'll see the other one is our building
036renewal grant program. So at this point we don't have those approved projects from the school facilities board, but we know we in fact we just reviewed it today. We have a number of applications that are in with them just outlining all the various needs. Um so at this point we have a very conservative hopefully we get 1.5 million but as you see in the first column our our fiscal year 25 ended up at about 9 and a half million that we received in funding. So as we get those projects approved we'll be um revising those and bringing them to the board. Um the classroom site fund the JLBC estimated um again based off of sales taxes they estimated increase from 792 per pupil up to 8.42 42 per pupil for this coming fiscal year. Um,
037and so we see that estimate from the 43 and a half to about $48 million for this coming fiscal year. And then all the other special projects funds, those are on page six. That's the one that outlines all of your federal grants, all of your state grants, and all of the other um essentially what are called cash control funds that reflect a lot of the activity that we have throughout our district. You'll see there federal and state grants do show a decrease. This we expect to change and fluctuate as we go into the year. Currently, this only reflects a small portion that the state has allocated to us, it's usually about 80% of our expected allocation for the coming year. So once we have the full known allocation as well as when we have our
038final carry forward amounts, you will be seeing those numbers updated and revised at a later date. Food service fund, we don't anticipate any um large fluctuations in activities. So we do have estimated about 13.5 million for this coming year for a total of about close to $30 million in our special projects funds. So, that's just a very brief overview. Again, we will be posting our proposed budget on our website. We will be um pushing it out to AD uh with a link to the public hearing for the adopted budget that again, as I mentioned, it is slated to come to the governing board by um July 14th. Um and so, at this point, we won't be making any changes from our proposed budget to the adopted. We are not allowed to make any changes to
039that budget limit from what's being proposed. Um but knowing that in the future, once things get finalized, we will be revising shortly thereafter. At this point, I will stand for any questions. I have one. Um, when we're talking about the removal of the additional allocation of funding for Prop 123 and the removal of fiscal year 25 time free and reduced price lunches and district additional assistance. You were saying, are you saying that the proposed budget that we have is already showing those as removed? Um, Madam President, member Dust is correct. So, I've already reflected that um as not being an ongoing revenue source. What we did last year, if you recall, because that was onetime funding rather than embedding it in ongoing operations, we actually brought to the board to transfer that over into capital,
040which is why you see the capital budget for next year is a little bit higher. We did transfer about that $3 million into capital to support the ongoing needs that we see out there for our district. So rather than embedding it in ongoing cost because it is so up in the air, um it's currently in capital as a carry forward, but it is not embedded in the 26 budget for this coming year. Okay. Thank you. You're welcome. And you answered my second question, so I appreciate it. I I know that the ADM is just um a projection at this point, but um when it states to remain generally level, are we thinking a slight increase or a slight decrease? Madam President, we do. We anticipate there will be a slight increase but rather than fully
041embedding it in and then just allocating it out. I do like to kind of keep it conservative especially at this point in time knowing we will be bringing an updated estimate. I don't expect it to go up by 100 or 200 students. That would be great. Um but I also don't we don't uh forecast a decrease. So we're kind of keeping it level at this point in time until we make those known estimates. You're welcome. There's no other discussion. I'll move to approve the 2526 propo proposed budget. Motion carries. Moving to uh action discussion four. Dr. Croto. Thank you, Madam President. Tonight we are recommending the approval of revisions to policy 1401, 343, 4204, 5303, and 5305 as presented. The revisions are recommended by the trust and they include updates to state and federal regulations.
042So with that, I'll stand for any questions. With no questions, I'll uh make a motion to approve the revisions to policies 1-41,3-43, 4-204, 5-303, and 5-305 as presented. I second. motion carries. Next up, we have item G5. Dr. Cartto, thank you again, Madam President. Uh, tonight we bring to you our district goals. This is a yearly approval process. Tonight I'm recommending the four fall fall the following four district goals. Uh the first goal in Desaert Unified School District every student in all schools will be prepared with the knowledge and skills to achieve career and college success. Uh the second goal the Daert Unified School District will recruit, train and retain a highly qualified staff to cultivate a culture of student success. Third goal, uh the Daert Unified School District culture will be beyond reproach for
043a safe and secure environment for all stakeholders. And our final goal is the Daart Unified School District will identify and maximize available financial and community resources to support student success. And this was the topic of discussion last week in our um study session. So with that, I'll stand for any questions. I move to approve the district goals as presented. Motion carries. Next we have item G6. Dr. Cto. Thank you, Madam President. Tonight, um, we bring to you another yearly approval process which aligns with, uh, board policy 2223, uh, section 2-2.23. Um and that has to do with governing board uh taking action on the approval for travel for conferences any professional development reimbursible for travel fees for the year. Um as we've done every year um we governing board approves an amount of $4,000 um
044for each board member for the 2526 school year. So um the monies do not roll over if you remember that discussion. So that's for use every year. You do not roll over money. Um, and if you go above your travel budget, um, then the board members need to bring that request to, uh, the board meeting for consideration of the rest of the board. So, just some quick um, facts for you because I know you're probably going to ask. Um, this year we have not used any money at all um, except uh, the two governing board members that will be going to our PLC conference will be using uh, some funds. Other than that, uh there has been no activity on that. So with that, I can stand for questions or you can have a discussion
045and we'll go from there. Again, that amount is 4,000 um a year. Any questions? No. All right. I'm going to motion this long. It's quite a lot of wording here. Motion to approve travel, conference registration, and reimburse travel fees for individual board members to attend training and conferences for the 2025 2026 school year. Each board member is designated an approved amount of 4,000. If an individual board member exceeds allocation of for travel and conferences, the board member would need would need to bring the travel request to the whole board for consideration and action as part of the action and discussion agenda. Second. motion carries. All right. Um, moving to item H1. Do we have any requests for future agenda items? Okay. Move to item H. I'm sorry, I one. Uh, and I will move to
046adjourn the meeting. Motion carries and we are adjourned. Thank you.