001e e e e e e good evening everyone at this time I'll call the meeting to order and we'll stand for the pledge of allegiance algi to the flag of the United States States of America and to the republ for which it stands one nation under God indivisible thank you and let the record reflect that all board members are present this evening uh next up we'll have B1 um Dr Coto thank you madam president uh tonight we have some special guests with us to perform and Mr mcy will introduce our guests thank you Dr Coto Madam president members of the board superintendent and all of our guests tonight all the way from Countryside we have the choir here to perform and that's under the the direction of Miss huitt we are ready when you are
002what are we to do when the seems and everybody's always feeling when the of ring up and the future is looking sad let's together the start today to change this point of view let get together to change the world starts with me and [Music] you let's [Music] start way you got to to strer or make [Music] overlow make thisness overlow like a tiny PE toss a pond kindness keeps on growing outward and Beyond let's [Music] start you got Strang make good it doesn't take a lot if you give it all you got to make this way overlow reach out to your neighbor just because you can everyone's a winner we help our fellow [Music] start you got to to a stranger or a friend and make this way in kind [Music] it take a lot
003you give it all you got overlow make this overlow make this way overlow [Applause] [Music] 15 United States from 13 Original Colonies 15y stars in the flag that so beautifully in the breeze in theual state contributes a quality that is great individual STS about we salute them now 15 United States from 1 Original Colonies shout them Scout them tell all about them one by one to be given a day to every state in the USA Alabama Alaska Arizona Arkansas California Colorado Conneticut Delaware Florida Georgia Hawaii Idaho Illinois Indiana Iowa Kansas Kentucky louana M Maryland Massachusetts Michigan Minnesota Mississippi Missouri Montana Nebraska Nevada New Hampshire New Jersey New Mexico New York North Carolina North Dakota Ohio Oklahoma Oregon Pennsylvania Island South Carolina sou Dakota Tennesse Tex Utah Vermont Virginia Washington West Virginia scotson W North southeast
004west Arizona is the best of the 50 United States from 13 original colies shoutout all every state in the good old you [Applause] [Music] [Applause] thank you for a great uplifting performance great job students I'm G to give them a moment they weren't stay for my policy I see a few people stayed for Dr Cotto's policy updates thank you [Laughter] all right next we have student update oh sorry no we have audience with individuals however we do not have any this evening next we have a student update thank you Madame President we do have our update tonight Mr mcy please introduce Our Guest yes Madam president members of the board Dr Cotto uh tonight back with us uh representing our daart student council is Amelia Escobar from Willow Canyon and she's got some information to
005pass on to us this evening good evening staff and board members I'm here to share an update with all four of our high schools as well as what we've been doing with DLC this past month all four schools just came back from tcon and we had an amazing time over there learning about new ideas and a lot from a lot of speakers to bring back mainly about student participation and involvement with all of our Sports and Scholars as well um Willow and Valley Vista both recently had their sweethearts dance where we had an okay amount of participation this middle of the Year dance is something that we struggle with as a student council because it's hard to get as much attention as we do during homecoming season or prom season but our attendance does increase
006every year and in order to kind of save money we make all of our decorations instead of purchasing any within our own student councils and Valley Vista also used one of their student dads as the DJ instead of having to pay for one on their own which is a really cool thing that we want to look into more what students can provide for us and work more with student council as well uh as a DLC this past month we've been mainly working on our assembly for Freedom Academy which is the middle school that won the that brought in the most food for the Valley View food drive we're making sure that we have multiple games since it is a K through 8 school that way we get involvement from all of the students we're bringing
007all four of our mascots to make it a super exciting and fun day as well as some dance teams and Valley View will be there to present them with a plaque to just show our appreciation and gratitude for the middle schools for supporting us all of the staff parents and students there as well really donated a lot and it just really meant a lot to DLC and the drive that we do run and Shadow student council is currently in Disneyland doing a leadership Workshop that Willow did back in November it is a super fun experience and you get to go to Disney and it's very exciting and fun thank you so much for all of your time today and I will see you all next next month have a great week thank you thank you
008so much all right next we have St uh superintendent upd Dr Coto thank you madam president it's becoming that time of year we have some off awesome events going on in our district I'd like to um highlight two of those uh coming up on March 8th we have Festival of the Arts um and that is the Miss Marinelli show um she spends countless hours along with a bunch of people to put that together it is quite an event over here in the Vista parking lot actually in the entire Campus of the um Valley Vista So Awesome event we can't wait for that thank you for all your work da we appreciate appreciate that a lot um also coming up we have the dice art hero dinner it is that time of year uh the dinner
009to celebrate All Our Heroes is going to be on Wednesday April 16th um we can't wait uh to get that going and the the surprise Squad um is going to start delivering the week of March 10th so um get ready we're coming to the classrooms we're going to disrupt the classrooms we're going to celebrate our dice Art Heroes so that's great um Renee Ryan and her awesome um department they spend a lot of hours putting this together and coordinated in all the trips so great job thank you and we can't wait to do it another year it's a fantastic time so um additionally on a more serious note um most of you are aware we were um made aware of a video that circulated on social media um showing some content that this District doesn't
010um condone and it was allegedly somebody linked to our district um the original poster turns out um that this event happened well over two years ago um after extensive investigation on that event um we determined that that individual is not a current dyser employee um as you know we take all of our safety seriously and we investigate all the concerns with that um countless hours were spent with the accusations of our employees um with the ridiculous content on social media um about this District um without any valid proof that it occurred so we had employees hurt um we had hurt mentally I should say um and and I'm sorry that that happened um but we did take it serious we looked into it um and it's not an employee I think this situation serves as
011an important reminder um on the principles of digital citizenship in this District emphasizing the responsibility that we all share on uh using our our online Platforms thoughtfully in daer we teach our students that just because something's posted online doesn't mean it's factual uh and the misinformation can cause some serious harm to people it's essential that you think critically before sharing or belev content as words and actions that you may have have real life consequences again I apologize to those individuals that incurred that in our district and um I hope as a community and as adults we can do better next time so with that that's all I have thank you next we have governing board update so as part of my updates uh so over the last uh month and a half I've been meeting
012with the superintendent and the assistant of superintendant just to kind of get to know them a little bit more of a you know a friendly face and get to get to know their area of expertise as well uh I did make the joke like the office based joke was I was one of the Bobs you going tell me what you do here kind of situation but it wasn't it wasn't so much that it was it was just getting to know them the cool thing that I was able to to to utilize with all of them was there was one question that I asked them all at the end and um it was funny because doc Dr SII she uh she answered the wrong way even though I told her there was no wrong answer um
013because I was it was the question was what's your favorite thing about nature and it's because my my daughter is very artistic and she likes to draw and paint so I wanted her to be able to draw something for him and she if I recall correctly you said your favorite thing about nature was like the wind the sound the sounds I'm like well we can't really paint the sound so no you got to try again so uh my my daughter is working really hard she's she's already finished three out of the five so they will be delivered next month um but I do thank you guys for your time over the last month just to just to you know get down into the nitty-gritty there um I also did attend the walk and row for
014inclusion uh that was held by diart uh special education PTSA uh really great organization it was a great Community event that I went to I took my son uh he he went into the park in uh the I think it's called dreamcatcher Park and he played all the games he had a great time um and they have a really great initiative where they're trying to um make the playgrounds a little bit more inclusive and evolve them a little bit better so that you know students of all all nature can actually utilize the facilities even more uh so I really much I do appreciate what they did what they do and what what they continue to do um I also did take a tour of the uh support services facility um with one of our assistant
015superintendent um and I will say I ate at the cafe and they have some of the best food and something I didn't know which I I'm I'm telling all my friends now it's open to the public and it is a great great adult what is it grownup grilled cheese I want to call it but it was it was it was fantastic so I'm telling all my friends I'm hoping that they get a little bit busy and you know that word gets out so that's it thank you um on January 29th I attended the school visit at El Mirage so I just want to say thank you to principal Haney and Miss Ireland for a Wonder wonderful visit um on the 3r of February I attended the A+ breakfast at Sim simmeron Springs and the A+
016lunch at Shadow Ridge High School so great job congratulations to those schools on the 12th of February I attended the freedom traditional Got Talent Show and the talent that was displayed these children phenomenal singing at you know Pres benting dancing out of the just kicked it out of the park so congratulations to those kids and then on the 19th I attended the school visit at Thompson Ranch and just want to say thank you to principal Kerr and assistant principal Quintana it was a great visit so thank you for your time that's all I have okay um I also visited uh El marage Elementary School and uh Sunset Hills Elementary and Thompson Ranch Elementary School and we visited with parents teachers students the staff and administration and it was um very positive experience and um seemed
017like the teachers collaborated with each other and the um parents were very supportive of the schools and it was all very very good visit thank you and I was able to go I was honored to attend the uh Canyon Ridge and diart high school a um a label to give them their congratulations and we were able to present them a banner and I am so looking forward to the uh Festival of Arts coming up so that's all I have not much to report um I was able to attend the visit or tour of the Desert Diamond Arena um for our high school graduations with our cabinet and high school administrators and it was fascinating um just to see how much they're bending over backwards to meet and accommodate all of our needs for graduation um
018so that is turning out to be kind of an exciting change and also just really looking forward to the DA show at the festival of the Arts that's all I have next up we have the consent agenda and I'll move to approve the consent agenda items as presented I'd like to make a motion uh to um have discussion on the agenda item F3 uh about the Avid um I you you said item F3 yes okay so someone will need to second that motion I'll second the motion okay it's the Avid summary Institute she want sorry it's the Avid summary Institute on being held on June 15th to the 18th Miss you're making a motion to amend no or motion to amend she pull it from the agenda for disc so you're making a motion to
019amend so there's two there's two motions one has been seconded correct yours no Steve seconded yes your motion you motion to approve before she said anything yes no no no I that's I agree I to approve the consent agenda there was not a second to that she's made a motion I believe to approve the consent agenda item but pulling the item F3 for discussion that has been SE that has been seconded by board memb Scara okay yeah the second was on the amended motion correct okay yep that's what you're vot on okay second no voting on hers so motion is to approve the current agenda items as presented with the exception of moving item F3 to action and discussion that is what you're voting on okay it's not showing up I vote Yes I can
020I okay please note on if you're following on the agenda that we'll move to um item H7 F3 will move to item H7 and should we refresh to make sure that happens havee okay sorry you're good we might need to do that again okay so if ours is not there we should refresh again okay you might need to refresh again I may have refreshed too early okay it's been moved okay does everyone see that H7 okay we're good okay okay okay sorry about that moving to item G1 Dr Coto thank you madam president uh tonight we're going to present information regarding our exceptional student services specialized programs and the locations for uh the 25 26 school year and Dr asai will be leading us through this presentation good evening Madam president members of the board
021it is my pleasure tonight to present to you on ESS specialized programs and locations oh okay there we go we're going to start off with uh ESS specialized programs as long as I don't mess up the presentation there um before you you will see uh six of the main I guess I would say programs that we offer what's not included is our pushit model where a teacher goes into the classroom which would really be considered our least restrictive environment so we're going to start off with resource resource is typically I guess what most people think of when they think of exceptional student services pulling a child out to work on grade level skills or maybe a few uh where there's gaps in that knowledge uh what we're going to talk more about tonight are our
022more uh targeted programs the first is structured teaching classroom our structured teaching classroom or STC STC provides a highly structured environment with strategies to support communication embedded in the classroom students in STC must meet a criteria for the alternate assessment and use a modified curriculum so these students don't take our general state test our Asa they qualify for something called the MSA test um and usually it has to do with um with a cognitive or adaptive a a larger cognitive or adaptive disability um you know you can think of our kids um sometimes they have Down syndrome sometimes moderate disabilities mild disabilities things like that stc2 uh which is the next one our structured teaching classroom 2 also provides a highly structured environment with support and communication students here do not meet the criteria to
023go in an STC classroom and they don't have a modified curriculum they actually learn grade level material uh with more assistance more structure and a focus on that communication our Aspire program is for medically fragile students uh these students might have needs with respiration they require the care of a registered nurse and we have one assigned to the program we have our positive engagement high expectations achievement student centered and effective communication um more succinctly known as faas uh faas houses some of our um oured students there is a focus on providing positive social skill growth and behavior strategies to support student achievement students who go to phase from other schools start in a standalone classroom where they're in that classroom all day uh really learning positive behaviors um to get along in the general education
024classroom and they kind of earn their way out um in phase we hope to work ourselves out of a job uh kids will go out for a period then two periods then three periods hopefully so they get all the way integrated back into our general education classrooms we also have our uh or we don't have yet but we are recommending um that to have a developmental or a specialized preschool program next year which would be like phase for preschool based on the needs we have with some of our preschoolers this year sometimes our programs uh don't meet the needs for students as hard as we try to to do that uh some students have more severe Behavior or emotional needs uh some lack progress in our in our current systems and some are significant safety
025concerns we currently outplay to eight different places uh the two primary being what's featured on the slide the Austin centers for exceptional student services uh currently this is in Poria and we are responsible for providing busing as well as tuition to that program we do also host desert choice schools on our campuses one is located at Riverview they occupy some rooms at Riverview and some at derer high school um and this we also provide our transportation for and then fees I want to talk about where these programs are currently located and where they'll be located next year so currently 18 of our 24 schools have an STC uh that we talked about and you can see the schools listed there we have two stc2 classrooms because that was a pilot this year both of those
026are on the east side of our district at located Sor Heights in rencho Gabriella our phase classrooms it looks like they're at three schools but really it's a age um according to age because Countryside is only a K4 uh phas at Ashton is a 5'8 and then we have diert high school our Aspire program for K8 students is located at Kingswood and at Shadow Ridge and as I said previously our specialized preschool program does not currently exist on this slide you'll see where we are going to be located next year uh the the schools in green are additions the one in red are subtractions um with the program locations um being expanded we will have an STC at 20 of our schools uh this is going to keep help keep our kids in their local
027neighborhoods and we'll talk about other benefits in a minute Canyon Ridge is being eliminated um they have a very small footprint geographically and their students will go to Sunset Hills um and at one time all Sunset Hill kid went to Canyon before we built Sunset Hills so they neighbors there Willow Canyon we're eliminating as we need a place for our stc2 students to go when they get to high school and as you see that'll be located at Willow Canyon we are adding an STC 2 to the west side of the district at West Point and then our specialized preschool program at Canyon Ridge the benefits to relocating programs are listed here uh primarily bringing students back to their home schools currently we have 33 of our STC students that leave the Assante area and they're
028on a bus uh we don't want any kids on a bus that long but especially are some of our most vulnerable population on a bus for 30 minutes plus uh you can see why that isn't the best situation it creates more permanent locations some kids have been bounc from program to program and we hope by putting more kids at their homeschools that that'll lend stability for those families and it'll also make us more efficient with Transportation uh currently as we bust kids across the district here here where there's room um we end up bouncing all over the place and we want our buses to be on time we want kids to be at school on time we have been um really pondering how we communicate these changes to families change is hard change is hard
029for any family um and we have talked to our principles we do feel it's best for princip current principles to make those personalized phone calls as an STC parent um stc2 parent um most of those parents have really tight relationships with our principles um because they're they're connected that way so we are asking principles to make uh personal phone calls followed by letters uh moving forward we will have the program locations display on our website so you can really see if I live in this boundary here's my program location if I live within this realm here's my program location and then um to really hit in the phone calls and the letters if any parent would like an IEP review for the transition plan that we would offer that um if a student's going from
030my school to Craig school to have us meet together uh just with the family to talk about the needs of the student to make sure it's a good clean handoff and the students are being supported like they need I will put my glasses back on so I can see you better my paper's not as good and stand for any questions I know you mentioned that change is hard um but I do think that for some of these families that have been forced to split where their children are placed if they want you know parents of multiple children if you're zoned for one school but you've kind of been forced because of the IEP situation you're forced into another school for another kid so I think in some ways it will keep siblings together moving forward
031so I look at it as more of a positive we're we're optimistic for that yes yeah I'd like to add on to that too because I've been in that situation where my kids went to two different schools um does make it easier to have both children at one school um I do very much appreciate that you guys were offering that IEP review that's very uh uh should have a positive impact for the parents and for any staff that's going to be taking over if they go move to another different school so I appre appreciate that thank you Dr aside do we know how many students utilize the off offsite locations oh the offsite locations I'm going to look to Cory so I give you accurate numbers about 155 okay and then how many students do
032we currently have in the STC and stc2 program okay no problem and then with the different shuffling around of the the different locations um do we know what type of impact this is going to have uh we do currently there are 33 students from Asante who attend another school um Ashton Ranch it would affect one Kenya bridge I have 22 uh so I have the numbers there I think it was about a hundred 120 altogether thank you and do you know when they the communication will begin do you know when you'll start notifying parents um probably within the next two weeks we wanted to give it as much lead time we didn't want to call parents before we talked to the board thank you any other questions or comments on that okay moving to item
033H1 Dr Coto thank you madam president thank you madam president uh tonight we continue our adopted policy uh review so we are on chapter one the final chapter of this year um we've gone through all the policies and then we will start back up um tonight we have we're looking at um really all of chapter 1 as I said but really only have changes in um a few areas so um the first of all the wording in uh policy one 101 and oh sorry excuse me 1201 and policy 1202 um we are changing that policy um to align with uh the president uh presidential executive orders um and reverting back to the language of 2020 Title 9 interpretation so you will see that um as defined um in sex in those things we we have
034crossed out or redlined uh two areas um to be including sexual orientation and gender identity um as I said for the presidential order and going back to Title 9 of 2020 um in the third policy um policy 1301 those are no changes those are just format changes if you look there um some language is shifted around into the format and with that I'll stand for any questions um and those are the updates for policy one I move to approve revisions to policies as presented like second that motion carries moving to item H2 Dr croo thank you madam president uh tonight we bring to you um a motion or a a discussion actually to revise our policy 3302 which is our transportation boundaries as well as develop some ESS specialized program uh Transportation boundaries um that
035kind of accompanies now that U Dr asai presented this um are locations it will make a little bit more sense as it goes all together as Mr mcy will discuss our transportation boundaries so Mr mcy thank you Dr crotto Madam president members of the board uh we do have uh a presentation that's really going to go hand inand with what Dr asai uh just presented and talking about Transportation brownies related to ESS but also to look at eligibility as well so going to going to start with the ESS portion and uh give some specifics as to what we're seeing within there uh currently uh right now when you talk es Transportation practices we provide that Transportation obviously regardless of distance and location it's going to be we're making sure that students are getting to the
036program as it's been assigned and what it's saying in the IEP so whatever program that they're that they are um supposed to be in uh and and uh what exists on each of the campuses so as as Dr I had Illustrated we're going to look at a map here in a minute that shows where those are located of open enrollment and it's important to understand that piece is right now currently we allow for transportation regardless of the location of where the student is at and we'll bust them to uh whatever School according to what open enrollment School they've applied for that's the current practice um there has been no restriction based on program location currently in the district and then also as the fourth bulllet illustrates um currently transporting students across School boundaries throughout the
037district has been a practice that we have been doing for for some time now so really what we want to do is look at um a change and this is an efficiency change um for efficiency but then also for what's best for the kid for the for the child as well in meeting their needs so want to point out some of those proposed changes that we'd like to bring to you first of all we want to make sure that students are assigned to the school and the program that's based on their needs and where they live so obviously it's based on their needs and then we want to get them to the closest program that's to uh to their residency um transport Transportation want um in that case would be provided for each of those
038ESS students to that closest program so um when we look at that piece we start to look at where the B boundaries are at for each of the programs as Dr asai Illustrated each of those ESS programs I'm going to show you a map here in just a second and then finally that fourth bullet really illustrates and defines that open enrollment piece because families that want to open enroll to a program outside that boundary will not we we want to propose will not receive Transportation outside of that School boundary we want to send them to the closest program possible so for for that specific piece as you see that open enrollment is approved based on capacity currently that's the practice all right so if they're full we would automatically say no there's no capacity there
039but if there is capacity the student can be approve for open enrollment under the law however we would not want to provide transportation outside of that home boundary because we say there's a program closer to them that we can get them to and that's what we're proposing so to show that I think it's important now there's a there is a maps that are illustrating uh many of the programs when we talk about preschool Aspire uh you know our phase programs all of them but what we want to show here is is this is one specific example to showing many of our students that belong uh to when we look at the structured teaching programs and you can see for a K8 model there all of our programs that exist and where the local boundaries are
040at for each of those K8 schools um that helps to see that now you can go in and you can pull up any of those Maps um and those are those are attached we wanted to show you this one because it really illustrates where each of those boundaries are at for the k8s um and that includes middle schools k4s and k8s in this one when you look at the next one here again another model here to show you these are the High School boundaries and you can see Valley Vista where their boundaries at kaar and then Shadow Ridge for the STC program Willow you'll notice is not there because it's an stc2 that's a different map so that's how boundary Maps would work as far as getting the student to the to the program closest
041to them and so really I think in the end really you start to ask you know let me get into some of the specifics as to why we're saying this and and how does it benefit our kids so the first part is how do how does this benefit our students students will continue to see receive the same Educational Services that's number one we want to make sure that happening students will get transportation to the closest program that meets their needs okay that in many ways we also talk about that is is that when you're going farther that means students are on a bus a lot longer so shorter timing is better for the kids anyway um assignment of programs will start with with the school that's the closest to their home is the benefit to
042them and the program assignment will be the next best location on capacity and needs when not provided at the home school so if it's not at the home school in their boundary we look at the next best ation that's closest to them what does that do as benefits for the district reduces the strains of necessary unnecessary costs that are happening within Transportation it reduces ride time as I mentioned especially for our most fragile students um creating a more positive Transportation experience When there's less time there's less behaviors and it's the ability obviously for our staff to ensure that safety very effectively um it assists in the route running times so we are meeting times and making sure that kids are getting to school on time um and anytime we have an issue even for example
043on a on a bus if it's something that can't be solved that moment the kid sometimes we've been forced to go back to the home school because there might be an issue or sometimes even if a parent isn't available at the stop we'll never just leave a kid so the long the farther it's away the more that puts us behind on getting kids home on time when we're talking about buses running three routes um in order to do that either three routs in the morning and those three routes in the afternoon and that's the part about when we say drivers are not feeling as rushed we want our drivers to feel effective and efficient and what they're doing and this will help um to alleviate some of those problems as well that's the first part
044on the ESS portion the other part that we want to talk about is eligibility under policy okay and this is going to be that next piece So currently policy 3-32 this really provides for us where the those boundaries are at all right right now it exists for any of our students that are in the K8 model so kindergarten through 8th grade um those students uh currently uh they were if they're in that uh and you can see there students have residents that are more than one mile from the school of attendance okay is currently now I'm this is a separate this is a separate topic than the ESS I just want to be clear on that this is all students okay if it's more than one month M right now than we provide a bus
045all right high school students it's more than one and a half miles is providing that and that's what exists currently in the policy what we're bringing to you and proposing is to make an adjustment to that and what we'd like to do is to expand that we'd like to expand that and lengthen that and I'll get into some of the you know the aspects of that as to why and we understand that that's a change um to our community but I'll get into the specifics of that here in just a minute but here's what we're proposing K8 to expand that from one mile to one and a half miles uh of attendance so they're farther than more than one and a half miles the second proposal is for high school to be farther than two
046miles okay so we're Ling it by a half a mile on each of those and here's our reasons why we're bringing that to you and what what our thought process is so what does this change provide okay what does increasing the distance do a reduction in regular regular education routes sometimes you'll hear it call uh the red routes you'll hear that term because it's regular education and it the reduction and increases es routes to lower capacity to more manageable load and less time on a bus for our es population okay so what we're saying there is is that we can by doing this we're having um it's going to reduce the number of routes needed that's going to get into cost savings and I'll get into that in just a minute but once you start
047reducing the number of gen Ed routes that you're running we can also help with the ESS routes that are out there and there going to help in a v it could help in a variety of ways and I'll get into that in just a minute a little bit more specifically um second question there how many buses will take will take out of our Fleet at least a minimum of six regular education routes would be impacted by this all right what will happen to the drivers on those six routes uh they would be actually we would use them more in the capacity of the ESS routes um and there's there's a couple of varieties we could do with that uh meaning that they could help because some of our es routes are very crowded um so
048they could help us and assist us with that it could also help with some of the private uh Transportation when we work with some of these private placement Transportation where we're hiring outside uh vendors and the last question there how many students will be impacted we're right now there's currently somewhere between 400 to 450 students so it's less than 500 students currently that are in that boundary of one mile less one mile and a half a mile and a half less for the high school that are being impacted by this so that gives us an idea of now could that number fluctuate sure there always could be that element of fluctuation but that's currently what we're seeing right now so talking a little bit about cost savings to this proposal so when we when we
049walk through the change of what you when you start to uh you know make the change on both of these making sure that the es bu ESS bus routes are more within the program boundary we looked at that so this combines both and also looking at reduction of the General Ed routes we see we're going to see a cost savings as we estimate you remember cost Sav cost change on any of these so fuel we're estimating approximately 180 to 200,000 we're expecting because you're pulling buses out that's a preventative maintenance from somewhere between 20 to 30,000 less that you're spending on bus maintenance wear and tear repairs we're going to be reduced cuz you lose using less buses um the overtime sub pay because now we have more bus drivers available we're spending outside to
050bring Subs in that's also a savings the contract vendors and you can see the contracted vendors private companies are not cheap so when anytime that we can U have the ability to use our own drivers and not go outside of our organization to hire these private companies that can save you up near the um in the neighborhood of $100,000 and the esess boundary change is the other piece that more specific to that where that'll keep those buses as we talked about within their own boundary and not driving for example a student that maybe wants an open enrollment I I've been extreme on this from the Assante area all the way over to Luke let's say so that's one of the reasons why we say no closest program to your homeschool okay I think it's important
051to point out to you the fleet statistics right now we have 134 buses on our Fleet 91 of them are on the the road okay right now 43 of those regular education buses okay 40 buses that we have running in District ESS routes we have three outof District ESS routes that we currently run we have five buses that are dedicated to field trips and then you see 32 Special use buses a lot of those when we say 32 they are the oldest of the oldest buses that we have um and and uh they're buses that are going to fill in when we have problems so we don't want to use them because there's more chance of them breaking down they are the buses that are close to 20 years old um we also have 11
052buses that are out of service um a lot of those are used for that we um um you know we'll we'll use to find parts on and and really just to to and a lot of times I mean it's our it's our ability to cannibalize those buses as needed in order to uh keep the other buses running so with that being said and we see um the age of the buses ranges in ages from 2004 to 24 70% of that bus fleet is about 15 years or older and the lifespan of a bus is about 20 years problem is you start to run out of the ability to find parts for them you can't find the parts to keep some of them going when it when it gets too old so that's just the nature
053of the element on on keeping them running but I wanted to give some context as to why also that we've looked at this very closely um if what we're doing in transportation and something that we believe is is important to us so as I as I before I I I move forward I wanted to back up and and really highlight this piece that when we did that estimated cost we estimated about $500,000 a year is what we've targeted and what we can do to for savings to help us in that aspect of and I don't want to go too much into that piece but that helps us towards some of those expenditures that we recognize as buses are aging can you buy buses but then it could be any other expenditure obviously the district is
054looking at in the long run too as we have to take care of things so um as we get to answer questions I do want to point out we do have here to help assist if there's a question I don't have the answer to um I get I get the fortune of working with our director of Transportation Danny Moore if you can ra wave please is in the audience we also have our director of ESS that Dr asai Works quite a bit Cory manano and our planning administrator who obviously that Mary Dell gets to work with quite quite a lot Kevin Shipman so they're here also if we need to talk about any of these um specifics they jump in and assist so we'll stand for questions thank you Mr Mia I would like to
055add to before questions if I could Madam president um we understand change is difficult this is not an easy thing to do um it is something that we take very seriously we take to heart but in November um our community spoke and they said we need to live within our means um that is exactly what we're trying to do if you look at our bus fleet you have 94 buses currently and we've said this throughout the whole time last year 94 buses are 15 years or older we need to start finding ways to replace buses um this is the reality of it it is not easy we don't take the decision lightly we have been discussing this for many many many months in cabinet um but is a necessity frees up about $500,000 that's two
056buses um but I can't sit here and promise you tonight that it's going to be two buses because in the other things when the community spoke we have air conditioners hvacs to fix if one HVAC goes down um there goes the $500 $500,000 so we are trying to find efficiencies we're trying to uh do the things we need to do to keep this District on top and running smoothly so um with that we will stand for questions I just wanted to to say that and um so you know where the context was on that so we'll stand for questions I have uh one well I have a couple questions the first one on the the students the 400 to 450 do we know how much are uh how many students are Elementary grade versus High
057School uh Madame President uh members Scara I would I need to look into that specifically I know that uh we do have our director of Transportation she did uh study that for us I know that there was there was uh I don't want to say that it was a majority and I'm pretty sure majority was at the K8 level but I could be wrong about that yes we can get you specific numbers to those to that piece for the Stu the 4 to 450 students um are we going to be communicating to their parents that the transportation is going to be expanded the routes so they know next year that they might need to find other Transportation yes uh Madam president member Drake that's a that's an excellent question I mean we talked about that
058we discussed that in cabinet about how you know obviously that would be something that would need to happen immediately um I think it's a personal call communication type of thing I mean obviously we can put information out but um that would be something that I think it's important that were were very uh transparent and we doing immediately to make sure that they understand um and they're understanding the wise um and obviously uh you know giving them some context to why we're you know why we're moving this direction but immediately was our discussion um obviously if that was a decision that was made now we can't wait and it has to be continuous communication as well and then second the um the 40 in District ESS routes since we're going to be eliminating six did you
059say six routes so is that going to decrease or add to this the the six routes would reduce from the General Ed routes would be the the regular education routes it could it could give us the ability to run some additional ESS routes but those esss rout esss routes obviously are closer within their boundary it's if the idea is is because when you're putting 13 to 14 kids kids on some of those buses it can be it could be difficult sometimes and it takes longer if there's a behavior however the other part of the ESS element that we've discussed is it's also going to help you in the private placement sector too where we've discussed also being able to utilize drivers for that as well because we've been using private private vendors when we don't
060have enough ability to do that or take care of that just based on the needed buses or even the uh the ability of having a driver available right okay thank you so I have a question J how many uh vendors do we currently have driving ESS buses that we're looking to fill in on that with the six the the current number of vendors yeah um I'm GNA I'm going to ask for some help on that piece because I know that we have two different vendors that we use so that's just two buses or two different vendors with how many buses nine routes for Desert choice we could find off how many for a for Aces as well so and I and I think that's an excellent question because that was part of our discussion is
061is how how that could impact you know when you're paying for outside you know the outside vendor they're going to charge you based on the number of routes that they're running as well so that cost does add up over time right and I'm trying to see if we have nine plus whatever and we're looking at adding reducing it by six and being able to use those six and then you know are we going to be able to just go to one vendor and possibly reduce costs or are we going to have to maintain the two vendors these are some questions and and I I might ask for some for some assistance on this piece I know that the the intent when we look at this is that um when you're reducing the number of of
062routes on the art you're going to have more drivers available so what we want to do is is to put them in available buses that we can within our own Fleet and have them run those routes on their own versus paying those outside vendors so the idea is is to eliminate and use a vendor you know obviously Les less often I can't say that we would never use a vendor um the the you know obviously there's aspects of you're talking about long when you're all the way to an Asus program that's that's not right around the corner I mean it's it's over what on close to 67 in Cactus so I mean there's there are some routes that they have to run and and some programs but the intent is to by having those drivers
063and those routes available within the district we wouldn't need to depend on vendors as much and that's going to cut your cost tremendously just by getting away from them thank you one thing that hasn't been mentioned on here and maybe it's because we're not deciding on it tonight um but some of our um athletic events our away games uh away compet itions things like that that maybe happen on weekends I know in former former leadership it was stressed that we need to be present at all of these events um more recently we've been acting more level-headed and and limiting those things to maybe like a state championship or a playoffs things something of that nature are we going to continue under that Common Sense model that we were only only going to do it for
064like the big things and that's a great great question Madam president uh we had went into this uh year under the direction of Dr croto to make sure that we took a much closer look at transportation of how we're how we're handling Athletics um uh one of the things that um um you know our director uh Danny Moore did um and sitting down with athletic directors is we talked about what that should look like in getting to and from games so we made some very strict uh um boundaries of what we're doing with that and ensuring that we're going to be we're transporting to the needed AIA games um with those events doing it more efficiently um using white buses as needed which is our coaches get trained on um so we're utilizing that as
065well we're not sending I think you're referencing to we are not uh sending the um to our away games outside of the district or like especially like you know we talked about we were seeing travel all the way to the East Valley and other things of the band and share things that are are nice to haves but really they were running Transportation costs and we were we were you know our expenditure was extremely high we have budgeted that um you know at the end of this I you know and I I think a nice part to be able to report is that we are living within our means now of what we've budgeted for we're ensuring that we're meeting you know that we're hting those expectations that we're not overspending on transportation to send those
066other groups so that's been a big piece of what we're doing and we do have um we do have conversations on season we audit the transportation expenditure at the end of The Fall season we just did the audit on the winter season and we're going to be doing that at the end of the spring season to make sure that we stayed within our means and our budget and that we did not go over that and and the answer to your question is yes we will continue that perfect thank you I just want to mention too that that's kind of an added um tax to our parents as well especially um our boosters that are involved in marching band um cheer pal those kinds of things that where you're having to haul equipment to Chandler Queen
067Creek Mesa um there there's really no reason during a regular season that our parents should be essentially paying a tax um to have their kids in our schools and performing in our arts or Athletics so um also just wanted to I'll get off that high horse for a minute um I just wanted mentioned um I know Dr Coto had talked about it uh living within our means making these hard decisions and for a school district that hasn't passed a bond since 2006 I don't know why we haven't made some of the some of these changes sooner than than right now and I'm just very proud of our our Administration and our district for looking at this and taking it seriously um because we we need to make the most out of what we have and
068we don't have much left as far as a transportation Fleet right now um so I'm very pleased to see the the presentation tonight hey can I just ask another question yes ma'am since we have I think she said 155 students that go to the out of okay so are we utilizing the private vendors to transport them to Desert choice and Austin's and then if we get rid of them then those six will take over those routes is that what we're looking at the overview of that is yes um member Drake I'm gonna also I'm G to make sure that I have a clear answer on that one is for sure because that's the intent is to move them to I don't believe it will entirely capture every S I mean we you 155 right was
069if that was the number that was used but the intent is really to do more of our own transportation of our own kids rather than using outside vendors okay I just want some of those routes it will not replace all of the routes okay I just wanted a clarification thank you yeah and one one other point that Dr asai just mentioned to me too is that um obviously by by uh changing the ESS boundary routes that's also going to help and assist in in drivers being more readily available to do some of those drives that we need to do and does this also um for our Mech don't we utilize bus routes for mechtech too to take them to and from are you referring to the West Mac mest yeah that's a I know that's
070a a a different um uh expenditure that happens and that does come from the um from the money that's provided through CT and and westmac um but that is money that's and we do uh we do get kids to that program so I I don't want to speak too much to that piece that I don't say something wrong but I do know that there is specifically money that's allocated for that through CTE okay are those typically our wrapped buses like the white buses but they're wrapped yeah so those are like the site specific bus right yes Pam president that's correct okay I I move to approve the revision to policy 3-32 and adopt the ESS specialized program Transportation boundaries as presented motion carries okay moving to item H3 Dr Coto thank you madam president uh
071tonight we have a recommendation on a health benefit plan for 2526 and um Miss Bell is here to share the health benefit plan changes thank you Dr CTO good evening Madam president members of the board cabet Community tonight I will be presenting the information on our employee benefits package for the 252 6 fiscal year for your consideration so each month we review our medical claims experience and currently 6 months into the year we're running at 99% of claims to funding meaning that our total costs for our medical and Pharmacy costs are running at 99% pretty in line with the amounts that are being received in premium contributions so that's a good good start to the year um now Blue Cross is our provider for our self-insured plan and we carve out Pharmacy through Prime Therapeutics
072um the reason we do that is we receiv received uh benefits and rebates directly from this Pharmacy vendor so last year it amounted to about a little over a million dollars um now our initial estimates at the time we shared with IBA was just um the initial estimated amounts and then a more detailed information was presented to our employee benefits trust board um a couple weeks ago at our meeting um on this recommendation that was going to be brought tonight to you so currently we have two medical options that the district provides um one is the high deductible HSA plan and the other is our our po plan and so the recommendation is to continue to renew those two medical plans with no uh design changes to the plan there have been however some IRS
073guidelines and regulation changes so they've increased the um the deductible for the HSA plan to an additional $100 on the individual plan and an additional $200 um per family per the IRS guidelines and the overall increased renewal rate that we have for daart is 3.6% so this is um under the % National Trend that we're seeing across the board at other companies and even even other districts I've heard um are looking in the teens really the percentage increases for the coming year so we're standing at a 3.6% so we do work with an Actuarial to determine what our estimated costs will be for the following year they look at historical claims they look at demographics and other factors to give us an estimate of what we think next year's cost will be so the overall
074cost for next year is estimated about 17.4 million that's the sum of the fixed and expected claims so that represents that 3.6% increase over our current year so our expected Pharmacy rates however we do expect to receive about a million dollars again to offset the those costs for the coming year so here's a detailed breakdown of our two plans the PO and the HSA base um as well as the number of employees that are on those two plans and you see down uh the breakdown between the various four tiers of employee only employee plus spouse employee with children and employe employee plus family um so the EPO plan does tend to generate the highest costs even though it's only 250 um employees that are enrolled in that plan that does tend to drive the higher
075cost so you see the related higher premium amounts there and really those premium totals for this coming year um and I'll get into them in a little bit um but they're covered through a combination of District um contribution employee contribution as well as the benefits trust has continued to commit um providing a little bit of contribution to help offset some of those premiums so this is a six-year history of um our employee premiums and on the far right is where you see the proposed uh premium rates for this coming year um although medical Premium cost they increased almost six or almost 4% the district is absorbing most of that increase um to not pass that full cost over to our employees um you'll see that the HSA plan up there on the top it actually
076had um we continue to have a zero cost option so the district does provide a zero cost employee only option for for employees um but we have had three years of no premium increases to the HSA plan um however we do have to um have a little bit of an increase for this coming year and you see that in the 25 26 so we have slight increases in the HSA plan as well as in the PO plan that you see um below so as mentioned the district excuse me we are recommending to absorb most of that increased cost um benefits cost so we contribute that 66666 48 per month per eligible employee which is um up 3.6% from last year where we contributed 643 per month so this is an additional about $8,000 that the
077district does contribute per employees for those benefits compensations um and additionally we are uh committed to continue providing the annual matching contributions to employees who are in the HSA plans so we match up to 500 or 750 depending if you are on um individual or with your family um and we also provide a $250 contribution for employees who um receive their routine physical additionally we have um we offer wellness points through our well Styles program so if you hit that 60,000 points Mark in activity through the year we contribute an additional $150 into your HSA plan if you are in the PO plan we actually um offset the premium we subsidize about $150 um to offset the cost for the ppos so ultimately um if you're on the HSA you receive either 900 or 1,150
078in additional contributions to your health savings account depending on which plan you're enrolled in so here's a financial position for employee benefits trust fund as mentioned we are a self-insured district meaning that we are entirely funded through our employee contributions and then all the medical and Pharmacy claims um come out of this fund so we're ultimately that self-sustaining fund um and self-insured as a district so we review uh with our benefits trust board and they've committed because we've had um a pretty healthy Reserve in that fund they've continued to commit off offsetting some of those premium costs for employees um they've were previously doing about a million dollars every year we're offsetting some of those premium costs we've been backing off a little bit because we were dipping a little too much in reserves um
079so they're currently about 650,000 is what's being subsidized every year for employee U contributions um but ultimately we're just trying to minimize the impact that our employee premiums are are experiencing so we do review this net position a few times through uh throughout the year I look at these monthly just to ensure that we're still in in good shape and we make any adjustments if needed for the following year so those were our um just an overview of our medical I'll briefly go over our supplemental and voluntary employee benefit program packages so we do offer two dental plans this first one is our Dental Delta Dental po plan um and as you can see the employee monthly cost and the district monthly cost there are no plan design changes for the coming year and there
080are no rate changes being proposed we also offer a prepaid dental plan through uh Total Dental administrators or TDA so it does have an employee only no cost option so the district does cover that plan cost for an employee only um plan and again no plan changes or rate changes are being proposed we will continue to offer vision insurance through a visas um as our provider there are slight increases in the in the rates you see there from um the current is the left column and then next year's proposed rates on the right there um but beyond that no plan design changes are being proposed um this is also an entirely um voluntary uh coverage that employees can choose to opt into that's the voluntary accident insurance through Colonial and no changes are being proposed
081for the coming coming year we will continue also as a district to provide for the group term life insurance for our employees as well as the accidental death and dismemberment insurance through symmetra um because we have actually had an increase in claims activity on our life life insurance claims um we are seeing an increase uh for the district again this is a district cost that we will um take on if an employee chooses to take on those supplemental life insurance there are no proposed increases for for their um plans and then here's just the remaining supplemental and voluntary programs that are offered to our employees so you can see the various providers as well as what benefit program that entails and um no rate changes are being proposed with any of these vendors so something
082that is a change for this upcoming plan year is um excuse me a change to our telea health services um and it's to change our provider from tedoc to Blue Care anywhere which is under the Blue Care our Blue Cross umbrella um I know our employees have grown well accustomed to utilizing tedoc over the years unfortunately there are new changes that went into effect as of 1231 um through IRS regul ations that um would make the current agreement not compliant with those IRS guidelines and really what that means is our high deductible health plans they must now require a fair market value co-pay for those teleah health services and really that $10 Mark just doesn't meet that fair market value so we are now required um and truly if we keep going in that manner
083we could put our health deductible um plan in Jeopardy of of not meeting IRS regulations and potentially the employees their HSA plans could face IRS penalties so we want to ensure we're protecting our employees as well as the district so that does require us to use the Blue Cross contract rate of that $67 it is an increase from the current amount but we want to ensure that we are being compliant with IRS regulations there are a couple new benefits that are being offered um this this coming year so we're going to be offering a new benefit to employees with all state identity protection it will be available to all benefit eligible eligible employees at no cost even if they choose not to enr in any of our other benefits so they will receive the employer
084paid pro- individual plan which um when we do our benefits enrollment we'll outline all of the the different um benefits that comes with it they can opt to buy up into those additional plans as presented there and then finally we are continuously looking at just additional ways that we can promote and also grow participation in our Wellness programs and so as mentioned earlier while we do offer an incentive for employees who reach that 60,000 points to get an additional HSA contribution we want to just make sure they're having more activity throughout the year um and just really increasing their participation in our different Wellness activities um throughout the year so we're recommending this gift card program it's something that we've seen at other districts as well um this is entirely funded through that uh employee
085benefits fund so it's something that as they reach those various tiers they can receive those various gift cards um entirely managed through our consulting company and so um that could provide them an additional $75 and and gift card just an incentive to continue to be Pro um active in our well Wellness programs so in summary uh we'll see the increase of 3.6% in our medical plans with again the district's going to absorb most of that increase there will be small increases on the HSA and the PO plans or the EPO plans excuse me um we are recommending to continue offering that Z employee contribution on the HSA based employee only plan as well as on that um the total Dental administrators continue to provide them an option of a Zer cost there we will continue
086to provide um District contributions to the HSA plans we have our stop-loss coverage remains at 320,000 per claim and again the trust board with the benefits trust board has continued to um agree to fund that reduced contribution for the year and if there's any adjustments then we'll provide those to the board at a later date and so at this point I will stand for any questions thank you um I just want to um confirm and you may have answered this already and may have missed it but the consulting firm um is that the vmg that we see on the slides that is correct yes okay so that consulting firm do they work directly with you or do they work with the trust board they work directly U Madam president they work directly with us so
087we are in constant communication with them and ensuring that if we have a need on something do we um they provide just some additional Consulting advice on this might be a better option for your employees Etc but they do manage a lot of the administrative components of this um and so we utilize their services to help us manage a lot of the the benefits programs okay but they provide an option they don't like you know present a package and say you should do this mam president that's correct so because we are self-insured for example the 3.6% we use an Actuarial to give us what the estimate for next year could be we could be very aggressive and say you know what we're not going to pass any increase on now if next year suddenly we
088really have a spike and we didn't collect enough premium contributions now we could have an issue with our benefits trust fund taken a really major Financial hit so we do rely on their expertise we do look I look often at just the previous years of experience how on the mark were they that helps us in driving our decisions to utilize their Consulting advice okay but ultimately we're making those decisions Madam president is correct we are self-insured so ultimately we make the decisions on on our medical is actuaries that are you working with correct so the Actuarial company um is um Brown and Brown they're the ones who utilize and give us the actorial estimates that they provide they come in December and they meet with the benefits trust board and they go in a lot
089of detail to say you know this is where you're trending your high claims are a little higher than expected and actually when they came in December we were trending pretty high um so we were initially expecting about a 5.6% increase and then we started seeing the last few months started trending a little bit lower so that brought us down a little bit um under so it is something that is managed and reviewed continuously and we don't just take the first option um we just want to make sure we're we don't pass significant costs on while still ensuring we're protecting that trust fund thank you you're welcome I got the question how do you get all this fund stuff of healthcare and IRS I mean it's I I look at the healthcare costs go up every
090year and it's it's it's disgusting but I know we we can do what we can do so I very much appreciate you guys working hard on this and trying to keep those in those rates as low as possible for the increase because the gentleman sitting right next to you he's got the hard job of trying to bring people in and having a great benefits package or at least a solid benefits package will help us retain and get the talent that we need here so I I very much appreciate your help on this thank you any other questions or comments I move to approve the employee health benefit plan for the 2526 school year motion carries all right moving to item H4 Dr croo thank you madam president the next three it is h45 and six
091are we're going to welcome some new members well they're not new but uh some administrative appointments which are new to them so Mr magley will uh introduce our recommendations all right thank you uh Madam Madame President governing board members uh like Dr Cotto said there's uh three uh four five and six that I'll be uh taking care of tonight with the governing board uh the first will be Lisa parachini is she do I see her out there Lisa come on up come on up uh the uh the administration and cabinet members are proud to present and ask the board's consideration for approval for this appointment uh for Lisa perini and uh she has 28 years in education total she has 11 years experience as an site administrator uh she has 20 years in the daart
092Unified School District as we speak and her background is English and history and so uh we're really excited to present to the board and request the approval from the board to place her at Willow Canyon as the new principal starting July 1 I move to approve the appointment of Miss Lisa parachini as high school principal I second the motion and just so we're clear I don't have any more kids going to Willow so none of my kids will get in trouble with [Laughter] you motion carries congratulations [Applause] congratulations uh Madam president governing board members uh next on the action discussion item uh we are uh going to ask Dr Romero to come up to the front there so um the next two that I'll be uh speaking with the governing board about is it was
093a competitive application process it's pretty extensive we posted this position in January 10th uh and uh we closed it back in mid-February uh I would not want to go through the interview process I I designed the process but I would not want to go through it there's four stages of the process for them to go through uh vetting out and separating the uh good from the great and so I'm excited to share with you that Dr Romero uh has 23 years of experience in education uh four years as an administrator and uh 13 years here in a daart unified school district and her background is music yes and so with that um we're gonna request the board to consider our recommendation uh for Miss uh Dr Romero to be placed at Ashton uh middle school
094as the principal thank you I move to approve the appointment of Dr Romero as Elementary School principal I second congratulations motion pass and last I will ask Mr Andrew griel to join us here so again as a reminder of these last two positions it was a competitive application process pretty thorough um so um I will share with you uh Mr greo has 21 years of experience total in education uh he has 13 extensive quality successful Administration uh years behind him uh 12 of those years here in Dart Unified School District as an administrator uh so his background and I can say this professionally I've known Mr grizo as a unbelievable one of the best Math teachers I've seen in my profession uh with my experience and so his background is math very good math teacher
095uh so tonight uh we are recommending the board's consideration for approval to be the principal at Sunset I move to approve the appointment of Mr Andrew grizel as Elementary School principal I second the motion motion carries [Applause] congratulations all right next but um the last one H7 Dr croell thank you madam president I believe this item was pulled from consent for some questions on Avid so I will yield the floor to missola for those questions okay I was just wondering um it says the abot is advancement via individual determination I just wondered is it um for a new curriculum for the schools or what I just wanted more information about it um it is is a program I'll have a Dr asai can you explain Avid please so Avid um to our knowledge has been
096in our school since 2010 uh Avid is uh Avid really seeks students who need a little extra help whose parents uh predominantly maybe have not gone to college it is a way to support them in our schools there is a ninth and 10th grade curriculum that focuses on study skills test taking and exploration in 11th and 12th grade they focus on resume applications scholarships college applications um along with interviewing skills two days a week uh the Avid is the Avid class is focused on things like tutoring uh because like we said these kids might need a little extra help uh they might not have it at home to provide them help with skills and it might be algebra 34 it could be AP English because part of avid is committing to an AP class or
097a higher class CL um that's basically Avid in a nutshell so here it would just be used for high school students or when I went on the website it has you know Elementary and we we've held it at derer middle school and at Ashton Ranch uh currently I believe I'm turning to Sunny but currently it is only at D it is it the two still at the two high schools at Valley and at Willow uh sorry at Valley and diert high no we've had it at middle school before but we no longer do it's also a competitive I mean it is an application class so you have to we do have an application packet to get in that consist of a teacher recommendation students have to answer why they would like to be in the
098class the parents have to sign off on it so it's not a class that we really Place kids in uh some schools do um if the kids GPA is too high they don't let them in that's never been a practice in our district if a kid wants to take Avid uh because they think they could use the extra help and they want to apply for scholarships and applications we have always let them in okay I was just concerned about if it included Dei or since we're trying to get away from that I thought or we we don't endorse any form of Dei um I guess it could be considered because you had some people it could be considered that didn't come out right because you are taking kids whose parents PR I mean one of
099the things is you have points on the rubric if your parents haven't attended College because you might not know how to apply and things like that but that's by no means the only criteria looking at the application in front of me we look at the academic GPA uh the answer to their questions like are they enthusiastic to be an avid it would do you no good to place a kid who didn't want to do this in Avid they have to have some willingness to really further their education uh teacher recommendation they do have parent level education level previous enrollment in Avid uh the rigor of math in middle school and are there is there a sibling or family member in Avid so I think we would be hardpressed to say that it promotes one group
100over the other okay thank you thank you and this is a program that anyone can can in you know attempt to enroll and to apply for um not a guarantee of acceptance correct it's not a guarantee of acceptance in researching it and asking our principles whove ran it if they have they ever kept a kid out because their parent was in college or have they ever kept a kid out because their GPA is too high the answer was no the only thing that's kept them out have been behaviors got it okay thank you and again I can't speak for how it's run throughout the country I can speak for how we run things in desert I move to approve overnight and out of State travel requests as listed a second the motion I don't know
101who had that you got it motion carries next we have item i1 do we have any requests for future agenda items okay hearing none I move to adjourn the meeting motion carries we are adjourned thank you