001thing at this time I'd like to call this regular meeting of the Dysart Unified School District governing board to order let the record reflect that all board members are present please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America okay we'll move to recognitions and celebrations B1 choir performance Dr Dean thank you madam president members of the governing board members of cabinet and our community this evening we are pleased to have one of our outstanding Elementary School choirs with us and I'll turn this over to Dr crota for introductions thank you Dr D Madam president members of the board cabinet guests it is our pleasure tonight to have Asante Preparatory Academy choir here to sing for us and we are going to turn it over to
002Miss Lauren melinson and the floor is yours let's hear it [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] thank you [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] thank you [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] very good job thank you so much for sharing your talent with us that was wonderful how many grade levels are represented in your choir um we have four grade levels fifth through eighth my my goodness good job thanks for sharing with us tonight thank you so much [Applause] we want to wait a couple minutes foreign all right next we're going to move on to B2 2022 ESPN honor roll Dr Dean Madam president members of the governing board cabinet and our community this evening we are very excited for this next recognition and I'll turn this over to Dr
003crota as well Dr kroto thank you Dr Dean Madam president members of the board cabinet guests um tonight we're here to honor Valley Vista High School the Unified sports program they were awarded a national Banner unified school so what does that mean Special Olympics unified Champion school has an inclusive School climate and exudes a sense of collaboration engagement and respect for all members of the student body and staff a unified Champion School receiving National Banner recognition is one that has demonstrated commitment to inclusion by meeting 10 national standards of excellence those standards were developed by a national panel of leaders from special education and the education Community with that being awarded that this evening ESPN has also recognized this group as 22 honor roll schools so one of the top in the nation for a
004special for their Unified sports program and this program is under the direction of Rebecca bar and I believe she's here too tonight she up in front I can't see great job well congratulations that is an awesome achievement I believe they have a plaque there we we have a plaque there we want to get in the picture too I think up in the back why they're taking a picture if you want to see those 10 um the 10 standards of excellence you can go on the Special Olympics unified Champion schools and they list all 10 of them there some pretty cool accomplishments to meet all 10 areas so congratulations we are proud of you [Applause] we're going to move on here to our next recognition we have some middle level athletic Champions to celebrate tonight so
005I would like to call up uh the K Champions softball team the surprise Cubs if they can come up for winning the softball championship the coach for the surprise Cubs is Kelly Parker Miss Parker congratulations to your team yeah yeah all right a round of applause for surprise congratulations our next championship is a baseball team the Asante Rangers come on up congratulations [Applause] the Asante Rangers the baseball club is coached by Mr Lon shears so congratulations Mr shears [Applause] Round of Applause for Asante great job [Applause] and our last championship is kind of new this year so as you know earlier in the year we announced that we are going to be part of the Northwest Valley Athletic Conference and what that means is our schools will play other district schools so this is a
006combined uh tournament with schools from Peoria and Deer Valley Unified and they play in a championship format and we have a baseball team that won the first ever Northwest Valley Athletic Conference and that is the Sunset Hill bobcats come on up [Music] [Applause] has a great job representing the West Valley there great job and they are coached by Mr Chuck mullet [Applause] congratulations to Sunset Hills and way to represent uh Dysart Unified School District congratulations and that concludes our presentations that's why there's people yes all right okay next we will move on to um see address the governing board audience with individuals Ms chefin we don't have any all right we'll move next to superintendent governing board update with a student update Dr Dean Madam president members of the governing board members of cabinet and
007our community I do not believe that our student is here this evening Mr musee oh there she is all right how are you today outstanding it's your turn welcome welcome committees across the Dysart high schools to plan it and then we also have been talking a lot about community service and the community service we've been doing at our school like our canned food drive and then planning a community service activity for the group before the semester ends and then one after the semester ends as well thank you for sharing and would you remind us again of your name and what school you attend uh Braley Ratliff and I attend Valley Vista High School very good thank you Grace very nice thank you for being here [Applause] next we moved to superintendent update Dr Dean thank
008you madam president members of the governing board cabinet in our community this evening I would like to start by saying congratulations to miss Densmore and Miss Drake on their success in the board election congratulations to both of you and we look forward to uh Miss Densmore you continuing on the board and welcoming Miss Drake on the board uh on January 1st I also would like to extend thanks to both Ms molica and Mr conium for their continued interest in being part of our school district and its community so thank you for all that were involved there I would like to give the board a really good update as it relates to the installation of the security glass in our schools we are have all of the elementary schools except three have been installed and those
009three are going to be installed next week and the high schools will be starting right after so we're finally getting this project rolling and we've received really good support and comments from our community as well as our employees so it's it's a very good project that is continuing to make our schools as safe as possible this morning on channel 15 channel 15 featured a story from Shadow Ridge High School on a financial Fitness day that was held a few weeks ago in which our students participated in events that were real life as it related to personal finance and they were given jobs and salaries as it related to their jobs and then they had to go through from Station to Station to Station learning how to budget money from everything from housing expenses to utilities
010to groceries and uh everything that's related in adulting and uh and very quickly students realized how far a dollar does not stretch or how far a dollar could stretch and so we were excited first of all for that event for our students it was a great opportunity for them to see math in a real life setting and more importantly we want to thank channel 15 for spotlighting both Shadow Ridge and that event it was a fantastic event we also want to let our community know that we will have curriculum available to review coming up starting tomorrow at Freedom Traditional Academy and that will be fourth through sixth grade English and language arts curriculum as well as AP economics advanced placement economics and our community can come in and review that curriculum at Freedom Elementary School
011both before and after school and that will be available through January the 13th if anyone in our community has questions about that they can give us a call here at the district office and we'll be more than happy to answer those also just a couple of other things we want to highlight as the board is aware we are working to start to schedule a study session related to policy and policy transition on December 8th and we believe Ms McLennan will be able to join us for that and then the last thing we would like to state is that today is Day 70 in the school year I continue to say it and it continues to be true the school year is flying by our students and our staff are doing a tremendous job and tomorrow
012we reach the Thanksgiving holiday and as a reminder the all of our schools will be closed next week the district office will be closed on Wednesday Thursday and Friday and I just would like to wish everyone in our community and our governing board as well a very Happy Thanksgiving and that concludes my report for the evening thank you next we'll move to governing board update um I too would just like to thank our Dysart Community for taking the time to cash their votes on Election Day based on the results of the governing board race I'd like to take this opportunity to congratulate Miss Densmore and Miss Drake I know you'll lead the district well and I'm looking forward to working with you and continuing to serve with you as well Ms Dunsmore um also last
013week I attended the Veterans Day assembly at Canyon Ridge school it's one of my most treasured Dysart Traditions they always do such a phenomenal job I'd like to thank the Canyon Ridge Administration and staff for their hospitality and of course would like to thank the man behind the curtain Mr Rosso who always does just an amazing job organizing the assemblies and honoring our veterans and finally I would like to just as well wish everyone a Happy Thanksgiving and hope you have a peaceful day with friends and family that's all I have anyone else oh I mine's short I attended the Marley Park Veterans Day celebration and then I just want to say thank you to all the schools for all the celebrations they did to honor the veterans I saw lots of pictures and it
014was really very nice so sorry I couldn't go to all of them but thank you I attended the Veterans Day assembly at Freedom Traditional Academy and I just love how connected they and many of our schools are with our local veterans and our active military families special thanks to Mrs Wolford for a wonderful assembly as this is our last meeting before Thanksgiving I do want to express my gratitude for all of our Dysart staff our parents and our students and of course my heartfelt gratitude for those that supported me in retaining this seat on the Dysart governing board your confidence in my leadership has been overwhelming and I feel truly blessed to be given this opportunity to continue to advocate for all members within our community and to move Dysart forward I also want to
015congratulate Jennifer Drake and let her know how fortunate that Dysart is to have her leadership beginning in January I just also want to mention that running for office is full of joy and also full of stress it can and has been ugly beyond measure it takes a toll on each candidate their families and definitely our physical and our mental health at times I am truly thankful for all of those that expressed interest in serving whether they seriously considered it officially filed withdrew in some cases or fell short Dysart is a truly remarkable District and we are very fortunate to have a great many willing to make these sacrifices to serve thank you I've got the last board meeting so I got a couple of them before you on October 19th I visited with with David
016burn bombs chemistry class at Shadow Ridge to witness some awesome experience experiments that he had for his students it has been several years since I've even walked into a chemistry class but it was awesome experience thank you Mr B on October 20th I visited Kingswood Elementary when Arizona State Senator David Livingston held a q a session with the middle school students on the branches of government for both state and federal regarding also the Arizona Constitution and things to pass what it takes to pass a bill so thank you to also Tracy Livingston his wife and a Dysart teacher for this event it was really cool October 21st I was invited to the Ninth Annual Ace which is the Arizona Council for economic education a celebration of education for our teachers across the state it was
017honestly it was a very very well attended event and I wish more people would have would be able to go on October 26th attended the career in college Expo that was here at the district office thank you Mr grieshaber and all of his team for the event I actually brought my mother to the event and she was truly astonished on how many little pieces of information it takes in order to put such an a great event on so thank you for everybody that attended and the number of students that were in attendance October 26th same day but we went from the Expo over to Willow Canyon to see The Addams Family musical it was funny and engaging and just downright funny so thank you Mr Walgren and the troops 6901 for an amazing evening November
0187th served as a volunteer at Shadow Ridge for the financial Fitness that Dr Dean had just said it's it's a great student program and it exposes our students to decision making stations and real world issues on financial Life Choices for critical things such as housing Transportation Insurance Health Care these are real life situations that our kiddos face once they leave high school I had also uh guess you could all say dragged I brought Dr Blossom Tandy who was a former board member with me and she thoroughly enjoyed it as well and lastly I am going to go on record for my next statement which is part of my update on October 27th at that board meeting I I was ill and could not attend and one of the agenda items was to approve superintendent contract
019for Dr Dean and I want to let Dr Dean know that he would have had my support at that meeting it was it would have been a 5-0 vote full support for you Dr Dean I know you've been interviewing for this since May 12th uh but honestly you've been interviewing it for this for 18 years the time that you've been with Dysart uh years ago you came on uh with Dysart as a principal and of course we experienced a major growth uh we were opening two to three schools a year several years at a time uh we just it just blew up and um for the growth of surprise I know you started up as a startup principal going around opening these pres these schools and you know the ebb and flow and you probably
020know where all the skeletons are buried with the district so over those 18 years principle you headed up the PR department the HR department and then this super excuse me assistant superintendent for support services but I would be remiss in my duty as a governing board member to not warn you to please watch your back we had an amazing superintendent and Dr Kellis he started amazing programs initiatives and Dysart Dysart flourished and put Dysart on a great path we have four Middle Schools teacher pay increased and just recently we had the labels that were just issued with many of our schools with a labels B's C's we really had a great movement under his Direction teams in place super excuse me principals directors teachers classified all different staff but you also had a front row
021seat you saw firsthand witness of how easy it is to remove from superintendent by the majority of this board through carefully crafted strategic planned moves to a person who didn't do anything legally immorally unethically or financially disparaging to Dysart he had a vision and it was extraordinary I have faith in you Dr Dean I have a lot of faith in you but just because when some folks smile in your direction doesn't mean that they're they're not helping you along you will be successful I know you will so please go with Grace go with God go do the job that you have been training to do for the past 18 years congratulations I support you and I have faith in you I appreciate what you're doing and lastly also um please dice our community have a
022safe and wonderful Thanksgiving holiday and come back safe and sound thank you next we'll move to motion to approve consent agenda items I move the governing board approved consent agenda items as presented second motion made by Christine printer seconded by Tracy sorosinko Tracy motion carries next we move to information discussion items G1 information on state testing data and school accountability a through F letter grades Dr Dean thank you madam president members of the governing board cabinet and our community this evening Amy hartun our director of research will present information related to our state testing data from last school year as well as our school accountability a through F letter grades that once again the the state did a good job of releasing in a timely manner I say that Physicians facetiously as we took the
023test in April and got the school labels on November the 1st so that being said this evening we are proud to present the information Miss hartun good evening Madam president members of the board Dr Dean and cabinet so yes as Dr Dean mentioned I'm going to do kind of a twofer I'm going to do some State Testing information which of course leads to a major component of our school labels so um just to give you a review last year um for spring of 2022 we had some new tests in place that were part of the State Testing accountability pieces so in third through eighth grade the new state test is the aasa for ELA and math it is the same standard so none of the state standards changed but the vendor changed so some of
024the formatting and question type pieces changed and then fifth eighth and 11th grade we have the new AZ SCI test um the Arizona Science test and then in high school brand new test for Arizona was the ACT Aspire all ninth graders take that and then the 11th grade we as a district have been giving the act for the last few years it was an optional Grant um but it is now the official state test and the 9th and 11th grade test new for many of our kids is it a timed test where they under um the one and third through eighth grade is not so um that is something we're definitely working on as a district is getting kids used to um taking time to tests for that part all right so I'm going to
025start with Elementary um you see we have our district results for ELA um and math and um District average and state average we were above the district average in every grade level um above the state and then as a district we grew about four percent in ela from the previous year and in math we also grew four percent from the previous year azizai as I mentioned brand new test um and the state um our average was again above the state average in all categories in all grade levels and then our high schools um the ACT Aspire um measures theirs on the percentage of students that are at ready um or exceeding Readiness um in preparation for being successful in the act so um in all areas we were above the state average um much higher
026than the state average in our English score so that was the one that we definitely outperformed and then definitely some work to do in math and science are act data our composite score and all categories except for science were above the state average um of course in science we have the challenge of our 11th graders are taking the AZ SCI test and they're taking the ACT test and the tests are not alike so um you are preparing students to take two tests um the ACT is obviously really important because that's part of our state proficiency and the AZ size test is also very important because that's part of the state accountability part so um the the science teachers have a challenge because they're preparing kids for two tests when we talk about activities and things
027that our teams are doing this year to ensure that our student achievement continues to grow and improve um I have a couple of slides for you the first one is really focused on what we're doing with district and school leaders the academic Services teams are continuing to support our Title 1 schools through focused plans and Focus grade levels we are supporting nine schools this year our team worked with the principals to write goals that support improving achievement at our Title One schools and then those teacher or those principals selected grade levels for us to really hone in and focus on um so we are continuing to do that we have data focused sessions at all of our monthly principal assistant principal and specialist teams meetings we brought on a new assessment platform so a lot
028of our training in the first quarter was really getting everybody familiar with that platform and how to use it how to use the data reports and those types of pieces um we regularly provide those content and instructional practices updates at our principal and assistant principal meetings and then continuing to work with those different specialist groups the data specialist and then a really nice addition this year is Achieve3000 which is um both the reading and math Intervention Program we have a dedicated project manager from the vendor who is just works with Dysart and comes and provides leadership meetings with the principals models lessons lesson plans with teachers and goes from school to school she works with us full-time and then she comes and meets with um the directors and Dr assai and Dr croto to give
029us updates about where we're seeing improvements in the reading scores and math performance for our campuses for instructional supports um we have a new K3 and a new 412 math program so we've really focused our Monday PD time um from the district level on providing supports to those so that we have a successful implementation we are really um also for those who are not part of those two groups trying to focus on providing good instructional practices for our El and ESS students so that we can continue to provide um supports for all sub-populations and obviously what are really great best practices for elness students are great best practices for all students there's a math leadership team that our math specialist Kami Bernard leads so there's a member from every school that comes and meets with
030her regularly and then they go back and are able to support their teachers on their campus with the implementation of our new math curriculum and we have as part of our Focus for literacy we are doing both um a literacy team for ELA and social studies that the middle school and training on Jane Shafer writing 512 so that we're using a consistent writing program in all grades and they're able to use that not only in their English class but in social studies and actually in other areas as well so that they're able to apply that in different subject areas and continue to improve our writing skills we are doing all kinds of academic Services walks for different groups and providing feedback and supports to tier one tier two and tier three um teachers and different
031programs and then the last one is I'm going out and doing data prep connects with teachers with leadership teams and providing those follow-ups to make sure one that implementation of our new program and then really making sure we're honing in them on the right pieces when we're having our data meetings and then with that we have our new state accountability um just to give everybody a background because it's been a few years since we've had State labels the Ada F accountability system was introduced in 1617 prior to that instead of it being a to F they used like exceeding and highly performing those types they used it it was a phrase we had labels issued in 1617 17 18 19. of course there was no labels for our two years of covet Halt and then
032labels resumed this past year for 2122 the categories have remained however um some of the components within those categories have changed and I'm going to address those for K-8 and address those for high school because they're a little bit different so our K-8 model is made up of four categories growth is 50 so half of the Ada F label for arcade schools is based on the growth component and that's the major change that we have on between this year and what um they used in the 2017 through 2019 model um there's proficiency which is how students perform on that state test so for them it was aasa and then as well as our msaa for our cognitively um disabled students your El performance so how your students do on the azella test and how they
033grow from one a proficiency level to the next in azella and then that last component is acceleration and Readiness and that encompasses a variety of things are we decreasing the number of students who are minimally proficient in reading for third grade are we increasing the number of students who are highly proficient in eighth grade math that Readiness of getting them ready for high school as well as decreasing that eighth grade um minimally proficient and then it has a section on subpopulation performance so are you improving all of your sub population categories you can see historically I provided our data from 1718 1819 and 2122 so this past year we did see an increase in our letter a letter grades and a decrease in our c letter grades um when the board met this year they
034decided to keep the cut scores the same that they have used historically so that not to change them around they wanted to be consistent with that like I said there has been and I'm going to talk a little bit more about how this year's components were a little bit different that impacted scores for the high school model the high school model is based on proficiency so although the um high schools take two tests the Aspire and the act the high school perform proficiency part is only based on that act 11th grade test um growth this year was based on a um their AZ Merit scores compared to act because they didn't have aspire to change but in the future growth will be based on Aspire for freshmen and act for the seniors it's the same
035testing company it will provide great growth data CCRI is that um self-reported rubric that we use that tells us how all of our students are ready for College and Career graduation rates and then um the same El component for passing azella and then showing growth um they set new cut scores for the high schools this time because they are using new assessments so they left K-8 in the same old model and they set new cut scores for our high schools so our high schools you can see the historical data from 2017 we had um no a schools to four and four B to now we have three a schools and one B School so differences in the rules for this year so this year previously in the prior three years when we used this model
036growth was split between student growth percentile and student growth to Target so a really quick student growth percentile is how does Johnny do compared to everybody with the same skill score as Johnny from the prior year so we call that race against your peers do you outperform from one year to the next everybody who had the same skill score as you in the prior year that is all they used that was the model they used for growth for this school year our district did very very well in growth this year when you look at how our students performed compared to areas around us we have very high growth scores which is a great celebration however when they use the growth to Target one growth to Target is student versus themself so they set um and
037they themselves admit it's an arbitrary number previously they used three years so a student had three years to get to a Target score so any student who is minimally or partially proficient had three years to get to proficient if you were at proficient you had three years to get to highly and if you were highly you had to maintain your highly proficient status um so basically what they would do is they would take Johnny who had a skill score starting and I'm going to use third grade as an example his first year and then they look at what the target would be for three years out what is that scale score going to be and they divided in thirds so I'm going to use 120 because that's an easy one to say you're one he
038needs 40 points of skill score growth year two he needs 40 and year three he needs 40. Johnny doesn't get 40 that first year Johnny is not on growth to Target so then that means that that would impact his growth score if Johnny exceeds it and he gets 50 or 60 now in the future he only needs 40 points to be on Target in three years so they each individual student has how many points they need to get to Target within that set of time so that is the growth that is usually the other half of our growth as a district historically we don't do as well in growth to Target as we do growth percentile um being the data neurodynam I went back and looked so I um went back and looked at our
039historical average for the three years that we used growth to Target and growth percentile and as a district our average um points growth points were six points less when we are on Gross include growth to Target versus just having growth percentile um and that would have impacted labels this year so had we used growth to Target there would have been about 11 schools using the average 11 schools who may have had a score lower than they did this year um so with that we met with princes and made sure like this is coming back we are 99. sure that the state is bringing growth to Target back next year we I hear there's a new superintendent school so we'll see what the state board and all of them do but we anticipate growth to Target
040coming back which means that we need to plan it's not what we normally do as well in so we need to make sure that we're addressing that so that we can maintain these days everybody's super excited about having them we want to maintain them and do the work we need to to make sure that we are adjusting the individual needs students um need for that part and then when we talk about the high school rules as I mentioned the goal of the Aspire versus Act is that they have an easy growth comparison for our high schools however our current junior class has not taken a state assessment since seventh grade so they can't use a comparison test so back in 2019 when we were converting from end of course exams at the high school to
041azmerit is the M2 they used subpopulation Improvement for the growth score for high school so that'll be based on our current Junior this school year they'll use dropout rate Improvement which will be all four grades act proficiency Improvement which will be our 11th graders and then graduation rate Improvement which actually is lagging data they will use 21 and 22 so we won't have any control over that this Academic Year because it's already occurred but our graduation data is always one year lagging um so that will be the difference for the high school model and then they'll you use the subpopulation this one year and then they'll go forward with the Aspire compared to the ACT test and then the last part is of course we have an increase in a schools we want to maintain
042that we want all schools to be in a so we have some action steps that we've been working on to do that the first is um our district is part of azac which is the Arizona assessment collaborative we held a multi-discipline or multi-district principle Workshop we actually housed one here and then another District held and there were over 20 districts where principals from across the valley attended and we broke into what's called their static file which is their full assessment file um their Ade components and really dug deep and allowed them to collaborate with each other and really action plan on what their next steps are going to be we've been really focusing on training school leaders and teachers to understand what these components are and what they come from and what they mean um
043so that they can then use that data to make instructional decisions and then the last one um which really is just the most important one using our benchmarking unit test data to identify those standards that we need to focus on to improve student proficiency and growth for really focusing on standards and what students need to Master on the standards the rest of it takes care of itself and with that I will answer any questions and before we have any questions I want to just clarify When Miss hartchen indicates that we broke into Ade static file we have great programmers but we didn't use them in that capacity they provided us access to to break into that so I wouldn't know how to do I wouldn't know to do that if I had to thank you
044very much um I just have a couple a couple comments um so there's a there's a fine balance here obviously yep um we know that there's been student growth and we definitely need to celebrate the hard work that our our students our teachers our student families that support the students throughout the year that they have done to create that that student growth the student growth is very real and definitely should be celebrated that said we need to be transparent regarding what these numbers really mean and I appreciate the fact that you are very transparent in your presentation um defining what this growth to Target means and the elimination of it this year because these labels have gained popularity on social media and facts are being distorted so again I I appreciate you taking the time
045to illustrate some of those some of the results of this removing the growth to Target it's caused some disparaging comments being made about this Administration and this board in regard to recent changes in leadership unfortunately and unexpectedly Miss sourcingfield kind of touched on that a little bit earlier um we did have one Community member post just a friendly reminder in case you see certain people trying to take credit for this and I just want to I just want to explain I've spoken to several District administrators and teachers no one is viewing this as something to take credit for at all these labels are not true indicators of our District's progress in 2022 as we've learned 11 of our schools would not have been granted the higher label if they were measured the same way they
046were measured in previous years these labels are not comparing Apples to Apples based on our scores that the same measure was used in 2022 as it was in previous years our our labels would likely have fallen I believe our current Administration understands this I believe they're already working very hard to make up for the academic losses that were sustained which will likely be reflected in next year's labels if growth to Target is added back into the equation I don't know what the rationale was in removing growth to Target causing many district labels to be inflated I can only speculate the obvious but it caused a real disservice to many districts who will likely be facing a large drop in labels the next year I believe the stakeholders in our community deserve honesty and transparency so
047I'm thankful that you've highlighted this caveat during your presentation again I do celebrate wholeheartedly the growth the student growth that has been made and appreciate everyone who has taken part in making those gains for our students but based on some of these scores I feel confident in saying that we can do better and our students deserve better I mean we say you had mentioned in your presentation referencing how dicers above the state average well when the state average is 29 percent in seventh grade math um I don't necessarily feel we've we've met where we need we haven't arrived yet at our 27 right so I I do feel that there's a lot of work still to be done um I feel like our state has a lot of work to do when it comes to
048raising the bar in education and I'm hopeful that die start and I know with the leaders that we have in place um can definitely get us there and I believe that we can lead by example but um I know we're capable of doing it but I I am concerned about where our state is in education and just wanting to make sure Dysart continues to push forward as I know we can but I do appreciate you taking the time to illustrate that point in your presentation thank you any other questions just one quick one Miss Horton with the student growth to Target um and I don't want to focus on one particular one over the other um do we know what the rationale was as to why so they said because we had had a couple
049years Gap there was a couple years where students didn't take a test so then the target would have been disrupted because there wasn't three consecutive years of data for them to use for this label um and then we had switched from the um azm2 to aasa so um that was the rationale they did when they initially put the business rules talk about putting it back in but decided ultimately The Advisory team decided not to do that and I I would add that that we went into the calculation period fully expecting that it would be in as part of the formula and then uh we were we and other all other districts were surprised when they didn't include it at the end okay all right thank you may I just conclude this presentation by stating that
050uh while we celebrate student growth and we celebrate um we don't set the rules the state sets the rules and and we celebrate how we compared in those rules we are not satisfied with where we are as a school district and uh and and we are I believe everyone in this room that directly involved would indicate to you that we are pushing very hard to make sure that that we work to get the achievement level of our students to the level that this community deserves and that's our that is our effort and that's our focus at this time so and we'll remain to be so I appreciate that and I I have every confidence that you'll get us where we need to be so thank you next we will move to information discussion item G2
051information on school counselors Dr Dean Madam president members of the governing board cabinet and our community this information item comes as a request from one of our governing board members who was unable to attend our last meeting and so we've moved it to this meeting and Dr crota will present some information related to our high school counselors Dr crotto thank you Dr Dean Madam president members of the board superintendent Dean cabin and guest as a request of a board member we will discuss some counselor to student ratios tonight I have some information just to share with you our current District total and this is including our four high schools in Sundown currently sits at a ratio of 365 students to one counselor with Sundown kind of an High School kind of skewing it because they
052are so small so if you take that school out our district total without sundown in high school is actually 375 to 1. um our district Staffing standard that you approve in our staffing numbers each year is actually 440 to 1. so we are under that uh the National Council ratio in the year of 2021 just so you look at if we look nationally was 415 to 1. and the Arizona counselor ratio and I've got this from ASCA the American school counselor association with Sarah's big believe it or not the Arizona ratio and I double and triple check this is 716 to 1 for Arizona um in the year 2021 um and I couldn't believe it either I double checked triple checked and I do have the printout right here that shows what the state averages
053are so um anyway I looked at some rounds some surrounding districts um Peoria Unified did not have a set Staffing standard as we do and talking to the person that's in charge of the counseling there they do not have a set Staffing standard however right now she felt they are running about 400 to 1 if you took it in their schools and the Deer Valley ratio they do have a set standard of 450 to one and currently they're running about 394 to one but their set standard is 450 to 1. and as I mentioned before Dysart in itself our set standard is 440 to 1. we are at either at 365 if you want to include high school and Sundown or 375 if you take that one school out that skews kind of excuse it
054because they're smaller so with that I will take any questions you may have honestly that hurts that puts a lot on our school counselors and um even though it's um in comparison to the other districts that's just a lot that we have put on our counselors what other duties besides um College and Career Readiness do our counselors do we do have them we do have them do some testing areas I did check around too as part of the request was to see if they did sub and checking with the four high schools we had no counselors Sub in full classrooms this year or last year so according to the principles and the principal secretary so we do ask them to they teach lessons they have given lessons that they go in to teach on certain
055counseling pieces and we do ask or they do do some testing things when testing season comes up so we ask them to do that too and Madam president member sorry Singapore I would add that in terms of uh the the classes that they teach they are related to um to courses that we offer making students aware of those and assisting in uh the course selection piece and the the College and Career Readiness piece our high school counselors are academic guidance counselors and so their responsibility is to assist students from the as their incoming freshmen until they graduate to make sure that they continue to stay on track to graduate that they answer any questions related to dual enrollment or advanced placement or honors courses as well and so our counselors are are not used as
056social counselors or social workers we have social workers to take care of that piece but their responsibility in their job description relates to academic guidance so they don't do anything having to do with the 504 plan IEPs or anything like that Madam president um member sir simple they may be part of an ie P team if if needed or requested in terms of 504 they may be requested to sit into those meetings and just be part of the knowledge base that's related to 504s and making sure that we meet as students 504 needs however like I stated you know we do not in our high schools have mental health counselors their their job is primarily academic guidance and making sure our students are ready for whatever future lies beyond their time with us in our
057high schools okay um right now we have a total of one counselor at sundown for Dysart High right um six at Valley six at Shadow and five at Willow Canyon so each of those Madam president members players think Bill um reverse that I have five at Shadow six at Valley and six at Willow and one of the memory counselors is on a grant is from a grant is Grant funded as well not a grant okay so carrying a caselo of 400 and 400 plus and you said that the the [Music] ASCA was 716 to 1. the ratio in year 2020 2021 the state ratio student to school counselors in Arizona was 716-1 that is correct so how can a counselor be fully affected effective with a 716 students that they're trying to get ready for
058either college or career that was a great question and we are not at 7 16 to Once no I'm just I'm just saying General I'm just hypothetical yes that would be very difficult I would find it very hard to do at 716-1 I mean I mean 40 which is what the board approved correct correct and we're at 375 375. and those numbers Madam president member Sawyer sync battle those numbers are as of 11 15. so they are very the numbers I give you as of 11 15 so they're very fresh numbers now I know that that you have mentioned that um our guidance counselors don't have anything to do with social workers or active social workers or anything like that um are they can I put this are they assuming the role in different situations
059as mental health or social worker capacities um I would say yes at times they're not going to turn away a student that needs help obviously if a student needs help or comes to talk to them sure they do you know they're not going to turn away and say sorry I can't talk to you but they do find Avenues or refer them to the other people needed and provide those services to help that student out so there are times are they solely responsible for the net no but like I said there are times I'm sure they are presented with that and many different things but they're there to help find the Avenues to to best suit that student and I know everybody that's in the school district teachers classified directors including counselors there are things that
060have been placed on their plates and we make do um with counselors do we are they getting too many things put on their plates and that's a loaded question but Madam president member siren pill I I'm happy to answer that question and and I would say that we have been very cognizant of the responsibilities of our counselors and I I would take just take this second to State publicly and and I hope they know this because we try to tell them when we can our counselors are fantastic we have great high school counselors but we have been very intentional in our approach with our high schools to not pull them to sub um and not Place additional duties on on their shoulders their role is vital to our students being successful in graduating and so
061we've been very cognizant about that as we move forward as the board is aware in the last several years we have had issues with with shortage of subs and those types of things high schools have different opportunities to address that than Elementary's schools do because they have many teachers on prep that can cover a prep a time here and there and so we've worked really hard the last two years to not pull our counselors to sub or place a lot of things on their plate that aren't related to their job responsibilities I just want to make sure that each and every person that's in within this District I want to make sure that um they don't feel overwhelmed and even though that our counselors are trying to get students graduated from high school um and
062off into whether it's a career whether it's College whether it's military whatever Avenue um that they have the opportunity and the number of hours during the day and the week in order to help our students be successful when they leave this front door Madam president Member Service I would say with confidence that the answer to that is yes that they do have that time we all wear a lot of hats the key is to make sure that we can still get through the door without knocking the hats off right but I you know but we try really hard to balance to make sure that if any additional hats are worn it's not impacting any employees primary responsibilities as we move forward and and we certainly have been very cognizant of that with our folks in
063the high schools has there been any discussion on getting that ratio down from 375 to lower Madam president member sorry sink Bill we actually celebrate that number compared to other schools districts and compared to what's happening Across the Nation you all know me I'm a straight shooting guy we have not had any conversations about lowering that number any any additional counselors that we would add would take away from teachers that we would add in the classroom and could potentially raise class size and so we we are happy that we are well below the ratio number that that we have established with the board at about 375 as opposed to 440 and right now we're just in a mode where we'd like to keep that going as long as we possibly can all right thank you
064Dr Dakota Madam president and member Sawyer stink bill you were right on your numbers I read them wrong so yes Willow Canyon is five and Shadow Ridge is six I believe that's what you I just want to go on record saying you were correct sorry thank you if I could just ask a quick question about this um you I think you mentioned it was Willow that has a granted position Madam president miss Densmore both Willow Canyon and I believe Dysart High School have Grant funded positions yes and I'm assuming I know that we look for those opportunities whenever they are available I'm assuming that we would look for those opportunities if as they are presented Madam president miss Densmore yes absolutely as a matter of fact the state is getting ready to release opportunities in
065January for additional Grant funds that you can write for for school resource officers counselors Etc Mr musee is ready and waiting to submit those applications and we are excited to submit both for school resource officers and other possibilities as well thank you the um the 440 to 1 was that through like the mou Madam president yes and uh for the best of my recollection as long as I have been an assistant superintendent back to my HR days we've had that ratio at 440 to 1. and it is in the mou and it is um in the Staffing standards the front office staffing standards that you approve every year as part of the HR package assuming there's a there was a counselor probably that was had the opportunity to give feedback or be a part of
066that process when that decision was made I don't recall that directly however I will tell you that it was a couple of DEA presidents ago when I recall that when I was an assistant super HR that that number was was created um knowing that person I would have assumed that she would have had conversations with them as well but to mrsinkbo's you know point we would love for all of our ratios to be lower across the district in every aspect that we have you know we are thankful that we are well below that number right now with our counseling ratio but that number has been I'm trying to think when I uh went into HR it may be as long as 12 years old that's that ratio at this point in time okay thank you
067that was fast math just just a point of clarification so I know that we it was previously stated that that is something that the board approves each year but prior to it coming to the board that is a decision through the IBA process correct which the board is not necessarily a direct partner in Madam president missed ends more the answer is yes in terms of it would to lower that number that recommendation would come from the IBA team in order to lower that number something else would have to give with IBA and so that's kind of where those come from and you know there are different there are several discussions that occur every year in IBA that never materialize um you know this is one that we haven't talked about for some time thank you
068Dr Provo all right next we move to item I executive session we have a call for executive session pursuant to ARs 38-431.0382 and oh I'm sorry do we have any requests for future agenda items thank you thank you for reminding me now we'll move to item I executive session we have a call for executive session pursuant to ARs 38-43.1.0382 and E3 and ARS 15-843a for the purpose of reviewing and consideration of the hearing officer's recommendation to expel a student in the student discipline matter hor 2223-015 and receive legal advice from the attorney for the public party regarding the same so at this time I move that we adjourn to Executive session motion made by Christine Pritchard seconded by Don Densmore sorry I started and then she finished okay what oh until it doesn't work yeah
069right can we watch oh foreign you ready okay at this time we'll reconvene the regular meeting and move to item J action discussion J1 recommendation to expel a student a matter of student discipline hearing hor 2223-015 and at this time I move the governing board expel a student in the matter of student discipline hearing hor 2223-015 second motion made by Christine Pritchard seconded by Dawn Densmore motion carries next we move to item K adjournment I move that we adjourn the meeting second motion made by Christine Pritchard seconded by Tracy sorcingfield quite good that's the plan Okay so motion carries word Sharon thank you have a good night