001good evening at this time I'd like to call the meeting of the Dysart Unified School District to order let the record reflect that all board members are present I have my button pushed let the record reflect that all board members are present and will rise for the Pledge of Allegiance thank you everyone first up we have our public hearing Dr Kellis thank you madam president Mr Hicks we'll introduce this item good evening Madam president members of the board superintendent Dr Kellis colleagues and community members it is my pleasure to present the first revised budget of the fiscal year 2022. I know that a lot of people came for the budget revision so I was going to be very brief but I'll extend it out and spend a little more time on it as you probably
002already know if you've heard this many times every time that we revise a budget of public hearings required anytime we touch the RCL and that changes and so this applies and we're having the public hearing the the changes this year or for this revision are very minor before that I would like to just thank miss meredel spadel our Director of Finance and her team for all the work that goes into putting the budget revision together doing all the work and getting all the forms put together so I appreciate all the hard work that goes in there is very minor changes so I'll go through them essentially all the changes for all the funds you're looking at a combination of one of a few of these we have the annual financial report that was approved in
003October that adjusted all of our estimates to actuals and so that had a change we had a change in our current year ADM average daily membership we had a change in last year's ADM after we revised the budget last year and so some of these are going up some of these are going down in all of these levers we had a carry forward increases and we had audit adjustment and then the reduction from last year's ADM was probably a little bit more substantial and so the only reason I mentioned that is that was because there was a component of students that were online and as you're online there's a requirement to spend a certain amount of time online and they failed to meet that time and so they moved from a full-time student to a
004part-time student and so although that happened last year that negative reduction happens this year and then we had a large increase in our special ed weight so so our categories of students receiving special ed services and so then all of those changes then matriculate into this 600 plus thousand dollar increase and so they're very small increases across the mno budget in those categories Capital the same changes for the capital apply to this revision going up just a few hundred thousand dollars the emergency building renewal grant program that is the Arizona school facilities board program that we submit all of our projects through and you can see that increase from the adopted it really could go up to five million dollars at the halfway mark as we're submitting but I will say that just looking at
005the school facilities board projects they're going to run out of money they ran out last March so we would not hit 5 million because they'll run out of money they'll just hold our projects until the following year and then they get funded the next year so would not surprise me if we get over 3 million before they run out of money classroom site funds this also adjusted because of carry forward and ADM coming down and you can see previously we used to track everything by the three different funds but last year's legislative um session actually was the year before legislative session removed all the different buckets and does require us to continue to pay performance plan but it does not require the 20 40 split we still implement the 20 40 split we haven't put
006a committee together to make any major changes on that recommendation so it's still continuing as it has been for the last 20 years special projects funds are federal grants this is so large because of all the Esser funding and it is going up because when we finalized and did the AFR the unspent money last year rolls into this year and so that gets added to this year and so that moved up to the 63. the state grants moved up because we received results-based funding for four schools based on the performance of the state test and our food service fund stays the same and so as always we post all of our budgets and all of our financial information on our website so I always like to reference that so if people like to learn more
007information or see some information please do as always I'd like to create the produce the rainbow report for the governing board this is our own internal report it just gives us a little Benchmark I call it the 20 000 foot view not the 30 000 foot view so we have a little bit more detail but just are we trending in the right direction allows us to Benchmark it or compare it to the bottom half is the actual auditor general calculation of dollars in the classroom and the above is just limited to those limited funds and so it's just a different way to view it not a lot of changes because we didn't have a lot of changes from our adopted budget to this budget revision so I will not go through this report in detail
008and we could stand for any questions or comments from the public and then that will conclude our public hearing and at this time I'll open it up and up all right thank you so much thank you all right now we'll begin our regular meeting beginning with recognitions and celebrations Dr Kellis thank you madam President we obviously are very happy this evening to welcome a little host of of extraordinary people into our meeting this evening for recognition I'm Dr Dean will introduce the next three items Madam president member of the governing board Dr Kellis members of cabinet and Community this evening we're excited to put a ribbon on the fall athletic season both for high school and middle school and our elementary school programs as well as you can see by folks in the room it
009has been a very successful fall athletic season and we're going to start this evening with Shadow Ridge High School band The Shadow Ridge High School band for the first time in school history qualified for the Arizona State marching band championships where they took eighth place in division two and so we're very excited to have the Shadow Ridge High School Marching Band under the direction of Mr Kerwin Forest drum Majors is your band ready the field is yours [Music] thank you [Music] thank you [Music] thank you [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] and before before our band concludes this evening I would just like to take a moment and recognize Mr Forrest Mr Forest has built just an exceptional Band program at Shadow Ridge High School congratulations Mr Forest and band and you can't leave without playing
010the fight song can we get the fight song all right [Music] foreign [Applause] somewhere in the city Mr Hawkins is yelling out it's a great day to be a stallion right so all right very good so Shadow Ridge band and the remainder of the athletes if we could just kind of let you know how the next few minutes of the board meeting will go that would be fantastic so that we get everybody recognized and in a very good manner so marching band they're going to take off that way athletes here's what we would like for you to do this evening when we announce your team's name we're going to ask you to come to the front of the podium our governing board is going to be standing on the steps to recognize you and then
011we're going to get a picture or two um with you hopefully there's film in the camera tonight we're good to go okay we don't use film anymore I got it all right um and um there are a few of you that are going to be recognized for a couple of different things and if that's the case then please just go back over and wait for your name to be called again once we finish taking the picture with your team we would like for everyone the team to go back over and just hang out over there until we're done that way parents if you'll just hold tight we don't have people leaving as we're recognizing teams and we'll go through this as quickly as we can so can I address really quick Mr Dean sorry before
012all the band leaves I was going to met Mr Forest so it's good to have a face with the name but um just to say the the students you all are amazing you're going to work this man out of a job there's just so much talent in this room good job it was amazing to watch thank you very much for coming and my apologies for not providing an opportunity but they are fantastic so all right so this evening we are here to highlight not only our marching band's outstanding performance this fall but also those on our sports team and if we could ask Dr Kellis and our governing board members to come to the front that would be outstanding some of our athletes were not able to be with us tonight and as they have
013other sports going right now and uh but we want to recognize them as well whether they're here or not so this evening we're here to recognize our regional and sectional Champions as well as some state champions and some coaches of the year as well as Champions at the middle level and Middle School Arenas and so this evening we're going to start with our first Regional champion this year and that was the Shadow Ridge High School boys golf team is there anyone here from the boys golf team can we give them a round of applause anyway we have a golfer come on down and I would like to let you know that Dr crotto Mr Hicks and myself are more than happy to play golf with you anytime you want except we'll probably lose congratulations let's
014give a round of applause our next recognition is for Valley Vista High School and they were the sectional Champions this year and that's the Valley Vista High School girls badmin team would you please come forward anyone with the girls basketball badminton team so as they're coming forward I just want to just make a a quick comment we started badminton in the school district Miss millibar three years ago three years ago we started badminton in the district and it's exciting to see our teams grow and do a great job and to see our first Regional Champion so congratulations badminton team and they brought their Hardware good job all right let's give them a round first let's let's take a picture and let's give them a round of applause congratulations ladies [Applause] also this evening we are
015excited to continue recognitions from Valley Vista High School and that was their girls golf they were the section Champions as well they're not able to be here tonight but can we give them a round of applause please continuing on with Valley Vista High School region Champions and that was the girls volleyball team come on down [Applause] they look like nice people right they'll hit the ball right down your face if they get the chance congratulations region Champions give them a round of applause continuing on with volleyball this evening we are excited to recognize region Champs in girls volleyball Willow Canyon High School come on down and these girls will run you all over the court you guys are awesome congratulations will Canyon girls volleyball team continuing on this evening and moving to state champions we
016are excited to have two unified badminton state champions this year the silver state champions for the State of Arizona in unified badminton from Valley Vista High School are Luke Carr and Derek Jensen come on down congratulations another round of applause and the golden state champions for unified badminton in the state of Arizona from Valley Vista High School our Xavier Simpson and Craig Price Carter price all right thank you very much [Applause] we also have this evening as we complete our high school recognitions we have three coaches who were named as either the region or section Coach of the Year this is an extraordinary accomplishment not only is it is it difficult to get your team to be to the point of being region and section Champions but it's also quite a great feat to be
017named the coach of the year in those regions and sections we have three of them we'd like to name them all together and we'd like to give them an exceptional extraordinary Dysart pin this evening I mean we'd like to ask you to come up together hold your applause please until the end from Valley Vista High School girls volleyball region Coach of the Year David Chavez in girls badminton Arizona section Coach of the Year Rebecca milibar and girls volleyball in 5A conference from Willow Canyon High School region volleyball Coach of the Year Matthew Overfelt would you all please come up and be recognized [Music] oh you talking to me congratulations again round of applause all right continuing on with our middle level folks the folks that feed our high school programs we are excited this evening
018to announce our middle level softball Champions the Mountain View Elementary School mountain lions come on down congratulations give another round of applause continuing on with our middle level baseball Champions the Sunset Hills bobcats come on down guys [Music] congratulations since that Hills all right parents and students we only have two to go so hang in there this year with opening four middle schools our middle school has joined a uh an Athletic Conference the Valley Athletic Conference where we played schools from across the valley and we were excited in our first year in this league to have a champion this team went undefeated in the entire season surprised a ton of people that we would have a team from Dysart come in and take a crown right away and that's the boys soccer champions for the
019Valley Athletic Conference The Undefeated dystar Eagles come on down if you're here guys [Applause] another what okay congratulations dicer Eagles and before we recognize our very last group we had another golfer from Shadow Ridge join us would you come up both you guys come up we'll get a picture with both of you come on down you have to be recognized I'll also extend to you that Dr croteau Mr Hicks and myself are available to play golf anytime you'd like all right good job guys you get two rounds of Applause tonight and last but not certainly least our recognition for our district cross country champions for both the boys and girls cross country champions for the entire School District Marley Park Elementary School come on down guys congratulations Marley Park Madam president that concludes our athletic
020recognitions for the evening parents and athletes thank you so much for coming in tonight and enjoy the rest of the evening thank you all right coming up next we have the address for the governing board or audience with individuals sorry um Mrs Pritchard do we have any we do not thank you thank you great and we do not have a student update so coming up is E2 superintendent update Dr Kellis thank you madam president members of the board members of cabinet this is a great time of the year with lots of celebrations and it's just exciting to see so much of what's happening in the district presented publicly I know that there's a lot that happens that is not so public but we celebrate everybody and everything for a great semester as we are approaching
021the winter break we wish everybody very happy holidays a very safe and healthy holidays this earlier this evening I sent out a voice message to our community imploring our parents to please have conversations with students about the the critical importance of not posting inappropriate messages online or otherwise we want our students to be in school feeling safe and it's important that um everybody take responsibility for that and so we know that it's a very difficult time but we also know that there's a lot to celebrate and a lot to be happy about so I wish everybody the very best thank you yeah thank you Dr Kellis next we have the governing board update if I could turn the microphone on um I apologize I don't have much of a voice tonight but uh I do
022wish everyone staff students the community um a wonderful holiday season um come back uh Nick while you guys don't leave just yet but come back in January renewed and revived and continue moving forward the only thing I was able to attend over the past two weeks was the there was a play at Dysart high school and it was called class action and it was different little student experiences that high school students go through and it was a wonderful adaptation it was very good so um thank you to miss Poole and the students that led that so again have a great holiday season I don't have anything in particular to add other than just wishing everyone a Merry Christmas and a happy holiday season as well with your family thank you okay thank you um I
023don't have much to report I did attend the Valley Vista fall concert for their marching band and over the weekend I also attended a two-day event for the brand new Arizona Coalition for school board members just a lot of really great information new information and I wouldn't just ask everyone to check it out and that's all I have uh next we have the consent agenda and I'll entertain a motion to approve that I would move that we approve the consent agenda items as presented with the exception of the expense vouchers I would like to move those to action discussion second I'm president if I could just ask for clarification Miss Chaffee referring to items 21 and 22. I am referring to item 22. second was Dawn motion passes thank you next we have item information
024item H1 Dr Kellis thank you madam president members of the board and members of cabinet Dr crota will introduce this item thank you Dr Kellis Madam president members of the board superintendent callus cabinet and guests tonight we continue on with our policy monitoring with Section seven we have two changes recommended changes to 7.28 and 7.32 in 7.28 we are changing the language to match the legal language which as our attorney has given us for this where we must use a crude leave when you're on FMLA leave so we are changing C2 with the proper language to reflect that because currently it does not and we also are scratching the language in um I believe it's D3 that prohibits us from using the leaves so that's the change on 728 and on 732 it's a simple
025title change we're scratching some of the title there to reflect the correct name in the policy and with that I'll stand for any questions thank you hearing no questions I just they will appear on the second read in January for approval do a question I I'll read I might just maybe I have marching band in my head still I don't know but don't we on the first read don't we still see the edits normally that's correct okay we should be there like on page on page three am I are you what are you signed in did I lose it it's possible okay hold on maybe signed in okay let me try to read do this oh he said they disappear that's on page three it scared me for a second sorry the computer no I'm
026like am I crazy why am I not seeing an edit okay hold on let me try to get back in here I think I got bumped out yes she did okay can I go down here and go to public meetings thank you hold on public meetings thank you thank you that was the only question I had I'm so sorry okay actually in the meeting thank you everyone for your patience um moving to H2 Dr Kellis thank you madam president members of the board of members of cabinet Dr Credo will also introduce this item mine just crashed too um do you have it there I'm so happy it wasn't just me Madam president members board superintendent Kellis uh cabinet guest tonight we are revising our policies pursuant to asba recommendations our first read There are three
027policies in this area 768 professional staff are professional support staff orientation and training teaching about controversial sensitive issues 9.45 and 10.49 which is immunization of students these were changed because of a law that was put into place and then struck that law was struck by the Arizona Supreme Court so it is no longer a law so we're reverting back to how our policy originally read and those changes you will see there on the on seven six eight it is the uh redlined out the 15 717-202 and the violation part that is no longer part of the law um as well as 9.45 you will see the redlining of the additions that we made outlining employee of a district or schools involved with students and teachers in grades preschool through 12th grade may not use public
028monies for instruction that prevents any form of blame or judgment on the basis of race ethnicity or sex you can continue to read that was put into place that was struck down also so it is no longer in law and the last one is 10.49 immunization of students and that it was a stipulation in 15 34205 that a school district or Charter School may not require student or teacher to receive a vaccine for covet 19. so that is no longer the case and we are reverting back to our original policies on those three and I will stand for any questions that you may have I I just would I just need a clarification if you would just repeat what you said on nine point four five teaching about controversial and sensitive issues so this was
029passed this last legislative session or this last one okay correct and then it went went to court and the court said no correct did I understand you correctly it was ruled unconstitutional okay that's what I wanted to make this was part of a budget Bill correct that they signed it into law and then the court said it's not Contra it's not constitutional because it's part of the budget and so that's how that's great so it was taken out right yeah sure I heard you correctly thank you so I have a question why can't we bring it back and in 9.45 we've been very adamant about not teaching any critical race Theory or assigning blame on you know individual basis of ethnicity or sex there's nothing in this wording that goes against a state law why
030can't we continue to adopt this policy as it was Madam president you the board certainly can do that okay so I would like policy to continue to keep the red letters on 9.45 so I do have a question with that um we would need to seek legal advice correct Mr Excuse me Dr croto Madam president um members of the board yes I would say we would seek legal advice there is no reference to law in here but I would feel more comfortable if we asked our attorney her opinion on this before we put it through and that can that can be done that can be done before the next meeting so can you tell me why we need legal advice if this does not break a law and president anytime that we make major changes
031to policy we seek legal advice so the way this stands now um striking all of this information out of the policy then that means um teacher if you left it in place then it's teachers or administrators or an employee the school district would be able to speak about or provide instruction regarding One race ethnic group group or sex is inherently morally or intellectually Superior to another race that's basically what we're saying if we say we're taking that out then we're saying that that's now okay to do is the way I'm reading that is that correct because that's the reason why it was if we're saying that if we're taking that out then we're saying that now that's okay Madam president miss uh Miss Pritchard there are other policies that regulate ethics and certainly those also
032come into play and how a teacher presents a lesson and the content of that this obviously specifies it and the legislature put this in for a purpose their intent here I'm not going to get into this evening but just because this isn't stated if this was pulled out that doesn't mean that it's okay there are other policies that apply on a very specific implicit language this makes it very very clear what can and can be done Richard that's that's Dr Kellis said this is very specific and it makes it very clear that this cannot be done so I I like having the wording because I also share Miss pritchard's concerned that if we take it out because we see teachers who are already trying to take liberties with us and insert different things um I
033feel like if we had this policy in place it would just be very clear there's no questions about it and then Any teacher who does teach you know that one race ethnic group or sex is inherently morally intellectually Superior than another they would be violating policy and then subject to reprimand so we're going to talk to our attorney about it kind of president Mr Pritchard yes [Music] 0.45 um I would also like to make it a policy that we do not require students or teachers to receive a vaccine for covid-19 or wear a face covering to participate in in-person instruction I understand that there is a mandate that has been struck down by a federal appeals court you know mandates are not laws and even if the Mandate was upheld that would be a different
034story but right now I would also if we need to seek legal advice I would like to do that because again I do not want to require students or teachers to receive a covid-19 vaccine I don't think that's fair to our students or our teachers to require them I would agree with that and since we're seeking legal advice anyway I think it's a good idea to have that conversation and president miss Chaffin thank you and yes we definitely would do that mandates are not laws but they do have consequences and so we would want that legal opinion can I ask you a question just for clarification on that vaccine piece because I know you know we talk about in that first paragraph about requiring those vaccinations just and I don't know if you can answer
035Dr Kellis but how is it that the law can can specify certain vaccines and not others I mean not really related to covid-19 I'm just saying legally because I know that's a completely different issue with the um current Administration everything that's still being held up in the courts but just in general it just seems Like An All or Nothing is it just because of the type of like one is a disease and one's a virus or like I'm just curious if you knew the background of course I guess varicella is actually virus so just curious I just didn't know how they how that came about isn't it stay low um but you can have exemptions from it too yeah that was my next exceptions though in medical exemptions because I know a lot of people
036are exempting their kids and not getting them the measles vaccines and different other things well we don't have you know billions of measles tests out there either you know down at the corner Walgreens yeah I'm just curious I'm sorry Dr Carlos I don't know if you were going to answer her question or not my question yeah it really doesn't matter my mind was just thinking about the science behind it and like what the difference really was and and how they drafted that but it I don't need to take up the board's time with it all figure it out did you have anything on the other are we good um you know I just I like the fact that we're not using public monies for training orientation or therapy that presents any blame or judgment on
037the you know one thing I have a concern about and we can um potentially talk about this more at our our next meeting but just to plant it in your head whatever I'm thinking on 7.68 so we say that we need parent opt-in for any kind of sex ed um and this is talking about you know sexual harassment blame or judgment on the basis of race ethnicity or sex but we also have some backdoor operations going on with gay straight alliances in our schools that do not require parent approval and some of the conversations that are happening in those groups I think potentially could be violating this and and maybe others policies that we have in place Madam president I am not sure exactly what you're referencing with with your term of doing clubs are
038sponsored by staff thank you for that clarification there are U.S Supreme Court decisions about student clubs and um yes you are correct there are clubs that are allowed in public schools that address a host of topics religious political gender that to put it in a sentence if you allow one then you must allow others as well as long as there are um obviously you wouldn't have things where they would have a drinking party it can't be illegal right but um short of being illegal the U.S Supreme Court has made some of those rulings that allow for those that diversity of clubs on a school campus but if it was illegal to provide certain types of mirror materials to underage people then that would be a violation Madam president I mean depending on the circumstances depending
039on the circumstances the age the materials um I'm not sure what materials specifically you're referencing if it was illegal materials some materials that a parent might find to be pornographic opinion based okay I just think it's an important conversation to have in our country when this comes back in our clubs you're saying there's been no no okay no okay no no I know okay so if you had a heterosexual Club what would that look like what would be different about it would be nothing different it would just be whatever so if you have a gay straight lesbian whatever Club what are you talking about so again I'm not saying that anything like this is happening in our district but I am hearing sometimes at a national level where these things are happening where they might
040have a book club going on within it and some materials are being provided to students sometimes by the sponsor sometimes by other students and this is happening in our schools so not our schools our schools Nationwide so Dr Kellis isn't um and I'm thinking of accountability um don't our club sponsors have a guideline and rules that they need to follow when a club is either created or is in existence for a year um there's specifics that are in that type of guideline and I'm just curious Madam president Mr sink Bill yes you're correct so regardless of the club it could be a science club it could be a fellowship of Christian athletes it could be a lgbtq club there must be a an adult sponsor who is an employee of the district okay and the
041the role of that adult sponsor depending on the club there are again referring back to the U.S Supreme Court decisions they may or may not participate depending on the club if it's a it's a co-curricular type club like a science club then yes they can if it is a religious based Club then the U.S Supreme Court has ruled that they cannot be participants they're there only to monitor to make sure that everybody's safe um that they aren't doing things that they shouldn't be doing not based on the sponsor's personal judgment but on the established behaviors of students on a school ground um so to your appointment sorry seat belt yes every Club must have a an adult present I would it would be my expectation that if there were any inappropriate materials that that sponsor
042would raise that to a higher level of attention and that that would be reviewed to determine if that was appropriate not to say that we would get into um judging whether a religious text is appropriate to present in a fellowship at Christian athletes Club we're not going to censor passages that might be presented or readings but if there are items that are of a question to a student's safety then absolutely those those would be raised to a higher level of review and the clubs go through Dr Dean correct or is it split up between Dr Dean and Dr Poling Madam president typically our clubs are in the middle schools and high schools that Dr Dean supervises there are some clubs at the seventh eighth grade level and arcades but generally that's the case thank you
043does anyone else have any comments on that I will get the work done and bring those back for a discussion at the next meeting thank you very much Dakota item H3 school reports Dr Kellis thank you madam president members of the board and members of cabinet Dr pulling will introduce this item see Madam president members of the board cabinet and audience it's my pleasure to introduce Ms Tim Brooks principal at Kingswood Elementary for a school report tonight I think I've got it I'm sorry um good evening Madam president members of the board Dr kellison cabinet I'm Mary Lee Tim Brooks the principal of Kingswood and at Kingswood we are the proud purple and silver Knights so I'm here to share a little bit about Kingswood and who we are just a little bit about Kingswood
044we are a pre-k through eighth grade um Title 1 School oh I have to forward that there we go and our campus how houses several special programs including for ESS the Aspire program along with structure teaching classrooms we are also fortunate to have the 21st century Grant on our campus which provides academic tutoring and enrichment opportunities for our students before both before and after school and currently we have over 100 students that are participating in those programs so just to give you an idea of some of those different types of programs we have six seventh eighth grade math tutoring happening algebra tutoring science tutoring enrichment includes brain games we've just started Japanese reading nights the mathematical mathematicians club we have an Esports Club I should say course class our student Nightly News broadcast Rachel's Challenge
045we have hip hop dancing theater troupe and that's just to name a few of the opportunities that our students have through that 21st century so at Kingswood student achievement is our number one priority and we are committed to building strong structures that are going to support student growth student achievement for all of our students so according this year we've been looking at our data and according to student growth and achievement charts that are in Galileo where we compare Benchmark one and Benchmark two data this year in our Ela over 50 percent of our students in each grade level are showing higher levels of growth compared to the growth that's expected by ati's research team so we we know we're on the right track and we're making that growth in math we're showing higher levels of
046growth in grades three six and seven um so as a result we're going to continue to focus on growth for all students in all subjects but with that emphasis on math for grades four five and eight other opportunities this year are incorporating multi-tiered systems of support we utilize RTI which is response to intervention we have RTI teams we have Behavior success teams that focus on creating intervention plans for our struggling students our weekly prep connect meetings focus on both RTI and data talks this year we've reorganized the way the those meetings happen on the calendar so the meeting schedule is differentiated by grade level which allows us to analyze unit and module data during prep connect immediately after assessments are given so differentiating our prep connects provides us that opportunity to implement interventions and support
047students as soon as possible giving that most recent data so really looking at assessment data right after students have completed that and using that data to inform instructional decisions okay we have many celebrations so as you can see I'm not going to read them all to you but we have a lot to be proud of at Kingswood um so I do want to mention just a few highlights of our celebrations including our strong Community Partnership with Cross Church they have always been willing to help support our families and our teachers when in need I'm also really proud as a community we're very proud of our students and all that they are involved in and accomplishing this year so I think I mentioned earlier we we have an outstanding Student News Network our Rachel's Challenge club
048which um is an opportunity for students in all of our grade levels for all ages and we also have strong athletic teams at Kingswood and actually tonight our girls volleyball team is playing in the district playoff games I think they might have already played so I'm not sure what the outcome of that is but we're really proud of the things that our students are doing so our Focus this year among many things includes increasing student academic growth shared leadership and professional learning for our teachers and also nurturing a positive and um positive culture and climate in our school and in our community part of what the shared leadership piece includes is working with our instructional cabinet members we're focusing on helping them to become the activators in our plcs as we continue to learn and
049collaborate as teams we are also very proud of our identity at Kingswood and the many Traditions that we have in place such as right now it has become an annual tradition to have the annual Polar Express drive-through event and that is actually scheduled tomorrow night we're hoping for the rain to come a little bit later and we want you to we want you to know you're welcome you're invited to come on by tomorrow night experience our dazzling light display which is a combined effort with different community members and our students and our staff our teachers will be there with special greetings and surprises and who knows you may even encounter some snow as you are driving through our Polar Express so those are just a few highlights of things that are happening at Kingswood and
050at this time I'd be happy to take any questions that you have thank you for the presentation um can you tell me specifically what kinds of What kinds of interventions you're putting in place for specifically fifth grade math I know sixth seventh eighth as well but but specifically fifth grade math to help them so we we have what we call win time as part of our masters it's in our master schedule it's protected time every day which is where we have the opportunity to provide those tier two interventions and part of the conversations that we're having in our data meetings with our teams our data Specialists is involved in those conversations our teaching learning specialist is involved Administration our teams we use that data to look at where those needs are those immediate needs to
051go back and adjust instructional or to provide additional support for specific students that are struggling in those areas so we do um have a Cycles three week rotations where we divide our students out based on those very strategic identified needs of the students and different teachers are focusing that instruction based on those identified standards and we have different different kinds of programs that we use sometimes we are using um we have achieved math which is a great standards-based program so teachers can provide that targeted instruction and then students have opportunities for that practice and it's a good way for us to monitor their progress at the end of those Cycles we do assess at the end of each three-week cycle so we know if the students are making that growth if they're mastering those standards
052and then that helps inform our decisions for that next cycle based on new data that we may have at that time and how their the progress that they're making so that's for math specifically and fifth grade we are using that achieve along with just some teacher created things and going back and utilizing curriculum that's already in place as well sometimes students just need that extra time they may need that material presented in a different way and we're finding by being very strategic and targeting those specific skills with that that data those logical tests that we have I think that's where we're seeing the growth in those grade levels that are growing and we know we're going to get there with those other grade levels as well I like to hear that your um you're reassessing
053every three weeks so it seems like you're going to know fairly soon you know if you need to change approaches or you know different interventions for different students so I'm glad that you're not waiting you know until mid-semester or end of the semester to figure out okay is what we're doing working so that's refreshing to them yeah thank you and then um so and you're coming in I appreciate you coming in um mid-year or well mid-semester I guess it is and and just kind of hitting the ground running um what are you doing just to kind of help you you mentioned that in your last slide too as far as positive like growing a good positive culture at Kingswood have you found some things are successful and um what kinds of things are you doing
054to kind of pull staff and yes so one of the things I noticed immediately is just how friendly everybody is and you know you can feel when you walk in the building there is that that tight-knit feeling of a family and Kingswood has been around for a little while and there truly are established Traditions that are going on there and families that have kids that have come up and since kindergarten and multiple children and their families and you get to know them and you can see that with our staff and how they interact and how our upfront office interacts we do have PBIS at Kingswood which is positive behavior intervention and so we really focus on finding those celebrations for students that are demonstrating those core values the positive reinforcing the positive we do a
055lot of student recognition and drawings um the school store and sharing that information back out with the community we you know work on our weekly Communications and this year we're up since I've arrived we've really been working on that social media piece and and taking those pictures of just the little snapshots of quick things that are happening and we've received some great feedback from our our community just knowing what's happening at school hearing from me hearing from our teachers and staying focused on our students and our families and and and the teachers are amazing and and I I every meeting that I have and every encounter that I have with a team or a teacher or a parent we're always talking about what is best for the students and what our goals are and how
056we're focusing to move them forward thank you so much hey oh no hold up come on Miss ten Brooks thank you for presenting tonight and I also see Dr Romero out there in the audience so thank you for being here um just two things uh with the 21st century program what can we do to boost that number I know that a hundred is a little over a hundred is a good number to work with but um what can we do to boost that so that is a conversation I actually was just having this week with our 21st century coordinator so we do have a coordinator that oversees that program and as I Was preparing for this presentation presentation really looking at the things that we offer um part of the challenge has been I think
057in motivating our staff to want to offer more things but the more that we Spotlight what is happening in the program I think the more that we're going to see that participation increase and so that's something that we've listed as a priority on increasing those numbers and we have a pretty good balance between enrichment and tutoring and we're approaching specifically approaching teachers to provide tutoring in those strategic areas like fifth grade math Miss Pritchard we know where those needs are and so now it's really I think the more that our teachers are seeing the data and understanding that they're willing to to be available and then we can just promote that and and communicating with parents is that that's an opportunity for them okay maybe somehow you can tie the Nightly News into getting more
058of the students in the 21st century hint um and last but not least um I know you you know Kingswood has a phenomenal program especially for the special ed students over there and um the times that I have gone through and seeing the students and the teachers engaged in there is totally awesome so I thank you for everything that that um that you do and that they do with them thank you I feel very fortunate to be there and to be able to work with an amazing a really amazing team at Kingsville so thank you okay thank you Mrs Tim Brooks thank you appreciate that and at this time I will ask Mrs Miller to come up the principal at Mountain View School I have to make a small adjustment here we go it'll stay
059up let's see there we go um good evening Madam president governing board Dr Kellis and board we are one of the largest elementary schools in the district and continuing to grow we are home of the mountain lions and we are proud to have our signature program be steam through CTE attendance academic gaps and positive behavioral intervention system are three opportunities that have ignited our staff to grow and develop professionally the increase in absentee rates and academic gaps have made each of us modify and adjust our planning and teaching practices to better meet those needs for example our teachers have learned to plan ahead on how to teach to those that are absent and need additional learning opportunities they have included backwards design planning to ensure that the students have the prior skills necessary for the
060concepts we have to look at our data deeply and frequently to support instructional decisions there is a need to teach and re-teach expectations explicitly to maximize those instructional minutes the PBIS leadership team provides lessons and videos to teach expectations monitor data for Trends in area of needs and also to provide feedback to teachers we are extremely proud of the partnership with our PTA and our community our PTA is highly involved with building and supporting the school climate and culture our fall festival had over 2 000 participants with Ottawa University students volunteering PTA has their goals aligned to support students and staff at Mountain View they include all staff in their recognitions and activities they are active in our steam events and provide coffee and food trucks every other Friday which is key very important for
061us we had our fall Steam Community event where our PTA had their very own steam activity and also provided and funded for all of our student prizes I'm proud of our staff for all the additional hours that they put in to support our activities around academics arts and Athletics and of course this is even beyond the school day our athletic teams are doing amazing we had the we also have a K-8 morning mile activity or I call it Club but in the Arts our students participate in contests and even our yearbook our students facilitate and our choir has performed at the school and will also be performing at the Coyotes game this Friday so if you're going you will be able to hear them there and of course our band has already been playing and
062they have a concert tonight over at Shadow Ridge High School tutoring robotics little learner or little learner lab we even have little robots we have all of these to enhance our academics we have a book club where that's different than any book club you guys were talking about um this is where we definitely focus on our little literacy and our parents come and they're involved too and they make books and read stories together so it's a wonderful event history Club anything that we can do to get students in those contests and competitions Statewide and National leadership opportunities of course our student council njhs but we're very proud to have a middle school skills USA our chief science officers we've consistently had five of those since we started with our Steam and of course kindness Club
063and many others if you come to school after school on a Wednesday it's like you're coming at arrival it's amazing how many students attend after school activities um a major focus of course for our year is closing that academic Gap our student data is not consistently where we want it to be and our students need our full attention to their success a few examples of some data points are in October for science all four of our fourth grade teachers ranked in the top eight of all fourth grade teachers in the district with a 76 percent average a third grade teacher ranked third at 79 and a sixth grade teacher ranked number one at 61. math and Ela for third grade unit assessments average in the mid 80s to 90s consistently our K3 95 phonics core
064program teachers are teaching with fidelity and they are seeing the positive impact on our young readers we do have many challenges though and inconsistencies one of our major challenges is in our middle school math where Concepts get more difficult and challenging the last unit assessment in our Middle School percent was average at 63 or lower um teachers are frequently reviewing data and adjusting their instruction we're working towards more effective plcs through professional development conducting data talks using a consistent structure and process provided by West Ed in the training that we get we do targeted professional development and of course we utilize our RTI and school and District level expertise having a focus on our PBIS implementation and our school's climate and culture also contributes to closing those gaps and providing opportunities to succeed them thank
065you and I'm happy to answer any questions you may have I'll start I have a question good to see you good to see you good to see you thank you um just a quick question on your integrated action plan under professional development you had math instruction will be a focus yeah you kind of touched on that towards the end as far as some of the scores so um do you have any specifics you can share as far as how is it your focused like what have you determined to be effective and what are you utilizing for yes one of we're actually utilizing our West Ed coach and that today was actually a perfect example of that we had our West Ed coach out all day long and um he's been meeting with individual grade level
066groups and providing specific math professional development to them as well as working with the PLC on effective PLC practice so we are constantly using him throughout the year and that's just one of the ways that we're supporting our school with the math knowledge and pedagogy that they need you're welcome so it yes Miss Miller is always good to see you thank you um your steam event the other night or what two weeks ago three weeks ago yes um you have a teacher that will be riding in the Fiesta Bowl Parade correct correct her name is Mrs Lopez she has won the Fiesta Grant she is one of my grant writers on campus and this year she has already received two one through the def um and also through the fiesta Grant yes so we're very
067excited about that because that funding goes straight into our signature Focus and to our students and that is totally awesome um so as far as and you're gonna have to correct me if I'm wrong um the accreditation this is there an accreditation for the steam yes for you um how often does that recycle five years five years okay yeah I just wanted to make sure and we are and I always like to tell people if they ask what um how amazing going through that process is to really reflect and refine your practices and so we were just very fortunate um that when they came and did their visit they we were the 10th school to receive that honor but also we were the first to get top scores so that is we have set that
068bar high and we will continue to achieve that see and that's a big celebration for you thank you thank you very much you're welcome thank you I just wanted to thank you for clarifying um that it was not that type of book I really appreciate it I tried to throw in a little humor because I've been learning from Dr Dean yes that's great thank you thank you I'm just going to wait just a moment while miss Chaffin stepped away just so she doesn't miss anything I know that we have quite a bit of time does anyone need a recess we're good okay let me know throw something at me want to go foreign not that kind of recess all right moving to item H4 Dr Kellis thank you madam president members of the board and
069members of cabinet uh this evening Administration is happy to present to the board some information about where our high school where our high school students go and how they do After High School and so miss Sammy Harton director of research and accountability will present this information I'm going to move it up just even a little bit more Gail I don't get to say that very often good evening Madam president members of the boarding cabinet um I'm happy to spend some time this evening sharing with you some of as Dr Kella said post Heist um High School Success data with you as we know our first goal is to make sure that our students are College and Career ready and have the skills and knowledge to be successful so we're going to share some information with
070you about that um the information this evening comes from a couple different sources and represents a couple different cohorts so when we go through you'll see some data is a couple years old and some is relatively new and it depends on where that data source of information comes from so the first set of data we're going to look at comes from the national Clearinghouse and it's important oh where's my all right we're gonna have to go next slide I turned it off now it buzzed at me right it buzzed so I thought it was it's always me all right there you go oh all right what right oh no I have my copy all right so I'll go ahead and just there we go um so this first part of information comes from the national
071clearing house and it's really important to know that when kids go to college they can opt out of the Clearinghouse so we may not get every student from our District's information because they can choose to opt out of that um Clearinghouse when they and have their information not shared back with their schools um this first slide shares with you the percent of students from the class of 2020 the far right is 2020. um their enrollment in college the fall after graduation they this is our covet group this is the group who we were in shut down from March until their graduation they all got a July drive through graduation and then we're supposed to go to college um you can see there was a slight drop-off not surprising lots of kids Nationwide didn't necessarily enroll
072right away because of on the situation we were in at that time so next slide you can see this one breaks it down a little bit further it gives you the green line is the number of students the percent that went to um four-year universities and then two-year universities and if you look at that drop off between 19 and 20 one of them is three and one is four so it was consistent between whether or not it was a two or a four year um that drop in students who were enrolling um in school in that fall of 2020. so this is the number of our students in each of our high school programs and then District as a whole and for that um the percent who enrolled in college and that includes that's inclusive
073two and four-year programs and the number of students who were in that cohort so you can see our range goes from 32 percent um up to 49 for the class of 2020 um and you can see that drop reflected by each of those campuses from 2019 to 2021 and this data obviously is all um a year behind because of the way it's reported so this is the next piece of that persistence so when students enroll freshman year how long do they do they make it to their second year so the national average is 79 and our district was just a little bit below that for that class of 2019. so this is an example of one that's a year further because we need them to have a full second year of school to know who
074stayed for that persistence Factor so this would be the cohort of 2019 and that those students who returned fall of 2020 which another thing to consider is there are some kids who even as upperclassmen may not have necessarily returned to school that following year and then this next one again breaks it down by um types of Institutions so you have public and private um the drop off for us that was a little bit higher was those number of students at private institutions um and whether or not they persisted that second year and here's our most common institutions um so the top two um are our obvious closest Community College Estrella Mountain and GCC our most common in-state University for public university is ASU and then NAU um our two highest private universities is Grand Canyon
075and Ottawa um I would be curious to see how Ottawa increases as we've built more Partnerships with them as a district in how close they are to us but you can see those are um the list of all of the universities and the number of students who have courses enrolled at those and of course a kid who's particularly a community college student might go to GCC for one class and another class at Estrella because they're close by so this is this could be multiple one student taking classes at multiple places um one great new thing we got this year is the Helios education center has partnered with Ade and with the State University so the information I'm going to share with you will the next couple slides reflects ASU U of A NAU and then
076all of the state um Community College Programs um including like Yavapai and um Central those all of those different programs and what they were able to do was get us way more in-depth information in terms of um what majors are kids earning when they get into college what are their full-time part-time status um what types of GPA do they have and then a slide we'll share a couple with you that share how our kids do when they take those one in 200 level classes compared to everybody else in the state who's taking those classes so the first is this is our state university feedback so 370 students from the cohort of 2018 went to our three state universities 41 of them entered with community college credits so that's a huge Testament to our dual enrollment
077program because the only other opportunity would have been if they chose to take something in the summer before they got there so a large number of our students who are going into the university are entering with college with college credits um and community college credits um of those cohort 2018 87 of them entered as full-time students and 80 of them had a 3.0 or higher GPA which means they're finding success when they get there um the top four majors sought by that group were the Bachelor of Science just general science Bachelor of Arts Bachelor of Science in nursing and a Bachelor of Science in engineering and the really nice thing um that we'll be able to get um and we're working on our four high school principals getting passwords now as well is they'll be
078able to see for their specific campuses and then you'll be able to do really great strategic College and Career planning so if one campus has a lot of kids that are going into a specific thing then you can really Target the conversations people are having with what they're where they're going when they leave us um so it'll be really good information for them to use as well so when our kids go to um the university I just pick classes that had high enrollment numbers from our camp or from our campuses so really common freshman sophomore level courses um biology chemistry physics math English and history um the First Column the enrollment success percent is the number of Dysart Unified School students who successfully complete and earn Credit in a course when they've enrolled in it
079and then the column the second column is the Arizona percent um average so you can see that we are at or above and all of them we're a little bit lower um in the first couple science classes but doing um very well in the humanities and English courses as well so this will be great information for Dr assai and I we actually scheduled with all of our curriculum Specialists to be able to say you know take this and if kids are struggling where do we need to redefine or look at our scope and sequences and things so that they can continue to work on those pieces so it's another way for us to use our data to inform our district so the Community College um this is looking at cohort 2017 we had 793 students
080who attended any of the AZ Community College public community colleges 62 percent of the kids enrolled part-time which I thought was really important because that when we look at one of the other slides from information provided by um the CTE programs is that students are working and going to school at the same time because um they are doing all their things Beyond just going to school full-time so the top degrees earned by them coming out of the Community College were Liberal Arts and Sciences General Studies and Humanities and physical science the other piece of information we get from the community college is what college certificates or industry credentials are kids getting and so the really the top ones that came out of the Community College was EMT and paramedic Corrections fire science and firefighting and
081criminal justice and safety studies which I thought paired we have several CTE specialty programs in our district that coincide with that so I thought that was a good reflection of the work we're doing here in the district and then similarly they provided us success information about our students who are enrolling in um Community College and these had some classes that were a little bit different in terms of high numbers or participation and again I think it reflects to our CTE programs the highest success rate and one of the most popular um disciplines for the Community College was Allied Health all of our high schools have some type of Allied Health program or CTE program that they work in um and our students are doing very well in those when they get to the Community College
082and then the other really popular ones were obviously the core required classes and then um computer science which students are doing very well in as well and then as I mentioned we get our CTE placement information and we share this with you at other times in the year as well but um one of the really important things that the CTE department does is when they um kids graduate they make those placement calls to follow up and find out so you've left us you've um done your CTE sequence what are you doing now and these are based on the far right column is that 2019 data um and you can see as I mentioned a lot of students who were in Community College part-time they're indicating they're more than 50 percent of our district students when
083they graduate are working so they're not going to full-time University and um getting to not have to work most of our kids are working which reflects that part-time Community College information you also can see there's been a little bit of increase in the number of students going into the military and um the number of students who are in post-secondary or trade school so when CTE collects their information they combine both universities and Trader technical schools together and then what are we doing to make sure kids are ready for post-secondary um so CTE has provided all of the um schools with major Clarity which is our tool for post-secondary planning our students do their e-caps in it there are great tools for um learning skills interest inventories thousands of universities they can research so if I
084know I want to go into veterinary medicine it gives you all that information about you know Public public private costs um you know is it in a tiny little town or is it in a big major city so all of that information is available to students in there and the counselors and teachers use that with the students both in their advisory hours and then when the counselors go out and do those lessons so those are um the major tool that we're using with our students to provide that post-secondary planning all of our high schools are right now in the middle of doing phospha nights getting kids to do that um financial aid planning and they've been able to as students finish that we are able to load it into our data warehouse so we can
085let schools know so you have fifty percent of your seniors who have completed the FAFSA here's the kids who have and haven't so they can be targeted in their response to students and making sure that kids are completing that important document because they may not think they want to go to college but even you may change your mind and you want to make sure that you have access to financial aid when you get there um all of them of course do College and Career nights College fairs we just had the big District's Expo um Dr Kellis just did a um super in 60 on our AVID program which is one of the greatest ways that we provide supports to students on preparing for college and then um that dual enrollment both AP and um dual
086enrollment classes AP classes CTE dual enrollment classes and all of those CTE fares so we have lots of different activities that occur to help us ensure that our kids are ready for post-secondary Success when they leave us and with that I will answer any questions so have we always had first of all thank you for your presentation have we always had um information from Helios no so this is something new they just released um uh Aaron the research coordinator and I went to a huge meeting with um them um ASU was there and then superintendents and directors across the state were there um and it's new this year and they're started with that 2017-18 and they're working their way so that we'll actually have multiple years of data I was going to say this is
087this is amazing to have this because it can give us a lot of reflective information um because it's one thing to find out which I still don't quite understand how we determine who we capture as far as you know who's like I I can personally say like I've never gotten anything from the district as far as okay where are you now as far as my two girls graduate from Dysart um so I don't I don't know how we make sure that we get this feedback from maybe every Dysart graduate but um that being said the whole knowing how we're doing so like for an example I'm pleasantly surprised about our English scores but Matt but math for an example are a little bit lower in some of the areas so hopefully we can take that
088into consideration and do what we need to do to then make some improvements to our math curriculum or programs is that is that like the purpose of it yep and then also um I wish and again I just wonder because again as as involved as I've been in the district I don't think I completely understood dual enrollment to where on the surface it was like well why would I pay for a dual enrollment class when I know in our situation my girls are going to get scholarships anyway and they're going to get it for free why pay for it well because then when you get a scholarship and if you go into a university or wherever with a lot of college classes under your belt perhaps that four-year scholarship now can you if you have
089two years out of the way can perhaps pay for two years of Masters yes not know that so hopefully too with this great information we can continue to educate our community and students as to why even if you think you're getting a scholarship why still how dual enrollment can really work for you but I really like the way that now we have this information because it's just so helpful to see where can we grow and what improvements and um um different supports we can put in place to make sure that if we are lacking in any areas we can prepare these students to do well post-secondary and I think really nice piece of the part where we saw those one in 200 level courses that takes out all our kids who took dual enrollment because
090they go in above so that's all of our students who didn't even take a dual enrollment class because they would have already had those experiences so that's saying I didn't even take a college level class in high school and I still was successful when I got there thank you um excuse me on scholarship information on all campuses what does that look like I mean I have to know to go to the counselor's office to pick up something or so there's a variety of different ways um there's evening events where they will do um kind of a with the phosphonite talk about different ways to apply for scholarships um all of the different counseling departments either have websites Twitter accounts various things where they advertise um what scholarships are available so kids know um most of
091the time when you walk through the scholar the counseling section there might be Flyers available for different ones that are available um or their advertising like I said through social media um in senior classes it's not uncommon to walk into senior classes and see such and such scholarships due on Friday or you know those types of things so they advertise a variety of ways but they also try to do it during night events so that parents know um you know here's how to apply for them these are the types of things that are available or um criteria that go along with those like scholar essays or or anything like that okay just have one quick question for you miss herchin um you were talking about students opting out of the national Clearinghouse what are some
092of the reasons why students opt out choosing not to share their data I mean I think probably just that privacy thing of not wanting to share information really kind of similar that they can choose to not have their parents see their grades or see access to any of those types of you know I think sometimes it's I'm an adult now and I'm not gonna that's my personal opinion I'm not gonna let anybody see how I'm doing for being honest so so with that said I don't I don't know if that's what you meant when you said that we can't tell if the students are employed or not depending on the privacy so how was that reported then the employment students who are working that comes from when um Jim's department and all of the teachers
093make all those phone calls um that's what students report the Clearinghouse information so if I'm a student and I go and enroll at ASU one of the things I do is whether or not I'm willing to have the Clearinghouse information shared back and so then the national Clearinghouse sends US Reports um a couple times a year that just gives us that information and that data couples not every University chooses to participate in the clearing house and then students may choose to not have their information shared back to their high schools okay um I guess what I'm asking is like um so I yeah I understand the phone calls and and the manual data reporting pieces um when you say that I think you said Helios is providing that information when it's available is that directly
094from FAFSA no so they're um reporting from what the universities those three just this three state and um so what they've given out in scholarship funds the information we get back is not individual student level we're getting big picture pieces they're not we don't get in a report that says Johnny Smith went to ASU this is Johnny Smith's GPA it's not Burger King correct no it's not that detailed it's a it's a summary of students who have had this school code on their transcript this is the data that relates to them um each of us have our own little high school code and that's what they pull that information off of and when do they opt into that information is it something they do when they're still in school saying hey I'll I'll go ahead
095and allow my information to be shared it's when they enroll out when they do the registration at the University level so it's some sort of form or something that they I'm gonna guess it's electronic now I'm I'm multiple years removed but anybody who's done it with their kids lately I'm assuming it's electronic all right thank you thank you moving to item H5 Dr Kellis thank you madam president members of the board members of cabinet Dr Dean will present this item good evening Madam president member of the governing board Dr Kelsey members of cabinet has previously shared with the governing board Karen winterstein will be retiring at the end of the school year capping a more than 40-year career in education Miss winterstein has served the Dysart Unified School District for 18 years and during her
096principal days was awarded the National Distinguished Principal of the Year award for the State of Arizona under Karen's leadership the student services department has become the One-Stop location for parents community members and administrators in dealing with many components needed to ensure our that our schools are safe it's been my pleasure to work with Miss winterstein directly for the last 18 years we're not here tonight to celebrate miss winterstein that time will come before the year is over this evening we're here to talk about how we move forward in the student services department with MS winterstein's departure Ms winterstein the student services department with Miss winterstein currently is a department of two with one vacant position Miss winterstein and an administrative assistant field hundreds of phone calls each week and just in the last three years
097those two positions have accounted for the following stats they have accounted for 3841 phone calls from the community to that department 760 emergency email notifications and facilitating the emergency response related to such 50 800 student 74 student referral assistants in which they work with our school administrator to provide proper facilitation and documentation for the referral as well as appropriate legal response and they've conducted fourth hour or worked with 4 303 student suspensions over three years including facilitation with our long-term suspension hearings assuring that we adhere to all legal processes in all processes within the school district as you can tell miss winterstein's leadership capacity will be greatly missed in order to effectively meet the growing needs of our school district as it relates to student safety and in conjunction with this increasing number that we
098see with student needs in the campus it's recommended that we restructure the student services department for the 22-23 school year in the following manner if we could please put the slide on the screen that would be great or I could just describe to you what the slide will say the recommendation is as follows that we would eliminate the current positions in the student services department all three of them which included the director of student services the support services safety coordinator position and the student services manager that currently exists that would be a budget decrease of approximately 253 thousand it's also recommended that we restructure that department then with the following pieces we would have a director of student services for middle school and high school a director of student services for K-8 schools and an
099administrative secretary to position those positions would result in an increased mno cost from what we're paying currently on an average of approximately forty thousand dollars as the number has been provided from human resource I'll be more than happy to answer any questions as we propose restructure of a student services department okay I'm confused already so you said in the beginning that it was a staff a director and the administrative secretary that yet here we see a support manager and a safety specialist so is that in addition to Madam president member Grant if I um use the word secretary in their current structure I apologize that would have been misspoken currently the position yeah currently in the department we have three positions right we have a director of student services which is Miss winterstein Miss winterstein
100has an assistant who is the support services manager thank you yeah I didn't you didn't say secretary I apologize you said assistant and that's where I got confused with there's no assistant here so that's the support services manager correct and then the safety and compliance specialist is bacon that is a vacant position and then the director of student services for high school and middle school is that one position that would be one position so we what we're recommending is two directors and one administrative secretary for the restructure of the position so there would be a director of student services for Middle School slash High School and then a director of student services for K-8 schools supported by an administrative secretary 2 position and then it's increasing forty thousand so what is the current budget minus
101the 253. so the the current the current three positions account for approximately 253 000 budget capacity we are we are representing on this slide eliminating that to appropriately show that that would remove that department and that department cost but then in bringing those positions back on the bottom half of that slide it would be we would return that budget amount and increase by approximately forty thousand dollars so the 253 is coming back in it would come back in yes for the entire department that's because I couldn't figure out how we could yes correct through those three positions for forty thousand dollars that would be a magic act it was I was gonna thank you I'm sorry I was just confused no worries and I apologize if I provided confusion no putting it down to the
102other three positions and we want to increase that budget by 40 by 40 000 yes correct and that would be an m o cost correct Mr Hicks I have a couple thoughts or questions with that um on the surface I always feel I'll say sorry for a bit lack for a better word sorry for people who do a wonderful job for a certain salary and then they leave and then there's added supports or money like I feel bad for that um my you know I wish we could have given Karen a forty thousand dollar increase rather than lose her um but aside from that piece of it in principle I'm concerned that we're getting rid of a safety and compliance specialist just in today's day and age and also just wondering in general again because
103we know that I mean we have round about the same amount of students I know we've structured it out differently to where now it's like well we have middle school buildings K buildings and high school buildings but it's still I think round about our enrollment is the same um I don't know why we need to if anything why not just take that salary and and restructure it in an equitable an equitable way to between those two positions but definitely not get rid of the safety and compliance specialist like I'd like to know more about why we think getting rid of safety and compliance is a good idea Madam president member Pritchard thank you for the question there excellent question the safety and compliance specialist has been vacant for two and a half years the responsibilities
104related to the safety and compliance specialist are being absorbed by the director of student services all of those responsibilities are being completed by Miss winterstein currently and those responsibilities Would Not Fade Away with the restructure they would be appropriately allocated to either the middle school high school person or the KA person to answer your question in terms of the need for two separate pieces similar to the restructure of Educational Services a few years back where we brought a director where we had one director for curriculum in the past and we split that into a director of curriculum for high school and a director of curriculum for K-8 schools the needs of middle school high school differ from the needs of our K-8 schools and the responsibilities related to each director would reflect those needs as
105well but Karen but miss winterstein's been doing that both right that is correct so what would it look like if we did not increase our budget by forty thousand dollars and work with what we had because the other piece too is I I we haven't done it in a while but I always hesitate on becoming a top heavy school district and adding too many directors and um because we've seen that Miss winterstein has been successful for all these years in her current role managing all of that I'm just wondering why we would necessarily need to jump to an extra forty thousand which is a teacher position actually around a coastal teacher position um when we know that the responsibilities have been done extremely well by one person Madam president miss Pritchard a couple of pieces
106first I would indicate that we run very lean administratively in our budget percentage compared to other school districts and if incredibly lean compared to Charter Schools the second piece I would indicate is that the job has been done incredibly well by Miss winterstein incredibly well I have made every attempt that I possibly can to convince her to not retire I believe she still has eight years left in her and I continue to work every day to talk her out of of retiring however I understand and and wish her great success in her retirement I'm a little bitter that she's retiring but we'll get over that because she's so she is so extraordinary in her position Miss winterstein is doing the work of multiple people as we have several directors that do and I understand your
107concern related to a person leaving and then a recommendation to replace them with more staff I completely understand that the recommendation is a compliment to miss winterstein and a concern for our ability with capacity to move forward with the current structure of the of the department I just don't know how it's a compliment like I wonder if she would have stayed if she would have gotten more money she would have she would not have had she let me rephrase that in our conversations she would not have however I can't speak for Miss winterstein directly I'm not putting her on the spot I'm just thinking out loud it's just anyway those are my another 40 Grand and I also you know do we need I I guess you know I feel like we're being redundant we
108have director of student services for high school middle school and then director of services for K-8 which is overlapping the same grade levels so if we want to have a director of students for high school and middle school and then a director of or a director for high school and then director for K-8 you know if you want to divide that up however you want to but I I guess I'm just a little cautious of increasing by another 40 Grand why can't we just take that budget that we have stick it into what stick it into that next column and then divide it up however you want Madam president miss Chapa that certainly is an opportunity I will tell you that the positions that currently exist are differentiated in the salary structures the I believe
109that there are all three exempt positions however each pays a different level so in terms of taking that 253 thousand dollars and dividing it by three that's not something that would be in our current structure our current structure has a director at the top of that department and then who certainly would be the highest paid position in that department and then two positions that that in which the pay scale is less than the director position well could we just change the service for high school and 4k8 Madam president miss Chaffin I would encourage the district not to consider lessening the position that heads that department of less than a director position okay not being defiant but can you just explain to me why the amount of responsibility that is associated with that position qualifies for
110a director level position Miss Chapman if I could jump in there um a lot of our administrators look to this position for guidance at the school level and typically when a principal is seeking guidance that guidance should come from somebody with a higher level of administrative responsibility than um than a manager and as we are considering the needs of the district as the board is very well aware of this week particularly you can imagine the the demand upon the department is great it's not just with taking phone calls if it was just taking phone calls that'd be great but it's taking all of the if you can imagine we have 23 000 students one person is taking all the complaints that's overwhelming then you add on the administrators who need supports legal legal Direction then
111you add in the the Safety and Security of the district responsibility for all of our safety plans our emergency preparedness as we work with fire police and then you add in all the social workers which is also under this department these are a lot of responsibilities we could push these off of the position and give them them up to other people but this recommendation is based on what our current needs are because in the past social workers were supervised by ESS man president in the far past perhaps in the most recent past they were under Federal programs and then under student services this is 2013-ish 16. yeah it's years ago and then can I ask reference and pay grade between the director and a manager Madam president Miss Chapman I would defer to Dr crotto
112I have to research that can I ask this while you're looking this up the director of student services for K-8 would be just for those Ka schools correct Madam president Mr seenfield that would be for the K4 and the K-8 schools as the name correct as the needs we are finding there are different needs but in with students who are in the seventh and 8th grade at K-8 schools as opposed to those in Middle Schools okay and right now miss uh winterstein although I do have some rope in the car we can we can tie her to the chair um the safety and compliance piece you know I I share Miss uh pritchard's issues with that but um those issues are being looked at by Miss winterstein right now that is correct we are not
113missing a beat all right just wanted to make sure thank you so in theory though since that position has been vacant and there's a salary attached to that position already if Miss winterstein's been doing or if this story let's just talk as far as a position this position has been absorbing those responsibilities of the safety and compliance specialist then technically that salary is still available to her if you wanted if you were going to eliminate that position you could take that extra and filter it to the two different positions if you wanted to but still staying within that 250 000 Madam president miss Pritchard the budget uh approximation of three two hundred fifty three thousand dollars includes an encumbered amount for that position so it's being held even though nobody is the salary for that
114position is still held in our budget even though it's vacant so the 253 thousand dollars in the First Column um for elimination include the salaries of this director of student services the support service manager and the safety and compliance specialist salary that we have on hold that's what I understand I understand that piece of it what I'm saying is though feeling like there's a lot of F plates where if we split it into two technically some of that money who's that's being held it's not being spent in that safety and compliance specialist if you wanted to you would be able to increase the salaries of those two other positions and still stay within that 250 000 correct rather than increasing it by another forty thousand Madam president miss Pritchard the the amount would still be
115approximately 253 000 regardless of how you sliced it but down here at the bottom with the proposed proposed going to be a budget increase forty thousand dollars that's what it says the the difference in Pay between the safety and compliance specialist and another director is approximately forty thousand dollars Madam president members of the board what I'm they promise um but can you tell me how many um positions report into the director of student services Madam president miss Densmore the director of student services currently oversees two positions in the school district yet supports 23 000 students all of their parents and all of the school administrators in our school system as well and and thank you for bringing that up the social workers are housed under student services yet they are evaluated by the school principal
116is that correct they're evaluated by the school principal yet they are overseen in general by Miss winterstein okay so in the overseeing of the social workers how much of a if you could quantify that in a day or a week or a month I mean how much time would you be spending on social workers sorry good evening Madam president governor rumors um I've been chomping at the bit back there because and I don't know if I'm stepping out of line um I you're leaving that's right yes I am I love my job but it is truly my life has been consumed by this job for eight years and if I had had another cohort person to help me I could stand up here and say without a shadow of a doubt every single one of
117my dozens of responsibilities would have been done at a hundred percent capacity there are days when I don't get to everything parent phone calls admin phone calls I get to every one of those every single day emails but as far as the safety compliance specialist we did hire a person in that capacity um I believe part of that might have been a flaw maybe on my part because just as Dr Dean had alluded to to work and provide guidance for our site administrators every day it I don't I could never have done this job unless I walked in their shoes for over a dozen years I was an administrator for 18 years and there's no way that I could have provided the necessary guidance unless I had that background and the person that we hired
118was fantastic at safety compliance absolutely no experience in a school setting or had never been an administrator before so it there just wasn't that same relationship or trust that was able to be built upon so I truly believe that to separate the responsibilities of the director of student services into two separate positions and please note that there would be an emphasis um different emphasis with with each person that has not been finalized we have we've started a conversation about what it could look like but of course we would never move forward with that conversation without um and the the reorg approved by the governing board but I Envision it as you see that K4 that K-8 position so much of that especially with the new laws in place that would really focus on the PBIS
119aspect the alternatives to suspension because that's where that's needed in that grade level band whereas maybe more of the safety compliance might fall more heavily in the middle school and high school position but that discussion will take place once the reorg is approved and then all of the dozens of responsibilities that fall in this department can be delineated they would definitely have categories that they would both equally provide the schools that are assigned to them and then there would be overlapped too such as if there is a an emergency or heavy need in there gosh you have another person to to collaborate and work with would be amazing and I hope that gives just a little bit of oversight I apologize the social worker question as with any one of the responsibilities that fall on
120my plate it depends on the week or the day I don't talk to a social worker every single day but I am responsibility for their professional development calendar their PLC groups I meet with them monthly I also communicate with them regularly so that expectations alignment of understanding those kinds of I'm responsible for that but there is a social worker lead who also provides that support to the group who I communicate with almost on a daily basis thank you and just to clarify Mr Dean and governing board members I don't I don't care whether it's split into two positions like I can understand where you're coming from sunshine I'm just asking that the district try to work within the world budget I understand thank you yes ma'am which one numbers did you want um what is
121the difference in pay grade for director versus manager please a director is on the admin schedule um so they start at 91 774 and that's without benefits there's nothing and the safety and compliance and the student Support Services managers are hourly they're on the exempt hourly exempt scheduled and uh they are on level V which is 23.21 an hour so roughly then if you multiply that out what is that per year like 40. 48 roughly with Benefits you add benefits into those numbers show benefits the 253 shows benefits in all those areas so 253 Madam president miss Pritchard just for also for clarification that the starting level one that Dr crota mentioned Miss winterstein expressed the the need for somebody with experience um so we would be looking for an experienced principle to to fill
122this position although that would still I mean I understand what you're saying um it's not probably a perfect numbers game but even two positions at 90 000 or 90 I guess 91 so and plus a forty thousand dollar uh job that's like 221 thousand dollars which is still under that 253. so that sort of that's the only way that's where my head's at so I'm gonna be looking to see if we can use fit work within our current budget as opposed to increasing it a teacher's salary Madam president member Pritchard those numbers that you see up there include benefits so it would be well above that when you include benefits that 253 includes uh the benefit packages so the numbers I shared with you do not have benefits in them so if you if you
123sorry rounded those by the time you put about 33 percent in the benefits you're about at 292. and that's if we added another director level correct position as opposed to a manager yeah these are bottom this is not the top of the director so correct and and for experiences so we're not looking for somebody to come in at the 91 774. we're looking for someone to come in with several years experience so that's going to increase our cost even more if we have two director positions which I completely understand the need for it because God bless you Mrs winterstein for all of the work that you're doing and it is insane how much you get done on a daily basis so I completely understand your desire to split this up into two 100 understand that
124need I am so on board with that I'm still having this conversation with numbers like Dr Kella said um you know I do share Miss pritchard's concern about increasing another teacher's salary foreign this is an information item only and we presented this to board exactly for this conversation and to receive your feedback thank you very much thank you I had one question also um once we get everything squared away um this would be opened to um industry would we be trying to tap in District administration okay we would be seeking the most highly qualified person for the position okay thank you so we'll advertise externally as well Madam president miss Pritchard we will advertise with HR internally and externally is there a reason why it's an administrative secretary too and not a one I I
125just was curious Madam president Miss Grant the administrative secretary 2 position allows for the opportunity to operate on the same calendar as the directors of student service as opposed to as opposed to not being available at all times the directors are available thank you okay thank you all right moving on to Ida information item six Dr Kellis Madam president and members of the board and members of cabinet Mr Hicks will present this item good evening Madam president members of the board superintendent Dr Kellis colleagues and community members last month the district released us released a survey to help get some input on the capital needs and a potential bond to our community helping requesting to get some feedback and some input into making a recommendation as noted in the survey only the governing board can
126call or place the bond question on a ballot traditionally school districts would put together a committee a bond committee maybe solicit 15 to 20 community members to provide some input and help guide it some districts just bypass that all together so there's no one general standard way last time we did do the community members 15 20 trying to get more community members this is a little bit different take and so we um posted the survey out on our website promoted it through social media email tax press release newspaper social media social media social media push push push and we put it out for 18 days we had a total of a thousand respondents and one question we did ask to help differentiate it provide some information is how many people if those that are responding
127do you have a direct connection direct connection means do you have somebody in your household that either attends or works for Dysart School District so we can differentiate between those people and those that have no direct connection with the Dysart School District and so the other thing was we identified 10 projects to place out in the survey and the respondents could put a value of anywhere between one and ten one being the highest priority 10 being the lowest priority on in rank value each project that did not require the respondents to provide a unique number meaning you could only have one one one two one three so it did not Force rank it in and so they could put 10 on every project and say none of these are a priority or they could put
128one on every project it's a everything's a priority and just looking at some of the results or looking at the results not everybody responded to every question so of the Thousand fifteen I don't know that there was over a thousand respondents on every single question or project identified and there was also just a quick little summary of each project of what that entailed so we're going to just go through a little bit of the results and some of the input that we received from this survey looking at it I'm just looking at all the response a thousand people that responded how many had of these projects had the number one ranking listed for these projects so safety security was the number one with over 350 respondents saying that that is the number one most important
129thing next with site improvements High School land and student transportation so you can see the top four there if you're looking at for a differentiator for I mean a 250 was the line right there that you can see is a little bit of a break that you have those top four but clearly Safety and Security was number one then we just just looking at how many had 10 what was uh what projects got the most tens and so if you look at all the projects too clearly Stand Out is Athletics which had turf fields involved in it and Performing Arts centers which had the Vista a little component of the restrooms on the Vista also identified in it but those two had over 160 so they clearly had the most least prioritized projects of the
13010 that were presented to the community also just looking uh wanted to look at some of the results and seeing let's just look at the three highest so total how many people put a number one rank it the most important how many people put a number two ranking the second most important and then number three the third most important so if you could see once again Safety and Security continues to be the number one site improvements number two and student transportation number three four and five are pretty close High School land and then technology so looking at okay so these were the three highest I then wanted to look and say what about the four highest and does that change anything and so then now adding up to four if it was ranked either one
131two three or four add up the total of votes Safety and Security still number one very close with site improvements student transportation number three so not changing and high school land number four so there's a common theme of where you could see a prioritization I did not go to number five because on this scale you had one's a high priority ten very low priority there was a large number of fives placed and fives just my interpretation was they're neutral so this wasn't advocating for or against anything they're just saying seems okay but I don't know enough give it a five so I did not want to include the number fives in here because it would bring everything closer together because there's just a lot of fives given across the way so really just looking at
132these four are standing out as the safety Security Site improvements student transportation and high school land we also received some feedback from the emails that were forwarded to me I think there were posts on website or emails directly really just a lot of good comments so we did have an open comment section so some asking specifically don't do this if the ROI is not there don't do trans technology because the books die before the bonds are paid I mean just some very intelligent uh conversation comments um there's a few bad bad bad there was a few I hate all bonds there's a few I hate all taxes but there were a lot of just good comments um within it we had about 400 that provided comments on the survey and um uh and I thought
133they were very useful I would say a lot of the comments actually were talking about student growth and so although an elementary school did not rise up to the level was not placed in there that doesn't surprise me because 80 percent of the people currently are tied to the district now which means they probably want their school or their site identif addressed before a new school is built in that sense just a interpretation we could all have our different interpretations of of that and so it did not come but I thought this was a very good information I got a thousand pieces of data coming in to help influence a recommendation and so we wanted to present it to the board have it listen to any comments or questions but the anticipation would be this
134will help frame a recommendation that would come back to the governing board in January regarding a bond question so I'll stand for any questions could you talk about Safety and Security was it just that's the question every project had just a very small so one of the things is um I don't know about you but when I'm doing surveys I hate very long surveys and so we're trying brevity was very important and so we're just trying to give very quick little Little Couple sentences and so with Safety and Security would be talking about increa um and proven to our district school sites and buildings to improve would be fencing and proof fencing keyless building access so we don't have enough key card accesses right now so and then also safe and secure places within the
135building and so just general statements it did have dollar amounts to all of them so they were just broad estimates we have not gotten quotes or gone down the path of any major to identify it's just in general what would this cost just with Ball parking it just to get an estimate so that they could make a judgment on some of these and is there a reason why um I see like when you say Elementary School number one Northwest number two that's to build another Elementary School is there a reason why the choice wasn't on there to build a middle school um that was some comments um in the report or at the end was to ask why wouldn't we be building a middle school in that sense um there is no great reason of
136why I was putting together an elementary school the list of what our needs are and so that could definitely be a consideration I was just curious as to I mean now that we've gotten got to adding a middle school year and there Madam president members of the board that was probably my own biases in that that we have Pairs and we've got feeders and so it's not off the table we could definitely talk as we'll put it together for a recommendation in January we'll definitely take that feedback under I was just curious yeah what was the reason for not having a committee so we've had committees in the past and you're getting 15 to 20 people's opinion that's got a thousand and so the thought was I think I've heard criticism you know I internalize
137a lot of when bonds fail and and how and what I look at other districts I go through there seems to be a criticism of whenever you have a committee that the Committees the deck has been stacked and you got only people that care about it so this allowed us to get more opinions so those people that don't like it instead of just getting yes people we wanted to hear from all people thank you [Music] and I'm really happy to see that Safety and Security is one of the the high priorities of the community but I do wonder I mean with your um explanation just now with the Safety and Security maybe with the fencing and the technology with the the key tags not to say that those things are not important because I think
138that they are um but I wonder if some people in our community have a different mindset of what Safety and Security means maybe they might mean increase in Social Workers maybe they might mean additional school resource officers but you didn't touch on that so and we all know that a bond doesn't cover things like that but some people in our community tend to confuse over rise and bonds pretty often it's pretty common theme so I I would like to know a little bit more about that maybe see maybe the comments will answer that what they mean um Madam president members of the board I mean I read all the comments okay there's a lot I can't remember all of them to know if it will answer that question specifically but I will say we did
139spell out right before the question exactly what this means or is similar what it means and know where where they're people involved and so I I don't necessarily know but I don't know that there wasn't a comment about that so see in the comments we'll help you also formulate that but so I think if we were framing it um properly but I live in this world and make assumptions and I use ackerman's acronyms and everything the alphabets all over the time so I don't want to presume everything on that so that's good feedback too um it was the capital needs survey to um it just clarified I'm looking for the front page that the district's Capital needs and get their opinion the help frame a recommendation to the governing board because only the governor board
140can call for a bond all right I don't have the first page Madam president no okay do we think that that would be important to see how much Community Support we would even have because how much does it cost to even put a measure on the ballot like um last time it was I think two dollars per registered voter I think we have a hundred thousand registered voters so two hundred thousand dollars roughly so what changes with every election but we might want to have that information I mean I I see what you're saying about um getting more respondents through the survey because you have a thousand versus the 15 to 20. but um the community the the bond committee was you know actually able to hear some of that discussion and the thought process
141to see like would they really get behind it just even though I mean just with 15 to 20 people it's also not a representative sample of our entire Dysart Community just like a thousand people aren't a representative sample but I'd be interested to know if that question was posed to them would they would they be interested in supporting a bond measure and the only other thing that I would ask I know there was reference to a January meeting I would prefer that we have some information around this prior to an action item to put it I mean I need to have the information have some time to process it before I would come back and know right away okay I want to support it or not thank you if that's possible thank you yes I
142also have a question what prompted us to send out a survey was that just because we didn't want to we're bypassing the committee um there was no Madam president members of the board no bypassing a committee there was no committee to bypass it was to get input to help make decisions uh recommendations to the government board to our community about our Capital needs and so this was just one way of collecting that information so you're just collecting the information to to make a presentation for recommendation to the governing board I think that would be a good piece I I still go back to what I had said I'd really like to know whether it be through a follow-up question or we have a bond committee still just to because if our community if our community
143isn't behind it then it's a waste of two hundred thousand dollars just to put it on and I'd also like when you guys gather the information to bring to the information item in January if you wouldn't mind also including information about our bond committee I don't know what you call it Community like a pack or like what it and I know we're not really involved in that piece of it technically but how it's going to be marketed or can't be like who's who's going to be spearheading that and how that's going to roll out the approach to that the organization of all of that Madam president members of the board so first I would start with I don't think I should do a follow-up question we have engaged um a company to do some surveying
144for us if we do that they get better accurate demographics part of the committee problem is we get people that support schools that want to do this that want to say yes and so as you look at some of the comments there's a ton of yes yes yes I support everything every single time it's blindly we would get a lot of that because that's their interest and so this allowed us to get a little bit more that's not always those that are for it but as far as getting information on does what our community support this support meaning the successful passage of a bond means that we would need someone to get the survey data out to the representative of our electorate and so you would need a good cross sampling of the various Depo
145parties in that sense and those that are expected to vote and so I would I would say we would need to hire somebody to do that an outside person and not me just sending a a survey question that would probably not get that information in that sense okay well like and I you can do that for a living so I understand however you feel like the proper way to do it I sorry however that works I my main thing is just getting the information somehow to get an understanding of where the community sits with it but I remember when we were going over the results of um I think it was the year we went for an override and a bond and one of we had a workshop and one of the things that I
146had suggested is specifically reaching out to the parts of members of our community that had there was a lot of no votes and finding out and learning why they voted no what could bring them to a yes you know what just to kind of break down some of those barriers so as far as getting a representative sample I understand like the district seems to use a lot of the same people for their committees um which I side note would like to change I want to get more of a representative sample but I I understand you went to those same people I understand you're saying like they'll always say yes as far as doing things to support the schools possibly I shouldn't say always lots of times because they want to you know provide better transportation
147and um building improvements and things so that's why I think it's still important because the members that vote no are still valued members of our community and still want to be able to get their feedback we have that information aren't we able to reach out to them not just the the community members that we typically have on our committees um so Madam president members of the board I've had two override Bond committees and never had the same outside of the designated DEA represent and others almost at no point are they the same committee so I don't have I've only done it twice I haven't had the same people on my committees maybe committees the wrong one because it seems like there's always the same players around our bonds and overrides so maybe we're taught maybe
148I'm not communicating president just for clarification are you talking about the the pack are you talking about the committee who would be making a recommendation I'm sorry yeah well both the earlier part of my question had to do with the pack and wanting to know how it's going to be organized this year but the specific specific question is yeah just making sure we have a representative sample but if you're saying those people are always different and they're not the same then okay then okay you would know that the committee as a district than when we put together to determine if we're going to make a recommendation to the governing board for a bond and override those committees I've done twice and they've been different people except for a couple Representatives standard people that we have
149on our DEA representative or DSA representative so there's only a couple people that are the same the others have both in those two committees have been different and we posted it on our website for interest yeah and collected everybody and ran those can those committees that way so interesting then that you you'd still think that a lot of them are always going to give like the the support because they're involved like if it's just a random sampling um it's interesting that there's not you're saying they're usually always supportive they usually are yeah because sometimes our results don't show that um when you have 15 people that's from an email or a Facebook post if you want to you know show up at this time that's not a representative sample of the people that are intended
150to vote of registered voters electorate that will vote yes that is correct however you think would be best I just if possible I just like to know what the community thinks as part of the present as part of the information bring brought back to the board to make the decision well and I would like to Echo Miss Pritchard I would like more information also but I think when we ask the community for their input we also need to give them the information on how much we spend an interest on our current Bond we need to give them information on the bond we already are paying on how much interest how much it's cost the duration of it so we need them to know like the whole picture like we've got this Bond over here are
151you okay with us asking for another Bond over here because we pay a boatload of interest on these bonds every single year us taxpayers I'm not sure how you would word if I'm understanding what you're asking I mean I get it kind of like I want to know ahead of time if this is going to pass or not but to me it would be very difficult to go back out and say would you support a bond well that's what we need to know because well wait a second I want to know what that money is going to be used for I mean my first instinct is going to be why so you have to be able to go back and say we would like to do a bond if we did a bond on one
152to give them four or five things otherwise somebody's gonna say well why are you doing a bond well we have we have that information now right the top three but we don't know if you send this back out who the people aren't going to know what you just can't say do you support a bond you'd have to say would you support a bond to build another school would you support a bond right Transportation safety and school side improvements that's where you're leaning right is that what this presentation is about Madam president members the board based on the data we now do have some information what I'm hearing is that we need to do new different surveying polling of registered voters to likely now that we've narrowed this down for example technology so many people not
153wanting it technology is out Athletics is out performing so we've now used information to narrow this down to a list that now we could work with our um the vendor to look at doing some surveying or pulling of our district to see if they would support this and get that information yeah that's what I would like can you clarify what the the timeline is um as far as requiring a vote to get it in time to the county um superintendent to be on the ballot Madam president members of the board the legal and I don't know the exact date so I'm just going to give you some ballpark ballpark Board needs to vote on it before by the first week in June would be the time it has to be finalized so there are some
154sometimes additional information so it allows us to the end of June to finalize that so that attorneys and other things could finalize everything the first week of July so June okay um you always hate to wait until the very last meeting for something in case something happens in the board meeting so I've always pegged the end of May is kind of the get the question in front of the board that was my next statement I just I I don't want to be waiting until the last minute and it being up to us to not table it to make a rash decision and sometimes without all of our information or all of our questions being answered um so if you can help us prepare for that as best you can I I it's I would appreciate
155that okay I also think it's important to ask tasks payers if they want us to spend the money to put the bond on the ballot because that is a significant amount of money that taxpayers may not always be aware of so I feel like in addition to current Bond information how much interest we spend in the past few years on this Bond how the duration of it I think it's also important to ask them if they want us to spend taxpayer money putting it on the ballot because that would give us an indication whether or not they our community wants it on the ballot without actually asking them would you support this Bond I feel like that makes a difference does that two hundred thousand dollars include if we have a governing board election um
156it might reduce it a little bit the the even year election with it being uh all the different things so it'll be on it we'll share some cost so it might come down a little bit but we still pay if we have two or three openings and we have six people running as a district we still have to pay to get the candidates on the ballot Madam president members of the board we pay some this adds to that cost I'm just saying yeah I don't want to say that 200 thousands are cost no matter what to say that this there is a realistic cost to asking the question and so but this is that's a question we could also feed to our pollster as they're going out they could find out that information as well
157we're going to feed the information or the question to your pollsters we could that's what no about the cost of the the question that you said let's ask our community if they want to put the bond on the ballot with the cost knowing that there's a cost to the question will you identify that cost to them I feel like transparency is a win for us because if our community is fully aware of needs wants and the cost they can make that decision on whether or not they want a us to put it on the ballot and B if they want to if they want to pay the extra taxes so as long as we present them a whole picture I feel like they'll be better and informed voters and that will give us an idea
158that will help us gauge what our community wants Mr Hicks have a question for you um on our website where it says District budgets and finance reports one of the quick link says the current Bond information is that information about the interest um yeah quick link Madam president members of the board last time I clicked on it that was just our 2006 Bond program and updated so that people knew because although it was approved in 2006 the expenses ran out to probably 2010 2011 and so they had all the projects in that okay so it's not part of the the link in there okay um thank you very much for all your comments and input Ed for a second I'm gonna be disrespectful okay as as Governor board clerk I'm calling for a recess sure
159foreign yes she's like I know I'm gonna call the meeting back to order thank you for your patience and while we recessed so we're going to be moving on to item H7 Dr Kellis thank you madam president members of the board and members of the cabinet Mr Hicks will present this information thank you very much good evening Madam president members of the board superintendent Dr Kellis colleagues and community members at the request of a board member I will talk about our protocols our process and laws regarding governing board expended or governing expenditures first it is identified in the uniform system of financial record keeping the usfr and also supported by Statute that all expenditures are required to be approved by the governing board this includes both accounts payable and payroll expenditures in addition the usfr
160looks to verify that the district has effective controls to ensure that expenditures are for allowable purposes I mean they're legal and compliant Auditors will verify that the process demonstrates transactions are properly approved and are for an amount within the budget capacity or available cash and also that our system and process is there to protect employees from allegations of misuse that everything's done proper and flows you know the approved manner the district has a process in place to separate responsibilities so different people preparing the voucher are record keeping different authorization who's approving different ways different things along the way amongst our staff we have budget control groups that are in place that we utilize in our software that allows us to ensure that there's budget capacity and or cash balances available prior to approving any of
161those purchase orders and or authorizing expenditures and approval structure is based on our account code and that creates a routing process to help ensure that the appropriate People review and approve all the expenditures districts are also required to create a process to ensure that the accuracy of the expenditures this accuracy of the invoices done and is also helping with assisting and preparing the voucher and is also completed and reviewed by staff a process is also in place to help reduce the risk associated with payroll expenditures the epar process helps us ensure that this happens on the payroll side and this entails staff reviewing documentation verification approval and approvals to ensure that employees are appropriately compensated reviewing time cards reviewing position or position or supplementary compensation approvals the district is required to implement a delayed payroll
162system which we do for our hourly staff and then also allowed allow adequate time for any payroll adjustments within our payroll process so these processes are in Pro in place to put in that we put in budgets in detail and we use the software to ensure that they are maintained we have various people various stages I know that's a various various comment of people that are looking at different things our approval routing process you could have a federal project expenditure go through and maybe six seven people look at it for various things to make sure it's compliant it's won't even allow them to enter it if there's not budget capacity and so we use our software to make sure that it routes to the right people to review it for the right purpose and then
163ensures that it goes through in in a compliant way um we make sure that we're in compliance with all of our usfr and other statutes via our Auditors come in and randomly test a lot of our transactions to ensure that's happened and that they're in compliance with all federal state regulations in order to complete these process in timely manner we do have vouchers that are identified to be ratified by the governing board so I know I just went through verbally really quickly a long process that is a bureaucracy that we create within the business system that slows things down to make sure that things are done in a proper and appropriate Manner and so hopefully the summary helps with the discussion with the governing board on our expenditure vouchers thank you for providing that account
164information actually um what triggered this question for me and I figured well it might be just good discussion not just just wondering if the board had similar question but then also for our community to understand um was after the last meeting when we were taking action on the nsba membership piece where we approved that expenditure in the consent agenda and then when we later voted to end our membership and there was discussion about obtaining a refund I was like well if we just approved it then the money shouldn't have gone out yet so there'd be no reason to look for a refund so I figured I must be missing something um because I or help me understand Community understand if the board has to approve these costs then why would we have been in a
165position to where we need to ask for a refund because in theory maybe it shouldn't have been paid yet if we hadn't approved it yet I uh Madam president members aboard I think I heard a lot that I was trying to make little notes of and so I might not have caught everything so please ask follow-up questions but so how does it go out because we do have a ratification process so expenditures happen um and so that allows us to still get the governing board approval for expenditures while still operating The District in an efficient manner efficient manner is paying bills on time so if it was once we expend something or once we produce a purchase order and we send it out we now have a legal liability to pay for that expense that
166expense is verified on the front end during the routing process of a purchase order to verify that there's budget the budget has been approved by the board so we approve it in total where the budgets are in some lines and so that there is money that it is illegal and compliant so we have people looking to make sure that it's legal and appropriate and compliant and so it goes through those vetting processes once a purchase order is issued we now are legally it's a legally binding contract purchase orders are and we're legally liable to pay that we a lot of them are net 30 days so we have 30 days to make these payments a lot of them we use ebts or our P cards to make payments which then the payment of the credit
167card is even delayed another month after that and so a lot of these are coming in after for the board to ratify those expenses okay so I think you clarified a key piece so these expenses were probably in some line item in the budget that was board approved so in theory that you're not as long as you don't go over that line item amount for whatever that category is than any of the Little individuals uh Ticky talk type expenditures along the way as long as they fit in there they've already theoretically been approved in a sense to where the fact that you're paying them before the board approves them really isn't an issue because we've when we approve the budget we've approved that um that payment expense um Madam president remember what yes Essence in
168essence yes because the board's approving and you can see an m and others on that page two of the budget there are all those different categories have what it purchase Services how much and purpose services in the classroom at the administration at the executive Administration so there are the governing board when they approve the budget is approving spending this amount in these areas and so then it's up to the administration or whoever's in charge of those almost like component units and that's in charge of that amount to execute that and so that could be through various different expenditures so does the law state though does it have any regard for whether or not the board approves particular the um the expenses of certain items that that I don't know if I'm explaining this correctly now
169so let me slow down for a second I understand that as long as you don't exceed the budget I mean that's that's the biggest piece of it because we've approved the budget the way that it is but the laws you're referring to as far as the board ratifying these expenditures is vouchers that is a different process that they still want to see that the board ratifies these vouchers or expenditures so Madam president members of the board I I think maybe maybe I'm hopefully using this correctly the approval of the budget is almost like the pre-authorization to spend it all here but the statute still require the governor board to approve every expenditure it doesn't become an expenditure until we pay it and so then we have to have you go back and expense all of
170this I see so now and some of this was maybe sorry I didn't mean to no go ahead um um I go back to my way way long days before we had all the technology and the county printed every school district's checks and a lot of times they were looking at the early beginning you get a voucher summary page the board would sign it you would take it down they'd give you your checks that the board has approved and all of this stuff things happen now with electronic transfers and Technology really quickly but a lot of in the late 90s there was movement to ratification of all vouchers so that it didn't slow down the process because if they would not release checks without that well then you need a governing board when he's doing
171that so the operations of the district slowed down dramatically if you're not having a ratification of that process okay so I think where I was getting hung up was it the money it's just the specific areas of How It's spent the specific items need to be ratified under the statute per law yeah right okay under President Miss Pritchard if I could also ask Mr Hicks to explain that there is a threshold however I think what you may be a lot of this discussion has to do with lower cost items you do reach a threshold where we can't go out and spend without getting more approval through the procurement process um Madam president members of the governor board so that's a different so it's not a hundred percent alignment but yes we do have also purchasing
172procurement thresholds that then lend into so even below the hundred thousand where you're thinking we have to go full Bid And You released I think multiple bids approved multiple bids on a consent agenda to go out to RFP on those even at the 10 000 once we see that we're getting quotes so we're still required to do a threshold of procurement at all things that doesn't necessarily involve the governing board but there are two different things but yes when you trip over a hundred thousand if we don't get the governing board approval through an RFP or Through official solicitation then we have to go to something that's already been procured out there an official manner in an appropriate Manner and so those are some of the Mojave one GPA consortiums got B some save types
173that were allowed to piggyback onto their expenditures because they've had somebody go through that process officially and meets those requirements so dovetails a little bit but not 100 but we're always making sure we do procurement on anything over ten thousand I appreciate you explaining that and I know it it may seem like it no one no one said this but I know it might seem like a silly agenda item because it's like you know you've probably been doing this forever but I think it's good for the community to hear the discussion it was good for me because I learned something tonight but I mean I think in general it goes beyond just a board member's understanding because when the community hears our discussions about getting a refund for something that was just passed or thinking
174well why did they spend it without board approval this is transparent clears it up so I do appreciate you taking the time to break it down um thank you very much for those comments member president Madam president members of the board I do think it's important because I think I've heard those same questions of people saying how could they approve something the same night and why didn't they prove that ahead of time so if you think through what do we have three four thousand purchase orders we probably have a hundred thousand transactions that happen over the fiscal year the governing board to approve every single one of those transactions is the most inefficient way I could ever think of running uh in operations and so we set up systems and processes in place to have
175coverage and make sure we're doing things in appropriate manner in that sense so I think it's a good point to bring it to light just to explain all the processes we do already have in place to make sure that we're doing everything proper and within total compliance well thank you thank you Mr Hicks I'm glad you guys that uh information regarding back in the 90s when you actually had to hand carry that down to the county send somebody down to go pick up the checks and send somebody down there so um and ask somebody that has um created hundreds and hundreds of those expense vouchers they can be a pain because everything has to be match up match up so perfectly so I do appreciate everything that you and well all right so I'll give
176it over there marydell and her staff does because it is a lot of tracking and you do put you have to put a budget in there in order for it to for everything to come out thank you so thank you and I'm I'm glad that you did bring that up because I think you're right it does need to get out to the community on what the specifics of the gratification is so Madam president members of the board maybe we could bring like fixed assets and other things that we'd like the community to learn of things we do to make sure that we Safeguard all our taxpayer assets so thank you very much thank you very much next we have item uh h8 information on social workers Dr Kellis thank you madam president members of the
177board members of cabinet Dr Dean will present this information Madam president members of the governing board Dr Kellis and members of cabinet I'm going to turn this over to our current director of student services and retiring at the end of the school year Miss winterstein we're trying to get every penny out of this poor woman wow we've already established is underpaid I still have seven months Dr Dean yes a good evening Madam president government board members Dr Kellis cabinet members and audience um it is my pleasure to give you um an update on our social workers it's on Denise I might need your assistance let me Begin by saying that um our school social workers um uh they were hired in their position several years ago they do not provide any type of therapy counseling
178any any clinical kind of support for our families we do work with Southwest Behavioral Health Services directly as well as other agencies to provide that Denise are you able to change the slides for me okay well I have to tell you that in a perfect world our social workers have a plan for their days but I can tell you as this year has progressed they truly are responsive to the ever-changing Daily needs of our students and the situations that present themselves within a school setting our social workers wear many hats every day on a daily basis they are doing Crisis Intervention with our students they also provide scheduled check-ins uh student referrals students can refer themselves administrators teachers they're doing mediations they're following up with discipline such issues that might resolve like a mediation or
179or something that would need follow-up they also do so much to provide attendance support for our families and our students several years ago we were connected with the cuts program with Maricopa County however that partnership was no longer put into place because their staff was cut by so many that it really did not provide us a service and there really isn't wasn't anyone at the school that had time to deal with attendance they do countless numbers of as threat assessments on a daily and weekly basis I'll provide some data at the end they do the bulk majority of our DCS reports in addition they are the site contact for mckinney-vento here at district office and arrange support for those students and family members they are very important in our reintegration process when students have not
180been in school for a while for a variety of reasons and then also to follow up for safety plans support plans separation plans that might be needed to be put in place for students again the the direct contact with the Southwest Behavioral uh clinicians that provide that tier three support for our students they attend a variety of meetings every weekend every month and I apologize for the acronym soup right here the RTI process which you're familiar with IEPs individualized educational plans for our students bip the Behavior Support plans or Improvement plans diar is ducks in a row and that would be for an ESS student to brainstorm how to support before a meeting CFT is a child family team that is that helps with those wraparound supports and then also provide classroom management support specific
181to student needs that are in that classroom um skipped aside so supporting students is their main goal and I want to preface this by saying anytime that a scheduled check-in or a mediation or any of those things that I mentioned on that first page with the exception of Crisis Intervention if a student is having a meltdown they're not going to get parent permission first they're going to go in and work as a team to support that student but everything else with a contact with a social worker is done with parent permission and that these are some examples short-term small groups to support students in the area such as grief anger drug diversion problem solving goal setting stress anxiety and coping skills are huge right now because our students are dealing with so much it is
182amazing the amount of loss that our schools have gone through our families for a variety of reasons whether it be the immediate family or extended family and kids especially in the last couple of years it's just very difficult for them to get a hold of that those feelings that are often being felt for the first time so um and again it's within the school setting so the support is not grief overall like a therapy or counseling but it's just gosh when you're sad you know what let's have a picture of of that person here or or write a note so it's it's um just helping them cope with getting through the school day um in these groups the individual supports and check-ins such as for safety plans or support plans especially after a threat assessment
183or suicide or self-injury screener those are just making sure that they are they're safe within their day and that they have the supports that they need or use utilizing those strategies that can help them get through their academic day the threat assessment teams are they're they're such an integral part of of that team as well as our RTI mtss Behavior de-escalation providing those strategies for our students but also for our staff members in assisting and I say academic and behavior intervention because once behaviors are in place the academics naturally are a positive outcome and when when I have conversations with social workers the percentage of students that they actually work with and and have those parent permissions and and are providing supports School supports are relatively small kind of when you think about that that
184triangle that pyramid of RTI just as with the academics that top portion of the pyramid so the social worker would be working with the students that are at the top portions of the pyramid in that that tier two and what we're seeing is that because they're working with that smaller percentage of of students it's really benefiting the entire school because the distractions in the classroom are reduced the students are more effective when they are in the classroom when they're utilizing those strategies in there and those coping skills so that they can attend to the instruction and be more successful academically so for supporting staff and families the staff support is in a variety of ways um two of the the most important ones are the de-escalation of that student behavior and then giving the staff
185members whether it be the school aid that's out on um providing supervision during lunch or uh the classroom teacher saying hey these are some strategies so when they're when they're not getting longer having some conflict these are some redirections that you can use these are some strategies that are successful with these certain students so that is um just benefiting the everyone Family Support is is huge for our social workers as I mentioned the CFT let's say a student is and I'm going to jump down to that re-entry plans re-entry plans are for a variety of reasons such as after a suspension we want to make sure that the student is um you know feels welcome and ready to return to that academic setting we have many students that unfortunately for a variety of reasons are
186inpatient or hospitalized and so it's important to have those plans for support for them to come in so that they can be successful so a CFT is one result of that so if let's say they're receiving outside um therapy from a clinician and we want to provide uh wraparound services in that if they're working on certain skills outside um if there's certain terminology or certain skills or any information that as a school I know as a previous administrator those were important conversations to have to make sure that we had the information just just the necessary information to know how to support that student those would be conversations in a CFT and then educational plans that fit and meet the student needs our social workers are having conversations with the families and saying you know what
187is best for your child and having that conversation because what how the student presents at school might be different at home and having those conversations the food pantry we have so many parents in in every one of our school schools that receive weekly food pantry for the weekend to get them through the outside resources to coordinate which is such as McKinney vento the kinship we have so many family members that are raising family members that are that are not their biological children and then coordination of donations that is really big right now in the holiday season but it truly takes place all year long I want to provide you some data so in the first 77 days this was December 1st I know this doesn't seem like a lot for our numbers but district-wide we
188had 82 911 calls often those were because of a student in crisis or a need received in my department so far and sometimes it takes a while to get to them we've had 227 threat assessments and they're broken down by the individual type right there for you uh the high as you can see the vast majority are are suicide unfortunately out of school suspensions we've had 1512 as of December 1st this year a huge increase the number that you see below that is last year so please understand and on the next slide you'll see the number in red that is the year that we I call it our quiet year because we had just gone through the school closure in March everyone was very apprehensive in coming back to school those were in person we
189were socially distanced it lent itself to a much more quiet climate and and school year last year so you'll see that that number 457 is one third of where we are right now and the year before the 1372 that was the year in which we only had three quarters of a school year and then the the 1364 was that last full year 1819 that we had so you can see that our Behavior referrals have have increased with the exception of um uh last year so continuing with our first 77 days of those discipline referrals that have been processed we've had 69 assaults so far this year the the red here is 61 in the end please note that the the numbers in parentheses indicate the total number for a 180 day school year with the
190exception of the the middle one because we only had three quarters of a school year so I know that's kind of hard to so 69 assaults 1178 Defiance disrespect this has been an area of Need For Us for years as you can see our last full year is that last number in that sequence of three in the in the parentheses so our last full year had 39 uh 3930 for the entire year this is the most common referral we have because it's that talking back that disrespect it can be verbal it can be non-verbal it is it's a very broad range category of defiance and disrespect uh just so far we've had three 232 disorderly conducts and you can see what the previous year's comparisons are 252 fights 83 instances of instigation 847 physical aggressions
191you can see these are the these are the um more aggressive acts that we've seen on campus I can't I can tell you as an administrator the time spent in helping students process and finding the reasons for the root cause it takes a lot of time so as an administrator I would have loved to have had a social worker on campus Because as I was calling that parent I'd say hey would it be okay you know this is what Karen did XYZ would it be okay for for Karen to check in with the social worker just to make sure that they're on track if so what they're doing now is administrators getting permission those that those parents that agree the social worker can follow up and just make sure that Karen or whoever else is
192on track and have what they need if it's if it's an anger issue if it's a conflict with a teacher or with someone else those can be addressed so as you can see we know that there's a need and so schools have plans in place to address the increases some are increasing more depending on the situation or what's going on at certain grade levels or with certain students so in a nutshell our social workers are very important members of our our school teams um they work hand in hand with Administration our health office staff our attendance um whether it's the attendance Clerk or the art at a K-8 um especially at a non-title school title schools have additional Personnel such as a data Specialists or now Family Outreach specialist and all of our non-title schools
193do not have that so the social worker becomes even a more important resource that is available to the staff and to those parents who wish to take advantage of that support so with that I will stand for any questions I'll go ahead and start um you were talking about the threat assessment teams how many teams do we have every school has a trained team of Staff members on their threat management teams okay and we also have a district team District team okay all right um so with that team that goes out and does whatever needs to be done who helps the the team when they have an issue I do um there's also we we have a District's right assessment team which is comprised of myself the lead Psych the lead uh social worker the
194lead behavior um person um the lead nurse and a couple of other uh key people but there are teams all of these threat assessments are completed by the school site teams there's anywhere between 7 and 14 people trained on these teams um we rely on those that are out of the classroom to do the bulk of them even though like we would have some ESS staff but if they're with students that they wouldn't be the go-to's for for that if anyone has questions was I get questions all the time they'll call me and I can help them if the site believes they cannot uh best support a student for whatever reason after conducting a threat assessment then they would reach out to the district threat assessment team to to support them and and provide support
195and input so I guess I I don't maybe I didn't clarify correctly so the threat assessment teams help students and or staff who helps them to get through they may have gone out for a particular situation and something that they saw or they felt was grading on them and all of a sudden they start to break down so who helps them that's a really good question the school members help each other they're depending on the type of screener or threat assessment that is conducted more than one person is part of that process so they can kind of tag team especially with the more difficult ones okay if that answers your question for staff for staff yes because if someone is on the threat assessment team and they go out and they help that student or
196help that staff member all of a sudden they get back to their office and they break down and I want to make sure that our staff are getting fed or helped because they may have been laser focused on helping in that assessment situation and when they get back to their office they break down and that is part of the the training that is provided to anyone that is on the threat management team at the school okay I think it's usually like and then there's still like a mandatory debriefing for the flight team or the um maybe not so much as the threat assessment team but like the flight teams when they go out there'd be like a debrief for staff absolutely yeah and last um the first 77 days that's not even half the school
197year it's close hmm so those numbers may increase a lot it's very busy year it's been quite a year it really has it's very very different from last year okay thank you so with a seemingly increase um in in the violent incidents are we tracking it any differently than we have before um can you explain by what you mean by tracking uh Madam president do you think that maybe we're more focused on on things or maybe categorizing things differently do you think that that's a possibility or do you think the the data is correct in the way it's reflected there's always a chance when a president um I'm in my conversations with uh administrators uh on a monthly basis I am very cautious of the of the labeling of our infractions especially with the more
198egregious Behavior such as assault I'm very careful um because we have other infraction titles that can be assigned depending on the severity of the uh of the behavior we look specifically at the behavior and make sure that it's labeled appropriately I would just think that the idea and the concept of having social workers is to really try I know we can't do everything we can't fix you know we can't fix everything we can't do Miracles but ideally having those social workers in-house we could reduce some of those numbers but it doesn't seem like that's happening well I um Madam president um what we're seeing is that our social workers this year are not able to be proactive they're being reactive and um depending on the site that might look a little differently but they're oftentimes
199if they are called out for a student that's in crisis or a a very a dire Behavior situation or a student that it needs an immediate uh suicide or self-injury screener those small groups have to be canceled because they're they're needed elsewhere so I wish I could say that everything that is scheduled for them has been done with Fidelity but you know in a real school setting it's if there's an emergency or a student situation especially when it's regarding safety it's all hands on deck and the and the first person that is called needs to respond and oftentimes that is the the social worker that is asked to do those threat assessments and and suicide screeners and in potential threats of self-harm are you seeing any Trends whether that is primarily in high schools are
200we seeing an increase in middle school type age kids or maybe at our actual you know five through eight schools are we seeing an increase in any of that the trend Madam president has been uh usually in our sixth through eighth grade maybe ninth grade um but we're seeing interesting spikes I went to my mailbox today and uh took out about 15 more packets of uh and just as I scanned them I'm seeing more and more 11th and 12th graders but then unfortunately I'm seeing some fourth and fifth graders in in the pile as well and it is at all I can honestly say they're happening at every one of our school whether it's a K4 K-8 middle school or High School well and can can you clarify for me what does it mean when
201you say the social workers can't be proactive instead they're reactive by proactive um Adam president member Chaffin would be by holding those small groups if they've um contacted parents got permission for a small group and let's say if it's anger management or anything else uh if there is a Christ if they're scheduled to have to meet on Wednesdays during their lunch time if a student is melting down and having a crisis uh that group has to be canceled so by being proactive means you'd be following through um it's it's always their intent to follow through but if they are needed then unfortunately that group needs to be needs to be canceled if a student is um sorry if a student is in conversation with a social worker and they happen to share that they were
202suicidal or having depression or having some other sort of medical situation Health Care Mental Health the social worker are they bound to communicate that to the parent absolutely okay and that would include if they were undergoing gender dysphoria yes okay thank you sure when we talk about as a follow-up to her question about Trends I'm just curious if you're seeing it like the the true middle schools because now they're blending students that have not been together whereby before they were students that had basically been together most of since Kindergarten now we've taken these five through eights from a different school and now they're together is there anything do you see that as being a possible trend for some of the aggressive like we want to be the kingpins type thing Madam president member Grant yes
203we have seen an uptick in the um the events in middle school and when when you look at your your blending two middle schools typically those more aggressive behaviors do happen in Middle School so on the other end we're seeing uh a vast decrease in referrals at our k-4s so when you but when we separate and say okay these were two separate middle schools and now they're together the numbers they're not doubles so it's yes they're increased because they're a middle school but not quite double as what they were last year if that makes sense yeah curious because they're now having to get along with students they didn't yes they are there is definitely so if I compared the four middle schools data from last year to this year it is increased not necessarily two-fold
204because they have twice as many of those middle school students but they there are increases at those four schools [Music] and I'm trying to remember this isn't there a new law that we cannot suspend below third grade it's actually um the the law covers students that are upped through fourth grade there's two parts to that law any student under seven years old cannot be out of school suspended anyone that is between seven years old up to through fourth grade there is a criteria that is very detailed that must be met in order for that uh out of school suspension to be assigned to that student so what's happening with those students that are defiant aggressive Etc than what's happening to them as far as how that's being handled are they just being put in one-on-one
205I mean are there services within the school available are administrators in our school teams are being very creative on how to support those students the social workers are working with the families that have given permission and those students um it's it can be challenging absolutely well they're being disruptive to the classroom and it continually continuously continuously being disruptive in the classroom so I was just wondering they're being creative on how they're handling them they are being very creative I'm sure yeah it depends every student presents unique situations and challenges yes a couple questions um just in listening to your presentation you reference that Southwest Behavioral Health Services is contacted at times and what in what situations would we need to call out for additional social service support when we have our social workers in the
206building um Madam president member um Pritchard Southwest we have a referral process so they would not be called in a crisis situation that's if the um parent uh if oftentimes our social workers will reach out to our families and say you know I maybe they've been given permission to to speak with their son for a couple of of times and if the social worker feels that they need more than what they can provide as school support then they would refer to with parent permission refer them to Southwest Behavioral because we have that mou with them and then they would have a separate intake once the referral process is done the school Personnel are out of it and then that is a conversation for more intensive support for that student or that family that happens outside
207of the school or the school process okay so the only reason why Southwest Behavioral Health is identified more so than another community resource is because we have a an mou with them to where it's offered free of charge parents don't have to go through their insurance or set up with some sort of a fee for service type agency that's the benefit of it is that it's it's free it happens at school short term Madam president member Pritchard that's part of it actually because of the federal grants that are available just about every agency will provide resources for families it's not that if a parent in that conversation with school Personnel indicate that they have a preference for a different type of Ages Touchstone or Aurora then they will gladly provide those resources as well okay
208it's not the only resource we provide okay and then also again in your presentation just looking at all the assaults disorderly conduct fights physical aggression a lot of those things fall into law enforcement categories do we have do our social workers collaborate with our school resource officers or is there a school resource officer on I know all of our high school campuses right how many of our uh do you have any in our Middle School we do not have sros that are um any other school other than our four high schools however I have not shared this information yet um officer Thomas who used to be at Valley Vista is uh in a new position with the city of surprise and the City of Surprise has offered Dysart an opportunity to extend that diversion program
209to our sixth seventh and 8th graders the families that live within the city of surprise so we are in a discussion about that and of course I once that we have more information I'm happy to present to the board more information on that diversion program okay well that's exciting but that's that's be just for our surprise schools not not El Mirage um and then just just refreshing my memory initially our social workers were a pilot correct and we started them out at the high schools and then we rolled out to add more through our uh elementary schools are we still considered in that pilot phase I know we were doing we were using mips money or like remind me of that whole situation where we're at now with that president member Pritchard I believe it
210was a spring two or three years ago we did a pilot in the spring and I want if memory serves me it was four or five schools and I believe it was some high schools and some k-8s okay but um I'd have to go back to notes and that was run by Miss Hill through Federal projects so we took the pilot and if I recall I brought that back to the board I went district-wide that next year so that pilot of the semester served its purpose from what I recall in terms of funding I'd have to ask Mr Hicks about that Madam president members aboard yes it's entirely funded out of our mips program okay all right and you know just to because I was wondering I know a pilot you always kind of want
211to reassess and evaluate and make changes here and there as needed and administration's been aware and probably you miss winterstein um still having some confusion and Community feedback regarding our our SEL program and the social worker role in that has that been sifted through do you feel like we're all on the same page now as far as the roles and I mean because the way you present social worker function is really what it should look like in our schools I mean that's that's that's what it should be um but it sounds like maybe different social workers or different sites are using them in different ways have we and I'm assuming since the boards had discussion on it there's probably been some further discussions in between board meetings with administrators on addressing those I mean do
212you feel like we're making any Headway with that Madam president I absolutely do I'm having conversations with the social workers regularly with the principals regularly as shared earlier the principals do evaluate the social workers I just am not physically able to be at the schools frequently to to provide enough observation and feedback me personally I think we are becoming very closely aligned do I know every single thing that is happening as a principle I couldn't tell you that I would know that in every one of my teachers classrooms but to be honest with you our social workers do not have time to go in the classroom and provide tier one they just don't have time to do that as I shared with that list of what they're doing their days are completely consumed with providing
213what is needed on a daily basis and it would it would appear that they wouldn't you know have time with everything you've just outlined in in the physical assaults and things like that although I would say that really doesn't sound like a social worker issue it sounds like more of an SRO issue or a Law Enforcement issue but obviously if it's on the campus they're they're at least dealing with the students who have been impacted by it on that emotional level so I can see where it falls into their realm but um but yeah it's I know when we had social workers years and years ago they were ultimately by another Administration completely phased out because it was felt like they weren't being used properly and it took forever to get them back and I
214would just I I just don't want to see that same Trend um especially in looking I just happened to in preparing for this item our social workers are paid average fifteen thousand dollars more than our neighboring districts I mean we have Peoria starts at forty thousand one to forty one nine if they have a masters Deer Valley 41 7 Buckeye Union 416 and Dysart is 55 000 or 57 6. so it would be a shame um I just want I want them to be successful I want our students to benefit from them but um I want to make sure that some of those parent complaints Community concerns that we're getting um regarding some of the social worker contacts don't continue to cause concern with families because like you had outlined there's so many Ben I
215do believe there's a huge benefit to having them as long as they're used you know correctly and I'm wondering though it would be nice especially hearing your little sneak peek about officer Thomas and His program if there would be a way to align somehow um that that partnership between the SRO and the social worker if because again all those things you mentioned those are law enforcement things disorderly conduct physical aggression assault you know more than Social Work Madam president member Pritchard um two things the law enforcement piece if you look at our high schools the the social worker and SRO work almost seamlessly together because it's just a natural fit as far as the legal assaults yes that is a that is a Law Enforcement issue when we're looking at the social worker um portion
216of this we're looking really at the physical aggression it's the slapping the hitting the any physical contact UM and the uh I don't remember what other but it so the assaults and the fights are the more egregious ones that you know again the social workers working at the aftermath or the victim or the emotional piece but it's the physical aggression it's the the other minor ones that usually it's a misunderstanding or uh conflict or they don't know how to share or those kinds of things that um where it's getting to the root cause of what what the what what caused the behavior secondly the um I'm glad you brought up the the the salary scale because Dysart is the only District that has their social workers on a 222-day calendar everyone else has it on
217either a 95 or a 97 or it's a actually one District I think because we have 180 days it was like 185 days when we went through the pilot what we heard resoundingly from our administrators was that they needed family support or be part of that planning and training process throughout the year so oftentimes the end of the year is difficult for our students and so they I don't know this calendar off the top of my head but they work through it right into the first week of June so that they can tie up any loose ends with parents get them connected with resources throughout the summer that was the intent of having them on the 222 calendar also when social workers come back the same day principals do an assistant principal so they can
218do any planning they can identify any needs that that have come up in the summer they can reconnect with the families make sure that any resources or needs that they have to make sure that their students are prepared for school are in place so that was the intent of putting them on a 222 day calendar so they're working much longer than the social workers in any other district and when did they come back you said with the principles but when is that this past year it was July 6th I believe okay and that's for clarification that's the same date the assistant principles returned yes principles start on the first of July each year just out of curiosity with the I know we we touched on the social worker um working with law enforcement or school
219resource officers so what would something like that typically look like do they pull from our existing sros as a contact are they literally calling 9-1-1 or are they you know just contacting the non-emergency line and getting a referral over to process you know that that potential arrest or or charge Madam president if the when I made the comment that they work seamlessly those are the four high schools so there's already an SRO on campus if it was anything that they needed a police support for the administration would make that call and not the social worker typically unless it was a student in crisis but the social worker is expected to let Administration know um and usually it's based on a larger event so that the administration is already knowledgeable that the social worker is working
220with someone okay so if there was a an act of violence or or a fight major injuries involved Administration would be handling that not a social worker Madam president absolutely there's a there's a strong um separation between administrative work and a social work social workers are not part typically are not part of discipline unless they're in that restorative process with that student okay and then the only other thing I I had I know that the social workers work a lot with our families as you said but do you see um potentially a need for them more so at one level versus another like maybe primarily in our high schools and middle schools but not at maybe as much in our K through fours Madam president great question the need I feel is is just as
221real in a K4 but the reasons for that family support would be different so our K4 maybe it's that um that parent who uh it's it's a different environment in it that transition from home into a school setting is is just overwhelming for that student or um they're but they're the need is just as great at a K-8 just the need looks differently than it would at a middle school or a high school okay any other questions thank you very much thank you all right moving on to action discussion item number one Dr Kellis Madam president uh Lisa just whispered in my ear it'd be great if y'all refreshed your apps because change in the agenda so Madam president members of the board members of cabinet Dr Credo will introduce action item i1 thank you
222Dr Kellis Madam president members of the board superintendent callous cabinet and guests believe it or not it is time to start preparing for the 22-23 school year so tonight in the next four items I'm bringing to you our contract language and then the issuance of the contracts as well as the notice of Employments for classified staff and then the first one in number one tonight I bring you the contract language for approval for the 22-23 school year there are no changes to the contract language so the contracts you see listed there are the exact contracts that we use this this current year they have been reviewed by Jennifer McLennan and they are up to date and we bring them for your approval and it's just the language the next the next is going to be
223the issuance of those contracts so this is just approving the language on the contracts question I noticed we have a school psychologist intern contract so we have a school psychologist and an intern correct there's both and is there a need for that is there a reason we need I believe it's in is Corey still here I believe it's in the process of where they are with their license so they have to do um an intern piece before they go and become a full school psychologist so it they're two different pieces that they have to do in order to qualify for the position and is that kind of like a student teacher type deal where we have to do a semester of student teaching before yes okay you can relate to that except they're partially licensed
224I guess so they have to fulfill that piece before they can become a whole psychologist so yes that's a great analogy and they get paid for too yes thank you any other questions or concerns this way or singville are you good oh I'm good okay I didn't want to jump the gun no no I'm good um I move sorry I moved to approve Administration administrative certificated and licensed employee contract language and benefit packages for the 2022 through 2023 school year second motion passes thank you next we have item I two Dr Kellis thank you madam president members of the board of members of cabinet Dr crota will introduce the site thank you Dr Kellis Madam president members of the board again callous cabinet guess item number two as I just described before is now for
225the issuance of the contract language that you just approved so Administration is recommending the approval to issue the contracts for those employees that are eligible if you read in our in our comments teachers that are on a are completing a 45 instructional day Improvement plan are not eligible for that so their contracts are held until that plan is finished if they're on an interim contract so those employees that begin in our district after the 92nd Day by law are not eligible to receive a contract they have to reapply and anyone that does not hold the proper certification may not get a contract so with that also I want to remind you I know I repeated a bunch for you in in the updates but our liquidated damages will not start till May 1st so anybody
226wishing to um get out of the contract just needs to contact me up until April 30th and then they do not incur the two thousand dollar liquidated damages and then we issue the contracts in February uh just so you're aware of that and they are due the Friday for for all groups um actually the admin gets their contracts on 210 because the law says they get 30 work or 30 calendar days and so that's the admin and psychologists in the certified world the teachers get them on February 18th because they get 15 work days I do not know why ones work and ones calendar but we have to do that so they are all due by March 11th again with no liquidated damages we understand life happens especially in this environment and that things change
227and so um with that we ask that you approve the issuance of the contracts thank you Dr croto um with that can you advise are the social worker contracts included in this agenda item Madam president yes they are they were included there under licensed employees so they are in a licensed considered a licensed contract so they are included in that category so yes they are in the licensed employees um category which is the issuance in this category for everything that you approve the language for and number one thank you with that I would like to make a motion to approve the sorry the issuance of notices no hold on okay I will make a motion to approve eligible certificated and licensed staff for re-employment with the exception of the social workers which I would like
228to table for our next meeting um and authorize the issuance of employment contracts for the 2022 through 2023 school year second The Madam president can you can you add can we add administrative to that I think we left that off the motion piece but to actually administrative certificated and licensed staff not the social workers we just we just left off the administrative piece it's not written in the motion but it's written above in the subject I if Luisa needs to we just need to add the administrators so technical so we can do all of them so I'm sorry where does administrative come before certificated yeah thank you um I would okay oh thank you I will make a motion to approve eligible administrative certificated and licensed staffer Reemployment for with the exception of social workers
229which will be tabled for another meeting and authorized the issuance of employment contracts for the 2022-2023 school year wait a second oh okay thank you motion passes thank you moving to item I three Dr Kellis thank you madam president members of the board members of cabinet Dr crota will introduce this item thank you madam president members of the board superintendent callous cabinet and guests Now we move on to our classified staff our classified staff do not get contracts they get an Noe or a notice of employment we give them language stating uh that they will have a job they're issued in May which will get to the issue part but again this first item is to approve the language that gets issued to our classified hourly as well as our classified exempt employees and I'll
230stand for again this to add to that sorry it's getting late um we our attorney has looked over this language has approved the language and there are no changes this year from the current language we use in our noes so with that I ask that you approve the language for our innoes the notice of employment language and the benefit packages for hourly and exempt classified staff of the 2022 2023 school year executed by Miss Grant motion passes moving to item I for Dr Kellis thank you madam president and members of the board members of cabinet Dr crota will introduce this item thank you madam president members of the board Super Dan Callis cabinet guests our last piece is the we are asking you to um or we're recommending to you that we are able to
231issue the Noe language that you just approved so we are looking to issue the noes in May usually the first or second week of May by the time we issue the noes and they're due back before school ends on the 17th of May and so we're asking for your approval to issue the notice and to um yeah issued a notice to our classified staff I moved to approve the issuance of notices of employment to eligible classified staff in their current positions at the 2022-2023 salary level with Benefits measure it with the position second motion passes thank you go ahead thank you moving on to item five Dr Kellis thank you madam president members of the board members of cabinet Mr Hicks will introduce this item thank you very much good evening Madam president members of
232the board superintendent Dr Kelly's colleagues and community members there is no change in any of the information as presented in the public hearing and I will stand for any questions you didn't add anything to your Rainbow before report not in between though yeah thank you another color another color color it's not very colorful I moved to approve the 2021 2022 revised expenditure budget second motion passes thank you moving to item action item six Dr Kellis thank you madam president members of the board members of cabinet Mr Hicks will introduce this item good evening Madam president members of the board superintendent Dr Kellis colleagues community members thank you very much for allowing me to present again tonight so this agenda item is the West Point the West Point realignment project I'm sorry I apologize um and
233previously in our July board meeting we had an extensive conversation about the Jason ways fund the project and such after that thinking we were done the city required additional submissions we submitted did require a change of scope we had to get our contractors back out there looking at it so it changed a little bit of the scope then we had to resubmit and we had to then recollect quotes because the original quote was back from April and so the length of the project and so we did receive all that in September and then we've been waiting for the city we have finally gotten the city's final comments and commitments and so now everything is ready to go but now the project has grown and costs and per procurement rules we are procuring this through the
234job order Contracting method and if it exceeds a million dollars it requires governing board authority and so now because it is now exceeding a million dollars from the original 780 was the adjacent ways but I think it was around 800 000 at that point and it's grown we now require governing board approval we are not allowed to use any of the more additional Json wage funds because that tax rate was set and so there is no more money so this has to the additional cost increase must come out of our Capital reserves and so that is where that is coming from and so we're asking for approval of the job order Contracting as presented and I'll stand for any questions and this is the crosswalk at West Point right yes okay that way if anybody
235was confused because that was a you know back in July you know when it got when we had the discussion we were hopeful to have it done by what August September I think I said we'd like to have it started by September but it'll be done before winter recess yes yes so we have not started it for anybody who's wondering whatever happened to that why am I paying taxes why is this not happening this is the process this is the process and just to reiterate what you said um I can't remember was it like 70 cents or something the tax yes okay that was close um so that that amount is not increasing that was a fixed tax rate that we decided back in the summer and so this is an access that we're having
236to this is District funds right we have to bear the cost of all additional yes correct okay any other questions on this I just thought of one so when we decide on this in just a second um when when would this start when would this the actual Madam pork Madam president members a boy that's a great question uh we still have to pull the permit so we will put in for the permits immediately um I would love to say that we'll turn around and get the permits immediately we've gone through the comment process with their um with the city from our contractor's last email I believe I heard that it will take from beginning to end three to four months and should be done by April by April that was what was been told to
237me so in the meantime we're still um have a heavy presence of assisting students get across the road at Litchfield and Greenway correct um it is madam president members of the board is still not a safe environment I know I think I said this staff goes out there and they try to stop kids from running across and other things but you know it's very difficult in that and so I would say that it is still an unsafe environment we are working that that is the solution to this is to create this safe operational Crossing Dr gallis and president miss uh sorry singtel so our current solution is using shuttle buses we do shuttle students across Greenway and we'll continue to do that until the Project's completed I know that we're proving this difference amount and
238this Project's going to take I don't know would you say four or five months three four months prices are going up weekly on products so is so we're not going to have to pay more if all of a sudden they come back and say the price of concrete has now gone up I don't know what Madam president members of the board uh you're correct where we will not at this point they've given us all the quotes and everything submitted um the only thing would be any other delays then yes that could but I don't we don't foresee any delays we're going to submit for the permits immediately and starts we need to get the purchase order in place so that we could secure all of this okay is that in writing by any chance because
239I just received a quote on some work at my house and there's a thing in there now that says that it's subject to any increase in materials because right now materials are hard to get so do we have that in writing on our contract that they're not going to increase the cost um attached to this agenda item is the proposal Kevin if you'd like to come up and talk anymore just a yes or no um I asked uh Mr Shipman the same question he reached out to say if this is good if we get we were waiting until December for the final comments and barring any major final changes which there were none in the comments then they said that yes all the pricing is still good we did if you see this amount this
240also into includes in owner contingency so we added a contingency in this to allow for additional costs if it comes through but that does they cannot just spend that they have to submit to us exactly why before we release any of those funds for additional costs for additional costs right but that's not locking in current they have submitted a quote that has all the pricing and it has a schedule of values behind it that's they've telling us how much the cost is and we will issue a PO for that amount they have their own rainbow report [Laughter] ever ate on this so with this delay pushing it out into April is that worst case scenario or is that when they're actually planning to work March April Madam president members of the board that's what they're
241telling us so I don't think that's worst case scenario although they've not told us anything different but I think you're alluding to just the situation that is now where everything seems to take longer hard to find labor those type of things I think it'll be next year sorry I don't think it's going to be done this school year right I believe that it will be done in April all right good question okay okay oh gosh good I moved as a governing board approved the job order contract through I Jeep excuse me one GPA from McCarthy building Companies Incorporated in an amount not to exceed 1.296 million 538 for the West Point Elementary entry modifications second motion passes next moving to action item seven Dr Kellis thank you madam president members of the board members of
242the cabinet at the request of the board member this item has been added I'm passing down some information that would be helpful for the conversation in addition to the numbers that you have on the handout I will add that I apologize apologize if I may have misspoken membership for asba is July to June and we are currently paid through June of membership is based on our each District's annual budget it's 0.25 percent a quarter percent of the operational budget of the membership districts you can see here that on the spreadsheet what some of the expenses currently are obviously conferences registrations workshops that's optional may not ever happen it might happen depending on if we go to those conferences annual membership you can see how that has increased and again it goes based on the each
243District's annual budget the policy support the policy support provides legal services for statutory and other policy advisories that um help districts to maintain their policy manuals board docs is the web app that you're currently using it's our management system for our policy and for managing board meeting agendas that is a discounted rate all of the board doc board docs clients are remembered registered through asba currently so if there's a change in membership that would result to as Mr Hicks indicated earlier it's over ten thousand dollars so there's a procurement process there to go after those additional Monies and um you see their advertising and other policy and other items our policy handbook um Mr X might need to help us with the policy Hamburg where those items are for expenses but essentially if you remove
244the conferences we pay about twenty five thousand dollars a year currently so with that information I'll let the board have your conversation just over ten thousand do we know what that cost is without the asba discount Madam President we have inquired about that we would have to and we understand contact the board docs company directly typically what we were informed is that they would it's negotiated so they should come and find out what services are provided we have as you can see on your on your agenda form we use some functions of board docs they have additional functions we can have more or less so they basically it would depend on the package that we purchase yeah because here I mean and like you said it could have to do with the purchase or the
245package but board docs LT is 3000 a year I'm sure we probably use a bigger package than that but our current uh package is called board docs Pro not listed so I have reviewed board docs from other school districts that you know just the public view of it only and it seems much more complex than what we have here in dicer it's a lot busier so I'm wondering if potentially we would have a cost savings with buying board docs directly since we don't subscribe to all of asba's policies Madam president again the cost to go with them directly is unknown and can you describe the policy support cost again I'm sorry Madam president members of the board policy services or as a Title Here policy support provides a very valuable service to each district Whenever
246there is a law changed or a new law is passed um currently there's a school boards Association staff which includes attorneys develop policy advisories and Sample policies that they distribute throughout the different districts Dysart has our own policy it is not the template from asba but our policy is located and managed by asba so we don't have a template but if you go to the the directory of districts you can see all the member districts policies and our I believe our policies are part of that it's a great assistance to Mrs Brown when it comes to the formatting and the the management of changes but primarily it's their their legal staff that interprets the laws passed by the legislature or any other AG opinions or or and provides sample policy for for districts to use
247in the past our district has considered those policies if it's based on statute and we typically adopt those as as proposed as suggested there may be some policies that are more based on opinion that we don't adopt because we try and keep our policy manual very streamlined to what is required and we have a lot of processes but we maintain our own process manual how often would you say that we just dismiss these opinionated policies Madam president members of the board if there were 30 policy advisories there might be three a lot of them are being uh and a president I mean Mr Speaker yes the majority of the policy advisories are based on law many of the statutes of the past um that pass require a board policy I might say the board shall
248develop a policy too um so I guess most of those are based on laws teaching that you're biased because you're a certain race gender sex you know asba recommends it we get rid of that but you know it's just things like that that have me concerned about asba well kind of what I had said the last time um when we were talking about nsba I just feel like asba has has really changed over the years um when I was first elected the board it was 2006. I remember going to my first asba conference in 2006 and it just just had a completely different feel and it seems like for an agency or an organization that's supposed to be nonpartisan they are so far one way and whether one way is the right way one way
249is not the right way the point is it's not supposed to be non-partisan and it seems like they're so politicized and there's such an agenda and then to not take a stand against ASP or nsba's action was really disappointing and it just it's just not the same organization that I really I mean it's a sad day because I used to really enjoy their conferences I've met a lot of amazing Advocates and people and slowly those people are no longer there and uh with the recent separation with their attorney who I have a lot of respect for it was amazing I just can't help but wonder I just I just I don't well I don't like being associated with an organization that conducts business the way that they do especially if I'm going to have to
250pay them to be a member and in a sense I just I cringe a lot of times when I get their emails because again they're so politicized and I don't want to be associated with that and right now we are and it just doesn't doesn't feel good to me I'm Sorry Miss Pritchard I thought you were done no I am done okay I didn't mean to interrupt either um you know even I don't know if you guys have attended any of their online trainings but when we did new new board member training and even with some of the other trainings you just hear constantly about bad bills bad bills bad bills like Ms Pritchard said they are nonpartisan it's not okay so this bill is in the is in the legislature here are some of
251the repercussions for this here are some of the repercussions for that do what's best for your school district there's just a constant push to go this particular way and even the emails we get it's just constantly constantly constantly and it's like why they do not reflect I don't feel like they reflect our board and our District's values and they didn't stand up for our parents nope you know that that's the biggest piece and to pay to be a part of an organization that stands behind another organization that would make such a blatantly disrespectful comment just isn't I mean you're I don't want to be associated with that type of mentality that's my opinion I don't care to continue our membership with them so I I do have a couple of questions for the board has
252anyone contacted asba or invited asba out here to um State as to why you're feeling this way has anybody contacted asba I have not done that myself but in November there were several senators and and representatives who did contact Dr Harrison Williams from asba and there was a response from her but she completely ignored the question or the issue which was about an SBA and their actions and how do you feel about that maybe you should you know no longer be a member of nsba they were asking aspa to to depart from them and the issue the question was not addressed in the response okay so um getting back to that that letter or um the initial letter that started the whole thing um I I guess I'm I'm concerned with the regards that we're
253worried about Dysart we shouldn't be worried about a national narrative or even with the state we need to worry about what's going on with Dysart and I I feel that we are trying to um take all the things that we have done and throwing them out with that few percentage of the bad things so I I don't think that we should um I don't think that we should separate I do believe that we should have asba to come out and answer what questions that we do have but they're put their feet to the fire ask them exactly what is going on why did they not um now it's okay you know the the legislators made that you know they sent that letter to Dr Harrison Williams Harrison I'm sorry um sent that letter and you
254know that's that's what happened with that um but I'm more worried about Dysart and what we do get out of of asba and the cost that will probably what we're going to have to do is probably hire an on-stop attorney because we won't have the legal type services that could end up costing over 000 I I don't know what attorneys make nowadays and I'm just worried that it's going to be um counterproductive instead of I just think that we need to have asba out here and ask them Point Blank before we make any type of decision um if you're talking about separating from them is that something that would be right now are we paid up for a year are we paid up for four years I two years I don't know what the heat
255is it paid through June right is it through June okay um I I just think that um I don't feel that we should be separating from them um I worry about the district staying in compliance with the policies that are out there the law we need to determine who is going to read all whatever comes from legislation and asba right now does all that for us through the policy advisories so I'm I'm I'm worried that we have not engaged asba to find out why well and for me and I understand that because normally I'm very much a you know if there's an issue go directly to the source and you discuss things directly but it's not a matter of hey I heard you say this and this is the way I interpreted it what did
256you exactly mean by that it's a matter of action so you know we could I could go in my deleted file and print out every single email that comes out from asba about their their opinion they're just they're over again the politicized emails that they send out it's their it's their platform now they're a different animal than they used to be and so there's no and and the fact that they are still a member of nsba so it's not a misunderstanding where I need them to clarify with me it's just a change in their mindset or a change in their organization as a whole that just has repeatedly I mean again one email after another it's the same type of political agenda and they shouldn't be that way and regarding the legal piece Dr Kellis
257we have prepaid legal right I mean do we and if a law if a policy has changed with a law then we don't need asba to tell us a law change we would be able to find out any changes in statute but in in the event that we still wanted some legal opinion we have prepaid legal for that right Madam president miss Pritchard we do have prepaid legal that's not the service that they provide is policy services to take the legislative agenda and translate it into policy um yes we do have prepaid legal they're they're not likely to do that role well and not like rewrite our policies for us but if we you know if there's a change in statute and the law says we have to implement XYZ policy we draft the policy
258I mean we've Rewritten all of our own policies that asba doesn't endorse when they're not the asba policies but we've written them all um and you know if we had any concern about how it looked don't you think prepaid legal would be like yeah there's nothing illegal about that policy Madam president miss Pritchard um when you say we rewrote our own policies like Dr jandris guys are contracted with Dr jandris Who over the courses of a couple years developed it's like even like Emanuel I remember board presidents way way in the past he would always bring policies that he would write he would write policy and anybody can write policy as long as it's within the law we can ratify it and if you know our attorney has I'm confident that our attorney would give
259us sound legal advice regarding policies if we wanted to rewrite something or if we take something and we draft a policy and we say hey we want our attorney's legal advice we want to make sure we're within the parameters of the law I'm confident that our attorney would be happy to help us write a policy he's doing that now but you keep saying our attorney can you uh are you talking about Miss McLennan we're talking about the district's attorney we don't have an attorney the board does not have an attorney president members of the board we have prepaid legal through the trust and the trust assigns attorneys based on the case um our current go-to attorney is Miss McLennan again it depends on what it is that we we need if we are having having
260a a real estate issue she's not going to help us with a real estate issue but the trust has attorneys who work in real estate um policy Services again that's one-offs yes but to take an entire legislative agenda and translate that into policy that's not the service that they provide well and that's I mean that's a service we can we can procure I mean we it's not like we have to stay with asba because otherwise there's nobody available to help us with our policy Services why not just take the money that we're paying SBA and pay somebody else just to do policy services like who who would be writing our policies because technically that's what our job is as a board we're the ones that supposed to be writing the policies yeah I'm not saying
261we can't I'm saying we can contract out if we need policy if we need if we need somebody to help us with a policy and we don't want to go to the attorney or we can hire somebody to be on legislative watch to advise us if a Law changes if a lot of IFS that's a lot of ifs and I'm not comfortable with supporting a lot of ifs I um but what about our integrity I mean what does that mean I mean to to settle and jump into to jeopardize our integrity or compromise our integrity to be a part of asba who is again complete they used to they used to be a huge benefit I used to thoroughly enjoy them they have changed and they are so different and I don't even I don't
262like being associated with who they represent anymore and how they go about representing us and so to stay with them when this is who they are just because well they can look at our policies why not just and I understand what you're saying missing bill I mean I'm not saying be willy-nillian who cares about the policies I'm saying they're not the only organization that can do that job so who else can do it whether it be another organization that works with school policy whether it be in Attorney Services I mean I'm sure there's a solution yeah but right now you don't have a solution you don't have a solution in order for me to vote to disassociate with asba because you've got a lot of ifs right there and quite honestly I think we need
263to be concentrating on the bait the two issues that we're having right now um making sure our students over this past year and a half um almost two almost two years now that have struggled through covet or struggled through online learning that's another issue that we need to get those students grades and success up the other issue that we need to concentrate on is and we've had the comments and the threats and the rumors um uh just within Dysart and it breaks my heart that our kids are being um immersed in this type of behavior and something that we need to go ahead and concentrate on instead of disassociating with asba when we have too many IFS we have just too many that you want to just go ahead and because you don't like what
264they're preaching okay then let's call them on the carpet and tell them how else are we going to get something changed if we don't get to be a part of them to see why why did they actually do what they did so I've been a part of the legislative conversation with them and I know others in here have and for the most part we are in the minority when it comes to different topics that they um discuss the other point I want to make though is I know that our board has been very divided on things especially when it comes to covid asba took a stance the stance that I wholeheartedly disagree with and they Stu they sued our state over it you know and that's using funds from taxpayers from school boards to support
265an agenda that that I don't agree with so personally that's not something I can continue to to support um I don't know how the board collectively feels about it which is but that's why I brought it for a discussion um I I appreciate everyone's words and we can still talk but I do want to just throw out emotion um I move at the governing board take action to discontinue the district's membership with the Arizona School boards Association second um Madam president I could just ask for some clarification are you could you put a timeline on that immediately immediately um you said that it was through June correct we have paid through June um if I would just hate to see Bordeaux turned off tomorrow I understood more paid through so I'm just you know if
266without being members and not having the member right yes we have paid no vote no um and the reason I'm gonna vote no is we just pulled an agenda item questioning a budget item for a department for forty thousand dollars and we ask them to please go back and rework that now we're talking another budget item that is 28 998 dollars and if we cancel with asba we have no idea how much we're going to spend on policy support or board docs and it could be more than twenty eight thousand it just seems to me like we should do our homework first and come back with okay board docs is going to cost this amount of money and somebody to do policy support is going to cost so that we know exactly what we're voting
267on you have six months though to find that information and again Miss Grant I would go back to how long do you want to compromise your own art either you personally me personally or as a board District our integrity to be associated with an organization that views parents the way nsba does that is very politicized we we talk about we don't want our teachers bringing politics into the classroom well this particular organization is flooding our district with tons of with their politicized opinions and their views and their agendas so it's it's a matter of principle to me like I can't we can find some we have six months we're paid members through June so so my point is I didn't have six months to do this I'm not the one that's bringing us to the
268table it seems to me like to bring something like this to the table we need to know how much this is going to truly cost before we vote on it so there's a prize to Integrity it has nothing to do with Integrity we talk about taxpayer money what if the bill comes back at fifty thousand dollars I'm just asking the question I would just rather us make an informed decision that says board docs Pro is going to cost this amount of money policy support is going to be this amount of money and then who is going to lobby for us at the legislature I don't care to have them locked the things I didn't say that and personally when you walk in this door we are now school board members we may have different opinions
269on what political opinions outside of this room I know we do I I guarantee we all do that's the beauty of this but at the end of the day we have to be supporting Public Schools then what is political give me have you read their emails yeah you don't think they're they're politically fueled give me an example they're caucuses that are that are divided by race they're caucuses but that has they asked for us to approve another caucus that the legislature has caucuses just like that by race yes both state and federal they all have caucuses they have it by race they have it by political opinions That's Not Unusual I just don't think we should put that back to my point regardless of what as they're not school board members that's right but regardless
270whether board is but regardless of that when we have spent time talking about money and keeping within the budget and now we're about to approve and it has nothing to do with Integrity I'm this has to do with approving taxpayer money for something we have no idea is going to cost that's all I'm just asking for a delay for somebody to check on I don't think 30 we've already paid till June find out how much is board Doc's program cost how much is a policy support person going to cost that's all I'm asking you have six months to do that I didn't have six months I don't know I would call a question okay let's put a motion made and seconded yeah and I'm explaining my vote and I think I have the right to
271do that absolutely I've heard it for sure and Dr Kelly says are we voting on the motion as it stands so yeah if we terminate this immediately or do we want to do like end of January if we terminate immediately does that mean everything goes away tomorrow is Dr Kellis stated and present members of the board I I don't know I I just um I'm curious we are paid as Miss Pritchard said through June I don't know if you end membership mid subscription what that means what services continue if we're not members so that's the only reason I asked for a timeline is just for clarification is the status of our membership and the status of the services that are provided for members versus non-members get board docs going for ourselves if we lose it
272through asba by discontinuing our membership or we do it immediately saying we're already paid and take that chance I could agree with you guys to a point if Dysart had been singled out in anything that asba had done but Dysart hasn't been singled out well Dysart had I'll have been singled out hasn't been singled out by by asba asba has singled Dysart out for something yes can you share I don't know I'm not I'm not familiar with what you have please share because it could sway a vote one way or the other I will say this that something was shared with me um and maybe someone else can confirm this for me but I've heard that Dysart was called out um recently at an asba meeting that maybe we should do background checks or these
273things wouldn't happen man president members of the board that's an accurate statement pardon that is an accurate statement background checks on our employees or been terminate it I don't know I I just feel we just shouldn't quit just to quit it feels like we're doing a knee-jerk reaction and I have a feeling it's going to bite us in the keister I'm going to be nice My Hope Is that their actions will bite them in the keyster That's My Hope and as far as I know nobody well I think there's one other school district that has and they're in northern Arizona I believe that has requested to separate from asba but quite honestly since we have so many ifs and I understand your six months thing Miss Miss Pritchard I just don't want to make a
274decision like this without having the facts we told Dr Dean and Dr crotto just like Miss Grant said about bring back um the information having to do with the student services I think we should do the same thing asba have them tell us why because I don't think that Dysart was not singled out and that's what we have to worry about is Dysart political agendas and personal agendas are supposed to be on the other side of that door well they're in our email box or inboxes when asba sends them out I guess we can we can and it was just confirmed that Dysart was called out and in a sense we were called out or definitely they were referencing our parents or nsba is terming I guess any parents that come to board meetings and
275I'm not saying that some of the parents that were here that night were not inappropriate in some of their actions but that didn't represent every single parent that was here that wanted to speak and according to nsba then those parents that are in our Dysart District are domestic terrorists and asba did not did not separate from that they did not cut off their so to me it's like Guilty By Association they had their opportunity to stand up and address it and they chose not to again we're not part of the national narrative we are asba part of that National narrative yeah but Dysart was not singled out and I would have an issue if Dysart was singled out because I would fight like crazy well what about our parents though our parents were not our
276s were not labeled labeled ours Dysart but parents in general were I can't I can't work on generality no I think they were because they were referencing a lot of the during that time when there was a group of parents going to various board meetings there they were viewing they were terming those parents as inappropriate and going through a whole list of I mean they even I want to they've addressed it on a in emails and I wish I could pull that one up but basically that's where nsba drafted their response of domestic terrorism was from those parents that were coming to board meetings and and wanting to voice concern about parent choice and covet and everything and we did have a group of parents here that were again not sticking up for every single
277one of them but they were angry parents that wanted to speak and because of the political climate they were lumped into according to nsba the domestic terrorists so we did have those parents here the ones that are being referenced as domestic terrorists so Dysert was included in that just because yeah splitting hairs I'm sorry okay I don't agree and I can I can I can appreciate Tracy because in a sense I'm in a similar position do you think it makes me feel it makes me feel very uncomfortable as a social worker to sit up here and listen to or emails or angry community members talk about the social work profession of a group of people that I completely value and identify with professionally and personally it's it's difficult you have deep roots in as an
278asba you've held several um official positions you've had you've been a part of their boards I can appreciate that it is hard for you to be in this position but at the end of the day and I'm coming speaking from being in that similar spot you have to try and like just step away and see it for what it is and try to put the personal piece aside I have tried I have tried but again it's not against Dysart specifically and that's what I'm I'm having an issue with I think the word terrorist was wrong but the people that were outside that night banging on the doors banging on the Windows where we had to recess the meeting and escort everybody out that behavior was inappropriate after that meeting you had to read a statement
279saying that if anybody came here that was disorderly they were going to be arrested I mean we've had to do that for several meetings not all parents that were outside that night I didn't say or anything like what you saw in the paper or anything I'm not talking about what I saw in the paper I'm talking about sitting here listening to them banging on the walls banging on the Windows you know let us in the comments that we heard about people leaving being called terrible names the police officer being called terrible names that that's wrong that doesn't mean they're terrorists I'm just saying that that was wrong and and because of all of that it disrupted this board meeting to where we had to go back there then we had for the next couple of
280board meetings have to read a statement notifying parents even though the people in the audience were probably not even part of it that they would be arrested if they were disorderly I mean all of that is just keeps compounding well back to the question at hand we still don't have a dollar figure and everybody you know we've talked about money and staying within the budget that's my only concern is waiting for the January board meeting when we have more information financial information for transparency purposes because yeah just one thing you just talked about um budget and I'm thinking that if it if the dollar amount comes in too high yep excuse me um and we separate from board docs itself I don't think Miss Brown is going to want to for us to go back
281to board packets creating board packets and having them delivered to our house like we used to in the in the prior days um that that was a lot that was a lot we don't know what anything is and I I just don't want us to make a decision just because we're some of us are mad at aspa it's not about I do take a little exception to that it's not about being mad this is not a temper tantrum this is a matter of an organization that is driving their own political agenda representing us and they don't rep they don't have the right to represent or force a political agenda on us as a nonpartisan School boards because there are in a lot of ways they're our voice they Lobby for us they Lobby for things
282that we may not be behind well and I would like to state that terrorists being labeled a terrorist is a serious accusation that's not something you just thrown around being arrested a lot different than being labeled a terrorist being labeled a terrorist um you could the death penalty life sentence or death like that is a huge that is a horrible horrible crime horrible that's a lot different than being arrested and I agree I said I didn't approve of the language well I feel like sometimes we make light of this word terrorism we make light of this label domestic terrorists we make light of them we just toss them around here and toss them around there that's a big deal that's not just something you just brush aside and say it's fine we're just gonna slap
283you on the wrist I I would be right there with you if it was labeled as Dysart domestic terrorists can we call for a vote I feel like we're just running in circles yeah yes and I do want to clarify um do I need to restate the motion okay um I move with governing board take action to discontinue the district's membership with the Arizona school boards Association effective January 31st 2022 2022. thank you for that do I have a second is the second stand second stance while that's while we're processing that I just want to say real quickly um we have agreed to other things like like School Board resolutions that have much smaller impact than this we're not talking about the resolution right now are we no but I'm saying we have resolved something
284for instance I just want to make sure I'm saying generally speaking we have made statements we've come to conclusions on things that are national that have nothing to do with our backyard I just wanted to make that statement and then call for the vote motion passes thank you next we have item eight Dr Kellis Madam president members of the board members of cabinet this item was presented at the request of a board member and I'll let Madame President introduce this item thank you so next we have a resolution that is regarding the Arizona School Board Association I hope that everyone's had an opportunity to read through it and I'll open that up for discussion a question who drafted this resolution I did by yourself or did you have help with sports I had a template
285that I used but I did everything myself you did everything yourself okay four be it resolved the Arizona School burst associations no longer like desert um geyser Unified School District number 89 will no longer be an active member of the Arizona School Board Association effective January 31st 2022. I think that item three should be yes item one was really just more philosophical so for item three maybe we need to add January 31st 2022. well I will move to take I will move to approve and adopt the resolution regarding the Arizona School Board Association with the edit that on be it resolved part three we add effective January 31st 2022. second I would like to explain my vote um I would like to go on record that while I disagree with this resolution and will not
286be voting for it I want to make it perfectly clear I do support the parents of our district Dysart was not singled out as calling our parents domestic terrorists and I have never and will never refer to our parents as such our parents are a huge asset of the 23 plus thousand students in our district and as a board member I am always reminded why I serve I have served for the past 11 years for the success of our students Dysart thrives on the collaboration of all stakeholders and their voices we need to focus on what Dysart is doing and not try to change the aspect of a national narrative thank you motion passes next moving to item I9 Dr Kellis thank you madam president members of the board members of cabinet I request the
287board to prove the date of January 22nd to hold an executive session for the superintendent's mid-year evaluation January 22nd is that no it's a Saturday I was hoping we could have breakfast [Laughter] December January 26th January 26th okay is it possible to do the 19th Madam president miss Pritchard there is another item scheduled for the 19th who have a study session study session an exact an executive session do you know if we're going to have a packed agenda for that night meaning the 22nd okay you mean after the governing board meeting yes Grant typically that is held after the board meeting at the end of the board meeting sorry I moved to establish an executive session on January 26 2022 for the superintendent's mid-year evaluation shotgun motion passes unanimously moving on to item 10 Dr
288Kellis I think you madam president members of the board members of cabinet this item was removed at the request of a board member out of consent agenda and I will allow Madam president to I carry the conversation yeah I will open this up for discussion for the person who requested um that was me I had just concerns about different purchases that we made so maybe I just don't understand them um maybe I just need a little bit more clarification but like on page 52 we bought a gift set for bath bombs um the administrative the one on the second one so if you look on that on page 52 um of the document of the 383 wait a minute um looks like we purchased a gift set handmade natural bath bombs so I'm not quite
289sure what that's about you know I I think bath bombs I don't know I've never done a bath bomb could you use them in a science experiment but just to buy one gift set um that I wasn't sure about that and then on page 57 we bought kids sunglasses party favors 24. is that a Class party are we just providing our kids with sunglasses now um and then if you want to look at page 107 we bought a bunch of business cards for people who aren't really in leadership or Administration I can understand why principals need business cards why administrators need them but we were buying business cards for administrative secretaries and then we have people who are buying business cards for they didn't even appear on a Dysart search like I have no idea
290who these people are I searched from I pulled up the Dysart website and I'd search their name and nothing came up which page was that the business cards page 107. so I'm just I'm gonna throw it out there Mr Hicks by chance of that kids sunglasses um the party favors is that for like student uh activities I I don't remember what the account code strand is Club funds Maybe yeah I'm thinking maybe student council or some type of Student Activities yeah Madam president members of the board I didn't hear what page number that is 850 is the Student Activities so if they're buying it out of the first three digits eight five zero then yeah it's the students paying for it that was that was 290 I'm sorry 290s mips mips oops Madam president if
291I may um Administration obviously is not prepared to answer these questions at this time without doing some research so we would request that we provide that information back to the board that was definitely a concern of buying business cards for people that don't even peer on the district search but um something else that you know um we have we're buying reptile lamps and Aquarium gravel we're buying Super Smash Brothers game for Nintendo switch you know again is that for a club is that that's on page 307 and then if everyone wants to look at page 110 this is what really stuck out to me is we paid for a registration for one of our employees to attend the virtual betc conference and in this conference um I screenshotted the agenda the agenda items were one
292of them was talking about the power of Mental Health you know teaching students how to be an agent of change the other one was talking about online radicals radicalization in schools like I'm not quite sure what they're getting at at students being radicalized online for schools and then if you look on on session 4B it's talking about safer spaces supporting lgbtq plus students in schools which goes directly against our policy 7.68 about using public Monies to train orientation or therapy that presents any form of blame or judgment on the base of wraith ethnicity or sex um and then there was also this slide talking about courageous conversations on culture issues of implicit bias equity and disproportionality in education talking about how um Equitable approaches in schools construct of culture as it relates to systems and
293disproportionality and then if you look on this website also it's talking about we're pressing we're presenting on the latest social and emotional learning Equity diversity and inclusion which is specified language of CRT so we paid for our employee to attend a training um on things that we specifically have said we don't want in our schools and then go ahead oh sorry I just had a quick question so um on this just for clarity this would include um items that were being purchased by student clubs like high school student clubs correct okay so potentially we could see some weird things from student clubs oh right the question related to Smash Brothers is related to Esports okay related to what clubs oh it is one of the approved games by the AIA for Esports [Music] perfect and
294again Madam president uh if um Miss Chaffin would like to submit all of our questions we would be happy to research those answers so I you know it's okay I understand approving these vouchers because they have to get paid but I'm just a little concerned at a few of our purchases and yeah that's basically the gist of that how can we go ahead and approve instead of sitting here motion somebody so I will make a motion to approve ratify expense vouchers 2034-2035-2036-203-72038-23-2039 in the amount of five million six hundred forty four thousand fourteen dollars and fifty cents second I don't know if I can approve K1 it's already been paid moving to item J1 request for future agenda items I have one I'd like an information item regarding the notification process and procedures concerning threats
295to student safety thank you I know that I've previously tabled it but I just want to make sure that it's on the record for the social worker um discussion to come back sorry oh issuance of the contract thank you are you still online Louisa for the request for agenda items [Laughter] I want to edit I'm sorry um so I would like to bring back the social worker contract issuance of contracts but I would also like to have action discussion on potentially restructuring restructuring social workers the contract or the position I thought that's what the program thank you oh I'm tired thank you thank you any other requests for agenda items okay I moved to adjourn the meeting seconded by Mrs Pritchard I mean y'all didn't bring your blankets no