001delightful jokes give me a second 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 and at this time we'll stand for the pledge of allegiance i pledge allegiance to the flag of the united states of america and to the republic for which it stands one nation under god indivisible with liberty and justice for all thank you all right and first up we have dysarts remote instruction plan for 2021 through 2022 school year dr kellis thank you madam president members of the board and members of cabinet as required by state law dysert must have two separate um hearings public hearings to introduce any changes or modifications to our school plan with regards to remote instruction or any other
002modifications to creative scheduling for for schools so we had our first um public hearing a few weeks ago this is our second one as required by law and dr pulling will introduce this item thank you dr kels good evening madam president members of the board cabinet and community um yes tonight is our second hearing as required by law and so i'm gonna hit the highlights of our instructional time model that's an alternate as allowed by law and soon the arizona department of education will be releasing a planned template and later in the meeting is an action item for the board to vote on and if approved then it would authorize me to fill out the template according to what i've described and submit that to the state so for teaching and learning the teachers would
003be teaching from our classrooms and the students would be learning at home it is a online learning option for our k-8 students depending on the numbers we would have one grade level per teacher per classroom excuse me one teacher per grade level but possibly need to grade band depending on the numbers and right now we have about 300 students enrolled and that enrollment is closed and right now we're in the process of staffing that to be eligible for enrollment students had to pass reading and math for last school year as mentioned before we did have many online students failing courses just due to the complexities and difficulties of of learning from home the second criteria was that they were not retained or on a list to be retained if students have an iep or a
004504 they would meet with those school teams to look at the needs and accommodations and to see if if online learning was was a fit for them attendance attendance would be taken twice per day and reported in our systems and they're reported to the state ade is still in the process of coming out with with forms and systems for our finance department to report attendance as mentioned in terms of movement july 12 was our cutoff to enroll in that and that is so we could staff and form classrooms and get prepared for the school year the other movement is if students are failing during the year during the quarter then of course teachers would be assisting and offering extra support but ultimately if there's not improvement in grades then school administration meet with the parents
005and and that student needs to come back to the classroom just to get the more support that is needed so they do need to maintain passing grades to stay in online learning for testing such as district benchmarks and the state's state assessments those need to be done in person and so students will need to become in the into the building those will be scheduled so students would know what time to come and thank you mr dean he liked what i was saying so much he had to replay it again thank you mr dean so um so they need to come in person we'd coordinate that for families convenience and so that students could have you know appropriate proctoring of those benchmarks and state assessments in terms of extracurricular activities yes those students could participate in
006the school's extra curricular activities they would need to come to the site to do those we don't have online extracurricular activities i'll also add to our plan that if they're extenuating circumstances whether it's a coveted outbreak or some sort of of of uh you know closure of a grade level or possibly a school even though that did not happen last year that we could have kids beyond remote learning and still we could take attendance and get you know credit for their learning days so i would add that as as just a clause in that plan as a just in case if you will and so that's my presentation for tonight and this is a public hearing so um i'm open for comment on that i would thank you very much you're welcome i will add
007president densmore apologize this is an option for parents and like i said they did opt into this in about 300 of our probably 18 000 k students have opted in okay thank you so at this time i would like to open it for public comment if any okay all right thank you all right and now we'll begin the regular meeting first we have item c1 recognitions and celebrations dr kellis thank you madam president members of the board and members of cabinet there continue to be extraordinary experiences happening in dysart and this evening we'd like to recognize some of our employees and students for some of these happenings first of all we have the arizona school administrator's distinguished administrator award and dr pulling will introduce this recognition thank you dr kellis president densmore and members of
008the board it's my pleasure to recognize miss dana noble director of curriculum instruction pre-k-8 if she'll come on up she was recently awarded the arizona school administrator's distinguished administrator award this award is presented for exceptional arizona school administrators who have exemplified dedication and leadership towards their staff student and colleagues and she worked tirelessly last year to to uh prepare dysart for our first kate online learning which parents and students and staff are very appreciative of and not only did she uh you know work and lead the team to create that but they also created a really vibrant summer school program so we could help students catch up on learning so thank you miss noble for your award [Applause] continuing on this evening with our celebrations we madame president members of the governing board dr kellis
009and members of cabinet we would like to recognize some of our staff and students for both athletic and cte accomplishments both during the school year and this summer and we're going to begin with our athletic piece and we will start with willow canyons softball coach coach donnie tazzano who not only led the wildcats to their first ever state championship in softball but was also named the 5a conference coach of the year and the west valley coach of the year and willow canyon softball team stands poised to be ready to defend their title again next year congratulations coach tisano you betcha congratulations congratulations continuing on with athletic accomplishments and um coach dozano's awards came late in the in the school year as the next person's award came after we recognized her team and we wanted to
010also recognize coach rachel matakis from valley vista high school who has led the valley vista monsoon girls basketball team to four state championships in the last five years and she was named the all arizona girls basketball coach of the year and as i stated with willow canyon softball team valley vista's girls basketball team looks poised to defend their state title next year as well so coach congratulations continuing on this evening we have a first with dysart athletics and that is we did some research and have looks like we have confirmed that we have our first ever all-american athlete and so this evening we're excited to recognize alana rogers from willow canyon high school who plays second base on their softball team and is the leadoff hitter she's a junior and alana was named max prep
011second team all-american congratulations alana quite an accomplishment and if you know anything about alana alana will make sure that they defend their title next year so very good congratulations alana congratulations good job or as she's referred to as a one so very very very outstanding switching to cte this evening we are very excited to recognize two of our graduated seniors and their cte accomplishments this summer would dylan muttersbach and aidan davidson please come forward dylan and aiden hold tight dylan and aiden have earned or have won the silver medal at the skillsusa national award this summer in the area of interactive application and video game creation they created a game called space merchant it is my understanding this evening that this is about the 20th game that they have created and it is uh it
012is looks like it's headed for apple play correct guys do i have that right it's headed to apple play okay we believe it's headed that way additionally they will both continue their aspirations in the gaming industry by attending grand canyon university and uat um in the fall and we would just like to say congratulations to these outstanding graduated dysart students guys you did us proud congratulations give them a round of applause and dr kellis that wraps up our recognitions for this evening thank you very much and congratulations to all uh next we have audience with individuals we do have a couple okay i'll go ahead and read the statement this is a time for the public to comment members of the board may not discuss items that are not specifically identified on the agenda pursuant
013to ars 38-431.01 h action taken as a result of public comment will be limited to directing staff to study the matter responding to any criticism or scheduling the matter for future consideration and decision at a later date in order to facilitate accomplishing the business of the district in a timely manner a time limit of three minutes will be imposed for each individual group addressing the board when you approach the podium please state your name for the record and first we have lisa martinez my name is lisa martinez i am a west point pt or west point parent but i am also the west point ptsa president and i am here today because um i take my kids safety i'm like nervous being in front of everyone sorry but i take my kids to safety um
014it's like my first priority i've been involved in safety walks with west point we've had a lot of safety issues and i came to thank you guys for approving our light that's like huge sorry that's huge for me my kid's safety is number one and you guys putting that light in front of that school means so much to me and the safety of our kids this is something that i'm passionate about i have been at that school and seen accidents in the past i've seen kids darting across the road when no one's looking to get across and now they're going to be able to cross safely so if you can tell i'm passionate about that about my kids and i just want to thank you thank you for putting that light in or getting that
015light set to be put in on greenway so i don't mean to get emotional but it's my kids so i just want to thank you thank you for putting our kids first and taking their safety into consideration so that's all thank you [Applause] next we have tracy ortiz hi my name is tracy ortiz i'm also a west point parent we have been a west well our family has been at west point since 2014 and i have also witnessed many accidents i live right at greenway and i have witnessed many many accidents right at the crosswalk at the time of dismissal and also witness kids darting across the streets huge safety a huge safety hazard i'm also nervous sorry um but yes i am very very thankful to all of you for approving that the the
016safe crossing at west point so thank you [Applause] and then next we have stephanie shay i'm stephanie shay um and i know that they've just said kind of the same thing but i also want to express my my gratitude for um for approving the crosswalk and light um right there at 137th and greenway we i have a son who goes to west point and i have spoken in many different forums before at my concern about the safety right there and how many accidents and such that have taken place and so i'm so happy that we've had this addressed again and that now there's a different outcome because i do think that the safety of the kids are definitely um everybody's you know on everybody's mind but to have that i think will definitely make a
017difference and i do appreciate your guys's consideration on that thanks [Applause] all right and next we have superintendent update dr kellis thank you madam president members of the board and members of cabinet just a couple of things that we're super excited about we have welcomed our new teachers but well not back they're new welcomed our new teachers to dysert um they get to come a few days early before everybody else so it gives them a chance to get settled in and get ready for school to start also it was an exceptionally busy summer with summer school happening at quite a few of our schools elementaries and high schools a lot of projects with middle schools opening we had a lot of classrooms that had to be moved to different schools and our staff just did
018an extraordinary job of of the logistics of everything that happened this summer that doesn't happen in a typical summer so that's a great big kudos to them and speaking of summer activities we just concluded this week with our summer school this was a different experience this year because of the volume of students who participated generally we do offer some summer school activities and some programs but this was easily far and above any year that we've had in the past with the volume of students k-12 and so just like to thank all of our employees our administrators who gave up their summer after a very difficult school year to keep on working through the summer to provide this opportunity for our students and that's all i have to report thank you next we have the governing
019board update i just wanted to say that i had the privilege of attending the new administration orientation uh it's where the new principals and new directors join the staff as well as can't say the old ones you guys are you know the current ones right now and it was great to see the new the new fresh faces that come on and very glad to meet them and also um even though we start school on august 3rd there are i believe it was three school districts that started today and uh across the state and so just be glad that we're not one of them right now so but continue enjoying your summer and we'll see you on august 3rd okay um i also had the um privilege to attend the dysart leadership event uh just the
020beginning portion of it and i'm just so grateful to be included in that uh it's nice to see everyone's faces old and new or sorry not old but you know what i mean i wasn't not able to attend the new hire orientation but i heard great things about the music provided so that was it okay next we have the consent agenda i will make a motion to approve the consent agenda items as presented second i'm not sure who sekka did that tracy okay motion passes next we have action discussion item one dr kellis thank you madam president members of the board of members of cabinet this item was presented during the public hearing at the beginning of this meeting which was the second time the information has been presented to the board and there's no
021additional information at this time administration recommends board approval for this item i will make a motion to approve the remote instructional time model plan for the 2021 2022 school year and give authority to the assistant superintendent of academics to submit the instructional time model plan to the arizona department of education second seconded by ms pritchard okay motion passes next we have action discussion item two dr kellis thank you madam president members of the board and members of cabinet this evening administration brings to the governing board an item for approval relating to the covid safety protocols or mitigation plan for the district just as a quick historical review last year administration developed this during the summer time and put it in place in the early early fall before school started as we all know with covet
022there were constant changes and there were constant revisions to the protocols as advice was presented from [Music] various experts i guess and and other other authorities be they state local or federal this year administration brings the plan to the governing board with the understanding and hope that there aren't a lot of changes that we are in a more stable environment and that the things that we are recommending will be something that we can continue without regular changes throughout the school year it's my understanding that we have some requests to speak to the board so at this time we would do those and then i will have dr dean introduce the item thank you i'll go ahead and re-read the statement now is the time for the public to comment members of the board may not
023discuss items that are not specifically identified on the agenda pursue it to ars 38-431.01 h action taken as a result of public comment will be limited to directing staff to study the matter responding to any criticism or scheduling the matter for further consideration and decision a later date in order to facilitate accomplishing the business of the district in a timely manner a time limit of three minutes will be imposed for each individual or group addressing the board when you approach the podium please state your name for the record and first we have tom vanek good evening superintendent kellis madam president members of the board about a month ago i came in here and spoke on behalf of the larger community and presented to you guys a notice that more or less asserted parental rights and
024after reading what you the protocol that you've recommended it appears that you have carefully considered our rights as parents and for that i want to thank you all there's been some rumors that there may be some disagreement on how to handle or whether or not it would be necessary to quarantine students and i just want to speak a little bit to that i'd just like to remind you that ars 1-602 a5 protects parents rights to make health care decisions for a minor minor child and i would just ask that you all carefully consider that when recommending any new policy thank you thank you and next we have jennifer drake good evening madam president board members my name is jennifer drake i am here to express total support as an advocate for the students staff and
025teachers of the mitigation factors as presented by the dysart school district i'm very pleased that the school district is putting the students staff teachers constitutional rights above any governmental bureaucracy and allowing this school year to return to a normal and recognizable atmosphere for everyone thank you for allowing the opportunity for everyone to have the freedom to choose whether they want to wear masks or not or require them to be vaccinated to return to campus these are decisions that should be decided amongst parents and their children and individuals and their physicians so for this item i vote yes and hope you do too and thank you i'll open it up for discussion so at this point i'll ask dr dean to introduce the proposed mitigation plan good evening madam president members of the governing board dr
026kellis and members of cabinet this evening on behalf of the district's administration and we present to you the covet protocol recommendations for the upcoming school year last year was a very long school year and a year full of daily and sometimes hourly changes and so many lessons learned during the year many lessons continue to be learned during the summer and so this evening we provide you our recommendations in terms of covered protocol for the 21 22 school year as dr keller stated it is our hope our deepest hope that these recommendations would be able to be implemented without interruption during the entire school year just a couple of quick pieces in terms of what mitigation actions have been taken care of and during the summer and what will be available during the school year for
027our staff as the board will remember through esser funding we have installed air scrubbers in all district buildings in all of our facilities that project will be completed before school starts and so every building will have air scrubbers in them that help to clean the air um of not only uh pollutive part pollution particles um but also of norovirus particles of coronavirus particles and other pieces as well and so we're excited that project is coming to a close and that project will be completed in all facilities as i stated prior to school starting additionally during the the upcoming school year ppe will be available for all staff and students should they ask for it on campus and we have an abundance of ppe um that is left over from last year and if need if
028need be we can order more so any staff or any student who asks for a mask we're more than happy to provide them if they would like to use them additionally cleaning supplies and hand sanitizer will be available for any staff or students that would like to use that and we are not recommending continuing uh the process we had last year where teachers constantly clean the desk throughout the day um we are not recommending that piece as i stated moving forward for the upcoming school year however if a teacher would like to do that they're more than welcome to and we will provide any cleaning supplies they need additionally if a student would like to clean their desk between classes we'll provide that as well so we have those options available for all staff and
029all students so on to the recommendations for the upcoming school year we are recommending um that face coverings and masks be optional for all staff and all students and any visitors to the campus as well this was a process that was utilized during summer school it was utilized without incident during during summer school we had staff and students that came to school and did not wear a mask and we had staff and students that came to school and did wear a mask and everything seemed to work just fine throughout the course of the summer so we are recommending that continuation we would like to remind the board that vaccinations are not required let me rephrase that covid19 vaccinations are not required for staff or students they are not a required component to attend our schools
030or work in our school district and so we want to make sure that we iterate that additionally we are recommending less restrictive distancing measures in an effort to return to more normal operations and so where it has been recommended in the past that where possible six feet of social distancing be used um we would be recommending moving forward that where possible um three feet of social distancing um be utilized however understanding that there are some portions of our day as was the case last year where that may or may not be possible additionally we are recommending that we no longer require our teachers to utilize temperature checks during the course of the day as students enter classrooms again this is a practice that was implemented this summer for summer school without incident continuing we would
031like to reiterate that all dysart staff are essential workers we believe that they are essential as such should our dysart staff come in direct contact with any student or staff with that has a positive cova 19 test we will be handling that the same as we did starting in january of this year where we would ask them to monitor their own symptoms and make choices as they need to but we would not be quarantined automatically quarantining our staff due to a direct contact with covet 19 positive we would like to state that any student or staff that does test positive for covet 19 will be required to isolate for the cdc duration of that piece whether it be a negative test after a certain number of days or the the full 10-day isolation um anyone
032with a positive test would be required to isolate likely the biggest change that we're recommending this evening other than the mask piece um would be the direct contact aspect of students who have direct contact to a positive cova 19 um case as the board will will remember last school year any student who had direct contact was quarantined for 10 days and last year we quarantined approximately 14 000 different students which if you multiply that by 10 that's 140 000 days of school mist of those 14 000 approximately 14 000 students that were quarantined approximately 29 um contracted covid and so this year we recommend that if a student has direct contact with a positive cova 19 case at school that we notify the parents of those students with direct contact we provide them information related
033to symptoms in which they should be aware and be monitoring and allow the parents to make the decision as to whether they quarantine their student or whether they send them to school we certainly will continue to remind all parents and all students that students should not come to school ill we would recommend that any time a student is ill regardless of what what they're ill with uh or what their their um their illness may be that they don't come to school um but however we are recommending that um that our exposure plan be that parents of direct contact students are provided information and they can make the choice in terms of whether they choose to send their student to school or to quarantine and so that is probably one of the the biggest changes to
034our recommendations for this year additionally just a couple of other additional operation pieces that we want to make sure the board is aware of athletic events will return to normal operations um and we're in the process of moving towards that now for those of you that watched the sun's game last evening or watched any of the finals nba finals we're seeing packed arenas last night there were estimated to be 60 000 people outside of milwaukee stadium athletics are returning to normal and so we would be moving our athletic events back to normal operations our school cleaning would also return to normal operations um pre-covered cleaning schedule but that does include the deep summer cleaning that we that we entail each summer which is is wrapping up at this point in time and then finally we
035wanted to make sure to mention that our cafeteria and our cafeteria operations are working to begin return to normal operations with regular food trays rather than the clam shell trays that they used last year they'll be using condiment pumps now instead of you know little condiment packets and those types of things and normal operational pieces that we would typically see in the cafeteria we'll resume and and uh to the the pre uh coveted um stages that we had two years ago and with that i'm more than happy to answer any questions today or this evening i'm sorry thank you very much dr dean i just want to thank dr kellis and and his leadership team for just recognizing um parental choice is is very important to our community and i just want to thank you
036for your leadership i'll open it up for discussion just had a couple of things dr dean all air scrubbers will be installed or they have been installed and about to turn the switch madam president member sawyer sink bill by the first day of school all air scrubbers will have been installed and functional and this was a total number of how many scrubbers a lot um so the the air scrubbers you'll recall and and i'm sorry mr hicks is much more of an expert on this than i am um i don't say that often but i do in this particular subject um but um air scrubbers are installed basically in every duct component of our hvac systems and so it's been quite a project the vast majority of that project has been done after school hours
037um you know in in the late spring and then through the summer as well working around our summer school schedules working around the movement for middle schools and primary schools but they will all be completed and functional by august the 3rd that is very good news to hear as i know that they were working extremely hard and extremely fast in order to get things done and my other question is you may not know the answer and it may be coming this year a couple of months ago we had two pods that were able to give vaccinations at the support center is there a possibility that we may be having another pod in the near future madam president member sawyer sink bill the community ed department recently hosted another opportunity for anyone in the community who
038is interested to be vaccinated we will continue to be available to the county and look for opportunities to provide that service to our community as they arise it's important that for those who wish to become vaccinated that they have that opportunity and sometimes schools or school systems are an easy location for those for those vaccination clinics to occur thank you i just have a couple follow-up questions thanks for clarifying the difference between the um mandatory quarantine for positive students versus the indirect contact just out of curiosity i know last year when we were looking at groups like student groups or student teams that if there were two or more on a team that were positive then that opened up a whole other quarantine scenario are we are we back to doing or consider i think
039an outbreak is what they called it if it was two or more is that still something that we're under the the guideline of doing or is that madam president member prichard um i i can speak um not only in my role as an assistant superintendent but also as a member of the aia executive board and the aia has yet to address any concerns related to covet in the upcoming year the last conversation with the aia executive board in may was that they were moving forward with all normal operations in terms of your direct question in terms of outbreak we would handle that exactly the same as we would a classroom situation and and follow the same contact tracing pieces and notify parents of direct exposure and and and make that decision to answer your question
040directly the aia at this point in time is not looking at that as an outbreak which would shut a team down nor are we okay um the only other question i have is just asking that administration will continue to keep the board updated only because i can only imagine i know i'm frustrated just in trying to follow in the news to know there's guidelines from the cdc there's guidelines from the department of health at the county level and there's guidelines from our state governor and some of them are all in conflict and it's just new and evolving and it's very fluid so as much information as you can share with the board along the way as you learn things i i'd appreciate it thank you madam president miss pritchard just to put an exclamation point
041on your comment there it has been extremely frustrating to identify who's in charge and as i have been in in in situations environments meetings with uh officials across the state there's shared frustration from department to department at the state level the county level there's conflicting information coming from the federal government to the state government with regards to transportation these things are are indeed frustrating i have requested from the maricopa county that we get an attorney general's opinion on that very question who's in charge and that i think would go a long way in helping us to to follow the guidance from an authority and not from all these multiple conflicting sources thank you yeah thank you for that comment because that was one of the things i was going to ask because it is confusing
042with who's what direction are we actually supposed to go with if and not get in trouble um i just have some really basic type questions out of curiosity so when you talk about cafeteria going back to normal and the trays and all that they're not going to have assigned seating then so students can sit wherever they want like with in their class madam president remember grant that is correct hallelujah and then the other one is in high school they changed like entering the buildings you could only go in one way and the other door was closed so are they going to be allowed to go in both sides now madam president member grant the answer is yes we are returning to normal operations on our high school campuses thank you and i would add um
043i just received a note that there were 2 air scrubbers that were installed all right with that i will make a motion to approve the coveted mitigation plan for the 21-22 school year seconded by ms grant there we go motion passes thank you next we have um request for future agenda items i actually have one i know um i don't think it'll necessarily have to be an agenda item but maybe just an information item that could be sent to the board i know that uh i don't know how many people uh administrators went to the bill daggett model schools conference and i would just like to know based on that conference did they learn anything that would from the schools you know because they're always talking about improving schools and everything that would help dysart
044with improving test scores was there any some new innovati innovative ideas out there because i'm sure all districts have the exact same problem so just curious out of that conference if we could get some information on that please yes madam president mrs grant administration would be happy to share information with the entire board to help the board understand what what was presented at the conference and what our takeaways were next i'll motion to establish an executive executive session to be held immediately during a recess in the regular meeting second seconded by ms grant motion passes is everyone ready okay at this time we'll reconvene the governing board meeting and we'll begin with action item k1 dr kellis thank you madam president members of the board members of cabinet upon conclusion of the retention hearings that
045the board has just conducted now is the opportunity for the board to vote on each of the four questions and you can proceed with with each of them sequentially just as is noted each of these does not mention a student's name rather a code to protect the identity of the students so if when you if when a board member makes a motion if you would please reference the code and make sure that we don't bring up any names specifically thank you will that will the motion be made including uphold or reverse no you're going to you're going to make that determination so it's either motion to uphold or motion to that is the vote that's how the votes reflect okay thank you so you will let me know so that i can change that motion
046to either uphold or reverse so we change the motion that's what i'm at okay thank you okay to start i will make a motion to uphold the teacher's decision to retain a student in the matter of rpa 2021-001 pursuant to ars 15-342 and governing board policy 9.36 second motion passes my eyes are getting old too all right next we have action discussion item k2 and i'll entertain a motion for this one i move the governing board make the motion to uphold the decision to retain a student in the matter of rpa 2021-002 pursuant to ars 15-342-11 and the governing board policy of 9.36 seconded by mrs grant motion passes thank you moving to action discussion k3 i will move to uphold the teacher's decision to retain a student in the matter of rpa 2021-003 pursuant
047to ars 15 342-11 and governing board policy 9.36 second um motion passes moving to action discussion k4 i will move to reverse the teacher's decision to retain a student in the matter of rpa 2021-004 pursuant to ars 15 342-11 and governing board policy 9.36 second motion passes thank you i'll move to adjourn the meeting second seconded by ms grant uh did mine come up right in front of my face yes we are adjourned thank you