Dysart Governing Board Meeting - June 10, 2020

001One Nation na under God indivisible with liberty Justice thank you everyone um we will go ahead and move down to agenda item B1 uh Mr President Leonard can we just do a roll call real quick oh yep let's do a roll call Jay Leonard is present do we have Miss Pritchard yes present thank you Miss denmore present Miss Syer selt present Miss Tanner present welcome everybody let the record show that we have all board members present all right now we'll go ahead and move on to agenda um form uh B1 I'll make a motion to approve this agenda form uh to approve the agenda form consistent with governing board policy and temporary suspend any policy with which this agenda may be inconsistent second made by Jay Leonard seconded by Tracy Sor sink Bel let's go

002ahead and vote and I'm still waiting for Christine Pritchard and Jennifer Tanner's vote mine's not popping up so just if you want to just click yes that'd be great okay yes for Christine Pritchard how about you Jennifer yes okay off the motion passes thank you everyone all let's go ahead and move on we will move on to C1 which is the superintendent update we'll turn it over to Dr Kellis thank you president Leonard and members of the board members of cabinet this evening I would like to issue a statement that U is reflective of just my thoughts and and feelings about moving forward in our community in a an environment of of peace and and Harmony and this statement will be presented publicly via a video and also will be posted on our District web

003page I'd like to express my sincere appreciation to everyone in our Dysert Community who is committed to Building Bridges of Peace respect and Harmony I am humbled by so many examples of courageous people doing extraordinary things to write the wrongs in our society who advocate for and who protect our human rights who openly who open previously closed doors for civil discourse and most of all who ensure each and every individual can reap the rewards of their education hard work and talents I am saddened to think that even one dcer student or employee has ever been victimized by hatred we here in dier believe in and are committed to providing a safe well welcoming and inclusive environment for Learning and working if there are ways we can do better I invite you to responsibly communicate with

004me so that we can work together for a better future the daer district and surrounding communities of surprise El Mirage Youngtown wadell and our friends at Luke Air Force Base are indeed extraordinary places to live to learn and to work I stand with our diverse community to say that the work of ensuring peace and togetherness Is Never Done rather it is what we collectively must do each and every day and every hour I wish you faith hope and love Faith and Hope for safe and healthy times ahead and above all love for peace in the hearts of all and that's all I have to report this evening thank you for that I appreciate you putting that letter together that was very well said we'll go ahead and move on to um C2 governing board updates

005we have anybody that wants to start this is oh go ahead this is Christine Pritchard I was just wow um really touched by that Dr kis I think with everything that is going on I think that's probably the best way I've heard those sentiments captured in a very in a way that encompasses everyone and just exudes just kindness for all um there's nothing I can say that can top that so thank you for sharing it and articulating it in that way um was very meaningful and impactful thank you thank you Miss Richard Miss seld um Miss per actually took the words right out of my mouth though uh it was um very well articulated um with the unrest that has been going on um I I never want anybody in daart to feel uh that

006they are not welcomed and that's that's students staff and any Community member so I think that was very well well done thank you Dr Kellis and uh my second thing is I just want to give a a shout out to um uh one of our assistant superintendant Jim Dean and also to Mike Hawkins principal over Shadow for their distinguished honors um with Asa uh congratulations gentlemen I know you've worked hard and uh thank you for representing daart the way you always do and that's all excellent thank you for that uh Miss denmore um just ditto with everything um thank you very much Dr Kellis that was a beautiful message um thank you for incorporating Faith love and hope that is exactly what we need right now so again thank you thank you thank you Miss

007Dunmore and Miss Tanner I have nothing to add except just echoing those comments and grateful for the message that will be put out real quick what how are you releasing it on video is it just through social media Outlets or how is that going to be released um yes we will post it where we typically post our our video posts okay thank you I appreciate that excellent and uh just wrapping it up uh I Echo each one of your sentiments um well said I think it's a great representation of the extraordinary efforts that Dart is making to be a fruitful member of the community and also mindful of uh current events and how we all make an impact and um definitely can can work to be um just a little bit better so thank you

008for that um I also um had an opportunity to meet with the mayor and some of his council members last week and uh it was a very great meeting and uh I will say that they had some excellent things to say about uh Dr Dr Kellis and uh Skip Hall was very complimentary and um specifically mentioned the partnership that you have worked on with the city of surprise and his appreciation in the changes and the effort that you and your team has made um and just the um way that you're willing to work with him and his team in continuing to make those Partnerships and um he mentioned that um you do your best to um not say no to anything that he brings up as crazy as some of the ideas may be but

009um you always try to make it um work and work in the partnership and he mentioned that he um consciously makes an extra effort to attend all of the things that he's invited to that are related to the district um I I'm reminded of uh one thing that he said even when he um had a serious knee injury um he made it out to an event that he committed to come to because he feels that the uh partnership with dart is so important to the city and uh he definitely um shared his excitement for the things that are coming and the partnership we have so I appreciate you fostering that um with the city and the efforts that you've made with the mayor and the city council so thank you for that thank you all

010right let's go ahead and move on we are going to move down to D1 uh motion to approve the consent agenda agenda items as presented Dr Kellis thank you president Leonard members of the board I believe that um a board member would like to make a special motion thank you very much much this is Don Densmore um yes I would like to make a motion to approve the agenda with the exception of item E9 and to table the item E9 for a future date I'll second that that's Jay Leonard motion made by Don denmore seconded by Jay leard let's go ahead and vote the motion okay did it come up it has not yet oh sorry about that there it is there it is and Jennifer if you can give me a yes or a

011no on that I put it I put it on I'm sorry I did not see that that's okay and that motion approve is approved yes motion carries thank you for that we'll go ahead and move on that we're going to go ahead and move on to uh information items F1 uh information on the plan uh for returning to classroom for the 2020 2021 school year Dr Kellis take it away thank you president I'm sorry I do have a um public commentary Dr Kellis go ahead okay I'm going to go ahead and read the comment first um this is from Tracy Scot I wanted to put my opinion on the start of the new school year as with our covid numbers continuing to go up and more hospitals reaching capacity in ICU I think we have

012not seen the worst of the virus yet and fear May Spike again during September October between the seasonal flu and the more severe covid-19 multiple people in a space for an hour or more contribute to a higher risk factor especially when we are all in the same building sharing the same air I would like to suggest we begin first quarter with distance learning and or small groups one option that I believe would minimize risk and exposure is maybe half of the class on Monday Tuesday Wednesday is a day off distance learning project work day from home while school is cleaned then the other half of the class on Thursday Friday the other half of the class can do distance learning from home on the days they are not in school and still still communicate with

013teachers this would allow more students to have interactions with the teachers and resources but minimize the overall population of the school on any given day thank you for considering my opinion to move forward to make decisions I believe we should continue to reevaluate every two weeks as we move closer to the start of school thank you Louisa you're welcome um president Leonard members of the board and members of cabinet thank you for this opportunity to share some information where we are today on our plan to return to school in the fall and I emphasize the word today because tomorrow there will be changes and the the environment is very Dynamic right now and as much as we U are confident in where we are at today we also anticipate that we will necessarily have to

014adjust and and monitor as we move forward this evening I would like to First just give some overview and then I'll get into some details I know that the board will likely have lots of questions um hopefully we can answer all your questions um understanding that things are going to change and that we cannot today commit to exactly what things are going to be like in the fall I can tell you what our plan is but I can I cannot say that the plan is what is going to actually happen in the fall just because of the the dynamic um and fluid situation so first of all I will share as the board is already aware DT is offering two options for our families in the fall the first option is inclass at school at

015the brooken mortar location where students uh come to to school they spend their day at the school and then they go home at the end of the day they go to recess they eat lunch um they receive instruction it's a very typical uh day at school understanding that there are going to be some families who are not comfortable with that environment there is also another option and that is online daer is very fortunate because back in 2010 ner applied for and was approved to be an Arizona online instruction provider basically what that means is that we have permission to offer education online and receive partial funding for the students who are enrolled in that online program the acronym that is used widely throughout the state is called aoi that that is Arizona online instruction Dart

016has developed a program to provide education in that aoi environment and we call it I school since 2012 daer has been very successfully operating high school for our high school students for students in grades 9 through 12 uh they have had the opportunity to select either one course or multiple courses or we have many who are exclusively enrolled in high school this option has provided opportunities for students to make up credits to get ahead in their educational pathway um or even just to take classes that are of interest to them that they otherwise would not have been able to fit into their daily schedule many of the students who have a partial schedule in other words they might pick up one or two classes but still attend their regular schedule in their High School many

017of them go to the high school library um during the time that they would be taking those online classes students who are full-time enrolled High School um are welcome to come to the school to to do their studying but many of them stay at home and some of them have uh unique life situations that um it's the best option for them at this time in their lives we have seen success of the students in these classes particularly those who attend the library because there are teachers in the library who monitor the students who assist them and help them to get through their their daily lessons and stay on track to earn their credits looking forward we have approval from the state since 2010 to offer kindergarten through 12th grade instruction via our aoi or high

018school as I mentioned up until now it's just been for high school but now starting in the fall that option will be available to students K12 that means that a family who is uncomfortable with their children being in the classroom environment can choose to have their students enroll in high school at any grade right now there is talk and rumor about a third option but I will just put that off a little bit um I first want to explain how we are funded in Arizona and that is what we call ADM which is average daily membership in other words how many students are enrolled but also how many students attend every day if under current circumstances we have half of the students who do not attend school and are not enrolled in aoi or our

019high school if only half of the students are attending school and the other half are at home we would only get half of our budget from the state the concern there obviously is that that is not sustainable and we would very likely go bankrupt as a district if we only had half of our students attending school at any given time so that's obviously creates a dilemma when you look at some of the CDC guidelines and some of the what the Arizona Department of Education has released as a road map for returning to school which recommends these are not requirements by any means and it's been stated many times that these are just guidelines but some of the guidelines that they have posted including smaller class sizes or fewer kids on a bus or less movement

020around a school the solution that some districts are looking at is to only have either half the kids on one day and then half the kids the next day that's called the AB Model if you're on a track you come on Monday if you're on B you come on Tuesday or it could be you come in the morning or the afternoon or it could be that you come this week and and then not come next week There's different models but that AB Model is is what a lot of districts are talking about right now that is what we call the hybrid model where you take the students who have chosen to come to the classroom not enroll in high school which is full-time at home online but those who want to be at school but

021are worried about their the the health conditions um that hybrid model would allow us as a district to do exactly that and have a a smaller population of students in a classroom on any given moment any hour or day or week depending on on how that's played out the problem there is that's not the state funding model right now the funding model does not report that now here's the rumor or the the what what is being talked about in fact I was just talking I was in a meeting with Governor Ducey on Monday where this very conversation was had with me and a few other superintendents in Arizona and the question was the prevailing question was is there going to be some relief for education in Arizona to be able to offer a hybrid model

022without the financial penalties that currently exist Governor Ducey stated that he was very confident that the legislature and he himself are supportive of schools being open and school and students attending and and being back in school for a multiple of of of reasons but um he was also very confident that there would be a financial solution to this big question about the hybrid model now I'll tell you there are many districts around the state who uh are not in favor of the hybrid model they are worried about uh just the the logistics of what that means and I will share that there are indeed some huge logistics for example if um and this is applying to the three different plans whether it's in class online full-time by high school or in a hybrid model there

023is the potential opportunity for families to change their mind within a few weeks or a couple of months being after being in one of those those plans so let's take for example a third grade at an elementary school maybe that third grade has four different third grade classes I can see where one class would be a full-time regular classroom full of students having a very typical day at school there may be two classes that are hybrid classes where students are here today but not tomorrow and then there could be the fourth class which is full-time at home after school starts and after maybe a month it could be that some of the parents whose students are at home full-time in high school say this is not working for me I I can't have my student

024here at home five hours a day or six hours a day on the computer or doing lessons every day it's just overwhelming and they want to return back to school I don't have any idea how how many parents are going to choose either of these options other districts have done some preliminary ping and it's anywhere from 5% at one District 20% at another district and 50% at another district for choosing the stay-at-home option generally there's a very high percent of parents who want their kids to come back to school but say we have 3,000 students who choose to go online via high school and after a couple of months 500 of them want to return to the classroom the logistical implication of that is that we have assigned teachers to those 3,000 students in high

025school and now those teachers and the students will have to transition back to their regular schools open up classrooms and be assigned to teachers so the teachers will have to come back with the students the teachers follow the students it could go back the other direction as well it could be that there are a large number of parents who have their students assigned at school in a in a typical classroom but at some point feel uncomfortable and feel like they're not ready for their kids to to be in school and want them to go online if number of students make that transition back to or from the classroom to the online version teachers would have to follow them which means classrooms would have to be collapsed and those teachers would be reassigned to teach online

026for for the families that choose that at every grade level these are all Logistics this is what we do this is our business is to figure out these Solutions and we we don't shy away from the challenges of working out the logistics of what's coming in the fall but for a parent to decide what plan they would like to choose or consider it is absolutely reasonable that they would have as much information as possible about what is it going to look like in the classroom experience what is it going to look like in the online or the hybrid experience and this is where uh I say again we have plans but they're going to change they will change so first of all I would just like to very uh quickly go through what the classroom

027environment would look like what the experience for students who choose to come back to school and a reminder that right now we do not have hybrid as an option because the legislature has not provided the funding to pay for kids who don't come to school we're hoping for that that's what we are anticipating but that's not the case right now so we are dealing with two options right now at school and at home so for those who are at school what will the classroom and I'll talk about the cafeteria hallways um specials the buses I'll go through each of these very quickly first of all for those in the classroom we will be doing temperature checks for each student two times a day we will also do temperature checks for adults we will ask students

028to do handwashing multiple times through the day there will be no large group assemblies indoors emergency drills will continue per current emergency drill plans personal school supplies will stay with the students in other words it's typical that the students are are given a back to school supply list they bring them to school the first day and they're collected and and put in as a community basket full of rulers or erasers or whatever it is that the supplies are we will say that students will maintain their own school supplies so that there is no sharing we would look at how Furniture is arranged within the classroom I will say very honestly that it is not possible to comply with the guidelines to have students six feet apart in a classroom there is just not enough room

029but we would look at what excess Furniture might be in the room remove any excess Furniture to uh give as much space as possible for students it may be that the students desks are arranged in a traditional format of being in rows versus in small groups of four facing each other it may be that a classroom full of tables may be arranged or we have many classrooms that have flexible Furniture in them uh we will continue to use tables and flexible furniture and desks um and we will make the accommodations as much as possible but it is not possible to keep students six feet apart but in instruction will continue students would clean their learning stations for example um each time a student leaves the classroom and goes to art class the student uh would

030when they arrive at the art class will have some paper towel and some spray to just wipe down their learning area at that site when they come back to the classroom and they return to their desk they can wipe down quickly so anytime that they um they return or go to a learning station they would be allowed to clean that Learning Station we will look at locker room cleaning and bathroom cleanings uh to do midday cleanings U that means that we're not waiting until the end of the day and doing it at night yes that will happen so that when students come back and morning that we clean but we're also going to be doing cleanings um during the school day we would look at a maximum of three students per small group this does

031not include pull out groups for like gifted or or our exceptional student services this would apply if a teacher wants to or needs to tutor a a small group of students that they would pull three students at a time and not have six huddled together for that tutoring masks would be allowed not required but if uh if an adult or a student or volunteer wants to wear a mask they would be allowed there would be some masks available in the nurse's office for any person who requests one we're looking at onetoone computers or devices for students there's a concern of about having the the laptop carts or the Chromebook carts in one room and every time a different class comes into the room um they all use the same same Chromebooks or or laptops so

032we would look at um ensuring that in grades three through 12 each student had their own Chromebook we would look at um not sharing textbooks many of our classes have class sets of textbooks that are shared like at the high school level for all six classes or five classes that come through that room would use the same class set to study from um that is still unsure how but I'm guessing that there would be um supplemental materials either online or through Google classroom or schooly where those resources would still be available to the students but they would not be sharing textbooks there are what we call manipulatives or they are classroom gadgets or tools that teachers have students use to help them learn for example if a a younger grade has a lesson on addition

033or subtraction they might have small plastic tiles that they move around to add or subtract um we would ask that teachers ensure that every student has their own set of manipulatives rather than a shared um classroom set there would be traditional recess students would go outside they would play they would run it's actually probably the safest place for them is outside getting fresh air and getting some exercise when they come back from recess we would ask them to wash their hands or sanitize their hands we would look at health plans for students who are at risk in other words identifying students early and working with those families to identify what the needs of students with pre-identified um health risks have obviously we there'd be plenty of healthy habits signage and um we would be looking

034at as has been suggested monitoring the situation uh day to day week to week in the cafeteria students will go to the cafeteria to eat right now we will have box lunches only there will be some distance between students as they're lining up to go through the the cafeteria line um we would maximize the entire cafeteria space again it is very likely particularly at the high school that it is not possible to separate students by six feet during lunchtime there are great rewards for students socializing with each other and having a break from their classroom uh the tables will be wiped down after every student use and in between the class rotations and students will use we have hand cleaning or sanitizing stations um and again uh we would have signage in the hallways at

035the high school level we would look at the high schools for developing their own plans there's a lot of students as many as 2500 students in a in a school and they change classes about every hour one of the guidelines or suggested guidelines is that students stay in the same classroom all day long that is impossible at a high school because students at the high school have six different classes that they go to not as a class but individually and it would be impossible for teachers to rotate through High School classrooms and the students stay put because um each classroom of students all have their own schedules that they have to go to but we would still be sensitive to space in the hallways and in the classrooms there would also be as I mentioned

036before midday restroom cleanings and we would encourage students to use the water filling stations where they are available that means those are stations where somebody can just um put a water bottle up to The Filling Station and there's it's a touchfree um sensor that will fill the water bottles without having to push any handles one question that's come up is uh how are we going to stop kids from hugging each other we're not we are not going to be the no hug police we will teach we will encourage um but that is not our our intent to be hug police for the pickup and drop off um we will we're looking at opening schools a little bit earlier so that everybody's not bunched up all at the same time we would look at staggered release

037times within a couple minutes just so that the hallways aren't as full and we would um obviously have signage outside about not coming to school sick as far as specials classes or electives each specials or elective teacher knows their equipment best and would be the best person to establish protocols for their classroom if they are in a Ceramics SL lab for example or if they are in an engineering room for example um it's not possible for for us to uh create guidelines for every single classroom the teacher knows best and we would we have full trust in the teachers to do that as far as buses students under the current plan will continue to um to ride the buses the bus schedules would ride would would continue on schedule as they have been it is

038impossible to keep students 6 speed depart or to only allow 20 students on a bus right now if we have 55 students on a bus and we reduce that to 20 students on a bus we would be looking at either starting at 5:30 in the morning to do multiple turnaround routes or hiring and purchasing additional buses because we would only have half the kids on a bus at a time and we'd have to figure out a way to transport the other half to make sure that they got to school on time and got home on time so these are just a few of the uh the initial considerations I will tell you that while the this seems like it doesn't cover everything it does not cover all the wha ifs um just this part alone

039has this plan has been requested by districts across the state and by state officials um because we have gotten into the kind of the details that we have so far everybody is is holding off some of them have said we're not going to think about it for at least another month because they know that it's going to change we anticipate the change and we still want to be prepared with the conversations that we have had now going to the online model what would the experience be for students who are taking School taking their classes or attending school in our aoi or our high school program for high school it would continue as it has it's already been operating for um about eight years very successfully and we would continue doing the same thing those students

040are required to be to log their hours every day and they're required to log about 6 hours a day for elementary if a student is in high school and they are in grades seven and eight they would be required to log six hours a day this is not District policy this is State um State guidelines State rules that in order for us to operate high school we have to submit these time logs to the state and they require 6 hours a day for students in seventh and eighth grade and five hours a day for students in kindergarten through sixth grade every student who is in high school would be provided a device meaning a either a laptop or Chromebook um the classes that they are taking are provided by Florida virtual which is an online

041curriculum that we have been using for high school for many many years um daer is comfortable with the alignment of the Florida virtual curriculum to the diser curriculum but every student would still have live teachers and the teachers would have office hours they would take opportunity to do tutoring have direct contact with students for either instruction or tutoring um for those online students they would have classmates they could have group discussions um students to have an IEP would can would receive um Services based on the the classroom placement or the environment that they're in and English language Learners Services would also be provided we are also looking at ensuring that those students have access to a social worker so those are the two options that we have right now and if we understand um the

042the the seriousness of making this decision we indeed take the responsibility of informing parents of what what the options are and the details of the options and so we will be um conducting a special Facebook live event for parents where we will present the information that I've prepared and other information and that is um coming up and I'm going to ask Steve pulling can you just jump tell me what date and time that is yes um just to clarify I misheard you're talking about the Facebook um parent launch yes yeah um that is next Tuesday evening go live uh Dana k at 6 pm and they'll be taking parent questions live as well thank you for that so with that I will take any questions from the board Dr kis this is Jen um what

043are we doing as far as they our staff like the high-risk staff are those the ones that would primarily for teachers say be the ones who would teach online or how are we working that for our staff that may be a higher risk um thank you Mr President Miss Tanner the the challenge there is very real for teachers also who have varying levels of comfort either being in school or not and we want to make sure that we are able to be as as sensitive as possible and I'm GNA ask John Coto if he could just explain briefly if a teacher right now feels like they are unable to teach in a classroom environment what the uh what the guidelines are for that thank you Dr Kellis um right now currently um as Dr Kell

044said um we're looking at uh you know the two groups the two different groups those that are vulnerable at risk and those that are um worried about coming to work so obviously we're going to be as Dr Kellis has said um we're going to look at um working with everybody in this situation um if they have at risk and St at risk obviously um we are going to listen to that and we're going to uh work with them they can contact HR um currently right now we're dealing with employees not necessarily teachers because they're not there but we do have employees that we've been working with on an ongoing basis and uh trying to make the accommodations needed to make them comfortable in the workplace or um continue working from home so um as Dr

045Kell said it's a pretty difficult situation um we're trying to be sensitive we're trying to work with it and it's ongoing it changes um as he said on a daily basis so um really the key is we're being flexible uh we're willing to work with people um and try to make this work out uh the best way we can for all of our employees and all of our students so the important thing here is that we want teachers we want students to have access to the very best teachers in whatever environment that they are learning in and that they have an extraordinary experience regardless of their learning plan which environment that they're in we understand that um there may be some who are just rock stars and teaching online and we would want them to

046be teaching online and and vice versa in the classroom but we also understand the the need to be sensitive to um teachers who are at risk or have compromised immune systems and we would either work through them on leave time through current federal guidelines or we would try and and accommodate a teaching environment where they can be successful um regardless of their of their immune systems but um in if there is a a big shift for example of students who move from online to the classroom as I mentioned before teachers will also have to shift with those students back to the classrooms and if teachers are are unable to return to the classrooms um then we would have to seriously look at um at the leave time that the current federal laws allow for okay

047thank you and then my other question was with um um as far as budgeting because I know like if we're if we're doing temperature checks I'm not sure how you were looking at that with every classroom having a thermometer or how that's going to work but I just didn't know as far as I'm I'm sure we'll be um having to get more um cleaning supplies with upping everything that we're going to be doing to keeping things clean and wiping it down so as far as budget wise how are we budgeting for this thank you Mr President Miss Tanner um that is absolutely a great question given that um we are looking at a lot of options here that do come with a price tag for example as I mentioned doing a temperature check of every

048student every day we have two options we could have one person at each school um test every single student which means they' have to go class to class student by student or we would just give every teacher a thermometer um these are touch list thermometers is what the guideline is and so if we uh do the the math there we would need about 1,200 touchless thermometers those range anywhere from about $50 to $270 depending on the quality on the provider um we did a just an estimate of $100 each so if you look at 1,200 touchless thermometers at $100 each that's $120,000 um we would look at hand sanitizer stations at each School placed in different places around the school our estimate is about 20 $1,000 um to uh increase the amount of cleaning supplies

049um have a masks available to ensure that students have a onetoone Chromebook um option in other words they're not sharing Chromebooks without using textbooks we anticipate there's going to be an increase in paper costs um making sure that every student has their own lab kit or manipulative kit um all of these do add up right now I'll let Ken talk briefly about what federal dollars are available to us and an estimate of the total cost that uh starting the fall would cost and this isn't year long this would just be like for the for a 60-day supply of things Ken can you comment on that very much Dr Kellis members of the board yes uh so we are at Esser fund uh from the federal cares act and then two we have applied for or

050started the process to apply for gear funds uh those federal funds um are reimbursed at 70 75 cents on the dollar and um mainly aligned to um some salaries and benefits and supplies and so we're uh in the budget later tonight you'll see that we've already uh put a budget in uh for next next year's budget for $3 million and those federal funds and next board meeting where we're revising our current year budget we still have um some additional few 00,000 in that as well so we are provided some funds um from the federal funds that are allocated to us that we're going to use we're going to apply uh through FEMA for emergency funds for some of for example the thermometers we probably putting that through our Fe to get reimbursed and so we're

051identifying those funds and additional expenses that best meet the grant uh intentions and applying that um and doing the best job that we C so um right now what we're anticipating is that even with all the the federal funds and state funds that might be available we will still come up short and it would probably be um a couple of million over that of what it would cost us for the additional supplies and and costs of moving forward okay thank you very much anybody else have any questions I had I had a couple this is Chrissy um thank you for that I'm sorry I was like quickly writing as you were talking so um in regard to the temperature checks twice a day what what do we know what our protocol will be for students

052returning so if they have a fever or develop any symptoms that are consistent or could be consistent with covid-19 um do we have a plan or do we know our any obligation we have even legally to allowing those students back into the general population or they have to get tested or how does that work do we know yet we don't know that yet okay um and then you kind of answered my questions as far as the hand sanitizer and mask it sounds like those will be provided so um students won't have to I know hand sanitizer is like hard to find nowadays so um I'm glad we'll be looking at buying that probably in in bulk and having that available for students in regard to the not um being six feet apart I know um

053you know there's concern with the CDC guidelines in a lot of areas being almost impossible um but I think the things that we're able to try to do to the best of our ability just to keep children and staff safe we should try so um normally they say if you can't guarantee six feet apart you that's when you should wear The Masks um just want to hear a little bit about the decision to not require them but mainly you know if that's the if that's the path the district's going to take with it then um you know I think it's important to maximize the space and if that means maybe we don't have tables in the classroom and try our best to make even though they won't be six feet apart having students in desks

054and acquiring them somehow in any way we can so we're eliminating that shoulder Tosh shoulder or um students facing this each other with maybe only a couple feet apart like we do now um is is there a way to get a lot of desks and take away the the table structure in the classroom uh thank you president L Miss Pritchard no we cannot replace all of our tables with desks so how are you going to determine which students I mean if you have a table that you can how how many you planning on sitting at a table I guess I'm just worried about I understand we can only do so much with our classrooms but again I think the takeaway is doing everything we possibly can to be Innovative and coming up with ways to

055try our best to minimize spread so um are you thinking maybe just having two students even though that's still probably not going to be very far apart but instead of four or have you thought of that um pres Lear Miss Richard yes and it depends on again the funding that would come from the state if we can do the hybrid model where we could potentially have half the students present if that does not come through we would have the uh the full class size in every classroom and then I know that the CDC came out with um directional signs which sounds like it could be a hassle but I think it's beneficial if it could work if if students just know when they exit their classroom they go the same direction is something like that

056being discussed at the school sites for hallways and particularly thinking of high schools too where some of our buildings are eventually just a loop if you just kind of all go in the same direction rather than kind of bumping into each other face to face is that one of the things you're looking into um Mr President Miss Pritchard we have talked about the high school um passing times and and traffic um and believe that each High School is best equipped they know their their campus their schedules and this they would be best equipped to be able to make those decisions understanding that you're absolutely correct we need to do whatever we can to um to mitigate the implications of being at school but also they have to get from one place to the next and

057we would rely on our our high schools to make those decisions and then to um the cafeteria um is there a way or if you considered removing some of the seting so they're seating inside but maybe not as much and just encouraging students to eat outside where there's open air and more space Mr President Miss Pritchard yes we have talked about allowing students to eat outside as a additional dining space But we would anticipate as many tabl needing as many tables as possible in the caf to spread out as as much as possible and be able to clean those in between um each each scheduled class that comes through okay and then I'm sorry if I missed this piece of it when you're talking about the online you mentioned High School um six hours a

058day 7 eight six hours a day did you mention what um the requirement would be for k6 online logged hours k6 is five hours a day five hours okay thank you um and I think that's good to note that because it's it's it's going to be a a huge difference from what we were calling kind of Crisis teaching um where students were on like one to two hours a day that this is really going to be more of that traditional online programming as opposed to what students experienced towards the end of last year and that's I think it's good to make sure we educate um our parents on that so they they know that this is not going to look anything like that um so thank you for clarifying that piece of it what about

059um Athletics and fall sports are we assuming at this point again I know you say this is only as good as today but um thankfully our a lot of a lot of our Indoor Sports and things don't necessarily start in the fall to where we can take advantage of more outdoor type Sports will that um enable us to allow those Sports to continue or or is there a chance that even fall Outdoor Sports can be impacted pres Miss Pritchard I'll let Mr Dean address the athletic aspect um but yes you're correct it is still premature to get really into too much detail right now we're just trying to think of the the getting kids back to class we haven't really had much conversation but Mr Dean can talk about at a state level what kind

060of guidelines are are being given Mr President Miss Pritchard um as you're aware we currently have brought our athletes back um on modified opportunities to work out um both in the weight room and um per their specific sport in terms of moving forward for the fall the AIA has released um phases for bringing athletes back um for fall sports right now um the AIA is expecting to have a full season of sport um beginning in the fall um we are expecting to have a full season of sport as well um and are making plans for that additionally um you know we we brought our athletes back with restrictions on their practices and on weight room use um we do have plans in place to loosen those restrictions um as we are able um and I

061will tell you that many school districts across uh the valley are working together on plans to make sure that we continue to move lock step the biggest concern the AIA has at this point in time is that um there are uh likely many athletes who will return in the fall and have not had their typical summer conditioning and um and and practice time and so the aia's biggest concern is to make sure that when fall Sports um return and we've done this with a return of our athletes that started last week to make sure that those students are eased back in um to the practice process and not brought back in um as if it was mid-season and in mid-season shape so as it stands right now um we and the AIA are anticipating a

062full return to Athletics in the fall but as Dr Kellis um stated at the beginning of this plan um it's quite possible that that that that may change okay thank you for that two more quick questions Dr kis um when you mentioned that teachers would follow the students back into the classrooms I want to make sure I understand that because that sounds horrendous for the teachers I'm thinking so are you saying that a student starts online and this teacher has a group of students for that class and then as those students may decide that they want to go back into the school that same teacher is going to have to manage their online class and their online students and then also do in-person teaching in a classroom with all of those students um Mr President

063uh Miss pitchard not quite um for the I School th that will be a separate School in the district so the students in high school will not likely be grouped in the Western Peaks third grade group and they would be students from all over the district as as we anticipate that there will be students who migrate back to the classroom be it shorttime or over the course of the first semester um as we anticipate that migration back we have we can't just put 40 kids into the classroom we have to have teachers in that classroom and those teachers right now would be sitting in the online environment and would need to transition we would collapse online classes and transition transition those teachers back to their school sites to where the the migration is is ending

064up um now that you bring up a good point if you talk about the hybrid model in a hybrid model where you have students who are half at school and half at home then the teacher would be assigned to a school with a class but they also are responsible for students instruction um for those who are at home that may be that those who are at home are that's uh um Independent Learning time or reading time or doing homework time um or could be as some have used the term a flipped model where they receive instruction um through their their textbooks or whatnot at home and then come and then when they're at school then they can receive the personalized tutoring and director instruction but the regardless in a in a hybrid environment the same

065teacher would be managing students at school and not at school those students would not be enrolled in high school high school are separate separate environment okay so when you were talking about preparing for the fact that students may start online and then decide to go back in school but they'd be followed by the teacher you are talking hypothetically if we get funding for the hybrid but right now if you're in I school you can't do half High School half in session it's one or the other because otherwise those teachers aren't going to follow you right for K8 um you are you have the three you right now but it suppose the hybrid there's the choice of being in high school or at school in a classroom and if the hybrid is an option that'd be

066a third option but um right if you are in I school once enough students migrate back to the classroom we would have to start reassigning teachers back to the classrooms okay but that's just because the class is no longer sustainable not I for a minute I thought you were talking about teachers getting set up for online schooling and then if one student decides to go to inline online or um inperson school that same teacher is always like teacher of record and responsible for that student I'm thinking oh my gosh gonna driving everywhere okay good good okay so I think I understand that last question so the ad put out the road map um for these plans and when I was looking through them it seems like they referenced the plans were based on where your

067community stood in regard to being zero to minimal um exposure moderate or then substantial in regard to covid-19 where based on your understanding of our numbers where does daart fall I have no idea I know that we have the two model options right now and that is about as much as we can offer based on um regard really to be honest regardless of where our community stands we will be offering those two options in the fall the third option really depends on the the funding from the state and the legislature um and so it becomes a parent choice it's not going to be driven by we're going to assign students to one plan or another based on um the phase that we're in as a community we are letting the community decide what plan meets

068their comfort level at the start of school okay so that's one area where we're not necessarily following the road map that ad put out then because that they're more saying in order to go in school full person you have your community have to have zero or minimal exposure in order to go back fully into in person so you're saying that we're going to deviate from that a bit and just let parents decide what they're comfortable with offering those two options M pren Miss pitard that's correct and I will tell you that dard is fortunate because we are an aoi District most of the districts in Arizona are not so if they were not to have classroom instruction and have all of their students stay at home short any um special session by the legislature they

069would get zero funding as a district because they have no students in the that's attending school yeah wow okay thank you so much for the information you're welcome anybody else with questions this is gone um I just had a question you mentioned um about volunteers and and um I just wanted to make sure so as of right now I know things can change but volunteers and parent visitations would would not be discouraged right now more uh thank you for that you know we we want to be responsible uh for everybody in our Das Community if there are volunteers who um I don't know how to say this nicely are old um we would talk to them very carefully about whether it's a healthy place for them to to be and we would look at all

070of our volunteers and make sure that we just like with our employees we do the temperature checks and whatnot but I would hope that there are volunteers I hope that we have um our our friends in the community who want to be substitute teachers it's it's going to be all the things we've had in the past we want our students to to benefit from and that's one of the greatest benefits that daer has is the extraordinary volunteers that we have and we would continue to invite them to safely volunteer in our schools thank you I know that for some of our um our parent booster meetings sometimes we do have excess of 20 30 parents in a in a fairly small room I just I'm curious if those events would be discouraged going forward as

071well Mr President Miss denmore um I I'll just be honest and I think we're going to be doing things differently for a long time okay and virtual meetings I think people are getting more comfortable with I think as we look to the socialization there's great benefit in in being together and gathering together however um that is something that every adult has to take responsibility for if you are the leader of a group you need to act responsibly in how you gather your community together your group together whether it's online or in person thank you um another thing that came to mind as you were kind of speaking about um a students day is uh lunchtime and and recess time has there been consideration and possibly extending the lunchtime even slightly um I know many people

072kind of feel rushed as it is um with a with a very short lunch um but if there's additional steps being and prec cautions being made to wash hands and sanitize and space out it may take a little bit longer to even get to the table for some of our children Mr President Miss denmore we haven't talked about that level of detail yet okay thank you that's a good point okay thank you um my last question is if we went to um you know an AB uh schedule have we also made considerations for for um our teachers that are also parents of younger students you know K through three for instance you know where would their students where would their children be be going in the meantime then if the if the teacher was maybe

073um you know working a full five days but their student was on the Navy's schedule and only coming to school three days would there be considerations to allow that that parent teacher to bring their you know their child with them or other Alternatives Mr President Miss denmore we would not be able to allow teachers to bring their students to the workplace that kind of defies the purpose of having half the students at home if we bring back to the classroom I can just see that being an issue for some of our our teachers who are also parents of young young children yes and it is that that aspect is definitely something that a lot of people are talking about not even just with the hybrid but even with the full-time High School option right that

074whenever you have that many students at home that means it's that many parents who are supervising them so that is definitely a a Statewide Nationwide um concern starting school in the fall thank you all right any other questions um yes this is Tracy mine will be kind of brief um we are either way we are looking at an an additional expenses um whether we do the thers and and the you know like you said the Chromebooks and the copy paper it's going to be an EXT ex added expenses um but the one expense that I was thinking of um had to do with substitute teachers on I school um at what point are we going to call for substitute teachers on I school I mean is would it be just when um when just the

075teacher is not there um are we going to like over overpopulate so to speak I mean how is substitutes with I school going to work out thank you Mr President Miss s s Bill The Substitute um the need for substitute is going to be tremendous I will just say that we're going to have teachers and students to test positive for Corona virus and we obviously don't want a student or a teacher particularly if we don't on the topic of substitutes we don't want a teacher who has tested positive in any of the three plans um to have to worry about continuing to teach when they're trying to recover from a positive illness a positive test so um as we have looked at the need for substitutes in I school we would need to have substitutes

076who are capable and competent to teach online uh likewise with with the hybrid if that's an option but in the classroom as well and we we understand I'm just anticipating that there's going to be a shortage of substitutes and so we have looked at actually hiring full-time substitutes that we own as a district that we would just have um available and assign on a regular basis so right now substitutes um yes they work for the district but um only as needed if we hired one substitute per school maybe a couple for the high schools we could anticipate as many as additional substitute teachers which is the the cost there would be about $2 million which we just add that that to the ongoing rolling costs here but we see that as a as an option

077that if a teacher has to take two to four weeks off in any of the three plans that we would have a substitute immediately available to to um pick up and continue providing an extraordinary learning experience so for those substitutes um because I like what you said in regards to having um a substitute teacher hired on campus um uh would you have them deemed highly qualified like for K8 or um even for high school a particular subject or we just have them have a substitute certificate Mr President Miss s s right now um that is what we do is we try to match those substitutes that are are best qualified with the assignments that match their credentials um we would hope that these would be in the ideal world we would hope that these would

078be cert certificated um teachers who would serve as substitutes um if there's a shortage it's comes to the matter of having a a substitute an adult a person there to continue to provide the lesson plans provided by the teacher uh but absolutely we would prefer having somebody who's experienced and credential in the subject areas that they teach good okay and last question I know you have received several um emails or several phone calls um uh of parents and community members wanting to make sure that we make the right decisions for all of our students if you had to guess on a ballpark how many have you received um you know that's a a good question the the the real story is the diversity of the responses or the comments or the the um emails that

079have come which leads us to why we feel confident in offering options I will say that some parents have been very ad extremely adamant that they want their student to have a very typical learning experience in the classroom and then at recess and in the cafeteria and at their specials and after school sports and activities likewise there are some parents who are very cautious at this point and are not prepared or feel comfortable with the the State of the State uh with regards to coron virus and are expecting uh really some extreme and I'm not putting that as a judgment um word but expecting extreme um accommodations or or services to ensure as as the CDC does to ensure that this does not spread or that their children do not come in contact with anybody

080who could potentially have it so that's where the options come in and as conditions around the country and particularly in our neighborhood change um our options are flexible enough to be able to accommodate okay all right thank you very much Dr Kellis all right anybody else going on presid M of the board Dr Kels just a correction next Tuesday's Facebook live is at 5:00 pm so I apologize and uh PR will send be sending out lots of information on that thank you Steve yeah thanks for that correction all right last chance woohoo all right a lot of information definitely appreciate the input from the board and also um Dr Kellis uh in answering those um ever um changing and moving targets um we definitely appreciate your staff and all the work that they put into

081that um I know it gets a little a little tough to to chase that moving Target but I think it's vital that we keep getting out information as quickly as we possibly can um keep people informed and that definitely helps them understand that we do have options um let's go ahead and move on to information F2 information on survey results Dr Kellis thank you Mr President members of the board and members of cabinet each year we as a district want to hear from our community our our Dysert community and so this is our our annual survey results report and Mrs Jane we will present the the results of the survey good evening let me try and uh share my screen here e can you see my screen yes yes be sure okay I did something

082wrong I'm sorry I apologize Dr we you don't need to resign into Zoom you're still in Zoom you just need to open up your presentation don't click it out just sign into your Google your slides I'm working on it it's not being nice to me tonight there you go there you go click over to your Google Chrome over to your left I'm sorry go right there to the top just click on the the top there we go I'm sorry about that thank you for your patience good evening president Leonard board members Dr Kellis and cabinet thank you for allowing me to present the information tonight these are the 1920 survey results each year we do parent survey student surveys and staff survey based on School site and staff survey based on District based DLT this

083is our parent survey numbers please look at the increase in the participation the survey was completed in February prior to covid-19 um there are a total of 23,600 students in the district but about 15,000 primary households um this gives us an exceptional survey response of our households of about 2 2% generally satisfaction surveys have a standard response rate anywhere between 10 to 30 so we're right in the middle with our response rate we have many celebration celebrations this school year um I can U highlight a couple of areas the standards for student conduct we have high standards in our district parents feel that they are really treated with respect our celebrations continue um we are clear there are clear numbers indicating increases in safety satisfaction and leadership in our district we always have opportunities Although

084our numbers are increasing we would like to see this swing upwards continue we know that it isn't enough and these are opportunities that we continue to work on within our student survey responses we also had an increase however these surveys are a little more difficult as they went out the end of March during covid-19 we did achieve a 70% response rate we do track these numbers and send list to the principles however the data is not identified to them therefore they cannot track individual responses we're very careful with that tracking our student survey celebrations an increased number of responses um it was great to see more students reported low Conflict at school with their peers uh also students continue to be feel safe at our locations and the numbers represent that students have a clear

085understanding of expectations to graduate we also have opportunity ities although we have mostly increases here as a district we would like these numbers to grow the counseling individual contact data reflects that overall counselor contacts with students have increased this year from 33,000 to 36,000 that is a 10% overall increase in total contacts these contacts are inperson email telephone or mail and do not include classes or groupings when separated out just in person contexts for the school year total about 15,000 for high schools plus the alternative program however we still do have students that answer that question that they have not met with their counselor so we are looking at more effective ways to break down that question in order to gather more precise data our employee survey responses again we saw a rise in the

086employees that completed the DAT uh employee survey responses average between 25 and 60 however we don't track this as the confidentiality promises to our employees employee surveys are all given through a different method open link so they have to tell us their position in their school so we can count the numbers there it does not link back to their email so their responses can not be individually identified and this is um these are promises that our leadership and our cabinet made that we wanted their honest answers and we um assured them that no one would ever know how they answered their questions individually so we have some employee celebrations here the a number of responses the communication level there's also a next side slide of uh celebrations all indications are that employees are confident in

087the district and proud to be employed by guys AR unified was interesting top three words we did the qualitative data uh culture of schools family positive and supportive top three words that describe the culture of departments collaborative supportive and positive with our opportunities again we want to continue to grow the percentages um we look for areas that we really want to be in the 80s and 90s in so these were the opportunities that we highlighted for the employee survey we had a focus review this year and it was about the counseling department as stated in the previous slide we continue to look at a more effective way to break down counseling questions in order to gather more precise data um we need to ensure better tracking of the counselor notes um we need to minimize

088a tab that um consists of contact but not by how and so we're going to continue to refine this again and continue to work on this Focus to have a better distribution um we made positive steps this year but we realize again this needs to be a focus area so of the um of the list when we look at the counseling page and the data that I collect from it there is a category on there that's um not really assigned to a personal meeting or a telephone call or um an email and it's a blank and it has a large portion of contacts in it but we want to really do away with that that section and make them clearly identify I saw this student in person I saw this student via email or I

089saw this student VI via phone so we're still working at refining this category we made positive steps this year but it is one of the areas leave in Focus review our overall themes and celebrations they're um listed here so we significantly increased all the survey responses we worked very hard at that um employees find the district to be positive and supportive in a safe environment in our overall opportunities um we want to look at precisely worded questions to better separate the complexity of questions we also want to take advantage of eliminating neutral questions answers and add and any where appropriate we've we've got some questions that we really need to put an in so because people are forced to answer these questions and some of them just won't apply so we are always looking at

090consistency and better ways to make these surveys um meet the needs of our stakeholders thank you and stand for any questions at this time excellent thank you for that review do we have any questions from the board just a quick one this is Tracy uh Dr Weavers thank you so much for that uh survey one thing that I just want to comment on was the fact that the number of um resp responses that we increased by um uh from parents um I mean that was that was a big number that um we increased by and so I'm that just kind of gave me Goose pimples in order to uh um think that there are people out there that are completing the surveys and um um you know showing such great support in dice art so

091I was very happy to see that number increase so that was all thank you pres Leonard if I could just respond to that typically as researchers understand whenever you have more responses you generally Trend lower in the ratings one thing that is unique about this the responses the survey is while in all of the categories we had great gains in the number of responders the number of people who took the survey um the generally there was greater satisfaction across the board expressed so we happy to see that and I think that's a result of a lot of hard work from a lot of employees in each of their individual positions um not just getting the responses but to to ensure that our our dri Community is having an extraordinary experience I agree thank you any

092other questions from the board excellent thank you for that presentation very well done and definitely insightful I think it's amazing that uh you know the trust in the district and the way that we're pulling this information is definitely shown by the number of people that are willing to respond and I appreciate the uh the insight and looking at new questions and having uh questions that can definitely provide Insight instead of just the yes or no um type question so thank you for looking at that all right let's go on and we'll move to information item uh F3 superintendent 20192 20 um goal report Dr Kellis thank you president leard members of the board and members of cabinet this evening I am pleased to provide the goals report I will share just very briefly that just

093like with the survey results the governing board was provided with this plus an extensive amount of additional data and that is not presented in this particular report but um the the goals report is much more comprehensive basically than what I'm just sharing this evening these are the slides I'm going to be sharing this evening focus on the goals and the measures we don't get into the specifics of the indicators for each of those measures so with that um I would also share that it was early on in the school year where the board asked for my evaluation plan and that plan was presented as the district's strategic plan goals or the board goals that they're one and the same my goals are the board goals are the district's goals and so it's the progress that

094the district has made toward those goals that I am reporting on this evening and I'm going to see if Louisa that uh this presentation can be brought up yeah Denise will be sharing her screen she has that great thank you and Denise if you could uh switch to the next page I'd like to thank the governing board for the work that has been done over the last couple of years in revising and streamlining the the board's goals and just as a quick review these are the four goals that have been adopted by the governing board each of these are areas that are significant driving forces behind what we do as a district and they cover the various aspects of the operations of the district everywhere from our number one purpose and and priority in the

095district is the the business of teaching and learning but we are also very conscientious about the culture of the environments where employees and students and families come and and we certainly are very responsible and take responsibility for the safety of our dier community in order to achieve these goals we rely on important resources U so those are the the goal areas and overall to measure if we are making progress towards those goals if you could move to the next slide um there are several measures and the first one is that every school will be an A in other words every school will receive an a label right now um unfortunately there were I'd say all of our schools were actually rather disappointed that the State Testing was cancelled in the spring because they had put

096in a lot of hard work and we're looking forward to demonstrating the successes that they were expecting but with the cancellation of State Testing that also meant that there were no new school labels that were assigned out and so for this year all the schools received the exact same labels they received last year but last year we did make progress on every school becoming an A and we increased from three to five from the previous year go on to the next slide measure two says students graduate with credits Andor certifications to be successful at the next level typically obviously this is when you talk about credits and certifications you're talking about the high school students but we're also measuring moving to the next level means elementary students who are promoting from one grade um e8th

097grade into the the ninth grade and so as you look at this data um we see that there is indeed some some good progress that's being made um number of students earning industry certifications I'd like to thank Jim Gaber for his extraordinary work and his team of helping our CTE students with the number certifications that they are earning great gains there and we we're excited about that um four-year cohort graduation rate now if you will look you see that there's a year missing and that is this year as you look at a cohort we are still technically in the year and there are students who are finishing out some credits um they through the covid experience and we had a lot of students who not a lot but we had a handful of students who

098um got behind and so they are still working diligently so we don't have the final number for the 209 2020 school year as you look at the number of uh or the percent of students in the 8th grade who are promoting to ninth grade you know when you get above about 96% um it's difficult to show growth from 96 to 97 or 98 to 99 you're doing a good job if you're over 96% and you can see across all the schools throughout the district that there is really uh they're doing a a great job in students moving from 8th grade to 9th grade now some would say that it's social promotion and that is something that uh is would be concerning and we are looking at just like this year in offering students free summer

099school kindergarten through 12th grade so that they can recover from any of the what we call the used to be called the summer slide but now it's uh inclusive of the co and the summer slide where students um forget things and they need to stay and re rehon some of their their learning um so we will keep track of of those students at every grade level again these are the eth the eightth grade promotion rates um on track to go to high school and when you look at the number of credits students are earning um there are still students who are still earning some of those credits that they didn't earn during the time that the schools were closed and so I'm anticipating by the end of the summer that we will see the credits

100on track to to graduate in other words if you're a junior you should have the number of credits necessary to be a junior and I'm anticipating that across the board 9th 10th 11th grade that those numbers will continue to go up under measure three if you could Advance the slide one more you can advance it the slide [Music] again thank you measure three all athletic teams and arts performances as possible will qualify in state level competitions and tournaments and there's going to be a couple slides on this one this one talks about the arts and we've had a previous board presentation on the success of the Arts seal and the number of students in viser who earned the Arts seal um as you can see there at the bottom of that chart daer High School

101had the fourth highest in the state of Arizona the highest number of students who earned the seal but when you look at who we're comparing ourselves to and the districts that earned that had more students than us um Paradise Valley has several more high schools Phoenix Union has quite a few more high schools and also Tempe Union those are um that's who had more students than us but it it wasn't by many that they had more students than us we really are a story of success on our arts program and the the experiences obviously Das High School will'll be looking at how we can promote the Arts seal and encourage more students to um take the Arts coursework and qualify for the Arts seal moving on to the next slide we have the athletic teams

102and arts performances the same measure but now we're looking at the sports and I'm not going to read all the State Playoff qualifiers but you can see there are many that uh made the state playoffs but definitely want to highlight that the 6A girls basketball won the state championship the girls at Val Vesta High School the 6A Coach of the Year Rachel matus and the 6A Player of the Year Marissa Davis all from that same program 2020 Palm state championship will Canyon High School and also the national championship qualifier in 201920 Regional coach of the year we had several coaches including Rachel Matas David Chavez Keegan cook and Ashley becko and so these are good celebrations they're they're representative of the fact that Athletics is on the move in dyser and we are attracting a

103lot of attention from people who used to Discount daer as a non-competitor and now we are in the game we're looking forward to even greater successes at the state level can move on to the next slide please measure four all stakeholders will have an extraordinary experience the data here is taken from the survey data and I'm not going to go through and read all of these data points but if you just look at the Bold points you can see that generally every single category showed growth and increase and what that means is that we are making progress toward this goal and the progress is going to continue there are definitely things that we are not sitting on our Laurels with academics will continue to be uh forever goal that we want every single one of

104our students to have an extraordinary learning experience but when we look at the Arts the academics the Athletics all three of our areas of focus are what we encapsulate as the overall extraordinary student experience but it's also our employees and our guests our amilies anybody who has association with the district are our stakeholders and we want them to have an extraordinary experience so we're happy with the progress that's being made there measure five increase effective if you go to the there we go increase effective and efficient use of resources um there's some excellent data here obviously we don't have the final numbers because we are still in the current school year um there's also some some related attributes to the closing of schools that had some some impact um unfortunately one of the goals was

105to increase effective and and effective use of resour efficient use of resources that means that we would be able to increase our budget uh the legislature was on track to make some of those changes to accelerate some of the funding that was projected to move forward however the legislature ended their session early and those those bills did not come to fruition but um we will continue to to pursue those efforts one thing that is a celebration and I'd like to extend the particular kudos to Bob Young Arizona has what is called the school facilities board and they are tasked to fund or to provide funding for repairs at school districts many districts are very frustrated with the process because often the equipment has to be in total failure mode before the state will step in

106and replace or repair that equipment in diert um you can see the significant increase in funding that we have acquired uh to take care of things like air conditioning chillers and towers and roofs and and other major um equipment or facility needs and so we made tremendous progress on measure five in just that area and those are the measures that are associated with the governing board goals throughout the year the Govern board has received monthly data reports in various um aspects of the operations of the district be it academic or or otherwise and the board also received a data packet last week and had the opportunity to review that and I am very proud that in all of the progress indicators which were in in that data packet um that there is evidence of ongoing

107Improvement and continuous progress towards the achievement of our district goals with that I'll be happy to answer any questions thank you for that report Dr Kellis some very impressive numbers and I appreciate your dedication and your hard work on uh putting this together and presenting it and also making those goals happen and well done to uh the staff and everybody that has helped us rise to this occasion um do I have any board questions I just had a quick one um Dr Callis gr measure to under CTE certifications um just knowing how valuable our CTE courses are and those certifications as well help me understand what accounts for the differences between in high schools regarding schools that have 73 students in schools with far fewer um is it a lack of opportunity or is it

108um just what what would account for that just to make sure that our students have equal access and um can fully participate in those programs and courses Mr President Miss Pritchard thank you for that question and I'm going to uh ask Dr polling to step in here and see if he can help Enlighten us both on that number Mr President Madam Pritchard Dr K and board and cabinet um yeah I do think it varies um each school does have different programs but I know Mr G Sher team been working on um getting programs that all students can earn certifications for and you know building new programs um all the time and in fact working on a surfr for Willow Canyon so um you know we're working on providing the students access to those and um

109have been building programs over the last few years sometimes also takes time for those programs to come to fruition so students um are ready to take those examinations so it's a matter of students not being uh ready for the exams or it's not so because I'm I'm just looking at that chart and um I know that I know that there are programs available in in some of the schools that don't have the 73 so I don't know that it's that the programs are still developing so I just I don't I just want to make sure there wasn't anything that we could there's an easy fix to to make sure that these students have access to just as many CTE opportunities for certifications as um the other high schools Mr President Miss pitchard I appreciate the

110question one of the things that we have been frustrated with this year is in order to achieve certification in many of these classes they have to do Hands-On um demonstrations of their of their skills and with schools being closed that denied many of the students access to um to those facilities or the equipment necessary to demonstrate their certification skills so we were just on a phone call yesterday with West Mech Administration um they are trying to bring in all those students who were unable to get it done during the Spring they're trying to bring them in under safe conditions now during the summer to where they can get those certifications you'll see here that the data you're looking at does not include this year's um numbers but regardless even the numbers from last year and

111moving into this year um it is something that will take extra effort to help the students who didn't meet the certifications to either try again or to find out what be done to open doorways for them to achieve those certifications okay thank you yeah if you could if you could look into that I just again there's there's a a big gap you know in in with with some of our schools and I just want to make sure our students have those opportunities thank you than those questions anybody else have any questions for Dr kis um just this is Tracy and just one is mostly a comment and it had to do with measure three um um more specifically about the Arizona seal of Arts proficiency um the fact that uh we had the fourth highest

112amount of students earning that seal and I just know it's going to go even further up from there um our Arts teachers you know choir and and band and and everything um they put their heart and soul into it and I know this is just one aspect of dice art but um I know that uh um the teachers that I have witnessed doing their job and doing um that collaboration with all of their students I I just know we're going to go up even higher and that number for our students is going to go up even higher so um to have that opportunity for all of our students is remarkable and and fourth that's amazing so um thank you to you know Dr Kellis and uh and uh uh Miss Den um it's just it's

113remarkable thank you thank you yes it's excellent job in showing that the Arts are definitely important um at dice art and um it's definitely uh great to see that and receive those Awards any other questions um this is Jen I just have one question comment and it's just based off of um I know that Dr kis you were faced with a lot that no superintendent has ever had to face um kind of with this year and everything that has happened and I just want to say how much I appreciate that we were ahead of so many districts as far as the online learning and getting our students up and going and I know how important their academics are to you and to um continue that growth and so I just appreciate you and your team

114for I know that there were many sleepless nights um from your staff to to be able to make that happen so our I mean we know our our students face big changes but um try to get them back you know up on on track with their academics as much as possible and so I know that's not reflective in your evaluation because of um we definitely weren't expecting that but I just want to take note again about how appreciative I am for all the work extra work and effort that was not part of your evaluation that did take place thank you Mr President Miss Tanner and you made a very important um comment in passing but I'll put an exclamation point on it and that is an team and it is indeed an team the rest

115of everybody else who made this possible it was I would say a successful end of the school year even though we were closed but not closed um the entire daer team stepped up and made it happen so very proud of everybody all right any other questions excellent let's go ahead and move forward all right thank you give me a moment it logged me out of board docs I lost uh connectivity so just one minute no problem and I'm back on we're on action yeah action discussion yep thank you um let's go ahead and move on to action discussion item G1 recommendations to approve the 2020 2021 proposed budget Dr Kellis thank you Mr President members of the board and members of cabinet as we again look ahead toward next year um we need to talk

116money so Mr Hicks will present this agenda item thank you very much good evening Mr President colleagues and community members it is my pleasure to be presenting the fiscal year 2021 proposed budget although this is there's not a formal PowerPoint presentation here um we will put one to recommending to adopt uh the budget um this just as a reminder this proposed budget is comprised of all the ibaa recommendations that were presented to the governing board last month um there are also a few other items and so I'm just going to draw attention to a few of those and few reminders um there is a small dollar amount that is now included in the budget it's new in a few years and it is the adjacent ways fund there is a $155,000 that has been added

117to this budget is to have an architect to fund the the cost of an architect um to increase the safety of students that live across from the West Point Elementary School on the Southeast side of Lichfield and Greenway the solution will include a modification to the entrance and a state Crossing or at least we anticipated to have that um this will be done uh once we complete it will submit that with other documentations to the Arizona school facilities board for their repr review and approval prior to next fiscal year which um in the 2022 year um for that project to be fully uh budgeted and put into our the following Year's budget this is a requirement um any time that you have an adjacent WS project over $50,000 which this one is not but the

118we're putting a project together to that we anticipate will be able um once its budget improved the local taxpayers to fund the project not the state but yet the state does have to review and approve it or at least has to review it they have 60 days to approve it um so this is a budget of it's $15,000 it's not a large dollar amount from uh total of our budget it does have a financial impact of about 10 cents per home in that home being $100,000 home a limited cash value so 10 cents a year is what the cost is um that will be as a reminder this budget does include the 5% increase um that we that we last board meeting that approved it the last uh in May the 4% increase the Arizona

119State Retirement System increased the health increase in classroom site fund increase in District additional assistance for and mainly the biggest increase is going to textbooks curriculum for and um equipment for it and some additional transport decreases we did reduce um the average daily membership um by about 120 for this going to this year looking at our projected enrollments and um conflicts or um competition it does as we previously discussed it does have about $3 million in new federal funds from the Esser and the gear grants that were talked about um covid related it but it does not have a covid reduction to ADM doing we talked previously about opening schools and how there's some uncertainty there um so it does not have any budget reduction due to covid um we're looking for the legislature for

120either some hold harmless the governor to um whether they have a special session or not I know it seems like every week I hear different messages if we are aren't going to have a special session um we know the governor has a pledged to help with that that could be anywhere from some type of executive order or ad I've been talking to attorneys today about working with ad and their ability and their guidelines that they have in place um for example 15806 that allows um some attendance um widespread illness season so working on all that if so I'm just trying to be clear that we do not have that uncertainty in this budget um we will look and rea to that as soon as we know about it we really uh truly are there is

121widespread support to help schools and so we don't think there'll be too much adverse effect but we do as we previously talked about there are going to be some additional increases that um probably be in excess of the federal funds that we're getting although there's three million in this budget as I mentioned previously next week next board meeting we will be revising the current Year's budget which will also probably see another a million dollar increase in federal funds from that as well so um but I would also like to say that as though we are looking at some uncertainty with the covid impact on our budget the recent preliminary report that was um provided by the jlbc I think it was the end of last week or the beginning of this week did indicate that

122the April Revenue projections were not as bad as they estimated um and so where they were previously projecting the end of next year having about a $1.1 billion shortfall it could be um only a $600 million shortfall so there was a$ 400 million dollar impact or difference now that does not change the projections going forward that was just looking at putting actual in on June 19th the jlbc The Joint legislative budget committee will making a presentation to the legislature that will be a more comprehensive report meaning that they will take the actual data from April any updated information of sales tax through May and then work with Economist they're going to revise their projections for next year knowing that things did not the sales tax and other things were not as bad as what was

123projected so that's still all to come that would be probably a December revision that we would Implement anything or may not happen from that I do also want to just this budget also has two new funds there is a new fund um CTE credential incentive um hate to admit this but that was a bill that went through um last legislative session before they left with the skinny budget and uh so that'll be imp implemented for next year I don't know a lot about it um I'm sure Mr Greer knows everything about it and he's provided a little bit of update but um so we'll adjust that as going forward um and there's also the the auditor general has revised the forms to move our Student Activities fund that was separate they've moved it into our

124other funds section of the budget so just if those people that are scouring our budget and want to look at every line that that is a change that um was not previously done so um this is just summary this is where we propose and the board approves our proposed budget then we take this proposed budget I'll put a presentation together and we'll adopt it we're looking to adopt on June 24th for a special meeting nothing changes between the proposed and adopted and um I would also like just to say that I'm always very thankful of Miss Mary D spel and her amazing team uh this year has been tremendously stoua with all that's been going on and all the seems uh endless Mental Math that we're constantly having to do with school Finance projections and

125estimates and where we're going the additional budget revision coming on June 24th um they've managed it all extremely well and I'm very grateful for all their hard work and dedication that they put in and with that I am happy to answer any questions excellent uh thank you for that presentation it's not like you're not to have 17 slides so little extra covid kudos for you um let's go ahead and open it up to the board for any questions this is Tracy um the one about the um Arizona industry credentials um I guess I was looking at something else on the budget what did you say we didn't have info for that just yet um madam there is no budget in there because we can't project how many uh how much we get from that so

126Mr Gaber will um give us some additional guidance as we go forward so although it's on page six of eight um and it's a new fund it was passed in the legislature so I just don't know how much to estimate on that and so we left it blank at this present time but it is a new fund and we'll be working with Mr Gaber to get the right will that be for the June 24th meeting we won't have it for June 24th because we cannot increase the budget going from one to the next um but it'll be in the December revision for sure okay all right thank you you're welcome that was all I had excellent anybody else all right that I'll go ahead and make a motion to approve the 2020 2021 proposed budget

127second this is Tracy made by Jay Leonard seconded by Tracy s sell let's go ahead and vote excellent motion passes thank you let's go ahead and move on to action discussion item G2 recommendation to approve the uh resolution ordering and calling for a special maintenance and operations budget override election to be held in the diart Unified School District number 89 on November 3rd 2020 um declare the deadline for submission Arguments for and against the election as August 7th 2020 at 5:00 pm and authorize expenditures necessary to order note and administer the election Dr Kellis thank you Mr President members of the board and members of cabinet as the board recalls this item was brought to the board back in April and the board requested that this be reintroduced um at this meeting today so for

128this reason it is brought forward to the board um I will just share all the same comments that were made back in April and why this is being recommended why the board is being asked to approve or to to call for this election um one of the things that was discussed at that April meeting was regarding plans I guess you you might say or or Solutions and I did look back at the last time that the override did not pass and how that was handled and I shared um with the board a copy of the the board meeting agenda and I believe I'm not sure if you got the minutes but the the the motion and the plan that was approved at that meeting um we do have several comments on this item and so

129I'll ask Louisa if she will go ahead and read those comments okay I'm GNA go ahead and read um I want to give you a heads up I do have 21 comments to read um there are some that I will be setting the timer on this one is from Jennifer Timmons dear governing board members Dr Kellis and cabinet members thank you for your time and consideration and sending the override to the ballot this November I want you all to know how detrimental the override is to educating all students in The daart District student programs such as art music band and physical education are beneficial developing many valuable skills these programs are associated with gains in math reading critical thinking verbal skills motivation confidence teamwork and many more attributes that add to a well-rounded education these

130programs are essential this override is also detrimental to our students in K through three for reading reading interventionist support at every school is extremely valuable I am currently the K through3 reading interventionist at Riverview Elementary School I pull approximately 36 to 40 struggling students per day throughout the school year a successful reading program consists of instruction in tier one tier two and tier three tier three intervention is provided by all K through3 read interventionists and instruction is specific to individual needs and skill levels I can't hear you I'm sorry there's somebody be positive be positive okay tier three intervention is provided a through three reading interventionist and instruction is specific to individual needs and skill levels research has proven that tier three intervention is of utmost importance because it provides relief focused and instruction for

131struggling students in a small setting at my school we have kindergarten students who at the beginning of the year are unable to write their name they do not know their last name or their or their letters and numbers and are literally years behind in our schools are vital as an interventionist I am also the Dibbles coordinator I oversee Dibbles Benchmark testing at my school which includes every student in Kinder through sixth grade being tested for several measures in reading and entering their scores I also enter all prog progress monitoring scores for all students K through six every month I am an essential part of the RTI which is the response to intervention team as I teach students who are continually in the RTI process the override is essential to all students in the daart district

132they deserve the best education possible and nothing less this district is extraordinary it is override has provided programs that are essential to a well grounded education please consider putting the override on the ballot again the students in the daart district deserve to have the best education possible thank you for your consideration the next one is from Jennifer Preston hold I'm going to stop the timer on that one Kellis governing board and cabinet members I would like to thank Dr Kellis and the governing board and the cabinet members for your time and consideration I believe that we need to offer the override for election at this time is it imperative now more than ever for good quality education our students ruce our resources whether it is teachers supply or special areas would be an e even

133bigger disservice right now I believe that parents are more appreciative of what Educators do for students to pass an override at this time we need to be able to help our students even more and this override will help us do that next one's from Andrea Carter dear governing board members Dr Kellis and cabinet members I would like to thank you for your time this letter is to request for you to consider the override as a priority the mission of derer is to create a safe Diversified engaging learning environment where every student attains academic excellence and is empowered to achieve lifelong success this override doesn't just retain highly qualified teachers and staff but also maintains manageable class sizes it would contribute to the student programs including art music band physical education and Athletics isn't that Dr

134Kell's push the three a of academics Athletics and the Arts how can we do that if there is no funding I personally feel that the funding for math and reading support is also essential as we are to support every student without those supports in place we are failing our students the all day kindergarten is a program which may be which much must be continued kindergarten have better behaviors academic ability and longer stamina when entering first grade I would think that Al day Kinder supports the working parents in our district as we are not sending children home to an empty to an empty home we provide quality ride that these programs will be continued so I urge you to support the override I support highquality programs that produce educational outcomes that drive Economic Development generate a

135competitive Workforce and protect the values of our communities and properties don't you and if I could pause the cleaning lady just walked into my office and started cleaning so hold on to started vacuuming hold on a sec okay I apologize for that and the next one is from Tom banck dear governing board members it is my understanding that tonight's meeting agenda includes the authorization of a ballot initiative to override the current operating budget for the district and that this override would essentially be an extension of the one that is currently in place I urge you to vote no on this authorization this initiative was just defeated in an election less than seven months ago what good are elections if the will of the voters is not recognized do we just continue to have elections until

136the desired result is achieved then and once that result is achieved what is to stop the opposition for continuing to hold elections to get their desired results how long do we play this game indefinitely who pays the bill for all of these fax elections the elected officials The taxpayers Who benefits I think you know the answer to these questions now for the big question who are you supposed to represent and what is the right thing to do to fill that obligation I understand how conflicting it when your personal opinions do not align with the duties that you have been tested with but as a Prof profal it is your oblig represent the will of your employer which are the taxpayers that have already expressed their will or step down from your post please do the

137right thing and represent the people that elected you please vote to defeat this proposal the next one's from Katie McCarthy governing board members Dr Kellis and cabinet thank you for your time and willingness to listen to input from all stakeholders I am writing to share my support for the district's recommendation to approve the resolution ordering and for da it to authorize expenditures necessary to administer the election as a parent educator and active Community member I believe it is imperative that voters are given another opportunity to support the measure in the November 2019 election there was less than 30% voter turnout by putting the override on the ballot for November 2020 we are affording the other 70% of registered voters in the derer community an opportunity to be involved in this decision ple derer needs the

138time and resources to reach all community members to ensure every stakeholder understands the override to make an educated vote I know a concern the pending economic climate giving the repercussions of covid-19 the override is not asking for additional funds but a continuation of what is already in place taking away existing monies will only further disrupt any sense of stability and normaly our students have you have during these unprecedented times there are a lot of unknowns about what school in the economy will look like in the fall let alone what it would look like in the 2122 school year with $7 million cut and the possibility of another $14 million dollar cut to following the over if the override continues to fail if you want to continue to be proud of what daer has to offer

139you need to put this measure on the ballot our students staff and Community deserve to have these funds in place for the school years to come NE next one is from Beth seic dear Dr Kellis president Leonard members of the board my name is Beth Simi and I'm a proud parent of a fantastic mountain lion at Mountain View I am a long-standing member and supporter of the daer community and I am writing once again in support of the daer override in this time of school closur as it becomes it became even more glaringly obvious just how critical it is to have a strong teacher in every one of our classrooms it was our teachers who stepped up in huge ways to ensure every student in class was learning engaging and felt far above and beyond

140to reach out and help engagement with families on a struggled because of our own self-doubt we actually fret it unnecessarily because our kids were already prepared for many different styles of learning based on previous classroom preparation and rigor even our special Area Teachers went above in Beyond in ways I couldn't have imagined even having Virtual Field Day now we are preparing to embark on a new normal our teachers and staff deserve the support of our community in return the override committee has already moved with a recommendation for you to go forward with an election this group at Miss pitcher's request was not part of a previous committee and came at this with a fresh perspective with that in mind we cannot afford to lose the amazing progress dard has made or the incredible teams assembled

141at each one of our schools our teachers deserve our your support our communities deserve great schools continuation of what we are already paying does not add any additional burden to taxpayers as the amount won't increase taxes but it has and will increase our property values to have great schools in our neighborhood the naysayers don't have children in our schools and have no vested interest in their success I hope that the members of the governing board will agree to move forward based on the recommendation of the override committee with the m override election in some capacity in the fall the next one is from Eric M smtz thank you in advance for considering the budgetary concerns of the covid riot economic Rec recession the taxpayers of the daart school district will more like more than likely

142be voting again to reject the unreasonable demand for the budget override just months ago before the covid-19 economic crisis We the People overwhelmingly voted the proposed override figures down at this time our business and our and our family budgets have been trimmed to Bare minimums and employees have lost their jobs never to return the future looks bleak as unemployment percentages and business bankruptcies will change the landscape of our tax base the long-term effects are not unknown are not known as District P taxpayers will be financially impacted for years to come the older residents will be seeing cuts to Social Security as a result starting in 2021 Social Security will begin to draw down trust fund reserves to help pay for benefits before the pandemic and the ra radical disruption of the booming economy Social Security

143had a long-term Financial shortfall that was to be depleted by 2035 now it is predicted payroll taxes will Now cover only 3ars of promised benefits to get us to 2035 when households are struggling to survive DSD is making no compromise for our decaying personal and business financials as we have to downsize our personal and business budgets to reflect the new normal of our economy we ask the school district to do the same and not strap us with taxation incumbrances we cannot meet the only way a reasonable School District can hope to pass an override in these times of recession is to severely cut the override that was voted down just months ago by 50% or more the cut should be across the board not seeking the most painful political motivated agendas such as all day

144Kinder Care the Arts and sports we know how districts P Play On Emotion in addition let us consider the enriched educational experiences offered by less funded schools such as the area a a EC high schools that are graduating Almost 100% of their students with few discipline problems and near a 0% dropout rate these schools are graduating their high school students with 2-year AE degrees that transfer all the credits earned to four-year colleges within the state yes these students graduate with a high school diploma and college degree on the same day most students even receive scholarships averaging $52,000 that should be the return on investment our students and parents expect there is opportunity and crisis we are willing to compromise if you are you make the call the next one is from Kathleen o governing board

145members and superintendent Kellis there are six taxpayers in our household who contribute to derer we do not have children attending the district none of us are employed by the district we all value quality public education and see the importance of doing our our part to enens ensure every child receives the best education possible on behalf of the six fors who reside together I encourage you to vote in favor of an M override that the derer community can vote on in November next one's for M Michael Hutchinson governing board members I write today to encourage you to vote no on initiating an override election we just held a vote for the same item seven months ago and it is insulting to me that you would even consider wasting hundreds of thousands in taxpayer money to ask

146a question that has been answered very clearly our economy is in crisis families in El marage who were struggling before covid are struggling even more now every household has made Cuts every business has made Cuts if every municipality has made cuts the only organization that doesn't seem to understand the need for cuts as yours please disregard the misleading information that are being given by Mr Hicks about the override committee I have the documents have any of you actually read them the override committee was poorly attended and the ones that did attend were friends and allies of the superintendent when the time is right all of these documents will be released for public view a yes vote will result in another chunk of taxpayer money being wasted in another failed election the override will fail Mr

147Hicks has spoken to political Consultants about the overrides chance of success chances of success and he won't tell you what they said there's a good reason why please do not abstain from this vote you were elected to make decisions not to dodge responsibility I will see to it that the voters in derer hold each of you accountable for the way you vote tonight don't waste our money again don't insult us with your Ado over election don't keep trying to reach into our pockets while we are all suffering do the right thing next one is Candace sharp good afternoon I live I have lived here in elaraj for 18 years we do not need to have another override election we the people voted no and that's it we are tired of our taxes going up in

148El Mirage for the derer district next one's from Jenna catlick thank you for your time derer board members Dr Kellis and cabinet as a district parent teacher Community member I again State my support for our District's override continuation children learned best with a well-rounded education including the Arts and Athletics having override will continue to fund um hasher extraordinary education for over 20,000 students this is one facet of funding for public to be F to be a focused need perhaps now more than ever due to changing conditions from covid-19 next one is Annette Alm I am writing this email to voice my support of the renewal of our current override as a military wife who runs a Luke Air Force bace spouses group with over 3,000 members over three quarters of them being parents looking for

149schools children I can tell you how important it is for the daer district to be able to compete with Charter Schools and other districts in the area without this crucial funding there is no way we can offer incoming families the level of Education they may have been receiving in other states would derer be able to offer anything close to what the neighboring districts and Charters can offer children living in our district strong schools make strong communities and we cannot afford to lose teachers or programs I feel like we are finally getting into a Groove in our district and if this override fails to make it on the ballot and pass all hard work teachers and staff have put in have been for nothing please respect our teachers invest in our families and our communities and

150put this override on the ballot next one is from Carla Bennett as a parent of five daer UniFi School District students current current and for I whole wholeheartedly support an override next one's from Christina Bergeron dear president Leonard and members of the board there have been great consideration there has been great consideration for what is best and needed for daer which is the reason that the bond is not advancing for a boat the override not going on to the ballot and or not passing in November would have hurtful consequences in programs and Staffing at a time that is unstable at best we need to maintain our staffing in our programs which help create stability in a time of instability it is because of the stability the students that it impacts and also the staff that

151would be affected that I'm asking all board members to consider what is best for the district and Community by maintaining the one outlet that many students have in these trying times which is school the override helps so much without it we would be cutting not just 7 million but $21 million from The District's budget I am excited to be able to tell the community about the support that are board shows for the programs that help students and does all that it says it will I know that there will be many teachers that will work to ensure that this year the override the override is front and center thank you for supporting the daer override in the November 2020 election next one is from Tammy deers dear members of the school board please vote no on

152the budget override ballot measure we just had an election and rejected this very override and that this and that was back when the economy was thriving things have gotten worse things are tight things are irresponsible are tight is irresponsible respons to waste money of our waste more of our money on this again those involved in the public school system will immediately start threatening to cut programs they know will evoke an emotional reaction from the public please give us the community you represent and receptive tactics what about the $28 million in cash that's floating around in the books why wasn't that money being used toward instruction for teachers and students in a recent meeting a new contract was rushed through for the super tendent two of the members who re voted to approve hold on a

153second I need to plug my computer in sorry in a recent meeting a new contract was rushed through for the superintendent two of the members who voted to approve it are members of the same church where the superintendent is apparently a high priest it is customary that if an issue might give even the appearance of impropriety it is best to avoid it not in this case there were several letters from the public against this action and two members of the board both gave rational legitimate compelling reasons why the board should wait until after the next evaluation all of that was ignored and the new contract was hastily rubber stamped through by a three three to2 vote the appearance of impropriety is very much an issue it is unfair to go by one incident but it

154is wise to watch for patterns you represent the voters of this District not the public schools not yourselves and not the leaders of your church we spoke up and rejected this override only a few short months ago unless you have some Earth shattering and compelling evidence suggest something has changed tonight is your opportunity to represent those have usted you with the responsibility of representing us and the next one is from John D email Johnny man2 2001 at Hotmail he does not um give me his name it just his um Johnny d as derer UniFi School District contemplates yet another expensive a wasteful Bond and override campaign I feel it necess necessary to voice voice my opposition the voters already made clear that we do not want or approve of a tax increase to subsidize the

155districts unwillingness to budget and prior prioritize spending the mere fact that the district is eager to risk $500,000 on back-to-back Bond and override campaigns as a glaring example of the gross mismanagement and lack of respect for the funding received by the district how can you even consider this when the amount of this year's funding levels and expenses can't even be estimated with any degree of certainty surely you realize that state revenues have been drastically reduced due to covid-19 this will be compounded by additional unknown expenses for d start Unified School District to maintain sty safety standards for staff and students and to prepare for the eventuality of another school closure during the course of the school year instead of sensely senselessly wasting that money in an effort to raise taxes on families already struggling financially

156due to covid-19 technology and her professional development no one could have foreseen the pandemic coming that struck our state in March but we know now it is our duty to repair and this includes efficient budgeting and the iMed immediate termination of wasteful spending many of the families in our district are suffering financial hardship and to expect a different result from a bond and override campaign at this time is naive at best for these reasons icage you to reconsider pursuing another Bond and override campaign it is not in the best interest of daer Unified School District are students the next one is from Mark Demers dear members of the school board I'm writing you as an active register voter and property owner in the daart Unified School District as of this morning there are 105 5,458

157active reg register voters in the district based on pre this board has taken recently I felt the need to remind you that it is your responsibility to fair to fairly represent the interests of all the voters in the district you are not there to represent yourself or push personal agendas nor were you elected to represent only a small taxpayers pay Public School Employees to represent and manage the interests of the failed Public School System Your Role is to protect us the voters against any possible abuses from that system Your Role is not to protect the interests of public school against the voters who put you there daeri school district called for a special election seven short [Music] month to as the taxpayers asking for approval on a bond and a 15% override of the already

158burdensome annual budget we the voters whom you represent rejected both seven months ago before cor the economy was booming we rejected the budget override by a margin of 12% that doesn't send a clear if that doesn't send a clear message I don't know what does the following day superintendent qu Quinn Kellis made his Infamous public statement claiming that he didn't believe he vowed to ignore the results and the will of the voters Those whom you the board members represent and spend more of our money to shove this irresponsible money grabed down our throats again that insulting and irrational statement was quickly deleted and taken offline but it wasn't that long ago we haven't forgotten it was not Quinn Kell's place to announce that this override will be back on the ballot and that is exactly

159why we have a school board to protect us against knee- jerking reactions from petulant administrators in this matter your responsibility is pretty straightforward you don't have to agonize Wonder or try to second guess how those you represent want you to vote we just told you loud and clear next one is from Lisa fer the existing budget override allows our local community to provide additional funding for our schools no amount of creative budget cuts or recent savings on utilities can replace the override this is not just $7 million in Cuts you will need to find but 21 million in yearly Cuts those cuts cannot be made without a devastating impact on our students I urge you to vote Yes to place the override on the November 2020 ballot and allow voters to continue the funding for

160our school district with zero additional impact to our property taxes next one is from Elizabeth Schultz I am in support of the override being added to this Falls election please Advocate advocate for this much needed override the next one is from J JLA DWI Dr Kellis members of The Bard and cabinet my name is Jayla DWI I'm a seventh grade student at sonor and Heights Elementary last year in sixth grade I had the best teacher that I've ever had Miss bulmer makes learning very fun and is very open to communicating with her students about school and life she is the kind of teacher every student should have unfortunately that was not the case a few years ago last time the override did not pass she was one of the teachers who lost her job thankfully

161the following year the override passed and she was able to return I feel very lucky that she was able to return to teaching because I got to have her last year and now she gets to move up with me and be my seventh grade teacher too if the override does not pass many students will not have an amazing teacher like Miss bulmer I highly encourage you to put the override on the ballot so derer does not have to lose great teachers thank you for your time and the last one is from Tracy SC I'm writing once again to let you know that I'm in favor of the derer override and believe we should get it on the ballot for this fall it is imperative that we get this funding and continue to put put money

162towards education both our Stu teachers and staff and our student resources so we may all continue to learn and grow with our technology economy and the world and that was the last one thank you Louisa and I just would like to um expressly thank everybody who submitted comments I believe this is definitely a community that uh is very engaged in the Affairs of the district whether you have students or not and your comments are appreciated because it is some because our district has such influence in our community in many ways um I would just add to the comments that have already been said that great schools make great communities and to not have this Bond pass would mean that we would contribute $7 million in unemployment and other um losses to the community and that's

163not good for for our community for neighborhoods if it were to go over three years without passing the $21 million in lost jobs and and other losses associated with these expenses would be detrimental to our community it's been said already very articulately why it's needed for our students but it's needed for everybody as we look at um this proposal it is what is best for everybody we understand our responsibility to be fiscally responsible and we take that very seriously and if anybody has any questions about how our finances are handled we invite you to please uh make an appointment and we will open up the books and share those with you we take fiscal responsibility absolutely at its highest level um be happy to answer any questions from the board thank you Dr k um

164Dr Kellis um quick question with regards to the time that we what was this on April 22nd that we had um had this discussion what would you say was the biggest thing that has changed um I I know the cases in the state of Arizona have changed as far as um the number of covid and everything but what has changed for daart Mr President Mr s s Bill there is a lot of optimism in the district about what is to come and I would say it's not just since April I would say that it is a growing optimism in the extraordinary experiences for employees for students and for anybody who Associates with the district we would not be able to have that level of confidence moving forward this is not a competition with Charters this

165is not a competition with our peer districts this is our community this is our neighborhood and every single person in our community and in our neighborhoods um needs to have that confidence that they live in a good community and with a good school whether their kids go to that school or not a good school is reflective of the community and vice versa um so while we might ask what has changed there's been a lot of changes in in our society for sure and I I would not open up that uh conversation so much as just to say that there's confidence in daer and we appreciate that and want to continue to to grow and progress in that effort so um I'm I'm going to say this for the purposes to further um discuss this I

166would like to um make a motion to recommend the governing board call the continuation of the 15% special maintenance operations override and authorized expenditures necessary for to order notice and administer the election second Mrs Jen motion made by Miss uh saw selt seconded by Jen tenner let's go ahead and um we can open it up for further discussion or we can continue uh with the vote I I have some comments if I don't if nobody else does is that it's hard without seeing each other it's hard to get verbal cues that's why I'm asking it that way is this appropriate for me to talk now or was Dr k still gonna say more no you're good okay well first of all um so I appreciate the board being willing to table this item um well

167the economy is definitely far from pre-pandemic status I guess you'd say but it's definitely looking better than it was in April um which makes me feel better having these types of discussions um now as opposed to things looking completely different in April but in the meantime too I've I've personally had opportunity and purpose to go into um communities outside of just my own neighborhood and gather a lot of community input and have some pretty deep discussions with people about our district and specifically about the override and and one theme that it seemed to continuously um to come up and and that I would hear is that not all like despite the fact that we lost the override by what we say like 12% last time um not everyone is opposed to the concept of an

168override that's not necessarily what I was hearing that keeps them from voting yes it's more The View that the district lacks transparency and accountability and I think we need to care about that I think that um the district re the the district often references North AEL as our opposition and I think we need to probably change that verbiage as well because I I'm learning that it's offensive to many because if that's a reference to our retirees I can tell you that the retirees that I've been speaking with don't oppose public education and not everybody North ofel is a retiree so I just um what I'm gathering or what I was able to gather is that these people just want answers and I think that's completely okay I'm obviously you all know I'm I'm very big

169on you don't understand something ask a question and so these people have questions about transparency and accountability and I think we need to hear that and I think we need to be open to it um people need to be able to see and this is this was information I was getting that what how we are spending the money know that we're being accountable to our stakeholders and then feel like that they're getting a good return on their investment meaning if they're going to pour money into our schools they that to me getting that good return is turning out students that um are career and future focused and ready and the test scores are going to reflect that so to me that was hopeful because you're not it's not like necessarily and I'm not saying not

170I'm not saying everyone um wants this override to go through but what I'm saying is the people that were telling me no they weren't in favor of it again weren't close to the concept so to me that was opportunity because we have all this data I mean we have just recently we adopted the new elll or Ela curriculum and we have our test scores that we just reviewed not too long ago in one of our board meetings showing that our scores have gone up based on that curriculum and we have a great research department and Dr we so we have the capability to show these stakeholders what they're looking for we need to maybe do um have more data items on the agenda and not necessarily like the one the board just received with like

171I think literally Dr Kellis remind been 81 pages to the document not like that obviously but in friend user friendly or Community friendly ways that people can understand it you know we've just gone through too lots of um arts and Athletics accomplishments and we know that Arts especially and athletics they're linked to brain development and and there's just a lot of links to academics in that way so we have the capability I think we need to um you know really make sure that we share that with some of the people that we've got their attention now but they feel like they need to see more in regard to accountability and transparency you know but the the bottom line is a failed override means laying off hundreds of of Staff which then is contributing to the

172increas in employment which or unemployment which is what I was concerned about before and thankful to a a Community member that actually took the time out to call me um which I always welcome if people are unclear about my position to explain a different aspect that I hadn't thought of if we if this override isn't pass and we lose our staff and then we lose all day kindergarten those those individuals then are looking at having to who also may be struggling with unemployment pay for child care for half day because we no longer fund full day kindergarten um so that's another added economic hardship failed override would mean in-class you know increasing the class sizes which impacts our learning environments which impacts our scores and even for people who don't have students in our district

173if our test scores fall and our district is um has just overall declining scores that's going to have a NE a negative impact on our property values and we say right now it's $20 a month roughly that would be continued on if this override is p and continues are the loss we're going to lose more um in decreased property values I believe than just $20 a month so I think this is multifaceted that can you know impact people um negatively so I think this is something that we we have to do for our students and for our stakeholders but I think we really as a district need to be very Mindful and have a concerted effort to have a very high level of accountability and transparency um have to go along with it and I

174think it's we've got that data to share um and we just need to find ways to do that I mean ultimately the board voting on this tonight is just putting it on the ballot ultimately the voters are they have the power to decide what happens with this override measure but I think that as a district if if this passes tonight we need to make sure that we have this great data we need to make sure it's user friendly to our community and make sure they clearly see hey this is where your money's going and this is why it's important in ways they understand and not just leave it to ourselves to think we know D's great we see all the fantastic things that are going on that's okay if they don't get it no it

175is it's not okay they have to be we need to care and we need to find ways to connect with them and make those meaningful um relationships that are going to just bu make our district better and stronger but then also it's beneficial when we go into um overwrite ballot measures like this so um I think I think it's necessary am I on thank you for that Insight Miss Pritchard as uh always very well thought out and appreciate your um level of detail in your comments and I agree with you that um it is um a multifaceted um situation that we're in and obviously weighing out the pros and the cons and looking at um the people that each one of us has been appointed to represent um there's definitely an opportunity for us to

176communicate better and uh provide that information as you outlined so I appreciate that insight and approach and and your Insight um Miss Tanner do you have anything I don't no thank you thank you Miss Densmore um just yeah just a few comments um I just wanted to say that I do appreciate um everyone's patience in allowing this uh vote to be tabled while we kind of uh had a wait and see approach to this and um you know just seeing uh what my perception of of the economy was back then and seeing it shift a little bit more positively a lot faster than I think most of us had anticipated uh that definitely makes me feel a little bit more comfortable with with doing something like this um you know I do struggle with this

177you know just some of the comments were read um you know not that long ago voters did vote this down at 12% um that being an off cycle election though I do think it's important uh to note that we will have hopefully a better turnout with this upcoming election and hopefully get a better idea of uh of where everyone truly truly stands on it so just wanted to say thank you for your patience on that um Mr President this is Tracy um Miss Pritchard I want to thank you for your comments um uh thank you for talking with um people that are in the community I know when I had stated that I had spoken with um several people um before our April 22nd meeting and these were people that I did not know who

178they were but I asked because they were part of surprise El Mirage wadell all three cities and um uh I was quoted as only speaking to people in Surprise and taking my own poll um criticized for that but the fact is I wanted to speak to people that really did not know what was going on and I am very glad that um uh you know once I explained it to them um they they were on board with it and um as long it wasn't new money and uh I I am very thankful that that uh uh you were comfortable enough in speaking with people um about this and getting their input and um yes it was um defeated back in November because that was only about 30% of the entire what 105,000 voters uh registered

179voters um you know if it was flip-flopped I I would be kind of hesitant on that but it wasn't um so I I do appreciate your comments and um um I do appreciate that uh um Miss Densmore had um um concerns and we all should have concerns because of what we're striving to do striving to make sure we have um a good quality education um for our students and um if funding was different from um the state's perspective um funding schools then none of us would be even discussing this right now and um so if we were funded properly then nobody would have uh the reason to go out for an M override um so um those those are my comments and um thank you thank you Mr I appreciate your comments and insight anybody

180else have any other comments before we vote all right Lisa let's go ahead and call for the vote okay we have a motion made by Tracy and seconded by Jennifer Tanner yes and that motion passes thank you everyone appreciate your time and inside on that and appreciate the the time that we had to uh look and allow things to settle down a bit and uh so we can see where we're headed all right let's go ahead and move [Music] on are we at request for future jeda items uh yes this is Tracy and I do have one um it has to do with uh uh I believe um gosh was it at our March 11th meet 10th or 11th meeting that um admin ation brought forth um a request that I had made for um

181skills life skills having to do with not my kid and um uh so we kind of tabled that because we were moving into um uh covid issues and uh I would definitely like for us to bring it back for discussion um in light of uh increasing our student skills students life skills and um the racism and how to deal with that um um I I'm very appreciative of Dr Kell's um uh comments at the beginning of the uh the beginning of the board meeting um and I can't wait to see the video but I I still think it needs to be a discussion topic for the board um as far as how are students can deal with life skills and like I said uh with the racism issues so I would like to bring back

182that uh information uh for a future board agenda item as soon as possible excellent thank you any other future agenda items that we'd like to add Mr President if I could uh just jump in real quick and as a reminder to the board excuse me we have a special board meeting scheduled in about two weeks to approve the budget that Ken Hicks mentioned earlier this evening Tonight is the last regular board meeting until our next regular board meeting at the end of July so we'll have a little bit of a summer break um we have a special meeting just it should be about 10 minutes and we'll be asking the board um Louisa will send something out later to find out when a a good time for the board to just do a quick 10-minute

183meeting to to look at that um but thank you for a great year and we're looking forward to what comes in the fall excellent thank you for that Insight we will hold you to that 10-minute meeting just so you know that's a that's a quote that is now on the record all right anybody else with anything else that we need to add to the uh add to the Future items excellent thank you for that let's go ahead and move on we're going to move on to um section um i1 executive session we're going to call for an executive uh session pursuant to ARS 38-43 1.03 A1 uh the superintendent's year end evaluation um keeping in mind that we will be logging off of this system then reconvening after the executive session so please make sure

184you log off of this system and we will log in and meet you over at the executive session thank you everyone we need to we need to vote oh I'll make a motion to move over there I'll second s Tracy all right motion made by Jay Leonard seconded by Tracy s s Bel let's go and vote motion passes we'll go ahead and move on to the executive session thank you everyone hello is anyone there I'm here are you here I keep getting muted is this the link that that'll come back to are you there no I'm here okay cool J's here we get Jen Tanner back on I am here yes I think you were the only one that I didn't see on there well I'm here praise the Lord hallelujah pass all right L

185are we ready to start did Louisa make it back on I am here sorry I had to let everybody know that we were coming back in no [Music] problem yep okay we are all back in all right do we need to start out with the roll call again no um we will hold on where are we it's we're on I3 yep I J J1 J One Jay always wins just saying all live over there okay we're reconvening the meeting at 10:20 p.m. is that the same time you got yep same time I got all right we'll go ahead and reconvene the meeting showing everybody all the board members are present and we're going to move on to action discussion item J1 um let me see how we need the word I guess we are voting

186based on the board's acceptance of the information um we are going to um so is this a motion yes there's a motion there yes there is a motion where do I see a motion under a recommended action oh I just didn't scroll up high high enough thank you all right I'm going to make a motion to approve the written summary of the superintendent's year end performance evaluation reflecting the super superintendence is satisfactory reflecting super superintendant is satisfactorily achieved and approved goals for 20192020 school year second Christine Pritchard motion made by Jay Leonard seconded by Christine Pritchard let's go ahead and vote motion passes thank thank you everyone let's goe to move on to J2 superintendent's performance pay um I make a motion to approve the designation of the performance pay of 11% for the superintendent

187for the superintendent reflecting the superintendent has achieved the approved goals uh for the 2019 2020 school year second this is Tracy motion made by Jay Leonard seconded by Tracy s s let's go and vote motion passes thank you everyone all right now we're going to move down to item K1 I will make the motion to adjourn the meeting second Christine Pritchard motion made by Jay Leonard so second going to buy Miss Pritchard let's go and vote and Jennifer yeah I'm waiting for your vote it hasn't okay sorry there you go and that motion passes we uh stand a Jour thanks everybody appreciate participation all your insights today thank you everyone have a good night thank you everybody appreciate it a good night tomorrow