Gilbert Public Schools Board Meeting 6/24/2025

001Good evening everybody. We're going to go ahead and call our uh regular board business meeting to order. It's Tuesday, June 24th. We'd like to thank everybody that's here in person and the millions of people that are uh watching online. We're going to start with a moment of silence and pledge of allegiance led by Mr. Brainer. Uh if everybody would please stand to observe a moment of silence. Pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Thank you, Mr. Briner. Uh, we will now have roll call by Miss Wilson, Mr. Chad Thompson here, Miss Shaina Murray here, Dr. Blake Robesson here, Miss Jill Humphre here, Mr. Jesse Brainard here, Mr. President, all board members are

002present. You have a quorum. Thank you, Miss Wilson. Moving on to agenda item number three, approval of the agenda. Is there a motion? So moved. Thank you, Mr. Brainer. Is there a second? Second. Thank you, Miss Murray. All those in favor of approving the agenda as outlined, uh, say I. I. Any opposed? Thank you very much. And moving on to, uh, agenda item number four. Are there any requests? There are no requests to speak. We did have one, um, individual, uh, send in an online um, complete the online request to speak, and we want to thank them for uh, for sending that in. Uh, agenda item number five, public hearings 5.01, fiscal year 2026, proposed budget for adoption presentation. Dr. McCord. Thank you, Mr. President. Governing board members. Um, this is basically uh a continuation

003of last uh work studies budget presentation. Uh this one will be uh kind of an a bridged version. Bonnie will hit the highlights of it. Um it's important, just so you know, Bonds, that we speak into that microphone because I don't know if you heard, but sometimes if we're speaking to the side, then they can't hear it online. Um and then um yeah, and we'll have this as an action item later for approval. Thank you. Yes. Yeah. If it it's red, it's on. If it's red, it's on. Okay. I guess if it's red, it's on. Holy cow. Okay. Um, good evening, governing board members. Um, Dr. McCord, as Dr. McCord shared, uh, this is the public hearing associated with our proposed budget for the 2026 school year. And at the end, uh, of the meeting

004this evening, you do have an action item for you to approve. So, as he indicated, I'm just going to go through the highlights. All the content is here in case we did have somebody that was interested in seeing some of the details, but I will um go through the presentation pretty quickly. It's the same one that we saw two weeks ago. So this again is what we're going to go through in introduction. All the proposed budgets for adoption, the average teacher salary which is still required by statute, the estimated tax rate for the new school year, and then of course proposed budget risks and opportunities. And I'm going to bring you to this um budget development timeline. note that uh the June where we're supposed to propose and adopt the fiscal year 2026 budget, but

005as a reminder, we still do not have a finalized budget from the state legislature. So, there is really no news or nothing that has changed um from what we presented two weeks ago. However, I as I said before, we do believe that this is a barebones budget and represents the worst case scenario. at least we hope so at this at this point in time. So, um as always, uh our budgets are fully aligned with the strategic operating plan as well as the commitments we've made on the um override. As you know, we were successful in November passing our override um renewal. And so, we will be able to budget for the full 15% going into the 2026 school year. And those figures are included in this budget. Um again, employee excellence, student success, the override

006commitments, and then now we're going to go into building the budget and the budget capacity, which of course are are um the bones of the budget of course is in our student counts. So, as you can see, uh, based upon information we've received from our student accounting team as well as from our marketing team and watching cohort movement over the over the con the current year and expectations for next year. We have opted to propose a budget that includes a 1,300 ADM reduction. we are splitting that equally between uh high school uh 912 and uh K8 um which offers us a little bit more conservatism as our high school students do receive a higher weight. So you can see the results of the proposed um 1,300 student loss bringing us to an estimated 28,72 students

007for the 26th school year. This is just a graphical representation of that. You can see we are um we are slowly declining. So this is our proposed K12 budget parameters and these are the other building blocks to our proposed budget. Base level amount and transportation support level increased by 2%. Again the student count decrease. Our teacher experience index actually did increase a little bit which provides us a little bit more revenue. And then this is the summary. So if you look at the top you see the weighted student count. So when we share that we are reducing or we're we're assuming a reduction of 1,300 students that's in our average daily membership that's not weighted. Remember that we're funded on all different categories of students and each of those types of students has a different

008weight. So when we look at this we actually are looking at a 1,679 weighted student loss. Remember that our estimates though we have no idea how many special education students we will receive in the new year. We don't know how many new preschool students, how many English language learners, how many students on free and reduced lunch. All those are being maintained at the level of the current year. That's the only information we have. So that has been also a very conservative estimate in the past. You can see the revenue control limit going from the revised number four to the projection with a 1,300 ADM loss. You can see the 15% override reflected here. Um you can see the proposition 123 and the free and reduced price lunch add-on. You can see for the 2026 projection

009that amount we have focused here is is zero. Again, that's providing some level of conservatism and um substantiating that this is a a barebones budget. You can see the tuition in of about $220,000 reflective of increases in our students that are in a um private setting. And then the budget balance carry forward assuming an 11,000 I mean 11.5 million budget balance carry forward once we finish with all of our work over the next two months. So looking at our loss year-over-year between 25 and 26, we are going to start with a budget that's about $130,000 less than what we've seen in the in the current year. Classroom site fund, as you know, uh classroom site fund is playing a large role in our budget. That is how we were able to fund a large portion

010of our salary increases associated with those types of employees that are eligible for classroom site fund. You can see that our budget uh year-over-year, even though the dollar amount per student increased by $50 per student, due to the roughly 900 student loss year-over-year between 24 and 25, um we still are seeing a reduction of a little bit more than $2 million in classroom site fund. Remember again that classroom site fund is funded based upon prior year student counts, not current year student counts. This just shows the um fluctuations over time with classroom site fund, but you can see over the last four years it's been consistently growing and there's the $50 per student increase. Miss Bats, can you can you go back two slides? Sure. So, if the proposed and and maybe I'm just not

011understanding this right. If the proposed classroom site fund is based on last year's attendance and our attendance went down then why is it then maybe it's that go to the chart. Maybe that's what's confusing me is why is this classroom site fund going up if our attendance has been going down. So the dollar amount per student is provided to us in the spring every year from the joint legislative budget committee, the JBC. That's based upon their projections of student counts throughout the um throughout the uh state of Arizona. And that's how they come to that, in this case, $842 per student. But now we apply that $842 per student to our last year's um average daily membership. And because last year's average daily membership was about 900 students less than the year prior, the $50

012per student more was not enough to have the budget capacity actually go up. Thank you. You bet. So um so we know what our budget capacity is based upon these very conservative estimates and now we need to know well how are we going to how we going to spend it? What are what are our pluses and minuses associated with our internal budget. So we know these are non-discretionary items that we don't really have a lot of control over. You all made the decision though on the medical insurance premium increase this past spring. We did know from the uh budget projections from uh AD's grants management that we are seeing a million dollar decrease in IDA funding which is individuals with um disabilities education act. And so um so we know that to be true. So

013generally speaking we're going to have to increase our M portion going into special education students. We're assuming inflationary increases. We've already seen it in utilities. fuel has remained flat could go up and down. It's very um sporadic too over time. Um and then right now we do know that we are required to increase the minimum wage depending upon what the inflation rate is against the minimum wage. So we have always budgeted for uh for that potential increase as well. So showing a total cost increase of about $3.4 million. In addition, these are requests that we already made for you that I believe they've already approved. Um, they've already you've already approved all these. So, adding 3FTE for English language learners due to our growth. Adding gifted teachers again due to growth and increases in identified

014students. And then also the deans to assistant principles. I believe that that's on tonight's agenda for approval, but uh just to show that it is included in this budget on this slide. So, a total of $1.42 42 million worth of additional costs. And then finally the pay increase recommendation. This is where the classroom site fund is playing a large role. Um we have not quite reached. So we look at how much ongoing money are we receiving from classroom site fund in the current year and what are our costs in the current year. So even with the increase of this $3.4 $4 million or so. We are still not drawing down fund balance in classroom site fund. We're still about equal in classroom site fund. So, we feel very comfortable with that $3.4 million or so.

015And you can see the total of 5.6 million. Note the highlighted area. We had made a recommendation to you when you approved the pay increase this past spring that if there if we do achieve a better thanex expected student average daily membership that we would um award an additional 1% pay increase in January. And so we just added the caveat um that if Prop 123 funding also needs to be um also part of the budget. So that that needs to be there along with only losing about 900 or a,000 students instead of a instead of 1300. Do you have a question, Mrs. Humphre? Uhhuh. Um my question is um when you're talking about Prop 123 funding is restored, are you talking about just that the legislature funds that portion even because they haven't they haven't

016put anything on the ballot which would be the total restoration? That's correct that's correct that we're presuming that there's money in the budget that will backfill whatever is not there right now. Yeah. So budgetary savings as you know if we're going to assume 1300 students less then we're not going to need as many teachers. Again we've already gone through that process. We have natural attrition. We're not laying off anyone. We have not gone through a reduction in force. Um so we are anticipating a 44 FTE uh decrease department discretionary budgetary uh savings just looking at each individual department to look at their discretionary budgets. We feel like there's opportunities there to the tune of about 1.3 million. And then finally Arizona State Retirement did come out. They've had a couple of very good years in

017terms of their investment earnings. And so they were able to decrease the Arizona State retirement rate and that's going to save us nearly a half a million dollars. So total savings of about 5.8 million. So now let's put all that information together. So we have the ongoing available budget with the budget balance carry forward 100 negative 130,000 total non-discretionary increases of 3.37 English language learners and gifted teacher FTE additions and deans to APS 1.42. 42 million pay increased recommendation five about 5.7 million and then projected ongoing savings associated with not needing as many teachers the Arizona state retirement savings um we have a total budgetary deficit of just about $4.8 8 million. So we have to close that gap. So um pay increases, minimum wage increase funded by other funds. So remember that community ed

018as well as nutrition services as well as um CTE uh title one, they're all expected to fund their own minimum wage increases or increases on those support staff. So we have a credit back of about $430,000 from all those funds. And then the classroom site fund contribution is about 4 and a.5 million. Note that a large portion of that is for the pay increase, but we are fully funding the additional FTE of our English language learners and our gifted through classroom site fund because all of those teachers are classroom site fund eligible. So that leaves with us with $120,000 left in our M budget. But remember the movement that we had between uh maintenance and operations and unrestricted capital that we actually have parked $9 and a half million dollars into unrestricted capital that is

019really intended for M. So we have about 960 uh 9.6 million sorry $9.6 million in carryover that we are budgeting for um for the 2026 school year. Any questions before I move any further there? Okay. Um so the unrestricted capital budget capacity uh the only difference with unrestricted capital is that um we are funded based upon prior year student counts and in addition um we have not included 2% to the base on unrestricted capital. uh the legislature has opted to keep that flat over the last two years and we we we know that the governor wanted to increase it permanently by the 2% but that would have made it the same as the current year. So we're not anticipating any budgetary increases um in budget capacity and unrestricted capital that we don't create ourselves. So

020here is the formula. The district additional assistance going from 18.5 million roughly um down to 18 million due to that student loss I shared with you earlier. You can see that maintenance operations to district additional assistance. We did that in 2025. Strategy was let's maximize interest earnings on unrestricted capital because we can we can uh spend that. But you can see that that that we we actually need to bring it back. And so you can see on the next line, the district additional assistance, we just opted to put $3 million back um right now so that we can preserve that $9.5 million to continue to earn interest in this higher interest environment that we've seen in a while. Onetime state aid, there's that $390,000 that we received last year instead of the 2% to the

021unrestricted capital. Uh we are assuming zero in the current year. and then the budget balance carry forward. Note that we had 36.1 million and then we're anticipating 31.7 million of carryover. Again, a reminder of that 31.7 million, 9.5 million is being held on behalf of M. So that leaves us with a reduction of 20.7 million. We do treat unrestricted capital as one-time monies and so we are purposely drawing that down as we're meeting the needs of our facilities. So, just a reminder. And so, the reason for that $20.7 million decrease is the decrease in the budget balance carry forward year-over-year. So, um always felt like it was important that when we are presenting a budget to you, we have an understanding of what our plans are, especially for unrestricted capital as these are largely one-time

022spends. So, this is just showing our our funding history. Um you can see that we we have been substantially cut. We we are very near um very near the statutory level at this point in time. Um but it's just a just an indicator of where we've been. Um this is just showing charter schools versus um school districts. This shows me that the legislature has an understanding that we definitely need capital dollars to be placed into our schools because we do have ongoing needs associated with our facilities. So there's an indicator to me that that that that there's a recognition there. And I think the difference is that the legislature also sees that school districts have an ability to bond. And so that's that's the disparity and why that that's happening. So this is our capital

023needs globally. You can see that this does include one-time as well as ongoing. You can see the ADA sped and health equipment, a small amount there that we do consider ongoing. We always budget that dollar amount. Curriculum and athletics. Um, these are not new now. This is actually decreased from last year, but these are maintenance items that we have to continue to purchase associated with curriculum and athletics. Um, you can see the district-wide custodial equipment. That's an ongoing budget item. Student teacher device refresh that does change annually depending upon the needs and um John Castellano's department manages that. And then you have software and non-instructional software primarily. That would be ongoing about $3.7 million. And then school capital, we are decreasing that substantially this year in comparison to last year just due to the fact

024that we do not have any um capital dollars. we do we have a very limited amount of capital dollars need to make sure that we can meet the needs of our facilities as we go through the next few years. Um and then finally you can see that for this year we have allocated for facility renewal so for at Albert's discretion about $15 million. So the next question is okay what's the plan to spend that $15 million. So of the 15 15 million I couldn't get Albert to get down to 15 million he had to give me 15.2 2 million. So we're already going into contingency by about $200,000. Miss Betts. Yes. Sorry to interrupt you. Can you go back a slide? Sure. The Greenfield Junior High School pool that was last time we saw this.

025I thought there was a shared cost with the with the town of like 1 point something million and and I think you were going to see if there was a way that we could spread that out over a few years. So were you successful in doing that and that's why it's reflected as.3 instead of So I got a there I am. Okay. I did get a um um what's the word? um not a solid approval but definitely a consideration that it's being considered and so um I think that that we have been creating an environment with the town that I that we are trying to work together and so I do feel that there's a really good chance that they will allow us to split that over three years and this.3 reflects that it does

026$300,000 this year $300,000 next year and $300,000 the third year and I'm trying to encourage encourage the town to allow us to do that because really on July 1 of um 2028 I can pay that immediately because it's still in the new budget year. So um I think it I think we'll prevail. Thank you for the question. Thank you. So um so most of the facility renewal dollars this year are in structural versus mechanical. So mechanical remembers all of our HVAC equipment. We've had a tremendous amount of spend in packaged units at South Valley Junior High or in chillers throughout the school district uh associated with our central plants, but most of that $13.5 million is in roofs. So, we have to really focus on keeping our students comfortable, students and staff comfortable, safe, and

027dry. And so, the roof plays a a key role in keep making sure they are kept dry. So, you can see that these are the plans for that 15.2 2 million. I wanted to point out the Desert Ridge High School roofs, the Greenfield Junior and the Gilbert High roofs. So, those three um already are nearly $11 million just by themselves. In addition, I think I had shared last time that that $15.2 million, knowing that we're a little bit over um Albert is working very hard at getting all of those roofs to the school facilities board for approval for um building renewal grant funding. And so we're hopeful that we will be able to decrease that unrestricted capital spend by being able to get some building renewal grants for those roofs in particular. So, um, other

028fund budgets, just really quick, community school budget, nutrition services, those are our two our two enterprises. Instructional improvement funds, we're showing a a decrease there, but we haven't received the third payment yet. I mean, sorry, the second payment for 2025. We do anticipate that that will go up. And then state and federal grants. There's where you can see the decline from 38.7 million down to 33.7 million. The idea $1 million is in there. The title grants have had to decrease their spend in order to close their gap. And then other cash funds roughly that stays pretty consistent and most of that is out at our schools. Um average teacher salary again very simple. um just increasing the average teacher salary by 2%. As you know, in October, the same time frame in which we are

029submitting our teacher data to the department of ed for purposes of calculating the teacher experience index. That's the data we take to recalculate the average salary. Again, a reminder, we don't know for sure who's leaving and how much they're making that that's leaving. And we don't know for sure who we're going to hire and how much they're going to make when they're going to hire. So we feel that that October time frame represents sort of a steady state where we can recalculate the average salary and to report it out on the first budget revision when we do that by by December or January estimated tax rates. Just a quick quick note, you can see that right now we believe this to be a conservative estimate because we don't have the final cash balances in our

030bond debt service which has to be applied against the need for the new year. So we expect that tax rate to go down even further than that 19 cents per $100 of assessed value. And then finally the risks and opportunities shared about shared this with you earlier. Of course um we do not uh have a budget at this point in time AAL is still looming though I can tell you that the Senate budget does have a an approval to wave the AAL for both 26 and 27. If that prevails we won't have to worry about the AAL. um we could see a further loss of students more than 1300. The legislature might not approve the 2% um inflationary increase to the base. U based upon the governor's budget though it appears that the 2% is

031um the lesser of inflation or 2%. So, um presuming that um that that the governor's budget or something close to it does prevail, um we don't expect the inflation to the base to be less than 2%. Minimum wage increases could be more than the dollar amount we projected and then we could see larger than expected inflationary increases. But there are some opportunities. You know, as we said, we're hoping to have fewer students leave us or more students come back than we projected. Possible that the legislature could agree to f um to greater funding. Um we can hopefully restore Prop 123. It's about $2.2 million. Again, that's not in this budget. And then cost stabilize or decrease. So based upon that, we are asking for you to approve the adopted budget and action item 8.01. And

032I don't have anything further for you today. I feel like my There we go. Um my question has to do with the 2% increase to the base. Isn't that statutory by Prop 301 that they have to increase it by um inflation or 2% whichever is least? So I would I would assume because it's statutory the legislature will hold to that. Um yeah, they haven't always done that though. No, they haven't. But there was a lawsuit and so now they have to that's how Prop 123 came into being was due to that and so Prop 123 is still at risk. So I don't know how to answer that but yes supposedly yes either the lesser of 2% or inflation is supposed to be added to the base. Okay. Thank you. Does anyone have any other questions

033for Miss Betts? It was a very thorough review but thank you. It's it's long. It's complex and so a review is nice. Thank you. And I was remiss um Miss Matin is here with me today and I I told her she had to be behind me because I never knew what kind of questions you guys were going to ask. And so she was here um patiently waiting in case you had a question. So So what kind of questions do we have to ask to get Madison to come to the podium? Oh, we're done. Nice. Nice. Yeah, thank you very much. Thank you. All right. Uh there's no I don't think there are any requests to speak regarding the fiscal year 2026 proposed budget. So we'll go on to 5.03. Mosquite ASU experience instructional time model

034amendment. Dr. McCord. Thank you, Mr. President, governing board members. Again, this is a continuation uh from the work study. This is the public hearing related to this item. and Jared will recap some of the things that were presented to you and be available for questions. President Thompson, governing board, Dr. McCord, thank you so much. Um, I did ask for full transparency for Mr. Macintosh to sit behind me for any questions. Um, but we knew that would not help you at all. He hasn't moved. He's he's still there. So, um, couple weeks back, Dr. Cox and Mrs. Brown from, uh, Mosqu High School did a great job outlining, uh, this proposed addendum to the in place currently instructional time model, um, that actually dates back to 2021, um, with regard to Global Academy at the at

035the time. And so I'm going to review briefly um what they had kind of gone over on on June 10th um and be able to answer any questions that you may have um as we as we go through. As you know, this is a partnership proposed with Arizona State University um and Mosquite High School at this point in time to enable students to access curriculum and access courses on campus in person over at the Polytech uh campus. Um this arrangement is through a mechanism with Arizona State uh preparatory academy that already has in place high school students attending ASU poly. Um the changes that we're asking for to the ITM model are based on location where the students will be taking their classes. Also the fact that their calendar doesn't line up to ours. Um

036and then funding associated obviously with paying for courses through Arizona State University. uh AR AR ars 15-901.08 allows school districts to institute this instructional time model. Um and this is the second public hearing to make that happen and we'll be able to vote later this evening uh on approval of that. [Music] Okay. So the instructional location method is mentioned, tuition fee collection, the instructional calendar, then of course attendance tracking. These are all pieces that we'll be adding into the instructional time model that have been previously approved. Um students enrolled at Mosquet High's ASU experience will take courses following a multiacampus instructional concept. Uh this concept will be online in person as well as brick and mortar at Mosquite High School. Students in this program will start their day at Arizona State University. Our student success

037advisor will actually meet the students there on campus, as we had mentioned prior, in order to take attendance, make sure that they're they're started for their day, get to their college course, and then that person will will move back over to MSK High School at that point in time. So, it'll just be where that individual begins their day. Um we walked through the application process that began in April for student selection. Uh there were uh a number of students invited to take part to learn more um who came and and attendedformational sessions. Those who applied were reviewed as well as interviewed and then selected from that um through that process in accordance with our memorandum of understanding with Arizona State University's prep academy which this evening there will be two um two IGAS in place

038one through ASU prep and one through ASU poly for approval as well that you'll notice in the consent agenda um that are associated with this. Um, parents will be responsible for a $110 payment per credit hour. Um, that's the piece of the ITM model that we'll need approved this this evening. In terms of the addendum, um, this is new for us. Typically, it would work the opposite direction and and for this particular endeavor, we'll be collecting funds at the school and then from the school, we'll be paying Arizona State University or actually through ASU Prep. Can I ask on that? Sure. Absolutely. what what is the plan for if payments aren't made? So, payments will be um similar to if you're attending Arizona State University itself, right? So, we're obligated to make the payment to

039the campus. They're obligated to pay us. If that doesn't happen for any reason, then the student will be enrolled in traditional classes on our high school campus. um if for any reason they can't make that happen, we'll also look for ways to be able to support a student if it's a financial hardship for any way uh or for any any reason um there are a number of resources we have out there that I think we would explore first. But if in the end that's not able to be met, then um earlier I had a conversation where we talked about the importance of course selection and ensuring that that's transferable and that we have something equivalent on our campuses for a student to transition back into should they struggle academically should they hit financial hardship or

040anything in between. Okay. And is there any way I mean hopefully this isn't an issue it doesn't come up if is there a way to recoup what a part of what we've paid to ASU or once we've paid that that's that's gone. Is there a timeline on that's a really good question that I would need I'd need to find clarity on Bonnie. Yes. So it works the same way as it does if the child was at ASU. So there's a 10-day drop window and so if they are not dropped in that 10 days, the tuition's paid. So there would not be any way to recoup it. But maybe we don't maybe we don't have the student continue second semester, right? So great question. This is where it gets a bit complicated in terms of a

041student experience and the courses that they'll be taking. There are differences in calendar obviously. So Gilbert public schools, we begin middle of July. Arizona State University starts a few weeks after that. Uh, fortunately, the ULC courses that are provided through Arizona State University will be accessible through a mechanism similar to what you'd see in our center for success currently. So, students in a classroom able to access their coursework online. They will be at Mosquite High School when in fact courses aren't in session at Arizona State University. Um, the ULC during GPS instructional day will earn both high school and university credit. They're also expected to attend all in-person university classes at ASU Poly during GPS breaks and holidays. This calendar has been reviewed a number of times. So, as we've sat and planning meetings, this

042was almost kind of a whiteboard exercise and and looking at beginning of the year, middle of the year, end of the year, ensuring that students can continue with their learning while also um adhering to the Arizona State calendar and also not interfering with what they're learning on our campuses at Mosquite High School. So, um a bit complex, but something that we feel like we have a really good plan in place for. Can I ask a quick question on that? Of course. So, just just to clarify, so students are going to have three weeks at the beginning of the school year where they're just going to be working on online coursework for ASU. So, during so during that period of time, the beginning half of their school day, they'll be in a course similar to our

043center for success classes where they'll be accessing Arizona State University curriculum at that point in time. Okay. Okay. And is Arizona State going to follow up on checkpoints on whether or not they've done their work during that time? So, we have teachers assigned on our campus. So, our student success advisor will also be tracking as well as counselors similar to us tracking students through Global Academy. Okay. So, we have tracking mechanisms to see course completion, keeping up with expected timelines and and whatnot. Yes. Perfect. I just put myself in the shoes of a high schooler for a second and thank you. Absolutely. Any other questions related to that? Transportation was a question initially and and Miss Betts and and myself and a team were able to get together and talk about um transportation in the

044fact that EVIT in the EVIT location and on the Poly campus or near the Poly campus allows us to have students access that transportation. So no additional needed um which was a big hurdle and a big plus for this to happen. Okay. So, this is pretty much just the process from here. So, with your approval this evening, district leadership would then submit an ITM description to the Arizona Department of Education. No approval is required. The courses are aligned to district approved descriptions with students completing required lessons, activities, projects, and assessments for credit. Mosquite High School leadership manages logistics, training procedures, and community communication um along then with the student success advisor and counselors who are tracking and monitoring student progress. So overall, it's a unique different concept. Um, it's it's a plan we believe addresses

045a couple concerns we have with students being able to access dual enrollment courses at the level that maybe they previously had been able to. And we think it gives students an opportunity to begin their four-year university um, experience and a connection to those four-year university courses um, in a time in which also then meets high school graduation requirements. So, we believe we're we're meeting the needs of students, we're meeting the needs of families, we're doing it in a way that provides them access at a reduced rate. Um, we're excited about the opportunity um on a small scale to learn this year, be able to take that information in, make any adjustments and modifications moving forward. Um, so with that, we'll turn it over to you for questions. So I I sure sorry this mic is

046just a little finicky. Um what are our goals or does ASU Prep have certain goals about how much they want this to grow or do we have goals about how much we want this to grow? So it's a two-part answer. Arizona State University Prep would like their courses currently their students are mixed with collegiate students. So age-wise there's a there's a discrepancy there. They would like more high school students to be in attendance to ensure that standalone courses with only high school students would be available. And that's what we enable. That's a benefit to them. As far as growth on our campus, I don't know. I I don't I can't really answer that. I I think that it's going to be based on on need, based on desire, based on um interest. I don't think

047that it's necessarily for us to say. I think we're going to do a really great job putting it together, and I think it will be attractive to people. Um, so I I do believe it'll grow, but I don't think that we have any desire to force it to grow or to ask more people to take part in it. I think it's a wonderful opportunity for those that it fits the need, which isn't going to be everybody. Um, but for that population of students, I think it's a great thing. Okay. All right. Thank you. So, I I can't recall if I asked this question last time, but we offer the dual enrollment classes at the other high schools. Why don't we, instead of having this agreement with uh Arizona Prep and with ASU, why don't we

048just transport these kids to one of our other high schools that are already that already have classes um that are that are being taught that serve a dual enrollment purpose um instead of having this arrangement? Why don't I mean because it seems like we've I mean are we looking outside for a solution that we could handle internally? Great question. Um potentially yes and potentially no. Obviously Arizona State Poly is going to offer far more courses than any of our high schools do. So students to have access to collegiate level um if in year two they want to go an engineering pathway or in year two they want to go computer science there will be courses at Arizona State that we don't offer at any of our high school campuses for college credit. Um our high

049school campuses offer a variety of courses not all of which enable you to get as far down the path of the 42 credits that would be available this through this mechanism. There's a difference between dual enrollment and what this is, which is concurrent enrollment. Concurrent enrollment means Arizona State is actually giving the credit to the student versus a Gilbert Public Schools teacher having an agreement with a community college who is then awarding credit for completing a a course on our campus. So transferability looks a little bit different. Continuation through Arizona State looks a bit different. Completion of a biology course, as an example, at ASU Poly doesn't need to then be transferred into Arizona State University, but rather it's awarded by ASU. If you take a dual enrollment course in biology in this example, all

050universities accept that in differently. Sometimes as an elective, sometimes not at all, sometimes directly into your major area. Most often though, not into your MA major area. So the transferability looks a little bit different. Um so there are a variety of differences. I I do believe there are some instances where that would make complete sense but not in totality with with what a student would be able to accomplish this way. Okay. Um my my other question slashconern is this idea that you know a program like this would allow some students to get further down the road earlier um or be further down the road when they graduate as opposed to other students that don't take advantage of this program. And I I guess my concern is do we need to do we need to facilitate

051students getting further down the road than we already do? I mean, we already have students graduating that have essentially completed a year or two of college. Sure. And now we're talking about giving students the opportunity to complete more than that. And so I guess it just it just weighs heavily on me that we are creating create that we're spending spending district dollars on facilitating students getting just a little bit further down the road. Is that necessary? And if we have students that really want to get that much further down the road, then can't those students and their families take the entire financial brunt of uh of that desire is I don't know if I may I don't know if I'm if I'm articulating this the way I want to, but I mean last time I

052had said there's a there's a benefit and there's a reason that we have kids go to high school for four years and then there's a reason that kids go on to after that to career or to college or to technical school um or or whatever. And are are we really doing the kids a service by by not I don't want to say holding them back, but are we are we doing them any good by giving them an opportunity to just even more so skip the high school experience. Sure. So I I think I understand the concerning questions. There are a few parts to that. So one of which is students are doing it on their own anyway, right? And so we have a number of students who will go to school part days. They'll go

053to university different parts a day. They'll transport themselves. Parents will pick them up. They'll take them from all of our schools. Um there are a number of students who are further along academically in courses than we offer on our campuses. Um there are students who financially when you graduate from high school, if you begin your four-year experience then and stare in the face of four-year university costs for the next four years, that's a bit overwhelming and maybe not accessible to all of them financially. Um there are um many campuses out there that offer an Ajek or an associates degree by the time student graduates from high school, which is 60 hours um or more. So we're not to that level. We haven't taken that step necessarily. I know campuses have looked at that as an

054option for students to graduate with an associates. Um that's not something that we do currently. I think that this is finding a blend between what we see students seeking and what we hear parents asking for along with the financial piece that they face when they leave. A piece of this also is when a student graduates from us and goes to Arizona State, they're still a traditional collegegoing student. um they haven't lost that by finishing an Ajac or an associates where that then can be a different financial piece that then falls onto the parent. Um students can also then transition if they decide if they make a choice to go directly to Arizona State University to not live on campus. That wouldn't be a requirement of these students then as a then freshman in college. So

055even though they'd be technically partway through their sophomore year, current practice is you live on campus, which financially once again um is is a steep is a steep hill for a lot of families. So I don't know that it's the answer to all of the questions that have come up or an answer to all of the the the challenges that parents and students face and all the things they're trying to tackle. But I think in a small scale and and really to analyze it throughout the next year or two and see the success of students, see the challenges they face, see the partnership in action and the benefit to families, I think it's a really important step for us to take just to become aware. I think if we don't try and we don't and

056and we don't take a step that direction, we'll always just kind of ask if or what if. Um, so I think this is a a smart small step to see what what really comes of it. I I appreciate that. So the the first couple things you mentioned kind of support my um my assertion that if students want to do this, they're they're going to find a way. you'd mentioned um students spend half day on campus on our campus then they go to you know to a community college or to ASU you know for the other half of the day. Um if students want to get ahead then you know they're they're finding ways to do that. And so I guess my concern is from a financial perspective. So why if if students that want to

057do that and their families are capable of doing that, why are we saying, "Hey, let us pay part of it. Why are we volunteering to pay for part of it if they're already finding ways to do it if they really want to?" And the other piece is in regards to, you know, the cost of four-year school. They maybe may not may not have to spend a year in the dorm. Um, I know my own daughter had to pay to spend a year in the in the in the dorms at ASU and it was it was pricey. Um, but and and I and I I don't want to sound cold, but I don't see that as our responsibility. I don't see that as a as a as a a public K through 12 education entity. I

058don't see that as our as our as our problem. I mean, if a student can't afford school after they graduate, I'm that's a that's a bummer. But that doesn't mean that it's our responsibility to help pay for some of that. And so I I'm I'm not saying that, you know, I'm I'm totally opposed to the program. I think there will be some benefits. I think there will be some students that do benefit. I guess my my concerns lie with the um with more with the financial side. Uh you know, if there's students that want to do this, then let's provide opportunities for them to figure it out how to do it. And you know, but but is it really necessary for us to financially facilitate something that might not be our responsibility? Sure. goes be

059goes beyond beyond the mark so to speak. There are financial benefits to us as well. So if you if you project forward and let's say ultimately there were 30 students that were taking part in this that's a full FTE to us savings right the students are not in those classes those hours per day. Therefore our course offerings during those those hours each day on campus are fewer. So there is a financial savings to us as well. So what speaking of if you know so the students are responsible for an hour and or for $110 per credit hour and my understanding is that's that's half that the school's going to going to pay the other $110 per credit hour. Do you know based on the number of students we have and the number of credit hours

060they're planning on taking how much the district is going to be paying for these students to do this? I would need to calculate I mean and and get you an exact number. I think it's about $2,000 a student per year. And so 10 10 students. We've got about 20 students signed up for the program. So about Okay. Okay. those are my comments. Thank you. Thank you. I appreciate your presentation. I appreciate that. Sorry. Um, for me, I think it's this will not be for everyone, but I think it's a great opportunity for high school students to take a college class with other high school students. I mean, I think that's a a huge win in my book. Um, you know, I have had to send some children out the world and um I just think

061that would be a huge benefit that you know that they're with other high school students. It's not college kids. and um getting that opportunity. And I I always think that if we can encourage education and choice, I think this could be a real a real win for us and for Mosquite High School. I'm not aware of another district that's ASU poly um I'm sorry, the Yeah, the prep ASU prep is parenting is partnering with on this. And so um I think just like every other uh programs we have that are for a unique uh niche people just like I don't know maybe uh GCA or GAMS or we have a lot of different programs and I think this could be very appealing to some students and they do get I mean I like the fact

062that it's in the morning so they get that college opportunity and then they're back at the high school and so they're there after school if they want participate in, you know, an extracurricular activity, they're right there. You know, maybe they still want to do cheerleading or the school play or or be in the band or something. They can still do that. So, they can have kind of uh really opportunities to really challenge themselves. I mean, we have students that are in, I don't know, Cal 2 or Cal 3. So, um let's give them that opportunity to really challenge themselves. And I think that's a benefit to everybody when people can get more education in the long run. Thank you. Yeah. I just uh want to first just thank the the district uh leaders and and

063staff that worked on putting this together together with the the team at Mosqu. I think they put together a very appealing program. Um a great opportunity for students. So So definitely uh thanks for all the work and and think they did a great job in that regard. I I do share a lot of the the similar concerns as President Thompson and and so I'm I'm excited to see next year on kind of how this unfolds and and and see how we want to continue uh in the future. Um and I do I mean I agree with Miss Humphre that I do think that this is something that Gilbert public schools should facilitate. Um but I also don't know that it's something that we should we should fund. And so I do think it's um I

064don't know if I want to say appropriate o okay um that we we are doing that for the first year but that that certainly wouldn't be something that I I would want to plan on going forward. And so I would love to help those students look for outside scholarships or funding or grants or things that we can help with if there's a need as far as cost goes but not necessarily Gilbert public schools footing footing the bill. I I agree that I I don't know that that's a necessity for us to do um on on top of facilitating the program. And so so yes, so that's that's something that I I'll want to look at as we kind of analyze this program going forward. Um, I think my my personal preference would be to provide

065the same opportunity to earn college credit with high school students on on our high school campus and in even offering an associates degree and I'd rather ramp that up, I think. Um, but I'm excited to see how the program goes and and learn from it and and and see see what we want to do going forward. One quick question. Do you do you know if we in theory what you said as far as FTE is true? Um do we know if that was if we actually realized savings during this next year? Like if this program was not existing this next year would our FTE cost at Mosquite been higher. The the numbers so low right for this year that it's not a full right a full staff member. And so if you used a projection

066and you got to where our divisor would be at 27 students or 30 students, then absolutely you would realize it. Um the smaller number doesn't kind of calculate. No, that I mean that's that's what I expected. And so I do think if if we were actually realizing that savings and if maybe if we were attracting students into GPS that wouldn't come anyway otherwise because they want to be in this program. So we're increasing revenue in that way. If we have things that are increasing the revenue to justify then helping offset the cost, I think that's one thing. But if we're not realizing that, I think it's a hard ask to to continually do that. That makes sense. Absolutely. Um for So there's a set dollar amount per head per student obviously. Um when they attend

067the ASU program, does the number stay the same for the district? Correct. It does. Okay. Um that's yeah I was just sorry totally distracted me I'm a squirrel. Um what's going on to the left? So there were two pieces that when we walked into the conversation that were non-negotiables. One was the courses needed to be in the morning to ensure students could still take part in extracurriculars and and be part of the campus life and whatnot. And then the second was students needed to be on campus in Gilbert public schools enough to be a full-time equivalent. Okay. And um just out of curiosity, when you guys came up with this program idea, how was it born? Was this coming from a parent ask? Was this something you noticed with the students? Are we looking for

068ways to just make sure that those students who are, for a lack of better terms, looking bored? We've got to challenge them, you know, where did this I mean, I like the idea of helping them get more college credit. I'm just curious as to, you know, where did that originate? Sure. So, I think it was trying to solve a few problems. One is affordability. So our work at the secondary level is driven to set students up for success when they graduate regardless of what path they choose. Right? So whether it's scholarships because academically they've been prepared in a way. So ACT and SAT scores are are very positive. We analyze our seven-year uh our seven-year data through national clearing house after a student graduates and look and we we look to see how they perform

069when they leave us. uh two-year school, four-year school, tech trade and whatnot, right? And so the conversation came up because we saw a large trend in four-year university attendance going down, right? Um as well as two-year university attendance going down. When we took time to ask questions to try to figure out why, many students and many families point toward the rising cost, the increased cost to to attend um housing, food. So, so your your your room and board alone in some universities is upwards of 16 to $22,000 a year, right? So, that was a piece. There's a piece also though where we looked at dual enrollment courses and our ability to offer them on our campuses. So many of our teachers who are retiring got in in an era um that I remember where you

070really needed to have a master's degree and you needed to have a master's degree in your content area to be uh marketable. And so there was an era of professionals that really put themselves through school and a master's degree and a master's degree in content area that right now are um meeting hitting that retirement age. And so we have fewer and fewer people and as we approach other teachers who maybe aren't as seasoned and we talk to them about do you have interest in moving forward many of them are not seeing a return on the investment. The cost of going to school and receiving a master's degree in a content area to then offer a dual enrollment course in person on campus doesn't make sense in their mind all the time. um some of them,

071yes, that's that's just a desire that they have and they move forward and and we're grateful for that. So, what we're seeing is a group of teachers who are very veteran, who have been teaching a lot of dual enrollment courses nearing retirement age or hitting retirement age and we're going to begin facing fewer options for dual enrollment courses on our campuses because of that. Um this isn't the first look at this. We've we've sat down with community colleges, four-year universities, multiple four-year universities, talked about having professors on our campuses. I couldn't agree more with the comments that have been made related to being on campus and being able to offer the courses and students being able to have that access. And so really we're just we're looking at a variety of of challenges that are

072out there and trying to create an opportunity that maybe solves some of that, but doing it on a scale that's really um manageable and something that we can collect a lot of data from over the next year or two to see its effect and determine whether or not this is something moving forward we we believe should be expanded or we believe is is an answer to some of those concerns. Thank you. Welcome. [Music] more qu any other questions? Yes. Um, so the classes that are offered, they're not just core credit classes, right? So there what there's just like a variety of classes. It could be like a certain area where a student wants to get a bachelor's degree in. Is that correct? So year one will look a little bit different than year two. Year

073one typical prerequisites um your English courses, science courses, history, your core academic courses year one. One of the reasons is if a student if it's not a fit for a student, if it's something that is overwhelming to them or something that they thought was going to be different than it is, we need to be able to transition them back into our campuses. Uh the second thing is it's then transferable into any major area that they're looking into. Um the thought then is in year two they can begin to get a bit more immersed in an area of interest that they would have. So be it engineering, robotics, computer science, mathematics, whatever it might be. Um social work, they can begin taking courses in those areas. Hopefully education, right? Start taking courses um a bit more

074directed at that. But in year one, um really looking at your your uh core requirements that most students would need to complete a four-year degree. And this would be the focus is they do it their junior year and senior year in high school, right? Yes, sir. All right. Yeah, that's all I had. Thank you. All right. Thank you very much. That was a very thorough presentation and um help help me understand a little better uh the program and the goal. So, thank you very much. Very good. Thank you. All right. Is there there no requests to speak regarding the mosqu experience? Then we'll go on to agenda item number 6.01. Well, I'm sorry. No, we will. Do we need to adjourn? Yeah. Yeah, that's we will uh adjourn the a public hearing. Do we need

075to vote to adjurnn or can we just adjourn? Okay, that meeting is adjourned. Uh moving on to agenda item 6.01, monthly financial report for month ended May 31st, 2025. Dr. McCord. Thank you, Mr. President, governing board members. Uh, we'll turn it over to Miss Betts for another presentation about money. Good evening again, President Thompson, governing board, Dr. McCord. This is a very short monthly financial presentation reflective of our activity through May 31st of 2025. So um the first note is uh that when you look at the actual total report that includes all of the financial grids you can see that we have added the final budget revision uh figures on all of those um on all of those finance grids. Today all we're going to talk about is the district operating funds and the enterprise

076funds. So first uh the district operating funds maintenance maintenance and operations. So you can see that the available balance has actually declined uh by about a million and a half. So at this point in time we are actually completing payment of all of the invoices that we have encumbered through a an open um blanket purchase order. So fuel is a big example. So now we're getting in fuel bills and the purchase order is not um needs to be increased because we don't have enough money encumbered on the purchase order to be able to pay the invoice. That's one example. In addition, it's the end of the year for special education private placement. So that same thing is happening that they're constantly revising purchase orders and so that does account for uh the available balance decreasing.

077But by the same token, there is probably about $8 million of encumbrance that are likely going to be released. So we still feel that our target of having a carryover balance of about 11.5 million is still on target. Okay. Alternatively, in unrestricted capital, the available balance has actually increased by about a million and a half. And that's associated with the closure of some of the projects um where we actually had some savings. For some reason, the project was not as expensive as we expected it to be. And so, we've been closing um uned capital purchase orders, which is releasing some of that incumbrance, resulting in the fact that our available balance has increased. But also keep in mind that we budgeted for $31.5 million of carryover in unrestricted capital. My same comment, as we go

078through the year, we're going to find that we don't need all of that and it will be liquidated and we we expect to easily achieve the $31.5 million of carryover and unrestricted capital. Any questions on that? Okay, great. So looking at the enterprise funds, so in particular community school. So, I wanted to let you know that uh right now uh community schools available balance has actually dropped by about a million, a million and a half. But note when you look at this grid, this is different than our other grids because we are looking at a beginning balance. We're looking at estimated revenues and we're looking at um the year-to- date expended encumbered. So, we have not revised our estimated revenues for the last three months. We don't do that monthly. Um, however, community schools VIK

079is operating still, so they're still incurring expense, but we have not really captured the revenue. And so, we still believe that both community school and nutrition services are going to be in excellent financial state um in an excellent financial state when we finally finish the school year on June 30. And that's all I have. Any questions from the board? All right. Thank you very much. 6.02 AI update. Dr. McCordon. Thank you, Mr. President, governing board members. Uh we have our chief executive technical guy. Sorry, I'm just making up your title on the fly. John Costalano, Sean Abley, and Brett Garner. We're going to talk to you a little bit about artificial intelligence and where we're at and and um kind of what the future looks like. So, I'll turn it over to John. Yeah. Good

080evening. Thank you for the introduction. It was it was wonderful. I appreciate it. Um yeah, Mr. Thompson, members of the board, Dr. McCord, thanks for having us. Um it's it's really great to be standing up here tonight with Sean Aly and Brent Gardner. Um it's been really good getting to know Brent as well and working with him this year. Um this is the first time you've seen us up here uh as a team, both curriculum and uh technology. Um the last time we presented about AI, it was just Sean and I. Um but I didn't want to go past that real quick until we get get into the meat and potatoes of the of the update tonight. I think and and you know, if you worked in other school districts, you know that the curriculum

081department and the IT department are not always on the same page. And that's a huge huge um um problem uh when it comes to supporting our classrooms. I was real lucky about nine years ago when I started the curriculum director also started and we really took some time um to get on the same page with that. We didn't want it to be a oh we just found out about this or you just implemented that. Um and it just doesn't work this well in a lot of other school districts. I think it'd be remiss if we didn't talk about that a little bit. Um, but we really talked about shared vision and goals, getting all of our arrows pointing in the same way, having that collaborative planning, um, and taking the time, uh, to do that.

082Uh, the open communication in this district when it comes to, um, being able to support curriculum in the classroom, uh, with technology because it is embedded everywhere now these days. Um, uh, it's a it's an important thing. It's great to to work as a team. So, with AI, obviously, that's the way we're tackling this as well. um because we'll definitely be leaning heavily on on curriculum as time goes by as we see Amore in the classroom. Um we started a software approval process and we've talked to you about this before. Um that's been key because that brings all of the stakeholders in the district together. Anytime a teacher or a school or a principal or even a department wants to add a new piece of software, we have them go through that process and that

083includes everything from the technical aspect of it. But with curricular software that final say is with the experts and the knowledge in that area with our curriculum department. So it's really brought us together. We continue that. We continue try to improve on that. Um and we will keep doing that. But I just wanted to mention that before we get started. Um we're going to jump right into what we have done with AI so far. It'll be a little bit of review for you. You've probably heard a lot of this before. Um but Sean's going to take us through that and we're going to talk about where we're going. Thank you. Um we started this uh a pro a little over a year ago with a tech advisory committee where we brought together teachers, principles and

084um other stakeholders to talk about AI. So we had established a tech advisory committee initially um for other things with with techn in the technology department and when AI became more and more prevalent um we decided to bring those people together to start working on coming up with a plan and being prepared when AI started um hitting mainstream. So when chatbt hit the news probably two and a half years ago, we knew that it was going to be important and we didn't want to be behind in trying to catch up at this point. So we always tried to stay ahead of it and one of those things was bringing together the tech advisory committee. part of the um work that they did was to research the AI tools and the guidelines that had been kind

085of put together in other school districts at the um at the department of ed and um come up with an action plan of things that we should do. Uh we did talk about that I think the last time we were here about a year ago about the action plan that we wanted to to go forward with and and that was approved by you too. Um, we did come up with guidelines for teachers to be able to utilize in their classrooms. Um, we're not using AI in the classrooms yet. Again, we just wanted to be ahead of it when that was something that was going to uh roll out. Um, we worked in collaboration with that tech advisory committee to make sure that we were getting input from teachers at both elementary and secondary level uh

086with the principles, administrators, and um members of the of the curriculum department as well. Part of that was to select an approved platform. Um, and the approved platform that we had chosen was Magic School because of the ability to control who can use it and when. Now, again, that had that hadn't been rolled out. It's not been rolled out in our classes with the exception of the AP research and AP Capstone that Bren will talk about in a little bit. Um, but we chose that one because of the ability to uh monitor and restrict use for students at the teacher level or even at the parent level. So if a parent opted out, then we can remove a student from the class and remove them from having access to it. Um, one of the other

087things that we we've done, we were uh invited to present at a AI statewide summit um about what we had done approximately a year ago in AI. So then we talk about where we are. Um last year when we presented to you, we had some action items. We wanted to be able to train all of our teachers on effective use of AI. Um talk about the dos and don'ts and some of the things that they needed to be aware of when they were using AI in their classrooms or for their professional use. Um we wanted to make sure that we had guidelines in place for our students if and when those were ever rolled out in the classroom. and um we wanted to make sure that we had the tools chosen. So we did accomplish

088all three of those action steps. Um going forward, we have continued to be involved at the state level both formally and informally uh with people that are are doing AI big at their districts like Awafrey is one of the school districts that does a lot with AI. So we stay in contact with them and watch what they're doing. Um some of it is just to see what problems they had so we don't have to have them. Um, so we stay involved in a lot of those statewide uh organizations as well. So I could talk a little bit about this or did this one kind of goes to all of us? Okay. So um where we're going is because we started the we started using magic school in AP research and AP capstone. um it other

089other teachers are wanting to use it and other schools are wanting to use it. So we're putting together a AI workg group for the secondary that kind of falls under that tech advisory committee that'll consist of um teachers, administrators and parents so we can get the input from the community as well as the stakeholders involved on AI. We'll be adding AI or um elementary in the future as as it goes down. At this point, we have no intent of bringing AI to our elementary schools, but eventually that is probably something that we'll have to discuss with people. Um, Campovery is going to be our high school magic school pilot. Um, so it'll be rolled out campuswide at uh at Campo Vvery in the fall. Um, the teachers will be will be trained once again in

090AI. They'll have a refresher in that and how to manage the system with students. Um, and the uh the principal will be communicating that with the teachers, I'm sorry, with the parents. With the parents. Um, we'll do continued teacher training as this rolls out. Uh, part of our goal was to make sure that we incorporate this into the new teacher orientation as well because we've already trained all of our current staff, but we have 200 teachers coming in in July and we want to make sure that they got the same training as well. And then we continue to do um education through digital citizenship lessons that start at sixth grade. Even though our sixth graders aren't using it, we want them to be prepared to use AI as they move through the uh move through

091the system. Do you want to talk about the AP research? One additional area that we're looking at for AI is the AP research and seminar courses. Um those courses require of our students really high level academic inst uh investigation and research. And we've had a lot of feedback from our teachers and students that they need the appropriate tools to be competitive uh with all the other students across the nation across the world taking those courses to be able to really do that research to find a research topic to go forward. Um so for those students we will uh give them access to Google Gemini uh which is has a lot of the safeguards like magic school um privacy and all of that but um has uh is designed more for that research end. Uh so

092we'll allow them to do that research that they need to do. Um and those teachers will be uh certified um through the same platform we use for digital citizenship um to make sure that they understand some of those kind of potential pitfalls and challenges as well as the benefits and honestly really just how AI works um so that when they're working with students they know how to guide them through that process. So allowing those students to have a a tool that will really help them but still be in that environment with their peers and their teachers to guide them through to where they're not just doing it alone with AI. So the the next piece is the future of AI and um there was an executive order signed in April of 2023 uh 2025, sorry.

093Um that talks about several things that the president wants done. Well, a lot of that doesn't start until it had a 60-day time frame, 120day time frame, a six-month, and a 12-month. Well, the 60 days comes in July. So, we're not sure what is going to come of that. There's AI challenges, there's um training that goes towards staff, there might be money available for these kinds of trainings, but nothing is set in stone. So, we're trying to stay on top of those kind of things as they um come about to make sure that we're in compliance with the things that are part of that executive order. And as we all know, AI is constantly evolving. So again, we stay um we stay very much in tune with what is happening around our district, around the

094state, around the world um and really do our part to to really stay on top of it so that we can hopefully answer some of these questions or at least know where to look when we're asked. That's it. Questions? Go ahead. I had a question. Um so currently trapped GPT and those type of platforms are currently blocked, right? to students. Yes, teachers have access. And then um for the you know, I know we're gonna we're going to talk more about AI literacy and that type of thing. Are are we also talking about students about the data because I feel like there's a lot of AI programs that they can, you know, take your data and sell it. And so I'm not sure if Gemini and the other one has that, you know, any issues with

095that, but is that something that's going to be Yeah. So in the digital citizenship lessons, there's different pieces embedded in that. So yeah, it will be talked about. Um and those lessons are required to be taught K12 in in Gilbert public schools. So there's that piece there. Gemini um the a lot of the collegiate and ASU specifically uses Gemini a lot and that's where that's a good place to start. Now Gemini under our Google domain that data we know doesn't go anywhere. That's the benefit of actually paying for Google licensing to Google. Um it's more controlled that way. the controls aren't aren't aren't aren't quite as the same as um magic school where we can turn it on and off, right? So for those students that will be on for for them. Um but we

096know where that data goes. So but yeah, that's a huge piece of it. Any software that we use in this district, we have to start asking those questions because you want to know where that data is going. Is it being used to train these models, right? And are they telling you really where it's going? It's a it's a big question right there. No, thank you. Yeah. You're welcome. Any other questions? So, if you go back um just two slides, I I wanted to um one more slide back. I I wanted to compliment you on this graphic. I really think this covers um everything including ethics and um the science and the computer science and the literacy. So, I I thought that was a really good I love that graphic. It really puts it into perspectives

097for us. So, thank you. You're welcome. Thank you, Sean. All right. Does anybody have anything else? Yeah, I have one more. Um, and you may have discussed this already and you know, I see like adding elementary in the future. Um, but so the initial roll roll out will probably be at the high the high school levels or just at Campo initially. Initially at Campo. So the reason that we're not going to start that work group like the first day of when school starts, right? Is cuz that's going to be a good pilot group for us, right? So when that um work group does start up, I mean they'll do a number of things, but we can also review what's happening at Campo, right? Because they'll be use and there'll be real life data and and

098we can see how well even that platform works and all of those pieces with it. And then are we going to use the same kind of stoplight system for K through 12 once we get get to that point or is it going to be kind of you know different you know pending the different grades and you know situations. I mean that red light that's a pretty good across the board. If we need to hone that down a little bit or change it a little bit possibly we can do that but we also want this workg group to to struggle with that right to bring those things to this work group and hey this is a could it be better does it need to be different? get their feedback and then those kind of things will

099like technology it'll just keep evolving and changing over time. All right. Well, again appreci Yeah. You're welcome. Thank you very much. Appreciate you. Would any of the board members like to take a quick break or are we okay to plug on? We're good for another 30 minutes and then I might want to Okay. Are you good? I'll be all right. I'm good. Why don't we take a break? Sure. Yeah. Why don't we take a five minute? Sure. Five minutes. All right, we'll go ahead and resume our meeting. 6.03, schooltoome communication. Dr. McCord. Thank you, Mr. President, governing board members. We have Don Mai here with us, our director of well, soon to be executive director of uh marketing and communications. She presented to you again a couple weeks ago and this is just a followup.

100I based on some questions because I think we tabled her uh agenda item just so she can go back and get you uh the answers to those questions. So, here she is. Thank you, Dr. McCord. Uh governing board president and members of the governing board. um going to go through uh this presentation just highlighting some key elements that I think will help to answer some of the questions that came up two weeks ago and of course if you have any additional questions don't hesitate. Um taking it back to this was the first slide that we looked at two weeks ago and really just rooting what we're looking for in these pieces. I did want to highlight when we say deliver robust, secure, and reliable communication. I kind of wanted to highlight a little bit about

101what those words mean, especially when we're looking at making a purchase of a tool for mass notifications. It's not just about our ability to send emails, to be able to direct message our parents, to notify them of events. Those pieces are really important. And it's also really important for our parents and families to have a positive user experience where all the information is in one place and it's convenient for them to access. But the robustness is something that is also what we're paying for and that's the ability for the tool to fully integrate with our systems. So for it to be able to update with our student information from IC and our staff information from I visions. So when we look at tools like this, this is often when we go districtwide why there is

102such a cost attached. Um it's also things like our automated attendance which is not something I covered last time we spoke. We need uh and you'll see it's in the scope of work which is on the next slide. That's something that we need this tool to be able to do so that we can meet uh legal requirements for notifying I think it's by 10:00 a.m. every morning if a student is absent. And I believe that has to happen via voicemail and also email um and potentially text. So our attendance specializ specialists will utilize this system for functionality like that. Also our transportation uh team to be able to let people know if our buses are running late alongside our here comes the bus app. So that's the kind of level of robustness we're talking about.

103And the security piece that's really important not just in emergency situations. It's all communications that we send whether it be email, a newsletter, um in this case with what we're hoping to have added for next year to be able for our teachers to communicate with our parents. We want to have oversight of what is happening. We want our administrators to be able to see those messages that are going back and forth so that we can ensure best practices from our staff and also so that we have um accountability if necessary and that we are able to respond to foyer requests. I think we mentioned that uh when at the last presentation right now if a teacher is utilizing something like class dojo to communicate um and then there's a foyer request to see that communication

104h from the parent or who whomever we don't have access to that currently we would have to um refer them to reach out to class dojo to provide that. Um, for us as a district, it's much better practice when we're talking about ensuring we're delivering best practices, that we're protecting our staff, that we have access to those messages and we can respond appropriately and in a timely fashion to our parents should they request it. Um, the other part of parent square uh when we come on to that is they also offer a service called student square that's included within this. Um, Mesa Public Schools are going to be utilizing that at their high schools for their coaches and their high school teachers to be able to directly communicate through the app with students. Uh that's

105something that currently uh is very important because of legislation that was brought in probably about 18 months ago now where teachers are absolutely not allowed to communicate with um students directly without parents being involved or through a district approved uh system such as this where there is administrative oversight um and there are those safety and security measures. And then reliable is a word that I just put out there, but so important when we're talking about crisis or emergency communications. We truly need a system that does cost money. Uh but that we know that because of the um quality of the and that we have that relationship with the vendor that we will get the service we need in a time of crisis. so that when we do need to actively communicate quickly and effectively with

106our parents, we are 100% able to. Okay. So, just quickly, I thought it would be helpful to include the scope of work. So, when we're thinking about identifying a tool such as this, we're really considering what do we need as a district to be able to do um our job to the highest standard. So, as I was mentioning, it's about being able to provide that secure and reliable mass communication tool to be able to communicate with parents in different ways for it to work effectively in a crisis. The ability for that two-way communication is something that we valued as part of the scope of work so that our parents can actually reach back out and easily contact teachers um and other staff members. um that we have that administrator oversight so we can see the

107communication that's happening that we have the reporting tools so we can look and say are our parents engaged um how many of them are responding um do they prefer the emails the shorter newsletters so we can actively look at doing a better job on our side and that the messages are stored that it integrates with our existing systems that it meets ADA accessibility requirements I did want to quickly highlight an example of how that works. So for our parents to be able to receive the messages, the great thing about parent square is that they can make the choice to download the app or not. So if they download the app then they have to some people to myself that would seem the easiest in my scenario because then if I have kids at multiple GPS

108schools I have all the information in one place. I literally have my class communications from all of the different teachers, which of course becomes more important at the high school level when there are so many. And then also groups. So if my students are involved in band or in athletics, all of that information is coming in one place and I can easily access it. Um, but parents can also choose to receive emails. So, for example, if a teacher wanted to send a communication saying, "Okay, we're having this event on this day and they're sending it." It will come in the app, but it will also appear in an email, the full all of the information. So, there is no need for the parent to go to the app, they can access it all. And that

109really helps with accessibility. Um because we touched on the fact that some existing tools that teachers are using that aren't currently district approved like class dojo they are not accessible because they are solely app-based. The when it comes to visual impairments for example the screen readers that a lot of people use nothing is there is no perfect solution but the majority of those work for a general email style. Um so if we know that the messages are appearing there that does make that content more accessible um newsletter capabilities etc. So I I just have a question about if they're receiving that notification in the app do they also get the email or just the email for people who choose the email. There's different when you log in initially for the app. One of the first

110things you're prompted to do is to set your preferences. So how you want to be alerted whether you want it to be push notifications or emails so that you know that there's new content to go and see. Okay. All right. Thank you. Okay. Um so just a little bit about the process. We did I did touch on the fact that we had the scope of work. We then reached out to vendors who were already on base cooperative contracts with a request for written quote. We had two people um respond and then they demoed to our stakeholder group. That was a dayong event. We had um over 21 people there representing different groups um reviewing the demo and the process is that they look at the scope of work and they're looking for evidence of all

111the things that we're asking for um and then they provided feedback and their uh unanimous recommendation was parent square. Okay, I kind of have already touched on this, but this was an additional slide that I added in to help with uh some of the questions hopefully along the lines of these vulnerabilities that we have. I think it's really important to identify that we don't currently have district approved well we do have um teachers can communicate via email and also through infinite campus um with parents um but this would take it to a next level. This would mean that our uh coaches, our teachers were able to send messages quickly and easily. they would use the our staff won't have to download the app and use it. They can use our um district district provided laptops.

112There's a really easy um dashboard to use so that they can do that um without using their own devices. Uh but it's quick and it's easy for them to communicate. I'll go back to just quickly showing this graphic here with the phone I think illustrates how simple the dashboard is. Uh but it gives them a way to communicate confidently. Um they're only using one tool uh to do everything. So one tool to send the newsletters, one tool to um for parent conferences instead of using Signup Genius, Class Dojo, all of which they've been having to source on their own. So that vulnerability for us is to provide a district approved tool where we have the oversight um so they don't have to think about it. Uh, also it does helpful things like it automatically brings

113in the lists of the students that are involved in each class. So they're not manually uploading or updating those lists themselves. Um I also wanted to highlight just the existing tools that are being replaced which is reflected then in the budget to highlight that there the ongoing increase is offset slightly by fact that we're replacing some tools. And going back one slide. Um this is in very short terms the pilot and the roll out. Uh two weeks ago when I presented to you I went into more depth about about what the pilot and roll out would look like. Um I would still like to recommend that we would go with plan A where the pilot would begin in October 2025 for the schools listed there. Uh Mosquite High, Mske Jr. and five of their feeder

114elementary schools plus our group of coaches districtwide. Um, and that we would go districtwide in January. A big part of my recommendation for that is the vulnerabilities that we currently have. And I think it's important for us to address them in this school year rather than waiting a full school year to roll out. um to ease people's minds perhaps about moving district asking our parents to change from one set of tools to another midyear. Uh as I kind of touched on last time we spoke, it's really going to be about the implementation. It's going to be about the communication with all of our stakeholders, ensuring that staff are fully trained, that we have our ties on campus fully trained and ready to support. So, it's really a group effort that people feel well informed ahead

115of time so they know it's coming. Um, things like having a download the app campaign. Uh, all kind of led by our team so that the schools feel s fully supported by district and that they're not just trying to figure it out themselves. Any questions or anything that I didn't cover? Any questions from the board? Can I just see the slide one more time of the cost with um because we do some more, right? Yeah. Okay. Um what was I'm so sorry I lost my train of thought for a second. Um, so I actually I looked into school status um for just my school for Guerrero and did some number crunching there. And uh as long as the costs were being offset by removing some of these other programs, then it it actually, you know,

116does kind of help offset that cost. So I do I like that. Um, the one thing that I really kind of want to suggest and I don't I've talked to a number of people about the January roll out and I know how I would feel. I would just really maybe reconsider that just because there's so many teachers and parents that are in the groove and I understand the concerns when it comes to, you know, making sure everybody knows what they're doing and being able to provide those supports and that's all great. I just know as a teacher, lots of teachers like to get their hands on these tools early on and we'll play with them and then get them ready and if we're already kind of into something mid year and then we have to

117switch it, it can be a bit um daunting. Talked to a few principles as well and they kind of had the same sentiment. I mean, obviously I think you guys would have the right tools in place to to do a good job if you do it in January. I just wanted to kind of sort of say that one more time just because that makes me nervous. I don't want the push back from them on the program if it's something that they're it's just kind of a headache because of when we decided to roll it out. Like they might actually really love the program, but you know, yeah, that's Yeah, just trying to save you guys the Yeah, and I think that's absolutely a possibility. We could start the pilot in October and I can work

118with the relevant vendors to have the flexibility to find a solution that works best for everyone. Absolutely. Okay. Yeah. No, thank you. I I think this is a wonderful opportunity to make it easier um especially to communicate with parents and um when Don and I talked, you know, I'm I'm perfectly happy with the telephone, but my children are not. they would rather have a text. A phone call is to die for, but a text is much easier for them. And so we we have to update the way we're communicating. And you know, I I don't know if you have the list of the other school districts that are implementing this, but um I think that if this is um a sound product, I think a January roll out will work just fine because people say,

119"Oh, this is so much easier. I'm so glad to have this in my hands." So, I'm I'm excited about this and I think it will really give us, you know, the next level of communication and that's the first step to really getting community engagement. So, thanks. Thank you. Any other questions or comments? All right. Thanks for coming back and and helping us understand this a little better. Thank you very much. Thank you. I'll appreciate your time. All right. Moving on to our consent agenda. Is there a motion to approve the consent agenda as outlined on our agenda tonight? I move to approve the consent agenda as presented. Thank you, Miss Humphre. Is there a second? Second. Thank you, Mr. Briner. Uh, all those in favor of approving the consent agenda, uh, say I. I. Any

120opposed? Thank you very much. 8.01 01 fiscal year 2026 proposed budget for adoption. Is there a motion? Oh, I move to approve the 2026 proposed budget for adoption. Thank you, Miss Humphre. I'll second that. Is there any discussion amongst the board in regard to this action item? Well, I I want to thank our uh budget staff for all their hard work. I mean, our I feel like we are so transparent on what we're doing with our budget and very conservative in our estimates and taking a lot of things into consideration. I really appreciate the hard work. So, thank you. Thank you. Anything else? All right, then I'll call for a vote. All those in favor of approving the fiscal year 2026 proposed budget for adoption say I. I. I. Any opposed? Thank you. 8.02 Mass

121communication system parent family student and staff engagement parent square. Is there a motion? Uh so moved. Thank you Mr. Briner. Is there a second? Second. Thank you Miss Murray. Um, is there any discussion in regard to this agenda, this action item? Well, I again I think there's been a lot of work put into this and I I'm really excited to see how this helps us communicate better teachers to families and students and then back again, but also to the community and just getting the word out to people. So, I think it'll be great. Anything else? Okay, then I'll call for a vote. All those in favor of approving the mass communication system, parent, family, student, and staff engagement parent square, say I. I. Any opposed? Thank you very much. That passes. 8.03 instructional time model

122addendum. Is there a motion? So moved. Thank you, Miss Humphre. Is there a second? Second. Just kidding. Ooh, that was close. But I think Miss Murray got you. Thank you, Miss Murray. Uh, is there any discussion on this action item? No, I I think this is a wonderful opportunity. I think it's really exciting to give students this kind of an opportunity. This will be new for us and and I think that there will be students who will really thrive under the the model that we've put together. Thank you. Is there anything else? All right, then we'll call for a vote. All those in favor of approving the instructional time model addendum say I. I. I. Any opposed? And that passes. 9.01 items for future agenda. Would any board member like to place anything on a

123future agenda? Okay. If anything does come up, feel free to meet reach out to myself or Dr. from a cord and we'll make sure we handle that accordingly. Uh, agenda item number 10, board reports. Dr. Robersonson had to leave early tonight uh for a family function. Um, 10.02, the audit committee. I don't have any uh anything to report. Um, I did want to say that, uh, and I probably should have said this at our last board meeting, but I just want to congratulate all of our teachers and staff on a a fantastic school year. Um, I think we had so many successes and I'm just so so proud and happy to be a part of this uh uh of of of what we're doing here in Gilbert Public Schools. So, thank you very very much

124and we look forward to just an an even better 2025 2026 school year. So, thank you very much. Um, Gilbert Education Foundation, Mr. Briner, nothing to report. Thank you. City of Mesa, Leaison. Miss Murray, nothing to report. All right. Thank you. And legislative representative and employee benefit trust, Miss Humphre. So on the legislative representative end, I I wanted to just encourage people. There was a wonderful article in the Arizona Republic on Sunday about rural schools in Arizona and the struggles that they are facing um financially because they are decreasing in enrollment and when you're a smaller school that hits hard and they're having difficulties passing bonds and overrides. So it was a really great article. I would encourage everyone to read that. And then on the budget, um the Senate has passed the budget and

125they have re um done siny die. The House um is still working on that and we'll see what happens. Um but the deadline is July 1st. So we'll see what happens. So just to let you know those two things and then the employee benefit trust has not met recently. Is it does it usually goes house and then senate? I thought it usually went usually goes the other way but um we are in unusual circumstances. Okay, thank you for that report. Uh agenda item number 11, meeting dates, Dr. McCord. Thank you, Mr. President, governing board members, July 29th is our next board meeting. We will not have a work study in mid July. Um that is a board business meeting. August 12th is a board work study and brief board business meeting. August 18th is a

126board policy committee meeting at 4:30 p.m. And August 26th is another board business meeting. All right. Thank you very much. Uh with that, I will call for a motion to adjurnn. Is there a motion? I move to adjurnn. Thank you, Miss Humphre. Is there a second? Second. Thank you, Mr. Brainer. All those in favor of adjourning tonight's regular board business meeting, say I. I. I. Any opposed? Okay. All right. We're ajourned. Thank you. Are there any signatures needed for tonight? Yeah. I know.