001Yeah. All right, we're going to go ahead and get started. Wow. Good job. Well, they we owe it all to them. Thank you for being here. We want to welcome everybody to our board meeting tonight. Tonight's May 20th, uh, 2025. our regular board meeting. Uh we want to welcome everybody, thank everybody for being here, all of the students that are here, all of the parents and staff and principles and uh coaches and everybody that's here to support our students. Uh we want to welcome the millions of people that are watching online and we're going to go ahead and call this meeting to order. Uh we're going to start with a moment of silence and then we will move to the pledge of allegiance. If you would all please stand. Thank you. Please be seated. Those
002of you that have seats. All right. Uh, we'll ask Miss Wilson to do roll call. Mr. Chad Thompson here. Mrs. Shaina Murray here. Dr. Blake Robersonson here. Miss Jill Humphre here. Mr. Jesse Brainard here. Mr. President, all board members are present. You have a quorum. Thank you very much, Miss Wilson. Uh, moving on to agenda item number two, approval of tonight's agenda. Is there a motion to approve tonight's agenda as outlined? So moved. Thank you, Miss Humphre. Is there a second? Second. Thank you, Miss Murray. Uh, all those in favor of approving tonight's agenda as outlined, say, "I." I. Any opposed? Thank you very much. And moving right along, uh, our favorite part of the evening, uh, superintendent recognition awards. I will turn the time over to Dr. McCord. Thank you, Mr. President. Governing board
003members, uh, if you would join me in front of the dis, we will make sure these people can enjoy the rest of their evening. Good evening everyone. How are you? How are you? There you go. Students, how many days left in school? Yeah, you knew that answer, didn't you? Um, so we obviously have a lot of people to recognize tonight and we will get through these as swiftly as possible, but we want to give credit where credit is due. So, um, here's how this works. I will call up an individual or a group of people and we'll say a few words, recognize what you've accomplished, and then you will remain up here, shake hands with the governing board. Don't run back to your seat. Um, stay up here, we'll take a picture, and then you're
004free to go get ice cream or whatever you got planned for the rest of the night. Um, yeah. Or you can stay all night. We got a great agenda for you. Um, let's start off with Gilbert High. Joey Balamenti, is that you? Come on up. Good to meet you. Now, Joey is here. He was we we were going to call on you last board meeting, but I think you were at the town of Gilbert getting recognized. Correct. Yeah. Like it's all right. Well, let me explain to you why he's here. Joey, obviously again from Gilbert Highest, qualified to compete in the National Speech and Debate Tournament in the United States Exemporary Exemporaneous Speaking, placing sixth at the Arizona District tournament at Broofphy College Prep in April. So, you are going to represent not just Gilbert
005High, but Gilbert public schools, and we are looking forward to seeing some great things out of you out of this national tournament. Please congratulate him on this exceptional achievement. He will join an Arizona delegation to compete in De Moine, Iowa in June. Have you ever been to De Mo in June? I went last year, unfortunately, and I'll have to go again. So, well, I've been to Iowa. That's all I'll say. I like Iowa. A lot of people in Arizona from Iowa. Congratulations, Joey. Please give him a hand. College, right? Yeah. Are you going to college next year or something? Yes, I am. Okay. What? Where you going? Iowa. I'll be going to Harvard University in the fall. [Applause] Well done. One more time. Thank you, [Applause] Joey. I've been to Harvard, but not as a
006student. Trust me. Nope. Wait until you get to see me read some of these names. You'll wonder if I actually have a high school diploma. Next up, Arizona Junior High Bull Riding Champion. All right, come on up. This is [Applause] a Say your name. Andreas Vidales. This is Andreas Vidales. Okay. bull rider. He competed in the Arizona High School Rodeo Association in bull riding. He's required to maintain a 70% or better in all classes to be able to compete and he averaged a 3.5 GPA or better this school year. The reason or the season consists of two rides a month during the season uh August through May. And when Andres competed in the state finals, he achieved the title of Arizona Junior High Bull Riding Champion. Congratulations. [Applause] So, what's next for you? Iowa. This
007kid. Have you met Joey? Are you serious? Yeah. You're serious? I thought this I'm like this kid's going to be up here all night with me cuz he's he's got it. What are you going to do in Iowa? You just going to ride bulls or Yeah. Yep. Is Did you win that belt buckle? Yeah. Stand up there so everybody can see that. Look at that. [Applause] Nice. Is Iowa a national competition or so? What what title could you win there? Uh state junior high or national junior high champ. Are you you going to bring it back for us? Had a boy. Give him a hand. Congratulations. Joey right up front here. Right in the middle. Right here. One more time for Joey or Andreas. Andreas, sorry. Still stuck in Iowa with Joey. Now, next we
008have Battle of the Books. Where are Raise your hand if you're the Battle of the Bookers. All right. I'm gonna call you up by school. Okay. And um first off, the first place winner was Greenfield Elementary. They couldn't make it tonight. They have talent night, so these kids can read and sing, I guess. I don't know. Uh but we do have our second place and our third place team. Our second place team uh is from Neely Traditional, Kelly Fairchild, Librarian. Come on up. Are you here, Kelly? There you are. take picture. No, you weren't. Yeah. So, thank you, Kelly. That's a good point. If if you're an adult over some of these teams or groups, I'm calling you up. Get ready to talk. Oh, now it gets quiet, right? Uh-huh. Kelly, will you introduce your
009team for everybody and bring them up? Sure. My team are the synonym rules. They are Bridgets. Come on up, Anukica and Kai. I think he's back there. And not only did they win second place in the district, they got to go to the regional and they won second place in the region as well. So they brought their region trophy to share. Wow. With all of you. So they competed against Mesa, Tempee, Chandler, a couple Queen Creek, a couple charter schools, Deer Valley, and they did awesome and got second place. We're so proud of them. Well, well done. No, you So, what's your name again? Bridget. Bridget, tell everyone out of all the books you read, which was your favorite book? My favorite book was probably The City of Ember. Ah, nice. And you are Kai
010and yours? Maniac McGee. Me? I love that. And you? Anukica and Sedakaco and a Thousand Paper Cranes. Wow. I only read Maniac McGee. But I I tell you, if if you ever go to these competitions, it's obvious you need to read these books. And these students put in a heck of a lot of work to make sure that when they compete, they know what they're talking about. Please give Neie another hand. If you guys would shake hands with the board, we'll take your picture. [Applause] I love the socks. Congratulations. Stylish. I love it. You too. Come back here. Good luck to you. here. Stand in front. Stand in front. Here we go. One, two, three. Ladies and gentlemen, thank you guys. Tell your hubby I said. Tell your hubby I said hi. Thanks. Next up,
011we have Islands Elementary. Can I have Allison Hunt come up? Is she here? There you are. [Applause] Hi, Alison. Hi. You guys took third place. You want to bring up your students and and say hello? I would love to. So, our team, we had a twoerson team. We have Eliza and Macy. Awesome. So, they worked really, really hard this year. Um, they actually were a three-person team and they ended up getting turned into a two-person team and they went to the district battle the whole first round. They got every single question correct and then it became a battle off and they took home third place which was really impressive. I'm super proud of them. So, okay, tell everybody your name and your favorite book. Um, I'm Eliza and I like Chasing Verir. Oh, nice. Macy
012and I like doll buns. A I say everybody. A Now you guys, congratulations. Twoerson team. Look at you. You can do anything. Just want to give a shout out to your grandma. Just kind of come out from behind the screen. This is Linda Rollins. She used to be a governing board member for several years for Gilbert Public Schools. And guess what? Her kids are still and grandkids in our system. Please give her a hand. Thank you for your service. Congratulations, Islands. If you shake hands, we'll take your [Applause] picture. Congratulations. Congratulations. Stand in the middle. Well done, guys. Thank you. Next, we have drum line camp. Mr. Kak and your squad, come on up. Look at that line. Look at that perfect formation. You taught them well, sir. He's like, "Yeah, put that banner out
013there. Let Come on." Do they know the right side of the drumstick to hold? Okay, just checking. All right. In early April, Campovery High Indoor Percussion Ensemble won the Winterguard Arizona State Championship in the A classification at Millennium High School. Campo's indoor percussion ensemble has 30 members ranging in age from freshman to seniors. The group began rehearsing in December of 24 to put together this year's show, Constant State of Going Nowhere. Story of my life. The show explores the reality of a fast-paced life that is constantly moving, but questions whether they are really going anywhere. This year's ensemble uh ensemble of 30 students is instructed by Riley Smith. And I'm going to let these guys introduce themselves real quick. Say what grade you are and then Matt you can say a few words if that's
014okay. I'll start with you. Just pass it down. Okay. I'm a freshman. My name is Miley Nyman. Addison Place. I'm a senior. Charlie Fawn. I'm a sophomore. Devin Spence. I'm a freshman. I'm Emmy Esperson. I'm a senior. I'm Ashton Harker. I'm a senior. I'm Carson Hearn. I'm a senior. Um I'm Alina Rios. I'm a sophomore. Uh, I'm Caleb and I'm a freshman. I'm Michael and I'm a sophomore. Uh, I'm Colin Fine and I'm a freshman. I'm Bmar Robert. I'm a junior. I'm Dio Garcia. I'm a senior. I'm Evan Hill. I'm a junior. You're Matt. You're old. I'm Matt Kak. I am not in school anymore. Say a few words. Oh. Uh, yeah. Just really proud of this group. Um they they competed all all season. Um and we actually also went out to California and
015did a big uh regional out there in Southern California and they received second place in that in that region. So that was a pretty great trip for them. But yeah, it's a lot of work. Um and they put in a lot of hours and dedication. So it was great. Congratulations, Campo. I've seen some of your work and I'm just overly impressed. So and your work is 24 hours a day. You don't stop. All of our all of our performing arts puts they put in the work and I just got to thank you and thank you for your time that you give to your kids. Please give them another hand. You guys want to turn around, run through, shake hands, and then come back in this formation and we'll take a picture. Oh yeah, we're going
016to Iowa. You're going when did Iowa become a destination for national competition. All right, line up over there like you guys were and we'll face this way. You guys line up and we'll crowd in around you. Like me. [Music] Campbell Verie. Ladies and [Applause] gentlemen, next up, junior high athletes of the year, Desert Ridge High Junior High. Could I have those students up here real quick if you're here? Desert Ridge Junior High. Oh, there they come. Remember your athletes of the year. That means quick. Hi [Applause] guys. So, this is something that we've started and uh I'm very proud of of what our athletic department has done. Uh it's important. We always seem to recognize all the high school athletes, but junior high, we we just hadn't in the past. And um and I and
017and we should. And so here you guys are. We have athletes of the year from each one of our junior highs. And then we have a GPS male and female junior high athlete of the year. And so we'll recognize everybody. I'll give the microphone to you and uh say your name, what grade, and your favorite sport. Um, Ken, uh, eighth grade and baseball. I'm Giana. I'm in eighth grade and my favorite sport would be track. Nice. Excellent. Ladies and gentlemen, Desert Ridge Junior High, their male and female athlete of the year. Give them a hand, shake hands, and we'll take a picture. Back here. There you go. Well done. [Applause] Can I have the Gilbert Classical Academy Junior High students? Are they here? There they are. All right. If you would say who you are
018and what you what your favorite sport is, that'd be great. I'm Nora. I'm in seventh grade and my favorite sport is basketball. I'm Chase. I'm in eighth grade and my favorite sport is basketball. What grade are you in, Nora? Seventh. Seventh grade. Ladies and gentlemen, Gilbert Classical Academy was a school that was supposed to start with no sports. Okay. They've had state championships. They continue to compete. They keep building their sports and a lot of it has to do with their junior high programs cultivating that. So, please give them a hand and congratulate them. You guys would shake hands [Applause] right here in the middle. Greenfield Junior High. I think we only have one attending if that's correct. Is that you? Yeah. This is Ryder, correct? Tell everybody your first and last name, grade, and
019your favorite sport. I'm Ryder Francis and my favorite or I'm seventh grade and my favorite sport is football. What's your favorite position in football? Wide receiver. Nice. Nice. How many touchdowns you have this year? I know you know. Well, I didn't do very good. Let me help you out with your acceptance speech when you get awards. All right. Say, I had 20 touchdowns. I had 20 touchdowns. That's about right. Hey, stay up here. Congratulations. [Applause] Congratulations. Right here in the middle from Mosquite Junior High. Can I have their athletes? Mosquite Junior High. Whoa. I said junior high. That's awesome. All right. Well, I'm going to let you introduce yourself. Remember name, grade, and favorite sport? I'm Albert Valier. My favorite sport is basketball, and I'm in I'm in eighth grade. My name is McKenna Shamoy.
020I'm in seventh grade, and my favorite sport was probably track. Nice. Wow. Um, congratulations. Did your teams win any championships at all this year? Come close. Our football team. Football team did. All right. Well, I'm keep playing basketball. You're in eighth grade. Yeah. And where are you going next year? I'm going to mosquite. Uh, I'm going to Mosquite. And you got one more year to go, but then you're going to go where and run track. Any idea? I don't know. Either Mosqu or Gilbert. Mosqu or Gilbert. Did you hear that? Mosqu Gilbert. Recruiting starts now. Give them a hand. Please shake hands with the board. Congratulations, guys. And from South Valley Junior High, where are those athletes? There they come. Hi. How are you? Good. Good. Tell everyone your name, your grade, and your favorite
021sport. My name is Jordan Black. I'm in eighth grade, and my favorite sport is soccer. My name is Rachel Hall. I'm in eighth grade and I really like track. Nice. Now, I see you have something in your hand there. Is that for me? No. No. What is that? It's the plaque that we got. Oh, see now you can hold that up for pictures. Well done. Congratulations to our South Valley Athletes of the year. Well done. [Music] Well done. Highland Junior High School athletes of the year. Where are you? Here they come. Look at that. Wow. All right. So, do you know what I'm going to ask you? Mhm. What? Tell me. Name, grade, and sport. See, these are athletic awards, not academic awards, but you scored in both categories. Well done. Tell everybody who you
022are and all those good things. My name is John and um I'm eighth grade and my favorite sport is basketball. I'm Scarlet. I'm in seventh grade and my favorite sport is softball. Well done. What do you got there? Wow. Hold that up so everybody can see. Nice. Nice. Ladies and gentlemen, Highland Junior High, if you'd shake hands. [Applause] Well done, guys. And can I have one more time uh Ryder Francis up here and Scarlet Moer, if I said it right, Mouser, see you laughing at me over there. Your cheering section, your heckling section. I love it. Look at that. Now, out of all the junior highs, they select who is the junior high male and female athletes of the year. And we have them right here. Ladies and gentlemen, you've seen him once already. Now
023you see him twice. Your junior high male and female athlete of the year, Ryder and Scarlet. Give them a hand. [Applause] How do you feel about this honor writer? Good. That's I I couldn't I You got You got more than one word for me. Amazing. Uh well, syllables. We getting there. Congratulations to you two. We're very proud of you. Keep working hard. Please shake hands one more time. [Applause] One, two, three. Congratulations. Well done, guys. [Applause] Next up, these are three pages. We're in the middle of number two. This is good stuff. High school athletic spring champions. Will the Campoverie boys volleyball 5A state champions please come up here? [Applause] You're Zach, correct? No, Zach's not here. I'm his assistant coach. Trey. Trey. Okay. What's your last name? Herbertton. Herveton. Ladies and gentlemen, um Camp
024Oo Verie played Saturday night against ACP Arizona College Prep, uh Chandler School, and they played for the 5A state championship. Campovery was down. They played the best of five sets. Campovery was down two sets, first two sets. It's hard to come back from being down two sets out of five, but Campo did it. They swept the next three sets to become the state champions for 5A. And it was an exciting game. I I thought at first, hey, well, you had a good season. Uh but you guys didn't think that. And what I loved more about anything is the fact that you never gave up and you showed everybody what you're made of and you basically jumped out of that gym and made a huge difference. So congratulations to you. Give him another hand. If you'd
025all introduce yourself and uh say what grade you're in and then we'll let you shake hands. You can start off with who you are. I'm Coach Trey. I'm Carter Scousin. I'm a senior. I'm Trevor Gamble. I'm a sophomore. I'm Malachi Bredensteiner. I'm a senior. I'm Isaiah Han. I'm a senior. I'm Daniel Burgess. I'm a senior. Gideon Curtis. I'm a senior. I'm Zach Brown. I'm a freshman. and I'm Coach Gabe. If you've never checked out volleyball, boys or girls, I suggest you go because they're exciting games. They're fast-paced and uh you represented Gilbert Public Schools and Campo pretty well. Please, one more hand for them. If you guys would shake hands with the board, we'll take your picture. Congratulations. Congratulations. Congratulations. I still have that video. Oh, yeah. Well, we might want to stand in front
026of you. How about this? We'll kind of weave in there. I don't know. Where you going? There are no height requirements for superintendents or board members. I can stand up. Well done, Campo. [Music] Next, track and field. Can I have the GCA state champions boys division five? That's not right. 4 by 800 medley relay. State champs, come on up, please. [Applause] Up now. I'll do them next. Well, that's basically the same guys. Yeah, you can talk about it. All right, perfect. Well, thank you. I'm Coach Bruff. Um, we won the 4x800 uh division 5 state. We also uh got second in the uh 4x400 meter and uh Sotiris Katanos here got second in the uh 800 meter individually. So we had a pretty good uh pretty good run for a school that wasn't supposed to
027have any sports 20 years ago when we started. So um it's been a great honor coaching these guys and I'm very grateful for them. Uh I just want to let them all introduce themselves all the way down to Coach Banks there. My name is Jimmy Claba and I'm a senior. Uh my name is Brennon Kuna. I'm a senior. My name is Brendan Slay. I'm a junior. I'm Satiri Kasanos. I'm a senior. I'm Coach Cassidy. And I'm Coach Banks. Again, the hard work, the determination. You guys are putting GCA on the athletic map in a lot of different areas and it's not unnoticed. And so we're very proud of you cuz I know you're also very academically inclined and so it's really says something cuz I know the amount of work that you guys have outside
028the classroom and I know the work you put in in all of your athletics. So it's a true accomplishment. Congratulations to you guys. Well done. Thank you. Shake hands. [Music] [Applause] out. You guys are going to have to kind of get up front. We'll We need to see you. Oh, you're good. No. Well done, GCA. [Applause] And I don't believe I have anybody from Mosqu High. Is that correct? Oh. Oh, you guys are here. Mosqu High. So, come on up. We'll figure it out when you get here. There you go. Is Coach Mike [Applause] Brown. Who do we have here? You You're good. No, no, no. You You made it all the way up here. You are Coach Don Abram. Don Abram. Do we have any other coaches or just you tonight? All right. So,
029according to my records here, we have a state high jump champion. Raise your hand. There you go. And we have a state 400 meter champion. Wow. And then we have second in boys division 3 200 meter. Nice. And second in boys division 3 4x4 meter relay. Yeah. I thought there I was like you they don't let you run it all by yourself. It's a relay. Um so I'm going to we're going to let you guys introduce yourselves. Tell us what grade and again what place you took even though I just went through it just because I need to hear it coming out of your mouth. Ready? Uh I'm Clarence Stewart. I'm a senior. I took second place in the 200 meter dash. Uh we got second in the 4x1 is No, I lied. Fourth in
030the 4x1. Second in the 4x4. Uh I'm Darius Hamilton. I'm a junior. We got second in the 4x4. I'm Isaiah Duran. I'm a junior and we came second in the 4x4. Uh I'm Don Rashard and I took first place in the boys high jump. Um I'm London Harville. I'm a sophomore and I took first in the 400 meter. I'm Riley Thompson and I took uh second in the 4x4. Oh, and I'm a senior. Sorry. Well done. All right. What was your time, champion? Uh 586. 586 in the 400. 400. Yes. 400. And how high did you jump? 6'2. 6'2. How tall are you? 63. 64. That just puts things in perspective. If you said 5'8 like me, I wouldn't have been impressed. But look at you. Ladies and gentlemen, again, Mosquite. Hi. You want to
031say anything? I just like uh just acknowledge I'm a first year coach here for Gilbert and I have a buddy of mine who's a first year coach at Jacob Rudder over there and I know another first year coach uh over from Camp Overian. Just right on for the first year coaches. Right on. Well done. If you guys would shake hands and we'll take a picture. Yeah, you can shuffle to the back. Kind of move in around you. Are we smiling? [Music] Let all the mamas and friends take their pictures. There you go. Congratulations, MHS. [Applause] Campo Verdie boys division 2 state champions. Can you guys come up here? Are you Josh? Just you. Wow. All right. So, this it's it's a wild time of year to recognize people because it is the end of the
032year. school ends and and this oh no we're still going. Um and so we're just appreciate the fact that you guys are able to show up and so uh sometimes that happens. Banquetss happen. There's a lot of different things going on in these kids' lives and famil family's lives. So why don't you talk about why you guys are here tonight? Yeah, my name is Coach Flores. I graduate from Camp Verde. Um, boys won D2 State and they're just they just good group of boys, hardworking. Um, and yeah, that's why we're here. Boys won D2 state. Well done. And you guys had some second in division uh two, 1600 meter and second in uh javelin. Correct. And a state pole vault champion. Anybody ever pole vaulted in here before? That's a scary sport right there. I
033don't know how they do that. Well, we appreciate all the hard work. What did I miss? Did I miss anybody else from there? And the girl division, you guys had girl division 2 4x8 state champions. Is that correct? Wow. Campovery again, like all of our schools showing up. Well done. Give coach a hand. [Music] [Applause] Highland High Division One track and field. Who's coming up? All of you. [Music] The girls team finished second overall in state for track and field. So, please give them a hand. And I'm going to let the rest of you just introduce yourselves. Coach, you can talk about them. let them know everybody who you are and we'll let these kids do the work. I'll let them introduce themselves and I'll talk at the end. Okay. I'm Brody Huser. I'm a
034junior and we won state in the 4x100 meter dash. Uh I'm Anthony Martin. I'm a junior and I won we won state in the 4x100 meter dash. I'm Max Mend. I'm a junior and we won the 400 4x100. Yeah. Um I'm Brooklyn. Oh, wait. Sorry. I'm Gage Stern and I'm a sophomore and we won the 4x1 state. Um, my name is Roman Dwell and I'm a high jumper. Um, I'm Brooklyn Jo. I'm a sophomore and we won the divisional for 4x8. I'm Auburn Limbalong. I'm a senior and I do short sprints. Is that what I'm supposed to say? Oh, say what two did. I ran the 100 and the 200 and the 4x4. I'm Addy Low. I'm a sophomore and I ran all the sprints. I'm Ella Bonnet. I'm a freshman. I ran the 1600,
035the 800, and we won the 4x8. I'm Natalyia Morris. I'm a freshman and I ran the 3200. I'm Chloe Bond. I'm a senior and I won the mile and then I also ran the 800, the 4x8, and the 4x4. Um, I'm Cameron Delansancy. I'm a junior. I run the 800,600, 4x4, and 4x8. I'm Coach Hall and I run the stopwatch and the show. Oh, coach. I'm Coach Odder. I'm the head track and field coach here at Highland. This is my first year like Coach Dawn. Uh, the boys 4x1, just to kind of add some cool things, is they are now the second fastest 4x1 in the history of the state of Arizona. Um, so they're uh they're all coming back next year hoping for a chance to break the state record and cement themselves in
036history. The girls 4x8 is actually fourtime defending state champ. So this is their fourth consecutive year in a row winning it. Wow. And Coach Hall does in fact run the show. Yes. Hey, Highland, way to show up. Way to do the job every year, uh, when it comes to track and field. You guys are a main stay up here at this podium. So, thank you for that. Keep working hard. Uh, raise your hand if you're a senior. Congratulations on graduating here. Take your time when you're getting that diploma. Don't run. It ends on Thursday, so soak it all in. Congratulations, Highland High. Please shake hands and we'll take a pick. Did I miss anyone? Nice work. Nice work. Thank you. Gentlemen, do me a favor. Up front, take a knee. Oh, ladies, we'll kind of
037fill in. Scoot over to your left. There you go. Just fill in. There we go. Like that. Should have been a coach. Okay. One, two, three. You're good. Yay. Congratulations, Highland. Thank you. Now, I didn't miss anybody, did I? No. Anybody win like backyard basketball you want me to recognize here? No, we good. Governing board members, that concludes our recognitions for this evening. Thank you guys. [Applause] Thanks, All right. Thank you very much. Want to offer one more congratulations to all of our students that were recognized tonight. Moving on to agenda item number four, superintendent report. Dr. McCord. Thank you, Mr. President, governing board members. Um before I get started, I just want to uh recognize some of our Aspire program um attendees who are here tonight. Uh those in the Aspire program are interested
038in possibly becoming administrators one day. And so they're in a year-long program and they get to run through all the ins and outs of what it looks like to be an administrator with the hopes of one day that they're hired as a a dean, assistant principal or principal or a coordinator or a director one day. Kyle Glor, Kelsey Dumis, and Melissa Omi. There you guys are. Give them a [Applause] hand. In instead of a report, I I've got a poem. Nobody roll their eyes or you do this. No, this is this is all me. All me. Uh, and it just kind of sums up the year. Beginnings have endings and our end of the year is here. Leaving some memories foggies and others crystal clear. We accomplished so much and left a few things to
039do. There's never enough time for our students or for all of you. We celebrated milestones and conquered mountains some thought were too tall. We honored and mourned those we lost. They had an impact on us all. Our community passed the override, something we are especially grateful for. Our families know how well you educate their kids. You respected, loved, and adored. We added weapon detectors to high school safety and security mix. Teen violence is an issue we all have to work together to fix. We will graduate close to 3,000 students this year in GPS. They are remarkable young men and women that we will surely dearly miss. And then there's you, the employees of Gilbert Public Schools. Smart, diligent, and loving. You are the district's most valued crown jewels. To our retirees, thank you for all
040your dedication and devotion. May your future be filled with fun and laughter and much less noise and commotion. To everyone, thank you for making my 30th year in education nothing but great fun. You have no idea how much I appreciate appreciate you. But alas, next year will be my last one. Finishing strong, doing what I know you do best. Make time for yourself, play hard, and then get some rest. Enjoy your summer, be safe, and we'll see you next school year. That concludes my report. Thank you. Little bit bigger smile on that. Uh, one of those lines. One of the one of those lines. No. Okay. All right. Moving on to agenda item number five. Request to speak to the governing board. Uh we'll first start with the admonition read by Dr. Robersonson. Uh request
041to speak to the governing board pursuant to ARS 38-431.02.H. The governing board may make an open call to the public during a public meeting subject to reasonable time, place, and manner restrictions to allow individuals to address the public body on any issue within the juris jurisdiction of the public body. After an open call to the public, individual board members may respond to criticism made by those who have addressed the governing board, may ask staff to review a matter, or may ask that a matter be put on a future agenda. However, members of the governing board shall not discuss or take legal action on the issues raised during an open call to the public if the matters are properly noticed for discussion and legal action. During an open call, the governing board requests that speakers refrain
042from voicing complaints against school personnel or anyone connected to the district as it may impact due process rights. Please contact the office of talent management if you have specific concerns about any individual employee. Speaker tonight is Paul Salazar. And Paul, as you make your way up to the microphone, I'll uh admonish all of our speakers tonight that you have three minutes at the podium. Uh it's a hard three minutes. Please pay attention to the board. There's a timer on there and uh and either I'm going to on you or I'm going to get through it. So, I'm just going to try and power through it. It's got a real short. We'll tell We'll tell you when you're done. You got to There you go. Cut me off. Oh, I'm sorry. Whenever you're ready. Yeah, you're
043good. Um, my name is Paul Salazar. I'm starting a nonprofit organization um called Skyler's Inspirations. And this is um this is for after my daughter. She's still alive before anyone just kind of but this is kind of for her. Um, and the first nonprofit to kind of that I want to kind of build and try and see what I could do with the community and the schools is called Skylar's Closet. My daughter has a bladder issue, a medical issue. She was here, she would probably disown me, but um, we've had to utilize the nurs's uh, clothes, shoes, undergarment, all that things. And I've been trying to figure out for like the past four years on a way we could give back. So, um, I'll just read this really quick. Um, Scholars Closet is committed to
044ensuring children have access to essential clothing, helping them feel comfortable and confident in their school environment and initiative. This initiative is filled by the end ofear donations from schools, allowing us to redist redistribute gently used clothing to students in need. As we work towards securing our 501c3 status, we are organically connecting with communities to expand our research. While partnerships are still evolving, we have initiated initiated and discussed in discussions with several organizations that may become valuable contributors. One of them is the Boys and Girls Club, which I've already spoken to, and I asked them, "Hey, your clothes, they end up in the bin or they end up at Goodwill. What if I could pick them up, make sure they were cleaned, and redistribute them into what's called Skylar's closet? Skyler's closet is going to house
045uh clothing from um the school age, which I think it's K um K here to six. And then what we're going to do is we're going to um package them into uh ziplockc bags, uh boys, girls, and then unisex. Uh, and it'll have a top, a pair of bottoms, a uh brand new undergarment, socks, and then they already have a great shoe program, so I don't want to interrupt that. Now, part of the thing is is with um Gilbert Elementary is that the Kuanis takes care of it, which is fine. So, I'm going to talk to the Quanis and see what I can do with them to kind of see if what I could do to kind of help bring this together. There's about 200 lb of clothes sitting over probably in that locker right
046now. Um, there's about 5,300 or so schools. You guys couldn't correct. You could do all your numbers math. That's like 16,000 lb of clothes that goes somewhere else that me as a parent has already paid for and I would rather it get recycled back into the community to the kids that need them. Um, so in turn, what's going to happen is if a kid has an accident, oh my god, tragic. A bird poops on them. That's the most tragic thing. days. They can at least get something. The parents will get called from the school nurse and say, "Hey, this is what happened. Can we supply them the clothes? Thank you. Friedri. And uh as you make your way to the podium, I'll remind you of a threem minute time limit. Thanks, Jacob. Whenever you're ready.
047I am a senior at Highland High School. I I've been in the broadcasting program at Highland for for about four years now. Since my freshman year, I've been on and off in it. had to take a couple years off, but um recently it's been noted to us that the Highland broadcasting program is going to be cut next year. And obviously as this doesn't affect me personally as I'm going off to college next year, uh it still frustrates me and upsets me that such an important program to my life is getting cut. Uh I found my passion. I'm going into sports journalism, sports broadcasting because of this program. Uh, and I think it's just a really important thing, especially as a district that as we prioritize CTE classes and and what those can do for someone's
048career in the future. Uh, I just urge you to to at least think about the message you're sending by cutting one of to me Highland's most important programs and one of their best programs and easily one of their most distinguished programs as we just won all the most awards at the district film film and video festival. We took home the big award there. So, just to me, I it's it was just frustrating to hear as even as a senior who got to experience things that a lot of other students don't. I mean, I got to do the play-by-play calls for all of our football games this year, including a playoff game on the NFHS network, which looks really good on a resume for the future. And that all stems from this program and the the
049CTE programs that as a district you guys work so hard to promote and get out there. And I think cutting this class in particular, especially the one that helps you promote some of those classes. I mean, we've done promo videos for other classes, other CTE classes, uh, I think it just sets a a bad has a leaves a bad taste in my mouth there. And and this program, especially at Highland with Mr. Clones, um, he's created a very great a great culture where it doesn't matter what what your political beliefs are, what your religious beliefs are, what what other things you like, you feel welcome there. And so I think I just urge you to think about the message you're sending by cutting one of a priority CTE program. Thank [Applause] you. Hey, I just
050I just real quick wanted to say I watched several of those Highland games with my kids and we love your commentary. It's so great. We appreciate it. Thanks for your comments. Our next Karen Fields. Am I saying that right? It's files. Okay, Karen, whenever you're ready. Thank you. All right. Thank you. Um, good evening. Thank you to the board and to the cabinet um for this opportunity to speak. Um, as a mother of children in the district, a community member, and a fellow educator, uh, I am here tonight to ask you to investigate and create systems of action to improve Gilbert Public Schools support of students who are vulnerable to peer-to-peer aggression. whether that vulnerability stems from a social communication disability, sorry, like autism or cognitive impairment or there's an incident on a school campus
051proving a student is at risk. The district as a whole needs to implement a system of identification of students at risk and supports in the form of explicit interventions to support all students. My son has enjoyed eight full years of incredible partnership and support. Miss Cork, Miss Matthysse, Miss Welsh, Miss Kenny, and Miss Crab deserve awards for their service and dedication to our students. Miss Stevenson has been instrumental in the incredible growth that we have been able to witness. They have been eight years of intentional and caring inclusion. Unfortunately, they have not been eight years without incident. It became clear in November of this year that my son was at risk for exploitation and susceptible to peer-to-peer aggression. I would love to believe that a zero tolerance policy is enough to keep students safe, but
052it's not. Suicide is the third leading cause of death among young people, resulting in about 4,400 deaths per year, according to the CDC. Bully victims are between two to nine times more likely to consider suicide than non-victims. A study in Britain found that at least half of suicides were among people related to bullying. With systems that identify students for being at risk for bullying, we can make innovative steps in ensuring that all students are protected, nurtured, and included. We can ensure that we are doing everything in our power to address bullying and support students in our efforts to create safe and inclusive learning environments. I am asking you tonight to investigate systems that can protect students who are at risk for bullying and commit to implementing those systems. Thank you. Thank you, Karen. Our next
053uh speaker is Jolin Francis. Did I say that right? Okay. Whenever you're ready. Good evening, President Thompson, Superintendent McCord, and members of the board. My name is Jolen Francis, and I'm a proud parent of a Highland High School senior, Alina Francis, who has accepted an appointment to the United States Air Force Academy. I'm here tonight to express my concern that as of this morning, students entering military service or militarymies um it was not scheduled to be formally recognized during Highland's graduation ceremony this Thursday. Last year, students who made the extraordinary commitment to serve our country were honored publicly. My daughter and I were there and that moment was a had a powerful impact not just on those families but the entire audience. It showed that our community values courage, sacrifice, and service. Not doing this
054again is a serious oversight. I've since learned that last year's recognition happened because those students served as the color guard. I don't I didn't know that at that time. What I saw and what mattered was that they were recognized by name. That moment honored their path and a meaningful and set a meaningful precedent I believe should continue. When I realized that there were no plans for a formal recognition this year, I contacted Alena's counselor, Mr. Y's office and eventually emailed Superintendent McCord and the board. I am grateful for the responses I received. Superintendent McCord followed up quickly. Principal Yei called to discuss it with me. Principal Yei said the plan is to ask students entering military to stand. But when I asked if this name if their names would be read, he said that it
055that wasn't planned and the school doesn't know all the students who all the students are which branches they are joining. That surprised me. On Highland's own website, it states that Highland High School is proud to celebrate that 1.4% of this year's graduating class is enlisting in the military. If that if that statistic is known and shared publicly, the students behind it should already be known. I suggested a simple solution. at Thursday morning's rehearsal, make a quick announcement asking any student entering military service to email their counselor with their name and the branch they are entering. That list could be finalized in time for that evening ceremony. Tonight, my son, Ryder, was recognized by Gilbert Public Schools as the junior high athlete of the year. His name was read out loud. I am incredibly proud of
056him. I'm also believe my daughter's name and the names of her peers who are entering military service should be read aloud too. These students are stepping into lives of service, discipline, and sacrifice that deserves more than a silent moment. It deserves to be spoken, seen, and remembered. I believe this should be a standard practice at every high school graduation across the Gilbert public schools. Recognizing students who choose military service by name is a small gesture that carries lasting meaning. I respectfully urge the board to ensure these students are honored verbally also at Thursday's ceremony. Thank you. Thank you, [Music] Dylan. Our next speaker is uh Kaden [Applause] Covert. Did I get that right, Kayen? Okay, whenever you're ready. Um, personally, uh, congratulations on a finished school year. Uh, long one, but, um, I'm glad that,
057uh, we got through a completed school year. Um, I'm personally, uh, had a very enjoyable year. So, I'd like to thank you guys for doing that. Um, I'm also representing the Highland, uh, broadcasting program. Uh, for anyone back there that's in Highland broadcasting, would you guys raise your hand? All righty. Um, I, um, personally, uh, I also did, uh, some color commentary for the football crew this year. um did some camera work for the football crew as well. Um I think we were very successful uh in working our way throughout the season of um just getting better and improving as a broadcasting program. Uh we won awards for short films uh as uh Jacob Frederick's mentioned in his last um in his last testimony. Um and we also won the year before. Um we um
058had a short film that I thought was um very intriguing, very entertaining um in the last year as well. Um, I think Mr. Clones has brought us like a very welcoming program. Uh, I entered the class as a freshman. I am currently a junior and I've taken broadcasting all three years of um, my high school career and Clonez has welcomed everyone with uh, open arms and I think um, all these kids over here can testify to that. And um, as you know, as you have we heard that the broadcasting program was getting cut. Um, I know there might not be time for it, but I would uh like the board to reconsider that decision. Um, but I think me personally, I've had some up and downs through my high school career. Um, I had uh
059mental troubles um in December of this year that Clone has helped me uh combat. um he um me and him uh are very um connected through our class and um these last three years have been very important uh to me just because I plan I do plan on um going somewhat into that sports journalism field. Uh we we have had past students go uh into that field. Uh we have two students right now that are at ASU Kronhite in uh downtown Phoenix. One of them actually just got hired by ESPN recently. Um, so I think um, everybody that's going into the sports journalism field, including Jacob Frederick's um, have come out to be very successful coming out of our Highland broadcasting program and um, me personally as well plan on going onto that route. So
060um, I would just ask the board to reconsider this decision. Um the impacts that this class this class has had on not just me but all these students has been very remarkable and I think you know even if there's not an interest for broadcasting um this class has had major major impacts on our students and um I thank you guys for hearing me out today um congratulations again on another finished school year and um yeah thank [Applause] you. Our next speaker is Samuel Stewart. Hi, I'm also here for representing for Highlands Broadcasting System and I personally believe uh if it was the board or the school or the district or whoever made the decision to cut the class is wrong. I've been there for two of the years of the broadcasting system. Unfortunately, I didn't
061take it freshman year, but I've seen it change people's lives. And I also think it was unfair for this decision to be made so close to the end of the school year because I was going to be TAing for Mr. Clones's and taking the class next year. So now my entire schedule got changed and now I don't have classes I would like to have. And now my senior year and my senior experience in high school is going to be partially messed up because of that. And I think that's unfair. I also think it's not fair to be cutting it because our motto at Highland and Gilbert is diversity. to have different religions, different race, um different political views. And in Mr. Clone's class, I've seen that. And throughout my three years of high school, I've
062not seen that anywhere else besides in that classroom. In that class, you don't have to worry about being cool, um dressing cool, acting cool. You get to go in there and be yourself. And that's what Gilbert Public Schools promotes. And I do not see that in high school besides in that class. And now that is being taken away. I have seen that class do magnificent things as well. Um like chords for a cause. As most of you know, we we ran cords for the cause to raise money for Jude Flores because in my opinion, Highland High School and lots of other Gilbert or and Gilbert public schools as a whole did not do not do anything for that unlike the Highland Broadcasting class. And we didn't even get recognized for that over the school announcements.
063Only the bands in courts for a cause got a shadow. Not our class. And we didn't even care about that because we're not doing it for the intention. We're just doing it because it's a good thing. And now that class is getting cut right after we did that. And I've also seen that class literally save students lives. When we were giving our farewell speeches, I heard multiple students talk about how they were depressed, anxious, and even had suicide on their mind. But because that class, they continued to push through because they knew they had real friends in there and they knew that they could be themselves in there. I fortunately have friends outside of that class, but other students in there do not have friends outside of that class. So, not only are you cutting
064off their class, you're cutting off all of their friends because the way they'd hang out with their friends would be by going to the football events, filming the football events, which yet again I state multiple times, we never got any credit for attention for filming the football games, um, filming Mr. Ye's apology note for the weapon being brought on campus and for Jude Flores. Neither neither of those cases we get any shout outs for or any recognition for. And I think that is unfair, but we never minded because we never did it for the recognition. And so, like I said before, that class saved students lives. I will not name any students, but I've heard them talk about how they have considered suicide, but they showed up to school the next day because they knew
065they could feel safe in that class, specifically from Mr. Clonz. So, I think these kids might go home now that this class isn't there, and suicide might happen because this class is being cut. And I think that might be on the hands of Gilbert Public. Our next speaker is Nathan Zimmerman. I am also here today representing the Highland Broadcasting and Film Production class and I would like to reiterate that this class helps people find their passion. Um, to be honest, I didn't want to take it freshman year. It was put on my schedule as an alternate elective, but when I took it, it made me have a passion for film production. So, not only do you have to have a passion to do it when you go into the program or going into it, if
066you go into the program and see the good stuff that they do, you can develop a passion for it. And now that that is being taken away, not only do the people that have a passion for this program, do they get a chance to be a part of that in a school setting, but also you're taking away people's chances of exploring what they want to do if they might be interested in the future. Um also um we do have a very diverse um set of people in our classes. People with different opinions, religious opinions, disabled people, we have every one in that class. Mr. Clones welcomes you no matter what you are. And again, we've won awards. We have filmed many videos for the school for promotion, for just everything. And taking this class away
067from people just seems like you're taking away their home because clones made that class a second home to people. And I would just like to thank him for doing what he's done. And yeah, I think you guys should reconsider um cutting the program. Um I think that it means a lot to a lot of people and I think that people would really benefit from taking that class. Thank you, [Applause] Nathan. I want to thank everybody that spoke to uh the board tonight. Um it's not easy to get up and speak in front of people, but I appreciate the passion that you uh that you bring to uh our meeting and thank you for sharing your thoughts and opinions. Moving on to uh agenda item number six, reports 6.01, monthly financial report for month ended April
06830th, 2025. Dr. McCord. Thank you, President Thompson, governing board members. I will turn this over to our associate superintendent, Miss Bonnie Betts. Good evening, President Thompson, governing board members, Dr. McCord. This is a short uh presentation uh giving you the status of our financials in the current year through um April 30th, 2025. So, it's not up there. If if we can get it, let's do I have to do it again. Maybe I've got to maybe I've got to connect. I'm connecting it. It disconnected me somehow. So I got it. Thank you. So today's report, as always, we have the district operating funds, the federal grant funds, state grant funds, and other district funds. Uh just note that you all approved the final budget revision last board meeting on May 6th. So all of the budget
069grids reflect the final revised budget for the current year. So, the district operating funds um you can see again the highlighted budget revision number three. Again, a reminder, you can see that uh on the maintenance operations fund, we actually did realize a $300,000 increase in maintenance operations between revision 2 and revision three. This was primarily due to additional weighted student counts um that increased our revenue control limit. In addition, the uh Department of Ed posted the one-time additional district additional assistance supplement and that resulted in an overall increase to our budget of just over 1.5 million. If you note on unrestricted capital, uh that budget also increased by 1.5 million. So, we did move most of that into unrestricted capital instead of leaving it into maintenance operations. Just a quick update on that. So um
070this just shares what I just shared. Uh the federal grant fund thought we would take this opportunity to share with you the all of these ESA title grants. You can see that the title one, title two and title four all are represented in what we call a consolidated uh title grant. Title one and title four are directly related to supports for at risk students and title two is primarily used for professional development opportunities for our teachers. You can see that ES EA title 3 is outside of this consolidated grant. So that application is separately presented um at the department of ed. Another note, the A.E.A. adult education fund. Um you can see that we have uh the budget revision was the same between revision number two and revision number three. What was unusual is late
071in the year we did receive another allocation of about $180,000. And then they are also allowing us to carry over any unspent money which is also very unusual for adult ed. So, our adult education uh teams are do very very well and we just had graduation last last week I think on Friday. Um and so they'll be very happy to have that extra resource for next year. Miss Bats. Yes. What uh Title One and Title 4 um you said that those funds go towards atrisisk students. Can you explain a little bit um how those funds go to atrisisk students? So generally speaking uh we do have I in fact maybe you can help me out Jared but I do believe that we have 11 uh schools throughout Gilbert public schools that are title one schools.
072Is that correct? Uh Mr. President, governing board. So the number continues um to grow. We have some full title schools and some partial title schools. Um the funds are distributed based on student numbers and qualification status. Um funds from each of these categories would go toward um special education pro or um free and reduced lunch populations um support staff members um specific reading specialists, math specialists, positions to support um students academically who uh may need uh remediation at a different level. um strategies for bringing in families, um attendance strategies, um summer school, intercession, a variety of programs to support um students academically. I wanted to make sure it was clear uh as we we do these the allocation of these funds that there are very stringent supplanting rules. So all of these funds must be
073used to supplement the program at each of the schools that do receive title one funds. We cannot supplant existing FTE or existing supports using title. It must be in addition to what we've already allocated. Thank you. Uh so the um the reason that this uh fund 476 is highlighted is because it is new. It's a brand new award and we are um fully encumbered on that and very happy to receive that. Uh additional school safety program supports here in Gilbert Public Schools. That is a three-year grant. We expect to receive about $313,000 annually uh for the next two years after this one. And then finally, other district funds. We have uh changed our fingerprint process over the last couple of years. We now are requiring that all employees, regardless of whether they're certified and in
074the classroom, to have what we call an IVP card, meaning that in the event that there is an issue, it gets reported to the Department of Ed and we hear back if there's any kind of a um any sort of a a legal charge or whatever the case may be, then we're immediately notified of it. Uh so because of that in the past we had actually funded the fingerprint first for all employees and then through payroll they paid us back. Um now we are requiring that every single employee prior to starting must have the IVP card so they go out and actually get it on their own. That leaves us with a $22,000 balance in this account from prior years. And so we will be distributing the money appropriately depending upon what the guidance is
075from our auditors and we'll report that back to all of you. Um finally the internal service funds. Uh I'm including the employee benefit trust in that. Uh the internal services the print shop dual credit um and other areas. Um, I just wanted to point out that the year-to- date expended encumbered, that $760,000 does include some substantive reorganization upgrades to the print shop, as well as new print equipment, new print engines in the print shop, all of which were paid for by this fund, saving unrestricted capital from these expenditures. And finally, the employee benefit trust. uh you do have on the agenda under consent the renewal of the stop-loss. I wanted to share that we have updated the year-to- date expended encumbered as well as our expected revenues and that we expect that even with um
076the significant claim experience that we've seen in the current year we should be very close to a 21.1 million balance at year end uh reflective of June 30, 2025. And that ends my report for this evening. If there's any questions, I'm very happy to answer them. I have a question regarding the internal services print shop. So, I was reviewing the contract renewals that were that were is on our consent agenda tonight and I saw that there was a print vendor on there that we are renewing a contract and it's a not a small amount of money and I just wanted to know what the what what services they're providing that we're not providing in house. don't I don't know the answer to that question. I'm sorry about that. Yeah, if I could um if I
077could take an opportunity to get back to it, I'd appreciate it. And sometimes when it comes to prints, it depends on what it is and the quantity. I mean, they can only there only how many people in the print shop? Two people. And so with 4,200 employees, 39 schools, it it we have to contract out sometimes in order to get things turned around, especially during the summertime before school starts. What I don't know in addition is it might be print of of um of u marketing materials or t-shirts and those sorts of things. So I'll have to research that. Thank you very much. Thank you. Any other questions from the board for Miss Betts or Dr. McCord? All right. Thank you very much, Miss Betts. All right. Moving on to agenda item 6.02, teaching and
078learning academic spotlight. Dr. McCord. Thank you, Mr. President, governing board members. I will turn my time over to Mr. Ryan and he they have a nice little presentation for you tonight. Mr. President, governing board members, Dr. McCord, thank you. Uh we've had a great year of celebration on a monthly basis highlighting different academic um components to what we offer in Gilbert Public Schools. And um while they all have value, I think maybe we save the most impactful for last. So, on a personal note, I have to tell you that the two people coming up before you today, uh, Tim Cannon and Thea Hansen have been, um, I think instrumental in the growth and development of all of us. And so, they're leadership coaches, and I think that they know that their role is really primarily
079focused on campuses, but what we all learn from them on a regular basis just can't be uh, overstated. And so, we're grateful for them. um humble, dependable, just very impactful leaders. So, they're here to present tonight on their work with leadership coaching uh specific to campuses and what has transpired over the last few years under their leadership. So, we'll turn it over. Thank you to you. Um good evening, President Thompson, uh Dr. McChord, greatest superintendent that I've ever worked for, and I've had six of them. See, um that $20 is coming your way. I thought it was 40. All right. Um, governing board members, cabinet members, we're really glad to be here tonight to share with you things that we do as in uh leadership coaches for our school district. I'm Tia Hansen. I work
080with the elementary schools. And I'm Tim Cannon. I work with the secondary schools. And uh you have our slide deck, but we'll go over a few things with you and then at the end if you have any other questions, we'd be happy to answer them. But um so our focus well I started in this position four years ago and Tim started it was he was he was the the original leadership coach 5 years ago and our our focus and our goal is to work with our new and also with our veteran um administrators to develop and continue developing their knowledge, their skills, their expertise. But we do it in conjunction which has been very nice. We do it in conjunction with all of our other departments. We really collaborate well together. We talk about things
081that are happening. We learn as well so that we can help our leaders learn more which um flows or trickles down into what instruction is happening. And and then the focus as you see here, our why is all about student, teacher, and school success. And we really enjoy what we're doing. Although um as leadership coaches, you would think maybe it's working more with just our new administrators, we really do get the opportunity to work with all of them and um and help them with all of the things that are on their plates on a daily basis. Right. All right. Some of the things that we do um are to support the the school and the administrators. Sometimes it's about um their vision and what they have, especially if they're a new principal. what's your vision
082for what you think you want your school to be and how are you going to develop that and and create that academic success for your students. Um we talk about school climate and the culture that's happening um within school districts across the nation and and within their own schools as well. We really Tim and I have focused a lot on the the next bullet which is about using data and using it effectively and and that's been a big change over over time since I've been here in the district for nine years and then using that data to make decisions and and and to understand what the data is and what it's representing. And then we also personally build and help our leaders build um their practices knowing about standards um taking professional growth applying it
083looking for what's happening with it and then noticing what are some challenges what could be some possible solutions getting them to think about those things as well. some of the things that we've done um we participate in definitely not us on our own but we have the leader learning series um that we've started this year and we talk about that with the other people that are presenting and sometimes we present as well so that our leaders are getting some specific and sometimes optional for them they get to pick and choose which is always good um types of learning that they might need and or want. We conduct learner leader learning walks. We have gone out to schools over the last few years and we are focusing on specific things to look for on a campus.
084Maybe it's after a new program like I Ready this year or working on our um instructional focus of clarity, you know. So, we've gone out, we've taken small groups of principles andor other leaders and we talk about what we see and we look for things and then we have ideas on how to take action as well. Um, and then of course we both visit our sites, visit sites frequently. Those that are the newer principles I definitely visit more frequently than others and that's a lot of fun. Um, uh, and we might talk more about that later as well. And then finally, my last part of my um section is on the next slide um enhancing school systems and structures. So, some of the things that we do at the elementary, sorry. Oh, hold on. Slacking.
085All right. Some of the things that um we've been really doing with our elementary schools over the last couple of years is focusing on we call it MTSS and it stands for multi-tered systems of supports. Having a system of support, whether it's academic or behavior that all students get an extra layer that maybe some students need and even of those students maybe some additional support. So, we've really worked on that the last couple of years. We went out and with um Mr. Burcher, um uh Dr. Martin and myself, and we visited all of our elementary schools three times this year to see how they run their meetings. And so, that was really interesting. We give feedback. We steal ideas and we share them with other schools. It's been really nice to see and it's been
086nice for them to reflect and think about the things that they want to do to make their systems um more robust. Um, let's say we're working on our website. We have a website for MTSS and we have um we're going to be revising our handbook this summer, right? So that it's even clearer and there's more clarity. We have another focus of master scheduling going on right now trying to ensure that um all of our students have the best possible schedule to get the services and the the skills and the knowledge that they need. And then we really also um work a lot with thankfully um our research and data department um with Tableau, Fastbridge, Illuminate and um in at the elementary level particularly also looking at ASA results and and what can help our schools
087get even better uh as compared to the states letter grades. All right, take it away. Sorry before before do Mr. Cannon starts one question. Can you I know a little bit about Tableau. Can you explain fast fastbridge and illuminate? So, and maybe explain Tableau for the community so they can remember what that's all about. Okay. Well, FastBridge and Illuminate are programs that assess students throughout the year, give us some information about how students are doing at the beginning of the year, the middle of the year, and at the end of the year, and so that you can make decisions in the areas of reading and writing at the elementary level. And then Tableau is a system um that compiles all sorts of information. Tim takes over most of it because their area has so much
088data, but it's compiling and and that research and data team is putting together visualizations of the data, the results, things to think about. It's broken down by demographics, by school, by grade. It contains ASA information. It contain those. It can have the information about attendance, um, enrollment, it's just housing, all sorts of information. I might not have done it justice. You agree. Okay. All right. You're welcome. Thanks, Tia. Tia has way more schools than I do. I mean, she has 26 elementary schools and I I that would give me hives. I have 13 secondary schools and uh I can barely keep up. But I'm going to start with a story and Shane I promise it'll be short. Uh every 45 days we have what's called impact checks both at the elementary and at the secondary
089level. And at that 45 days every campus comes to the district office and presents uh data relative to their goals and their action steps. At the last impact check, one of the college and career counselors shared a story and uh she she reminded us that she was tactfully relentless and that's what our job is is to just be tactfully relentless in the pursuit of providing opportunities for kids. So she shared that there were 26 kids that had no intention of going to college. uh because she was tactfully relentless. All 26 kids are going to college with full rides. And when she said that, we looked at one another. I have three daughters and I thought, boy, I wish I would have had her. I was I just wish I would have had her. But what
090I thought of was working backwards. Those 26 kids were able to qualify for scholarships because of the teachers uh preparing them for the counselors choosing their courses. Uh for all of us being absolutely relentless in in pushing kids into courses that they can excel. Uh which leads to a whole one of the things that Tableau does. Uh Thursday over a thousand kids will walk across the stage uh with college credit uh either dual credit, AP credit, uh international balorate credit, uh advanced placement credit. Uh and that's a huge change over the last five years. uh starting in 2018 when we started collecting the AP data there were 1,400 kids that uh took AP classes uh today there's 5,454 kids who are taking AP classes uh and that's through the efforts of every campus every uh
091instructional coach every instructional specialist Tia myself uh all of us that work tactfully relentless on some of these things. I'm a reading and literacy fanatic. I believe that the the one thing that we can give our kids is the ability to engage in difficult complex text. Uh ACT measures it. Uh and part of that is uh taking core courses. And when we first started this, about 40% of our kids were taking core courses. Today, over 70% of our kids are taking core courses. As I said, our AP numbers have doubled over that time. Uh we have systems in place where we better monitor our graduation rates. We have counselors who work tirelessly uh to make to track our kids. Tableau does that is one of the tools we use for that. Mosquite High will tell
092you that every three kids is 1%. That's the level of detail counselors have gotten to on the campus. My job is to keep it in front of the principles all the time and their leadership teams and their instructional leadership teams uh so that school life doesn't take over. as a principal for a long long time and when we would get into school improvement we'd start at the beginning and maybe we look at it at the end and say wow what happened from July to to June uh because every 45 days we meet with every campus uh we are relentless and we uh expect that they're going to pursue their goals and their action steps uh and They do. Uh there are some just amazing teachers on campuses. I've had the good fortune, as Tia said,
093through learning walks to be in a lot of classrooms. Uh, I've worked with every every school uh with their teams and uh at the junior high we recognize that this next year we'll have a a seventh grade reading class because we know that there there are gaps in our our learning and uh we're prepared to to address that. Uh the see if I how did I do can I stop you and ask a question? Sure. Um, you double the AP kids. Just a just curious how do you go about identifying them and then monitoring them um to get those numbers up. That's a great question. Every uh October kids take the PSAT and that generates a list called AP potential. Uh that and we monitor their grades uh starting in eighth grade. If you're getting
094an A or a B in in a a social studies or English class, we're going to recommend you take human geo as your first AP class. And that's had a profound impact that getting that first AP class as a freshman uh sort of gets rid of some of the anxiety. We uh uh we ask counselors to be relentless in taking biology, chemistry and physics as their core courses in science. Uh initially we got a lot of push back on that because you know kids couldn't do the math and chemistry or physics was too hard. Physics and chemistry are our lowest failed classes across the district today. uh we have uh exponentially changed the trajectory of lots of kids just by being aware of uh courses they could take and as a result of that our
095IP numbers have gone up our IB numbers are dual credit all the way around. So is that just through the work of the teachers then? Teachers, counselors, uh administrators, we have an AP committee uh across the we have a district committee. Every school has a a sitebased committee. Uh it's just an opportunity for kids and uh the kids are do amaz they are just amazing in the sense that once they uh get there uh they do really well. There's two teachers at Highland that teach AP Lit that are in all the years I've been around the best I've ever seen. And to see those kids in action is absolutely amazing. But I'm going to run over so I got to the uh I'm really cautious of. So anyway, every campus has to write a continuous
096improvement plan every year. uh this next impact check which starts next Tuesday uh they'll reflect and review their their goals and their action steps and their new uh their first draft of their uh new continuous improvement plan we do June 18th. We give feedback on every single one. Uh I get after them if they try to cut, copy, and paste on me because that going to happen. they're they're going to uh really have to articulate specifically what they're going to do uh in terms of addressing the gaps. Tableau get back to that question. We're now able to look specifically at where the gaps are. I has done exactly what it was supposed to do in in their diagnostics and identifying the gaps. uh the C ways in uh my perspectives has done the same thing
097and now we know specifically where kids are struggling and then adjust instruction instruction accordingly. Data is is absolutely worthless if we don't take action on it. And that's been the the biggest change since I've been here is we actually we take action on our data and then we hold people accountable to that. all of us, everyone, the cabinet, uh, all the way through. We have a district improvement plan which we'll review in June and see where we're at relative to that. So, I've probably taken too much time, but uh, if there any uh, I I I will say this is uh, I have the best job in a district by far. We have the best job. I well having done that you have so many schools but uh as a principal great job I wanted
098to be in the classroom I wanted to be the instructional leader but school life takes over you know you have you know every single principal will tell you something that you'll go that did not happen it happened if you're a teacher uh you tell stories uh of things that you cannot no one fortunately My wife was a teacher so she gets it. Uh but uh now I get to talk data and instruction and improvement for kids and opportunities for kids. Uh it's the best position in the we're both kind of really big data geeks too and that really having the time to look at things and to be able to share information with with all of these folks and with our schools I think has really helped help us focus as well. And and just
099the collaboration is incredible. I just love it. I love being in Gilbert and I I think this is a a really great place to teach, to learn, um, and and to work. So, I appreciate having the opportunity to be in this role. I I did you pretty much answered my question because I think it's important to look at the data but I was going to ask about what the steps are that we take then when we see those gaps or we see students who are struggling that we then work with them to make sure that they get that information, they learn that material. And that's the challenge and and what we look at is how can you cohort kids, how can you use advisory, how can you use interventions, how can you use the classroom
100uh to address those needs. Uh and again each campus has its own culture in life and uh I'm so proud of the fact that all six high schools since the history of letter grades are A-rated schools. and they're they're A-rated because each school addresses those gaps as they see fit. My job is to help navigate that sometimes, whether it's bring in a literacy consultant or whether it's sit with the team and walk through where what what's the best way instructionally to address the gaps. None of this occurs without the classroom teacher. The classroom teacher is the most important part of this whole system. I'd like to think I have a big impact but classroom teacher drives this and um what whatever we can provide in terms of resources and time and guidance uh we we
101do but uh they they bear the the weight and they they've just done some amazing things over the five years that I've been here and our our data shows that you know we have three A junior highs and two B's. We have no C schools. We're the o, you know, the only district in the state for two years in a row that have been rated A. Uh, and it's because of their work and how relentlessly persistent they are for our kids every day. So, I also appreciate that um when you talked about the uh site improvement plan that you don't let them cut and paste because I will say I was on a committee years ago before Dr. McCord where that was what we saw was cut and paste. So, thank you for making sure
102that they're they're really thinking this through. And um I appreciate that it's hard work because things happen and you know um there's a lot going on in a school. So thank you for um all that you both do to help those principles stay focused on the academic part of it. Happy to do so. All right. Any other questions or comments from the board? One my mic. Um I think what Jill's kind of referring to is the MTSS process. Correct. Yeah. Um, do you have any idea how many kids are put into the MTSS process a year and then how many end up testing for SPED and then how many end up being able to kind of, for a lack of a better term, graduate out of the program. So, our MTSS is not a pipeline
103to special education referral. Um, we look at it as having the systems in place is going to hopefully prevent that referral, but it does wind up happening. I don't know off the top of my head how many students wind up not benefiting from the not benefiting enough from tier three or tier 2 interventions and then do move on. Um I do know that um our schools have been looking at the way for example resource services are provided, how we schedule for them um in order to reduce and how we support our classroom teachers in helping resource students in their own general ed classrooms. Right? And so I know that um that the focus is to reduce those numbers and to give the students more of the supports where they are most of the day which
104is in the classroom. Did that answer both of your questions? Yes. Sort of. I don't have the number of how many how many tier 2 or tier three students we have? I don't No. Yeah, that's fine. I was just curious because I know a lot of times that tends to happen. That's how a lot of students are identified as through the MTSS process. So, I was just curious if you had a number on that. Just helps me with when it comes to looking at data. I mean, you know, you guys are like your data. I do as well. Um, so that's all. Thank you. I appreciate it. I can get you that information as well. I can get you the information in terms of percentages and through the system and whatnot and I'll be able
105to send that to you, share it with you. Thank you. [Music] I wasn't talking about MTSS. I was talking about the site improvement plan and that was what I Yeah. Yeah. No worries. Um, that would be great. Thank you. All right. Thank you. Thank you guys. Well done. Thank you. Uh, the consent agenda. Is there a motion to approve tonight's consent agenda as outlined? So move. Thank you, Mr. Brainer. Is there a second? Second. Thank you, Dr. Robersonson. All those in favor of uh Hang on one sec. All those in favor of approving tonight's consent agenda as outlined, please do so by saying I. I. I. Any opposed? And that passes. Thank you very much. Moving on to uh agenda item number eight are action items. 8.01 policy development policy 4-103 employee evaluations. Uh is
106there a motion to uh to approve the first read of policy 4-103 employee evaluations? So moved. Thank you, Dr. Robson. Is there a second? Second. Thank you, Miss Humphre. Is there any discussion about this policy? Is it going to come up on the screen? Is it my Is it me? Check. Check. If you could put the policy up on the screen in the back, that'd be great. Unmuted. Mic six. Unmuted. Dr. McCord, could you We can hear you back there, gentlemen. I can read it. I have it up on my screen. Essentially, there are just a couple additions to this policy uh based on some statute that had changed over time. Uh it starts with D. Certified teacher received three or more ratings of developing of any of the rating scales or domains on the
107observation form in the governing board adopted evaluation. During each year, two consecutive school years, a certified teacher receives a performance classification of ineffective or developing on the annual summit of evaluation. And so those are the additions as well as um uh instead of the board, the word governing was placed in front of it. Mr. Macintosh, do you want to add anything to this? Those two additions were just for ineffective teachers and the notice related to them. I think I remember in our policy meeting there was some discussion more clarification. Um does everybody remember this policy and the discussion we had in our policy meeting? Is there any further discussion that anybody would like to have this evening? Okay. Then I will call for the vote. All those in favor of approving the first read of
108policy 4-103 employee evaluations say I. I. Any opposed? And that passes. Thank you very much. Um request for future agenda items. Does anybody on the governing board have uh any items that they would like to add to a future agenda? Okay. Of course, as always, if there's anything that you want to discuss or add, please let me know or Dr. McCord, and we'll make sure that we uh we get that added if it's appropriate. Uh moving on to our board reports, uh our Town of Gilbert liaison, Dr. Blake Roberson. Yeah. So, I I have nothing from Town of Gilbert. Uh just wanted to add um I mean to the awards that we recognized uh earlier this evening just how great it is this time of year to see um everything that our students and schools
109are accomplishing and congrats to all the students to the parents that are putting in the work. Um to all the teachers, admin, everyone. I've just been able to go to several events um whether they're athletic or music or academic and just been so impressed um by by what our students are accomplishing. So, it's a congratulations on uh end of year and and everything that people have accomplished. Thank you, Dr. Robersonson. I don't have anything for the audit committee tonight, but I want to echo uh the comments by Dr. Robersonson. Um, congratulations to all of our students and staff on another successful year. Over the past few weeks, I've been able to attend a number of of our elementary schools A+ awards, and those were fantastic. So proud of all the everything that that goes into
110uh to making our schools A+ schools. Um as well as some sporting events and the school spirit here in GPS is just unbelievable. So, thank you very much for everybody um including would be uh a shame to not mention all of our parents and caregivers um at home or wherever they may be. Thank you for your support as well. I know that uh we appreciate it and absolutely uh your kiddos and teachers do as well. So, thank you very much. Gilbert Education Foundation uh Mr. Brainer, nothing to report. Thank you very much. City of Mesa liaison, Miss Shada Murray. Nothing to report there, but same sentiment as the two of you. Well done, you guys. Thank you very much. And last but not least, legislative representative and employee benefit trust, Miss Humphre. Well, uh, the
111employee benefit trust met and prepared the item that we approved this evening on the consent agenda. And then um just a little bit on the legislature is that there is a renewal of Prop 123 in the works. But um I would encourage everyone to uh educate themselves on that um because it there as far as I know there may be some changes which you may or may not um think appropriate. Um, I attended the toy box celebration at Camp Overdie High School and um, watching those uh, preschool students uh, graduate. And I will say um, working with 20 preschool students, that is a pretty hefty lift. And uh, they did a great program and the high school students help them. the fact that the teacher in charge deals with high school students and preschool students
112and makes it all work. I think that's pretty remarkable. And then also today I was able to attend Ashlin Ranch did a special recognition of students that had gone to their school um and were graduating and they came back and shared with the students. Um, I was in I went into a fourth grade classroom and so the students were asking two of the seniors about their experience in elementary school and high school and and they were sharing words of wisdom. It was very very nice. And then um I want to just give one shout out. I went to the Gilbert High School choir. Dr. Marcy Spencer is retiring after 24 years and I had daughters in that program for seven years. So, I just want to give a shout out to Gilbert High and their
113great choir program. And Jesse knows that cuz he was in it, too. So, that's the end of my report. Thank you very much, Miss Humphre. Uh, meeting dates. Dr. McCordon, Mr. President, governing board members, we will meet again June 9th for a board policy committee meeting at 4:30. And then June 10th is our board work study and brief board business meeting. And June 24th is our board business meeting. And then in July, we will have one meeting towards the end of the month. So we take a bit of a break after June 24th till the end of July. All right. Thank you very much. And our last agenda item, adjournment. Is there a motion to adjourn tonight's meeting? So moved. Thank you, Miss Humphre. And I will second that. And all those in favor of
114adjourning tonight's board meeting do so by saying I. I. I. Any opposed? And we are adjourned. Thank you very much. Thank you all for sticking it out.