001should do like they do at the Sun's games and we should you guys when I say hour this side chant hour and then on this side say house say okay so our house no okay just here to entertain you folks all right we're just giving one of our board members another minute to get Okay, welcome. Want to welcome everybody to tonight's board meeting. It's Tuesday, March 25th. Uh we'll uh call this meeting to order. We want to thank everybody that's here uh in attendance with us. We love the packed house and we want to say hi and welcome uh the millions of people that are watching online. We're going to go ahead and start with a moment of silence and uh followed by a pledge of allegiance led by Dr. Blake Roberson. If you'd all
002please stand and observe a moment of silence. I wanted to make mention that we're missing one board member tonight. Uh Shaina Murray is out with a a conflict. Um, but we still have uh our four board members here and I'll ask Miss Wilson to uh do roll call. Mr. Chad Thompson here. Dr. Blake Robersonson here. Miss Jill Humphre here. Miss Shaina Murray is out absent. Mr. Jesse Brainer here. Mr. President all Mr. President, you have a quorum. Thank you. Easy for you to say. All right. Uh, agenda item number two, approval of the agenda. Is there a motion to approve tonight's agenda as outlined? So moved. Thank you, Mr. Brainer. Is there a second? Second. Thank you, Dr. Robersonson. All those in favor of approving tonight's agenda as outlined, say I. I. Any opposed? And
003that passes. Thank you. Moving on to agenda item number three, superintendence recognition awards. I'll turn the time over to Dr. Shane McCord. Thank you, Mr. President, governing board members, if you will join me in front of the dis for tonight's uh recognitions. You guys ready? I can't. You ready? All right, let's have some fun tonight. This is always the best part of the meeting. Um, tonight we're going to recognize six elementary schools, um, an athletic director, and a high school that has FFA. Are you guys ready for that? I see him there. Here we go. We're going to start off with our 2025 A+ School of Excellence Award winners. Um, six Gilbert public schools have been recognized with the prestigious A+ School of Excellence Award by the Arizona Education Foundation for 2025. Ashlin Ranch Elementary,
004Augusta Ranch Elementary, Boulder Creek Elementary, Carol Ray Ranch Elementary, Gilbert Elementary, and Courtz Hill Elementary all earned an A+. Gilbert Public Schools currently has 18 schools with the A+ School of Excellent recognition. The A+ School of Excellent uh award celebrates top performing schools that exceed expectations in academics, innovation, and community involvement. The rigorous achievement honors schools committed to creating safe student- centered environments. By earning the A+ School of Excellence Award, schools have demonstrated an unwavering dedication to the excellence that fosters student success. So, please give them a hand. So, we're going to bring up each school individually. Principles, get ready to say a couple words. I don't know if they told you that, but it's my show. So, haha. Um, and u just to note, Carol Ray Ranch Elementary, their principal is not here tonight.
005So, one of you has to decide before you ah before you get up here who's going to talk. Mr. Bergen uh sends his uh apologies. He he had emergency with his family that he had to attend to. So, uh but we know those from Carol will be here. So, let's start off in alphabetical order. This is if you want to retain that A+, you're going to need to know how to do this. The first one is Ashlin Ranch Elementary. Are you by your lonesome tonight? I am. Well, first I missed that memo. So, Jason, where are you? Just make a middle note. needs to check the emails. No. Suzanne Carlson, principal of Ashlin Ranch. Do you want to say a few words? Sure. Of course, I'll say a few words. Um do the microphone for
006the record. Okay. For the record, um despite the um that all of my wonderful staff aren't here. Um they would have um loved to attend. I just um Ashlin is deserving of the A+ because we put kids first like we all do. Um my staff and my parent community make me proud every day and I am so proud to be the principal of Ashland. Um we renewed the A+ and we were given um A+ right as we went into co and so this is especially um unique um because we didn't get to celebrate like we wanted to last time. So um thank you and um we are just so excited to be standing here this time. So give them a hand. Stay here if you would. So this is how it's going to work. We're
007going to take individual pictures with the board and then at the end all six schools will come up and we'll take a group photo. So go ahead. You're starting. Shake hand. There you go. We've got a routine here. Go ahead and stand in the middle, Suzanne. Oh gosh. Yeah. First one through the wall. [Music] Congratulations. Next up, Augusta Ranch. We have Principal Terry Barnes and Dean of Students Lana Moore and staff come [Applause] up. Congratulations to you guys. Um, Terry, would you like to say a few words and introduce your guests? I would love to. So, this is really a truly an honor for Augusta Ranch. Um, the school works so hard and so deserving. We are so proud. So, not only do we have Lana More Dean, but two teachers that were very instrumental
008in writing and rewriting, reviewing, and putting this huge document together. So, thanks to Anna Keenan and Abby Schrader. Congratulations, Augusta. Go ahead and shake hands with the board. Take a little picture. Come on. We'll you guys come to the middle. We'll gather around you. Wait till we get everybody up. Augusta. Next up, the Boulder Creek Bulldogs. Principal Jim Leaper and [Applause] crew. Congratulations to you. Will you introduce everybody? I will. Good evening everybody. This is Angie Sarlo, my math specialist and math coach. Kim Sters is my instructional coach. Lori Torres, our media specialist. Connie Cornell, my admin assistant. And Sandra Kane, first grade teacher. Talk about this. Okay. All right. Here we go. Next thing. Uh when I I've been at Boulder Creek 5 years now and when I got to Boulder Creek we really
009focused on planning and teamwork and when you focus on planning and teamwork I feel like the results come. It took us a little while to get there but we've gone from a C to a B to an A to an A+. So we're really proud of that. So it's all about the people that I work with and I really appreciate them. Well done. Well done Boulder. Congratulations. Congratulations. Talk about my bike. I'm here to talk about this. You're not sitting down yet. You're the star of the show. We're going to gather around you. You're good. You're good. Just a fun fact for everybody. Yeah, Mr. Leaper has what kind of bike? Well, are we going to do this? It's an electric bike. Sometimes he rides it from Boulder Creek or from home to Boulder Creek.
010Sometimes from Boulder Creek to Community Ed when we have our meetings. And it's the most awesome site because you got this big dude on this electric bike. He's got a helmet on. He's very safe. But the first time I saw somebody driving a bike down the street and I was like, "God, that looked like Jim Leaper." And I think I say something about it at every meeting. It's just to let you know I'm thinking about you. All right. Next. Carol Ray Ranch Elementary. Who's the lucky? Trish wins. Wow. See, one, two, three. Nose goes. Will you introduce yourself and everybody else, please? I will. I'm Trish Smith, the instructional coach for Carol Ray, in place of our wonderful principal, Chris Bergen. This is Carrie Kepler, our reading specialist. This is Shireen Nman, our PE teacher
011and the wonderful, wonderful lead on our team for our application. And this is the wonderful first grade Tammy Kitagawa extraordinaire. Uh, this was really a team effort on our part. Many, many players and as I said, Sheree was the lead. It was a renewal for Carol Ray as well. We love our school. We're really proud of all the hard work that everybody put in. Um, what else was I going to say? We did it on uh during COVID the first time. So, it was a nice experience uh to have all of this this time around. Yeah. Sh. I think what makes our school great, too, is we have a lot of longevity with our teachers. In fact, the three of us here have been there since Carol reopened back in 2000. So, we have several
012teachers like that at our school. We rarely lose a teacher, and if we do, it's often to retirement, which good for them. And uh so, we we were doing pretty good with that. And I do have to say, even though I was a lead, it took a team effort to do it all. And everybody contributed and if I asked people to do something, they did it. And that's what makes our team so great. If a kid needs support, we jump on the If somebody teacher needs support, we jump on the bandwagon. Everybody works together. Tammy. Oh. Oh. Well, pretty much Teres said it all. It feels like a good redemption from our co application and it's just a wonderful school to be at and um yeah, I can't be with a better staff. Well done,
013Carol Ray. if you'd shake hands. You should probably Thank you. Thank you so much. Next up, the flagship elementary of Gilbert Public Schools, and that is Gilbert Elementary, the Tigers. Come on up. Justin Shrima, principal [Applause] extraordinaire. Smile. You guys won something. It's all right. This isn't a police lineup. You're good. Justin, all yours. All right. Thank you. I have a wonderful staff here and uh this is Gilbert's first recognition as an A+ school and we're incredibly grateful for the honor. Um it's a whole team and community effort. We do so many great things to support kids both inside the classroom and outside the classroom from teaching in two languages to our wonderful kindness club and our folklorical dancing. So, we just try to support kids in every way we can and we have an
014incredible staff and community to help support us throughout the entire journey. So, we're very grateful. We introduce them. Absolutely. We have Stacy Aldana. She's our Spanish coach. Marbel Medina, our um regular coach, academic coach. Claudia McNeely, reading specialist. Avette Romero, first grade dual language Spanish teacher. And Scott Frank, our math specialist. Congratulations, Gilbert. We're very proud of you and you had this year's spelling bee winner. I mean, it's a banner year for Gilbert Elementary. Thank you guys. Hanging banners in the hanging banners. It's all you do. Go ahead and shake hands. Sorry. Sorry. Sidebar. Sorry. We were just practicing your smile. Well done. And last, just because they start with a Q, Quartz Hill Elementary, Dr. Joan Henry, [Applause] principal. Look at there. Well, well, there he is. Yeah. Joan, I'm gonna let you introduce
015your crew. Okay, go for it. All right. Okay. Thank you for allowing us to be here. We This has been a few years of crazy, of hard work like everybody else. So, um we just watch everybody and try to do our best and try to improve every year. We went from a lot of A's to a C, which devastated us because we know we're not that. And then we came back up to an A, and then we got the A+. So, this year has been amazing. It's all due to Bla1. Um, Bla1 and why he's up here, besides being fantastic, was the voice of our narrative that we turned into A+. Because part of my job when I started at Quartz Hill, and I won't go on forever because this isn't me, but was to
016kind of rebrand Quartz Hill. And we wanted a culture and climate that the the elementary kids would love and enjoy. And we looked at trailblazers and they're like, "Oh no, we couldn't find one we liked." And then we found the bear. And the kids voted on it. And so we have Blae. Blae had his birthday this year. Big party. It was um five years old, right? Five. And he's at every event, but his voice was spoke about Quartz Hill and our narrative. So it was only right that we have Blaze stand up for all that we are here. What about all the kids? We have everybody that represents our programs here at Quartz Hill. Amanda Hamilton is resource in our sped program. Rudy Cota does an amazing job with our accelerated program. And Darling Hibbs,
017I mean, art is art. She's our beloved art teacher. And that enables the kids to succeed in all the academics. So, we couldn't handle all all our kids or or grow all our kids without everybody here. So, that's Cortill. Excellent. Look at that. Blake governing board. I think we need a district mascot just so something to and if one of you would put it on every board meeting that would be great. Congratulations Cortil. [Applause] Good to see you. Congratulations. All right. Now, Cortill, we're going to take your picture and but stay up here because then all the rest of you are going to come back up for that group picture that I spoke about. There you go. We knew it. There it is. All right, rescue. Come back up. Tall people in the back and
018electric bike riders. Yeah. Come this way. Come to the middle a little bit. People have a breath. Look at this. Congratulations. [Applause] Next up, we would like to honor athletic director from Highland High School, Mr. Brandon Larson. Come on up, [Applause] Brandon. Now, Brandon, how long have you been an ad at Highland High? Uh, year six. Year six. And this year, Brandon won the 6A Fiesta Region Athletic Director of the Year from the Arizona Intercolastic Association. That's a big honor. If you don't know about athletics in the East Valley, especially in this region, it's extremely competitive. Uh, and they're all eyes are on all those programs that are in the 6A Fiesta region division. And in order to gain recognition like this, you have to run great programs. You have to run clean programs in
019the sense that all your grade checks are done. All your coaches are doing what they're supposed to be doing. All your players are supposed to be doing what they're doing. And to receive this honor, it just doesn't rotate to the next person. This goes to people who truly care about uh high school athletics. And not just athletics, it's also about the student athlete. And so we wanted to make sure we recognize Brandon for that achievement tonight. and we wanted to say thank you. Do you want to say a few words? Sure. No, I'm appreciative of you guys inviting me out here. Um, at the end of the day, Highland has an amazing community. We have an awesome leader and and Mr. E is our principal. I have amazing coaches and kids. So, it makes my
020job really easy. It's really just kind of letting them run and being a servant for them. So, I'm super appreciative of my community and like the success is all on them. I just kind of help kind of drive the way. Excellent. Congratulations. Thank you, Brandon. You shake hands with the board. Brian, you want to get up here? Okay, just check. You got shorts on. I know. [Applause] Next up, we have Gilbert High School FFA State Champions, Casey Farnsworth. Come on up with your crew. [Applause] Oh, we've got over here. Why are you standing over there? Come on over. Come on. Congratulations to you. Thank you. You have uh Gilbert FFA attended the Arizona FFA spring conference competition in a wide or competed in a wide range of career development events which was held at the
021University of Arizona. Our Gilbert High meets evaluation team took the title of state champions and will be traveling to Indianapolis Indiana this October to compete at on the national level. This contest is rigorous consisting of retail meat cut identification, carcass judging, primal judging, quality and yield grading, bone and muscle identification, and formulation scenario problems. Say that again. Most of you don't even know what that means. I was an assistant principal at Gilbert High back in 99 to 2001. And if you don't know it, Gilbert High has a meats lab. Me- AS lit slab, meats lab. And I didn't know this. And so, um, I walked into this room cuz I started in the summer and there was nobody there and everybody took vacation. I got the keys and they said, "All right, just don't burn
022the place down." Okay. So, I walk into this room and there's a cow hanging and I'm like, "Oh my god, what what I was a sixth grade teacher about 10 minutes before that. I didn't know what was going on." And I got to tell you, um, the two years that I spent there, the FFA, the things that they do, the things that they teach kids, the the skills that they walk out of that program with and graduate from the high school with, phenomenal. And, uh, it's because of instructors like Casey, instructors that were before him, and it's the students that put their time and effort into it. Casey, you have um some folks here. I'd like you to introduce them and talk about what they did and what place that they earned if you don't
023mind. Sure. You bet. Thank you for having us. Uh we have Gunnar Merlick who took first place state champion right here and he won a special special prize, the meat cleaver award and uh it's in a glass case and it's it's quite impressive. Um Mia Kanti took second place individual in the uh state contest and uh they are both juniors this year. They are both in my meats processing class. And then we have uh Hyram Dornney who came in as a freshman. Okay, a freshman which is really hard to do. Stepped up to the plate and uh and helped this team take first place. And then um we have Dakota Hubard who's a senior this year and she's also in my meats processing class. They've done tremendous work to get to this far. And I've
024coached a lot of teams over the years, and I've always told these kids especially, said, "You can do anything you put your heart and mind to. You can win. It just takes a team of a dedicated team of four individuals. And I've never seen a team work so hard coming in after school, during lunch, you know, during class time, during other class time of their other classes. Not to throw them under the bus or anything, but uh they put a lot of their whole heart and soul into this and they went into that contest prepared and uh and they did it, which is incredible. And uh they're they're headed off to nationals next year. Did I see an email from you today? You might have. You want to talk about a little bit? Sure. So,
025uh, in there are 86 chapters, FFA chapters in the state of Arizona and every year we do a pretty rigorous application about a 23 page document that really highlights all of the activities that our students um plan and organize and put together throughout the year. And uh this application highlights uh their hard work and their dedication to the program. And it goes on to be judged. And um it's the National Superior Chapter Award. And uh we just got results back this morning that Gilbert High School FFA took a gold rating, which hasn't happened in a number of years. Okay. Last year we were silver and we we had a goal this year to make gold and so we are of eight chapters in the state of Arizona with a gold rating and so we're extremely
026excited and proud of that. We'll be competing in June at our state leadership conference to uh hopefully fingers crossed become Arizona's chapter of the year best of the best. So we'll we'll now be going on to nationals in Indianapolis to compete on the national level across all gold programs. So super exciting. They teach these students all kinds of life skills and and part of it from what I've observed over the last 30 years is respect is a huge part of what they are all about. When you walk onto a campus with an FFA chapter, you know who these kids are by the way they carry themselves, by the way they present themselves at their school, and how just friendly and kind and willing to help they are. They're some of my most favorite students on
027our campuses. And uh I'm always partial to Gilbert High School because that's where I saw my first hanging cow. And but I I instantly had to learn cuz I knew nothing about it. And I got to tell you what, I'm so very proud of you guys. We're so honored to have you here tonight. Thank you for representing Gilbert High, Gilbert Public Schools, as well as the state of Arizona. So good luck this summer. We hope you guys take it all. Congratulations to them again. Thank you. Well done. All right, guys. Right here in the middle. Congratulations. And they do meat processing there. You have to sign up. It fills up within about an hour, I think. And uh but you'll Yes. Have a be hanging this morning. So, if anyone wants to come check it
028out, you're more than welcome. Let's head on. We're moving the meeting. Well, I'll tell you, it's it's it's amazing to see. So, congratulations once again. Next, and last but not least, I'd like to bring up Sandy Willard and the Lions Club. Come on up. Bring your friends up. Are you ready to talk, Sandy? I'm ready to talk. Will you introduce your friends? I sure will. Okay. Okay. Good evening. I am Sandy Willard and I am president of the Gilbert Lions Club this year. And we um had a discussion a few months ago and decided that something that the Lions who have been serving Gilbert since 1969 um we serve our community. We do lots of things with schools. We offer um grants to teachers. We give scholarships to students. Uh we do the peace poster
029contest every year for the sixth graders that can enter the Lions International Peace Poster Contest and all kinds of other things around the community. But um we thought that we recognized that we had never in the past that we're aware of recognized our Gilbert school board. They do so much for our schools and they do so much for our community that we decided that this year was a time to give them some recognition for all of the things that they've done for our community. And so we have a um little award for distinguished service for each of our schoolboard members because we appreciate all that they've done to support our community and our children. So if we can have want to introduce everybody real quick. Oh, all right. I forgot about that. I'm sorry. But
030they're hiding behind me. Okay. So this is Lion Suzanne Ramsey. This is Lion Bob Rhyr, whom you all might recognize anyway as a former principal here in Gilbert. And this is Lion Susan Hansen. She's our club secretary. So that's that's the that's four of us, but there are a lot more. We couldn't do this all ourselves. Anyway, so if um Mr. Chad Thompson, could you please come forward? [Applause] Dr. Blake Robersonson. this one. Uh, Mr. Jesse Bernard, Mrs. Jill Humphre, we have one for Mrs. Shaina Murray also, but we also have one for Superintendent Dr. Shane McCord. So, there you go, Dr. McCord. And I think that uh you know I can't um express enough how much we appreciate what the school board does and how they take care of our schools and our faculty
031and staff and our children and we truly appreciate all that they've done through the years. Give them a hand. I've had the opportunity to speak at Lions Club's meetings over the years and I got to tell you what, you walk into the room and all they really want to do is see what they can do for us. And they do that and Sandy will send me emails saying, "Hey, will you get this out? We we want to give out these scholarships. We want to give out these grants." And we're more than happy to do that. Um Mr. Rhyr, obviously you're still serving. You're still serving the kids of Gilbert Public Schools. Thank you. You're welcome. How old are you today? I know it's a quiz. You really want to know that? Yeah, I do. 93.
032And I got to tell you what, you got more energy than most 50 year olds I know. So, thank you. Thank you. Thank you. And uh it's just amazing. This is what happened. He joined the Lions Club when uh coming from Roosevelt uh 1973 and has been serving Gilbert, the town of Gilbert, Gilbert Public Schools ever since then. and that obviously has trickled down to a lot of the people you've met over time. And so, uh, on behalf of Gilbert Public Schools, we truly appreciate your recognition, but more than anything, we appreciate everything you guys do for us. So, thank you. Please give them another hand. You guys would shake hands with the take a picture. They want to get a picture. So, we got ahead and we'll be Thank you again. Well done, Mr.
033President. Governing board members, that concludes my recognitions for this evening. And again, congratulations to everyone and thank you for everything you do for GPS. Thanks. [Applause] Okay. Yes. Yes. [Music] Okay, thank you. All right. Thank you. That's always favorite part of uh of every board meeting except for the financial reports. Those are also pretty amazing. Thank you. You're welcome. All right. Moving on to uh in our agenda uh agenda item number four, superintendent report. Dr. McCordon. Thank you, Mr. President, governing board members. Good evening and thank you for joining us tonight. Welcome to the fourth and last quarter of the 2425 school year. I hope everyone had a relaxing and enjoyable spring break. We've only got about I don't know 40 some odd days to go and so it's going to be fast and furious
034this last quarter. Uh this last quarter is filled with many things to do. We kicked it off today. Uh this morning uh we held our fourth school connect cafe this morning at Highland High School. All feeder schools to Highland High were represented and the meeting was filled with many business and community leaders. A cafe is a roundt conversation between the school principles and local community leaders with the goal of becoming partners and working together to address the needs of each school's neighborhood children and families. In addition to the school's involved, several departments including community education, marketing, communication, admin, ad administrative services have continued to work with the school connect organization to provide this opportunity for our schools and community. And just a huge thank you to Highland High. Uh like I said, this is our
035fourth one and they keep getting better and better every single time. So, uh we're very proud of them. Our next one will be in September uh with the Campovery High School feeder schools. Also coming up this last quarter are our art shows. Elementary uh district art show is at Norwoods again. So huge thank you to Norwood's Furniture for always hosting our elementary art students. It's Monday, April 7th through Wednesday, April 9th from 5 to 8:00 p.m. And each uh region of our school district has certain nights they're going to be there. So please go check it out. They do a fantastic job. We have some wonderful artists. The high school art show is Thursday, April 10th at Global Academy from 5 to 7:00 p.m. And usually we hold it over at the Gilbert Historical Museum,
036HD South, but they're, if you haven't noticed, they're building a new building and have some renovations, so they'll be able to host this next year, but not this year. And the junior high art show is Thursday, April 24th at Global Academy again from 5 to 7 uh 5 to 7:00 p.m. Again, go check those out. And then we'll have the employee of the year Thursday, April 17th at the high school, Highland High School auditorium from 4:30 to 6:30 p.m. We look forward to honoring our teachers, support staff, and administrators at this event. And then testing. This is April is the month for state testing. All of our schools have scheduled specific dates for their testing schedule. And I want to thank the teachers, support staff, administrators, and families for helping our students be successful during
037this testing period time. And last but not least, we cap off the school year at the high school with graduation events and our graduations at the high school um with the exception of Canyon Valley which it will be on I think it'll be Wednesday the 21st of May at the Highland Junior High School gym and GCA will be on the 21st at the Gilbert High School auditorium at 6:30 p.m. and the rest of our schools will be on the 22nd, which is that Thursday at 7 PM at their local football field. So, congratulations to all those upcoming graduates. We look forward to seeing you all walk across the stage with your gown and tassels. That concludes my report for this evening. Thank you, Dr. McCord. Agenda item number five, request to speak to the governing
038board. We have two requests tonight. Before we uh before we hear those speakers, we will uh have the admonition read. All right. 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 um however, 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 um yeah,
039if the matters are properly noticed for discussion and legal action. During an open call, the governing board requests that speakers refrain from voting 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. Thank you, Dr. Robersonson. We have, as I stated, we have two requests to speak. The first one is Lizzie Stone. If Lizzie is here, if you'll come up to the podium there on this screen here, you'll have a timer. You've got three minutes to address the board. And there's a color I think uh green, yellow, and red when you're getting towards the end. So, go ahead. Thank you. Hello. I Lizzy Stone and coming to you here today as a
040book club president, as a solidaran of the class of 2025 at Campbell, and as a person who uses Campo's library every day. Although there have been recent budget cuts, I'm here in protest. I'm in protest of the flippet attitude on our school libraries. I'm in protest of the cuts made to teachers I've formed so many close bonds and connections with. I'm in protest of getting rid of our beloved librarian who makes our campus a better place. Before we held our book fair, there was an opportunity to enter a raffle by checking out and reading one of the wrapped up books for the blind date with a book display. One of the descriptions that caught my attention was a manga with a fairy tale retelling and romance. I took the chance and checked the book out
041and I loved it. Since our library only had four volumes, I continued reading the series through the public libraries. During spring break, I was able to continue reading the series through the public libraries and indulge in reading most of the volumes and learned a valuable lesson for the main character that it's important to work hard and earn your place. Without the book display or our library, I may not have ever discovered the series Snow White with a red hair that I rather enjoy so much. I feel I'm not the only one who's had these meaningful experiences or benefited from the effect of having a qualified librarian. This is supported by the fact that during the 2023 to 2024 school year, there are 3,442 book checkouts at Kempo High School, while Highland High School, there were
042only 314 checkouts. I would like to note that Highland has gotten rid of their librarian and the result appears to be less reading among its students. This worries me because Campo has a smaller student population and could potentially shrink to even less checkouts than Highland. What could this mean for our future students and our literacy rates that have been steadily declining in our country? I came here to express these worries and hope to promote good experiences for our future. Even though I'm a senior, this is still important to me because it could affect my future children when they come of age. It could affect our world in a negative in a negative way, and I'd rather not sit back and watch what I hold dear crumble around me without putting in an effort to save
043it. I want to use my talents to fight for what I believe in. Thank you. Thank you, Miss Stone. Our second speaker tonight is uh forgive me if I mispronounce your last name, Stella. Is it Pchi? Pavoni. What is it? Pavone. That doesn't Pavoni. Yeah, sorry. Yeah, it's all right. Okay. Beautiful name. Thank you, Miss Pavoni. Go ahead. You've got three minutes and it'll be a timer up on the screen here. Thank you. Hello. Um I came here with our book club president, Lizzie Stone. She's a very smart girl. And um I just joined book club this year as a junior cuz um I really enjoy reading and ever since I was a kid, I just always found a lot of soulless in books and you know I I felt a comfortability within them because
044you know I just I really gravitated towards reading cuz when I was really young I had a hard time growing up and Um, Lizzy, she's been a definite friend to me and to a lot of other kids in the book club. And Miss Flertie, our librarian, she's been working at Campo Verde since 2009, since the school opened, which I'm sure is a great great experience to uh solidify her career because not only does she have a certification in librarian, um she also has her college degree in English literature and a master's in curriculum. and she told me that the reason she wanted to start working at Campo is because she really believes in Campo. And she joined because she wanted to send her kids to that school and for them to enjoy it. And she'd
045always come back home from work telling her kids, you know, there's so many great things about Campo and the people there, they really care about every student. And so I come with our book club president Lizzie to help tell you that as of now approximately 40% of students across the nation cannot read at a basic level. And this is from the National Literacy Institute. This should be alarming to all school districts in consideration this one specifically because Gilbert Public Schools is such a large district and not only does it diminish resource for students getting rid of our librarians but children's education as a whole will deteriorate even further because of this. When libraries are left without the proper management which require certified librarians with degrees or proper recognition, then literature and other necessary academic fields
046of pursuit will cease tremendously. If this trend continues within the GPS district and others within Arizona, children will be left with the remnants of a solid base for education and will have extreme difficulty finding the support or criteria needed to be for reading at all. Though it may not seem desolate now, the consequences of these actions will have ripple effects into all levels of education, academia, and the social and emotional well-being of students. Thank you. Thank you, Miss Pavone. It takes a lot of courage to get up uh in front of a bunch of adults and uh and express yourself like that. So, thank you for taking the time to come tonight and uh and speak to us. I also wanted to make mention that we had a number of online submissions tonight and we
047wanted to thank those that took the time to write those emails. uh to us. Those do get read and we appreciate uh taking part in this process. So, thank you very much. Uh we're going to move on to agenda item number six and we're going to uh do a little switcheroo. We're going to do 6.02 first, the fiscal year 2025 budget revision number two. Dr. McCord. Thank you, Mr. President, governing board members. I imagine Miss Betts asked for that change. even though she's the one that put it on the agenda. Yes, but we'll we'll honor that. Miss, go ahead. Um, good evening, governing board, President Thompson, Dr. McCord. Uh, yes, I I did think that it would be more appropriate to do the revised budget first as we opted to include the revised budget number
048two information on our monthly report and so seemed appropriate to do the revised budget first before we get into the details of our monthly report. So that was why I I made that request and yes I should have figured that out before today but thank you very much. Appreciate that. So first uh today's report we really it's a very very simple budget revision. We have not updated any of the figures to reflect the average daily membership as of today which is our student count. As just a reminder as you know our average daily membership student counts change through middle of July. Um, so at this point in time, however, we wanted to make sure that we were taking advantage of any extra available budget capacity to maximize the revenue earnings on that extra budget capacity.
049And so based upon that, we are making a recommendation that we transfer $11 million of maintenance operations budget capacity into district additional assistance. As I've told you before, uh, state law does not allow us to increase our budget capacity in maintenance and operations associated with interest earnings. And to date, we do receive interest earnings in maintenance operations. We just can't spend it. So, in this particular case, we wanted to move the 11 $11 million into unrestricted capital, earn the interest. Just a a note to you all to remind you. Last year we earned just over a million dollars in interest earnings and unrestricted capital. And this year to date we're about at a um 825,000 earning about $125,000 a month. So we could achieve maybe as much as a million and a half in interest
050earnings and unrestricted capital in this time frame where we are um without bond dollars to make sure that we can continue to upgrade our facilities. It's important that we maximize any revenue stream that we possibly can to ensure that we can meet the needs of our of our school facilities well into the future. So that's the basic reason um behind doing this quick budget revision because we have to post revenue accordingly based upon our budget. That was why we thought it was important to bring you an extra budget revision this this early instead of waiting until the May revision. So given that the details so the budget capacity this is what you approved on revise number one when we presented this to you I think in February early February. So um based upon this budget
051revision you can see on this particular document there's $0 under the unrestricted capital outlay. So this is what the budget document looks that's uh attached to this agenda item. You can see that the $11 million now. So we always start with the revenue control limit. So we need to move the $11 million from the revenue control limit into unrestricted capital. That then results in less money into maintenance and operations. So that's the first part of the puzzle. Secondarily, um then you can just see this is how it impacts us globally. So you can see the that we we the last column there the difference revise number one to revise number two for M to district additional assistance. You can see um $11 million moving out of M O. So we're taking revised uh number one
052that was at $293 million down to $282 million. Of course, we had plenty of capacity within M. So, we are able to do this without impacting our organization at all. So, secondarily, this of course impacts our unrestricted capital budget capacity. Uh, so this is what you approved back in February. Uh, this is our unrestricted capital um budget. So, you can see the amount to be used for capital expenditures is about 18.9 million. And then with carryover, the budget limit is about 56.2 million. When we share with you the revised number two, you can see that the capital expenditures now go up to 29.8 million and the unrestricted capital budget limit goes up to 67.2 million. You can imagine that a $67 million bucket of money will be able to earn a fair amount of interest
053over the next three to four months. So, and this is how it looks on the unrestricted capital budget capacity. Again, showing the $11 million more in unrestricted capital. So, going from 56.2 million up to 67.2. And then a final reminder, we have an action item at the end of the board meeting tonight. Action item 8.02. Please make sure that you don't leave without signing the documents so that we can get this uploaded to AD. And that's all I have. If there's any questions, I'm very happy to answer any of them. Thank you, Miss Bats. Can you go back a couple slides? You realize that my peer, Mr. Macintosh here, is going to be upset when I go backwards. It's all right. He'll get over it. He just has to start counting. So, uh, could you
054go forward one, please? You bet. So this 67 million, if it's tied up, I don't want to use the word tied up. If it's in uh interestbearing accounts, is there any restrict time limit restrictions to using that if we need to? There is no time limit um restriction at all. The other piece to this story, thank you for asking the question, is that um next year when we are sharing the proposed and adopted budget with you, our strategy would be actually to use some of the district additional assistance next year and move it back to maintenance and operations so that we continue to have the budget capacity and maintenance operations to meet our ongoing operational expense. We will remind you that we did this and share this again as we go through the proposed budget
055and the adopted budget for the 2526 school year. Thank you. Are there any other questions from any board members? I I do have a question on this slide because um so we have a unrestricted capital budget limit of 67 million but amount to be used for capital expenditures is 29 20 basically a little under 30 million. So, our plan is that we'll be spending about $30 million on our uh capital expenditures. So, thank you for the question. It does um allow me to clarify. So, prior to 2015 2016 time frame, school districts were able to seamlessly transfer money back and forth between maintenance and operations and unrestricted capital. When they made the change to reflect current year funding, they said you can't do that anymore. You have to designate new revenues to go into either
056M or unrestricted capital. At that point in time, you can make that decision. So that's why this is shown. The amount to be used for capital expenditures is the amount of M new revenue plus the amount of district additional assistance new revenue that's been designated to unrestricted capital. So that's that roughly $30 million. The $67 million includes the carryover that we have built up over time. Okay. I I understand that. But um so then our our plan is that going forward this year, we'll spend approximately $30 million on our capital expenditures. Yes. We'll um we'll that's why I wanted to do this first because um I will be able to show that on our monthly financial to let you know to date how much is encumbered and expended in unrestricted capital. That will better answer
057that question for you, Mrs. Humphre. All right. Thank you very much. Appreciate that. You bet. Any other questions? That's it. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. That's uh 6.01 01 monthly financial report for month ended February 28th, 2025. Dr. McCord, back to you, Miss Betts. Thank you. Um so again, um as we've done uh the last um to continue what we've done last month and then this month, we are really focusing on the district operating funds. So there's very limited changes that occur in all the other grids. So again, we're sharing the district operating funds grid with you today. And the biggest reason is because now we have a revised number two budget revision. So all of the available balances have considerably changed. So if you look at maintenance and operations, you can see that budget
058revision number one shows 293.2 million and budget revision number two shows 282 million. In spite of that movement of $11 million out of M into unrestricted capital, you can still see that our available balance is just under $8 million. So that means that that's unencumbered and unspent. It's important because in the expended encumbered column that includes our full year's worth of all salaries and benefits. So, it's very likely that at the end of the school year, we will still end up with a carryover amount of at least $8 million in in M. Conversely, you can see under unrestricted capital outlay at the bottom, that's the other row that's highlighted in yellow, you see that our budget revision number one was $56.2 million and now is $67.2 million. But you can see to answer your question,
059Mrs. Humphre that we to date have about $35.6 million worth of incumbrance and spend, leaving us an available balance of 31.6 million. However, today under the consent agenda, you have some additional requests for approval to spend additional capital dollars. So, we are continuing to spend and encumber unrestricted capital through the end of June 30. And based upon that, that is all I have. If there are any questions again, I'm very happy to answer any any of them. Any questions from the board? Did that answer your question of Sumpre? That that did answer my question. Yes. Good question. All right. Thank you very much, Miss Bats. Uh moving on to 6.03, teaching and learning academic spotlight. Dr. McCord. Thank you, Mr. President, governing board members. I will turn this over to Mr. Jared Ryan, our assistant
060superintendent of teaching learning, and he will introduce tonight's presentation. Thank you, President Thompson, Dr. McCord, governing board. Thank you so much for the opportunity. Um while U Brent Gardner is coming up to the microphone, um I'm just going to say a couple words about this evening's presentation. Um, annually when we sit down to talk about the academic spotlight kind of schedule that's going to be coming up, we really look back at the prior year, current year planning, and what's coming up in the future. And many of the programs that Mr. Gardner is going to share with you tonight and give some information regarding continue to come up in all of our conversations whether it's our district um continuous improvement planning our campus improvement planning process the the SIPs that our our uh leadership coaches as
061well as um Dr. Martin and Miss Taylor are working on um it continues to come up uh the the thought of advanced academic studies and so he's going to cover a few of those. We're fortunate to have Mr. Gardner. joined our team this year. I constantly refer to how fortunate we are to work with great people and Mr. Gardner certainly adds to that. He has a background as a assistant principal at a high school and AP teacher as well as an elementary principal and so we're fortunate to have him leading the way in this area. Mr. Gardner, thank you and good evening. Uh Mr. President, Dr. McCord, the governing board. Uh I want to start just by uh expressing my gratitude um to be here tonight but also just the opportunity as Mr. Ryan said,
062um, this is my first year in Gilbert, um, public schools and in this position and it's a wonderful opportunity to be here in this community. Uh, there's so many wonderful things that our students are doing, that our teachers are doing, um, that all the educators in this district are doing. So, it's it's really wonderful for me to be able to have the opportunity just just to be a part of that. Um, so I want to share with you some of those really amazing things that are happening right now within advanced learning. to begin um with our vision um and our goals. Uh our vision obviously is inspiring excellence in every learner and even though we're doing a lot of great things, it's really important that we have a continuous improvement plan. Um so within our
063advanced learning programs, our plan is essentially to increase the enrollment of students participating in those programs in elementary, junior high, and high school. Um those programs include gifted AP um IB, dual enrollment, traditional and accelerated um honors courses as well. Um the opportunities that we want to increase um will provide students with the educational experience that they have to be able to make choices in their life. I was inspired by these students that came and and spoke to us earlier and I envisioned um the students today being in our seats and and doing these things. And that's what we want to do is open up those opportunities so students can excel. Um some of those numbers look pretty big. Um elementary um we want to have 30% um enrolled in our advanced programs by the
064uh 2026 school year. Um in high school in junior high, excuse me, 40% enrolled and in high school 70% enrolled. Um those are based on the baseline of the numbers from 2023. Um, so we use those numbers and projected them forward to continue to have ambitious growth in those programs um, based on what we're currently seeing. So beginning with elementary, here's where we are. So our baseline in 2023 24, you can see those numbers. Um, I want to point out that that total advanced column is not a sum of the other categories because we have students participating in multiple programs. So for example, we have students that are both an accelerated and gifted. So overall in our advanced programs currently 20% um of our elementary students are participating in one or more of those programs.
065Um which is a great step towards that ultimate goal of 30%. In 2026 in junior high you can see our programs. We have IB and honors. um we are really approach closely approaching that goal of 40% um just under that 30 just under 38% total advanced you'll see there that really honors captures the entirety of that percentage um our students that are in IB um are also participating in honors um so we have that IB program at the Gilbert Advanced Middle School um so as we continue to grow that program we'll see growth across the board um the other thing I want to point out within that honors category in junior high. We have our gifted academy, our gifted program at Highland Junior. Um that represents about 2.5% of our entire junior high population in
066that program. And then our GCA, um Gilbert Classical Academy, which represents 4% of our junior high. Moving on to high school. In high school, um students have a lot more opportunities and options of things to do. Um they get to choose a lot more classes. We saw FFA earlier, CTE programs, all the things that we do in high school. Um, so there's a lot more options as well in the advanced programs. Um, and you can see the percentage breakdown there. Again, to point your attention, that last column is not a sum of the other columns. Um, because we have it, it's pretty amazing when you look at our students and the different things they're participating in. um particularly um AP 30% of our high school population is participating in at least one AP class as
067well as uh perhaps honors and dual uh enrollment or dual credit classes. Um one opportunity that we have for growth particularly in this category is within that dual credit. A lot of times when we think of advanced learning we we focus in on those traditional academic um pathways. Um, but advanced learning also can include those dual credit classes which can align with CTE and other courses that are advanced but not in those traditional academic settings providing opportunities for students and families to make appropriate choices based on their needs and desires. To highlight a little bit more with AP, that's an area where we're seeing a lot of growth and we're putting a lot of effort into our AP participation. um in 2025. So that's actually so this school year. So these the these numbers are
068related to the upcoming AP exams that will occur in May. Um we have 6,620 enrollments in AP courses. Um students take multiple AP courses. So that represents um 3,319 students taking at least one AP course. And that's a 6% growth from their previous school year. Um the exams that are coming up, we have we're about to give over 5,000 exams um for AP students, which is uh represents 22% growth um with 2,739 students taking at least one AP exam. Uh one thing that I think is really important to point out when we're increasing our numbers, we do not want to water down opportunities. So while we're increasing those numbers of exams, we're also seeing an increase in achievement in those exams. So last year's exams, 77% of students earned a three or better um on
069those exams, and that was an increase of 5% from the previous school year. So we're growing the numbers of exams, but we're also improving our uh student achievement on those exams. And we point out that three on the AP because that's where students generally can earn some college credit. Can I ask a question real quick? Yeah. So what do you attribute that to if and if I'm understanding this right? So you've got more students doing better. Is that right? Yeah. So what do what do you attribute that to? Is it simply a matter of identifying? I know that there's been a big push, especially at the high school level, to encourage kids to try honors and AP classes. Um, is this a result of that effort or is there something else that you're seeing? I
070think there's m I think that's a great question because there's there's multiple factors. Um, previously today, I was meeting with our team, our AP committee, which represents um, leaders from all of our high school campuses, and we talk about those those issues, um, maintaining expectations within those classrooms while encouraging more students to participate. Um, I think a big piece of it, as you suggest, is when a student has an adult that they've worked with come to them and say, "You can do this. You should get into this class because I've seen that potential in you." It's really meaningful. Um, I know for me, I can point out times in my life where I had a leader come to me and say, "I see potential in you." Um, and I think it's really critical that we
071not just let that happen just as it happens. Um, but actually really take a um the approach to plan for that and encourage our teachers, encourage administrators to identify the potential in our students and help them to see their potential. because it's too easy for kids along the way of all the years K12 that they're in school to to give up, lose interest, um to to beat up themselves because of a poor performance in a class or in an assessment. Um so to have that opportunity to have someone to point out that you have potential. So, we're identifying kids and pushing them to achieve their potential, I think, is ultimately what we're doing. But then at the same time, we're encouraging um our educators to really make sure that we're still pushing them and preparing
072them for those exams. So, we're not losing focus on that high achievement while we're getting more kids in those classes. Um, another piece of that that we need to celebrate is our AP honor roll. Um we had two of our high schools receive um recognition from the college board um of AP honor role. I want to tell you briefly what that is. There's three things they have to do to achieve that. One is um 40% or more of the graduating cohort took at least one AP exam during high school. So you have to have 40% that took at least one AP exam um during their high school experience. The second category is college credit. 25% or more of the graduating cohort scored a three or higher on an AP exam um during their high school
073experience. So that's that college credit piece. And then the third piece is college optimization. 2% of or more of the graduating cohort took five or more AP exams during high school and at least one in 9th or 10th grade. So that experience is spread across their um high school experience. Couple things I want to point out. Every single one of our high schools met that third piece. These two met those all three. Campo received a bronze overall. Um they were really close. They got a gold in those second two categories, but then a bronze in that 40% that first category of of uh college culture. Um so they really deserve something better than bronze in my mind. Two golds and a bronze doesn't equal a bronze but college board. Um, and then Gilbert Classical Academy
074Platinum, which is the very highest award you can receive. Um, as well as an AP access award, which means that they're really identifying, uh, a variety of students, a diversity of students to participate in those AP classes. Um, and really working hard to make sure that they're extending that reach. So, kudos to those campuses. A lot of hard work goes into that. And that's a national award that they're receiving. So, wonderful things happening at our high schools. And so and all the rest of the high schools are doing wonderful things with this as well and working towards those achievements projections. Um so looking at what we've got to do like I said we might be doing great things we got to keep doing great things. We've got to keep improving keep doing better. Um so
075currently uh or in this school year um we do we we do gifted testing three times. So we do it in the first semester uh where parents, teachers can request individual students across the elementary schools um and second semester we do another round and then we'll do a screener in May where we do all of our second graders. So we haven't done the screener yet, but with those two um tests that we already did based on request, we identified 238 additional gifted students um which is really great. And then we have that upcoming screener in May. So, we anticipate we'll get many more. Um, based on where we've been percentage-wise in the past few years, we should anticipate anywhere from 150 to another 200 additional gifted students identified in that second grade group. Um, gifted
076academy at Town Meadows Elementary and Highland Junior High. Those are some name changes for the self-contained gifted that was at uh Town that is at Town Meadows and the GTC program at Highland Junior. um now being referred to as a gifted academy at Town uh Meadows and Highland Junior High. Um we're adding an additional section at Highland Junior High, which will represent an additional 25 students for next school year and plan to endorse more teachers so we can continue our gifted opportunities moving forward. Currently throughout our district, we have 64 teachers um with gifted endorsement. Our plan this next school year is to endorse um 25 or more additional teachers within our district. We'll do that in-house. So, we'll provide that endorsement for teachers um to be able to have that and provide that training
077for them. That will allow us to open up more seats um within those programs and allow us to continue the professional development of our teachers. Finally, um APSI, the AP summer institute will be hosted at Camp Overdie this um this summer in June. Um, that's a big deal because it allows us to do that same kind of training as the gifted endorsement, but on the AP side of things. It's not an endorsement, but it's a training AP. Um, we connect AP teachers, our teachers with teachers across the state and across the region. So, it both allows us to provide training collaboration for our teachers, but also to continue to grow um our identity as a district um of high academic standards throughout the state of Arizona and throughout the region. Next steps, gifted testing. Um,
078we want to establish a more comprehensive plan for gifted testing. I kind of explained how we do that right now. Um, we want to expand our reach though, um, and look for opportunities where we can do testing for students and families that are not currently enrolled in GPS. Perhaps they live in our boundaries and are choosing other options or perhaps they live outside of our boundaries. Um but if we expand our reach, we continue to grow again that identity of high academic um standards and that we have thriving gifted programs and are bringing students in and participating in the general community in that process. Uh we need to continue to work within that program. Can I ask one quick on that one? Absolutely. Sorry, I have a lot of questions but I've tried not to
079interrupt but but just really quick on this. What So students that are currently not in GPS can come and get tested, right? that they're they're charged. Are you saying we're we're going to change that or is or is that not what the current policy is? So, our current we do um generally it's only our students that request that are currently enrolled in our in our schools. On occasion we do have people that aren't enrolled in our schools that will request gifted testing. Um and so we work with them. Um generally we'll just do that testing for them. Um there are occasions where if it's not um testing within our normal COAP program uh where you may have to charge because it's a different kind of test. Um but the difference with this is so currently
080our testing is done each elementary school and the requests are done by parents um and um teachers to say this kid should test um and and then they request that and then we schedule a date. Um what we want to explore is options to have more general district testing on top of that where we can advertise that on this Saturday um for example we will provide gifted testing. Um as far as what the cost what that would be that's something we still need to explore and right now the testing we do is embedded in the school day. So we're not having to pay somebody additionally to proctor it. Um so it's really just the cost of the test the license for the test. So if we do go that direction of having that Saturday testing
081um then that's something where we would look at okay what's the cost of proctoring? How do we um how do we mitigate that with a cost maybe to outside district um families? Okay. And then is as is the current only non non-teer non-parent initiated screener that that second grade screener. There's not any other correct. So the screener the state of Arizona pays for all second graders to be screened for gifted. Um, so that's something pretty much every district does is screening all second graders and then after that screening is done, it's identified students that need the the full test to identify those gifted areas. Great. Thank you. Yeah, absolutely. Great question. Um, the uh gifted growing giftedmies I mentioned before endorsing additional teachers will allow us to have more teachers and open up more spots.
082Um, so currently we most of our gifted endorsed teachers are in the elementaryaries. So if we target to uh gifted provide gifted endorsement as well for junior high teachers and high school teachers um in the future um it will allow us to for example open up more spots and sections at that gifted academy at Highland Junior High um and explore what options we can provide for gifted services beyond elementary. Um the IB program within our district is fairly new with the vertical alignment through Patterson uh the Gilbert Accelerated Middle School and Gilbert High. Um so as we continue to bring students through, we're seeing growth um in that program as more students enroll um we'll see continued growth within that IB participation um particularly within that that vertical articulation there. Um and identify additional opportunities
083for dual enrollment. So, we don't want all of our advanced learning opportunities to be those traditional academic pathways, but also include some of those things like CTE um to provide certification for students and college credit in those areas. Um so, that will allow us to um continue to grow in dual enrollment. Um I mentioned how we met earlier today with our AP committee that represents um all of our high schools. um we'll continue to meet together to collaborate and unify our practices with AP um so that we can make sure and grow those programs, address those issues of you know preparing students for the exam um recruiting additional students, identifying those potentials um and then um improve uh our alignment between the most critical piece really one of the hardest things in education is that
084connection between schools. So, as students move from sixth to seventh grade, from 8th to 9th grade, really making sure that our alignment is there um with our accelerated programs, with our gifted programs, where do those line up with AP, with honors. So, really working with our schools to really provide collaboration opportunities and alignment for those experiences um to make sure that those the our students are going through um programs that prepare them step by step K12. Any questions? Are you sure you want to ask that? Yes. I have a lot. Do you want me to to ask now or at the end? This is the end. This is the end. This is wonderful. So, go for it now. All right. Time is here. All right. Wonderful. Well, first congratulations. So, just just amazing. So impressive.
085Um everything uh that people are doing at the at the school level, at the district level. Uh this is really great uh great stuff that we're offering to the community. Um, and I do think that some of the goals are ambitious. I'm just wondering if some of them are ambitious enough. Um, like if we're if our goal for high school um, accelerate or AP or honor participation is 70%. Then why are we not trying to get at the elementary level that similar level? Why is it 30% at elementary, but then we're expecting another 40% to step up in high school? Um, so I'm just wondering the thought process behind such a different level of goals at each level. So, let me go back. I'll go back just so you can just what you're referencing there.
086Um, that's a really great question because it does stand out. 30% elementary, 40% um, junior high and 70% in high school. I think there's a lot of different reasons for that. One is we're starting with identifying where we are right now. And you can see on the high school end, we currently have 63% of our students participating in these programs. So it's a 7% jump there to that 70%. We want to grow. Um what stood out to me looking at that number honestly was that's a big number. That's over twothirds of your students participating in advanced learning. Is that right? Well, you look at where we are. Yeah, we can grow and we can do that. Um so the first answer to that question is really just basing on where we are currently, right? So
087taking that baseline and saying if we grow by these percentages where are we going to end up in two years? Um so 63% to 70%. 38% where we are now. Last year where we started the baseline was 35% um getting up to 40%. And then in elementary last year we were at 18 and a half um moving up to 30%. Um, so looking at where we are, what we're doing, what we think is ambitious but reasonable. So that's the first piece really in planning and developing these goals, trying to be ambitious but not unrealistic. The second piece is the options in high school. So in high school, you have a lot more options currently in place that fall in those advanced um learning opportunities. So where you can have students take um an early education
088class and receive college credit for that class. So that's an advanced learning setting because there's an opportunity for college level post-secary learning there. Um but you don't have those same opportunities that currently exist in elementary. down the road, I think it's reasonable to talk about those things and say, "How can we extend some of those opportunities that we have in high school and connect those pathways all the way through elementary?" Um, I think taking the steps to get there, um, is where we need to go. It's it's it's really comes down to, um, in education, we talk a lot about backwards design. like we want our kids to end up here um in 12th grade. So 11th grade they need to do this, sixth grade they need to be doing this and kind of going
089back. So continue to look at that as we move forward with our continuous improvement plan. Mr. Gardner, if I may real quick as well, one of the conversations that has been exciting to me to hear from the work that Mr. Gardner and his team has been doing also is looking at different ways and he mentioned it of identifying gifted students. Um, typically we've qualified across the board and in elementary that's a challenge, right? So, high school if I'm if I have a strength in mathematics, I can take that one course. Traditionally, when you look at what we've offered in elementary schools, not across the board, but but in many locations has been kind of all or nothing, right? you choose traditional or you qualify for gifted in everything or and so it it it because
090I think maybe your question being at the elementary why wouldn't we be expecting 60 70% to be accessing that there's some planning going on um with Mr. kindergarter and his team. Um there are a couple elementary schools I know he's working closely with right now um on a model that really could uh provide opportunities for students to gain access in a little bit of a different way. And so I I think identifying that as a marker and as a as a not a challenge area, but but something that we need to come up with a variety of options is there. And so, um, he has shared, um, some great great planning that's coming up. I think that you'll be excited to learn more about as well. Yeah, that's great. And we can we can talk
091more, uh, after the meeting um, about some of those things. That would be great. I do think at the elementary school level, too. I think that there's a lot of our students who who may not qualify through the gifted testing that is that are up to it if we challenge them and lift. And so I I think that maybe that is kind of the direction you're going and I'd love to see more of that and and that may be an and that that's really considering that's that's a great thing that we're doing um and have started a couple of years now within the accelerated program where it is more a choice of student and parents to participate in those uh traditional and accelerated programs where you don't have to qualify the same way you do
092for gifted. Gifted is really intended to capture 3% of the population. Um we're capturing nearly 10% within our district. Um so it's it we're we're really identifying more potential within those students. Um but within that qualification based on ad um 3% really you don't have a whole lot of growth just um to to a 30% with gifted alone. So that fits very nicely with my question. Um my question is okay we have the traditional model we have accelerated model we have gifted. If we have children and parents who prefer just the conventional typical classroom and but they want um additional opportunities or rigor for their child, what is the pathway for that? So conventional um experiences are all so our traditional campuses um as well as our accelerated campuses and all of our gifted campuses
093also have conventional classrooms. So, you can choose that if you wanted to participate in the gifted program and your student qualifies. Um, for the majority of the day, they would participate in a conventional classroom and then receive those gifted services. It's a pull out um enrichment, an acceleration, um, to that learning. So, they'd still participate in the conventional. I'm talking about maybe someone that didn't qualify for gifted, but maybe doesn't want to do an accelerated classroom, but is there in the typical classroom and could use a little more rigor. the pathway is in that classroom with that teacher with rigor. Okay. And so that's where we promote that all the time with our teachers in terms of um not just teaching to the middle uh providing opportunities whether whatever class you're in. I don't care
094if you're an accelerated, you're still going to challenge those students to the best of your ability. And that's the things that we train our teachers on. All right. Thank you. Any additional questions? So I think these programs are amazing and um thank you for the presentation. Um my one question is is there I know we're you know kind of encouraging students to get into the accelerated and other programs like that. Are there kids who get into the accelerated but maybe struggle and go back to like kind of the traditional classroom? And is that a large number or There there are definitely in all of these areas there's going to be kids that are going to get in and and struggle. um that is on us as teachers to adapt, differentiate to meet those student needs.
095Um we work hard um to keep those kids as long as makes sense within those programs. Um because a hurdle now doesn't mean a hurdle always. So working through those challenges but there it does occur but it's it's fairly rare where there's um we get to a point we have and we have a conversation parents teacher um administrators if necessary meet together to say is this the best and appropriate placement um for your child and we follow the same process as we would in any classroom where we might be identifying a student for additional services um including special education or maybe um you know some um intervention resources is um for their needs. Um just because a student's an accelerated or an advanced setting does not mean they shouldn't have access to intervention. Um they
096still need that. And Mr. Brainer, there are many times that schools that have accelerated classrooms where um principal, parent, student sit down and um the parent really wants their child to give accelerated a shot. And so, but they may or may not be successful. But what I love in those conversations are the fact that they want to give it a try and um we're not going to let them fail and they may not be successful in an accelerated class elementary but there's always that ability to go to the conventional and um but we want them to try and it's like he said it's those opportunities for those kids and that's the perfect place to to try that at. So great question. I have one more question because you know often I mean if we're um
097testing for gifted in second grade there are early kids who blossom early and there are later developers. So um when we have children who maybe um blossom later um I think that is also something we need to take into consideration that they mature and are ready for that at maybe a later you know maybe fourth grade or sixth grade or or eighth grade. Right. Absolutely. So um we know that exposure to academic settings, exposure to reading, exposure to problem solving impacts that score students get on that gifted test. So a a child based on their home environment, based on their experience within any kind of academic setting is going to impact that potential. So currently we have the ability to request two times a year from a parent, from a teacher and many of those
098are third, fourth, fifth grade students that are now demonstrating some ability that wasn't previously identified. Um but that's another reason why we want to continue to expand those testing opportunities. Um the other piece is that you pointed out junior high. Well, we need to continue to expand our gifted opportunities throughout junior high. Um but then as we do that testing that more comprehensive testing um and provide those opportunities then we can identify those those late bloomer students and provide them with those services that they need. Ultimately we want kids whatever their potential is to achieve it and we can't do that if we don't know that potential. All right. Thank you very much. I appreciate the presentation. It's been very beneficial. I I do I'm I'm I am limiting myself. They are. I'm very generous
099limits though. Um, in in high school, so there's I can't remember is there four or five different categories. Are we are we pushing them all across the board? Are there focus on certain areas? I mean, we see some I mean amazing growth across the board, like the smallest dip in honors. Is that maybe because some of those honors classes are doing more AP versus honors or are we pushing all of them? Are we pushing certain ones? We're really pushing across the board. Um, as we expand our AP options, we'll probably see some dip in honors. Um, because some of those classes will switch over to AP. Um, and what I would focus on is the overall advanced percentage where we are because, um, and at Gilbert where they offer Gilbert High where they offer IB,
100um, sometimes you're going to have some competition between AP, IB, um, dual enrollment. They sometimes compete with each other. sometimes they overlap or we have a dual enrollment class that's also AP. Um so there is some competition between programs from time to time. Um but we don't want to sacrifice one program or another. I would say honors generally um you have a lot more honors courses offered in 9th and 10th grade that lead into AP. Um so I look at honors as often times that kind of um that introductory course into that higher rigor class. Um because ultimately my ideal as a parent as well as an educator would be that if a student's working at that level that they're also working towards some kind of college credit with that if possible. Great. Thank you.
101And I'd be happy afterwards or another date to come and talk more and answer more of your questions. Um the things we're doing are great. Our students are doing phenomenal things. So it's a wonderful position for me to be in to be able to help and support that and be in this community. Thank you. Thank you. Yeah, that that is what I'll limit myself to. Exactly. This is so great. I could talk about it all night. The specific dip was um honors pre-calc flipped into AP pre-calc. Oh, that year. There we go. So, a couple percent switch right there just based on the one course. Sorry, could you just remind me of what Mr. Gardner's title is? He is the coordinator of advanced learning. Okay, that's great to know. Thank you. I've got a couple
102questions. Yeah. So yeah, I was feeling pressure from Mr. Macintosh over here like when is he going to sit down? You would think he's not assistant superintendent of OTM the but the bouncer. Yeah. Presentation. No, feel don't feel pressure from him. Feel pressure from us. Um I've got I've got a a few questions. They're all related to the elementary school level. Um, and I'm going to try to do them in order that it it it makes I can try to make it make sense. So my first question is is is the classification of gifted is that a state designation? Because I I've heard that it's a it's a state uh test. So it's a designation by the state as on the based on the results of the state test. So it it's not a state
103test. So the way gifted work so it is a uh state level designation. So the state identifies a student who achieves a 97 or better on in one of three areas um verbal, non-verbal, and quantitative. So if they're in the top 97th percentile nationally in any one of those three categories or more, then they're gifted as this the state deems it. The state then has approved tests that schools can use that identify that giftedness. We use the KOAP um primarily um which is most common in the state of Arizona uh where it tests in those areas um of verbal, quantitative, non-verbal. Um verbal is essentially what it sounds like, the ability to use language. Um nonverbal is problem solving, spatial thinking. Um that one I think is the trickiest that a lot of people don't
104really understand. Um doing things like um folding a piece of paper and dividing that up. And so it's problem solving ability. Um quantitative is working with numbers. So students are in the top so 97 percentile they're in the top 3% nationally within their grade and age um to be able to get that designation. Now the state says you have to identify students that are in the top 3%. But they allow districts discretion if there's a need to um use a different percentile below 97%. you see within our district that although it's the top 3%, we have 10% of our students across the across the district. Um whereas other neighboring districts might only have 1% or 2% of their students qualifying within those regular um parameters. They do allow for that wiggle room at the state
105though to be able to do that. My next question is once well that's not the right way to say it. Is there a monetary incentive from the state once a student has been identified as gifted? No. Um there is some gifted funding, but it's it's minimal. Okay. It's it's it's minimal. All right. So then that Okay, that's perfect. So and this is where I'm I might even confuse myself. Um which is pretty easy to do. I think it was Dr. Robersonson who um asked about the kids that might be gifted but just might not meet the state's requirement for gifted based on the test. And then I think uh Mr. Ryan said that we were working on some things to I don't want to say deal with, but working on some things to what's that?
106Capture to capture kids that fall into that category. Mhm. And so I guess my my question is is because we don't get any additional funding from the state, what's limiting us from putting programs into place right now that will help capture those those students? I love that question. Um that's what we are actually like actively asking ourselves is how can we capture more of this? We know no matter what assessment you talk about whether it's gifted assessments, state assessments, one assessment does not capture a student's potential or ability across the board. So we need to continually look at areas where we might be gatekeeping and saying we are allowing a test to get in a student's way. Um, and sometimes the answer to that is really that personal touch of that teacher, that parent, that
107administrator to look at that kid and say, "Yeah, you did not make the technical cut, but you would benefit from these programs. So, let's allow you to participate." Um, so those are things we need to work through and how we do that logistically and how we formalize that. What's the right way to formalize that? Um you look at kids within these gifted testing and you might have a student that does not receive does receive is not the right word. They they on the test they they're not in the top 97 percentile in any of the three categories but maybe they're 90 plus across the board and then they have a comprehensive score as well which tells you their addition which is a really high bar and those kids are in the top 10% comprehensive. They're
108going to be really good students. So, the question we have to ask ourselves is, do we allow that lack of 197 to get in that student's way and wait till they get to junior high or high school to put them into honors programs or AP programs or do we allow them to have opportunities that we already have on our campuses? Um, that's met in some areas by accelerating traditional pathways. Um, but we can expand that by looking at how we provide gifted services and the things that we do um to allow those students to achieve their potential and push them further. Can I just ask real quick? Yeah, that seems like an easy answer to me, right? Like the answer is like yes, you allow them to. Like I I guess why why is that
109complicated? If we can if we can set the percentage and we want to increase the total number of students, then why don't we just make the percentage at wherever it's going to be our goal? If our goal is 30% of people in these programs, then why don't we set the percentage at to where 30% are in those programs? What it really comes down to is logistics and how we have the capacity to meet the needs of all kids. Because while we have more of those kids, we still have capacity issues at certain times. So no matter where you put the bar or the standard, you're always going to have questions of who can move above the standard. Um so when that question is asked and we look at an individual student, we absolutely say yes.
110That's the answer. Should this student participate? Do we have room? Do we have the ability? Yes. The bigger question is how do we formalize that in a way to where it's in a system and not in one individual making a decision. So that's the challenge is wherever you put that bar, there's always going to be kids that are just somewhere below it. And how do you make it appropriate? You can lower it from 97 to 95, but what about the 94s? So that's where the challenge is. And you don't want it to be dependent on individual decisions, but actually formalized systems and programs that we're capturing kids and making sure it's consistent no matter who's in my seat or a principal seat or a teacher seat. Does that answer that question? Okay. So, I'm I'm
111glad you brought up capacity because that was where that was my next question was let's let's play a hypothetical where let's say next year we identify we use our own discretion state gifted designation whatever but we use our own discretion to identify and and we identify 60% of our elementary students as gifted whether it's gifted in one of those areas or it's all of them. Uh do we have do we currently strike that we're obviously we obviously have the capacity to handle the number of gifted students that we have right now, right? Do we have the capacity if next year we use our own metric for identifying gifted and now all of a sudden 60 or 70% of our kids of our elementary school kids all right we identify as gifted do we have the
112ability to give them gifted services I think it takes planning and really looking ahead how we do that I'll give you an example so with our accelerated model which is different but it's still accelerated learning right we have eight campuses that have accelerated. In most cases, they have one classroom at each grade level that's accelerated. If you are on a campus where you have two third grade classrooms, it's increasingly challenging to have one be accelerated and one not accelerated because that balancing of students and class loads to make sure that the experience um is appropriate for both sets and both classes. Um, so any of these programs when you grow them, you always have to look at the capacity to be able to meet all students needs and be able still provide intervention, conventional settings,
113all of those things within that same setting. Um, so that our students are getting what they need. So whether you're talking gifted um accelerated or any of these programs, that's the bigger that's the big question is how do we structure those to be able to have appropriate space but not limiting opportunities for those that are outside of those accelerated or gifted settings. Mr. Gardner, maybe and maybe to simplify it a little bit, do we have enough gifted endorsed teachers at the elementary to service a 60 or 70% load? Not currently. No, we currently have 64% a little bit. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. We currently have 64 endorsed gifted endorsed teachers throughout our district. So, um that wouldn't be enough to really meet that if we had 60% of our population. The other thing I'd like to
114chime in on uh with elementary and gifted is historically our gifted program at the elementary level has been heavily focused really on acceleration, right? So fourth graders are receiving fifth grade math, fifth graders receiving sixth grade math. And we know that there's a whole area in gifted instruction that dives deeper and not just acceleration. So the other thing that Mr. Gardner and others are working on as well is making what is gifted instruction look like in Gilbert public schools, not simply accelerating students, which traditionally over the last 25 years has been the focus area of uh students that receive gifted instruction at the elementary level. Can you go back to the Thank you. Uh can you go back to the slide that mentions the number of teachers that we would like to get? Let me
115look here. So, we want to endorse an additional 25 to our current 64. Okay. How long does it take to endorse a teacher? What is the the financial obligation to endorse one teacher? And once a teacher is endorsed, does that affect that teacher's compensation in any way? So the endorsement, there's two different levels of endorsement. Provisional endorsement requires 90 hours of um gifted education. Essentially, you can do it a couple of ways. You can go and get that at a college. So, you could go to go and get that through a college or university and get that 90 hour um endorsement for gifted. Um or we provide it within our district for our teachers. Um we're working on ways to really um to make that process um a little bit more palatable and and doable
116for our teachers while they're in the classroom. um so that it's no co no no extra cost to them and doesn't require them to take a college course um but have the experience of actually hands-on working with gifted students and doing those things that count towards endorsement provisional endorsements 90 hours that last for three years you do have to do an additional 90 hours to be able to get the full endorsement that then is on your certification is the is the gifted designation for a teacher a state designation correct Can we just have our own? Can we just Can we just designate Can we have a program of our own to to certify or endorse? Yeah. So, a teacher can be I'm GPS endorsed and then maybe it it maybe that allows for more teachers
117to get this endorsement and also allows us to well anyway. Yeah, that's so it's it's yes and no. So, yes, we can the state allows us as a district to um have a gifted endorsement course and we do have one. We're looking at expanding it and making some additional changes to allow for more teachers to work towards that endorsement um and encourage more teachers to do it. Um so we do the endorsement inhouse and then we submit uh the hours that were completed and what those teachers did to meet those hours to the state to get that certification. So it is a state endorsement that we manage. Um, so we submit the hours we do here to the state and it goes on their certification. Um, 90 hours for the provisional the last three years
118and then add additional 90 hours to get the full endorsement. We don't currently have a full endorsement course. What does that cost us? Personnel hours um having people in place just to create the course and manage it um and submit the hours. So we can do it within our current structure and we are. It's just finding ways to do it a little bit more with an emphasis on it. So where did this where did this number of 25 come from and if it's something that that we help the teachers that we facilitate the teachers am I saying that right that we we are we are facilit we facilitate the teachers in getting that endorsement why why don't we Gilbert public schools make that number much higher and encourage teachers to get that endorsement. So the
119number 25 is based on we are we have specific teachers identified strategically in places where we need that endorsement. The limitation we'll always have is the capacity to make sure that that process has value and is really sticking to the state expectations for that endorsement. So even though we can do it in house, it still has to be managed by essentially a teacher that's overseeing the hours, working with those teachers and coaching and mentoring and doing those pieces. So as we continue to endorse gift teachers and gifted um across our district, we'll expand our capacity and that number will actually grow exponentially because we have more endorsed teachers that we can incorporate in as mentors is our is our plan to do that. But we need to start with identifying appropriate teachers in the right
120places, working towards that endorsement. Um, really monitoring that process and making sure it continues to have value and isn't just checkbox on a paper, right? That we're doing the right things to get that endorsement to extend to the student experience. Um, and then once we have those 25 endorsed, then we can expand that and see look at ways we continue to grow the program. Um, we also want to really with all of the things that we do continuously evaluate and see what kind of impact it's having. Um, because if we find that we're we're we're using up hours and time and money to endorse teachers and we're not finding the impact, then we need to re-evaluate that. So, we want to take the appropriate steps forward to grow uh and then evaluate from there and
121see how we can continue to grow if we're seeing the impact that we need to get. So this 25 isn't necessarily so this this number 25 is a is a function of how many teachers we have the capacity to help get that endorsement more or less capacity and we and it is possible um that we might endorse more than 25 this next school year but we have 25 identified currently. So if we had if we had if we sent out an email tomorrow and we said, "Hey, raise your hand if you want to get the the gifted endor or the to get this endorsement." We may have 500 teachers that that that raise their hand, but we only have the capacity to do 25 right now. But you're saying with each one that gets endorsed,
122we now have a greater capacity to endorse more and more. And and the other piece of it, how correct? And and the other piece of it is what we've done in the past is teachers sign up for the course by choice. We want to be more intentional with it and identify people that are in the right spot and h are the right person to be able to work and endorse them so that we're moving in a more strategic and intentional way. Um rather than just hey if you want to get it come and get it and then where does that endorsement go? Is it the right fit, right placement? Um, so we want to make sure we're more intentional through our process as we move forward and grow it. So is is 20 So I
123know you kind of discussed this, but I just want to make sure I got it. Um, is 25 additional teachers the expected need with the increase in um enrollment in those programs? Yes. um for specific schools that we're looking at where we want to continue to have um so we're looking at areas where we can expand our gifted services. Um and so it's based on need but also um kind of the idea if you build it they will come. So the need but can we also open up more opportunities so where we can for example Highland Junior High we currently have four teachers in the gifted academy who are gifted endorsed. If we have additional endorsed teachers now, we can open up additional spots and more students can come into that program. As students come
124into the program, then we can look and see how much need is there out there because we know right now we're not capturing all of the students within our enrollment, right? There are some that are choosing other options. We don't want that. We want to them to choose us. And so if we open up the spots um then we have more people coming to us because we're providing the services they're looking for. So need and um seeking where is that potential within our broader community to grow. Thank you. I just wanted to thank you again. Uh this presentation was great. So thank you to you. Thank you to the whole team who's done an amazing job. The teachers at the schools. I I've just been so impressed uh by everyone. And I mean, I I
125appreciate the thoughtfulness and being strategic and intentional, but I also just want to strongly encourage to be as aggressive as we can in implementing this. I think this is what we need. And I think there's so many students that will benefit from this that we're not reaching right now that I just want to give my full support and encouragement and just pushing ahead with this and and please let me know how I can help. Thank you. Thank you. I appreciate that. And I do sincerely extend if you would like to talk further about this at any point and learn more. Uh I'd be happy to take time to discuss with any of you individually or however you'd like to do that. Any other questions? I want to see how long we can make Mr. Gardner
126stand up there at the podium and let him sit down one more time and then let's call him back up. I I think you've done a tremendous job. I'm very impressed with your uh answers and your knowledge of this of this program. So, thank you very much. Thank you. Uh, Mr. Thompson, it's 8:00, so I suggest we have a five minute recess before we go on to our consent agenda and our action items. That's fine with me. Do we need to have a vote for that or Nope. Nope. We just have a fivem minute recess. Have a minute. I don't know. That's a little too broad. How long were you talking? All right, we're going to go ahead and reconvene. Uh, moving on to agenda item number seven, the consent agenda. Uh, approval of consent
127agenda items. Is there a motion to approve the consent agenda items as outlined on tonight's agenda? I move to I move to pre to approve the consent ag the consent agenda items as outlined with the um there is a minor correction on the minutes and so just allowing that correction on the um minutes there's a a couple of uh the deductibles one there was a a typing error on one of the deductibles so we need to get that corrected Okay. Okay. Thank you. Is there a second? Second. Thank you. All those in favor of approving the consent agenda items as outlined on tonight's agenda, including the corrections that uh were referenced by Miss Humphre say I. I. I. Any opposed? And that passes. Thank you. Uh agenda item number eight, 8.01, 01 weapons detection systems
128request for proposal uh September 30th, 2025. I'm guessing that's what those numbers mean. Yes, sir. Okay. Um do you want to address the board about this or do we want to make a motion first? Why don't you make a motion and then when you get to the discussion part, I'll do a little presentation. Okay, perfect. Uh, is there a motion uh to approve the weapons detection systems request for proposal September 30th, 2025? So moved. Thank you, Miss Humphre. Is there a second? Second. Thank you, Mr. Briner. Okay. Uh, and let's uh is there any discussion about this agenda item? Let's go with the presentation first. Okay. Well, good evening again, everyone. Thank you. uh wanted to um make this an action item just so we could have any kind of discussion, answer any kind of
129questions related to this. I'll I'll kind of talk to you about a timeline. I also have Al Kaine if you want to come up to the microphone and Marcy Taylor. They've been involved in this process. And so, let me just kind of um lay it out for you and why we're here today and and uh why we're asking for this. Um last year, as well as the beginning of this year, uh at a couple different campuses, we had students bring guns to school. Um there was no, from our understanding, no intent for them to do anything with it. Uh but any weapon on a campus is alarming, disturbing, and as a school district, um when we send notifications out, one of the first lines we always put out there is our our your student safety
130is our number one priority. And I think in Gilbert public schools over the last seven years, we have made that a priority. Um, we've added, um, doorbell systems. We've added secure entries at our, uh, high schools, uh, doorbell systems and secured entries at a couple of our elementary schools. We've added more security guards on our campuses, uh, secondary campuses. We've added, um, security guards that roam at our elementary schools. We've added camera systems at all of our schools and our complexes throughout districts. And um if you would have asked me five years ago, Shane, do you would you ever have weapons detectors on our campuses? I would have said no. Um for a lot of different reasons. Um but here we are in uh 2425 school year and my philosophy my thoughts have changed um
131because I think that as a school system we need to do all that we can within our means to make sure our students have a safe place to uh to learn our staff has a safe place to work and our communities felt uh prideful in sending their kids to our school knowing that their safety is our number one priority. And so with the addition of these things that have occurred over the last couple years at our schools, I I just sat down on the fact that this is what I want to do as a superintendent and I think it's my obligation to do that. And so um on November 8th, um I gathered all of our high school principles and some other administrators from their campus as well as their lead security guards. We gathered
132in this room as well as some district personnel, a couple governing board members came um to look at uh a weapons detecting system. Um after we had an incident at Mosquite High School, um the principal there, Sean Lynch, reached out to me and said, "Hey," cuz it was um homecoming week. um he wanted to provide another level of safety for that event with the homecoming dance as well as the homecoming game. And um Mr. Lynch is from Mace Public Schools originally. Uh well, not originally. Uh well, yeah, I guess was originally. Then he was in Higgley for a while and then came back to Mace Public Schools and then we got him over here and we're very fortunate for that. Um, through Sean Lynch's contact, Al Kane's contact with individuals Mace Public Schools, we acquired
133uh and borrowed a couple of their weapons detecting um systems for those particular events. And uh my first thought was that it's a great opportunity for us to try something like this out. and um they implemented those systems for those events uh during that week and they absolutely loved them and also the community loved them and I believe the students loved them as well because again it just showed that we are taking these situations serious and we really uh it really springboarded us to where um we are today. So again, on November 8th, we gathered those individuals. We had um open gate systems um come and do a demonstration of what those look like because I had no idea what that would look like and what that consisted of. And so those representatives set up
134um in this room the detection system. And what those detection systems are two 25 lb columns um that individuals walk through and those systems are can be set at different levels to detect metal. Okay. And there's an international standard that is set for weapons. Okay. Um and um they demonstrated what that would look like for us. And so I wanted to make sure that it just wasn't one individual's want or need as a superintendent, but I wanted to make sure that I had our high schools on board for something like this. Um, and after the demonstration, we sat around and we had conversations about, okay, what are some of the challenges that are would be related to implementing something like this in our high schools and what can we do to uh make this a
135possibility for Gilbert Public Schools. Um, and I tasked them with going back to their campuses and looking at each one of their individual campuses to set up uh what that would look like as students entered the campus for the day and making sure those detection systems were uh in appropriate places and the materials that they needed to be successful, the personnel that they needed to be successful. And so we gave them a couple weeks and after uh the Thanksgiving holiday um we circled back up and uh me, Marcy, and Al went out to each one of our campuses and sat with their teams to talk about their needs related to that. We compiled all of that information and and our campuses go from a 300k uh alternative school all the way up to a high
136school with over 3,000 students. And so the needs are going to be different on every campus. The logistics for each campus is different. Every campus is set up differently and their routines and what their expectations are where students come and go are different. And so after we sat down and had those conversations, uh we compiled a list of materials that are needed. And some of those materials that uh we settled on were 32 open gate metal detector standup systems uh that we had at that demo. And we're we'll show you a video here of what those look like. We'll show you actually a couple videos. Um 32 open gate stabilization plates. Those are plates that go at the bottom. Uh these are lightweight and they hold up pretty well, but we want to make sure
137that we have the stabilization plates uh to go. These systems are they don't have any moving parts in the columns. They're basically um a brain with a scanner in it that can detect this type of metal. You may have you've I guarantee you if you've been to some kind of concert, some kind of sporting event, um at a professional level, even college level, you've walked through these things. And um in the past when you used to walk through these, you would have to take out your phone, anything with metal keys, and you would um put it in a bowl and then walk through and pray to God it didn't beep, right? And then get your stuff. Now the technology has come because of where they can set put settings on these weapons detectors. they have
138located and identified um what a weapon consists of met uh in terms of metal and how to detect that and so um as again we went through this process with them we settled on these types of things we will have also we're requesting uh seven open gate handheld rechargeable metal detector wands there are many metal detector wands out there on the market. These are high quality. So if if it's a smaller event or they have a need to wand somebody for a weapon or some type of metal, they can use that as well to detect that. Uh looking at a 100 steel crowd uh control barriers, when you have numbers of students coming into a campus on a daily basis, you need to make sure that there's orderly fashion. And those are those metal um
139almost like cattle guards that you can set up. Uh 25 retractable uh stansions is what they're called. Those are like the the ones you see at movie theaters where you can, you know, move them around and expand to those uh pieces to create different types of environments. Uh 90 heavy duty folding tables. At each one of those stations, uh, we will have folding tables, and we'll show you why here in a few minutes. Um, 32 plastic sandwich board signs with signage and artwork to go up each one of those to indicate to them what's going to happen next and what the requirements are. Um, this also includes in-person training for security administration at each one of our campuses. And then Net ID anywhere cloud-based management system. This allows uh staff members to monitor the operational
140status of all devices. That's just on each campus, but I believe Al would also have access to be able to do that um from anywhere that that app is located on. And so, um let me show you Sarah if you would push up the first video. This is the open gate system. [Music] You'll notice those wands are there. Those are You need two of them obviously to make it work. ID out, Chromebook out, backpack on. [Music] The gentleman on the left in this video is the one that did our training and they will come out when we implement these to help us through the process. Um, so as you can see, that's where the orderly fashion is. The question always comes up, well, won't it take longer to get into school? Yes, it will to
141begin with. Uh, there's always a training component for students and normalization of processes that you have to go through uh to ensure that kids get into this routine and what the expectations are when kids because all of our kids have Chromebooks. If kids walk through that Chromebook has enough metal in it to set the detector off. So as kids will go through, they will they will be asked to have their backpack on them, take out their Chromebook, and as before they walk through, they hand it to somebody who's standing off to the side who will take their Chromebook, they walk through, and assuming everything's fine, they just hand them back. They put it back in their backpack and they walk on through. That's as quick as it can happen. If something gets detected, they will
142be asked to uh come to the side. We will have a security guard or slro depending on We only have one SRO per campus, but depending on what station that they're at at that time, they can assist as well. Um we will have support staff as well as certified staff helping out with the processes through this on a daily basis. Um, and we will have, depending on the campus, different locations for them to walk through. Basically, probably coming out of a student parking lot and into the front area. Um, after school is has started, they can move those stations to the main entrance of the school for people to walk through throughout the day. They're battery operated by rechargeable batteries, okay? almost like a DeWalt or Milwaukee type battery that they can utilize and they
143can be recharged on a daily basis. And they have I forget how many hours worth of run time. I think each each tower has dual batteries. That gives them approximately 12 hours. 12 hours. And so the beginning of school, it shouldn't take you 12 hours. You're probably looking at a half hour just from setting it up, getting it ready, and people walking through to tearing it down. Uh we will also utilize these at large events that occur, maybe football games, basketball games, concerts, um things that are going to have a decent number of people there. Um but again, we're going to work through that process as we go through. Um, the company that was awarded this contract is called um, School Specialty and everything that I talked to you about will come to about $573,000.
144Okay? And um, this comes with a $17,000 annual fee for the Net ID package. And again, that gives us the ability to control those systems wherever they're at. Along with those systems, like I said, they have different settings on them. They can set the set it all the way down to where they would capture the metal on a zipper as you walked through to all the way up to um you know very low sensitivity related to that. We would use what the recommended manufacturer was the international standards. Our main goal is to detect weapons. Okay. Um, those are the ones that cause mass destruction on campuses as you've seen over the years. That's our first and foremost concern. Would we have the ability to capture things like vapes and things like that? We do have
145that ability, but our first focus right now is weapons as we go through because things like vaping on campuses is a problem as well. We can look at what we can utilize those detectors for for some kind of options related to that if that's what we want to do. But right now, I'm just focused on making sure that kids show up uh with the appropriate items in their backpack and on their person as opposed to inappropriate items. Um this is as we roll this out, if this is approved this evening, we will order these. We will start off by rolling out to our campuses. will probably start off at GCA as well as Canyon Valley. And it's because they're probably the two smallest campuses that will be part of this roll out. And that gives
146us an opportunity to see how it works, work out some kinks, and then we'll roll out to two other schools as well, and then try to get all the roll out done by the end of the school year. Okay, that gives us about eight or nine weeks. That's my goal. I'm not telling you that I'm going to get there. Our last two campuses would be Mosquite High and Camp Overy High. In addition, you guys have approved fencing for those schools. Um, and the fencing that has occurred on that campus, there's already fencing on there, but there's a lot of unsecured areas that we've been able to secure with fencing and incorporating the buildings to utilize. So, we're not having just a fence all around a campus. It's incorporating those those entry and exit points to
147make sure that those are secure throughout the day uh and night of course. And then our goal again is to familiarize our students and our staff with what this looks like and then as we roll into next year everybody is familiar with it, comfortable with it, understands with it, understands the expectations and day one of the school year for the 2526 school year we're rolling full strength. Um the other piece of that is um we want to make sure that the plans that we laid out in December are appropriate for when we go full boore at the end of this year as well as the beginning of next year. And if there's some adjustments to be made, we'll make those adjustments. And so communicationwise, it's important that we communicate this out to parents the most
148effective way. Uh we've presented this to all of our superintendent councils uh in the fall of what we want to do. We've showed them videos of example videos. Each campus will have a video specific to their campus. So our communications department has went out and already pre um filmed some footage of what this could look like. Uh we have communication, written communication to go out to students, staff, and parents about what the expectations are and what this will look like. We'll give them plenty of lead time so they can have any questions answered and understanding and um ensure that everybody is on the same page when we hit the go button on these. Um Sarah, will you show this next video? This is an example of what a video would look like. And this is
149kind of like on the district side as a district as a whole. I think Al is our uh narrator. So Sarah, go ahead and hit that next one. Video provides important information for students and visitors about the new weapons detection system, OpenGate, which will be implemented in all Gilbert public schools high schools. Open Gate is designed for automatic threat detection screening of individuals carrying backpacks and other items. It can also identify prohibited contraband items on school property. The open gate screening process is quick and automatic. There is no need to remove backpacks, bags, or purses, making for an easy walkthrough experience for students. Certain items may trigger alerts in the detectors, including eyeglass cases, laptops, scissors, and other large metal objects. Please remove these items prior to entering or consider leaving them at home if
150possible. Upon arriving on campus, ensure that your student ID badge is visible. Additionally, please take out your Chromebook and any hard eyeglass case with a metal hinge from your backpack to present to a staff member before walking through the detector. If the open gate system activates an alarm, you will be asked to walk through the system again without your backpack or bag. A staff member will escort you to a designated search area for a brief search of your bag or person as necessary. All students and visitors entering the campus during regular hours are required to go through the open gate detectors and may be subject to a search. Your safety is our top priority. The open gate system provides an additional layer of security on our campuses. We appreciate your patience and understanding as we
151implement this new safety measure. [Music] So that's a example of a video for us rolling it out as a district. And then again, each campus will have specific videos for showing students this is where you're enter this is where you will enter your your campus and these are the expectations of what you will do as you enter those campuses. And so that's kind of a quick snapshot with a couple little videos and um we're all here to enter entertain any questions. I would I I would just kind of anticipate some thoughts that you may have is like I said I went back to what I would think about 5 years from now or 5 years ago and where my thoughts and attitudes were about this and I explained that to you and this is where
152I am today. um we we implement this and we've experienced this a lot in our lives. I mean, if it's if if if we have sporting events that think think it's important for us to make sure that everybody's safe there at a sporting event or at a concert, why wouldn't we think it's important enough for our students and our staff on a daily basis? Um there will be some that aren't very um they're not they don't believe that this is something that we should be doing in our in our district and I understand that and I respect everybody's opinion. Um but at the end of the day again if I say that my our our student safety is our top priority then that's what I'm going to do and I'm going to make it that
153way. And so this is just another step in that direction. And so go your turn. Questions, thoughts. I have a question. Um, how long um do we expect the um the sensors to last? Like when will we have to replace them in the future? What's the expected life? Al, do you have any clue on that one? Yes, sir. First off, uh Dr. McCord and Nick team board, thanks for having me. Um, there open gate system comes with a 2-year warranty with a possible 5-year extension if purchased. That's warranty, but life expectancy, I'm not sure. I I I don't have the exact numbers on what the life expectancy is. I know Mesa Public Schools have implemented them um a little over a year and a half ago, and the only problems they've had with them is
154by physical abuse of, you know, somebody carrying one and dropping them. And they we're lucky that the rep that was seen in the video is actually local to Arizona, although he's their national rep. So, we're lucky to have a rep from the CHA, the company that makes these right here locally for, you know, quick assistance when needed. So, I I do have a couple questions. We'll be having students going in and out daily throughout the day. Um, will we have somebody staffed right there? How are we going to handle that? I mean, there's a surge in at the beginning of the day and there's a surge out at the end of the day, but that um continuous coming in and out of the high school. How's that going to be managed? Um I we would
155hopefully we would like to have a security guard there at minimum to be able to staff that to be able to come in and out. Um just because like you said um the incident uh allegedly that happened at Mosqu High uh that student it was a half day and according to this student I don't know how accurate it is or how truthful it is but they said they didn't have the gun on campus during school day but they went home and then got it uh for a lot of different reasons and brought it back to school and put it in their um athletic locker. And so we would want to make sure that we still had the ability to run kids through when they're coming and going off of campus to ensure that security. Okay.
156And then the other question I had was um they show you know handing the Chromebook around. What about things I mean we have a um popular water bottles that are metal Stanley cups. What about those items? So they do not set it off. Correct. So just to be upfront, I haven't been trained fully on these systems yet myself either. Only the only information I have is from doing the research I've done during the RFP process and the trainings or the uh demonstration we had. And from my understanding, it's not specifically just metal that sets them off, but it's the high concentration of metal. So like it's the the Chromebook itself. It's not the Chromebook. It's actually the hinge on the Chromebook because it has a some sort of it's the concentrated metal in that hinge.
157Uh same thing in like it's been brought up about instrument cases, you know, trombones and stuff like that. It's the hinge in those that sets it off. And that's the that again that's the reason we do the, you know, the first few weeks it's the students getting into campus is a little bit slower because those are the learning curve. That's where we learn what these items are because not only are we learning, but the students are learning, too. And as they learn, they know, oh, I I need to have this out ahead of time. Okay. So, we're we're not going to say you can't bring that metal water bottle that no is your favorite or whatever. Yeah. One of those Stanley Okay. Okay. All right. Thanks. That that clarifies. And and to back up what
158Dr. McCord said, we do have the ability to set sensitivity. We can set it all the way down to uh a pocket knife and set the sensitivity all the way up. It it's all depends where we want to set that sensitivity level. Okay. The the one last question I have is um because you mentioned trombones uh or tubas or things like that. Um what is the current practice with high school students and musical instruments? Do they usually have one at school and one at home? especially, you know, something big like a cello or a tuba. Um, or are they carrying those back and forth every day? I think it's all the above. Okay. I It just depends on, you know, some families uh have the financial ability to have more than one instrument, some don't.
159So, it just depends. And again, it depends on what it is. Uh if if if it's a cello and I had the means to be able to have two. Yeah. I I mean I would feel for my kid lugging that around everywhere or go in and practice after school or before school. Right. And so but also with kids there they they may have two but they may have a favorite one or the one that they feel they perform better on. So stratavarious might be the favorite. Yeah. You you lost me at Strata. No. Um Al, what about um kids pacemakers or uh maybe diabetic pumps? Yeah. So, I actually have a documentation right here from uh Cha provided it. It's from an accredited testing lab for electromagnetic fields and uh this question came up from
160parents in Mesa when they rolled it out and they've assured that uh it does not affect any medical devices or implants such as pacemakers, insulin pumps, heart monitors, anything like that. What else? There's got to be more questions. Well, if I I can I mean I I appreciate and respect that a lot of this was started by the prior board and work work was done before I came on the board. So certainly don't need to to rehash that. I guess my my question would be um I mean these security decisions are difficult, right? Because I mean you can always feel like more is is better, right? There's always more you can do. And so, um, I guess just making decisions on whether these are the best dollars spent. Um, and obviously, I mean, you've you've
161arrived at at that conclusion. Um, I guess I I'd ask Mr. King as well, like if if we're allocating half a million dollars towards safety. Is this the best allocation of those funds or would it be better to allocate towards security guards or fencing or secured interest? I I realize all the above, but I'm this specific half a million dollars. Is this the best allocation for that? Well, to answer your question directly is yes, I do. And the re rationale for that is security, school safety is in a layered appro layered approach and we've done that with uh fencing, perimeter fencing, cameras, card access, um our burglar alarm systems, our tip line, additional security officers. All these measures alone will not do anything to keep our sa our schools safe. There's nothing I can do
162to be quite honest to keep our schools 100% safe. But putting these all together, all these layers on top of each other makes our school safer. And this is just another layer in that school safety approach. I would also add to that in the sense that um I I don't want to lend a false sense of security to anybody. Um aside from putting up uh 10-ft rod iron fences with wire attached to the top of it and physically searching each kid as they walk in or like you're walking through a TSA. That's that's the top level, right? That's that's about as secure as you're going to get. And uh like I said earlier, I I don't envision and I don't want our schools to look like uh a place that isn't welcoming. And so that's
163why when we look at fencing, we try to uh you know make it bend to the actual physical structures that we have there. Um when we ask parents to buzz in and at the elementaryaries, we want to make sure that they understand that this is for the safety of our students and our staff. And so um but we also understand that if somebody wants to do something horrible on a campus, they may figure out a way to do it. And all of these things individually and combined, they are also a deterrent more than anything in my opinion. And so um if it's going to make people think hopefully more than once about what they're bringing to our campuses and what the expectations we have of them when they want to enter our campuses. And so
164um it will not be the be all end all. Um but as Al put it perfectly, it is another layer that I think um utilizing dollars from our district and again you you had talked about security guards or whatnot. Those are ongoing expenses. Those are something you continue to pay for year after year. This is a one-time expense for right now and um that can last us for several years. And so uh I think it's a great investment. Um, again, when I in particular talking to parent counsel about this, you know, I expected push back. You know, you got 40 people in there uh that have 40 different opinions and and I can fully appreciate that. I was more taken it back that like why haven't you done this yet? Why are we just doing
165this now? And so, um, I think that's where some parents level of of insecurity on a campus might be because a lot of these things happen around us, but they don't happen to us. And then the question is is well, when is it going to happen to us? And so, we want to be as preventable as possible. And so, that's why uh we brought measures like this to you guys. Just just one more question. Are are we anticipating increased staffing costs with this or this will be absorbed by the current staffing levels? Our goal is to absorb it by the current staffing level. Something may different may come out of that after we implement this process and I'll keep you guys uh informed of that if that's the case. But that was that was the
166that was the task I I gave to the principles at the high schools was I need you to figure out how we can do this without adding any more people. And so they have done that. And so um but again if if we go through this process and we're like okay well they did it but we've pushed them to the limit in terms of what they can handle then you may see me coming back to you saying we need this or this. Great question. So, I' I've got a few thoughts on this. Um, the first is more logistical in nature. All of our campuses have multiple entrances. For example, the student at Mosquite that brought the gun to his football practice. How are we going to manage How are we going to manage that when
167we've got Yeah. In the morning, we've got all the students funneling in through the main entrance, but after school, we've got kids going into the locker room from an entrance over here, and we've got kids coming in, you know, through the the workshop entrance, and we've got kids coming in from, you know, a different entrance. Are we going to have are we going to have these sensors at every entrance when when it's time and somebody to work them? How logistically how are we going to make that happen when we've got, you know, after school there's 50 different activities and kids coming in, you know, into the school from six different entrances. That's exactly what keeps me up at night. And that's why we create our own choke choke points when it comes to this. we
168no longer will have some of those entrance to those areas. We will have them go through certain areas to make sure and it it it will be an inconvenience and it's also a training and as much as um we want to be as convenient as possible. Safety outweighs convenience when it comes to that. Okay. I I appreciate that. So I I've really struggled with this and a lot like you, Dr. record, you know. Um, I don't know if a few years ago I would have I would have been open to implementing something like this. Um, and and I'm I'm I'm a little hesitant now, and I I'll tell you why. And it's because I the last thing I want to do is I I don't want to give the public the impression that we need
169these detectors because our campuses are not uh are not safe. Um but the fact is that in in our day and time unfortunately this may be a necessity. Um and so I think it just it's going to how it's how it's perceived by the by the public. And and I'm I'm thinking mostly of those parents that send their kids. I'm thinking of the parents that send their kids to Gilbert public schools, but I'm thinking of other parents that send their kids to other charter schools and, you know, is this going to give them one more reason to not want to come back or come to Gilbert public schools because, you know, because we we have metal detectors and the charter school down the street, you know, is this doesn't have metal detectors and it it
170you know, the the perception is that, you know, we don't need metal detectors because we're just, you know, nothing but rainbows and butterflies. guys over here at this school and this, you know, this this governmentf funded, you know, public school is a place where bad things happen, right? And so I I think when we rolling this out, I think how we roll it out is just as important as as as actually rolling it out. And if this is approved tonight, my my hope is that by implementing these security measures, it's not seen as an indictment of how dangerous our campuses are, but rather a a reassurance and a demonstration of our dedication to keeping our students and staff safe. I would wholeheartedly agree with you on all of that. Um, in my 30 years in
171education, I've learned that I can only control what I can control. And as superintendent, my job is to keep these kids as safe as possible. Um, if people want to perceive Gilbert public schools as, oh my gosh, they have to have weapons detectors at their campuses. Um, I I can't control that. It and I I'm only concerned about the students I currently have. If people want to go or come back from charter schools, they're going to know that their kids are going to enter safe spaces as safe as possible as that I can provide at this point in time. And so um I I completely understand and that's what I struggled with a few years ago and um but society has changed quite a bit and um a as superintendent I I have a job
172to do and it's not just to educate them but it's to keep them safe and that's the point of this whole um endeavor. So my my last thought is I'm gonna kind of piggyback on something Dr. Robersonson said um in connection with the money that's being spent for these you know and you already answered the question of is this the best use of these funds but my question is is a little different and maybe it's not a question of but something to contemplate is Where where does it end? Where do we where do we say okay we have all these layers in place and that's that's the best we can do I mean I if we if we implement this you know in a year from now are we going to come back and be
173like okay well now we have to have all the kids wear clear backpacks and now we have to implement all these other things because they're, you know, all these other things, you know, are are these different layers that give this perception of safety. And I I guess I guess what I'm saying is I I don't want to do this for the sake of of just doing something to to for the perception of safety. I want to make sure that if we're going to spend half a million dollars on this that it's actually going to make our campuses safer and it's not just, you know, um uh it's not just an image that we're trying to uh to portray. And so I I hope we don't I mean I can't tell the future. I don't have
174a crystal ball, but I hope we don't have to go much further than than these detectors. I think these, you know, the if they stop even one weapon from coming on a campus, then it's worth it, right? Um I I guess I would just I would just I'm looking down the road and I just want to make sure we're not in this mindset or cycle of perception of safety at all cost because it it it does get expensive. And at some point, like you said, even if we spent a billion dollars on safety, there's no guarantees. Correct. There are no guarantees. And um I again, a few years ago, I was in that same exact spot. Where does it end? And um but I also sit back and I look at what my responsibility is
175and what our responsibility is. Not just me, but you guys as well. And um I love the fact that we have we're an A school district and we have more A's at our schools than anywhere else. And that's an that's that's a tribute to what we provide now. And um I don't think I could sleep at night knowing that I had this ability to make it safer and I didn't do it. Where does it end? You were at that same training. You saw some of the videos of some of those schools in New York and it was like going through TSA, right? Uh I won't be around when we get to that point, just so you know. Um, and I don't hope we ever get to that point, but again, like I said, I didn't
176know we would get to this point a as superintendent. But, um, I, as I get older and as I continue to grow in this position, my patience for people um, doing the wrong thing at the expense of other people is gone. I have no patience for that. And so, uh, that's why you see more expulsions as a governing board. We're not tolerating that type of behavior. I have students that are here to learn. You listen to two girls tonight who are obviously well-rounded academic kids. Those are the kids that I'm protecting every single day. And, uh, we have to continue to do that. And we have to make sure that if we have resources available to do that and sometimes we have to rep prioritize those resources. And I think this is a good place
177to put that to just give our kids a chance on our campuses to make sure that they're in the very best environment possible. I just kind of have a kind of a question to some of the points. Um, and I'm not sure if we have this information, but for the schools that have recently implemented um similar weapon detection systems, have they seen like, you know, have they seen an impact? Have they been able to prevent, you know, um any occurrences of anything? Do they have like have they um have they deemed it like, you know, useful? I think I'm sure Mesa probably has some statistics. I don't know if you have any of those stats, Al. Um, so they don't have the Net ID anywhere software, so they don't have the ability to to compile
178data like we're wanting to do. Um, but in a response to a comment uh President Thompson made, you said if we stopped one weapon, it was worth it. Mesa Public Schools upon implementing these within the first week caught one handgun on a school day one. They had the videos, they had everything and it was you're just like, "Oh, you must have missed that video." Um, but day one and um, you're right. It's it's I think we always use this in academics, right? This this phrase, are we lucky or are we leading? I think we've been lucky. I want to lead. I want to lead when it comes to not just academics, but I want to lead in the East Valley when it comes to safety and security. Uh because um it's really hard to educate
179kids when students and families don't feel safe where they're getting educated. So go ahead. You know, I think um you know, I attended Guild public schools and during my time in high school, there were some horrific things that have happened in public schools um across the nation during that time. And you could feel the difference uh during our um our safety drills and stuff like that. You could feel the difference um of how we felt as well as you could feel your peers. And so making sure kids feel safe or even just a little bit safer in their schools, knowing things that are in place to protect them even more, the things that you maybe are more able to see, I think is a big benefit. I I appreciate the the high level and and
180philosophical. Can I bring back down to specifics? Sure. So you went through that that list. Is this like a package deal? like are we getting better pricing because we're doing all of it? Are we implementing all of these things immediately? Can we purchase some of them now, some of them in four to six months? Like is can you trust we would purchase all this now? But with this package deal that's included in that price, right? But if we were to to not purchase all that, would we get the same pricing on the other things? Are we getting a better pricing because we're doing all of it? That I don't know. um because the RFP wasn't placed out that way. So, this is kind of like best and final offer based on what we requested for
181we had we put out for bid 304 requests for bid. I think we got like 12 non-bids and we had four or five people that actually bid and this is what we came up with. If I could if I could add um that was one of the reasons why we did the RFP so that we could get the best deal possible given the list of items that we wanted to buy. Sorry, just having seen the demonstration I don't really think we can do this without having all the pieces in place. this really needs to be um and I I think you've been very thoughtful in the RFP and and what has been put in there, but to do this well and to do it safely, we need tables so that backpacks can be searched. We
182need guidance so students are funneled into these places and um I think it's I think it would be less effective and productive if we tried to peacemail it. So, I don't know if I answered your question or not. Yeah, I I guess the only thing I would ask is all all the equipment and I again I I wasn't there for the presentation, so I'm not familiar with all the equipment. Are we implementing all of that before the end of the school year on each campus? Yes. Based on what they need? So, like at GCA, small campus, I think they only have two detectors. Three. Three. Okay. and Canyon Valley did we end up with three three three Highland High seven seven so based on population based on need and so that's where all those things
183are structured throughout but there's not things on this list that it's like okay we'll use these in August for football games but we're not using them until then. No. No. So, I I have some thoughts I want to share before we um bring this to a vote. Um so, I was elected in December of well, I was elected in November of 2012. So, um I was attending the first my first ASBA annual conference and I didn't have a cell phone at that time. I was a late getter of a cell phone. Uh but I could hear a murmur in the room at that conference and it was because the news was coming to all these people in public schools that there had been that shooting in Connecticut where six teachers and 20 students were killed.
184Now, school shootings are the most rare way that um gun violence happens. It's it's very rare. Our schools are very safe, but it does happen. Um and at that point when I learned about the um Sandy Hook shooting um I realized that being a school board member, it's not just about academics and curriculum. It's about people's lives. It's about being safe and and helping our community to be safe. And um I was fortunate that because that happened, ASBA did do a lot of training about school shootings and and I was able to attend some of those trainings and um they even went back to the Coline shoot shooting. they had the person that studied that and tried to figure out what went wrong. Um, and he came and spoke and um, his conversation was the
185best way to prevent a school shooting is to provide a school culture where people feel like they belong, where we have a positive school culture and kids feel good about going there. And I feel like here in Gilbert public schools, we have worked on that for years. We do a a really good job of trying to be the school, the high school, the junior high and the elementary where people feel included. They feel like it's a great place to be, where they're learning and their needs are met. And so we have to continue that work because that's extremely important that students feel that um in in their schools and the staff feels that and people feel supported. Um so I think that's really important but also um as we have gone through things I think
186it's I think students are to the point where they will appreciate having that screening as they come into school. I do remember a couple of years ago uh I think it was Gilbert High School homecoming dance or a dance and some balloons popped and students got very very upset thinking it was a shooting. So there's already that concern among students. So I think to to number one show that we're we're serious and do things that will be a preventative. I mean we've we've done the nobody's mentioned that we've hardened all those high school entrances. Um there was a time when the we talked about putting entrances like that and the community they weren't ready for that. But there hasn't been a peep from anybody about those high school entrances. I have not had one email
187for anyone complaining that we've done that. So, I think this is the time and as we explain to our community, I don't I don't want our schools to be like prisons. They're not prisons. They're gathering places. They're community places, but they're also places that we want people to feel safe. And I just think we are at that point. We've got the culture. We're working really hard to make sure that students are kind to each other, that we have that um acceptance and belonging for everyone there. And I um I I hope that at some point our new board members will have the opportunity to maybe when we start putting these in place, maybe go down and watch or just get a little bit more of a demonstration. I was able to go to the demonstration.
188I thought that was very helpful. Um, but it's also something where we're spending a great deal of money, half a million dollars on security. And it's it's an expense that won't happen every year, but it will have to happen again from going forward. It's going to have to be a part of our budget, replacements or such things. Um, and I think we just have to be aware of that that we don't have the means to address the source of the problem. The source of the problem is that we have a lot of guns in our country and we need better enforcement and we need better um all we need to address this as a public health issue. That's not within our realm as a school board. But being able to make sure that kids feel
189positive about coming to school, that they feel safe, and that they can focus on academics. I think that's totally within our realm. And I very much favor this and I appreciate the hard work that our superintendency has done. Um because Shane McCord in hiring Al McCain, Al Kaine and making this a priority has been a huge drive for the last eight years. Um starting with things like getting fencing in place so that we don't have open access to our schools and to the doors in our schools. So, I really appreciate the hard work that's been put in on this and I think this is the next step and this is the right time for it. Unfortunately, um I think all of us wish that things could be different but this we can control and there
190are other things that we don't have control over. To uh maybe um piggyback a little bit on what Dr. Roberson was asking, do we do we need to buy 32 metal or weapons detectors all at once, or can we buy can we buy 16, maybe two or three for each campus to start and scale up from there. So, it's not such a big expense all at once. We can do anything, but um I wouldn't recommend it. If we're going to do it, we got to do it right. And in order for our schools to function, in order for to get those kids in in a timely fashion, this is what we task our high schools to do. And so that's why um I would rather bring the whole lot to you as opposed to um
191peacemealing it. So, okay. Is there any other discussion by the board on this topic? Okay. Then I'll bring it to a vote. Uh all those in favor of uh approving the weapons detection systems request for proposal September 30th, 2025, say I. I. Any opposed? And that passes. Moving on to 8.02 uh fiscal year 2025. Thank you, uh Mr. Kaine. Thank you, sir. Uh 8.02, 02 fiscal year 2025 budget revision number two. Is there a motion to approve fiscal year 2025 budget revision number two? So moved. Thank you, Mr. Briner. Is there a second? Second. Thank you, Dr. Robersonson. Uh, is there any discussion on this? Well, I I want to say thank you. I think there's been a lot of hard work put in on this, too. And I I know I I do want
192to say um I know we talk a lot about the budget. It's very very important. I appreciate the academic spotlight that we have and I know it makes our meetings longer. This is one of our longest meetings that we've had in a while, but um I think it's both are very beneficial and I just really appreciate that we're on a good solid financial footing and um that's been a endeavor of seven years to to make sure we're in a good position and I really appreciate it. So thanks. Go ahead. Sorry. All right. Uh, if there's no other discussion on 8.02, we'll call for a vote. All those in favor of approving fiscal year 2025 budget revision number two, say I. I. Any opposed? And that passes. And that's the one that we have to stay
193afterwards to sign, right? Okay. Okay. So, don't forget, don't leave uh before you get a chance to sign that. Agenda item number nine, any requests for future agenda items. Do uh do any board members have anything that they would like to add to a future agenda? Okay. Then we'll move on to our board reports. Uh the audit committee. Uh, I don't have anything to report except that the my first meeting will be this Thursday at 11 o'clock. I'm excited about that. Uh, Town of Gilbert leazison, Dr. Blake Robersonson. Anything to report? Yeah, nothing to report on the Town of Gilbert. Um, I did just want to uh quickly uh mention that I I was able to attend the community event this morning at Highland and and was such a such a great event. I think
194that um really I'm I'm glad it's called a community event. Like I think that that is one of the best ways we can build community in the town of Gilbert is through our public schools. And um I was impressed with everything that the schools are doing. And really I think it's great that the things they're looking to do and they have first the students in mind and the teachers and the staff in mind foremost, but but really have the community in mind and some amazing projects that I think would be um really great for the community. So, I would encourage those those millions of people watching um to get involved with their local schools. Um there's there's many ways to be involved um including fundraising um that um some great projects that would really be
195uh beneficial to to students as well as to the community as a whole. So, I really enjoyed uh participating this morning. Thank you. Uh Gilbert Education Foundation, Mr. Briner, nothing to report. Thank you. Uh, Miss Shaina Murray's not here tonight, so we'll skip the city of Mesa. Uh, report legislative representative and employee benefit trust, Miss Humphre. Well, the employee benefit trust, we did our work last meeting, um, when we approved our benefits for next year. Um, legislative representative, I just wanted to share a little bit. Um, I know there are a lot of people talking about the federal government and the department of education. Um, in all the things I've read, this was from the uh Justin Rice, who's the executive director for the Arizona School Board Association, and what she said, I think best
196explains it. Um she says it is important to recognize that while the president has significant executive authority, the complete dissolution of a federal department would ultimately ultimately require congressional act action. Um and then she goes on to say, "We remain committed to working with education stakeholders at all levels of government to ensure that Arizona students receive the highquality education they deserve." And I think that really explains that um we just have to work and wait and see what happens. So um just that as a legislative representative, but also I was able to attend the event this morning and um it was really I think we're getting better at the school connect events and um the first one was great, the second one was great and they just get better and better and I really appreciated
197all those in the community. the that attended. And if people are interested, certainly reach out to their principles, the Highland area, and those the junior high and elementary schools there. And I know any elementary school or junior high or high school would be excited to receive support and interest from their community on what their needs are or what that what is going on and uh support them and help them to do better. That's the end of my report. Thank you, Miss Humphre. Uh, agenda item number 11, meeting dates. Dr. McCord. Thank you, Mr. President, governing board members. Our next meeting is April 8th, which is a board work study and brief board business meeting. April 14th is a board policy committee meeting at 4:30 p.m. in this room. And then April 29th is a board
198business meeting. I will be sending something to you for our June um board meeting dates. I'm um we'll be requesting a change basically to move them back for a week uh each one and that is due to budget and when I say that uh there are certain things that need we need in place before we can actually act on it as a board uh and um never know when the state legislature is going to come out but I will shoot those dates to you and hopefully they will work out um for everybody on the board and again that's for budget purposes. Thank you very much. Thank you. That will uh possibly bring our meeting to a close. Uh is there a meeting or is there a motion to adjourn our meeting tonight? So moved. Thank
199you, Miss Humphre. Is there a second? Second. Thank you, Dr. Robersonson. All those in favor of adjourning our meeting tonight say I. I. I. Any opposed? And we are adjourned. Thank you very much. Thank you guys. Don't forget to stay for signatures.