001yeah I don't hear anything testing one two three e e e if you guys will just give us a minute we're just talking about coming up with a theme song to start these meetings but um we'll go go ahead and get started without one tonight and we'll keep you updated on the progress I'd like to welcome everybody to tonight's regular uh board business meeting it's February 25th uh we'd like to welcome everyone that has come here in person to either be recognized or just to partake in um in this meeting tonight uh as well as everybody that's joining us uh online welcome would like to call this meeting to order we're going to start with a moment of silence and then Pledge of Allegiance our Pledge of Allegiance led by uh Mr Brainard and we'll
002go to that point ALG to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all thank you Mr Brainard uh we'll now have do roll call we'll ask Miss Wilson to to do that yes [Music] Mr Chad Thompson here Mrs Shaina Murray here Dr Blake Robinson here miss Jill humph here Mr Jesse Brainard here Mr President all board members are present you have a quorum thank you Miss Wilson moving on to agenda item number two approval of the agenda is there a motion to approve tonight's agenda as uh as presented one second if I may interject sorry absolutely uh for the consent agenda on the minutes we're just asking you to consider uh there was a date that
003was incorrect in the minutes it um referenced a meeting for February 20th when the meeting should have been listed as February 10th so just wanted to make sure you knew that thank you very much uh is there a motion to approve uh the agenda with the uh edit uh changing the meeting date from the 20 February 20th to February 10th so moved thank you Miss humre is there a second second thank you Mr Brainard uh all those in favor of approving the agenda as explained say I I any opposed thank you and moving on to agenda item number three the superintendent recognition Awards Dr McCord thank you Mr President govern board members if you join me in front of the dis we will begin our recognitions for this evening good evening everyone how are you
004good good well it's always nice to have a filled boardroom with a lot of smiling faces we have a bunch of recognitions tonight uh but I'll tell you what every single one of them uh is worth the wait so we'll kick it off first of all we're going to start off tonight with one of the favorite events that I have or that we have in our district and that's the oratorical contest every year uh elementary schools and Junior highs put forth individuals to compete in uh an annual oratorical contest uh and it's organized by Dr Coleman where are you do there you are Dr Coleman over here it's held at Boulder Creek where she was the former principal and uh it's phenomenal uh if you've never checked one of those out please take some time
005you'll get to see kids get up there and talk about uh a theme related to America and they get dressed up and they have memorized a speech that's up to 3 minutes in length and they nail it every time and we're talking kindergarteners through eighth graders and so tonight we want to recognize some of those uh individuals uh in the area of I'll name off who our winners are and then I'll bring individuals up to they're going to give their oratorical speech to all of you tonight uh in the kindergarten through second grade division first place winner was suway Vasquez from Highland Park and the person he would will be betraying is Martin Luther King Jr and then in the third grade through sixth grade division first place Julia finar from Valvista Lakes Elementary Ruby
006Bridges are you here Julia are back raise your hand really high because you're going to be right up here in a second so don't be shy and then uh who's not with us tonight as I understand our seven through eighth grade division winner is first place Kennedy Hoff Schneider from South Valley and it was the pillars of American Heritage and Kennedy you're not here correct all right well we'll start off with sway Vasquez from Highland Park talking about Martin Luther King Jr you ready sway [Applause] yes they're going to put a little clip a little microphone to [Music] you okay with that is this right okay for you higher lower yeah that's okay perfect high five for good luck you got this hello my name is fa osus and I have a dream yes my
007speech is about Martin Luther King Jr Michael King Jr was born on January 15th 1929 in Atlanta Georgia his parents were Michael King senior and Alberto Williams King in 1934 Michael King Senor changed both of their names to Martin Luther King Martin Luther King Jr had a sister named Christine and a brother named Alfred when Martin Luther King Jr was 6 years old he became friends with a white boy who lived nearby when they started school in that year 1935 Martin Luther Jun Martin Luther King Jr was told by the other boys's parents they were no longer able to spend time together stating we are white and you are colored Martin Luther King senior used this to educate his son the history of slavery and racism in America but also reminded them of his Christian
008duty to love everyone can I get an amen amen Martin Luther King Jr started singing in a church choir when he was 6 years old September 1940 at age 11 he enrolled in Atlanta laboratory school this is where he took violin and piano lessons Martin Luther King Jr received a ba at Morehouse College he also received a bachelor of divinity at kroer Theological Seminary he later enrolled in Boston University this is where he received his PhD Martin Luther King Jr married Keta Scott in 1953 they had four children Dr King earned more than 50 honorary degrees throughout his schoolastic years he was even the youngest man at that time to win the Noble Peace Prize in 1964 he led the church and was present during many non-violent protests he was even jailed 29 times for
009his involvement in these protests Martin Luther King Jr participated in the March on Washington more than 50,000 people of all backgrounds attended March it was a huge success the march at the steps of Lincoln Memorial where Dr King gave a 17-minute speech this speech would later become known as I have a dream Dr King was fatally shot by James orray April 4th 1968 Martin Luther King Jr did so many great things while he was alive and even though his death was unexpected the world kept his message in their hearts he left such a legacy for all to remember he even has his own holidays that we celebrate every year Martin Luther King Jr has given us so much through his accomplishments there's no now we we now we must keep his words alive there was
010no room for racism in this country can I get another amen amen thank you for listening and have a great day one more hand for sway Julia if you could come up and it's finar right did I did I say it right okay good [Music] okay walking into school with the Marshalls by her side she can hear all the terrible things people are screaming at her she keeps her head straight before she knows if she turns it what she will see will scar her for that life but she isn't afraid she doesn't turn back she keeps going why because she's Ruby Ruby Bridges racism has no place in the hearts and in the minds of our children Ruby Bridges once said Ruby Bridges was a six-year-old girl who wasn't treated like the great Brave person
011she was why cuz she was an African-American girl going to an all-white school and she wasn't going to take it Ruby Bridges was most known for staying in school even when everyone was against it she was a speaker and activist and she was an inspiration Ruby Ruby Bridges was born on September 8th 1954 in Tylertown Mississippi when she was born her family was in poverty so when she was 4 years old her and her family moved to New Orleans where there was still a lot of segregation though in the same year Ruby was born the Supreme Supreme Court passed a law that said schools could no longer be segregated it took 6 years for some states to actually listen Ruby was an excellent student and she passed a test she had to take in order
012to get into an all-white school that's when her journey began November 14th 1960 was young Ruby's first day of school US Marshals had to escort her to make sure she was safe since she was the only one of the kids to have passed the test she was the only African-American kid to go to school at William France Elementary many people were upset about this adults were screaming at her to get out and poor Ruby spent most of her first day in the principal's office as angry parents took their white kids out of school though she was only 6 years old she kept going on her second day it was Barbara Henry who taught only little Ruby for a whole year it was just Barbara and Ruby for a whole year Ruby Bridges went back to
013school knowing people hated her for doing so she was very brave as the US Marshals continued to escort her to school she was told not to look around because of the racial things people had written everywhere she did as she was told fearlessly the US Marshals were very impressed by her bravery poor Ruby was even threatened but she held her head high as she continued to fight for not only herself but for all other African-American kids rights Ruby Bridges was a speaker and activist she spoke about school justice for all kids Her speech was impacted the people as she spoke about racial Injustice in schools the speeches she made came from her own experience as the first African-American kid to go to an all-white School even when she was out of school she continued to
014fight for the rights of African-Americans during the Civil Rights Movement it was Ruby Bridges who paved the way to non-segregated schools her brave helped Martin Luther King move forth the civil rights movement and ban segregation everywhere in 1999 she founded the Ruby Bridges Foundation which helped promote tolerance and unity among school children she she even wrote two books about her experiences called through my eyes and Ruby Bridges Goes to School my true story Ruby Bridges was and still is an inspiration to us all she inspired Norman Rockwell to create his famous painting called the problem we all live with her story was so moving she inspired Robert Kohl's to write a book about her called the story of Ruby Bridges Robert Kohl's was the child psychologist that evaluated Ruby's reactions towards all the crowds back
015at her old school she continues to inspire us today with the amazing speeches she gives to know what Ruby Bridges did for us gives us courage inspiration and hope Ruby Bridges was a courageous little girl who moved us by her bravery she inspired me to keep going matter how hard things are her activism led to non-segregated schools and she's still speaking about school injustices today as she continues to make a difference so think about this if you were 6 years old and angry adults were screaming horrible things at you for doing the right thing would you have the courage to stand up and keep fighting and if so the question you have to ask yourself is how will you use your courage to change the world just like Ruby Ruby Bridges [Applause] board members if
016you could come back up and sway if you could come up we'll shake hands and take a picture give these guys one more hand s here why don't I come through let me help you guys shake hands and then come back around to the middle okay go down the lineations down this way there you go we're symmetrical here you like each other congratulations guys very [Applause] good you good good one more [Applause] time thank you guys go ahead and have a seat Well Done next I want to talk to you about some some Flynn Scholars that we have and let me just give my normal disclaimer if I mispronounce your name incorrectly when you get up here let's make sure I do it right okay all right the Flynn Foundation has selected 78 Arizona students
017as Flynn scholarship sem semi-finalist to advance in the process to earn the state's most competitive merit-based college scholarship valued at more than $135,000 the Flynn scholarship provides a full ride covering tuition housing meals and at least two study abroad experiences in partnership with Arizona's public universities ASU Na and U OFA the 2025 semi-finalists were selected based on their academic achievement leadership and service and personal characteristics from more than 1,00 applicants submitted in October of 2024 the semi-finalist not named Flynn Scholars will receive receive a $115,000 Pere scholarship if they choose to attend one of the state's three public universities Three Gps students we have learned were named semifinalists and if they could come up when I call their name Evelyn Frost from Camp overie High School Aiden feierstein Aiden no that's all right because he's
018from Gilbert Classical Academy so give Aiden a hand and also from Gilbert Classical Academy rad tabes is that correct not even close huh I'll let you know it's all good this it has Grace say your name the right way it's rod tabat that's what I said wasn't it congratulations that's okay thank you so much Wonderful Name ladies and gentlemen your Flynn scholarship semifinalist please give them a hand if you guys would shake hands with the board we'll take a [Applause] picture thank you so much so either way you right yeah already a winner congratulations go ahead and stand and we'll work around you don't worry congratulations next we have a staff member we'd like to recognize Miss Sarah deu from Greenfield Junior High School orchestra teacher could you please come up while I read some
019things [Applause] oh so Sarah Deuce Orchestra teacher Greenfield Jr received the OM harell excellence in teaching music award at the Ariz a music educators Association lunching on Friday January 31st 2025 this award is given to those members who have demonstrated exceptional ability as a teacher of Music isn't that great but wait there's more so once I it might have been coincidence I'm not sure but I got a I got an email from a parent and sometimes they're not this nice so let me read it to you this one starts off with I want to start by saying and I got the permission from this individual to read this out loud just so you know I want to start by saying that as a GPS alumni myself I'm well aware of the incredible standards to which
020your educators are held with that I want to highlight the one in a billion Miss Sarah Deuce Orchestra teacher at Greenfield Junior High Miss duke or Miss Duce took our brand new cello player in seventh grade which was 2 years ago and taught him the foundation and instilled in him the discipline required to be a successful musician and most importantly Sarah fostered his Newfound Love Of Music he has since moved on to Gilbert High School and is enrolled in two music classes he attributes that to miss Duce and everything that everything that she taught him during Junior High preview night Sarah met with my youngest who's going into seventh grade next year she took the time to reminisce with my son but also gave my daughter the individualized detention they talked about the instruments they
021play and talked about the excitement with starting Junior High I served on the orchestra booster last year and I witnessed firsthand Miss Duce truly spoke to her students she instilled professionalism as a musician and as an educator even on the e8th grade Disney recording trip she held the kids to realistic expectations and shared the excitement of playing and recording for Disney the level of respect the kids had for her is almost palpable even in the midst of pure chaos and if you've taken Junior High kids on a field trip we learned at Greenfield Junior High preview night that Sarah and her students recently won yet another Award with highest distinction Miss Smith told the parents about it not Sarah in all her successes Sarah is incredibly modest she always says that the students put in
022the work but we all know that no student can be successful without a strong teacher behind them all this to say sidus is a true Gem and we are truly we are truly incredibly blessed to have her working with our kids I look forward to the coming two years having Miss Duce modeling another one of our children congratulations this is real stuff you're good going Sarah right here in the middle now one more time for Sarah thank you and last but definitely not least so we had our annual District spelling be and anytime there's a competition someone comes in first and someone doesn't um I never went to a District spelling be as a student I never made it out of the classroom competition so um I'm very very impressed with uh the students we
023have I I had the pleasure of being there and witnessing the great things that they do and it is astonishing so I would like to announce uh some of those winners that are here tonight and I'll announce the ones that aren't in eighth place from Highland Junior High was Elanor Davis from Superstition Springs Elementary in seventh place was Jonah Web come on up Jonah if you're here when I call your name come on up congratulations in sixth place Joshua manona from Desert Ridge Junior High School and in fifth place Maggie Hammer from Highland Park Elementary [Applause] School from Meridian Elementary in fourth place Tom Solace hi Tom congratulations in third place from patter Elementary Austin Richards Austin it's August look at I wish I need I need proof of see they put Austin so from
024here on out your name is Austin no his name is August is that right like the month August sorry about that I'm just I'm just happy I can read so uh all right from Gilbert Classical Academy in second place is Vash Vash naavi sha did I get it don't think I didn't call Mr Hood to make sure I got that right ah say say it again real quick Vice Naisha see good job and in first place um is someone from Gilbert Elementary Gilbert Elementary uh Kelly Morgan is the librarian there and she has put this on for I think 29 years now is what she told me after the competition and this is the first student from Gilbert Elementary in the time that she's put the spelling be together to win the competition and that
025is Lauren agular [Applause] so Lauren I'm not going to make you spell anything I promise you you're like oh think so what word do you remember the word that you won on trudged trudged well now I'm going to ask you to spell it t r u d g e d trudged do you know the origin no I'm just kidding ladies and Gentlemen please give it up for our spelling be winners if you shake hands they did already have the regional competition um none of our spellers place but I got to tell you they represented Gilbert Public Schools extremely well so we're very proud of them one more time for him please you guys yeah we'll yeah we'll work around guys you con I think any student or adult that is recognized tonight probably deserves ice
026cream I'm just saying ladies and gentlemen thank you for being here tonight governing board that concludes my recognitions for this evening thank you [Music] all right once again congratulations to all those that were recognized tonight for your hard work and dedication well done uh we are moving on to agenda item number four the superintendent report Dr McCord thank you Mr President govering board members again thank you to everybody for joining us for at least a little while and um that is it's always the best part of the meeting is the recognitions uh my update tonight will sound a lot like sports center um but I I just wanted to give you an update and I gave this to you earlier uh board members but just wanted to update the public uh for our winter sports
027boy's basketball 6A Gilbert played Cesar Chavez last night sadly they lost uh but they put up a good fight and had a great season Highland is the number one seed in 6A after losing uh in the second round of the open so that'll get started 5A for boys basketball camp overie is the six seed in the 5A tournament and they will play at home on Wednesday at 7 p.m. and in 4A mosquit is the 15th seed and they will play at Prescot on Wednesday at 700 p.m. girls basketball in the open division mosquite is the number four seed they've Advanced to the quarterfinals and will play number five Pinnacle at home on Thursday evening at 700 p.m. and at 6A Gilbert is the one seed and has a Buy in the first round after a
028second round loss to Desert Vista in the open they will play the winner of the higgle Cesar Chavez game at home on Saturday at 600 pm. and Highland is the 15 seed and will play sandre day o Conor Thursday at 700 p.m. and cample verie in 5A is the five SE and they will play AZ college prep at home on Thursday at 7:00 p.m. so a lot of games this Thursday boy soccer um in the open Campo made it to the semis but lost this past Saturday 3 to one they always put together phenomenal teams 6A Gilbert and Highland both made it to the quarterfinals uh but they lost as well on Saturday and 4 a mosquit lost in the first round to West viiew in penalty kicks it was a close one 4 to
029three and GCA in the 2A lost in the corner finals to number one seed Phoenix Country Day and in girls soccer Highland uh in the open Highland made it to the elate 8 before losing to Perry Campo lost in the quarterfinals to chapparel which was ranked number one and GCA lost in the quarter finals 3 to2 to Kingman Academy in wrestling the Champions ship was last Thursday and we had many GPS wrestlers make the podium including two state champions Campo was runner up for division 2 and D Ridge took fourth in division one and we will recognize our two finishers at next month's board meeting on to something else School connect Cafe on Tuesday March 25th at 8: a.m. at Highland High School we are having our next school connect Cafe School connects cafes are
030designed to bring schools and businesses together for the betterment of students we're excited about this opportunity and look forward to the collaboration that is about to begin thanks to our local businesses who put the interest of our children and our community first first and lastly next week is read Across America week our schools have invited many guest readers to their campuses to help spread the joy of reading to our students thank you to all those guest readers and thank you to our schools for being so welcoming to everyone and Mr Thompson that concludes my report but I'd like to announce a couple people real quick um from our Spire program one of our teachers uh Andrea MSO uh instructional coach over at Finley Farms Elementary so please welcome Andrea and from our superintendent student Senate
031uh Mr Luca scano he's a senior at mosquite high school and we're very happy some of their just so you know there they have they have to go to one of these things and but yet that's part of the job but yet you're here and we appreciate you guys taking the time to experience the things we get to experience on a Tuesday night so again welcome to you guys and that concludes my report for this evening thank you Dr McCord moving on to agenda item number five request to speak to the governing board we're going to first uh have Dr Robison read our uh admonition 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
032the public body on any issue within the jurisdiction of the public body after an open call to the public individual board members May respond to criticism made by those who have address the governing board may ask staff to review a matter or may ask that a matter be put on a future agenda however members of the go governing board shall not discuss or take legal action on issues raised during an open call to the public if the matters are properly noticed for discussion and legal action during an open call the governing board requests that speakers refrain from voicing complaints against School Personnel or anyone connected to the district as it may impact due process rights please contact the office of talent management if you have specific concerns about any individual employee thank you Dr Robison
033we have one request to speak to the governing board tonight Richard young if you'll come up to the podium uh there'll be a timer up here on the screen that you can watch you've got 3 minutes and whenever you're ready go ahead and well you're welcome to begin I I have no complaint with the administration or with the board you all inherited a problem with social emotional learning uh some of you know of it but we have new board members I've never mentioned it to you uh it cost $68,000 a year for a license uh there are many objections to it but one recent one is an executive order signed by President uh Trump Banning CRT um critical race theory in public schools what does that have to do with social emotional learning you don't
034need to go any further than the Arizona Department of Education to find um it's condemned and it's criticized for being a trojan horse for introducing critical race Theory what's the problem with critical race Theory unlike the people who were memorialized by the uh brilliant students here uh who reduced racial tensions critical race theory has been shown to increase it it's a problem and by continuing with it Federal funding is potentially threatened for this school it's been uh criticized by uh president trump it could be U funding could be withdrawn beyond that I've also I've included a package for um president Thompson and for Dr McCord with some of this information there's also a Manhattan Institute study that shows that uh uh social emotional learning causes more harm than good and it's been found to be
035associated with um worse social emotional Behavior worsening depression anxiety syndromes and significantly poor quality of parent child relationships there's more on it I provided it to uh Mr Thompson and for Dr mord so I'm requesting that you correct an error from the past and eliminate social emotional learning to have I have one benit left I would like to extend Kudos that is praise for Dr McCord for something that he did I think it was about a year and a half ago in supporting a reading program uh for this school in doing that he was well ahead of the curve because since then since that time it has become a national issue uh poor reading outcomes for graduates for people entering University and I have to uh acknowledge uh compliments for uh Dr McCord for getting
036on that early but 36 35 seconds please eliminate social emotional learning you can use the $68,000 saved for uh Dr McCord's rating program thank you thank you Mr Young um Dr mord I'd like to request uh that we put uh uh a review of social emotional learning for the board in an upcoming board meeting you bet thank you very much uh that was our only uh live um request to speak but I did want to mention that we received an online comment earlier today and wanted to thank that individual for uh for sending that comment and anybody who would like to comment at our monthly regular board business meetings is welcome to come here in person and also there's an online option an online form that you can fill out and submit your comments to
037the board so thank you very much moving on to agenda item number six reports 6.01 monthly financial report for month ended January 31st 2025 Dr McCord thank you Mr President govering board members I will turn it over to our associate superintendent of Business Services Miss Bonnie Betts good evening governing board me Members president Thompson Dr McCord uh first before I begin I wanted to point out that we have received the published um annual comprehensive financial report that is uh at each of your stations you'll note that they are tabbed for the major sections that are in the report I just wanted you to know that if at any time any of you are interested in going through some of the details it would be about a 30 minute meeting if you wanted to do that
038please contact me um and i' be very happy to meet with you uh the last tab uh represents uh the section that's the statistical section that section you might find some interesting statistics about G public schools and how we are doing uh globally over the last 10 years so just um if you're interested in some of those those details so to move into the monthly Financial presentation year to date as of January 31st 2025 uh as different from the presentation that we shared a month ago this particular financial report only has one grid there was only one major change that we wanted to share tonight which is the district operating funds so note that you have the maintenance and operations fund highlighted as well as classroom site fund as well as unrestricted Capital outlay so
039to date the maintenance and operations fund has an available balance of nearly $18 million that's about $1.9 million more than we reported last month the reason for that is in trying to make sure that we had all of the expenses accounted for we encumbered the second half of the stipan the appreciation stipan that we awarded um in uh mid January and so because of the timing of pulling the data it duplicated the actual payment of that stipend as well as the encumbrance so that of course at this point in time has been corrected and which the result is um an available balance that has been increased by almost $2 million wanted to point that out and then unrestricted Capital you can see that the year-to date expended encumbered is about $32.7 million I think I
040shared this with all of you in the board report uh last Friday but please know that that encumbrance doeses include all of the uh all of the projects that are on the consent agenda asking for your approval this evening so um we do expect that the year-to date ex um expended and encumbered will go up a little bit the deadline for uh final unrestricted Capital uh purchase orders from our schools was the I'm going to cheat here was um February 21st which is now passed and so we do expect that when we report uh in March for the year to date February that that expense encumbrance may go up some just because of that deadline looming and that is all I have for this report I'm happy to answer any questions do any of the
041board members have any questions for Miss Betts great thank you very much I got to say Miss PS I do feel with only one chart to review tonight I feel a little cheated that's funny because we felt a little relief over us we were like oh she didn't finish anything she just brought one piece of paper thank you very much for that report and your your uh your diligence uh moving on to 6.02 Proclamation National School Social Work week March 2nd through 8th 2025 Dr McCord thank you Mr President governing board members if you don't mind I'd like to read the proclamation whereas School social workers serve as vital members of the Education team playing a central role in creating Partnerships between the home school and Community to ensure student academic success and whereas School
042social workers are exceptionally skilled in identifying and providing services to students who face serious challenges to school Success including poverty disability discrimination abuse neglect addiction bullying mental illness homelessness familial stressers and other barriers to learning whereas local educational agencies Community Support agencies should continue to work in partnership with school social workers to address and access resources and support services in helping meet students social emotional physical mental health and environmental needs so that the students May achieve academic success and whereas School social workers maintain knowledge of school climate which are necessary for responsible school safety planning now therefore I Dr Shane mccor do hereby Proclaim March 4th through March 8th 2025 as school Social Work Week in Gilbert public schools and commend its observance to all in our district Community by highlighting the vital contrib vital
043contributions of school social workers to the successes of students in our schools thank you thank you Dr McCord thank you to all of our social workers in GPS a big uh a big thank you from all of us on the board uh agenda item 6.03 TCH tching tching and leaning uh teaching and learning academic Spotlight Dr McCord thank you Mr President govering board members we have a spotlight tonight and we have two individuals I'll let uh Mr Ryan who um yeah he's going to hate this um he did his perspectus today for his uh doctorate dissertation and so he's just got chapters four and five to finish right it's correct that's correct and what's the target date on that so I can get you on the record and live be finish by July of this
044year of this year okay just checking cuz remember I it took me a while uh you beat me a little bit Mr Ryan thank you Dr McCord uh Mr Thompson uh governing board members um it's an honor to have Justine Ingram with us this evening if Justine will walk up here I'll say a couple things about her um also joining her Tina Wenning is here in support I believe as a coordinator of English language learning um in our district um I had an opportunity to work closely with Justine last year physically we're shared a wall right and uh we would talk about things often and her brain works at a higher level than mine does and and she would walk out and she would simply say um there would be a new program implementation or
045something we were starting or didn't matter if it was summer school or after covid and trying to address concerns with students and she would just always ask how do we know it works how do we know that it's working what we're doing and she would just continue to ask these questions and and I'm so happy for her to have been selected to be um a fellow in partnership with Harvard University and able to really spend time dedicated to um creating a way for us to analyze and really uh build a system to evaluate our programs and program evaluation is is essential to what we do and so she's here this evening to share uh with you some of her work and I'm excited to turn the microphone over to her at this time so Justine
046thank you very much future Dr Ryan and thank you governing board members Dr mcord for having me here tonight and thank you Tina for being vulnerable and putting in all of the work for the past two years on this project it was a still continuing Journey um that she opened up to and I really appreciate it so I'll get into where it started and what we're doing and what we're continuing to do oh so and when I first started working at the district office uh two years ago three years ago now actually we uh were trying to find a way to build data literacy across the entire district and so in searching for resources to do that we found the Strategic data project through Harvard and our initial proposal to become part of that fellowship
047program was about executing a data literacy plan across the district and after getting accepted into the fellowship program with um the strategic data program we found that their resources and the things that they offered really didn't align with the time for doing that what the Strategic data project does is offers highquality research methods and data analysis that's always based within education um they have a large network of Education partners that help with policy decision- making and we felt like it was a really great resource for us to build that data literacy capacity within our district after going to our orientation there we switched our project selection from a districtwide do literacy to focusing on just one program and that started with attending the district CIP meetings our continuous Improvement meetings that we have and English
048language Learners came up quite often during those meetings as an area of Need for different reasons a lot of other programs within the district comes up as well but Tina often works by herself s in there and so while we might have had a large following for some of the other programs or a plan in place for some of them there wasn't a lot for our English learner program and so we felt that there was a need to find out where our growth data was and other gaps within the data that we might have and so it was decided to switch our project from the data literacy to focusing on doing an entire English learner program evaluation for the dig for the district and so we switched to focusing on that and Harvard accepted that
049program and as we continued attending the district uh continuous Improvement meetings we also heard that there were a lot of other requests for program evaluations across the district and like Jared said I like to annoy him in his office about things that I would like to know more about and so we also wanted to see if we could come out of the Harvard fellowship with a plan for doing program evaluations across the district some of our close districts near us have program evaluations Within th their research department or their evaluation Department we felt like it was a gap that we had in Gilbert public schools and so we proposed adding that to our English language learner program evaluation and Harvard accepted it so some of the training that we've gone through as part of this
050and it's continuing it ends in September of this year is analysis analysis planning learning to plan and involve stakeholders methodology so what kind of studies can we do we we have a descriptive study but it is mixed methodology so we're using data that includes numbers but also qualitative data we did a lot of classroom observations for this project as well um learning what resources are at our fingertips as well as networking so I was able to interview people that are part of English learner programs across the country at state federal and local levels um as well as having connections to networking for people at universities we have a uh Fellowship adviser that works directly with Harvard but also a technical adviser that might work for a different University mine works for Boston College and she
051is a lead researcher in English ler programs so I feel very lucky to have someone so involved in the English learner program and then data visualization which a lot of that um Harvard does support with but I also have to commend the technology Services Department here in the training that I've had very Hands-On being involved there and the job training as well which they're very patient with me on because I am not a coder so we're getting there so part of the project the steps that we have done as well as where we are headed we defined the program which was completing a logic model did we went and involved stakeholders multiple times in finding what the root causes were with the El program that we could look further into and continue to develop questions
052we practice team development in which we did we have two District teams that we meet with to present the analysis to them and then talk about actions that we can take and also where we want to take the program we did a three-year analysis on the district data for our El program that included State assessment data as well as in-house data we also did a classroom data analysis for the fall semester in which we went in and observed all of our El programs from the K through 12 level so across the board and all variations of the program and that ended up being the development of the English learner program guide for the district so that we can have some practices and procedures to follow that are enacted districtwide that make it much easier to
053identify the practices in place when we go out to do observations and make it so that we can have better data analysis on the program moving forward as well as outlining all of the changes that were decided to be made to the program from the team leaders and then what is currently being worked on and we'll continue through the end of the program is the district program evaluation model which the El program evaluation is outlining that model but it will be refined to be flexible for any program within GPS our project outcomes from working with the Strategic data project are having the English learner analysis it says 13 there and I'm not sure why because it was definitely 3 years 13 years of data would be very hard to to get um data monitoring tools
054so so Tina will have as well as everyone for board and as well as curriculum instruction will have data dashboards to continue to monitor the metrics that we decided will outline the El program's success and growth and so those will be live data dashboards that they will able to use so that we don't have to have a lengthy program evaluation in the future a district program guide that will be available to all leaders at district and site levels in order to understand the program better and follow all of the processes and procedures and then a district program evaluation process that will be carried out in partnership with our data and research team for the district for future programs and that's it any questions I I have questions of course first off thank you so much
055I appreciate I mean I looked at this before but your explanation makes it much more clear about what we were trying to accomplish and I think it's really exciting that we get to partner with Harvard and learn how to do this really deep dive to make sure that what we're doing is working and if it's not working how we go about improving that so thank you very much um so the question I had was um in going through this what what were some of the um things that you were able to identify or improve with English language learning that we as it was currently um being done so for the elementary level we we focused on just our pullout models we do have a dual language program but we didn't look into that this is
056just at Gilbert Elementary and the pullout model for the State of Arizona has um no solid schedule or anything you have to follow so we had different variations within the district depending on what elementary site the program was at that schools were following so we did find that one variation of the model was pretty unsuccessful compared to the other three but we also found that there were some key indicators within the other three models that made those work better and so one of our decisions was that there shouldn't be overlapping grade levels going into English language pullouts and that the people doing the integrated instruction outside of the El specialist in the general education classroom should be better trained and have more follow-up trainings to do that because on the sites where that was happening
057the integrated practices were happening more often and at the secondary level we did find that the hybrid model does not work work as well as the inperson model um and I know that there are it's in the works to try to make sure that we have an e specialist at every site but there are ways that we did find success in the hybrid model it just takes a lot more work and training and Personnel at those levels and it's the parent with JW is a lot higher when we have Regional sites and so it's not recommended to have Regional sites all right well thank you for that I really appreciate that I hope we can move forward on some of those improvements that you're talking about especially having it at every site so thank you
058very much okay thank you any other questions from the board okay thank you very much all right we're moving on to our consent agenda items uh agenda item number seven is there a motion to approve the consent agenda items as listed on tonight's agenda I move that we approve the consent agenda items as listed with the correction on the minutes as previously stated perfect thank you Miss humph is there a second second thank you Dr Robinson all those in favor of approving the uh consent agenda items as presented with the uh edit as previously mentioned say I I any opposed thank you very much moving on to agenda item number eight 8.01 employee benefits trust EBT medical insurance rates recommendation for 2025 through 2026 school year Dr McCord thank you Mr President governing board members
059the employee benefit trust EBT uh motion to recommend a 6% medical premium increase for the 2526 school year this premium increase results in an increase in budgeted expenses to GPS the amount of $1,292 612,000 included in the 6% premium increase are plan design changes applicable to each of the plans note that the total uh actu actuar um determined increase to the medical plans includ cluding the plan design changes is 11.8% the potential draw down of EBT reserves is approximately $1,525 th000 in addition the EBT is recommending no changes to the dental insurance rates for the 2526 plan year and we have Miss Betts and Mr Macintosh available if you have questions all right let's uh first start with a motion uh is there a motion to approve the employee benefits trust medical insurance rates recommendation
060for 2025 2026 school year I move that we approve the rates as presented thank you Miss humph is there a second second thank you Miss Murray uh any discussion on this item um I I do want to uh just talk about the process a little bit yet um because this has changed slightly since um I was previously on the uh employee benefits trust committee which has been quite a while since uh she uh president eug jetti had taken that role for eight years so um the employees have their own meeting and they have discussed all of the um recommendations and looked at things and then uh they came to the conclusion and had consent that this was the recommendation to move forward and then it was brought to the trust board which of which I'm
061now a member for this year and uh then we discussed it and um voted to move forward this recommendation and I have to say we have had very very low um increases in the last few years I mean we've even given a a premium holiday was that last year that was last year um so we've we've really been blessed in the way that we've been able to keep our insurance benefits down and this is a little bit bigger increase but still considering um what other plans and other increases have been faced by uh both um education entities and probably PR private business with health insurance um I think we've done very well and I appreciate the hard work that um Business Services has done on this and also those employees on the employee trust committee
062that were the first ones to look through this through and the recommendation so it is a little bit more than we've had in past years but we've been so blessed that um we've had very low increases for the I think the last three years at least um it's been just like a few percentage points at the most so I I recommend that we uh approve this thank you is there how many members are there on the employee benefits trust board the board or the committee both so on the board um there's Mrs humph myself as well as Mr Mark we um Mr Reed Carr and Dr uh Charles Santa Cruz so five of us board as the trust board the formal trust board and the committee can you help me 11 M 11 on the
063committee and those are made up of support staff certified teachers and administrators correct yep Y and so so I understand the process so you're saying that the teachers or the staff get together and discuss benefits and I I guess what what kind of things I I if if I was a when I've been an employee of a company that receives benefits I don't know all the ins and outs of what you know what what goes into creating a benefits plan um and so I'm just curious what that when when the when the teachers come together are they organized is there is there a a leadership group among them that says these are the benefits these are what we recommend and then the teachers and then I'm sorry the staff discuss that amongst themselves or how
064does that process work so as um Dr McCord shared it does represent all employees though and we don't have we don't have a representing um teacher group necessarily there's just a couple of them the idea though is that they are expected to loop back out to talk with their constituent group and the same thing with all the support staff as well as the administrators so that was the intent um and then uh what happens generally is knowing what the the circumstances are regarding the claims experience during a current year then uh Sean and I and Adrien work closely with our um our benefits Consultants to come up with some potential options that we can share with the employee benefit trust uh chair of the employee benefit trust committee and then then that whatever comes out
065of that committee then is shared with the employee benefit trust board the formal board so that's a little bit more detail about what happens I think it's important that it's clear to you as the governing board that this does have a three-prong approach that we have we we are drawing down some fund balance of the employee benefit trust we're increasing premiums but we also have some uh plan design changes across two of the three plans actually all three of them I think um and so that in conjunction with the premium increase um has has brought that um 12% increase down to the 6% so with all things remaining equal if you did nothing else if you just left everything the same the increase would have been 12% if we left everything the same it actually
066would have been 14.6% yeah and what drives plan changes are basically increases in claims right that's correct so if you have if you have a year where you have maybe $2 or $3 million in claims off of just a couple individuals that could truly impact that and so in years past we really haven't had those types of claims uh but now uh everything comes due and so as a self-funded trust that's how this operates correct that's correct with the increase the 6% increase do we anticipate any member loss from the plan so strategically one of the things that we did consider uh we do have our EPO plan that's not a high deductible health care plan which does have a um premium share a charge to employees uh the high deductible healthc care plan that's
067at 2500 and the other one that's um projected to go to 18 uh for next year um they do they are both High deductible healthcare plans and they do come with the district contributing to their health savings account uh we do anticipate that individuals may move from that EPO because of the 6% increase to their copay and move to the high deductible health care plans it's not clear whether that will be benefit to us or not we are anticipating that it will be and we see that as a positive change so it it could result in movements that that could be positive for the plan as well even with the district contributing a portion of that uh to the health savings account that's correct corit we absolutely um consider that as well okay all right
068any other questions all right thank you uh then we'll call for a vote all those in favor of approving the employee benefits trust medical insurance rates recommendation for 2025 2026 school year say I I I any opposed and that passes thank you very much 8.02 renewal of Administrators for the 2025 2026 school year Dr McCord uh Mr Thompson can we take 8.03 at the same time absolutely 8.30 is renewal of certified staff professional staff psychologist support staff uh as well as hourly employees for the 2526 school year this is the annual approval from the governing board that we need from so we can start getting contracts ready to be deployed uh within the next month uh essentially and so uh the list of names and individuals on that can be found up in the office
069of talent management if you're interested in seeing any of that but that is our request this evening so you want something from us huh I do sorry all right okay uh then let's take these to uh as far as the vote is concerned should we separate out I think you call them out in your motion do do them together okay so then is there uh a motion uh to approve the renewal of Administrators for the 25 20 2025 2026 school year and renewal of certified staff professional staff psychologist support services staff and hourly employees for the 2025 26 school year so moved thank you Mr brard is there a second second thank you Miss humph is there any discussion on this well I would like to say um thank you to all of our staff
070for how hard they work um it's really something where it's it's really not seen a lot I mean if you're in the classroom or you're a parent you you're going to see something but it's a lot of work and we really appreciate all that they do for our students and it's really important work um so thank you any other discussion thank you for that Miss Humphrey is there any other discussion among the board okay also want to thank uh everybody involved in helping put this together so we can get these contracts out on time and hopefully earlier or at least at the same time as surrounding districts so that we can make sure that we get the best of the best here in Gilbert as we've always done so thank you um okay we'll call
071for a vote uh all those in favor of the renewal of Administrators for the 2025 2026 school year and renewal of certified staff professional staff psychologists support services staff and hourly employees for the 2025 2026 School year say I I any opposed and that passes thank you very much and now we're going to uh move into some policy development 8.04 policy development first read of policy 1-31 Rules of Order Dr McCord thank you Mr President governing board members all policies tonight uh are very much related around cosmetic changes just so everybody knows every policy starts off in our policy committee uh which is a committee of the whole for the governing board as well as uh administrators uh and support staff and other cabinet members and uh we go through this before it comes here
072for a first read and then after that after tonight it'll go back to the committee for a another lookover and come back to the governing board at the next meeting meeting after uh the policy meeting for approval and so uh in this one again just additions of governing board in in places of where it says board before that and then just some changes from uppercase letters to lowercase letters uh the biggest change in this is out of item number three uh B um they moved that portion down to number four where it says the governing board president May recess or adjourn a meeting without a motion to adjourn if required to maintain order and so essentially that's the changes to this policy thank you for that explanation is there a motion to approve policy development
073first read for po of policy 1301 Rules of Order so moved thank you Dr Robison uh I'll go ahead and second that is there any discussion among the board on this uh on this policy 1-0 1 d301 okay then we will vote all those in favor of approving the first read of policy 1-31 rules of voter order say I I I any opposed thank you very much the next one 8.05 first read of policy 5-4 8 hazing prevention Dr McCord thank you Mr President govering board members again on this policy basically just some uh changes in what it looks aesthetically there was an addition of a category that calls out a specific area and it says Arizona law specifically prohibits the following and uh then again that's it they changed in the third to last
074paragraph uh complaints of hazing and violation of this policy should be reported and they changed the should to shall and added a member after staff so it says staff members and then at the bottom uh essentially it says parent SL legal Guardians and that's the changes to this policy Miss Wilson can you go to the next page please oh it's in the back sorry I'm she's looking at us I'm like I don't did you not did did you hear that is is Sarah back there she is can you oh here we go perfect thank you okay that's helpful uh let's first uh make a motion is there a motion uh to approve the first read of policy 5-48 hazing prevention so moved thank you Mr Brainard is there a second second oh it's a tie
075goad second thank you Miss Murray uh is there any discussion on this okay seeing that there's none we'll move to our vote all those in favor of approving the first read of policy 5-48 hazing prevention say I I any opposed thank you very much moving on to the first read of policy 5-23 students with disabilities individuals with disabilities Education Act Dr McCord thank you Mr President govern board members this policy is essentially 27 pages long uh I won't read through all of them uh I know Dramatics readings with Shane McCord um what you'll see in this is again very Cosmetic in nature they've added just other words um you know um at the end of sentences uh added things such as in a certain area it says will not be considered to be in violation
076of requirement they've spelled out many of the acronyms that we love to have an education for example fape is uh defined as free and appropriate public education and an IEP is individualized education program and then um along through that it says in blue at any time subsequent to the initial provision of special education related services and so uh the lawyers have gone through all this and made sure that they've matched any legislative changes that have occurred related to uh and that impact our policies uh and so uh I ask for your approval all right is there a motion to approve first read of policy 5-23 students with disabilities uh individuals with disabilities Education Act so moved thank you Miss humph is there a second second thank you Dr Robison is there any discussion on this
077policy I remember I recall from our meeting that there was some discussion regarding the the should and shall should and shall language I think that's on the next one is that on the next one okay all right and I remember you were going to reach out to reach out somebody yep exactly okay so that's on the next one so I'll ask again is there any discussion on this policy and the changes that are being proposed okay thank you very much we will call for a vote I will call for a vote uh all those in favor of approving the first read of policy 5-23 students with disabilities individuals with disabilities Education Act say I I any opposed thank you very much 8.07 uh first read of policy 5-24 students with disabilities procedural safeguards individuals with
078disabilities Education Act Dr McCord uh thank you Mr President govern board members again uh more cosmetic um retooling of this policy uh to answer your question even though that this wasn't changed but it was brought up as a question in our policy meeting I have reached out to our attorney I've have not heard back yet um but I wanted to give you my thoughts a little bit because I've read this numerous times after we and it's under on page 11 under the referral to an action by law enforcement and judicial authorities it says number one the district May report a crime committed by a child with the disability to appropriate authorities to enable them to exercise their responsibilities can we can we go to page 11 on the screen please thank you there you go
079and this is the basically the top section and number two is the district in reporting a crime committed by a child with a disability will ensure that copies of special education disciplinary records of a child are transmitted for consideration by the appropriate authorities to whom the district reports the crime but not only to the extent permitted by furpa so as I read through this a few times because I think we were discussing where it says the district May instead of the district shall I I when we were in policy I read it very similar to how you did and then as I backed away and then read it again I read this as this is something that may happen and then in number two I read it as and if it does and we report
080this is what we have to do and that's how I rationalized it so I'll again I'll check with our attorney and bring it back to the policy committee and we'll get the final answer on that but that's why I've read it uh 20 times in the last couple days so but I could be wrong okay let's go ahead and make a motion is there a motion to approve first read of policy 5204 students with disabilities procedural safeguards individuals with disabilities Education Act so moved thank you Mr Brainard is there a second second thank you Miss Murray okay is there any discussion about this uh these policy changes okay so Dr McCord um explain to me again after stepping back how the use of the word uh May in subsection one under referral to an action
081by law enforcement and judicial authorities how how did you how did you rationalize that yeah how did you come to that conclusion my heels together three times no I I looked at the heading and that's what got me so it says a referral to an action by law enforcement so in my reading after I read that a few times to me it says Hey the district May report a crime I got do you see what I'm saying there and so that's that's what unlocked me a little bit on that so but again we'll we'll get we'll get the final verdict so just to clarify so we may report a crime but if we do report that crime then we have to make sure that we give them as many uh special education and dis disciplinary
082records as we can without violating their furpa free and appropriate rights um I can't remember what the words are for fora but just to make sure that their their priv privacy is still um considered as we do that so then if that's the case should this read when the district reports a crime committed by a child dot dot dot I don't know again people a lot smarter than me put this together so I have a I I do have a hard time tinkering with what they put together because I don't want to to have things misinterpreted but obviously we're interpreting this differently so well an attorney's already gone over this so I think that the wording that's currently there is probably good but it also needs to be readable and and under and people the
083general public need to understand what they're reading so if there's a different way um then we can approach that as well yeah I think the aside from establishing our policies making sure that things are clear clear in the event that something is needing to be reviewed by um a judge I think we don't want to leave any ambiguity there that can be interpreted uh in some other way that it's not intended to be interpreted so um okay with that uh is there any other discussion in regards to uh policy 5204 okay I'll call for a vote all those in favor of approving the first read of policy 5-20 4 students with disabilities procedural safeguards individuals with disabilities Education Act say I I I any opposed and that passes thank you very much moving on to
084agenda item number nine items for future agenda do any of the board members have any uh agenda items that they would like to add to a future agenda I'm sorry any any items they would like to add to a future agenda okay then we'll move on to board reports uh town of Gilbert liaison Dr Blake Robison uh nothing to report thank you uh audit committee Mr Chad Thompson I don't have anything tonight Gilbert Education Foundation Mr Jesse Brainard nothing to report thank you Mr Brainard city of Mesa is on Miss Shaina Murray nothing to report thank you Miss Murray legislative representative and employee benefit trust Miss Jill humph so we did have a meeting for the employee benefit trust to approve what we just did tonight and I really appreciate the hard work that has
085been put on to make sure that our employees have good healthc care insurance and that we're trying to keep that cost um as low as we can uh the other thing I wanted to report on as a legislative representative is just um a lot of bills have gone through committees um it's been change over weeks so things have been taking along pretty good I just wanted to mention one bill which is SC 1026 that state in committee it just was concerning because it would have made um Bond and override elections more difficult to pass by putting a 60% um uh floor on that instead of just a majority vote um it fortunately was held in committee and it will not be going forward um you know we we've worked really hard and we we know
086districts around us that also worked hard on their elections and we're not as um um fortunate or blessed as we were and they're now um working on cutting their budgets so it is it is something that's very um it's a fundamental part of our uh funding so we just have to be aware of those things but it's not moving forward and then I just wanted to mention two or three things um uh the when uh Sarah deu from Greenfield Junior High was recognized that was we were recognized at the same luncheon and I just wanted to thank the Arizona music Education Association it was a beautiful luncheon it felt really great to be honored for my music advocacy um I just felt like it was the Oscars for me and I wanted to thank all
087of our music teachers that were there for the hard work that they put in and I was thinking about it later and it's really it's kind of like being a teacher you just do that work and then every once in a while you get a little special recognition that feels great so I really wanted to tell the um Arizona music education Educators Association how much I appreciated that um I also wanted to mention that um we have wonderful activities at our schools we have sports activities we have theater activities if you want to spend some date night money or go to something that makes you feel really great um I was able ble to go to the Highland High School orchestra dinner um their fundraiser and it was just such a pleasure was a wonderful
088dinner we had a lot of administration there and it was just it's a really great way to have a cheap date and support your local schools so I just highly recommend that and then just lastly I wanted to mention um I went to a preschool parent Community night and um it was ways to learn Ma with preschoolers without doing a worksheet it was just phenomenal put on by Suzanne Lunt and our preschool team Suzanne Lun is a kindergarten teacher but um she just had lots of great ideas for working with your four and fivey olds and helping them to learn math in a way that doesn't use a worksheet so I thought it was really uh an awesome night and that's my report thank you Miss humph uh meeting dates Dr record thank you Mr
089President governing board members our next meeting is a board work study brief board meeting next Tuesday 6 p.m. right here and then our next board business meeting is March 25th uh we will have spring break at the conclusion of next week I'm sure everybody's happy I know Andrea is out there I know Luca is excited and I know Albert's excited because everybody's going to be gone and they can get a lot of work done um and I just want to wish everybody a happy Happy Spring Break coming up thank you very much all right uh takes us to agenda item number 12 adjournment is there a motion to adjourn so moved thank you Miss humph I'll second that all those in favor of adjourning this evening say I I any opposed good thank you very
090much everybody