001e e e all right we're going to go ahead and get started thank you like to welcome everybody to tonight's regular board meeting October 29th 2024 normally I would uh make note of the tens of thousands of people that are watching online but you're all here in person so this is fantastic we we're uh glad everybody's here tonight and excited for the recognitions that are going to take place uh we'll start with a call to order um and we'll have a moment of silence and after that the Pledge of Allegiance if you would all please rise for our moment of silence please join me I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the for which it stands one nation under God indivisible liy and justice for all thank you
002very much uh we'll now have our roll call uh Miss Wilson Mr Chad Thompson here Miss Lori wood here miss Jill humph here miss Ronda page is not present Mr Thompson you have a quorum thank you very much Miss Wilson moving on to agenda item number two uh approval of the agenda is there a motion to approve the agenda tonight I move that we approve the agenda as presented thank you Miss humph is there a second second thank you and I'll call for a vote all those in favor of approving the agenda say I I I any opposed did I hear some eyes out there all right I like [Laughter] it this normally isn't an interactive uh meeting but it is tonight uh moving on to agenda item number three superintendent recognition Awards dror McCord
003thank you Mr Thompson governing board members if you would join me in front of the dice we will recognize some of our junior high or all of our Junior High Athletic teams this evening all here good evening everyone uh parents you don't have to act like your Junior High kids good evening everybody thank you thanks for being here um tonight is something I think is pretty special and we we decided I got an email from a coach last year wrestling coach over at one of our Junior highs Mr Dan Earl and he said you know hey I think it'd be great if you recognize the junior highs and you know I've been I've been doing this for 30 years not this job but and I thought you know what this is this is extremely important
004why haven't we been doing this and so we're doing it from now on so we might see a lot of you throughout the next couple years but we want to make sure we recognize you both my boys went through Gilbert Public Schools they played Athletics and I know what kind of work you put in at the junior high I know what kind of time you put in as student athletes and parents I know what you do getting to those games making sure that they have everything they need so you deserve as much as recognition as anybody else so tonight we're going to start it off um let's start off with so we're going to do it by school okay uh Greenfield Junior High if I could have the seventh grade boys soccer team come up
005and Coach Chris Martin there you go Mr Martin who's this this is Hayes are you related to this guy no okay just checking so Hayes you won the seventh grade boy soccer all by yourself that's that's an accomplishment no I really appreciate you guys being here coach uh do you want to just say a couple coule things real quick about your season yeah okay Coes take not I I was not prepared but uh I had a super talented group of kids um uh Hayes being one of them and the one thing I think that was great about this group of kids is they would play maybe not where they were wanted to play they would act as a team and support each other and they were really interested in the celebrations when they scored goals
006which sometimes I had to say not right now but um super talented they listened and hopefully some of the lessons that I was able to teach them they uh will take on to 8th grade and then into high school so ladies and gentlemen seventh grade boys soccer GRE we're going to take a picture with the board and then you guys can sit down okay all [Applause] right next girls cross country is Britney Garcia here and their [Applause] team come on up so you guys are the cross country winners right well congratulations would you like to introduce the rest of the folks with you sure um I'm Britney Garcia this is Andre Henderson this is is Caitlyn Swenson Jaye eart and Aaliyah Martinez talk about your season it's cross country so it's in the middle of
007July August September um they came out they worked hard every single day we were out in the mornings we were out in the afternoons we met on holidays I think at Freestone Park to get Hills in this is like the epitome of hard work so we had a great team we had great athletes and they were fantastic and they won and they deserved to if you guys would shake hands with the board and then we'll take a picture come are you still running she didn't know the season was over area [Applause] there and do I have the eighth grade any representatives from Greenfield Junior High's 8ighth grade softball team no no okay we didn't think they would be able to make it but we just wanted to make sure we didn't want to leave anybody
008out one more time for Greenfield Junior High next up South Valley Junior High eighth grade boys soccer Mr coach Pete Mueller [Music] eighth grade boys soccer coach you want to introduce or have them introduce themselves and you can say a few words I uh am going to have you introduce yourself so I don't butcher any of your names uh Bryson Freeman Nixon Peter Jordan black Daniel spot maoli Rowan crosson a little bit well uh first quarter soccer for the boys is rough it's hot you come right out into it you're playing in 110 the games are long uh but I'll tell you I was very impressed with their endurance I was more impressed with their teamwork we had a lot of solid players that could move around on the field we had excellent Keepers yep
009uh and I was I was very impressed with their professionalism their their skills and their kindness and and they do they rate each other as as Junior highs about who has some of the best sportsmanship so coming from a coach to his players and making sure that they understand that that is what's most important first uh really brings a smile to my heart so congratulations to South Valley if you guys would shake hands and uh take a picture [Applause] only you get a trophy congratulations right there in the middle and then kids yeah you guys can stack it up and we'll [Applause] [Music] congratulations next we have from South Valley Junior High eighth grade boys volleyball coaches Nikki Wagner and Shane Wagner [Applause] hi guys how are you great good thanks for being here uh
010I'll let you or they can introduce themselves and then you guys can talk about the season is that okay sure uh I am Nikki Wagner Shane Wagner Blair Johnson Matthew tronti Anderson Beasley Sam Ray Hayden Weiser so I came into this getting these this group of guys that had already won the seventh grade Championship um and we started out really really really strong they were honestly an easy group of guys to coach they already had great team chemistry um I would say part of my favorite one of my favorite things from the season is coming in and having a few of the guys that had never played before and kind of seeing their excitement and their love for the Game grow um and just watching these guys build the friendships and build the relationships that
011they have it's been a lot of fun uh they like to joke around it was hard to get them back on track sometimes but that's nothing some diving suicides wouldn't fix so but yeah they had a great season thank you guys and uh congratulations on repeating I guess is the best way to put it if you'd shake hands with the board we'll take a picture stay here till all your parents and family congratulations guys thank you thank you guys thank you next up seventh grade softball coach Jamie esperson ah there they are are hi coach look at they they're already they're ready for another round I can tell ready to come back next well congratulations to you guys would you like to have them introduce themselves and then talk about them so I'm coach Jamie
012esperson I'm lla Weber Ryland nink Addison Cortez Zoe burus vaa Clarkson EVS Jenna malum Jazzy Diaz Mia Escalante Bella Diaz Caris kimra Zoe Payne so to be honest with you I did uh I had to bribe him I told him I treat him to ice cream to anybody that showed up I did not want to stand here by myself I actually never even made it Off the Bench all season I was stuck in the Dugout they were the ones that played um I love coaching baseball soft it's the only sport where you can yell at the kids to go home and their parents cheer for you so um during tryouts um as these girls were trying out I'm like wow we have a phenomenal team here oh we got a couple more coming in let
013me have them introduce themselves we got to get your names now yep oh come on give it your name oh I'm Charlie kower my name is cafre right so yeah oh yeah so as we were going through tryouts um I was watching these girls try out and I'm like wow we just have a phenomenal group of girls here and they kept the the attitude positive the whole time uh played like Champions and it was just an extremely fun season so it really was a blessing for me to actually even get a chance to coach him I typically am just a baseball coach so I've never really coach softball before so this was my kind of introduction into softball so it was fun so congratulations to you guys if you guys would shake hands with the
014board and then we'll take a picture on put that trophy right out front [Applause] congratulations next up we have Desert Ridge Junior High if I could have the boys cross country coaches come up Coach Ken Clayman and Morgan basy and they're Runners ready I knew it Ken why you we'll have the the boys introduce themselves and then you can talk about your season okay boys Aiden Banda Mason Anderson D Wilkinson Jay Martin Eric rander riby Rogers so I'm Morgan basy this is Ken Clayman um this is a sport I've been coaching for this is my 25th year coaching cross country and I've been the only only female coach we've had at Desert Ridge we do obviously do co-ed so we practice together um we compete obviously girls and boys separately with races but we're a
015very co-ed team I think the other coaches can attest to that so when you say boys it's just a whole team so I just want to make sure we all know that um this team this year I am excited to coach cross country and I've been doing it so long because these are the best kids sorry and I'm biased of course but they're good kids they're good students they're student athletes and we always tell them that that they need to be great in the classroom and out on the field so I love coaching cross country because I just think think they're the best kids they're kind they're hardworking and they're also academic in their Athletics as well um we had a great season uh we went three and two as far as wins and losses
016throughout the season and then we pulled out the Victory and we were just elated um and in my 25 years I think this is our eighth boys cross country Championship so that I've seen and I'm going to keep going I I coached um track for 15 years as well but now I'm focusing on Cross Country so anything you want to say coach I figured thank you congratulations if you guys would shake hands with the board and then we'll take a [Applause] picture right guys come on over to the middle and we'll gather around you well done thank you guys and last but not least we have seventh grade boys volleyball from Desert Ridge Junior High coach Craig McDaniel and do you have any team there they are see again we'll have the boys introduce themselves
017then you can talk Jackson Johnson JJ Stenberg Chad Hoops all right I'm Craig McDaniel this is actually my 30th year coaching in the district um and I try counting all the Championships I've had over the years and this is my 15th and never before have I had a team struggle so much during the season I think our record was two and six going into the playoffs and then they went on a row and they brought home the championship so fantastic um very proud of everybody they worked hard and I couldn't ask for anything more from them so nice job boys congratulations gentlemen if you shake hands with the board and then we'll take a picture [Applause] I would like to give a shout out to all of our administrators principles assistant principes Deans from uh
018the junior highs that showed up tonight thank you guys for making this possible and we will definitely see you again governing board members that concludes our recognitions for this evening thank you you there's that one yeah ioty after should we give them a few minutes to go home and log on so they can watch the rest online no all right probably seemed like a motivated group that was fantastic thank you very much uh moving on to agenda item number four superintendent report again Dr Shane McCord thank you Mr Thompson and governing board members uh want to talk to you real quick about uh school and District letter grades I'm just going to say a few things there's going to be a presentation on that here shortly but the Arizona Department of Education released the 2324
019School letter grades last Friday the state's accountability system is designed to empower schools to achieve and increase Student Success by providing districts and schools with feedback on areas of strength and those that may need additional focus and enrichment schools learn letter grades based on various metrics including proficiency and growth in critical subject areas graduation rates subgroup proficiency Improvement acceleration and Readiness measures and College and Career Readiness indicators the letter grades indicate the following a is excellent B highly performing C performing D minimally performing and F is Failing Gilbert Public Schools is incredibly proud of its students and staff and their achievement ments for the 2324 school year Gilbert Public Schools as a district received an a letter grade for our school district further all GPS schools have achieved either an A or B letter grade
020and the Arizona Department of Education has rated them as excellent or highly performing as listed as I said before this achievement reflects the hard work of our students staff and families and I can't reiterate that enough over the last few years we've have been very focused on making sure our students have everything they they need and that means as a school district we have to ensure that our our staff has everything they need our principles have everything they need and we did we set the bar high and I believe our folks have achieved it there's always room for improvement we're not going to be settled uh with just this we're going to keep our foot on the gas and keep going but publicly I want to say to all of our our students our teachers
021our support staff our administrators our district LEL staff and our families how proud I am of them and I want to thank them for entrusting us with their students and their academic achievements so congratulations to everybody and election day is one week from today Tuesday November 5th every election is important whether it's during a presidential election or not I encourage everyone who is of voting age to exercise their right as a US citizen to go and vote you have the power and the right to have your voice heard and make it a difference again one week from today Mr Thompson that concludes my report for this evening thank you very much uh the letter grade uh accomplishment this year that's a big deal um and so I just want to underscore Dr McCord's comments um
022on how uh how how pleased and how proud the board is um with the hard work from all of our staff and students and and the families would any other any of the other board members like to comment I would love to comment I am so proud that um we've made this level of accomplishment because we've come a long ways in the time that we've had letter grades we've come a long ways and I don't think a letter grade is everything but I think it does give us something to look at and work with our students and help them move forward so I am very proud of all the hard work that's been put in by every everyone it's a it really is a team effort and I would say all that curriculum and all
023that training is paying off I'm looking forward to the the presentation tonight as well so thank you to everyone who's with all the hard work thank you all right uh moving on to agenda item number five request to speak to the governing board uh we uh are going to have Miss would read our admonition before we uh hear from our speakers request to speak to the governing board pursuant to ARS 38-43 1.02 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 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
024may ask staff to review a matter or may ask that a matter be put on a future agenda however members of the governing board shall only discuss or take legal action on the issues raised during an open call to the public if the matters are properly noticed for discussion and legal action during an open call the governing board requests that speakers refrain 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 Miss Wood uh we have two requests to speak to the board tonight uh the first one is Bridget Vega it's okay I was I didn't I didn't see her here so thank you for and uh so
025then that and chissa it'll chissa Arnold you're welcome to come up to the podium you'll have three minutes and it'll be uh noted with uh uh a green a yellow and a red when you're getting close to the end perfect thank you thank thank you for your time tonight just last month the Arizona state supreme court gathered officials to have the discussion about teens committing violent crimes 2024 set a record in teens charged with aggravated assaults kids are angry mental health institutions are constantly in maximum capacity and suicide remains a leading cause of death among kids in Arizona Maricopa County attorney Rachel Mitchell's office cited a 350% increase in first degre murder among teens and a 106% increase among aggravated assault in teenagers we have kids hurting and hurt people hurt people this is an
026epidemic that must be taken seriously or we will much more kids get injured or die and our schools here in Gilbert are not exempt because it is happening this town has multiple gangs um operating in its presence and it is recognized and those gang members are attending your schools there is a heightened awareness of the number of guns as circulating among Our Youth and this was seen just last week as the loaded gun was carried on mosques campus I have said to you guys it's not going to be long before a shooting occurs especially after the bullying happened with my own child the as the fact um in fact you probably don't know that kids from the West Valley are actually driving out to the East Valley to party and I say this because I
027know the parties are not happening here during the school day but the number of drugs and guns and alcohol that is accessible it is significantly more accessible in the East Valley than it is in the West Valley so local authorities are citing West Valley kids coming out here to party with our East Valley students girls are having guns held to their heads and they feel like it's a normal thing they don't take a bad at they don't bad an eye at it um and the guns being at these parties is not a big deal there are numerous driveby shootings going on as well it is a this is a nationwide problem that we're dealing with here and this school district is not exempt from these issues happening we are heavily working with local and broader
028police departments and leaders to help put policies and procedures in place to combat this problem once again we're asking for you as a district to take this seriously and create clear disciplinary policies for your schools as well as Implement further safety procedures to prevent loaded guns from coming on your campuses again thank you Miss Arnold um I would i' also like to uh make mention that we had three online comments uh this afternoon and so I just wanted to thank those that commented and Miss Arnold again for coming tonight and speaking to the board thank you moving on to agenda item number six uh 6.01 monthly financial report and first quarter financial report ended September 30th 20124 for fiscal year 2025 Dr McCord thank you Mr Tom governing board members I'll turn this over to
029our associate superintendent of Business Services Miss Bonnie Betts thank you um good evening governing board members um so hold on so Sarah I need some help I can't uh control the screen excuse me we even practiced okay great good evening governing board members Mr Thompson um Dr McCord this is our monthly Financial but as you um were told this is September 30th year to date ending September 30th so we also have included some quarter to quarter comparisons at the end of this report uh today to give you an idea of how we're doing on a quarter uh comparison quarter to quarter a year ago versus today so to begin we're going to start with the monthly Financial reports um always present the district operating funds wanted to share some details about the Federal grant funds
030and the state Grant funds and then the final reconciliation regarding the bond fund fund 630 and then you can see that we'll be talking about revenues year-over-year and expenditures year-over-year um at the end of the report so these are our district operating funds as you would expect our available balance continues to be drawn down um in small amounts so about a $200,000 difference from last month to this month and about a half a million dollar difference in unrestricted Capital um so this is normal we are at the beginning of the school year and so as the allocations are being spent on unrestricted capital purchase orders are being um being opened and allocations are being approved so um spending is is continuing so the Federal grant funds wanted to share um idea Part B so note
031that last month we shared that there was um about a $2.5 million uh available balance and this month it's about $250,000 so note that as we begin the year we have private school uh private day schools that many of our special education students are um we we tuition them in and so we have went we have gone ahead and um encumbered all of those funds for the year for those students that are attending private schools and most of that has been placed into our special education fund um Ida note that idea and maintenance operations operate um in conjunction with one another so as idea funds are depleted then maintenance and operations funds uh take over about $65 million of Maintenance operations goes to uh addressing the the needs of our special education students also note
032the other Federal projects so we're just letting you know that we know that there's a negative $555,000 available balance we do um we did our best estimate on the adopted budget which was back in June and so we have additional carry over that was awarded so that negative will be corrected when we present the revised budget to you in early February so under our state Grant funds wanted to point out instructional Improvement there has been a significant incumbrance of um purchase orders uh due to the implementation of the math adoption so there's a lot of professional development going on throughout our schools um reflecting that increase in that spend and income an um column and then finally the bond fund so this represents our final reconciliation it is a little bit different than what was
033presented to you a couple of weeks ago when we did the bond and override report what I'd really like to point out here um on the top the transfer to bond debt and the cost of issuance so as we are out selling bonds you can see that we had a cost of issuance in 21 22 and 24 those were the three Bond sales associated with the November of 2019 authorization so note that the amount that was anticipated to be spent was a little bit more than what was actually needed so whatever is uh left over that was unspent must be transferred into Bond debt to um into the bond Debt Service fund to offset the uh Levy against the taxpayer so that will help um the amount of money that we will Levy going into
034the 20 um 25 26 school year just wanted to point that out and then you can also see that the remaining balance here is zero so everything has been encumbered or spent to date out of that final um $100 million authorization so and before I move on are there any questions about any details on the monthly Financial I've got a question if you could go back to slide I seven or eight um s six five um was this it it was where you maybe maybe it is further up where you $65 million um it was on the idea Part B line for special education out of maintenance and operation so you can see that our adopted budget was about $5.8 million um idea is the federal dollars that go go to supporting our special education
035students and then maintenance and operations carries the rest so overall we're about $72 million annually how does that compare to other school districts our size I've heard I mean I know that that and Dr McCord mentioned it earlier tonight that we do everything we can to offer every opportunity and every um advantage to our students how does that $72 million compare if you know to other districts our size um I don't know that offhand um I do know that as time goes on as we um are decreasing in enrollment our special education population is a higher percentage that has been when I first arrived at Gober Public Schools it was about 11 and a half to 12% and we're now over 14% so it is a big uh expenditure for all school districts in Arizona
036um but I'm very happy to do that research for you to see how we do compare to our our neighbors and our peers we have families that seek us out uh as a school district people move here because of our special education programs and um I'm very proud of that because we I believe we do it better than anybody else and uh but that does come with the cost but um we truly um are proud of what we offer to our students with special needs so yeah and I I just I just think that's incredible and I I would I I'd be willing to to bet that there's not um one Gilbert public school's family that doesn't know someone directly whether it's a family member uh somebody that lives on their block uh somebody from
037different clubs or churches that that utilize Gilbert Public Schools um special education programs and I just think that's fantastic that we put such emphasis on uh uh on that most important community so thank you okay so now we're moving on to the first quarter financial report so again uh keep in mind that we're comparing um 202 3 quarter 1 to 20 I'm sorry 2024 quarter 1 to 2025 quarter 1 okay so I'm looking to see how how what we expect has actually happened regarding revenues and expenditures so um let's see um also keep in mind that this analysis is specific to our operating funds only so we're not looking at all the federal funds and all the Enterprise funds and all those other funds it's just that operating grid that we're comparing uh quarter to
038quarter so operating operating Revenue by Source year over-year comparison note that the state portion has increased in 2024 in comparison to the state portion in 2023 um note again that the county uh contribution was 20 was zero in in uh September of 2023 which is fiscal 2024 September of 24 is fiscal 2025 just so we're clear on the on the dates we're talking about here and then note that the county uh amount in 2024 is actually negative by $400,000 so keep in mind that as um and we are all aware of this because of the Quasar uh settlement where we have to pay back um dollars to the taxpayer that their sess value is overstated so that payback has to come out of the contributing fund so in that particular case um that County that's
039that's partial contributor to why that's negative so it may resolve itself it may go up and down it depends there's also prior year uh tax collections that are added to that as well so we'll just keep an eye on it and report that out um every quarter um and then you can see that uh to date we have received about uh 16% of the revenue um the Year year-to date revenue and you'd expect that we should receive about 25% because we're at the first quarter well as you know the State of Arizona imposes a delay in the state aid of about 36 37 million for govern public schools and so that's why the it's not the expected 25% on the revenues received again this is not a concern for us we do have adequate reserves
040where we're not incurring interest charges um so this is not negatively impacting us and does not negatively impact our budget okay so again this is expected annual revenues uh versus the um the actual so again it just depicts the same thing and this is local County state and federal you can see that I told you that this was specific to um to our operating funds but note that there is a federal contribution in our operating funds the two funds that are in our operating funds that contribute that are that contribute to our operating funds that are federal are the Medicaid reimbursement as well as e rate so just so you're clear what that is it gets confusing because we have a federal fund grid but there are some federal funds that contribute to our um
041operating funds M vets just any of these charts um help me remember why is there such a difference in the state versus local contribution between the two years so the 43 million versus the 40 million yeah so um there really shouldn't be because the the amount uh cu the county so you'd expect a large difference between um September of 22 versus September of 23 because we had County Equalization in 22 but we didn't in 23 and the state revenue picked that up this occurrence of $3 million is due to timing we just received some monies earlier than others anything specific yeah there's nothing specific it's totally due to the timing of the revenues received thank you yep so operating Revenue this is operating Revenue by fund so you would expect that maintenance and operations of
042course represents the largest amount of that um and again the changes are due to timing uh but if you note classroom site fund you see $5 million last year and about 7.8 this year that is reflective of the dollar amount per student increase that was um calculated by The Joint legislative budget committee going into this uh fiscal year fiscal 25 and again this is just depicting it actual um in in the different Manner and then finally we're going to take a look at the operating fund expenditures year-over-year comparison so note that we share expended and encumbered so we have haven't spent $344 million as of this point but we have spent and encumbered that amount because as we start the school year we encumber the full amount for salaries and benefits and you can also
043see that that 344 um million dollars of spend is significantly higher than the revenues that we've received to date um again we're authorized to spend to our budget capacity and regard regardless of whether we have available cash at the time so just because of the amount that we've been able to reserve um we are in a fine shape in terms of cash management um but we are not out of line we are doing what we're supposed to be doing and we are budget controlled here in the state of Arizona and then you can see um on this particular graph you can see that um uh the expended encumbered in capital was about 29.7 million um a year ago and $ 35.8 million this year so the big change is that we are pushing more of
044our capital projects that are happening out in our our schools into unrestricted Capital because our bond dollars are totally um spent to date so that's the biggest reason for that change there any questions there I'll just ask what's and remind me what's the operating what was the increase in operating is that it's just 1% but yeah and I I think it's also just timing of of increases and depending upon when things were encumbered it's really difficult to say because this is encumberance so right right okay and also costs have gone up though our utility costs have gone up I mean even our water in the town of Gilbert has significantly gone up so those purchase orders that are being encumbered are higher okay thank you okay and that's all that I have for tonight thank
045you very much thank you very much Miss BS uh moving on to 6.02 our teaching and learning academic Spotlight Dr McCord thank you Mr tops and governing board members I will let our assistant superintendent of teaching and learning Mr Jared Ryan introduce this next subject thank you so much Mr Thompson governing board Dr McCord uh we're proud this evening to bring two presentations your way uh both of which are a joint effort between administrative Services technology Services office ATT talent management business services and teaching and learning uh most important both our direct reflection of the leadership from the governing board and our superintendent Dr McCord uh we're here tonight to share with you some exciting results of both efforts that are being put in by staff specific attention on transition periods meaning to nth grade
046in some cases we'll talk about freshmen also some additions made to our grad tracker so I'm going to introduce uh Laura conteras who's our counseling coordinator uh we also have a couple people with us that I want to recognize Sarah Van Cleave is our Desert Ridge High School counseling department chair and Ryan Nelson here in the back who is our director of data and research he's kind of the brains behind the operation and brings our thoughts to reality and and honestly none of what you're going to see here would would be in place without the support of tech services and our data and research Department Miss Laura well thank you so much for the opportunity for us to share again I'm Laura contas I'm the coordinator of counseling for both Junior High and high school
047um and Sarah is going to join me in explaining um some things that some wonderful things that they're doing at Desert Ridge um but we did want to go over um and kind of um reintroduce the graduation tracker I believe it was discussed last year year um and kind of introduced to the board um it's something that we've worked over the last year through data and research through teaching and learning through each of the individual campuses to really make improvements and update um and just be more sophisticated in the way that we use it um and there's been a lot of time and effort placed into it with the help of Hope of supporting students um so I wanted to give just some screenshots um and so you can visualize what students and parents and
048counselors see when they're going into the grad tracker and kind of point out some updates this is just a sample plan um not specific to a student if it was a student you would see um they're identifying information on the top their ID number who their counselor was everything in this one page um and then I want to highlight um if you take a look at the top there is um the colorcoded key which is really important that we're very visual with our students and families um because it's going to help us identify things easier so if you take a look green is are things that have already um that have been taken and completed um blue is going to be things that are planned for the future yellow is in progress and then red
049is kind of our warning system right if anything's in red on the grad tracker um we need to pay close attention to that so um this plan also indicates what um the post high school plans are so where kids going postsecondary whether it be trade school universities all of that and then whether they're planning of going in state or out of state so the goal is to work with the grad tracker initially with incoming freshmen and we'll share with you some of the initiatives that we've taken with that in the past but to plan out and set some goals for students individually when um they're in high school so you can see here that um each content area is represented all of the core areas towards graduation and so it outlines Again by content area
050um there's a little button in the corner that I want to show you um where that Arrow is that says show plan and if students click on there why is this not working she said to slide the thing that it would work it's not working oh oh it did move okay sorry it's behind it's lagging there we go okay sorry about that um so if you click on the show plan then what it does is it visually takes you to this again with the colorcoded right like where we are in um what courses have been taken um we can see the student is a junior because in yellow is where their in progress is and then they have their senior year planned out in blue so it's just another format to visualize what students typically
051think of when they're planning out their four years so then if we go back to the the grad tracker the main page this is the kind of the bottom half of that other sheet and so it continues to outline where the requirements are again you'll see everything denoted with that color coded if it's something that was already taken the grade is indicated there um and then or when it's in progress what year it was taken and all of those things in the bottom right hand corner is all of that information kind of put together right it tells you how many credits have are planned and earned so far um it tells you if they passed the Civic exam which is a key component to graduation as well and then it highlights the um unweighted GPA
052their class Rank and then most importantly that green button is what we want to see for our students right that they're on on track that we have a plan for them um but we also don't necessarily panic when it's read Because what that highlights to us is to counselor specifically is that there needs to be some type of intervention right that that student needs a support and it doesn't mean that they weren't on track at one time but maybe they were signed up for a summer school class and they didn't complete it maybe they didn't pass a course and so it it is basically that alert system that tells us right away um that they're off track and so for future use what we're really EXC about is that parents and um students will use
053this and they can be kind of the keepers of their information and kind of know that and it's going to prompt those discussions um with the counselor to make sure that they don't fall too far behind and that we can intervene appropriately okay and then this is there we go okay and so what's really really exciting and again this is a huge kudos to our data and res research team um we've been traveling around to the different campuses with our data and research team to um discuss the information that's come out of grad tracker and they've developed basically this incredible um system of of pages and um places that we can identify at a glance whether it be the district level at the campus level individual counsel level you can take a look at and
054see where um kids are on track and off track right so and in this example um of information it's it's what can be provided so we can see at a glance for the cohorts how many seniors do we have that are currently off track and then um we can dive deeper into who are those students what are the reasons behind that and so um you know just kind of looking at that measure of accountability there and then additionally um across the bottom it shows you some different um key points that are those early warning factors and at risk fact fa s that we want to identify in students so we want to identify what are the missing courses that students have um what in progress failures are are common among students how many are there
055what behavioral incidents are interfering with their success um absenteeism High rates of absenteeism is something that we're battling on our campuses and so to have that data right there allows us to jump in and intervene um a as individual campuses and then districtwide so um and then we can also just identify who is not on track simply because they have to pass the Civics test right so um those are all important things that we look at Miss contras yes what's a super senior a super senior is for instance if they were in the cohort of 2023 and they have not graduated yet if they haven't completed so they go beyond the four years okay thank you yeah absolutely so and what's important about those students too is capturing them right following up with those students
056identifying them and so this system allows us really to jump in and identify those kids like why didn't they get finished can they get finished in the summer um you know to count within that cohort absolutely all right so as a result of utilizing the graduation tracker one of our big focuses has been on freshman visits and like putting freshman first in developing that four-year plan we want to utilize this tool to help students set goals for themselves and so um all of the Comprehensive High Schools all of the high schools actually um are utilizing this system everyone's been tasked with meeting with their freshmen during the first semester of nth grade that we we feel like that's really important and but each campus has a unique approach I know last year Camp overy High
057School shared they do freshman family meetings with all of their families and so their process literally does take the entire semester to make sure that they're meeting with their students and planning those four-year plans out um our Focus has been on parent involvement um really focusing on that first semester goal so we'll take a look at all of that data with individual campuses to see where um to make to ensure that we're capturing and and giving the individual attention to each of those students um Gilbert High for instance did something a little bit different this year they went in within the first three weeks of school they met with all of their freshmen in their biology classes because that's a common class that the majority of freshmen take and they were able to all their
058entire counseling team went into each section they did presentations they introduced themselves they um but then more importantly they follow they followed up with individual meetings with the students during that time um to to put a face with a name and then to sit down and and work on their grad tracker and then subsequently communicated with their parents the outcome of those meetings and so I'd like to invite Sarah up to speak about Desert Ridge and what they've done this this semester and more importantly the first quarter of this year because they've done such a fantastic job they've met with 98% I think is where we're at right now of their freshmen and actually developed a plan for them thank you Laura and thank you for having me tonight um I am Sarah van CLE
059I'm the department chair uh for counseling at Desert rid high and I've been in the district long enough that I remember doing these on paper so thank you to Ryan and the data team for making this so much easier and more user friendly for most importantly our students and parents um at Desert Ridge we try to meet with our students all of our freshmen in the first quarter um the earlier the better because they're new to our campus we want them to be able to put a face with the name talk to them about some expectations start to get their goals down on paper um so that they have a Direction so our plan this year we met with all of our freshmen through their English class the second week of September um they come
060down in individual classes every counselor goes into um a presentation pulls their specific group of students we divide up by Alpha split so we group our students by last name and follow them for four years um so we pulled them aside into small groups of our own students so they could put a face with the name we could get to know them a little bit better we gave them a short presentation about some of the important parts of high school where they can receive help um who their resources are on campus graduation requirements college entrance requirements and so forth and then we helped them each develop a four-year plan that aligned with both their post-secondary goals their High School graduation and their interests um once we developed that with them we met with them individually
061just to double check the accuracy answer any questions um once we were done with the entire um group of English classes which took us about a week week and a half we sent out uh communication to all of our parents parents from The Freshman Class gave them examples of how they could log into the four-year plan let them know what we met with their students about and encourage them to go ahead and check out their students graduation fore plan and contact us with any questions that they had um so it seemed to be pretty successful we have 98% of our freshmen on track with a completed graduation plan um we have a couple outliers because they're homeschoolers or they've got very unique situations so as hard as we tried to make it 100% we couldn't
062quite get there but um we're pretty proud of the work we've done we feel like it really made a great connection with our freshman class all right um yeah and truly we're really so very proud of all of the campuses for the efforts that they're doing and putting students first and really making sure that um things are done on an individual basis with our students and and being sure to communicate with parents as well and so I'd like to just share with you um there's two different ways that parents and students can access Infinite Campus and so one of the things that we found out through I mean kind of historically with with kids especially is they don't look at anything on the computer right so um they're typically looking on their phone and at
063their app and so there are instructions there that we shared with you on how students can log in from from the app and and their phone um to get to their grad tracker um which is really important and then I also wanted to share with you you can actually get there by logging into the school district website um clicking um so and yeah and then just clicking on Infinite Campus and then there's a button that says show more um and we've worked really hard on trying to get it in a visual place but you do need to click on show more and then it takes you actually to this drag grad tracker icon um that students then can go there and access that and really what we want to do is normalize kids looking at
064it frequently making sure that they're following up so that will be part of all of our education and C action planning is referring to that and promoting the use of that whether it be on the computer but pretty typically through their phone so they can take a look at any time and know if they're on or off track so with that are there any questions for myself or Sarah any questions from the board oh yeah you want to go I'll go first I the only question I had is this is awesome I'm so excited about it and I think it allows counselors to have the information right at their fingertips really help students in all these different areas which is we need all that support so I'm so excited about it so appreciative of this
065my one question is um how do we because they they have to register before their freshman I mean they you're meeting with them as freshmen during their freshman year but they have to register for classes for 9th grade remind me how do they figure out which classes to take as nth graders because that has to happen like February sure so you're working in eth grade so typically and I'll let I'll let Sarah share again depending on um the campus the high school counselors will go to whatever feeder Junior highs there are and they have those processes in place to do presentations send communication home they're typically working very closely with the junior high counselors to make sure the junior high counselors kind of understand what goes on um for high school and so typically they're
066choosing that typical basic freshman um schedule um we also host the Freshman preview nights at each campus so before students register they're invited onto campus to see all of the electives all of the academics to meet teachers you know all of the different things that they might do whether it be performing arts or anything like that so there's definitely very focused Outreach um there's not with doing that registration for incoming freshmen and then as well as the rest of the high school what we found is I think there's been efforts to try to do the four-year planning at that part and kids don't necessarily understand it they just need we need them to get to high school but we feel like it's very important that we take care of that in the first semester because
067they're there they understand a little bit more about it but um but getting them that Foundation of courses during um n9th grade is the goal of that eth grade meeting and then planning from there sir do you want to add yeah so I can speak to what we do at Desert Ridge um we go to Desert Ridge Jr and meet individually with um English classes once again just because they're usually the easiest to work with um but we meet with individually with English classes give a similar presentation including graduation requirements and then present all of our Freshman Class options we are kind of in the process and started it last year where we're really working hard to identify students who have the potential to try honors classes and AP classes and kind of pre-s slugging
068those um a little bit for them based on teacher recommendation and certain criteria just to try to push sometimes nervous freshmen a little bit harder into something that they can do um so we do meet with them and give a presentation and then we go back a week later to collect all of the registration forms and meet with them individually answer any questions go over their forms make sure they're accurate um and if they have any specific plans or goals that kind of influence what they're going to take further down the road we answer those questions and set them up for that for their freshman year as well that sounds great I think the more that we can and I know I know the students need to own it but I think also the more
069that we can communicate with the parents and inform which I know you guys do I think that's a huge piece I love that parents and students are going to be able to see this so easily and be involved and have a really better idea of what four years looks like so thank you yeah absolutely no I I appreciate I appreciate having the scad tracker because I feel I remember doing it in paper sitting down me too because okay we want to do these electives um you know I had some some children that were very involved in music and trying to fit in choir and advanced choir it took a lot of planning to get your schedule worked out and I think this is really great um it seems a lot more planned and we can
070be more focused and not as halfhazard but what happens if we make that plan and then um our high school scheduling there might be a conflict between a couple of different classes or um they they have one need but then the high school schedule doesn't quite meet that need help me understand that yeah and so so really from year to year so we are always going to meet each individual year with students and revisit their grad tracker in order to facilitate their registration for the upcoming school year right we know that not everyone is going to I mean and probably pretty rarely are you going to be this is my grad tracker and we're not going to deviate from it for some reason right interest change you know you make a certain team or you
071don't so that will all be updated with with the schedule then if they're but it what it does allow us to do as well from the scheduling standpoint from a campus it allows us to predict what kids will need in the future early much earlier than waiting till this the spring so it actually I think we've used it already to really inform our decision making as far as scheduling to try to to avoid that um and then once the schedule is changed it the in progress then changes and so the plan changes so it is a it is something that is fluid does that make sense yeah it it does make sense but I also know there were problems of um this was just in the past of being able to get the class you
072needed and it was in conflict with two classes that were needed yeah so there was a trying to figure out how to make that from a scheduling standpoint and so yeah and so we try to be as flexible and I know the master schedulers on campuses um and and the AP registration coordinators they actually they start with those Singleton classes to try to avoid that as much as possible yeah all right thank you I appreciate that absolutely it's a you know we have a lot of students and meeting everyone's needs and getting that high school schedule down and getting everyone where they need to be as really a a master art so thank you for all that hard work absolutely anything else no thank you thank you for that [Applause] presentation keep it down back
073there all right perfect oh it is great to see the excitement that you have for the the grab tracker and I think it's a tremendous tool that we're using for our students and families to stay on track so thank you very much moving on to 6.03 uh district and school letter grades Dr McCord thank you Mr Topson governing board members I will turn it over once again to uh Mr Ryan and as I alluded to in my superintendent report we are excited and we thought it would be a great time since while the iron is hot to make sure that we give you some information from what we just found out last Friday Mr Ryan yeah thank you Mr Thompson governing board Dr McCord Mr Thompson I believe you said um that's a big deal
074earlier when when commenting and you're absolutely right it's on Friday we were in pins and needles um hoping that we were going to have final results and um we had an idea of where we're going to land but until the final authorization to to share out is is given you're always kind of uh just a waiting game I would like to just say I was sitting next to Mr burer as he was going through our spreadsheet of what we believed our points were and what the ad reported and I think all of them were exactly right 100% corre yeah I didn't get to do that with uh Dr Cox but I'm sure she was doing the same thing she was texting me into the night can we release these yet because other just and and
075that's how it was I mean when you when you do do something well you want everyone to know and I really appreciate the work these two have done uh throughout this whole process so thank you so we will down the road get into much greater detail during a upcoming board retreat or a study session or or whatever the governing board and Dr McCord would would want us to do but we did want to share tonight uh the results uh that we're we're aware of um pre- 12 we have an incredible amount uh an incredible number of positive trends and in in recent years the amount of data that we've had access to the information that that is at our fingertips to make decisions the support of the governing board with curricular adoptions and a variety
076of other pieces that have been critical to this um are all celebrated um what you'll hear is a step this is a celebration um we're not satisfied uh this doesn't stop here this isn't a Finish Line but we do take time to celebrate and so with that Dr Christa Cox our secondary director of curriculum instruction and assessment along with Robert burer our elementary director of curriculum instruction and assessment are here and um I just want to finish by saying before I turn over to them this isn't by happen stance this wasn't a Gilbert thing that good kids and teachers show up um the work by our students the work by our families the work by our teachers is just Second To None um I'm blessed to work with coordinators directors colleagues assistant superintendents governing board
077superintendent that it just everyday Focus um earlier today Miss Taylor was emotional as she's listening to Junior High leadership team share their story during impact checks and you kind of look around in that room and you realize something special is going on and um I'm just blessed to be part of it and and uh I'm going to turn it over to these two who who do incredible work okay thank you so much Mr Ryan so he's kind of going over what we're going to go over tonight um we're going to go over a again we plan on going more in depth into some of the data once we've had a little more time to disaggregate it uh but tonight we want to go ahead and celebrate what we're seeing in the data um we have
078some quick numbers that we got from a public file that will show kind of where we rank in accordance to other districts in the East Valley and then I also we're going to reveal our our district letter grade so what we've got here is the accountability formula for our K8 schools it has not changed in a number of years which has really allowed us to hone in and make improvements um in monitoring the data as we know this is the third year that we have taken the ASA assessment so it's really allowed us to adapt to the assessment um and make sure that our curriculum and instruction is aligned to the assessment I also want to say as part of what you're going to see um a huge amount of credit goes to Tia Hansen
079and Tim Cannon having instructional leadership coaches to help monitor um the data that they're seeing come in the uh and go out to campuses and discuss hey I saw this in the data and I'll I'll let you know as a principal there's a lot of data coming at you very quickly thank you data and research department but it's super important to have another set of eyes going over it and then the data just is part of the picture I think it's important to see a data point and then connect with the campus to get the rest of the story um it could be that this or that happened and you're like oh okay so that's just you know the again the data that we're looking at is just one point so huge shout out to
080them we've also got the quarterly impact checks which are absolutely I think it has been super eye opening for us at the district level and at the school level so each site comes in quarterly and presents to um people from so it's Jason with the elementary schools and then we've got uh Marcy with the secondary schools then we've also got curriculum instruction assessment we have data and research this last go around we've had professional growth and development it really is an opportunity for schools um to show the impact that their action steps have made um we have conversations on the data we ask questions about hey so you're here did you ever think about doing this um and having those quarterly I think really allows it's almost like the A+ School visit is you have
081an opportunity to reflect prior on hey this is going really well or hey maybe I need to Pivot here just a little bit um I think those are invaluable uh for what you're going to see here in a second so I just have one question about that isn't that based on the um training we had a three years of training for data analysis and I'm sorry I forget the company that came in and helped us with that but it's that is that I and data teams yes definitely and I know um Lisa still comes out she'll actually be here next week um to continue and monitor we're building common unit assessments this year we are implementing the common unit assessments for ELA right in secondary at CLA as well and this year we're building in
082math and social studies to roll those out next year so again just adding different data points for us to be able to monitor student achievement better but yeah I'd say it's all a part of that work yeah because I mean I know we put a lot of effort into that and it's taken some time to get everyone through that training definitely so I just wanted to highlight that yep love it okay okay so here we have the 2-year comparison of AD letter grades for our 26th elementary school so I'll kind of pause for a second um sorry I'm too excited there was one second okay so what you see on here is the legend is green reflects growth year-over-year we had 13 elementary schools so 13 out of 26 improved either a letter grade or
083points year-over-year and again that is tough to do especially when you're at an a to continue to keep an A and find ways to get those points um is just a huge a huge shout out to our campuses we have 22 a schools 4 B so 100% of our elementary schools um are AB rated I've got to give a huge shout out our instructional coaches are critical in making all of this work whether it's planning PDS onboarding new teachers and getting them used to the culture of the campus they are the behind the scenes calling Ryan for data hey I need this so I can help move instruction for this grade level team over here they're often doing coaching cycles and helping be um just somebody alongside our teachers to move them from good to
084great in the elementary campuses it's absolutely in valuable to have a thought partner in academics as you know um many of our elementary schools don't have that Dean assistant principle and it's just nice to have somebody to collaborate like hey you seeing the same thing so the full-time instructional coaches definitely go towards what you're seeing here can I can I just ask one question about quartz seal because I remember that they were doing really well the previous year and then they got a C and now they've jumped from a c to an a a huge jump in points yep I've got to give a huge shout out and I was actually going to do that on the next side slide so huge thank you um for that nice segue for me I've got a I
085turned on the news Monday morning and they were featured on this big infographic that they were like one of the top five gainers in letter grades from um 2023 to 2024 so ABC 15 caught up on that when they were looking at the public file um so huge shout out um I know Mike the instructional coach Dr Henry um and all the amazing staff at courtz Hill go Trailblazers that definitely um I would say they were more refined in the data teams process and the quarterly impact checks and sticking to the plan um really paid dividends with courtel sorry did that kind of yes that answered my question but I I do remember that you know they had done really well and then all of a sudden they had a c right which was you
086know a shocker and then but you know to to gain 22 points and go from a c to an May is significant in one year is a huge huge uh accomplishment yeah it definitely so again huge shout out to our Trailblazers um couple other things I wanted to point out so again courtz Hill was um the local media kind of picked up on the huge jump that they made four schools were with amongst the top 100 Point gainers for elementary schools in Arizona so huge shout out Canyon Rim was the 25th they got the 25th most points in theate State of Arizona for elementary schools Greenfield Elementary was 30th Highland Park Elementary 49th and Patterson 62nd so again to have four of our elementary schools get the top make the list of top 100 um
087for points gained is is a huge um celebration additionally I got to give a huge shout out to our cougars out at Canyon Rim um so they were our top Point getter in elementary school last year and they did it again they found a way to improve and they actually have more than 100 points this year so usually the point scale tops out of a at 100 and they're at 10.68 um so huge shout out to our Mesa um our Mesa wing of Gilbert Public Schools also Greenfield ended up getting more than a 100 points um and I've got to say that's huge Miss um Julie AER was huge on plc's and doing reflective teaching um yeah and that's what I've got for element all right so we're going to shift gears good evening to
088our uh secondary schools our seventh and eighth grade are held to the same standard and accountability model as what you saw on the first slide that Mr berer shared but for our 9th through 12th grade the accountability model does look slightly different So within that you still see student proficiency and student growth uh and the English language Learners the two indicators that are different for 9 through 12th are the graduation rate and the College and Career Readiness index a couple of months ago before letter grades we were we already knew how we did on the College and Career Readiness index that was a presentation uh we were very excited to bring to the board because our brick and mortar schools for the first time in Gilbert Public Schools all hit the 20% uh and most
089of them actually earned toward their bonus points as well in that area so when you see that that's 20% of the letter grade that's absolutely Ely um huge and so uh because I went into that so much in depth in a prior presentation I just wanted to kind of give a quick summary on that and then when you look at our secondary schools um I don't know I feel like I can't get rid of the uh perran that I've had over this past week uh when you look up there the The Legend is the same as what Mr bercher said we have one title school but when you look at the growth in letter grade and or points uh all of our schools areas and or showed increase all of them so our secondary schools
090are absolutely just crushing it and so um it was kind of already stated but when you do get to that a standpoint you can kind of see a little bit of uh a status quo in those points and I know um even for those two schools that earned the a their points they're they're still uh chomping at the bit to find ways to continuously try to hit that 100% uh which is it seems near impossible but we do have some schools that do hit that and so with this want to talk about how um our instructional framework and our district continuous Improvement plan Mr burchard talked about the impact checks that are happening at our campuses but one of the things that we did start last year is we kind of realized that maybe we
091did things backwards and that we really needed to have a district Improvement plan that was similar to what we were putting our schools through uh when we were noticing trends when the schools when we would finish those impact checks uh they're they're very um they're they're my favorite days of work and we have those three times a year and you just walk away totally uplifted and uh it reminds you why you're doing what you're doing and we had realize that some of the trends that were surfacing that if we came together and did that same process as a district leadership team we would maybe be a step ahead of some of those Trends to be uh more Forward Thinking and more proactive with some of the supports we could offer uh we started those last
092year and we already have most of our schools have reached out and have thanked us for that process and I think that it's really made it more authentic and shows that we're all a part of that process so even the site uh goals now align to even the district goals and it just I've not I've been in Gilbert public schools for just under a decade and this is the most aligned I've seen uh our our district leadership our teacher it doesn't matter who you are what role you are I just feel like there's such a contagious energy that is happening right now and it's something extremely special and I feel like as governing board members uh if you don't hear that enough I know you guys get a lot of emails Pros cons everything uh
093comes your way but you need to know there's something special um that's going on right now and it's extremely contagious people are excited to be a part of it when we brought up impact checks a few years ago I think people were really nervous uh they're Thanking us now when when Mr Ryan mentioned that Mrs Taylor was uh emotional today like genuinely um I think most of us had goosebumps and tears in our eyes throughout the day like it's just it's pretty phenomenal what's going on so some of the things that when I talk about the trends that have surfaced in that it has helped us get to where we are so when you look at our I mean our Junior highs it's extremely significant the amount of growth that you have seen and I
094I know Mr Ryan has already told me to save the details and the specifics for a future meeting uh but some of that's okay go as deep as you want I know they're already like Christa keep it on we'll never go home why you don't but what I will say is that when you look at the growth that has happened in if it be in proficiency and growth and grad rate it is the intentionality that is happening behind the scenes every single day that people are showing up they are showing up they are working extremely hard it doesn't matter what role they're in everybody wants to be a part of the success and even with what you see here you still have people that are like we want all A's like that's we're not stopping
095until we get there so um with that some of the trends that we have noticed is the more we've even employed our uh instructional coaches and administrators to do learning walks when we talk about that instructional leadership if we're not inspecting what we want to see then unfortunately things do slide and that can happen in the best of places but right now there are learning walks happening on a regular basis at all of our schools and I really really do believe that the focus on instructional leadership and even our department chairs our teachers they're going on during their prep times their lunch periods to observe other teachers to learn better instructional strategies they're having conversations that really haven't necessarily been there and we're really supporting that how do you improve your instruction in the classroom
096on a daily The Next Step that uh did go into play this year has been the cuas and Mr bercher hit on it but it is one more point that now we have one more common piece of data that they can immediately dive into similar with all of the letter grade and the um if it be common assessments benchmarks act it doesn't matter what our leadership teams used to have to do is spend months disaggregating that what is different today is that all of this is accessible with a click of a button if that be the data team our team teaching and learning listening in the impact checks we are trying to save our sites the time so that they can just take action on what it says just trust what we're giving you trust
097the data and take the action because we know that they're they're the ones in the classroom making the difference so I just think that those few action steps are really important to highlight so when you go on to I know I kind of talked about the last slide and this slide together but when you look up there you can see um again every single one of our secondary schools uh are either an A or showed growth in their letter grades so really proud of all of our schools and the only other highlight that I do want to bring up is our uh Global Academy in the state for traditional online schools they were ranked the highest online school in the state of Arizona so that needs a round of applause absolutely and I know that
098um the principal will be happy for that shout out she deserves it that that their team has worked their tales off to to not only um improve things but to be competitive across the state all right so our big reveal we're in a-rated disc District um two consecutive years which is super exciting um we're going to share some more data uh Dr Cox is going to share some more data related to how rare that is to keep the a rating in a large District 100% of our schools have an A orb rating and I just want that to like set in for a second that is a massive huge deal um we have fought super hard um through a lot of different things um 100% of our schools are in a or b and again
099I want want to point out we've hit on it twice now that we're not done we really feel like this is a starting point for Gilbert Public Schools I know our next fam meeting will be huge in celebration and then I have no doubt that our leadership will go okay and now we're going to turn the page um because it's important to validate the hard work that was put in but it is just a starting point additionally 31 of our schools have an a rating a couple little Elementary tidbits that I was able to pick out so third fourth fifth and sixth grade in Ela all improved year-over-year so again every kid that took the test third fourth fifth 6th our proficiency went up I've got to give another shout out to last time I
100was here I um was talking about Christina Larsson and our ready gen trainings it worked right so while that wasn't the only thing to invest in our teachers all of them to get at least one full day training on the district approved curriculum was huge additionally sixth grade's proficiency percentage was tied for highest in the East Valley um so super exciting to give that group to the secondary and we're excited to see where do Cox and her team can take them um all right this is the big one all right so we are extremely competitive yeah across the East Valley the data is going to speak for itself but I will share that what you're going to see up here is uh we went ahead and listed kind of our larger East Valley School Districts
101that we feel are more comparable to Gilbert Public Schools uh the number of schools within their district and then in the First Column you're going to see 2024 that's the percent of A's that their district has obviously depending on the number of schools you can kind of see that there might be some differences there but then when you look in the last column that's the percent of A's and B's for their District so Gilbert Public Schools is the only East Valley School District that has 100% A's and B's we're the only one right okay I'm going to give that a standing right and then within that you can kind of look at this um a couple of ways but even if you just look at the number of A's we are leading the way with
102the highest percentage of A's in the entire East Valley uh I uh Dr McCord mentioned I think I was texting him at one point my husband was like leave him alone stop texting him but when you look at the data file there really is so much to celebrate in there one of the things that I wanted to share is that out of 42 large districts so across the entire State of Arizona there are 42 school districts that have more than 20 schools I felt like okay that's comparable um out of all 42 of those schools we are one of four that have received an a rating two years in a row only four in the entire state so that's 42 districts that have more than 20 schools like it's just when I say that there's
103something contagious and the momentum and where we're going it is it's incredible so just thank you to all of our te all of our employees and staff our teachers our leadership teams our administrators we really would not be here without everybody um doing their role and prioritizing the work that they do for our students um our families our parents it really has taken a whole village and I'm just proud I'm proud to get to share these updates with everyone I think we hit on most of these do you want to recap anything all right any questions any questions from the board I I have some comments I okay I'm really proud of what we achieved I think it's outstanding but I do think that we have had a huge investment into curriculum and professional development
104we've had a huge investment into salaries so that we can retain and hire really good teachers and I would have to say we've stayed focused as a board um you know there are other districts who are struggling with school boards and I think that really helps us to be focused on our students and I would I would love to see everybody competing with us and I know there are districts who are struggling to have those same resources in Arizona because they can't pass bonds or overrides or there just isn't sufficient funding to cover for that updated curriculum for them you know we're lucky to be the size of District we are where we can be small enough to be really personal but big enough to have good resources and so I just want to give
105that shout out I think everyone's worked really hard and I I know I mean I've watched these letter grades over the years and you know some of them have struggled with c's and I think did we even at some point have a d school or two so we've we've really come a long way in the time that I've been on the board um so I I really want to give a shout out but I also know that we've had focus and resources do that and other districts in Arizona that may struggle with some of those things need help with resources and curriculum and being able to have the resources that we do and the focus of the school board because it doesn't work well when there's a dysfunctional board so thank you very much for
106all of your hard work thank you yeah just celebrate outstanding dedication work daily focus of our students staff teachers instructional coaches campus leaders all the district leaders who come and meet really to support that classroom work that goes on and make sure our students every single student is being met at where they need to be and help to improve and grow how they can and just think have a growth mindset across our whole District I could not be more proud I'm so excited congratulations this is awesome yeah thank you very much um I just I want to say that it's really easy for us to Pat ourselves on the back and say you know we did a great job and we should because this is a this is a big deal um but I think
107we would would uh not be doing the um the the public a Justice by not recognizing their involvement in this um the public and our families and the support and the trust that they give us by sending their kids to GPS schools every day is is tremendous and um I think I i' I've told a few people I I think we should this is something that needs to go on a billboard in Gilbert this right here this graphic right here should be on a yard sign that we give to that we give out to families in GPS that they can put in their yard y along with yard signs that say things like my kid goes to a GPS a-rated school um uh and then just 100% of GPS schools are I mean these are
108things that we should be shouted these should be on freeway banners these should be everywhere to let the public know that it's because of them and their trust in us and their faith in us and uh we have an election coming up where we're asking for something from the public and making sure that this news is spread Beyond The District but to our entire Community I think is so important and could be so impactful um and so I don't know who we need to talk to about that about getting Billboards and signs made I know that we're running up on you know the final days here but man this is this is tremendous I'm excited about it we're excited about it we're excited that you're excited about it and I really do hope that we
109uh that we we keep the momentum going and that we can um for lack of a better term capitalize on this with uh with uh uh with the public so thank you very much thank you all right moving on to agenda item number seven the consent agenda items for consideration discussion Direction and possible approval uh do I have a motion for tonight's consent agenda items I move that we approve the consent consent agenda items thank you Miss Humphries and I'll go ahead and second that I we'll call for a vote all those in favor of approving tonight's consent agenda items do so by saying I I I any opposed all right and that passes uh thank you very much uh agenda item number eight request for future agenda items is there anything that any of
110the board members would like to put on uh a future agenda okay thank you very much we'll move on to agenda item number nine board committee reports uh as a representative of the legislative the as the the as the legislative representative I don't have anything to report tonight uh the city of Mesa liazon Miss Wood I spoke with councilman Summers and he just reminded um those who live in the city of Mesa to please vote and study the issues there's a few initiative of Mesa for them to look over and again just encourage them to vote perfect thank you the town of Gilbert Leon and audit committee Miss humph um so the town of Gilbert does have two items on the ballot um I believe they're 497 and 498 and I did not realize this
111I've done this for a long time but not only did school districts have an expenditure limit put into the state constitution in 1980 so did cities and towns and community colleges and so for the town of Gilbert they have to go to the voters for a change on this expenditure limit so you should look at that and also the Community College Basic Community College is has to go the voters to get that expenditure limit lifted we have to go to the legislature but um those are issues that they should look out their ballots today was the last day to mail your ballot but you can go to B ballot ready. vote and there are drop boxes and places open for early voting so they can go there to um either drop off their Ballot or
112get a ballot all right thank you yes and we encourage uh as Dr McCord said and Miss Humphries we encourage everybody to that is eligible to vote please uh educate yourself on uh the issues and uh and please vote it is extremely important and uh that's all I'm going to say about that um agenda item number 10 meeting dates Dr McCord thank you Mr Thompson we have our next meeting is a on November 6th which is a Wednesday I want to make sure everybody knows election night is November 5th so we elected to move our meeting to the next day and that is a work study brief for business meeting and November 19th is a regular board business meeting all right thank you very much agenda item number 11 adjournment we have a motion to
113adjourn I we'll just stay we'll just stay I move that we adjourn thank you Miss Wood is there a second second thank you miss humre all those uh in favor of adjourning tonight please uh signify by saying I I I any opposed thank you very much we are adjourned thank you everybody for coming and fantastic presentations