Gilbert Public Schools Board Meeting 1/30/2024

001[Music] good evening I'd like to welcome you to our Gilbert Public Schools regular board meeting for January 30th 2024 call this meeting to order and we'll start with a moment of silence followed by the Pledge of Allegiance led by Mrs humph thank you it's now time for our oh oh I I didn't realize it there he is sorry my my apologies we're going to do the pledge again everybody know should have looked to my right my apologies to you Mr Thompson uh we'll go to the Roll Call Mrs Wilson [Music] please here here Mr Chad Thompson here miss lorri wood here miss Jill humph here Madame President you have all members are present you have a quorum thank you Mrs Wilson we'll move to agenda item three approval of the agenda do I hear a

002motion to approve the agenda as presented so moved thank you Mrs humph a second a second thank you m wood so it's been moved and seconded that we approve the agenda all those in favor please signify by saying I I I nay 5 we'll move to the superintendent recognition Awards Dr McCord thank you madam president govering board members if you join me in front of the Das for this evening's recognitions my wife left me in our in our driveway and drove off about sorry we're doing a little counseling here good evening everyone how are you how are you it's Tuesday night this is the best show in town come on guys tonight we have a couple groups we want to recognize uh the first group is our spelling be winners okay um each year Gilbert

003Public Schools well each year every school holds a spelling be competition and then the winners from the schools come together and we have our yearly District spelling be competition and that was held last week and I got to tell you what it was phenomenal um we have some exceptional students within our district um and I'm just very proud of them so we have eight folks that we'd like to recognize tonight can I have all of our spelling be winners contestants up here first come on up that's you that's [Applause] you now is spelling easy look at them look at they're like you guys good evening no is it easy no no did you have to study for this no you know you can tell it wasn't the oratorical contest now I'm going to give you

004guys the microphone you need to tell me and everybody out there your first and last name what grade you're in and what school you represent okay ready we're going to start off with you this is just so you know when you get older and you have this is like me letting other people do the work just so you know ready all right go ahead I'm Dylan Hunt I'm in sixth grade I go to Point Elementary I'm Rea Singh I'm in fifth grade and I represent NE I'm Ava gasparo I'm in seventh grade and I go to Gilbert accelerated I'm Lauren agular and I and I'm in fifth grade and I represent giber Elementary I'm Natalie Baron I'm in e8th grade and I represent South Valley Junior High I'm meline Arnold in sixth grade and I

005represent Pioneer Elementary I'm a Colette I'm an e8th grade and I represent Highland Junior High now we did have a winner overall winner for our competition and Miss Singh do you want to tell us a little bit about how you won this competition honestly I don't know it just came to [Music] expound a little bit on not it was just an unexpected when I found out that I want I was like is this real is this reality how is it possible what word were you given your final word to win the competition you remember fluide say it again fluoride can you spell that for everybody f l u o r i d fluoride wow there it is [Applause] congratulations all of these young men and women up here are able to go to the regional

006spelling be which is February 16th at 9:00 a.m. at Highland High School we're hosting it this year so if you have some Spare Time head on out there I'm telling you what there's some Fierce competition and uh I'm just extremely proud it's really hard to get up in front of a bunch of people first of all and then be asked to spell several different words that most people in the audience don't have a clue I Googled a lot of stuff when I was watching you guys and I didn't even know some of those words so uh this is a competition that my family was very thankful I never entered as a kid so it would just be embarrassing to the name so we're really really proud of you good luck in your next step um

007we already can tell that you represent Gilbert Public Schools well so take that to the next level one more time for our folks if you guys would shake hands with the governing board and stay up here we'll take a picture of everybody okay so you sir just head on that way there you go head on down the line congratulations J conratulations [Music] I can have all of you right here stand in the same line just shift down this way keep going right there get shoulder to shoulder and we'll fill in around you smile there's a lot of cameras flashing everybody good conratulations next um we have some high school students who have definitely excelled in what they're doing the Flynn scholar semifinalist there are 80 Flynn scholarship semi-finalists for the class of 2024 pursuing Arizona's

008most competitive merit-based college scholarship the excelling High School seniors were selected as semifinalist for more than 1,000 applicants and in so doing have already earned a generous scholarship offer from Arizona's public universities could I have Nicholas Carlson and is it Gabriel Lopez come on [Applause] up so talk to me about what your next step is who wants to talk go ahead um well we were selected as semi-finalists um like he said from over a th000 applicants um now where we go from here is it goes into the finalist stage um right now there's 36 finalists we're going to have a inperson interview at the Flynn foundation in downtown Phoenix and from there they will select 20 winners to get to receive a full R scholarship from any Arizona Public University Nicholas do how do you

009qualify for this so you okay I got it um I'm pretty sure you need to have a 3.5 GPA and then you just need to submit an application so for a lot of people even that step is just something to get over because it's pretty long and Nicholas what school are you at Gilbert Classical Gilbert Classical Gabriel Gilbert High Gilbert High and we have one more um he's playing basketball right now he's on the varsity basketball team and that's Max Robison uh a Highland High student and so uh Gilbert Public Schools is represented well uh and we as you can tell just from the group before this group here um we're we're extremely lucky and our teachers our support staff and our administrators at our schools do a phenomenal job in supporting you so congratulations

010to you good luck and uh we look forward to seeing you one more time as winners okay give him a hand gentlemen go ahead and squeeze in here in the middle right here one more time our splint semifinalist I think they're already strategizing good for you ladies and gentlemen that concludes our recognitions for this evening thank you [Music] e thank you Dr McCord um I still remember the word I missed in the spelling be and that was like I'm not going to tell you how many years ago it was um we'll now move to your superintendent report thank you Madame President governing board members good evening everyone again thank you for being here we have some other folks we'd like to give a shout out to uh we have some folks that received the national

011board uh certification uh and the those are PE it's the national board certification was designed to develop retain and recognize accomplished teachers and to generate ongoing Improvement in schools Nationwide it is the most respected professional certification available in K12 education and we have a couple teachers who have renewed they're already nationally board certified but you have to go through renewal process and uh those teachers are Stephanie saaki from Global and Patricia Smith from Carol Ray Elementary and our new certifications brand new to ncbt uh Nathaniel bourman from Camp overie High School Wendy mcquilkin from Desert Ridge High School and Melissa Nelson from Desert Ridge jior High so a hand for all those folks [Applause] congratulations uh on Friday January 19th I met with council member Bon Giovani along with assistant superintendent Marcy Taylor assistant superintendent

012uh Jason Martin and our K12 prevention coordinator Susie kadana council member uh Bon Giovani is a member of the town of Gilbert subcommittee on teen violence we had great discussions about the need for the municipalities school districts and communities to come together to help protect our children the subcommittee is interested in sending out a survey to all students in our district surrounding districts charter schools and private schools to to get a better understanding of the struggles teens are facing when it comes to teen violence the survey is being constructed and once that is complete I'll receive it and all the other districts as well will review it before it heads out along those same lines I sent a letter to our families the first week of winter break asking parents to talk with their children

013about the importance of their child safety while attending our schools are moving around throughout the community of Gilbert we ask them to find out where the most popular Hangouts are we ask them to check their social media and the social media of their friends we ask them to ask as many questions as you can and when you're done ask more questions if you see something or experience something please say something violence has no place in our community or our schools we all parents school districts and the the community need to come together to put our arms around our children and each other to ensure our community is healthy and safe what happened to Preston Lord was unimaginable and heartbreaking please keep their family in your thoughts and prayers and let's keep a watchful eye on

014our children to ensure nothing like this happens again Mr Jetty that concludes my report for this evening thank you Dr McCord and I I just want to say that I have had heard a lot of very positive comments about your letter and to the community and how positive and and the points that you made so thank you um we'll now move to 7.01 um Financial year 2024 monthly financial report and second quarter financials year to date ending December 31st 2023 Dr McCord thank you madam president governing board members this agenda item and the next one I'll turn over to our associate superintendent of Business Services Miss Bonnie Betts good evening um president ugenti governing board members Dr McCord so I will uh sit at the Das for the monthly financial report then I'll move um

015to the front of the podium in support of our auditor who is going to who's joining us this evening to present the audited financial statements so um to begin this is our monthly report that we present to you monthly shocking this particular this particular report does include the ctly the second quarter financials um because it represents the year uh to date December 31st 2023 so um this is always what we share the district operating fund grid uh just pointing out me maintenance and operations as well as understated capital the continued uh spend and encumbrance increases are normal during this time of year and expected um and so you'll see some small increases as we complete uh this fiscal year in both of those um in both those funds uh under the federal Grant funds were

016highlighting the idea high cost as well as the eser3 required 20% set aside U my understanding is that uh later in this uh in this um in this board meeting you will be hearing from the um the team that did the summer school as well as the intercession uh sessions for students and uh so the S 3 the 20% set aside is being utilized to pay for the teachers and the materials for those intercessions as well as summer school in addition the SR 3 is slated to also fund the spring break intercession as well as summer school this summer and any remaining monies will be used to offset the cost of the uh math adoption that we will bring to you probably April May time frame for approval the idea high cost is something that

017we have not received a lot of in the past uh we we do expect to receive the 21,6 48 in reimbursements it is a full reimbursement Grant not they don't necessarily give us an allocation it's all dependent upon the number of school districts that apply for it every year and so um so uh we do expect to receive the 2,648 in revenues in the high cost Grant uh the state Grant funds were highlighting the Arts consumable Grant as well as the school safety program so the Arts consumable Grant is brand new uh we have applied for it and we are uh planning on using that $600,000 for art education consumables as well as some Performing Arts needs uh this is a little bit of a difficult reporting Grant because it requires us to report by

018teacher um throughout the school district so thanks to the uh Federal projects team for assisting us with all of that work uh to make sure that we are fully compliant with those requirements and then the school safety program we're just highlighting that because of the negative 10,196 available balance we've talked about this before we are monitoring that to find out whether there will be uh an adjustment that we could actually get additional revenues in that school safety program Grant but if that does not happen this will be cleared up by the end of the year and that overe expenditure will those expend expenses that cause the overe expenditure will be moved to another available fund so that that is zeroed out and then finally on the other funds um we're sharing the joint technical education

019fund because our year-to-date revenues are much higher than they were last month so we have received our second payment and then just a note we do expect to receive $4.6 million of new J revenues by the end of this school year and then the bond fund is the last fund that we will talk about today you'll notice the security technology and transportation lines that are highlighted um but also uh note that the facility's renewal balance is $2.7 million tonight in the consent agenda you have about 2.3 $2.4 million of requests that will eat up a majority of that so please know that the leadership team as well as um uh doc um Mr Dutch over and Mr castalano and Mr Kaine as well as Trace Toby are all submitting uh information to the leadership team

020on what their needs are in security technology and transportation possibly we will be able to move some of any available resources from one of those other lines into facility renewal to make sure that we can meet any unexpected expenditure uh through the remainder of this school year and that completes the monthly uh the monthly report are there any questions on the monthly report before I get to the court Le Financial just before you get started I I would be remiss by not saying that um I did not we did not skip the request to speak to the governing board tonight we did not have any requests nor did we have any online ones so that's why we moved to the report so now turn it back to you okay great thank you thank you okay

021bunny I had just a quick question can you go back to the Arts consumable what did you say again that was used for that grant money the um the for both Performing Arts as well as um the um art classrooms for consumable supplies so paints and materials such as that uh Performing Arts we cannot use it for equipment it is just supplies m&o type expense not Capital expense um and then it has to be reported on a teacher by teer basis Okay so no it cannot be used towards the new art teacher salary that we approved correct okay thank you y okay then moving into the quarterly Financial our practice on the quarterly Financial has been to compare the same time frame a year ago to the current time frame so we always start with

022revenues so you can see from this grid that we are expecting um we we have received at this time last year about 150 million and this year about 160 million remember that in and that in this particular case we are we you would expect because we're halfway through the year that we should be 50% of expected but this occurrence is due to that state aid delayed rollover that doesn't occur until July of every year so that's the biggest reason there and then note that a year ago we still had County revenue Vues that we were expecting but um um actually that's not true the the um that's the fiscal 23 so both in 20 in December of 22 as well as in December of 23 the County Equalization was um suspended and so you can

023see the commensurate increase in the state from 84.7 million up to 92.8 year-over-year and then this is that same information presented in a column graph um so again you would expect that since we're expecting $350 million in TW um in fiscal 2024 that we would have about um $175 million year to date and you can see that we only have $160 million total okay um operating Revenue by fund of course you would see that the M fund would have the most dollars and you can see that increase year-over-year 133 to 141 um note the capital a little bit um increased year-over-year primarily that Capital Revenue that $400,000 is actually interest earnings that we have earned um from the uh County Treasurer's Office expected annual revenues again uh in a column graph and then the other

024thing I wanted to share about um I'll wait and go to the next one when we're talking about expenditures so this is expenditures so operating fund expenditures year-over-year I wanted to bring you back to that operating fund grid that we always share on the monthly financial report so all of the expenditures are really reflective of that grid that you see in these py graphs except that the capital is just unrestricted Capital it does not includes School Plant we recently added School Plant to that grid because we do have we are treating it as a if it's an un unrestricted Capital fund because due to our debt level we're able to use that school plant money that was due to the sale of Neely we have full discretion to use that for unrestricted Capital spend and

025we do not have to use it to um pay down our outstanding debt because our debt is so low because our debt is so low thank you and then that is the end of our monthly and quarterly financial report today if there's any questions I'm happy to answer any of those so I have an another question if you go back to that pie chart I know tonight on our consent agenda we have the approval of some cooling towers you just mentioned the which budget is that coming out of operating or Capital just based on what you just talked about how we're moving money around and that's coming out of bond so it's coming out of that Bond grid so that $2.7 million that we shared with the monthly Financial it was just gave the bond

026by itself um those U cooling towers are coming out of the bond bond fund so that $2.7 million will now be 2.3 million available I mean .3 million available about after after you approve that this evening so everything that we're approving this evening is coming out of that Bond not everything Transportation the transportation is just a that's coming out of the bond exactly as well okay that's just a correction it was originally incorrectly put into unrestricted Capital but but transportation as you saw has a resource is allocated so we're correcting the funding source with that consent item and then um and then there are um there's one expenditure um the compressor at the compressor at Finley Farms is coming out of unrestricted Capital unrestricted yeah which is which is in this particular pie chart all

027right thank you Bonnie does that help you was was the elevator modernization as well out of unrestricted capital I believe we went ahead and H maybe we did that opposite maybe I probably got it backwards right the elevator is coming out of unrestricted capital and the compressor is coming out of bond sorry yeah so the the um the elevator is also eligible to be paid for out of um Bond um but due to the decrease in available resources in bond we opted to fund that $150,000 expenditure at Superstition Springs out of unrestricted capital so miss bets just thank you thank you Mrs wood for that for clarification can can we explain to our community the difference between bond funds and unrestricted capital I think that's that's something that might be challenging to understand sure so

028um bond funds we have authority to sell bonds to investors and so the bond fund 630 accounts for all of those um proceeds from the sale of those bonds and then we can spend that down over time the unrestricted capital is really part of our Levy funds that we get from the state of Arizona and the and the local local taxpayer through the school Finance act formula so those are what we call Levy funds or in other words District additional assistance correct District additional assistance is the funding source for unrestricted Capital yes yes okay it's just it is hard to understand that we have these different buckets and some of them can be spent on similar items and some of them you know we we can't spend certain things on uh Capital items or certain

029Capital items so it is very complex and you bet over time I we hope it gets clear but it is complex you bet okay that's all I have with that and then Dr McCord would you like me to move right into the next one there's no more questions okay all right well we move to 7.02 uh fiscal year 2023 annual comprehensive financial report and single audit reporting package and I'm just assuming we're going to give it turn it over to she's to move down to so can you hear me okay oh good it's on so um I'm uh supported today uh by our auditor Mrs Jennifer Shields who's going to participate but I would be remiss if I didn't also identify um Mrs Jackie Matten she plays a huge role in supporting the audit process

030every year and also Lauren toska is in the audience as well so to begin now we just talked primarily about the current fiscal year but now we're going back to last year to June 30 of 2023 which was fiscal 2023 we're in fiscal 2024 so I want to make sure that you're all aware that we're talking about the audited Financial results from a year ago okay or from a half a year ago I guess you think okay so today's report um Mrs Shields will present the audit process and results as well as the single audit report the single audit report is focused on our federal funds and then um I wanted to share you all have the books in front of you I wanted to share a little bit about the organization of the book

031so that if you're interested in a particular piece of information it would be more easily found um by you and note that they're all tabbed for your for your benefit and then um finally other items to note which is really the results of our audit and our and our financial status here in Gilbert Public Schools so to begin I'm going to hand this over to Mrs Jennifer Shields to share the audit process and our results good evening Madame President members of the board Dr McCord thanks for allowing me a few minutes this evening to share with you the audit process results and um this will be a little bit of surprise for me Bonnie tells me that I have two slides up here so we'll see what the second slide is um here let's just

032see right now oh it's it's the single a report let me um start by first just going over some of the required Communications you all were um likely provided a letter format but I'll go through kind of the key um elements of the written format um we'll start with um the timeline for the audit it starts really once we Eng um issue an engagement letter and excuse me for the fiscal 23 audit that happened in May of 23 and then what that does is that allows us to get started on the actual audit procedures we perform procedures during quite a long period of time and um we started the procedures in June we did those procedures remotely we do um procedures we come out and do a site visit I believe we did in August

033as well as September and then we finished up the audit procedures on site here in October of 2023 and then after we're done with that what we do is we go back to our office and we take all of the information and we sort of compile it into this lovely um annual comprehensive financial report that I like to personally geek out over because it has lots of good information for you all um once that is put together we provide a draft of that to management and we did that in December it was December 20th so right before the winter holidays and then the report was ready for issuance on December 29th and then we're here before you tonight to present the results of that um the audit opinion itself was unmodified so that's first and

034foremost is to know that you're um essentially getting what's known as a clean opinion it's an unmodified opinion there was a new accounting standard that was implemented during the fiscal 23 audit which um we call spedas or spitas um and what it does is it um it requires um any long-term subscription based Information Technology arrangements to be analyzed and if there are long long term um liabilities associated with these long-term subscription agreements then you would report those inside your audited financials with respect to that um we worked with Finance staff and determined there were no um no items that needed to be reported um there there might certainly be some some of those agreements out there but they didn't rise to the um level that needed reporting um we did not have any difficulties that

035we encountered with management management was very helpful um Miss bets pointed out miss manin and miss torsa and a lot of other individuals um play a huge role in providing um our audit team with just a ton of information so that we can complete our audit procedures so um you know my hat is off to them because it's no easy feat to deal with all of our requests for for information so no difficulties encountered management was able to provide all information for us and there um were also no uncorrected misstatements that were required to let you know about so all of that is very good and then um shifting gears we'll talk about the single audit report as well so we have a draft of that out with management right now for review and approval

036the single audit report is the report that includes all of the federal assistance and the expenditures made uh by the district for things like um child nutrition programs Title One education all of what we call here at the district user money so those education stabilization funds all of those types of expenditures are part of the single audit and the single audit report is also where we would report any deficiencies in internal control if those were noted I'm happy to report that in the draft we are not anticipating writing any findings or deficiencies and internal controls and um our compliance opinion on the federal program that we tested is also unmodified and I did a look back um for a couple of years and you have a what in the single audit report um there is

037a schedule of expenditures of federal Awards and so that's the basis for the single audit there was over $38 Million worth of federal expenditures made by the district during fiscal 23 comparison to last year fiscal 22 there was about 41 million so as you kind of you know think about you know um I think the the Esser programs are you know winding down here in the near future um I looked back to prepandemic levels of federal funding and back in 2019 just for comparison purposes the district had about $20 million so you know we've over the last couple of fiscal years you've seen like almost double the amount of um Federal expenditures with um with the single audit sorry I have to peek at this um we looked at a total of five Federal programs

038this year so that's a lot of federal programs that get audited um just to draw your attention to the programs that we audited we looked at title one we looked at special education um we looked at what's called supporting effective instruction which is um the grants that we use to do a lot of um teacher professional development um we also looked at the education stabilization fund which is um those Esser funds and then last but not least what is referred to as the Corona virus state and local fiscal recovery funds which is a mouthful um that those monies are the monies that come from the governor's office and there there were some changes during last fiscal year but they had to do with um like a 100 day Grant and also um some summer enrichment

039type programs and so all of those Federal programs were audited this last year and so again um you know we we give a a huge shout out to finance for getting all of the information but a lot of the information that comes with the single audit we end up dealing with program Personnel so director of federal programs and the the individuals that run those Federal programs and so they um are to be thanked as well this evening so um those are all of my required Communications and with that I'd be happy to stand for questions or turn it back over to miss bets oh there is said it did I already say it oh there we go yes so oh yes um the um single audit is actually required when you as an agency spend

040more than $750,000 so obviously spending close to 40 million is significantly in excess of $750,000 so that's what um precipitates the need to have this type of audit and then of course um the two bullets which I stated which are what we audited in terms of the federal programs as well as the fact that we had no significant deficiencies nor material weaknesses thank you before down I there might be some questions okay yeah I I do have one excuse me um when you who makes the decision on which areas are audited every year I know you can't audit every single thing sure um are do you mean with for the single audit or just in general in general um well with the single audit there's actually a risk-based program um process that we follow um

041the the federal government issues they issued something called uniform guidance and that spells out what the requirements are and we have to look at the largest programs and audit those at least every third year um there's also a rule that the federal government or its agencies can identify a particular program as high-risk and that would require that um program to be audited in the single audit so in the case of Gilbert Public Schools both your Esser and your Corona virus um we call them Slifer state and local fiscal recovery funds um both of those are designated by the federal government as high risk because they are new and they were um part of those large um Federal Acts to um you know mitigate the spread of covid and get get um get everything back to

042normal so those funds were identified as high- risk so we were required to test those two programs um and then because of the requirement that programs be tested at least every third year for the large ones Title One and special education had not been audited for the past 2 years so those were required to be um audited as well um then with respect to other areas um Financial areas of the audit much of that is precipitated by compliance requirements so the uniform system of um compliance records that is issued by the auditor General's office has a lot of um procedures that we have to follow so like for example when we look at student attendance records or Student Activities um you know receipts and dispersements and those types of things those are because the state

043requires that and then other areas that we choose for financial audit have to do with our risk assessment process and determining whether or not there are high-risk areas within the district that need to be audited thank you other questions Mrs Paige um just a quick question thank you for your presentation if the public wants to access these reports is there somewhere they can go to look at them I'll defer to miss bets but um there is a requirement that they be posted on the district's um website so that post they're posted on the website thank you well I just wanted to express appreciation um we as school districts we have to be very careful to spend our money in a fiscally responsible way and I think the audit and the auditor General's report those kind

044of things help our community to know that we're using their text dollars in the way that we promised that they're used for the benefit of students so thank you for um ensuring that we're in compliance in the way that we're doing things any other questions thank you okay thanks is that it Mrs bets or do you have do you have more you have more right I thought so on now only two slides I should have known you should have known better of course so um the annual uh comprehensive financial report the act for this is the document that's in front of you that holds all of our audited financial statements so as I indicated a little bit earlier we wanted to just kind of walk quickly through this book so that you have an understanding

045of each of the sections so I'd like to put you through the top where it says statistical section it's the it's the the topmost tab so that's what we're going to talk about first and just wanted to share like three or four of the of the um tables that are in there um to give you an idea of some of the information that might be useful to you so um the statistical section includes Financial Trends Revenue capacity debt capacity demographic and economic information as well as some information regarding how we as gilber public schools operate so as an example we'll talk about this a little bit later but this is net position by component the last 10 years so for us this is the meat and potatoes of our audited financial statements because net position

046gives our bond holders gives the taxpayer gives you all information as to the financial status of Gilbert Public Schools but I wanted to to go back to 2014 2015 um in which if you look at 2014 we had a very high total net position and then you look at 2015 it was like oh my gosh what the heck happened we have a negative restricted a negative um restricted amount that that is a little bit hard to understand when you're going back and looking what could have happened between 14 and 15 well at that point in time it was due to a new gby regulation that then required us to include in our net position statement the um our proportionate share of Arizona State retirements unfunded liability so it's only at the net position financial statements

047it's nowhere else and it's important to note that Gilbert Public Schools is not responsible ever for paying that deficit the intent was to make sure that the community knew that there was an unfunded liability associated with a defined benefit program such as Arizona State Retirement so it's important to understand that because it really skews how we look um as an organization and then um the other thing that's back there in the statistical section it can show the district tax rate history the first thing I wanted to point out is the trend line note that from 2014 to 2023 our tax rate continues to go down but if you look at 2015 16 and 17 you can see where the secondary tax rate plummeted that was when we lost the um override altogether in fiscal 16

048was when we did not have those override funds at all and then we received them back in 2000 for fiscal 17 and then you're looking at fiscal 20 versus fiscal 2021 where you can see that both the secondary as well as the total increased that was when we were successful in November of 19 to go from a 10% override to a 15% override so the point is is that by going back into the statistical section you can see some of these Trends and see what happened at least back 10 years um and then finally this is uh an example of an operational table that shows how Gilbert Public Schools is operating in terms of the number of types of staff so if you look at the supervisory position and this is only a sub of

049the table that's actually part of the statistical section but our supervision of instruction our highest level of leaders you can see from 2020 through 2023 it it has remained relatively flat we're not adding any um of our highest highest level administrators if you look at instruction our teachers and Librarians you can see it's stayed fairly consistent over the last 5 years and then uh finally if you take a look at student services the social workers well what happened in 2020 versus 2021 2021 was the first time that we were able to use the additional 5% of override dollars and we made a commitment that we were going to increase Mental Health Counselors and social workers at that point so that accounts for going from 24 to 34 between those two years and then finally if

050you look at the support and admin the bus drivers in 2020 going from 180 down to 160 at that point in time transportation was implementing the new routing software allowing us to be more efficient um and so then we were able to increase the number of FTE of our bus drivers and van drivers so those are uh good examples of what's back in the statistical section and the community might be interested in some of that information so before I go on are there any questions on any of those I did want to point out that the um excuse me the when we um the nonp passage of the override in 20 I believe was 2013 it takes a year and a half to 2 years before that actually um is implemented into our budget the

051vote was in 2013 that's correct um and then also 2019 it took until 2021 for us to actually receive those funds and then be able to use them so there's a a delay from when the voters vote until the implementation whether we get additional funds or whether we have to deal with the um consequence of losing so I just want people to be aware of that that's correct so it was actually in fiscal 2020 so November of 19 is in fiscal 2020 so during that year of the election the tax rate is already established which is why it has to be delayed until the subsequent year so obviously going from a 10% to a 15% it would impact the tax rate yes thank you yeah um so then the rest of the eer book we're

052going to zoom through that um so if you go to the next tab at the Top This is where you have your fund financials if you're interested in what's going on with classroom site fund inst structal Improvement or our food service fund the details of Revenue versus expenditures versus fund balance that will reside in that section the next section is required supplementary information this is a budget to actual gen uh general fund based budget to actual treatment um includes some other details regarding Arizona State Retirement and stuff like that if you go to the next section that is the notes section so this is notes that are related to our financial statements that might give you information about well what is our outstanding go go debt General obligation debt what is our outstanding debt how

053much is it when do we expect to pay it all off those kinds of things are in the note section and then the financial section is what I've what I've termed as the meats and potatoes of the audit financials so that includes your um your manage M discussion and Analysis which is the mdna that's required of of us in our office to describe what is the story behind the numbers that are being shared in all the financial statements also in there are your your governmental and your government-wide statements so the government-wide is the highest level and we'll go into some of those details in the next couple of slides so that is all I had about the act for book and so before I go into some details are there any other questions is this

054available online also to the public yes thank you you bet okay so the government-wide financials as I indicated to you just earlier the government-wide financials is really the organization as a whole and these financials are what they call a full acral treatment which means we have all of our outstanding debt that's going to be a liability for a long time we also have depreciation reflected here as as well as our um asset value so the value of all of our buildings those are all included in the government-wide financials so as an example here's our government wide net position this is again an indicator of the financial status of Gilbert public schools at the end of um June 30 2023 so I want to point uh point out the change in that position so a year

055ago in 2022 we actually increased our net position by nearly $55 million in the current fiscal year we actually increased our net position by nearly $33 million anytime you have an increase in that position it's a very it's reflective very positively on the organization and our bond holders and taxpayers should be should be pleased to see um this kind of result okay any questions on that SP can you give us um I'm sorry that I'm I'm just trying to figure out so what would cause the net increase like that just give me I'm trying to track this in my mind here so um since it's government-wide it's the entire organization so uh we had a bond sale at the end of June 2023 and it was about $19 million it's hard to spend $19 million

056in a couple of months um so that would contribute to the net position on a cash basis that's just an example everything like that okay thank you m okay so the governmental financials so this is on a modified acral basis so we don't have the data regarding um depreciation expense or regarding um our assets or our outstanding uh G General obligation debt um and this is closer to more of a operating type funds but it's aggregated into um categories and so the categories are the general fun fund special Revenue fund and they have Bond separate and Debt Service separate but this particular slide shows the expenses by function so this is that the governmental and all of those funds are included in this governmental comparison so what I wanted to point out was when you

057look at 2022 on the left and compare it to 2023 on the right I wanted to point out instruction so note that instruction in 2022 was about 58% of this p and in 2023 it was 57% of the Pi so very very close um but why do we care about that well it does give us an indicator of what our results will be when the auditor general provides to us in another couple of months the district spending report so we're always comparing the ACA results to the district spending report only because it gives us an idea of how we're doing um in terms of how we're spending money um it's not directly related because the rules regarding the district spending report that the auditor general uses um in Arizona is very different than this treatment

058in the Acer so specifically again let's focus on the 58% in 2022 we know what the district spending report was in 2022 so we're giving that information to you so the acfer said we're about 58% instruction the auditor General's report came out month two months later and it showed that instruction percentage was 59.6% so it does give us an idea of how we're doing and that we're spending our money where where we need to spend our money which is in the classroom any questions on that before I go any further okay um fund balances we've we're always talking about fund balance um because over the past three years due to the eser funds we've been trying to be very careful and having as much fund balance as POS possible to give us future flexibility and

059how we're able to spend monies so we've been focused on being very diligent about how we're spending money and trying to maintain uh a very positive fund balance so you can look at our total fund balance and remember this is this is governmental now this is all funds not just our operating funds this is not just the general fund or the M fund so I want to make sure that that's clear this is all of our funds classroom site fund bond funds all of them are included in this in this treatment so you can see our fund balance has gone down year uh year-over year by about $5 million 213 214 million down to 208 million but note these two items so you we have a policy it's policy DB in which you adopted some

060changes about 3 years ago allowing us to designate fund balances um so that it's it gives more information to the reader so the total the total um assigned we added assigned fund balance back in um back in 2021 I think we is when we approved that policy change and so in 20122 we assigned $2,150 th000 so the 20 million was the planned Arizona State Retirement contribution the prepay of the Arizona State Retirement contribution and the $50,000 was how much money we gave back to our schools because you all approved that any unspent discretionary monies at each of our schools would come back to them in the subsequent year so $150,000 was awarded to each individual School based upon how they spent in the year prior so that was the assignment back a year ago so

061now the other uh total assigned um for the current fiscal year 202 3 is about 5050 million but you can see that I circled this restricted this restricted fund balance so that $20 million that was assigned in 2022 became a restricted fund balance in 2023 because that's not free for us to spend we can spend it um it's it's was considered for this particular treatment as sort of an investment and we can't ever take that money out we have to use it to offset future Arizona State Retirement contributions and then remember that by doing that prepay we did earn about $400,000 of Interest earnings because we we made that that decision so just wanted to make sure that that there was a conversation about fund balance in this report any questions on any of that

062okay great so we're always sharing revenues by Source um you can see that back in fiscal 20 22 we had a County Equalization then you can see the county a revenue of $13 million but in 2023 the County Equalization was eliminated and you can see that the state picked up the difference so that was what I had shared earlier as well regarding County Equalization and then now we're into other items to note um this is just fun information that we've presented I know you guys are all laughing at me I Sherbon this is really fun so other items to note so Food Services Fund performance I'm not going to go through the details of this just see that in 2023 which is very similar to 2020 we were drawing down fund balance but in 2021

063and 2022 we were actually building fund balance because that was when we were on the universal free um uh lunch breakfast and lunch so we really benefited from that so this is just that same Revenue Trend over time I just wanted to point out if you look at 2019 we always include 2019 because that was pre pandemic results and you can see when you look at 2019 and compar to 2023 they're almost they they're almost identical and you can see how the the pandemic related Universal free impacted Us in 21 and 2022 and though the free the universal free did not if you remember in 2020 that was the year which we were starting the covid pandemic so 2021 and 2022 were the two years in which we enjoyed the advantages of the universal free

064lunch again these are meals I'm going to zoom through this you can see the meal pattern again you look at 2019 versus 2023 again looking at 21 and 22 you can see that the alart sales were very low why would anybody spend any money when breakfast and lunch are free so you can see the difference in in the Food Service uh funds the employee benefit trust performance um enjoy sharing this with you so we had a gosh it seems like we've been doing this for a long time but it was just a year ago that we changed how we were going to operate the employee benefit trust and due to that change in 2023 we realized $522,000 in investment earnings not that that's our intention to earn money but it does offset some of our

065expenses and allows us to control those premium increases to our employees in the future um and then the bond fund finally the bond fund and note the um two uh highlighted rows so the revenue this is investment Revenue in the bond fund and note the transfer out so in Arizona this is not true in most States but in in Arizona statute requires us to we're allowed to earn interest on our bond proceed Pro seeds that come to us after a bond sale but we're not allowed to keep that interest we have to transfer that money into The Debt Service fund so it goes to um decrease the taxpayer um debt uh debt burden so and then finally note the the end of your balances so I just shared with you that there's $2.7 million well

066a little bit more than that may less than $10 million left in the bond fund today but remember that fiscal 23 is as of June 30 remember that we had a significant amount of work that is still actually going on using up those bond funds um so that $27.9 million was true at june30 of 2023 but has since been encumbered and drawn down leaving us um about $8 million in the full bond fund today and then this is just information for you again due to our short amortization our short time frame of amortization you can see that our um our projected outstanding principle at this year end is um or at 2023 year end is I'm sorry this is um projected so it was 152 down to 131 so we are um paying out our

067principle very quickly and then you can see the general obligation debt to assess value ratio Contin Ed to decline again um that's why we're able to use School Plant monies as freely as we are for unrestricted Capital type expenditures uh compensated absences is one part of the uh value that we must put onto that government wide at the highest level it's a long-term liability compensated absences are associated with our medical days that are not used our sick days um medical days or sick days um personal leave days vacation days that are expected to be paid out at at an employee separation we're obligated to calculate that annually and then finally this is the last slide um this is Arizona State Retirement so I shared a little bit about how this net pension liability impacted our

068net position back between 2014 and 2015 this is our proportionate share 276 million just for Gilbert Public Schools again just to reiterate we are not not responsible for paying that back that is really a liability for Arizona State Retirement the intent of the gby regulation is to make sure that the community and the taxpayer knew that there was this outstanding liability that eventually would have to be paid uh the next so the B section here is just a what they call a sensitivity analysis so as Arizona State Retirement does Better or Worse on their Investments you can see how that would increase Gilbert's net pension liability so if the if the discount rate or the interest rate earned by Arizona State Retirement is 6% instead of 7% our liability would go up to $48 million

069conversely if they're successful and have an average 8% return then our liability goes down to 167 million and then finally um in because we did do this we we took advantage of what they call a contribution prepayment program with Arizona State Retirement it's important for us to understand what is the annualized rate of return for Arizona State Retirement over time so in 20123 you can see that their annualized rate of return was 8% which was which was very um positive for both the net pension liability as well as just for our beneficiaries of the Arizona State Retirement throughout the State of Arizona and then these are just the contribution rates as they change over time and then this is just a note for you um we we discovered um through the audit committee that there

070was an error on our AFR pres presentation we decided to take this opportunity to show the error so you can see that $180 million is not 37% of the total $107 million is not 62% of the total so we corrected it on the next slide um so this is the the corrected and and we did correct it back to the October 10th presentation as well and after that I don't have anything further yay any questions well that was a very detailed presentation and we do appreciate it we do if you're not interested in hearing all this don't be on a school board that's my because that's our job that's our job to make sure that we understand how the finances are being managed and the only reason I I know know it's we spend a

071lot of time on this it is the most important financial report of any fiscal year and so um it's important that we go through some of it so thank you for your Indulgence and your time thank you thank you bnny you and I I just want to say that I you know being transparent is so very important and you do it very well you put the fun in itk you okay we'll move on to 7.03 teaching and learning academic Spotlight Dr McCord thank you madam president governing board members I will hand it over to our assistant superintendent of teaching learning Mr Jared Ryan Madam president governing board Dr McCord thank you um as Bonnie alluded to a few moments ago um directing funds at specified programs is something that we take very seriously in ensuring

072that money is spent um really well and directed toward our classrooms and directed toward our students uh at all times and so you all have given us the the latitude by moving to a uh and supporting a modified school Round uh year round school schedule to support our students academically during intercessions and through various programs in summer and tonight um Miss uh Taylor and Dr Martin are going to brought a a group of people to join us here this evening and talk about the great work that they're doing and share with you um some of the great work going on with our students and in the buildings during those times thank you Mr Ryan governing board members Dr McCord thank you tonight for the presentation tonight we're going to be uh administrative services along with

073the teaching and learning department is going to go over with an overview of the various programs that we've been offering our students the last couple of years during our spring and fall intercessions as well as our summer school programs I want to note that these programs are separate from our traditional Elementary summer school and secondary um summer school programs those are totally separate programs as Miss bets had alluded these are paid out of Esser funds currently right now um and they uh have helped all of our students the first program that we're going to talk about tonight um is our elementary brain boot camp program then during the summer and it's designed to assist students with deficits in both the ELA and math math areas before moving on to the next grade level and tonight

074we have Mr Bill McDonald who will be covering that he is our current dean of students at neie Traditional Academy and Highland Park Elementary and then also Cheryl Pollock nuer our director of federal programs will be interpers throughout the presentation tonight giving lots of different data about our various K through2 programs Miss Taylor Madame President governing board Dr McCord at the secondary level our summer transition ition programs are focused on meeting the needs of students during those critical transition years between Elementary to Junior High and then again between junior high and high school um as Mr Ryan said with the adoption of that modified yearr round school calendar uh we made a commitment to the community to offer academic support during the second week of both fall and spring breaks uh and doing that K12

075uh so in addition to that the secondary has taken it a little little bit further and offered great enhancement opportunities uh at both the junior high and high school during both the fall and the spring during those inter sessions to assist secondary students if they were failing any courses uh and so our team here tonight is going to give you the details of those programs as well as some of the data that we've seen over the last two years uh the secondary team we have Adam stro who is the dean of students at Gilbert High Christina Jackson who's the dean of students at Desert Ridge High School and Johnny stagel who's an assistant principal at mosqu Jr all right there we go uh good evening Madame President governing board and Dr McCord uh thank you

076for the opportunity to really showcase uh these programs that we offer here uh for our Gilbert students um I'm really proud of the the program we do uh for the elementary boot camp it's uh really gives a a a good opportunity for students to really address those who have the greatest needs of of those math deficits and Ela deficits um at the elementary level um and really uh it's a big Showcase of all the good programs and good departments and people we have here in Gilbert it's it's a collaboration of the federal gr grants programs um the CIA program contributes a lot to it um and builds the curriculum for it um and then obviously transportation and our teaching staff uh really uh the whole district is it touches the program and make sure it's

077as successful as it is um the way our boot cramp uh is is run and I'm just going to give you really an overview of what it looks like and really the days of lives of a student that uh enters our program um is like I said it it really addresses the students um who have those highest needs and really we tried to um give them a really rich and fulfilling experience that really addresses it from a hands-on experience um you know even though the the goal is to improve and show growth in that math and Ela we know with such a short amount of time that we do see those students uh three weeks in our program um you know as much growth as we can show that would be great but really the

078the biggest impact we can make on those students is if we can kind of foster or uh spark that that love of learning in those students something that Beyond those three weeks they can take back to their campuses and will help them really uh uh flourish and back in those environments students that maybe um up until that point uh maybe had lost that love of learning or kind of kind of felt a little bit more distraught about the you know what's going on in the classroom and and their their experiences there um so that was really our Focus as we put together the program uh the students uh were identified um really from as being the bottom cortile in their schools uh we looked at data from fastbridge and um their ASM mimic scores um

079and really identified where those students were um and then we sent the a list of those students to the campuses um we found over um uh checking and reviewing our processes over the last few years that letting the um the teachers the instructional coaches at those campuses who have that uh that close relationship with those families those students let them reaching out and kind of sending the invitation out and creating that connection with them um really served well in increasing our numbers over the last couple years um as the students were identified and ID uh invited uh then they enrolled in our program um and they they got to come to really three regional sites um where each one of sites served uh8 to nine schools um in those areas that way we kind of

080reached Each corner of the district and there wasn't kids that had to come from one side and had to come all the way over to the east side or the west side there was something in their in their neighborhood um it was 3 weeks in the summer uh they students were there for 4 days um during that time um they obviously had Fridays off uh but they would rotate um from classes you seen math Ela um uh science they would have a stem class and they would also Al uh rotate through a specialist class that was a big part of it um students were uh provided breakfast lunch and transportation free of charge the transportation was from their home campuses uh so if they would just go to there as a little Hub and we

081would make sure we got them over to uh the the campus where they were going to be at I'm going to see if I don't do this look at that it worked okay um the classes we we tried to keep small uh we capped them at uh 16 thereabouts and that was uh in intentional so that way the students would get as much um uh in individual attention they would have a little bit more feedback uh from the teachers on a personal level as much as possible um and obviously we know smaller class sizes helps helps helps them learn um like I said before we had the The Three core classes math reading and stem um the curriculum was created by uh our CIA department and um like I said it was all handson the

082kids were playing math games that and they they would they would tell you that this this is fun I love math this is great cuz they were they to them they were they were just playing Math Games the whole time and really um uh Christy who all put together uh really good math uh lessons that really really attacked those fundamental and foundational skills that we needed the students to really gain between the end of the grade they were in and going into uh the next grade um the uh specialist classes that we offered were music art and PE and the kids would rotate through that throughout the week just like they would during the normal school year um we uh established a el cohort and in that cohort uh the students that were in there

083um during their Ela time they would actually go to the ell elll teacher um and they would uh give them curriculum uh that they designed for them specifically and then we also had ell peras that was supported not only them in that elll classroom but they would go to the science and math classes to make sure the students were supported there um and then finally just to make sure that the the students had a great experience and we created that connection with the families uh we would run what was called a family engagement night um and that was a night where we would invite the parents uh out to not only um do some activities and um get the chance to see the kids on campus but really see a lot of the good work

084that they were doing um and each campus ran that separately and it just gave us the opportunity to work with those kiddos um I'm going to flip over to the next slide and I'm going to invite Cheryl up uh who's going to give you some of the more nitty-gritty details since I didn't put as many uh charts and bar graphs on my slides but just one question um abely on the previous slide you had bik so were're students who were identified were they able to attend the brain boot camp and then go to vik afterwards is that thank you yes absolutely good question they did so we worked uh hand inand with the vik program uh and so students who were in The Vi program they would be busted from those bik spots to uh

085the regional site that was uh closest to them so we had three viik sites um that they would go come from um they would work with us and then we would send them back to vik um and uh they would finished their day over at vik and so uh we worked really well with them to make sure and coordinate that that that was smooth and that the parents knew where their kids were and we all knew where everybody was going all right thank you you're welcome thank [Music] you thanks Jason Madame President board members and Dr McCord so brain boot camp in 2023 we had about 78 teachers um who participated to teach our students through that program we serviced approximately 877 students as um my colleague said it was three weeks Monday through Thursday

086about 5 and a half hours per day some of the feedback that we received from parents were things like it was a great program provided extra learning for my student helped my son so much this summer and he had a great time so we tried to really um marry you know the academic piece with also the kids having some fun it is summer and of course we tried to um marry those two things together and I think we were fairly successful the cost for brain boot camp is about $250,000 um all told approximately and um that's what we saw we spent last year although this last summer we did pay for um the boot camp out of the um summer enrichment Grant which came out of the governor's office so it was not this last

087summer was not Esser and it was not title it was um out of the governor's office so we've since closed that Grant out um as far as academic growth post boot camp of the students that participated we saw about 22% growth in math and about 26% growth in ela from beginning of year assessment to beginning of your assessment the next year questions about that okay sorry was that the total for the entire year a test from the beginning of one school year to the next school year or was that the growth per summer that was the growth that we saw over summer but we did it from beginning of the year year Data before the kids came to us to beginning of the year data when they exited the okay thank you all right I'm

088going to move move on to the spring and fall intercession boot camps which um were really the summer boot camp but then scaled back um to a one-week program 5 days uh and then specifically we targeted um so like in the uh let's say for example the fall intercession it' be those foundational skills and standards that the students uh were would have been getting in the first quarter and so same thing we would have identified the bottom quartile from uh from the data we retrieved from first quarter um and invited those students to our program um and it's obviously a little bit more rapid turnaround because we're trying to get those kids and get the invitations out before uh fall intercession vacation plans are are set um the students were still provided with the uh

089breakfast and transportation for free um it was a little bit of a shorter program so now instead of having um the specials uh classes for the students uh the students were actually with us for um a total of about three three three hours cuz they were with us for an hour and a half for math an hour and a half for ELA and then we would send them home um and then the uh um uh we serve the same three regions uh we we tried to marry those with the um uh the same schools that we had for the summer school and and that way the kids were at a familiar campus and then we rotates those campuses from year to year thanks so for elementary intercession we had 36 teachers participate we serviced 49

0905 students um it was about 3 hours a day um and it it's been typically from my understanding held the second week of intercession again we got some really good feedback from families um one comment was my child was excited to tell me all the things he learned every day he even went home and um made his mom quiz him which was so cute and he was you know very excited with himself that he got all the answers correct so it it's nice to read those things um another comment was my child enjoyed going and learned some tools he will use when he's back in the classroom which is the goal um let me go back here for elementary intercession um the cost for that program is approximately $83,000 per intercession and that did come

091from Sr funds this year so as far as academic growth though the numbers we hope for across the board um were probably not as great as we would have liked to see it is a onewe program the turnaround round is very tight we did see some really great both growth in both math and Ela and if you look at the graph more specifically in third grade and fifth grade and then again in ela in fourth and sixth grade we saw a lot of movement there as well I'm just going to stay here no you're good awesome Madame President members of the board and Dr mcord uh I'm excited to be able to talk to you guys about the junior high part of it you know as we're going into the secondary no longer talking about

092elementary a little bit um but what's cool about the secondary this is talking about our transition programs of the summer um every junior high does relatively the same style um however I'm also going to be able to talk talk to you guys the excitement part that happens at mosqu junor so it's kind of a little bit different but talking about junior high as a whole um kind of similar to what's happening at the elementary uh schools uh it's however they're two-e programs um there's four days a week during the summer um ranging from anywhere to 3 to 4 hours in that morning time and the goal is to help help those individual students with Ela math um and then as well as helping them transition from that tough time of Elementary to Junior High if

093they're a little bit nervous going into that so they get some of the cool stuff and this is for all Junior highs um that take place they get get some of the swag they get to meet some of the teachers that they get to be paired up with um going into that seventh grade year as well as getting to know a counselor and some Administration and of course familiar with the campus as they transition into that point um what's kind of cool about what the junior highs do as well as mosqu Jor um with us being a little bit different is targeting those individual students specifically um so with that Ela math I'm helping those individuals out at mosqu Jr um we were lucky enough to be able to use some of our Title One

094monies uh to do a little bit different um so we were able to add in elective courses uh during that summer to extend that time so students transition from they're in different cohorts so they would go from English math to an elective or math English elective whatever the cohort may take place um in those electives would be your art your PE and then our facts the family and consumer science so the homech um for back in the day and so what as awesome with that is using some of that money we're able to get those students excited about mosquet Jr and excited about that transition that does take place um and we're also very benef uh benefited from uh everyone on that secondary part as well as the junior highs all of them across uh

095we're able to get the food and nutrition as well as Transportation un luckily mosqu Jr food and nutrition already hands out um their summer meals at mosqu Jr so made it a nice easy transition for our students as well to see where our cafeteria is uh where the allart session would be as well as our bus stops um so it was a very beneficial opportunity for our students to see those exciting things um and that's something that we have definitely taken on uh as well as our elll this is one more thing I just want to add in there our English language Learners uh they did have the opportunity to uh participate in our summer transition programs as well we did have a el teacher as well as our El peras um and of course

096our special education students as well we made sure to have peras and a social worker on campus during this time to be able to make sure that transition goes smooth but also students to feel more comfortable and at home and to get the benefits that they need academically to support them awesome pass Madame President members of the board Dr mcco I'm going to talk on the high school transition program at this point and what's nice about this program is it's very similar to the junior high so it's the students that have been identified as most at risk it's the students that might have academic concerns might have social emotional concerns might have behavioral concerns I just have attendance concerns these are kids that they struggle with going to school and making that transition from Junior

097High to high school is a big jump and so this was a program was developed four hours per day and the idea was to ease that transition for atrisk kiddos and so these are it was a very intentional process of defining who these students were it was done in collaboration with the junior highs and this is done at all of our high schools but they all look a little bit different based on the individual needs of each high school so I'll talk a little bit more to what was done at Gilbert High but know that this is a very similar process across our district and so we had two ELA teachers and two Math teachers and those students attended an Ela block and a math block during the day but we also were very intentional

098with at least of the Gilbert side of things of those students we had in the program we tried to match those students with those same English and math teachers for their school year so they already have some of those relationships built they already know some of those teachers and they because these are also we're matching those students they also know some kids coming in on day one so it's a nice little hey I know somebody when I get here we also build in an advisory period and so they have a time in between the ELA block and the math block where they could learn more about opportunities available to them at Gilbert High School and so we had days where they had student council presenting things to them they had days where they had Athletics

099presenting different opportunities for them Performing Arts band Orchestra choir presenting opportunities for them got to learn about various clubs robotics speech and debate we have a jam Club where we basically have a rock band club on campus kids got to learn about these different opportunities right right and then they also got to learn about some of the resources available to them counseling services and just being able to know some of those processes and opportunities for them before they walk in on day one and then like the junior high and like the elementary Transportation was provided Food Services was provided and all that was provided free of charge for the students so any questions no you answered my question I was wondering about Jam Club so thank you for so started out as a few kids

100wanted to learn how to play guitar there was a teacher that said yeah we can do that and now we have like 40 plus students in there multiple bands they put on shows it's it's a it's organically grown it's acoustic guitar electric guitar both okay yeah I'll come visit but I think I'll bring my head out I'll help you out y I thought that meant making Jam like raspberry that was that was my question I'm like that sounds start that so actually I went to high school a very long time ago back east and I was in a class that was actually called Rock Band I got credit for that it was crazy but a lot of fun a lot of kids would come to school for that it's what brought me to school my

101entire senior year so so with regard to the secondary transition programs as my colleagues have said we have four Junior highs including um GCA typically 8 days over 2 weeks five high schools each school has a little bit of a different program um and the cost for um those transition programs are approximately $888,000 um all up with the exception of mosquite as they have typically used some of their title funds for those programs um and their program has typically cost about um $33,000 there was no charge to them for food um due to their title status so that was good for them um and again all the programs have typically um focused on um academics electives and then support in that transition from you know school to school I do I do have a question

102um because brain boot camp we paid for that with Esser funds and grants and this intercession I'm not sure if we're going to plan to continue the brain boot camp but the intercession was part of the reason why we changed our calendar so what is our thoughts about how we're going to uh provide for these programs going forward out of our budget well it's a great question we're going to budget for it because that was a commitment we made uh as when we change calendars and so we'll have to figure out one way or another to fund it okay yeah all right just wondering thank you madam president board members and Dr McCord I get to talk to you about secondary intercession um this is a grade enhancement opportunity for our students so what we

103look at with this is the grades that come out of the first and the third quarter so once we identify which students are in need of a grade enhancement we invite them to join us for intercession um we offer specific courses in math English and science for junior high and high school um we have two locations Gilbert High School and Desert Ridge High School um and what we do is we kind of organized them into two different potential classes they can make they can get the grade enhancement for one or two and so we have an a session in a b session we run about 8: to noon um what we do then is we will recommend back to the home campus that they get a 60% that's the max this is why we focus

104on kids who really need the enhancement as opposed to finding a place for kids to get enrichment if that makes sense a little difference there we do offer free breakfast and transportation um and we hire about 20 certified teachers for that we employ uh the CIA curriculum and we give teachers a box with everything ready to go in it so they just deliver this information it's very organized and well-run and the kids really seem to enjoy it so we've had a very good success rate with that Cheryl will talk to you about the data on the other side but we're looking forward to doing this in Spring as well Adam runs it at Gilbert High School and I'll be doing it at Desert Ridge so as you just heard for our intercession at the high

105schools or our grade enhancement program we employ approximately 20 teachers approximately 185 students have participated and it costs about $70,000 per intercession to run some of the survey feedback that we've received is that um this session helped my daughter get up to speed with math and helped her confidence and we hear that a lot that students go they get some you know remediation some of those skills that they may have missed and then they go back feeling a lot more confident which is really nice to hear um one comment was he loved the smaller class sizes and felt he was improving his learning so it's nice for students to be self-aware about those things as you can see in 2022 of the students who um who attended uh 61% of those students maintained Ed a

106passing grade at the end of semester so we're pretty excited about those results and in 2023 of the students who attended we saw about 54% of them also maintain passing grades at in that class at semester's end questions about that any questions at all I've got a couple questions sure um going back to Jill's to miss Humphrey's question about being able to uh continue this program um has it has uh have you ever considered getting student volunteers instead of hiring um or Contracting with teachers to run these uh to run these programs during the intercession and during summer do you mean to tutor in classes or uh yeah if you get some you know some of the some of those students at the higher high school levels that are excelling come in and help some

107of the elementary kids or help some of the Junior High kids instead of using certified teachers for that I I don't know if we've ever thought of that um this is my first year so um I've just kind of built on what was already in place but certainly it's something we can take into consideration I think what what we've considered in the past is if like NHS wants to come in and help out sometimes they have to log in C hours that's one thing but you also need a certified teacher there for supervision purposes primarily uh they're still under our watch and so um plus if there's grade enhancement we want a certified teacher in there making sure especially at the high school level to be a part of that so and I I think

108um we're dealing with students who need extra instruction and they need really competent teachers who know how to give them what they need a a tutoring maybe a tutor to help and come in is fine but we need people who are professionals to give that really good instruction that helps them since they haven't caught it on the first go round as much maybe to bring up their understanding so they go forward with a solid platform for Learning and that's what we're seeing obviously we've seen a lot of students come at last you know the end of semester and maintain that grade which is really the goal so they don't have to retake it in the summer or whatever that looks like for their family um we've also had a lot of really good feedback from

109teachers they're excited to teach in smaller classrooms um with fewer kids so that they can really spend that individualized attention and time with those students thank you uh my second question have you ever considered opening this up to the the broader Community to include kids that are homeschooled as an in an effort to to expose them to the public school and perhaps attract some of those parents and students into the public school you you know little one week preview how well they could do at a public school I'm not sure you guys I know at the we have not done that at the elementary tuition summer school we routin routinely each year in the summer school program get students that are homeschooled as well as charter school students I know last year I'd say 10%

110of our elementary summer school program which is a fee based are from non-gps students this though we've targeted towards helping our current GPS students because we're using the data and really helping at the elementary level um that bottom cortile of students that are struggling and with with respect to all these programs they're run out of federal funds and typically we can't invite students that are not our own students into those programs thank you sure anything else I had a couple questions sure is there anybody else um just piggybacking off the budget questions from Mrs Humphrey and Mr Thompson and maybe Bonnie do we have people that are on the lookout for more grants cuz you T you are okay that would be me so I know you mentioned that we got one from the governor's

111office so we're digging deep all the time looking for Grants I've been looking at the governor's office um and looking at the state to see if there are any special grants that are coming out um the only thing that we've been able to latch on to currently is the Arts consumable Grant which is the one that I applied for um and we received but to date I have not found anything else um that could help us with these programs but I am still looking even at the federal level yeah I at the federal level all thank you for doing that no it's my pleasure no stone and turn right when we need financing Miss paig real quick also sorry I apologize um she won't say it but Cheryl is constantly looking she's pretty modest so

112you'll get text messages late and I hey I think I found something I mean she is constantly going and to her credit the Arts consumable Grant and I mean hundreds of thousands of dollars are coming our way 97,000 because of of what she found out there also then she's working with folks within her Department um on attending trainings to be able to identify support right for Grants um there's sometimes language followup detail that you need with with them and so she's not only herself but strengthening the entire team and so we're excited about the future holds that way I just took my program specialist to um a conference in New Orleans for federal program directors um and other Federal type programs um where we got a lot of legal mumbo jumbo for for those of

113us in the federal World um it was it was great learning and she she got an opportunity to learn a lot about it we came back and she started taking some grant writing classes um and my staff really is all about learning and and continuing their growth so we're all working really hard to figure out how to pay for all these things for students well thank you I appreciate that and I know grant writing is an art for it's painful it's it's really painful one last question um are there students that you've identified that you might not be able to invite or are we leaving kiddos behind I think that as we've identified so we have two constraints we have um the constraint of seats available and um whether or not parents want to send

114kids so we look at the bottom 25% of students where they're doing how they're doing and where they're sort of lacking in skills and then we send out invites to um we send a list out to each of the schools and they send out invites cuz it's better coming from their their own teachers and their own campus um and a lot of times we get those kids um and a lot of times parents are just on vacation and they don't want to send their kids or the kid doesn't want to go or something like that um we had a couple of those situations this last um go rounded intercession but for the summer we we get a lot of the kids that we identify thank you so much for all of you I I wanted

115to I Just Want to Thank You for um helping us better understand all of the work that you've put in and all that you're doing for the students I think that's amazing that we are able to catch those students if the first quarters gone by and they're not really grasping the concepts they have a a second opportunity in a smaller class size to learn that material and I think that is going to be huge it's one of those things where it's continuous Improvement and over time is going to make a big difference a very personal story about that my daughter speak at the mic so we can hear you and the people at home can hear you very personal story so my daughter was failing algebra and took part in the great enhancement um program

116prog and wound up doing very well in years um as she moved forward in high school so for us as a family it was a huge huge blessing so good thank you thank you and I want to just just want to say thank you to these five administrators but there are a plethora of other administrators that have run these programs over the last three years you can imagine that a lot of our dean of students and assistant principles they're busy running their schools during the school year but during our inter sessions In Summer Schools they're also providing the support for our programs to continue to excel as well as the teachers too um granted they're all getting paid a little extra but we know how hard teachers and our administrators work and they've stepped up

117to the plate and really helped um our students that need extra support K12 Mrs W yes I just wanted to also say I appreciate that we are taking the opportunity to offer this to our students and I really appreciate that we're evaluating and Reporting on the data of Are We being successful in what we're doing because we just we want to get better at it so I'm glad that we're looking at it and saying how can we better reach the students how can we better accommodate them how can we better what Focus can we be and I could see that it looked like you have adjusted and Chang as the years go and I think that's really exciting for our students for our staff so I appreciate it thank you very much I will move

118to uh consent agenda item consent agenda items do I hear a motion for approval of the consent agenda I move that we approve the consent agenda items as as listed thank you Mrs wood is there a second second thank you Mrs Paige so it's been moved and seconded that we approve the consent agenda item as presented all those in favor please signify by saying I I I opposed so on a 5 Z vote um we'll now move to 9 01 action item appointment of Shawn Lynch as the principal of mosqu high school for the 2425 school year do I hear a motion I move to approve um Sean Lynch Lynch as the principal of mosquit high school effective tomorrow January 31st 2024 through the 20242 school year thank you Mrs hre a second second thank

119you Mrs Paige it's been moved and seconded that we approve the appointment of Sean Lynch as the principal of mosqu high school for the 24 25 school year and I will wait until after the vote for a discussion so all those in favor please signify by saying I I I so on a 5- z vote Mr Lynch would you like to say some words or any of the board members that want to say anything too at this point uh the governing board and superintendency I'd first like to say thanks for having faith in me uh mosqu a good place uh there's there's good people there there's good administrators there's there there's good teachers there's good support staff and good students and uh um we'll keep working hard and and do the best we can so

120thank you board members anybody like to add you might get question again thanks for sticking around for so long can can we take a a a little short break to congratulate him sure yeah I just wanted to say one thing I didn't get a chance earlier to to say but I had the opportunity to go meet with you in October for about an hour and I just could not be more impressed from that meeting and am so excited that we have you back I remember asking you at the end of that meeting how can we take interim off the beginning of the principal and you looked at me and you're like I don't know probably not so when this came up I couldn't have been more thrilled so thank you so much for coming back

121and serving those great kids and the students over at Ms high school so we're very grateful thank you okay we'll come back in five minutes okay h [Music] but it was so weird cuz it went to that my what happened to [Music] [Laughter] them what happen no I was that's the presentation it didn't matter but then I'm like nothing nothing nothing oh wow they that when they call all of youright [Music] [Laughter] is no I looked at all of them you said that and I page [Music] okay we're all back and we're very happy to have Mr Lynch continue his um Journey as the mosqu high school principal we'll move on to 9.02 FY 2023 annual comprehensive financial report and this one we do have a roll call vote Mrs Wilson so do I hear

122a motion to approve the I move that we approve the 2023 annual comprehensive financial report thank you Mrs humre um second I'll second second thank you so it's been moved and seconded is there I don't believe we have any discussion but if anybody has anything they want to say because we've already gone through it otherwise we'll take the roll call vote which is something that is required by the state so Mrs Wilson Mr Chad Thompson here oh you have to say name it's I IR name say we're glad you're here but we need to know if you're if you're going to vote Yes or yes or no okay I thank you Miss Ronda page I Miss Lori wood I miss Jill humph I miss Sheila ug jetti I I by votes passes thank you Mrs

123Wilson we'll move on to 9.03 fiscal year 2023 single audit reporting package and this once again we have a roll call vote required so do I hear a motion I move that we approve FY 2023 single audit reporting package thank you Mrs wood second second thank you Mrs paig it's moving seconded I believe we've also discussed all of that if anybody M jetti yes just I just wanted to point out that what's posted is still in draft form okay so um I just wanted to make sure that it's still appropriate for you to accept by roll call vote and if there is anything other than typographical errors we will bring the report back all right thank you Mrs bets okay so it's been moved and seconded that we approve it in draft form and it

124will any any corrections will be made and brought back to us um Mrs Wilson Mr Jetty I here miss humph I miss Lori wood I miss Ronda pagee I Mr Chad Thompson still here and I Madame President all board members voted with I thank you Mrs Wilson so on a vote of 5-0 it's been approv appr D 9.04 policy development first read of policy EBC emergencies um do I hear a motion so moved thank you Mrs humph a second second thank you Mr Thompson Dr McCord thank you madam president govern many board members before you we bring uh policy EBC emergencies uh this has this and the other policies on the docket this evening have went through the first read with our policy committee and uh if it's approved or any changes we'll go back

125for the second uh time around with the policy committee and come back for the second read the addition to this portion of the policy reads as follows emergency response plans developed by the governing board are required to address how the school and emergency responders will communicate with and provide assistance to students with disabilities and again uh everything that we'll have tonight is as a result of what went through the legislature and approved this past summer thank you any discussion hearing none I'll call for the vote for the first read of policy EBC emergencies all those in favor please signify by saying I I I opposed so a 5- z vote and it will go back to the policy committee for the second read 9.05 policy development first read of policy JK student discipline do I

126hear a motion so moved thank you second second okay thank you very much uh so it's been moved and seconded um Dr mcord thank you madam president governing board members this policy uh JK uh there's an addition to it this relates to student discipline and it states a school district is exempt from having to meet the prescribed criteria for the suspension of a student in kindergarten or the first through fourth grades if either a expulsion is required pursu of a ars1 15- 841 G due to a student's possession of a firearm at school or B the suspension does not exceed 2 days and the aggregate suspensions for the P do not exceed 10 days within a school year this uh language uh will appear in the next policy as well thank you any discussion hearing

127none I'll take a vote on first read of policy JK student discipline all those in favor please signify by saying I I I opposed so on a 5- z vote and then we'll move to 9.06 policy development first read of policy JKD student suspension expulsion due process rights do I hear a motion so moved thank you Mrs Paige a second second thank you Mrs Humphrey move seconded Dr McCord again the same exact language from the previous policy it's just in two different policies uh within our policy manual thank you any discussion hearing none I'll take a vote for the first read of policy JKD all those in favor please signify by saying I I opposed so on a 5 Z vote and we'll move to 9.07 policy development first read of policy jlh missing students

128do I hear a motion so moved thank you Mrs Paige second second thank you Mrs humph uh Dr McCord thank you madam president govering board members in this policy missing students uh in the last paragraph of the first page it says currently within five days after enrolling a transfer student from a public school or from a private school the school request directly from the previous School a certified copy of the student's record that has been legislatively changed from 5 days to 10 days and is reflected in this policy thank you any discussion hearing none I'll call for a vote on the First Street of policy jlh all those in favor please signify by saying I I I opposed so on a 5- Zer vote and they will be all taken to the next committee meeting

129I'm sure um requests for future agenda items if you have any requests for that please see do McCord or myself anything anybody okay thank you board committee reports I will start with insurance trust I do not have anything to report tonight uh Mrs Betts covered some of the important parts in the the report that she did earlier um legislative representative Mr Thompson nothing tonight thank you thank you city of M Mesa leaz on Mrs wood just that we are going to work with councilman summers in preparing for the school connect coming up with the East Mesa schools in late February so I'm looking forward to that okay thank you um town of Gilbert Lee is on an audit committee Mrs humph well we just went over the audit tonight so that is all good for

130the time being and then uh for the town of Gilbert there was a public hearing there will be an increase in our utility bills um I hope people will go and look at the website CU they get did an excellent job of explaining why that increase is warranted and there's also a um a meeting um at the library on W on Thursday February 29th on learning to conserve water so in conjunction with um looking forward to an increase in our utility bills um you can go to that water conservation class so thank you Mrs humre and then Gilbert Education Foundation Mrs Paige nothing to report tonight thank you thankk you Dr mcord meeting dates thank you upcoming meeting dates February 6th board work study brief board business meeting February 13th is a board policy committee

131meeting and February 27th is our board business meeting thank you Dr McCord do I Heir a motion to adjourn so moved thank you Mrs Humphrey second second thank you Mrs Paige it's been moved and second it that we adjourn all those in favor please signify by saying i i i i and there's no oppose so we are adjourned thank you very much for everybody that's here or