Gilbert Public Schools Board Meeting 05/16/2023

001wonderful we would like to begin our regular board meeting and welcome all of you here thank you so much for joining us tonight we just adjourned from an executive session and I will call to order this regular board meeting Tuesday May 16 2023 and I will begin with a moment of silence and then we'll have the Pledge of Allegiance led by Mrs Sheila eugetti if you will all stand and join me for a moment of silence please I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all [Music] thank you all Mrs Wilson if you could please call roll Mr Chad Thompson here Miss Laurie wood here Michela eugetti here miss Jill Humphries here Miss

002Rhonda page here Madam president all board members are present you have a quorum thank you we will now move to the approval of agenda 3.01 board members is there a motion so moved thank you Mr Jetty it's been moved is there a second thank you Miss Humphries it's been moved and seconded that we approve tonight's agenda all those in favor please vote by saying aye aye any opposed with me thank you that passes five zero we'll now move to the superintendent's recognition Awards Dr McCord thank you madam president governing board members if you join me in front of the dice for tonight's uh celebrations [Music] good evening you guys did the like church good evening oh good thank you well welcome this is um arguably the best part of every one of our board meetings

003so uh and that is because we get to recognize our students our staff and all the Great accomplishments they've had over the last few weeks or quarter and we're going to kick it off tonight with track and field we had we had some good stuff go on for Tre raise your hand up here for track and field in here oh nice yeah good well let's start off with Highland High School if I could have a head coach David Montgomery coach Monty or oh well thank you where's Steve McDowell at come on up Dave Johnson right if you want to bring that money guy you can how are you sir good to see you did uh did Coach tell you that you'll probably have to talk a little bit maybe that's why he sent you up

004here huh way to go money way to go well this year Highland High School girls became division one state champions please give them a hand come on up if you're here from Highland High come on up this is a tough time of year just because a lot of Banquets are going on a lot of things happening at school so I appreciate all of you being able to be here tonight um not only were they the division one state champions the girls but the girls also were the open division state champion so please give them another hand Laney Jones are you here no matter she's not here that's okay Lainey Jones took second place in the 100 meter are you Emma I saw by that smile 1600 meter Champion 3 200 meter Champion congratulations Chloe ba

005is that your sister well are she older younger here's why Chloe took second in the 1600 meter congratulations and uh also well who was that was and then it says Caleb or Kayla case Cameron Delancey were they also in that race or were they part of that uh congratulations to them boys Josh Howard are you here are any of the boys here Josh Howard and Zach Bingham [Applause] hello gentlemen how are you Josh Howard raise your hand hi Josh Josh 3200 meter Champion congratulations and Zach Bingham pole vault champion this is what it says here so I'm not making this up number one in the USA with a vault of 17 foot 4 inches congratulations coach I'm going to turn over to you to talk a little bit about your students but before I do

006I want to say one other thing I think we had state champion in the 4x800 is that correct yes four by eight hundred they ran a 902 which broke School record third fastest time in Arizona history and seven fasts fastest time in the nation congratulations to you guys you want to talk a little bit let's talk about your season talk about these kids brag about them this is your opportunity ready well pretty much uh myself and Coach Montgomery you know we give her everything we have to try and bring out the best in all of our student athletes and you know we're both still kind of in shock of how everything turned out you know we continuously say you know it's a blessing we put a plan together for you know these young athletes to

007go out there and try to excel but what it always comes down to is their ability to grasp that concept and bring it into fruition and they gave everything they had and you see what the outcome is I mean it's rare to see the situation especially with the girls to where you have seven girls go into a state competition and pull it off by themselves um again give them a round of applause for that I mean they were out there against some really stiff competition schools that had a number of people in the division tournament as well as the overall state tournament but those seven pulled it together and it came down to the very last event and uh I remember telling the kids to say okay how can I motivate them to really give

008everything they have so I told them I said okay we looked at the points it comes down to the 4x4 relay and um if you guys win first or second you can win the whole thing and you could kind of see at the end of the day because it was a long day it was really hot on Saturday that they were feeling kind of drained but when I said that the competitive Drive in them jumped up Lainey Jones jumped off the ground and she was like okay let's go and they went out there really all they had to do was place in the top four and I mean those kids battled they battled hard and they pulled it off and took third and won the whole thing and it was just again a blessing to

009watch their excitement to you know see that okay we placed where we needed to and we won the whole thing two weeks in a row and again it's an amazing feat to see that happen from Seven girls so again give those those young ladies around and with these two young men I mean they they battled you know a lot of the other boys didn't you know make it out of the divisional uh competition and they went out there and battled for themselves and again you see Josh came out on top uh winning his race and then Zach has just been phenomenal all year long and he was going for the overall state record and came close twice or three times I can't remember yeah a couple of times he came close and we're all there

010cheering him on and I mean and it's exciting if you've never really watched the pole vault go to a track meet and watch the pole vault because you look at these young kids and you have to say okay they're not normal because when you look at it again 17 4 and I mean he came so close on the way down and clipped it with an arm and we're all like the whole stands is watching it and they're like whoa and excited and you know Zach one track meet was like coach I heard you all the way from over there at the stands because I mean it's exciting to watch them perform it's exciting to watch them be competitive and go after what their goals were and his goal was to break the record and he

011came so close and you know he fell short but he's not done he's continuing on and all these young athletes are continuing on to excel as great individuals great human beings and like I said it's a blessing to coach you foreign coach thank you so much one more time for Highland boys and girls track and field do me a favor and this is how we're doing it for the rest of them so everybody pay attention we're gonna go through shake hands with the governing board and then stay here with them for a group picture okay all right thank you just go ahead [Music] well kind of we're gonna scoot into these guys so [Music] all right Jonathan go ahead um [Music] [Laughter] I'm sorry thank you again next can I have the coaches from Campo

012Verde track and field come up your mic right avenus thanks for being here can I have all of the students for track and field up here from Campo nice Campo Verde I'll start with the girls track and field division two runner-up for this year you have my hand if I butcher your name please don't hold it against me hold it against my abilities to read as a young child Leah spindell second place 400 meter are you there did I say it right close hey Brooklyn Mark Montgomery discus Champion well done girls four by four hundred girls four by four hundred meter relay Champions Leah spindell Zaria Zaria zarya where's zarya say your last name Iola that's what I was gonna say Ella Kindle and Bianca Hurtado is that right yeah there you go and can

013we have the boys come up are you guys come are there up there just the girls who are you guys are you moral support you can still come up we like you get up there [Applause] they were in the front just kind of snickering and laughing at each other now you're up here ha ha boys division two runner-up congratulations to the boys [Applause] where are you Jace McGavock ah Jason McGavock second place 200 meter and 400 meter [Applause] um say your first name magell just like it sounds Migel moronis is that right Michelle moronis Javelin champion thank you Leah where are you again did you win something else what did you win Leah she won the division open which is the granddaddy of them all um 400 meter state champion congratulations what was your time

014see huh well well done see you didn't even have to do your best to win it all congratulations coach would like to just say a few words about these kids absolutely thank you well the first thing I want to say is congratulations to Highland um great program obviously something that we're going to try to Aspire is to get to that state championship level but um the other thing I want to say and they're not here tonight is a big shout out to my assistant coaches um this wouldn't have happened without them I had a kind of a rough start to the season I got really sick and then my dad who's my idol Mentor track coach uh extraordinaire kind of person I went to passed away in the first week of the season and made

015it kind of a unique situation for me but this is the reason I want to shout out my coaches because they really took over and gave me about a week or two to make sure that I could deal with all of those kind of things and yet you know then get back to the season but when it comes to these kids uh unbelievable how they were able to kind of go through the grind it's a long season you start in February and a lot of them are doing pre-season work so you know you go through February March April and then you got to show up in May and that's the money time and that's what they did when we got to Deer Valley High School You know despite the hot temperatures and the windy conditions

016everybody really stepped up and competed at their best I will say that and I said this last night we had our banquet last night actually and um we have a group of four boys that came up the Ninja Turtles and that's can I get to raise the hands of the Ninja Turtles so they know who you are there they are these guys do everything together but um you know we had a little bit of an injury during the state meet and I know that kind of affected all of them but the rest of the team really did their best to kind of Step things up so the boys could end up getting second uh we really tried to chase down North Canyon they have been the top team for girls in division two for the

017last I don't even know how many years quite a few years and so we gave them a good scare came up close um but these ladies up here were a big part of what we did to be able to have uh Brooklyn as a state champion there she also set the state meet record she's also ranked number one in Arizona she's in the top 25 in the nation Migel moronis he is in the top 25 in the nation for the javelin so a lot of our kids are putting up big numbers and if you look at Arizona overall and I know we can include Highland obviously as well as we have some of the best athletes in the United States and it's really nice to see our kids be able to kind of perform at

018that level I know it's D2 but it's like we're going to compete with everybody so whether you're D1 D5 doesn't matter to us we're going to give you give you all you can handle and we're looking forward to getting after it again next year but just super proud of these guys it was just an awesome season for us [Applause] congratulations coach congratulations uh how many seniors are up here any ready to graduate too no young men and women congratulations thank you for representing your school your school district and your state so well one more time thank you all right congratulations and congratulations thank you let's have the guys there you go watch gentlemen gentlemen scoots this way a little bit there you go you want us to move up yeah there we go next could

019I have Gilbert High coach Mark Sullivan come on up [Applause] good evening Mr Sullivan how are you sir doing well good to see you how are you tonight all right all right well he has some folks that um can I have those Gilbert High School Trek and field individuals come up ladies gentlemen Gilbert hi you have some winners correct we do you do so again disclaimer goes if I mess up your name it's coach's fault Vance is it Vance Nelson yeah Vance how are you good 110 meter hurdles Champion for division one 300 meter hurdles champion congrats second place boys four by 400 relay Connor where are you Connor say your last name latau Eli Jackson you're Eli good to see you Eli Preston Roar where are you Preston hello and Vance Nielsen second place

020four by four hundred relay give them a hand you say a few words about your kids nope he's done thanks for coming I'm just gonna do an addendum great Vance was easy Vance was also second place in the 110s and the open division he took first place in the 300 meter hurdles in the open division yes and these young men took first place in the 4x4 setting a School record a number four all-time in Arizona you want to say anything about they're just great young men I've had a Joy I work with for the last four and three years this is my last year coaching um it was a great way to go out they put in the time and the effort they began the season in the 4x4 by breaking School record and then

021dropped six more seconds by the end of the season and did a great job coach if you could use one word to describe these guys what would you use tenacity they they worked really really hard one of the comments that some of them made was that they were the shortest four by four hundred meter relay at the State open meet except for Vance but they were determined and if you saw a video of their um 4x4 on last Saturday night you could see that the determination in their eyes they've worked really hard they put in the effort they listen to their coaches came out and practiced got their grades up so they could participate and three of them are ready to graduate and I'm really proud of them really excited for them to do that

022and to move on to better things I think a couple of them right now are planning to go into college to participate in track and field who's that where are you going MCC nice and then um there was a great article written about Eli in the AIA 365 young man from ASU came out interviewed him and did a great job about his background and where he came from here you are today congratulations coach thank you for your years of service especially to track we've known each other for a long time and it is it's it's a difficult job as well as being able to work with these young men and women and look at what you give back in return so congratulations to you congratulations to all of you good luck in your future endeavors

023thank you one more time for Gilbert hi I'd like to invite Dinah wait who's a assistant coach Furman villagrin Rose is back there I think I don't think I missed anybody else come on up good to meet you thank you [Applause] all right if you guys would shake hands of the board we'll take a pic is that okay all right thank you we'll just scoot up and in purpose all right Clarissa and Carrie are you here just you oh God support they don't even know what you're up here for and they're already clapping for you congratulations of course introduce yourself to everybody and tell them what you do at Campo my name is Clarissa monreal and I teach and direct the biomedical program at Campo and that's the only program available at the Gilbert Public

024Schools great and this is zarya who's sorry this is zarya she's a senior at Campo and she's actually it's a four-year program and she's actually taking year three and four as a senior foreign high school has been recognized as a 2022-23 Project Lead the Way distinguished school it is one of 262 high schools across the United States to receive this honor for providing broad access to transformative learning experiences for students through computer science engineering and biomedical Pathways Project Lead the Way biomedical science introduces high school students to medicine and a wide variety array of biomedical science careers this is an excellent program and it's run by phenomenal people who care I get to see them every single day on Twitter and I gotta tell you what just some of the things that I get to

025witness are extraordinary and what I know of these two folks especially when I say these two I'm talking Clarissa and Cara they truly care about kids and want them to make sure that they're moving forward that is why they're being recognized tonight and that is exactly what we want out of all of our Educators here in Gilbert public schools to provide great things for people like Arya so thank you so much for uh being a part of the project lead the way and thank you for being here tonight congratulations to you foreign [Applause] [Music] where are you going to college Emory University in Atlanta Georgia congratulations wow well done and last but definitely not least we have representatives from the Desert Ridge High robotics team how are you I thought you guys had a banquet

026tonight okay you want to introduce yourself and then tell everybody who they are sure hi I'm Mandy Scott um uh I am a mom of this Parker over here as Parker Scott this is the other Parker Parker Wakefield and this is abanov jinka yeah sorry I don't know everyone's last name um I'm officially not officially like the assistant coach right now our coach Wendy Hardin is um ended up going into the hospital and didn't make it to the last part of our season and so we've been doing wonderful things for her um we're missing three of our team um yes we had a banquet tonight that we're going to next um there's an engineering thing going on tonight that some of our kids are at um but these boys um qualify they double qualified for

027states in robotics they made it to worlds in Dallas um a couple weeks ago yep a couple weeks ago I got to go that was really fun um and they did so awesome so amazing they are 10th in the world out of 800 teams in that um yeah so it's not really like sports you can't explain it the same way um this is new to me this year um but they have been through so much we host about five things at Desert Ridge as our principal knows and these boys are there the night before for about what's got five six hours setting up the day of on a Saturday they're there from Seven till about nine or ten because they have to close and clean up and everything plus they're competing all day it's been

028a very wonderful ride to see and very um educating for me because I don't speak robot but um it's been really amazing I don't know what else to say do you guys want to say anything they don't um yeah just wonderful amazing things thank you Mandy so I don't know much about robotics either but I have a niece she's in her 30s now and she was the president of a robotics Club they went to Nationals a few times while she was in school and even at her in her 30s with two children she she has been a part of it and continues to be she's a judge they call her up to judge and so to get to know what this does for for individuals and how it applies for the rest of their life

029is truly amazing because I got to see it in my own family members and so we're so very proud of all the things you guys have accomplished and I know you have put Robotics and Gilbert public schools on the map because of the things you've done so congratulations to all of you you guys would shake hands with the governing board and we'll take a quick pick and then you can get to your banquet back-to-back state champions as well thank you get up here in the middle guys Jaguars that's right right here oh you invite Wherever You Wanna who else uh Mr Spence Mr spets they would like you to be a part of this Desert Ridge High easy said they owe it all to you oh yeah yeah because you know what I get to

030do I get to tell them yes to hosting all the competitions that's what it is I've got the easy job I tell them yes and they come out and do it there we go again Desert Ridge High robotics thank you guys governing board members that concludes our presentation for this evening uh thank you guys and one more time for everybody else oh sorry okay foreign [Music] thank you all thank you to all the students families staff that were here to be honored what a great a great night to honor him thank you Dr McCoy for all of that we are proud of all of them now we'll go to our superintendent's report Dr McCord thank you madam president governing board members welcome to everybody who came and then who are still here the end of

031the school year is fast approaching we have six and a half days left of school for the 23 20 or 22-23 school year we are very proud of our students teachers support staff and administrators for all that they have accomplished this school year our students have a habit is remarkable both academically and in the extracurricular Realm and to our families thank you for sharing your children with us we're very thankful for all that you do for our schools and for our community this year we will be graduating approximately 3 000 seniors 13 years of hard work will pay off in the coming days our first graduation ceremony is this Friday for the students at Canyon Valley as well as our adult learners for our adult education program next will be GCA on Wednesday of next

032week and the remaining high schools will graduate on Thursday May 25th to all of our seniors and their family members congratulations we're so very proud of you and can't wait to see and hear about the great things you will accomplish also this year we have 78 employees retiring on behalf of myself in the governing board we thank you for your years of dedication Devotion to our students and Gilbert Public Schools we hope nothing but the best for you in the future and please know we are here if you need anything at all Miss Wood that concludes my report for this evening thank you very much Dr McCord we will now go to requests to speak to the governing board surgery uh request to speak to the governing board pursuant to ARS 38-431.028.h the board may

033make an open call to the public during a public meeting subject to a reasonable time place and manner restrictions to allow individuals to address the public body on any issue within the jurisdiction of the public body at the conclusion of an open call to the public individual board members May respond to criticism made by those who have addressed the board may ask staff to review a matter or may ask that a matter be put on a future agenda however members of the board shall not discuss or take legal actions on matters raised during an open call to the public unless the matters are properly noticed for discussion and legal action and legal action during an open call the board requests that speakers refrain from voicing complaints against School Personnel or any person connected with the

034district as it may impact due process rights policies e Keb and Ked are provided by the board for the disposition of legitimate complaints including those involving individuals forms required for use of these policies can be obtained from the Gilbert Public Schools website thank you we have one individual to speak to the governing board tonight Jamie Weinberger if you'll please come to the podium here and yes thank you so much and we have three minutes that will be a time you'll see on the on the board all right and talk fast okay um I want to start this by saying that I've actually dedicated the last 14 years of my life to public education I've had the privilege of serving as a teacher an instructional coach an educational consultant an assistant principal and principal all in

035high needs schools and areas where I'm aware that ability levels are diverse and learning needs are not created equal while it's difficult for me to remove that educator hat it's important that you hear me from the lens of a concerned mom today I am a mom of a kindergarten student who is different he is not and will not be the cookie cutter compliant well-behaved kid that he must be in order to thrive in existing Gilbert schools environments of which we've experienced to this school year he likes to be creative he asks incredible questions he sings dances builds he appears as though he's not paying attention but knows exactly what to do and I get it I'm his mom and I think he's great but I also realized that he is the common denominator between his

036educational settings and I only want to support him and his teachers when laying the most crucial Foundation differentiation is the sole responsibility of a teacher despite barriers like lack of time and training and insufficient resources like existing curriculum that's over 10 years old as a result teachers end up turning to Teachers Pay Teachers or Google they print worksheets that sadly become the go-to learning modality for students regardless if they're low or high performers how is one teacher expected to deliver individual or small group instruction with varying degrees of difficulty in an environment where the average student teacher ratio is 24-1 all primary age students including my own need time to explore Concepts and manipulate materials in order to learn worksheets test rope memory a way for children to spit back information we must give kids

037the opportunity to test the concepts in different situations so they can understand how those Concepts can be applied to different areas of their life I have challenged Educators at both Gilbert schools where worksheets are the sole learning modality I was told that we do that Gilbert schools do not have opportunities for stem or engineering related activities and there's no gifted or accelerated curriculum for students like mine I was told to consider Neely a traditional school or Highland Park with accelerated options which instead refers to the practice of presenting curriculum content earlier or at a faster Pace not the enrichment that I am asking to be considered where curriculum content is presented with more depth breadth complexity when I asked for my child to be tested for Cog Ed I was encouraged not to do that

038because it's a three-hour test All Battery tests have to be completed in one sitting regardless of age which essentially is a torture chamber where only the survivors are rewarded and why because I was told that's the way it's always been done it's a scheduling nightmare despite the reality that it's a tool to ensure that kids have appropriate tools for learning when I asked the school psychologist to administer an IQ assessment she told me that wasn't something she could do because it doesn't fall under special education eligibility sadly I can't ignore this reality when I put my educator hat on I consider the bigger issue far bigger than me or my son Axton I think about the countless kids who are likely labeled a behavior issue who hate school who are bored and the parents who

039think something is wrong with their child and that this is the only way Mrs Weinberger I'm so sorry to interrupt we appreciate your comments and Dr McCord if we could have someone reached out to her thank you thank you for coming we appreciate that and I also wanted to acknowledge we had we had comments online that were also given as part of the as part of the um online opportunity that we have to address the governing board thank you very much that will now take us to our reports 7.01 fiscal year 2023 monthly financial report for month ended April 30th 2023. I think you madam president governing board members I will turn this over to our associate superintendent of Business Services Mrs Bonnie Betts governing board members president wood Dr McCord this is a fairly

040short presentation and I'll get right to it we generally show you the district operating funds today focusing a little bit on state Grant funds our Enterprise funds and then finishing with our bond funds so first district operating funds maintenance and operations is always highlighted just wanted to share that you can see the available balance of just around 12 million dollars which represents that four percent Target that you all established in policy about a year ago I wanted to remind you that they that we are and ending the current fiscal year and so this available balance will be fluctuating as purchase orders are unencumbered as invoices are paid off and as we complete our year-end processes also note the undershaken capital outlay this is notable because the year-to-date expended encumbered of that 24 million dollars has

041increased by about two and a half three million dollars since the last time we presented I wanted to make sure that you all were aware that we wanted to facilitate the work of Technology services to get equipment in even though we haven't realized the bond proceeds yet from the most recent Bond sale which we come completed last week and so as soon as those proceeds are in we will go ahead and unencumber the understanding capital and make sure it's encumbered in the bond funds so I wanted to make sure that's clear too any questions on either of those okay great so then the state Grant funds the two I wanted to point out is instructional Improvement there was a Statewide meeting of the Arizona Association of School of Business officials last week at that meeting

042one of the Personnel from the Department of Ed Mr Charlie Martin shared that there will be a third instructional Improvement payment made this year expected to hit our coffers at the end of June and so when we presented the probably the final presentation at the end of July for June you will see that change in our pending budget for instructional Improvement in addition the governor my understanding is the governor has now signed the budget the education budget in the state budget for fiscal 2024 as part of that budget we had anticipated a two percent to the base increase but it will be a 2.92 percent increase where the 0.92 percent is reflective of the results-based funding formula going away so the money that was formerly allocated out through that results-based funding fund is now going

043to be put on the maintenance and operations base for school districts and charter schools and I wanted to make sure that it was clear you will still see this results-based funding on these state grants for some years as we are still spending down resources that we have earned in the past okay so the third area is the Enterprise fund so nutrition services just wanted to share that that year-to-date expended encumbered money of just under 17 million dollars does include two to three million dollars of capital spend I know that we've been talking a lot about about Capital needs also it's important to note that many of the capital needs that were expressed by ameresco when we had the master Capital planning presentation does include assessments of nutrition services so nutrition services does however fund their

044own equipment and their own upgrades of their serving lines and so about two to three million dollars of that encumbrance is reflective of that in addition fortunately our community our community schools department has been successful at procuring a couple of Grants over the last couple of years and this DES Child Care grant that you see highlighted on the grid you can see it includes about four million dollars of resources with the assistance of Mr Jared Ryan we have worked over the last six months on a physical access control system this again will give us an opportunity to move into being able to have staff and students actually sign in to our schools for this particular in this particular case the access points were needed for our vik our very important kid families to facilitate access

045to the programs by the the parents and students coming really early in the morning or leaving a little bit later in the afternoon in addition also facilitating our rental our rental renters who need to access our auditoriums our athletic fields Etc we have put that on the agenda for tonight under consent for your approval I wanted to just make sure that you all knew that as as other resources were coming to us that we were working hard to make sure that they were being utilized in a manner that allows us to be sustainable well into the future so I'm just wanted to make sure that that was clear any questions on any of that okay and then our last group of funds so bond funds 630 this is the 2019 Authority note that we've highlighted

046the bond proceed column and note that it reflects 82 million dollars the next time you see this grid it will reflect the full 100 million dollars we're supposed to close on May 31st where that final 18 million dollars hits our coffers and you can see the year-to-date encumbrances and the remaining balances please know at this point in time those remaining balances are reflective of the 82 million so it'll be 5 million plus 18 that we'll have available in this fund for the summer projects and next fall and then oh yeah I meant to share the cost of issuance so because we had to open up purchase orders to pay the underwriters to pay those that are supporting our efforts to be able to sell the bonds you can see that there is a negative remaining

047balance of that minus 236 000 but that of course will take care of itself as soon as we receive those Bond proceeds okay and then the final grid is our bond fund 630 31 our 2015 Authority note that our remaining balance is zero to date you can see that there's about four hundred thousand dollars of encumbrances those are reflective of Technology security as well as transportation we do expect that the vans that were purchased for transportation will be here before June 30 so that spend will will be completed and I do believe that we can expect that two hundred and forty thousand dollars or so to also be expended by June 30 as Mr Castellano is also working to use that money to buy the equipment to complete the auto Vision the audio visual projects

048in our multi-purpose rooms throughout our elementary schools and that is my report for today if there are any other questions I'm very happy to answer any of them board members are there any questions under the Enterprise fund here the results available balance of 1.8 million dollars he said that will increase over time as those funds are spent what can those funds be spent on so um they have been historically used to provide stipends to all staff members at the schools that have earned them so there's been about maybe you can help me Json 10 or 11 schools historically have been received typically they're each year there's been anywhere from 10 to 13 schools that have qualified for the results-based funding so we've given that the last few years too we've started using the district allocation

049that you see there Mr Thompson for advancing some of our programs that have proven to be successful such as traditional programs accelerated the IB program too that we're looking at Patterson and Gilbert High so there's a variety of uses that are allowable with that results-based funding [Music] it was just during the legislative session it was one of those items that Governor Hobbs had put in her original budget proposal for 2024 was to convert the results-based funding monies into increases the base level amount you bet I think it was because it only went to specific schools and it was there was a formula and um oftentimes rewarded High performing schools that were already high performing and I think originally I might be wrong it was supposed to be the opposite correct Jason that is my understanding

050but you're right and the formula has been hard to follow and it's always two years in the rear on the testing results which is interesting as well too so you were always looking at student performance from two years ago when that new allocation was administered and now it's just going into the budget so everybody it was a priority for the past Governor and a new governor has a different priority I guess my question would be do the then do the same stipulations apply to the result space funding the money now in that account that was given to us I know that we've had to use it to like to replicate programs those kinds of you know PD different things like that do those now go away no our interpretation is that the rules surrounding those

051funds that are left over still stay there so we and we have every intention to continue using it in a manner that was intended great thank you very much anything further oh yes so just to reiterate you said we are going to continue to do result based based funding in Gilbert Public Schools or are we going to eliminate that also uh no we're going to continue spending the money that we have received to date in the manner that it was intended so we will we will not receiving and we will not be receiving any new results-based funding minis so that program in Gilbert Public Schools will go away and then over time okay so then the money will just go into the main Coffer that's correct okay thank you okay nothing further too thank you

052Mrs Spitz appreciate that that will take us to the consent agenda for tonight 8.01 board members is their motion to approve the consent agenda items so I moved thank you Miss Humphries it's been moved is our second thank you Mr Jetty it's been moved and seconded that we approve the consent agenda items as presented all those in favor please vote by saying aye aye any opposed with nay thank you that past five zero that will take us to the action items we begin with 9.01 the appointment of Rod Houston as the Director of community of education for the 2023-2024 school year Dr McCord thank you madam president governing board members it's my honor and pleasure to bring to you tonight as the next director of Community Education for the 23-24 school year Mr Rod Houston

053thank you board members is there a motion I move that we appoint Mr Rod Houston as the Director of Community Education for the 2324 school year thank you Mr Jetty it's been moved as their second second thank you Miss Humphreys it's been moved and seconded that we appoint Rod Houston as the Director of community of education for the 2023-2024 school year board members all those in favor please vote well I guess let me ask is there any discussion no okay board members all those in favor please vote by saying aye aye any opposed with me thank you we passed 5-0 congratulations Mr Houston please come and come to the podium and share a few thoughts [Music] it's just to to the board and to the cabinet thank you for your trust in me and this

054opportunity um I also want to thank my family um as we talked about a little bit in there that that's been a huge part of why I'm here today and and kind of what my family does and so thank you for that I hope that what you found with me is my passion for Gilbert Public Schools the passion for the town of Gilbert and the families in the community that live here my hope is that I can continue the the good work that's already started um and to grow and and just continue to expand the footprint of the community Department um and and help Gilbert schools continue to grow and get better and in the end just making Gilbert it's already the great place to live right it's where we all want to be and

055it's what that is but just to continue to expand on that and make it better again thank you for the the trust and the opportunity I I appreciate it very much [Applause] High School family those people who have been there with me and done that and allowed me to learn what I have over the last few years but this decision was really hard to decide to leave there and to go to do this and those people there have put me in a spot where I felt comfortable that I could do that and Mesquite would continue to grow and so I want to make sure that I thank the Mesquite High School Community too so thank you foreign board members could we take a brief recess to thank you foreign nowhere [Music] well thank you all

056and congratulations again Mr Houston that will take us to 9.02 action item our calendars for school years 2024 2025 2025 2026 26 27 Dr McCord thank you madam president governing board members tonight we bring before you well let me back up we had a presentation at our last work study from Dr Martin related to the proposed calendars and I think he did a phenomenal job hopefully you got a lot of your thoughts and questions answered and we bring this to you tonight for approval if you have any questions Mr Martin will definitely answer them for you so I guess we want a motion but I we didn't specify on here exactly what calendar we're looking at did all three all three know what I'm saying did you just want to say the 222 or how

057do you want to call it so that we know what it is yes is that the best way to say that yep I guess that would be what I assume so I guess board members I'm asking for a motion please include which calendar your you would like to move for I'll move that we adopt the uh 222 calendar for the school years 24 25 25 26 and 26 27 with the um the addition of the fact that both of those were very highly rated in the survey by both parents and staff members thank you it's been moved that we approved the 222 calendars for these school years um is there a second second thank you Mr Page it's been moved and seconded board members is their discussion I would like to just add on to

058what I what my motion was is that when when this was presented to us we saw the difference between the survey that was done I believe two years ago what before we adopted it and the survey now and it was it was an overwhelming difference from both staff and the community of really liking the 222 calendar I would say also that um just there I really haven't seen one email against the 222 calendar I talked to some people that were had some reservations here and there but I think on the whole everyone has really enjoyed this calendar and feels like it's been a good change for us and I also think I look forward to seeing the data from what when we have those intercessions and help kids along I think I think it will

059be really important to look at that data in a couple of years and see how that helps our kids so I think it's been a popular calendar and and while there are a few who may not be as excited about it it's overwhelmingly a favorite as far as I can tell thank you anything further I just want to say I know it mirrors a lot of our other districts that surround us so we're kind of coming into kind of normalizing the East Valley with the 222 just for clarification it can maybe Mr Martin can you just explain what 222 means yeah good question for those out there so that just simply means two weeks of fall break two weeks of winter break and two weeks of spring break compared to what we might call the

060one two one which was one week of spring or fall break two weeks of winter break and one week of spring break thank you so I need to make sure I speak into my microphone I was told I wasn't being picked up earlier so um in speaking with a number of parents about the schedule the 222 versus the one two one the feedback that I got and I just want to get this on record the feedback that I got was that most of the people the teachers and parents that I spoke to were not in favor of the 222 for various reasons some of those being the length of time those two-week breaks are difficult because uh it's too long for in in in from a teacher's perspective it's too long for a child to

061be out of school and when they come back it's like they're coming back from summer break all over again and so it's basically to a teacher it's like we're having students come back from a summer break you know an extra two times during the year also from parents it's uh it's a difficulty with uh with working parents and finding um uh finding uh child care and it just adds another week of of that that those parents have to consider um and then the last thing I wanted to say is I think it I think it dramatically limits our students abilities to find summer employment because there's a couple weeks Less in the year it's harder for employers to uh to take on the responsibility of training somebody training a new employee when they know that

062they've only got them for uh when they have them for two weeks less than you know they did a couple summers ago so those are some of the issues that I that were communicated to me um and so I just wanted to get that on record I so would say let's see if we we went over this in a work study two weeks ago if anybody had any questions about it was on the agenda the calendars were sent out we had a survey that had been sent out to teachers and families we reported on all of that do you remember the date of the work study if someone wanted to go back and look at that that would be May 2nd May 2nd okay thank you so that would be to go back and refer

063to that as we went through all of this I think that night I also said and I just wanted to reiterate that it kind of it comes down to we asked have asked about academic performance is there's a huge difference one way or the other with either calendar asked about fiscal and costs and those kinds of things if there was a huge difference and we haven't seen a noticeable difference on either calendar so in some cases it comes down to opinion and preference and so um again we saw what those who responded to the survey said and we acknowledge those who have different concerns and hopefully can work through those and find Solutions as well so is there anything further Miss Paige I just wanted to ask Mr Martin since the work study on 512

064have we received any emails it's against 222 not to my knowledge no honey okay thank you is there anything further okay thank you for the discussion and seeing no further comments I will call for the vote all those in favor of approving the calendars the 222 calendar for the school years 24 25 25 26 and 2627 please vote by saying I I and any opposed with name nay thank you that passes for one that will take us to 9.03 to consider discuss amend if desired and if deemed advisable to adopt a resolution ordering and calling a special budget override election to be held in and for the district in declaring the deadline for submitting Arguments for and against the election to the Maricopa County school superintendent as of August 11 2023 at 5 PM Dr

065McCourt thank you madam president governing board members tonight we bring before you 9.03 as well as 9.04 9.03 has to do with uh the budget continuation also known as an override as and 9.04 has to do with a possible Bond and we had a retreat the other day last Tuesday I believe and we went over some of these um some of the the reasons why we need to move forward with this and we'll have Miss betz give a presentation just to kind of recap that for the general public so we can have further discussion [Music] thank you uh so so the presentation is related to both of the action items but I wanted to make sure that you all knew that we did have a few people in the audience that I wanted to make

066sure that you are um introduced to so the first individual is from Gus Rosenfeld they help us with our our bond our bond Council as well as Provide support in our elections so I'd like to make sure that you knew that brand in K wood was here from Gus Rosenfeld so I know Mrs page had some specific questions regarding the resolutions and stuff like that if you'd like to ask him those specific questions he's prepared to answer them for you so after the meeting yeah okay when we get to the answer thank you for bringing that up there you bet you bet and then also I wanted to make sure that you knew that Mr Albert dutchover was here to provide additional support on any of our operational needs and then Ms Jackie matinin to

067give you some details on how we're handling some of the um the specifics related to the 15 override continuation so with that I'll go ahead and get started so this is what we're going to go through today the budget continuation the need the possible Bond request the need again understood Capital versus bond making sure it's clear of the uses of those two funds tax rate impact and then election timeline and costs so the mno budget continuation the need so why continue the 15 override as you know in 2019 we really were focusing on uh retaining and attracting highest quality teachers and staff we also wanted to make sure that we're maintaining the student and staff safety within our buildings so at that point in time we did expand social workers as well as mental health

068counselors and now we'd like to to maintain our campus security Personnel that we added in the current fiscal year and then finally maintaining that two million dollar allocation to class size reduction so those are the three priorities that we would go out with with this override budget override continuation so there's a huge focus in these requests on our employee Excellence strategic priority just to remind you remember that all functions of Gilbert Public Schools contribute to the achievement of inspiring excellence in every learner even in the finance office we were talking about it the other day well how do you contribute to the learning of students and go to public schools until the answers is very simple actually let's be as efficient as possible and put as much money as we can into the classroom and

069so if we don't have to spend it on the finance office we get to put it in the classroom all employees regardless of their role contribute to the achievement of this Vision strategic operating plan employee goal again I already mentioned that and then finally compensation increases when possible shall be consistent across all employee groups we need good people in every function in Gilbert Public Schools so these are the detailed budgetary priorities wanted to make sure there was some information to you all indicating how we have put our money where where our mouth is uh in the past since we were successful in November of 2019 so in 2021 so remember the election was in November of 19 which was the the 2019-2020 school year which meant we were able to use utilize those monies in

070the 2020-2021 school year so the additional override dollars amounted to about 11 million dollars but we were able to allocate out 14.3 million dollars to salary increases going into 2021 and then after that we were able to allocate out 4.4 million dollars more going into 2022 and then finally in the current year due to the very favorable work of the legislature we were able to okay 23 million dollars into compensation increases going into the current fiscal year in addition maintained student and staff Safety and Security continuing to employ Mental Health Counselors social workers and campus security Personnel 1.8 million dollars in 2021 again that was the first year in which we were able to utilize the the additional monies from the override and then an additional about seven hundred thousand dollars at the beginning of

071this fiscal year and then finally maintaining that two million dollar allocation to class size reduction making sure that we have an opportunity to add FTE in those classrooms that need it the most so average teacher salary how has our average teacher salary changed over time given this focus in the Strategic operating plan on compensation increases so note in 2020 our average teacher salary was 52 446 went up to fifty four thousand three hundred or so in 21 went up to 57 228 in 2022 and up to sixty three thousand three ninety seven going into the current fiscal year note that I've also included a number at the bottom underneath the 2023 column reflective of the sixty seven thousand six seventy six so we opted to share that if we added all of the compensation that

072I received average on an average basis for our teachers throughout Gilbert public schools there would be an additional about four thousand dollars associated with pay for performance associated with the stipends that we have awarded in the current fiscal year as well as other additional pays for extra Duty that our teachers do either as coaches like you saw here tonight with all of our coaches providing support to our students in extracurricular activities so given all of that so focusing on 2023 and then so how how do we compare with our local school districts um in order for us to be competitive it's important that we have comparable money you know to our to our peer districts and so this is just a grid sharing that most of our comp competition in the East Valley all have

07315 percent overrides I'm already approved by their taxpayer and then finally here's the Local District average teacher salary note that for the Gilbert I put the 67 676 in there and we have shared though on our budget documents that that how we're arriving at those numbers and note that we also went out and looked at Chandler we looked at Higley Mesa Queen Creek and Scottsdale and if you compare those numbers primarily to that 63 000 or 64 almost 64 000 well 63 000 and a half I guess of our average teacher salary we are very much in the market with our peer School peer school districts throughout the East Valley are there any questions on that at all I had a couple I had a question um back to the detailed budgetary priorities on letter

074C maintain 2 million allocation to class reduction size can you just go into a little bit more detail about that what do we do what is that money being spent for the reduction I know you said FTE is there any other programs or or anything else we're doing for that so generally speaking when we when we set up the the budget so we have a position budget as well as an actual dollar budget and the position budget is is managed by Ms matinin in the finance office she has set up a sort of a contingency grid for otm to access and as they are looking at their student counts at the beginning of every year and knowing that they've already allocated out what they expect for the entire enrollment but if they were to add

075an FTE to this particular school at this particular grade level it could make a positive impact on the student staff ratio in that classroom at that time so the two million dollars is worth about um 20 to 22 FTE and again it allows otm the opportunity to determine the greatest needs whether it's at the elementary at the junior high or at the high school level okay just for clarification FTE full-time employee full-time yeah full-time equivalent employee I'm sorry that's okay right so it's yeah full-time equivalent versus a body you could have a body that has a half FTE that's the distinction yeah so roughly you said 26 to 27 possible new higher teachers probably 22 oh 22 years to keep those class sizes reduced down to manageable numbers and the other point I wanted to

076make sure that we shared is if we were to reduce across-the-board district-wide one FTE so we have allocation formulas if we were to go from say 29 to 1 at the high school down to 28 to 1 and then make the commensurate changes across all of our grade levels for every one student it's 1.2 million dollars and you could make an easy case that if you go from 29 or 26 down to 25 it's probably a minimal impact if you can make a case where in one in a few classrooms you could go from 26 down to 23 or 22 that would be a greater impact and has this always been in our budget or is it only since the 2019 since 2019 request for the additional five percent on the budget right I want

077to add a comment on that because our report from Mr McIntosh was showing our class sizes and they are much better than I expected and they are much better than they were prior to having these funds available to us so I'm I was very pleased to see that I agree thank you bet so and this is just our mno override history and we are estimating about 35 million dollars going into the 2024 school year which which is still um a year in which we have the 15 override the request uh for the election is to go out in November of 23 which does represent going out a year early so in in the current fiscal year we still will have the full 15 and going into 25 we will also have the full 15 it

078doesn't start ramping down until the to 2025-2026 school year okay if we're not successful so um the bond authorization the 100 million dollar uh request so here are our specific recommendations regarding the 100 million dollars so critical facility upgrades and Replacements allocating out 63 million dollars of the 100 million to that a career Career and Technical education extracurricular spaces nine million dollars Safety and Security we still have secure entryways at our elementaries that we're still planning on doing there's exterior fencing that needs to be upgraded along with alarms and then you also have the technology infrastructure so this is a strong recommendation that's actually directly related to Safety and Security making sure that we have that intra and inter-school communication equipment that we have not had here in government public schools and so that work

079would be about 12 million dollars allocated to that and then finally the small amount of about oh my math is off there um it's it's it's 4 million but I only have three million dollars reflected sorry about that I'll fix that but four million dollars then allocated out to transportation for a needed school buses and vans Etc I have a question on this page on the Safety and Security the secure entryways and the 12 million dollars does that cover all of our elementary schools or will we still be in process after we spend these bond funds so um we everything is still in flux in terms of priorities so we wouldn't be doing all of them all at once and we have to react to something that we're not expecting however each Elementary School is

080expected to have a cost of about 150 to 200 000 so it depends upon our priorities and how we allocate out those monies for that first Bond sale how quickly you can get through that but in in the I guess you've got four years here on the bond would we be able to complete all of the elementary schools or would we still need to go out for another bond to finish at the 12 million dollars if the secured entryways were the highest priority against fencing and other security needs um the if at about 150 000 per school it would get us that would be about four and a four and a half million dollars total so the 12 million dollars would be enough to complete that project all right thank you yeah okay Miss batzer

081are these the only areas are these the only areas that bond funds can be used is there or are there other areas where that money could be used so this is fairly uh it's a fairly comprehensive list um critical facility upgrades and Replacements you can see that that encompasses all of our main systems at every single school it also would include our some of our our press boxes as an example I've been walking with Albert talking to Mr McDowell about the status of our press boxes that are and and our even our stadium bleachers I mean those arguably are a critical safety component knowing the use that our stadiums get here in Gilbert Public Schools but that would all be under that critical facility upgrade and replacement so this would cover anything that is has

082a life of five years or more we could use it for Chromebooks as an example we have opted over the last three years to move that expense into unrestricted Capital so we're not using Bond dollars anymore you note the the asterisk there about equipment amounts so we do have equipment though that's in our buses that will last about five years so that we have to make sure that the bond how quickly we pay off those bonds matches the life of the item that we're using the bonds for so that's the biggest constraint is the the life of the item that we're purchasing curriculum materials would not be eligible under Bond as an example something very specific thank you and I I just want to add for the community that one of the reasons we're able

083to move our Chromebook refresh into our unrestricted capital is because the legislature has fully restored that we have more funds there that's correct than we had in the past that's correct so instead of using Bond money we can now use that that comes from the state yep so I had a question um who makes a decision on what the priorities are so so going down to Safety and Security secure entryways we're talking the cameras the Plexiglas at the schools correct but who makes those decisions to determine will fencing is more important than the secure entryways we do as a Cabinet you do as a kid yes so we would take in the considerations from our assistant soups over Elementary and secondary as well as feedback from our principals based on their needs so okay thank

084you and it would also stem from as an example Albert and I would take that priority those priority questions we talked about that ameresco shared and indicated okay based upon this these criteria and based upon what Albert knows we would come to Cabinet leadership team says well we really need to put the money here now because that's our greatest need um and then if there's anything that we're a little bit concerned about and we've done this numerous times where um a week or two before we're actually going to present suspend to the governing board we may spend the time to call each of you to say this is where we're going on this project and this is why and this is why we're prioritizing it before it's actually presented to you for approval so we've

085done that also thank you so this is just the bond spending and a little bit more digestible way to take a look at it so you can see that that 63 million dollars representing those critical upgrades is the biggest chunk of the 100 million dollars that we're recommending um this is the information that we did receive from ameresco and this is just a reminder that we have 4.8 million dollars of gross square footage here in Gilbert Public Schools most of which was built in the 1990s and early 2000s note that the total current replacement value of all of our facilities is about 1.8 billion dollars and then again just a reminder 75 percent of what they term our portfolio of all of our facilities was constructed the 1990s and 2000s so put that into timing

086so that's 20 between 20 and 30 years so we're at that time where these critical components are beginning to show their age this is the district-wide capital needs profile wanted to make sure that I had that that deferred maintenance backlog of 198 million dollars up there again I wanted to share that 198 million dollars does not include the 20 million dollars or so that most you have already approved for the summer so really the backlog is about 178 million and we continue to prioritize as we go through the summer and into the fall based upon available resources you can see and you can see that that backlog likely the the 100 million dollars will address uh the large portion of that of that backlog and also the other point I wanted to make that when

087you look at all these categories whether it's electrical services interior mechanical building site work equipment furnishings Subs the substructure all of that does include such things as technology so in this in these costs does include the communication the intra and Inter School District communication that's also on the grid for technology it does include the secure entryways they did allocate out a hundred thousand dollars per elementary school as they were doing their walkthroughs so this is a pretty good representation of our our needs to include those technology needs the only thing that's not in here is our transportation Vehicles they're definitely not in here okay so this you've seen too I'm sharing this we have been spending between 20 and 25 million dollars per year you can see how that will address this unfunded liability over

088the next 30 Years we're really not looking at the next 30 Years we're looking at the next five years and so I wanted to share this this is a very important slide because you can see on this one between how darn it um between the years of 19th today 2023 to 2029 you see that small blue line there that until 2029 2030 we're still at that facility condition index of that 8.7 percent so with the 20 million dollars or 25 million dollars per year we would still be in a very very good condition in our facilities at least through the next five to six years and the 100 million dollars would definitely help us to help to achieve that for us Miss betz yeah so looking back at this slide for my own understanding so

089you're saying that for the next four years 20 to 25 million for Building Maintenance is going to keep us in that in that yellow that good area right yes and then but then after that use it looks like 2029 that blue line takes a sharp turn upwards yes can you help me understand that does that mean that even if we continue to spend 20 to 25 million dollars a year the rate at which our buildings are declining in or I don't know the way to say that but are getting worse will outpace our ability to continue to invest or the 20 to 25 million would no longer be enough to keep us in in good good condition right so um one of the areas that the Consultants from ameresco shared is that the first um

090let's see the first half of a facility's life so through 25 years the maintenance costs or upgrade costs would be about 35 percent of that facility replacement value but once you hit 25 years generally speaking our buildings and all the components in it lasts about 50 years that they're built for 50 years so between year 26 and year 50 that's when you would spend 65 percent of the total replacement value which corresponds to that sharp uptick what I wanted to share is that there's a couple of things going on here um I mean according to this we need more than 100 million dollars right we'd like to maintain our facilities as best as possible but today we know that spending 20 to 25 million dollars is going to get us through very successfully for the

091next five years and we don't know what's going to happen during the next five years would we see additional resources from the state of Arizona would the school school facilities board be fully funded where we have access to additional resources would we I mean there's the most recent thing that happened is the legislation was passed and um as part of that new legislation for 2024 there's an allocation of one-time money it's expected for Gilbert Public Schools to be right around 8 million dollars but that was totally not expected so we have another eight million dollars um that will that we can allocate out and prioritize based upon our highest priority needs so it's more of we know what we need right now for the next five years we don't really know what's going to happen

092in history in the future seems like an appropriate thing to make a request for 100 million dollars also understanding the impact on our taxpayers and the fact that that we don't want to have an adverse impact on their homes and their their ability to to maintain their own budgets on behalf of Gilbert Public Schools so it's the best way I can answer it I think I appreciate that there is one other thing that um wasn't mentioned and that is that there is a lawsuit from the asba to the government to the state government because they have not kept pace with capital funding that was for I believe it's around six billion dollars um it the trial was to start um in January or February but our new governor and attorney general asked for that to

093be delayed while they work through and see how they can handle those issues hoping not to spend the money on the trial and settle somehow that hasn't been I haven't heard any more of an update but it's definitely something where if it's settled favorably we would definitely have more Capital funds so there are other things as well I did have the same conversation with Miss betz just because it is worrying when you see that blue line go up and you know we want to be sure that our buildings are in good repair we've done a lot to renovate them and make them look nice and we do want to keep them in good repair but I did feel comfortable that 100 million dollars right now will keep us where we need to go and we

094need to be just careful that we manage that well and when the needs become more we'll have to be able to address that but there there are other opportunities um besides going out for bonds hopefully our state government will provide they're they're supposed to provide Equity Equitable funding for all of our students to have the buildings that they need based on a lawsuit that was like probably 30 years ago now um Roosevelt B bishop and um we're still working working that out Mr Thompson thank you did you have yeah I've got a couple more questions about this back to slide 16 and 17. I'm just trying to understand this so am I am I understanding this right when it looks like I guess the easiest way to to visualize this is slide 17 this the

095blue line is where where we'd be if we spent 20 million dollars a year the black line is where we'd be if we did not spend 20 million dollars a year that's correct it would just pile up from where we are too okay so those two lines up until 2029 pretty much there's not a big gap there we don't see a you know a huge Spike until 2029 um is there I guess is the is the benefit worth the ask of our taxpayers for a hundred million dollars when it seems like we could wait until 2029 and we'd be at almost at about the same place we are now could we give the taxpayers a break for until 2029 and then ask for some money to to do some of these things because in both

096the the black line and the blue line they don't neither of them Spike until 2029. so um so a couple of comments about that um so uh the the fear there is that the need would be so great by the time you hit 2029 that now you're going to have to sell a large amount of bonds all at once that's going to definitely adversely impact the taxpayer because it's going to hit their their tax rate because you have to amortize that out over the time frame I think the other thing is that orange bar throughout the bottom of the graph is still considered poor so the yellow line is fair and green is good so the Orange is poor so we would be going into that poor range um by next year so I mean

097there's just some some things to to consider but those are those are the the reality of what what would happen it would be difficult to catch up all at once um but it's not impossible but but I I think we wouldn't necessarily need to catch up all at once because we're not catching up all at once if we ask the taxpayers this time right so we would be maintaining in that poor range for the next because that that Gap is still 20 million dollars every year so we would be encroaching and getting to that criticality of the red closer and closer Even after spending 20 million dollars every year so you know we'd have to we'd have to take a look at it if we're on so we'd have to take a look at it

098anyway if we're unsuccessful in November yeah I I get I guess a big concern of mine is that we're going to ask the taxpayers for 20 million for 100 million dollars and in and then there won't according to this chart there will not be a time in our future unless some of those things that you said you know the the facilities board you know comes through and gives us what we need um but it just doesn't look according to this chart that there will ever be a time where we will be able to keep pace with this chart without asking for a hundred million dollars this time and then I mean double that next time in order to you know for the to well two and a half times that to reach the 48 million

099dollars required required annually for over the next 30 Years and so that's just a concern of mine is that this is going to be a Perpetual ask and I know that it's not like the buildings are getting any any newer right and so I realize things need to be done but that's just that's just an observation that I think this according to this chart asking for 100 million dollars is really just the tip of the iceberg that as we continue to age our taxpayers are going to be uh asked again and again for money and more and more and more money and that's concerned um and and possibly I'm a Believer in the next five years look out and so things change so quickly um um the only thing I will say about this particular

100work that amaresco has done with us is it absolutely points out that the the highest criticality need which helps um you know Albert to do his work and make a recommendation to us as a leadership team so that when we do have any money at all we know what the highest needs are to get to get addressed and I think you bring up a great point about having to go back and back to the taxpayer and and I think you kind of touched on it it is about the funding formula and and what is given to schools obviously they don't have this information like we have at our fingertips when it comes to the legislature and I understand that but these are the types of things that we need to go to them with when

101we say listen this funding formula isn't appropriate if you don't want us to go to the taxpayers here's what we need moving forward but at the end of the day if that doesn't change they leave us no choice and so that's what's difficult yeah there is I will share something too that that probably won't allay your fears Mr Thompson but it's definitely a strategy that will help us get through the next 30 Years in a positive way anything else should I go in I have one more okay you bet question or line of questions um how much do we have in our budget balance carry forward and my understanding is that that money is pretty flexible that we can use that money for a number of different things possibly some of these things that we

102would use Bond money for how much do we have in that and can we offset this hundred million dollar at this hundred million dollar what are we what are we calling it this I don't want to keep saying ask and make it have a negative connotation but um Bond Bond yeah can we offset the 100 million dollar bond by what we have or a portion of what we have in our budget balance carry forward to not put as big of a burden on our taxpayers and we absolutely have the flexibility to do that you're right so uh with uh I shared today that we're right at that 12 million dollar four percent Target that's a a goal it's not it's a Target it's not set in stone it's your policy Target so we don't have

103to have a 12 million dollar budget balance carry for that's actually in the m o fund right now um we do we did if you recall we did move 20 million dollars last a year ago now into unrestricted Capital sort of to have that Reserve we did make a decision that based upon our and things have improved but based upon our information that we had in April when you all approved the three percent pay increase we did anticipate that we'd have to go into that budget balance carry forward about four and a half million dollars that's improved now because of the legislative work it's probably going to be closer 32 million dollar drawdown which gives us some some opportunities as well the other thing is is that um in it's not just Bond dollars that

104has been spent to address these needs so um Mr dutchover is spending about two to three million dollars annually on just replacing the smaller equipment that does extend the life of our buildings such as pumps compressors those types of things so that is already being utilized to provide some support the money that's in here too is reflective of the current Year's prices right so it's not they they had this philosophy that we're not going to accelerate what's going to happen and guess what the inflation rate will be in 24 and 25 and 26 and just extend these costs based upon that projection so they're going out 30 years based upon today's costs is another point and then these are all real hard costs so they don't include architectural costs permitting those kinds of things which

105the unrestricted Capital would provide us opportunities to fill those in as we're doing these projects so but yes again as I I said at The Retreat it's all about how we prioritize the available money that we have you all also made a decision tonight regarding the culinary upgrades at Highland High to impact actually the textile and in the interior design program as well we are working very hard at utilizing all of our funds to address our needs so in that particular case there's probably a great deal of of need in The Culinary classrooms and in the textile classrooms that's reflected in these numbers we had an opportunity to use another funding source our jted funding source to address those projects the other example with Jared Ryan being able to allocate out three million dollars of

106a grant that we weren't expecting to get all those things are just being added to addressing some of this backlog so we're constantly looking at it but but yeah so there's so to answer your question there's 12 million dollars in mnl and there's about 20 million minus roughly two about 18 million dollars available in unrestricted capital okay once it's gone it's gone it's not like that carryover is right it's gone it's gone right okay um I and I don't know how many slides are left in this slideshow but it would now be a good time to talk about to inform those watching um how how does the bond how does the bond work how what are the bond rates based on and what would happen to those rates if let me let me rephrase that

107so my understanding of how these bonds work is or the interest rate on the bonds that we get on the bonds are based on um on our our rating is that correct our boundary our bond rating which is and the interest rate on these go bonds the Geo government the Geo is General obligation General obligation that that that that interest rate is determined by the assessed property value of the of the residential property within our boundaries as well as the some some interest rate some bond interest rate is that right right so the um so it's the uh the taxpayer by getting and requesting a hundred million dollar bonding Authority the taxpayer is agreeing that they would pay the interest and principal back over time for an infusion of those proceeds that the district would

108get to address Capital needs right so um and I will go through some of those tax rate impacts later if I could okay if you want to you want to talk talk later a picture to show and to share that I like pictures okay yeah let's do it Miss betz can I just clarify one thing back on this slide before this just so that I understand following Mr Thompson so we already have a backlog of 198 million so somebody walked into our district and handed us a check for 200 million dollars we would be current correct Well we'd have to get the work done well yeah but that's what I'm saying after that so we already have a backlog of 200 million dollars according to amaresto but remember that includes all of those areas down

109there that's not prioritized it includes every single right right so it's not it's not prioritized is my point right they're not necessarily all critical they got to get done right now but we do so then why is it a backlog if it's not critical um it's a it's a backlog because that's when we and I don't have that slide in here oh yes I do that was why we added this slide to show that these are our priority analysis right there so this is the cumulative five-year priority need versus the question so as an example we we can delay painting forever we can delay Landscaping forever it's not necessarily going to impact the instructional uh experience of our students okay so that's that's really so this is really the cumulative five-year priority needs thank you

110you bet this is this is bad side I I this is all extremely complicated and I know you're going to get to some of the slides that talk about the property tax in just a minute but I I have to look at things simple simplistically when it comes to this much money and I just want to make sure that I'm kind of I I said this at the work study but the bottom line on this to me is that if if we wanted to continue to do everything that we should do we would spend 48 million a year but because we have the bond we get to spend 20 million if we didn't have the bond all we would have would be 2 million pretty much pretty much so simplistically we would go from 20

111million to 2 million we spend the 2 million right now on textbooks curriculum and other things so how do we make the 2 million fix the air conditioning at high on high right those are all true statements so it's all again that same conversation about priorities so yeah so you're you're you're in your 2 million the two million is actually we do have two million the two million is actually allocated for operations to do those that's right because that's right that's why I want to secretary and there's about 15 million there that's right because it's separate yes but that 2 million has to would have to do everything that would be like the air conditioning I I'm going to rephrase my and take out the curriculum because that's I don't mean that um but but

112we would basically lose 18 million dollars a year we wouldn't have the 18 million dollars a year to go into our facilities and then Albert how would you prioritize two million dollars I'm asking Albert very carefully I mean is it how is it even possible so um he shares with me every day so we had on Friday a leak at Burke where there was a water leak underneath the front right the pad the cement pad at Burke where it was flooding yeah yeah so when that stuff happens he's going to use some of that too many dollars to get that leak taken care of him if you have any of that to me and left in May yeah right well not that it's not it's not a defined it's not it's not restricted to 2

113million if we wanted that that's what you're saying if we wanted to we could prioritize other things re-prioritize other things if we did have you know something come up where we needed four million one year or 10 million one year and yeah it it would be it would be a a struggle but I mean theoretically it's possible that we could reprioritize things so that we have we'd have the money that we hopefully we'd have the money that we needed if if things came up that were above and beyond that two million but that's currently budgeted but along those lines Mr Thompson you're talking about the total budget that we have so let's say we don't have the bond and we don't have the override so we've got to find if we if we take let's

114say another 4 million what are we going to cut and excuse me on the regular budget get that 4 million to put into the you know that's it becomes a like a almost a game of trying to figure out you know something's got to to go away it becomes a budget yeah well if something goes away yeah definitely yeah in 2014 15 and 16 that was the reality for this district and during the work study I did mention this and I checked with Albert to make sure I remembered correctly but because we couldn't maintain the parking lot at Mesquite High School when we finally had the funds we had to replace the entire parking lot which was much more expensive if we'd been able to maintain it it would have it would have been a

115savings for the 4S not to have to redo the entire parking lot those are the kinds of things that we we had to make priorities and carefully spend the little money that was there and save the money that as much as we could to deal with some of those um things where something just breaks unexpectedly and we have to deal with it I really appreciate the voters for stepping forward in 2015 and 2019 passing the override to help us be competitive with salary and passing the bonds all of the things that we've done this entire boardroom we used to have some really uncomfortable chairs in the audience and behind the dice and I am very appreciative that I now have a chair that is something I can sit in I had to bring in a

116different chair because the the older chairs we had were just very uncomfortable on my back so those are some of the things that we we had to prioritize in those years when we didn't have bonds and we didn't have an override we went down to State funding only it would be incredibly difficult to offer the high quality of education and we would have to be very selective and I do remember one of the things that we talked about that fortunately we were able to not make that cap but we we talked about cutting our Librarians I consider a librarian especially in our elementary schools the heart of the school we're we're teaching children to read and to have someone with that education that can put a book into their hand to interest them is I

117think that's priceless and so when we're talking about can we do less with funds we could do less but this as we get to the um later slides this is the tax rate that our our community has been at for the last eight years and it has provided enough that we can upgrade our schools make them look nice make them something prideful for our students I mean I've gone to many elementary schools that have gotten some of the new library Furnitures and it's just a matter of Pride and I think it's really important that the children in our schools know that we have a pride in their education and that we're willing to invest in the staff with the override and the building with the bonds um we we need to get on to the

118rest of them thank you if I could if I could ask that we just let's finish this presentation that's called questions until then and then we can ask more if that's okay if you're ready okay thank you so um this is some of the critical facility upgrades that Albert had already identified even prior to amaresco completing their report so roof Replacements are always one of the highest priorities we as you know you approved two and a half million dollars to replace all of the 98 or so units at South Valley Junior High School and you can see Desert Ridge High School's impacted Gilbert Mesquite High Highland High Mesquite Elementary Findlay farms High Highland Park Patterson Pioneer over the next two years that's a 14 million dollar ask restrooms again so many of our schools still

119have this tiny little tiles in the bathrooms and you can see after 20 25 years we need to replace the fixtures Etc uh secured entryways that's the 150 000 each for all of our elementaries assuming that that would be a priority we would do that in 2025. um HVAC central plant uh four million dollars over the next two years that means chillers cooling towers Etc some of our larger schools and then High School stadium safety as well as technology infrastructure that's that communication piece so those are our highest priority needs based upon so over 53 million dollars needed that we have already prioritized to just give you some context to share so I'm under 60 Capital just wanted to share again this is just an example of our energy Capital funding history we were cut

120didn't have enough District additional assistance and also didn't have any school facilities funding either during that same time frame but we were reinstated finally in fiscal 2022 fully funded on the formula but there was about a 73 million dollar underfunding I guess of of our unrestricted Capital during that time frame and this is how we spent it uh the current year so you can see technology please know that this is um this is primarily um the Chromebook replacement now because we are fully in unrestricted capital for our student devices and then there is about one to three million dollars worth of software Solutions Infinite Campus which is student accounting our infinite Visions our vision software which is our enterprise resource planning our financial otm software is in that technology note the 5.4 million dollars at

121our schools to your point Jill they were not receiving any money at all for the last 10 years up until the last two years and then you can see the 2.5 million dollars allocated to operations and then we did do some curriculum adoptions as well in the current year so that's the that's what we're spending on unrestricted capital on just to put it into context and then we can spend unrestricted capital on everything that's in the bond but we can't spend the bond dollars on undershick Capital needs for all underserved Capital needs so here's the tax rate considerations here's our assess value growth we still are realizing a significant growth in our assessed value and it's not just it's not just our values our home values or our commercial property values it's also intrinsic growth

122so per statute we can only grow and assess value by five percent for taxation purposes so that's the limited cash value but we are allowed to grow our assessed value with that intrinsic growth new property that's coming into our school district so that's where you get the 6.4 percent that's what we have seen and been able to take advantage of over the last four uh the last six years because the assessed value continues to grow having a positive impact on the tax rate impacting everyone that already owns property here but the needs of the school system are then spread over a wider base decreasing the cost to each of our individual taxpayer whether it's commercial or residential and both so this has been our Trend you can see the tax rate Trend continues to go

123down even in 2024 continues to go down even with the new Bond sale that we're closing on at the end of May so managing the district tax rate and you ask some really good questions at the retreat Mr Thompson because yeah there's an ending to this but this is what I really wanted to show so if you could take a look at that dotted light blue line that's our combined tax rate so that includes both the um the override as well as the bonds and then this black dotted line going down is our bond portion of the secondary tax rate so you can see that we are overlaying this grid with sorry with new sales so in 2024 if we're fortunate to be successful in November we would be able to sell a certain number

124of bonds in 2025 but it would still result in a decrease in the total tax rate a slight uptake tick from the year prior but still level with what were realized what we realized in 2020 um and then and then we can continue to so you can see the series C in 2023 that's the what we just sold and so you can see that at this point in time the tax rate has gone up a little bit but still under a dollar four uh when we requested approval for the 2019 Bond and override the tax rate was expected to be a dollar fifteen so we're still significantly below that so over time you can see that because our assist value continues to grow and there's a five percent growth in here as this Bond need

125goes down you could potentially fill in over time additional debt without necessarily having an adverse impact on the taxpayer now you ask the question but what if the assessed value plummets and then under those circumstances yes because we still need this Levy you can see this 25 million dollar bogey there that we're living about every year on average so that Levy then would be born across a lower tax rate a lower tax base assess value and then our tax rate would be going up but we control that by when do we schedule the next Bond sale do we take advantage and maybe do Bond sales earlier because the interest rates are incredibly low which is what we did in 20 and 21 and 22 to keep it low so that is the conversation regarding that

126this does give an understanding that yes if we didn't have this the tax payer would see a decline in their tax rate for sure and in their taxes but at least it's a way similarly to the way we handle our own homes and our mortgages as you pay off your debt you have an opportunity to maybe incur additional debt or maybe you refinance where you keep your payment exactly the same but now you have a little bit more money that you can upgrade your HVAC systems or upgrade your bathrooms or whatever the case may be so it's a it's a I guess way to look at that this chart is meant to share that so the election timelining costs this is just to share with you the biggest thing to share that's important for you

127all is that for the mno override you shall create a pro statement to be included in the pamphlet in the bond you are not given that ability however each of you individually are able to put in a pro or con statement to in any of these asks in the bond pamphlet okay and then this is about the cost about three hundred thirty thousand dollars we're expecting and that's all I have for today wonderful thank you let's let's have entertain a lot of questions I'm not trying to limit that at all but I just thought let's see what the rest of the presentation had okay so thank you yes me I ask about the the tax rate um and I I apologize because I intended to look up my our own personal one today and I

128didn't but I know that when I paid the taxes in March they earned I think it was in October anything they had gone down not significantly but it was a little bit and can you can you kind of explain just based on what you were saying I think I kind of understand it but you're it's based on assessment why would my taxes go down you know generally for your particular case it's very likely that your value also went up so your value went up the tax rate went down and the tax rate went down low enough where you saw a real savings in your tax amount that you had to pay the actual dollar amount you had to pay because we had a whole bunch of new property come into Gilbert which spread out that

129amount levied across a a higher denominator so to speak so it decreases the the rate as well as in some cases the the actual tax bill other others might have seen an AV growth in their own property of say 10 or 15 well let's just say five percent because they couldn't go any higher than five percent and if the tax rate didn't go down enough it's possible that they could have still paid more but because we have this incredible growth still coming into Gilbert spreading out those levees across a wider base makes a huge difference for many of our taxpayers so it's it's basically possible to do something like this and still have lower taxes it is possible further further questions please so I I think we're in a completely different economic situation now currently

130than we were eight years ago four years ago um and every time we go through this with with this presentation tonight and the one at the The Retreat I'm learning more and more and there's some additional concerns that these things raise for example I didn't know that commercial property was part of the was part of this calculation and the reason that concerns me is because I'm seeing everywhere after after covid and after people employers realized oh my Workforce or a portion of my Workforce could work from home we're seeing a lot of commercial real estate just not not being utilized which I think is going to be a big problem I think commercial real estate could potentially take a a significant hit in the coming years same with residential we've seen uh just because of

131my profession I've seen residential home values decrease slightly nothing like we saw in 2008 you know thankfully um but that doesn't mean that they couldn't continue to decrease and so there's two things that that I think are are significant um uh concerns for me um and then there's this this idea that you know well we've been spending we've been our taxpayers have been spending this money or have been at this tax rate for the last since 2015 and since 2019 therefore it's okay to stay at that tax rate I underst just another piece of the argument I'm not saying it's okay it's another piece of the argument right and so I get I guess I that that argument just for a lot of people I don't think would hold a lot of weight especially in

132our current economy because like I said we're in a different space right now and a lot of people are in a different place right now A lot of people are tightening their belts and so maybe if in 2019 they were okay spending you know having their taxes raised a little bit I think there's a significant number of people out there that based on their financial based on our economy today they're not okay or they wouldn't be okay with continuing to pay that tax rate you know just like my my annual income fluctuates and so that forces us to look at our budget and some years we can go on a nice summer vacation and some years we just go camping right um and so I think that's a big concern for a lot of our

133a lot of our residences uh just the fact that we're in a in a different economy now and based on your on everybody's individual Outlook of the next couple couple years four years um it could get a lot worse it could get better um and then the other concern is that we've got these ongoing I know at the retreat you had said that if things do decline if commercial property goes down if residential assessed value goes down if taxes you know go through the roof then we just don't have to we just don't have to uh sell bonds right but based on some of the other charts we're seeing tonight with the uh the analysis that amaresco did about our um our Capital needs we would we would still need to issue those bonds and

134I think that's always the the the trick or the conversation that we have as a leadership team is the first of all we can't go outside of what we committed to on the pamphlet that becomes law basically and then secondarily we have those those meetings in the leadership team and we decide what's our most urgent priorities what do we do next based upon this what can we live without for another year until until we can wait to see what the environment turns into in the future the other thing is that the the bond Authority does expire after 10 years so if we don't spend the 100 Mil if we don't sell the 100 million dollars by the 10th year then it expires and goes away okay so those are those are my those are my

135concerns there's not really a question in there to answer I greatly appreciate the work that you and your team have put into this this is not easy um and so I want you to know that that we recognize the work that's gone into this and uh and and it's greatly appreciated so thank you very much sure thank you anything further page did you have anything so I guess this is the presentation um for both the bond and the let's see for the next two items yes yes this is the presentation but then we will take each of them individually so but I so I guess um maybe I should have a could could we just take a excuse me sorry excuse me for one moment please maybe I I would like to what I would

136like to do is before we discuss anything further we probably should have a motion on one of them and then we could continue the discussion so I think I'd like to end this presentation part but you'll still be available if we have other questions and then if um according to the summary she'd like to take a little break I'll do let's do like a two minute recess a three minute really quick okay and then we'll come back and we'll begin with 9.03 I think let's take a break and then we'll then we'll do the motion is that okay with everyone okay okay wonderful thank you we'll adjourn for two to three minutes thank you [Music] thank you [Music] come on [Music] foreign [Music] thank you living breathing [Music] all right cheers [Music] all right are

137we about ready board members thank you thank you all I appreciate and I appreciate the discussion and want to continue that I just wanted to make sure we're doing it in an orderly manner so with that will take us now to 9.03 to discuss consider discuss amend if desired and edema deemed advisable to adopt a resolution ordering and calling a special budget override election to be held in and for the district in declaring the deadline for submitting Arguments for and against the election to the Maricopa County school superintendent as of August 11 2023 at 5 PM the the complete resolution is included in our our board ducts as well as on our agenda but for this sake we'll just use this as the motion so board members if if there is a motion I move

138that we consider discuss amend if desired and if deemed advisable to adopt a resolution ordering and calling for a special budget override to be held in and for the District in declaring the deadline for submitting Arguments for and against the election of the Maricopa County school superintendent as of August 11 2023 at 5 pm it's been moved is there a second I just have a quick question should we add the percentage I would like to amend it to add the percentage Yeah I believe it's in the resolution is that correct in the resolution yes that's where it's contained you don't need to end the motion so it is okay budget continuance of a 15 correct and is that what you intended that's my motion okay okay so that's are we all clear on that yes

139okay so that the it's been moved that we um go through these things knowing that it's the resolution includes the 15 continuing the 15 percent budget override okay so it's been moved by Mr Thompson is there a second second thank you Mr Jetty it's been moved and seconded that we consider discuss and amend this um 15 budget continuance board members can we have further discussion I'll go first I I really support this 15 percent override going out for an election um asking our voters it's um it makes a huge difference in being able to have competitive pay and smaller class sizes I think we've used this money very wisely and I'm very appreciative that in both 2015 and 2019 our voters were supportive and passed it in 2019 making it a 15 override we have

140incredible people working in our schools and and that's really what public education is all about is having incredible people to teach and and take care of our students every day and so I this is to me critical to have and I would recommend a yes vote thank you Miss Humphries is there anything further I just want to clarify for that for the people who are in our community that will be voting that with the override we don't have to be as specific as the bond correct but Dr McCord go ahead yeah there are items that we will list within the override that we will advise and I think we did the three that are priorities but this allows us to exceed our the budget that we're given by the state by 15 percent correct so

141which is a continuance of support currently right so if we don't do this or if it doesn't pass then we have to cut by 15 not next year not after 25 yes I would ask us again just declare we would not expect to see any increase in taxes to our taxpayer with this continuance of this 15 that's correct okay and this would be for our maintenance and operation as we were discussing before just to be clear so okay again I don't think we take this lightly to ask to come before our taxpayers and ask we appreciate and respect and want to be good stewards we're I think we try to be very responsible in our spend and I think we should be and I think we should be transparent and I think we work as

142hard as we can to be with monthly budget reports and answering of any questions that we have and I think that we've we have prioritized and shown that it is for compensation for fair to have the best possible teachers and staff in front of our students possible which directly impacts our academic success we we can see that directly and then also the other needs of safety that we've mentioned and the two percent or the 2 million toward class size reduction so again um those are my thoughts if there's anything further yes Dr McCord if somebody has questions and and Miss bets if somebody has questions about how the override how we use the override over the last four years is that something that they can go to the district and get information on and who

143would they contact they would contact Miss BET's office probably Jackie Madden as well okay thank you you bet and we do have a report on that every October how those monies have been spent a question about the language that was going on in here so I know we want to bring um Mr Caleb yes up here for a minute Brandon would you mind coming up thank you so much um Mrs Paige asked her questions I was being a total nerd and I read the whole thing um so on the override language and I mostly want to clear this up for our voters so there's absolutely no confusion um on Election Day we have in the override um language about polling places and the times that they open and close and yet also in the override

144language we it talks about it's a melon ballot only and that language is only in the override so can you explain why we have that and why why we have the two different uh yeah of a state statute with the overrides you have to if you're going to have a polling place election or mailing ballot election you have to have notice for both and we leave that in the maintenance and override election for flexibility purposes in the event that the legislature comes out with a law that changes you know voting procedures if the county decide they want to do a different way or even if you hear tonight that said you know we don't want to do a male election it we we have that in there and because the mail the maintenance and override

145election requires us to post that notice we post both notices allowing us to have the flexibility moving forward the bond election uh jumping ahead just the first second that's okay does not have the same requirement only the mainly notice requirement but not the polling place requirements so there might be confusion because uh you know we like to you know let you know all of the servings that you can put on your election Sunday so to speak um but it's just our way of giving you the smartest Board of opportunities and allowing flexibility uh in the event that something unexpected happens but there will be no polling places open correct um I'm not sure I'd have to because that was that was my confusion is if there's not going to be any polling places open that

146particular day right there because there would be there would be one at least one place to draw one place will be open okay thank you Miss Humphries um just and so when our these ballots go out they will have language in there that says you can either show up to a polling place on the override not the bond or mail it in um once we once we know which one network like it'll say just the mail in ballot uh what like the but as we get closer to that we will we can go one way or the other it won't have to say like the for purposes okay it'll only say it here which allows us the flexibility going forward but as far as ballots what voters will see okay they'll only see one there

147won't be a confusion as far as where they should go or what they should do but most likely we're just gonna have mail in for both of them right I think that's no I think that's a good point is we did have one small slide about that I think we didn't it wasn't a polling place though it was just a place where they could receive the the already completed ballot but they were there to verify the the Steve but the plan that what we are asking for the costs that you quoted us for this election is a mail-in only that is what we're considering in these resolutions is a male in only election that's correct since November I just think Mr K Wood's point is that legislation could change Maricopa County could change in the

148next month it could happen and so they want to make sure that we don't have to hurry up and have another board meeting to get approval to do the polling one they're trying to provide all possibilities in this resolution but our preference is um but our preference in what we're asking for in this is a million unless something crazy and so something changed and that's similar to what we do like when we were talking about the bond financing uh with the interest rates that you know when when covet happened that uh that uh changed the way investors were looking at it and the a lot of our resolutions uh to consider Bond action would have flexibility so like that's not just something that would carry over to election but it'd be okay if uh you

149know if we have to do a different means of sale if we have to do a private sale to an individual investor if we have to go to many Bond sellers uh we you know we build that into not just our election resolutions here but also into our bond authorization resolutions which uh and when when the board passed the bond resolution December like that that one had all sorts of fixings just in case anything happened um and that's that's really our purpose here is just to give the protection and flexibility to the district even though the preference of the districts to go one way we just you know don't paint ourselves into a corner so to speak okay thank you I just wanted to clarify that because we had at The Retreat talking about our

150poll results and he talked about how we have a certain segment of our voting population that reads every single word that goes out to them and when I read this I was like am I supposed to mail this one in then am I getting a separate ballot to go to a polling place like it was kind of confusing just to me so when the ballots come out it will be Crystal Clear yes it's a mail-in right but we have to leave the language in there because of Statute yeah well for statutory purposes right okay because if we if we say say that we decide to go a different direction and miss you know what mail ballot is uh you know the way to is not the way to go all of a sudden we have

151a notice problem because we didn't have the notice in the in the resolution that the what that procedure on how to proceed that the bond resolution doesn't require thank you for clarifying any any other questions I think that's good for now we might call you back up and if you have any questions after I'm happy to walk through okay thank you so much thank you for that question Mrs page is there others or any other comments about specifically with this budget continuance the 15 over it no okay uh seeing none I will call for the vote then all those in favor of considering discussing amending and adapting to actually adopt the resolution ordering and calling a special budget override election to be held in and for the district and declaring the deadline for submitting Arguments

152for and against the election to the Maricopa County school superintendent as of August 11 2023 at 5 PM please vote by saying aye aye any opposed with name thank you that passes five zero now we will go to 9.04 which is to consider discuss amend if desired and if deemed advisable to adopt a resolution ordering and calling a special bond election to be held in and for the district and authorizing the Associate's superintendent for business and support services to comply with certain sections of the Internal Revenue code so this is um this specifies this is about the 100 million dollar bond that we are that we've been discussing tonight can I ask a question Mr Squid um do should we put I I know that we had some discussion at the at the um meeting

153that we when we discussed this about how much so should we put the resolution when it's in the resolution it's contained in the resolution 100 100 million dollars as what we're asking all right thank you for asking that so with that if there's no um other things before we have a motion can I call for a motion I I move that we consider discuss the man if desired and if deemed advisable adopt a resolution ordering calling a special bond election to be held in and for the district and authorizing the associate superintendent for business and support services to comply with certain sections of the Internal Revenue code thank you Miss Humphries it's been moved is there a second second thank you Mr Jetty it's been Reuben seconded if we could have any discussion I just

154wanted to add some final thoughts it seems like everybody else has jumped in um at The Retreat um I went up to Dr McCord after because um in the surrounding school districts we actually are asking very little compared to the surrounding school districts this is something that has held steady in Gilbert public schools for years and years is the 100 million and it is impressive to me that the school district is such good stewards over this they are very conservative in the way that they spend the taxpayers money they have that in the back of their mind and I went up and told them I wish every elected official treated our taxpayer money as well as Gilbert public schools has um just I wanted to add a few thoughts we are a public school but

155we also have to also run like a corporation and many corporations or companies have a lot of expenditures especially with building and maintenance and it is imperative I believe that we get this hundred million we've got to keep our buildings maintained we have to make sure that our kids are safe on our campuses and this will greatly benefit Gilbert Public Schools um just for an example if we go down to the 2 million that Mr Jetty was talking about if we lose air conditioning in one of our little you know our elementary schools in August and we have no money to fix that air conditioning our kiddos are going to go home they're not going to be able to stay there so we need to HUB the funds to make sure that our students are

156in a in a comfortable and safe environment within our schools um and I just wanted to thank Miss betz thank you so much for all of your work that you put into this I've had many phone calls with you thank you for being available and and taking the time to answer them many many questions and I think that's that's it thank you Miss Paige anything further yes Mr Jerry I just want to say that that in you know having been in education for more years than I want to stay in the state right now um you know it's so cyclical as to what we you know what we what we deal with and obviously maintain maintaining buildings is is not cyclical I mean that's just been that's always the case that's but one of the

157things that I do believe that we have gotten a lot of emails about is it seems like every time there's any kind of a tragedy that happens we do get a number of emails from parents about what we're doing and you know I think that what in just what we've done has been wonderful in terms of the doorbells and and that but that doesn't mean that we can't do more and also I you know like I know the police officers and and security is not part of the of the of the the bond but we're listening to our community endless and seeing what's going on in our society and making sure it with all the means that we have to be able to provide the safest place for our students to to learn um and

158I'm glad that we are you know that's one of our our priorities for the the bond in addition to the you know I'm not talking about um you know all of the other needs that we have but I think that you know safety obviously has become something very important thank you okay please um I I really appreciate what the voters did in 2015 and 2019 to support Gilbert public schools and make sure that we have the finances necessary and I believe that Mrs page and Mrs eugetti have both made excellent points about why this is so important I think it it is a fiscally responsible amount um and I I think if we are careful and plan carefully we we are using it wisely we're we're we're pinching every penny we're making sure that we

159we are very careful and considerate in our planning um I think that what we have been able to do since 2015 and 2019 um has really improved our buildings improved our education and um I just think it's it's an important part of our community our town the reputation of our town there may be other schools but the reputation of our town is founded on the reputation of our Public School District it is an asset to the community to have wonderful schools where kids feel safe where they're engaged in learning and the bonds are for the buildings and transportation and Technology but that's a really important part of Education now if we're going to educate our students for the future Workforce they need to have that technology and have those safe environments and so I I

160really appreciate our voters what they've done and I look forward to a successful um passage of this as well because I think it's important to our students and our staff and our community thank you for some reason any further I just I guess I would just end with it's I see it as a heavy and a real responsibility to balance asking our taxpayers for this with the responsibility that we also have and feel to provide outstanding education and maintain functioning and safe facilities which we've already invested in as a community and taxpayers we've invested a lot of resources already in these buildings as a community I think we've been very responsible in having completed this comprehensive Master Capital plan to have an understanding across our district of the full needs and what our prioritized needs

161are and how many can be spent most effectively to maintain but also to enhance and to wisely use wisely spend the money that we have whatever it is to spend it in the best way to maintain the appropriate and safe learning environments for our students to make sure that we have appropriate and outstanding learning going on in each each classroom for each student I see this also as an opportunity for um of local control the the legislature this is something that they have given us the the ability to come to our community and to ask what the priorities are and to show how we have spent in the past and to um show what we are doing with with this money especially on the bond we specify exactly what we're going to spend it on

162within a couple of percentage points and we then report on that and show exactly how we've spent it and so this is an opportunity as local control to come before you and also to ask for your support um and I I see that as an opportunity of again local control in in how your the funds are spent the taxpayer money is spent and again with it's with a real responsibility that I I see these both these asks and and with an appreciation of what we're asking but also realizing the value that we have and what we've put into this into these schools into our students and to our staff so I think if there's nothing further nothing okay thank you all for your discussion thank you for the presentations and we will ask for the

163vote then I will call the vote to to consider discuss amend if desired and if deemed advisable to actually now to adopt the resolution ordering and calling a special bond election to be held in and for the district and authorizing the associate superintendent for business and support services to comply with certain sections of the Internal Revenue code specifically again applying to the 100 million dollar bond in a million election coming this fall and I would ask board members all those in favor to please vote by saying aye aye and any opposite name nay thank you that has passed for one and that will take us to 10.01 items for future agenda are there any requests that need to be made tonight yes there was a one of our earlier meetings we had talked about [Music]

164um looking at uh the organization that we want to use for our policies okay and we said that we were going to look at that maybe later in the school year when we weren't so anyway yeah um is that something we could add to the agenda for June or we will have it on the agenda probably for June 20th okay thank you thank you for that is there anything further for tonight or again if there's anything please contact me Dr McCord at any time um with that we will move to our board committee reports uh beginning with myself city of Mesa liaison I don't have anything to report tonight 11.02 town of Gilbert liaison Mrs page nothing to report tonight thank you thank you 11.03 Gilbert Education Foundation and audit committee Miss Humphries we had

165our scholarship reception at Desert Ridge High School had a wonderful turnout and a number of student scholarships awarded the number of Staff scholarships awarded and also a great number of students who earned their volunteer letter and it is impressive to see how many volunteer hours that they have put in so that was one of the things and then for the audit committee we met last week in Wendover and discussed upcoming getting ready for the the next audit because we're never done in the fall and working through that and continuing to meet to just make sure we continue to get those great results thank you Miss Humphries 11.04 Insurance trust representative Mr Jetty I don't have anything to report tonight thank you thank you and 11.05 legislative representative Mr Thompson I was going to say something

166about the budget being passed but somebody stole my thunder earlier so and that's and that's okay but that's all for me thank you thank you very much and that is that is wonderful news we're appreciative of that with that I'll ask 12.01 Dr McCord to give us meeting dates thank you madam president governing board members our next governing board work study and brief board business meeting will be June 6th our next board policy committee meeting will be June 13th and our next board business meeting will be June 20th thank you um that we wish everyone a successful and happy end of the school year um congratulations to our graduates and thank you to all those who have worked so hard and supported this successful school year and we'll say We'll ask for an adjournment all

167those in favor of adjourning please vote by saying aye aye let me do an emotion first yeah I need emotion I move that we adjourn it's late I know you're excited Mrs wood I'm ready to return it's time to go go ahead yes a motion please I move that we adjourn oh thank you Mr Thompson is there a second my second thank you I guess we're all excited yeah excited to go home I'll say miss miss you jetty second thank you all those in favor here we go again all those in favor please vote by saying aye aye aye any opposite name thank you we are adjourned