Gilbert Public Schools Board Meeting 02/28/2023

001good evening um we'd like to welcome you to the regular school board meeting for Tuesday February 28 2023 we will begin with a call to order followed by a moment of silence and then the Pledge of Allegiance led by Mrs page so we'll stand for the moment of silence 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 it's now time for the roll call Mrs Wilson Chad Thompson here Miss Rhonda page here Michigan here Miss Jill Humphries here Miss Laurie wood is not present Madam clerk you have a quora thank you Mrs Wilson we'll move next to 3.01 approval of the agenda do I hear a motion to approve the agenda

002I moved to approve the agenda as presented thank you Mrs Humphries is there a second second thank you Mr Thompson it's been moved in second and that we approve the agenda as presented all those in favor please signify by saying aye aye aye so it's been approved by a 4-0 vote Dr McCord we now go to 4.01 for your superintendent recognition Awards best thing that will happen tonight it's going to be the best ladies and gentlemen and uh welcome to everyone governing board members if you could join me and you'll probably want to go off to the side because this first presentation we're going to have some of our oratorical contest winner stand up and give their winning speeches thank you foreign good evening well I know you don't know what to do dear good

003evening ah thank you welcome as um Mrs eugetti said this is the best part of our evening because we get to recognize our students and our staff and our community members for just some of the great things that they have done over the past couple months and we're going to start off with our oratorical contest winners each year and for how many years now Karen 20 plus years Gilbert Public Schools holds an oratorical contest and it's housed at Boulder Creek Elementary and it originated with one of our principals Mr Bob Reimer who is now 91 years old or will be 91. he is 91 and he was actually at our contest uh back in January or February I don't even know what month it is today um but I gotta tell you this is something

004that we're very proud of and our students that participate in this are special individuals in the mere fact that they have to get up and stand in front of people and deliver a speech related to American Heritage and they have to do it with uh confidence and a little bit of pizzazz and so we have three different divisions that we have winners from and the first one up this night tonight is brant Jepson and he is a student at Boulder Creek Elementary Brant are you here you good all right get rid of that gum oh okay cough drop hi bran how are you you're right up front big guy what grade are you in second second grade right do you see that copper thing right there that's your cue and there's everybody so I'll get

005out of the way and stop talking and let you do your talking are you ready you want a microphone you'll be loud look at mom said you'll be loud go ahead [Music] um in the 1800s until life is the most interesting history lesson I've ever experienced it is 100 accurate but that on target is different Trails Larger than Life characters that was constantly but John dinner entertainment you know it sometimes see that they're downstairs [Music] so in 1835 to make the quick cash [Music] please Washington and one time he's eating today he was our robot people according to feel good they have registered good old-fashioned [Music] in 1841 Byron bought the American Museum in so can you just in additions we put a straw in the garden and a hot air balloon under a rooftop

006and he provided live entertainment magicians juggles dances and human curiosity sadly in 1830 in 1865 [Music] oh so he decided he would create traveling Museum and circus soon all at the same time now you know your mommy is available anyway foreign is not for worship relax super soft we're amazed today that embraced an American Dream by entertaining the tracks it's the greatest show on Earth now you know why it's one of my favorite events of the year right there we have another one a student from Superstition Springs Ruby Webb hi Ruby how are you what grade are you in fourth fourth grade who's your teacher Miss lanigo well Welcome to our governing board meeting and it's all yours and Giants [Music] here are sea wash Sunset Gates South stand a mighty woman the torch whose

007plan is being prison lightning and her name mother of axis from her beginning was worldwide welcome and her mom as Community airbrush Hardware okay ancient lands or story pond because she would send her lips give me your tires your poor your huddle masses you're ready to breathe free YouTube then be the homeless tender talks to me I live my land beside the golden door in 1865 section Edward de la and artist supporter of America proposed a gift to the United States with close allies France to celebrate the Centennial of the Declaration of Independence as well as the recent passage of the 13th Amendment in the Constitution which abolished designed to the statue first holding this group took three years to complete the classroom statue in 1886 the final piece was riveted in place at a

008special meditation ceremony on October 28 1886. it is dedication speech president Grover Cleveland proclaimed we shall not forget that Liberty has here made her home nor shall her chosen altar be neglected the answering rays of stream of light shall pierce the darkness of ignorance and manned depression until Liberty enlightened the world our great country the United States of America was founded on the ideal of Liberty and freedom lady Liberty's design is Rich with symbolism for Crown represent light with each of the spikes symbolizing the sun's Rays Illuminating the world her Talent is inscribed with the date July 4th 1776 the day in which the Second Continental Congress has been anonymously adopted the Declaration of Independence and asking the colony separations and Great Britain broken chains and shackles lie at her feet a celebrated reminder of

009abolition of slavery this past October I got to see the Statue of Liberty and her green Glory as I stood on the ferry leaving the New York Harbor I anxiously later arrival at Liberty Island I thought about how the immigrants must have felt on their long journey to America the hope they felt it was finally particles of the Statue of Liberty and her torch lighting the way for her new life full of opportunity immigrants the Statue of Liberty is a symbol of promise and possibility the promise of a fresh start and a new life filled with that responsibilities the Statue of Liberty is an integral part of my American heritage you see my family was part of the 12 million immigrants who came through all this island my great-great-grandfather Carl heffel immigrated to the United

010States from to bring up Russia at the age of 13. his family were Germans who sought Refuge from Russia planning to start a new life in America he and his family settled down in Oklahoma to be on their mission of the American dream farmingly and raising livestock Carl married his wife Sarah and together it is successfully raised seven children their decision to make the difficult Journey to the united states allow the following generation to pursue their versions of the American dream including me the American dream to get a deal that every citizen in the United States has equal opportunities to achieve success and prosperity through hard work determination and initiative my American dream is to become a Supreme Court Justice we are a nation of immigrants who bring our customs cultures Traditions talents and abilities

011into this great country so many of our families history were enriched despite the decision to immigrate to the United States Lady Liberty she's an icon a National Treasure and one of the most recognizable figures in the world gives us a little freedom hope as an essential part of our American heritage thank you I'd vote for her if she was running for office I don't know it's good stuff last but not least coming again from the Jepson family Brooklyn Jepson from Highland Junior High have you ever wanted something really really bad so bad that you talk to everybody so bad that you spent hours and hours working on it so bad that you dreamed about it day and night well Martin Luther King Jr in fact he wanted it so bad he put himself in the

012leader and eventually was killed trying to win so what did he feel so strongly about he was willing to give his life for it I'll tell you what it was equality Martin Luther King Jr dedicated his life to obtaining Racial equality you see he was born in 1929 and during his life things were very different for African Americans than they are today although slavery in the United States was abolished in December of 1865 there were still many negative effects later on in the 1900s when he was a boy he's friends with a white boy whose father owned a company near King's home when he was six years old he had to go to a segregated school for African-Americans and the right Way's father would no longer allow each place he also recalled the racial humiliation

013African-American sector including one time when he was a junior in high school he had just won first place in his speech contest in Dublin Georgia and he and his teacher were taking a bus back to Atlanta on the way home the bus driver ordered them to stand so that a white passenger could sit at first he wouldn't do it but his teacher said he'd be breaking the law if you didn't to kill babies later he said it was the angriest I've ever been in my life you can see why from a young age his dream for equality became his lifelong dream he worked and worked and worked for the stream to become a reality but the one of the greatest Parts about it was how although the mistreatment made him angry he was never violent

014in his fight for equality instead he chose to boldly speak up for what was just and right using this by using this non-violent approach he followed his dreams one of his most famous of these non-violent protests was the March on Washington where he gave his speech we know today as the I Have a Dream speech it was extremely powerful and I would like to share some of it with you today so that you can hear about his dream and his very own words I still have a dream it's a dream deeply rooted in the American dream I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its Creed we hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are created equal I have a dream that

015one day on the Red Hills of Georgia sons of former slaves and Sons of former slave owners who will be able to sit down together at the table of Brotherhood I have a dream that one day in the state of Mississippi a state sweltered with the heat of Injustice sweltered with the heat of Oppression will be transformed into an oasis of justice and freedom I have a dream that my four little children were wondering live in a nation where they are not judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character I have agreed today that was Martin Luther King Jr's dream I also have my dream is that we will all follow the legacy of this incredible American that we will stand up for what is right so when we

016see someone being treated unfairly we will stand and fight against Injustice but we will not do it with virus but with dignity if that is what a true Americans do that is what I believe governing board members can you come back up and Brent wait are you here oh there you are I didn't see you now if you all could give the speech again at the same time just kidding just kidding I just want one more time one more hand for these young boys and girls good jobs you guys want to come right here well maybe these folks right here hold your certificate upstairs there you go parents anybody good all right here comes mom for one big step I mean there we go thank you next tonight we have some of our state and

017National Cheer and palm Champions with us where are they let's hear you guys all right our Gilbert High School team did well coming in second and third in division one Varsity all girl stunton State and Mesquite Heights here our game day state champions division three but can't be here tonight as the Mesquite High girls basketball semi-final is going on right now but with us tonight can I have Coach Shea and her team up here from Campo Verde look at uh listen to all that Hardware clinging I like it Coach Jay you're gonna get a talk I don't know if you know that yeah sometimes we forget to tell people that so but before I go for all of our cheering Palm teams I just want to say um this this is a sport this isn't

018Just Dance or something people do on the side this is this is something that lot of time you got it back there sometimes they cut me off a lot of time a lot of skill a lot of effort and a lot of concentration I just need you guys to know how much I appreciate what you do because I think sometimes that goes unrecognized in a lot of different Arenas and you're not just there to make sure the Crowd Goes Wild what you do is extremely important I have a friend that owns a dance studio and uh my whole View and thought process on what that looks like and what that does for you as an individual is uh is different and I'll tell you what I'm very very proud of you so congratulations you are

019the 2023 USA Spirit national champions in show cheer and I'll let your coach talk a little bit more about that and you guys can introduce yourself all right that's a surprise um well yes I can't be more proud of these girls they hit um the mat for two days straight with the zero deduction routine at Nationals um scoring in first place going into um finals and prelims and um we won by over a point so that's pretty amazing to do at the national level and our stunt team went in at in second going into finals and came in at third place at National so extremely proud of the whole entire team they just did an amazing job um all four routines that we hit were at zero so no deductions no Falls no bobbles so

020that's pretty amazing to do um we also are the state runner-up in division two for show tier and in all girl stunt this year so an amazing season for these girls I'll let them introduce themselves to you in your grade okay I'm a senior and I'm free cayazzo I'm a sophomore and I'm Heather French I'm a freshman and I'm Mia Shea I'm a junior and I'm Sydney Aker I'm a junior and I'm Taylor Rivera I'm a junior and I'm Mia Frank I'm a freshman I'm Eva massiangelo I'm a senior and I'm Kayla de Vera I'm a junior and I'm Nevaeh Beltran I'm a junior and I'm Dakota Zuniga I'm a senior and I'm Mia Gomez I'm a junior and I'm Emma Wolverton and my boys are still recovering from Nationals I'm one of the assistant

021coaches coach Truman I'm also one of the assistant coaches coach C parents of these athletes are you here please stand up because I know in any sport it's not just about them it's about you two and the time you guys put in so thank them because I guarantee you it's gonna end one day and you're gonna be standing at a board meeting like me talking about the good old times and so we're very proud of you we respect everything you do and we're thankful for you so if you guys would Shake The Boar's hand that'd be great and we'll take a picture thank you congratulations all right guys warm over here taking me I think they should do like a pyramid I don't think our insurance covers that but we got insurance you can get

022a little lower there you go um okay one two three okay like 23. thank you guys well done guys thank you next can I have up the Highland High palm and cheer you guys here and their coaches James is it gesselhoffer guys where are you get over here James geiselhoffer and Ashley Parcell hi Ashley so this is what's what they've done come on over guys don't be shy all right so for cheer and correct anything that we have down here wrong cheers state champions division one all girl stunt five of you correct is that right raise your hand if you're the five all right Palm game day state champions division one Palm where are you guys nice Palm Jazz second in state USA national champions wow see it's okay don't you won be proud and

023then Palms state champions division one game day all of you guys again give them a huge hand James I'm going to turn this over to you to talk a little bit about what you guys got going on here naturally and and then they can introduce themselves yeah Yeah so basically overall it's just been an incredible season for both palm and cheer they've done so much and put in so much so many hours um and have taken so much time off of just being that normal high school student and they've put in time at practice outside of practice on the way to practice in class which we tell them not to but overall these are just such amazing kids through and through they work hard for everything whether it's a new stunt or even just for

024within their classwork we've never had any issues with them so beyond their recognition at a state and National level I think it's just amazing to see that they are just truly deserving of it Beyond just the talent so overall a great season and definitely some super talented and great kids also um we thank you oh gosh um so beyond just their overall great state accomplishment um they were super great and went to Florida for the UCA national competition where they placed a third in a division one super varsity as well as ninth in game day out of 60 plus teams so it was a really great season for them um so I'm the varsity Palm coach and we've also had such an incredible season um I'm very proud of each and every one of them

025and it's true they work so hard for everything that they have achieved we brought home two state titles this year one in D1 Game Day dance and then one in D1 Palm which is a title we've been fighting for for the last five years so it was it was a huge honor to receive that title we also went to both UDA Nationals in Florida where we got second we meddled this in the silver medal against uh 74 Jazz teams and we also placed fifth in a super plus game day and sixth in small Palm we competed against I think around like 70 yeah and then we just got back from USA Nationals and we um brought home another National Title in jazz and a runner-up in Palm so very proud all right we'll just introduce

026everybody down the line we'll do um Palm verse and then cheer but I'm Maddie Rollin the assistant coach for Palm um I'm a captain on the Highland Hall cats my name's Leah I'm Junior I'm also a captain my name is Katie Watson hi I'm Jersey Smith and I'm a junior I'm Brian Nelson and I'm a freshman I'm Carly McCook and I'm a sophomore I'm Emily Mifflin and I'm a sophomore um I'm Reagan Johnston and I'm a senior I'm Kenzie wing and I'm a captain on the Highland tier team I'm Gabby woods and I'm also a captain on the Highland Hawks cheer team I'm Reagan breinhole and I'm a junior on the two team I'm Kate Allen and I'm a junior I'm Lexi Anderson and I'm a junior [Applause] congratulations to you one more time if

027you guys would shake hands with the board and we'll get a picture thank you well done [Music] all right coach set them up just like last time just a different School s are we good thank you one two three okay all right next group wait see we got one more you're good ladies and last but not least in the palm and cheer area is coach Kristen grippo here come on here come on up ladies come on up with her is the Desert Ridge High Palm team correct some of them not everybody but what they did was they are the state champions for hip-hop for the State of Arizona congratulations to you guys yes coach I will let you talk a little about your team and then let your team introduce themselves excellent thank you um

028yes my name is Kristen grippo and I've been at Desert Ridge High School for a long time 19 years teaching dance and we just started Palm last year so this is our second season here as a team and competing these dancers have worked extremely hard we had a lot of hardships going into this and a lot of learning experiences I'd like to say with ups and downs a lot of injuries and these dancers along with their the rest of the company dancers pushed through they've worked very dedicated the entire time at qualifiers we were seven points down at qualifiers and made it in so we were second place after getting that feedback the team pushed really really hard and came through with the title for the small division hip-hop category so I could not be

029more proud of these dancers for all of their hard work and dedication I'm going to go ahead and pass this over now for introductions I'm Lauren Brielle I'm a senior and I'm the competition captain I'm Emma holthorp and I'm a sophomore I'm Gabby Davis and I'm a sophomore I'm Ava Lopez and I'm a junior thank you like I said again are there parents from the Highland and Desert Ridge folks are they here if you are say hello congratulations back there there you go uh one more time for Desert Ridge High Palm can shake hands and we'll take pictures with the board congratulations thank you [Music] all right guys here we are here we go come on over in the front if you guys want [Music] one more time thank you guys well done [Music] and

030last but definitely not least uh Dean Kern are you here Dean come on up Don't Go sir can I can I talk about you sure all right face that way and smile it's gonna be great yes sir Dean is a student at Campo Verde High School what grade I'm a senior sir senior he's saying sir because he's ROTC I appreciate that Dean has been offered and accepted an appointment to the United States Merchant Marine Academy he has also been recruited by the dive team to be a member of the Kings Point swim dive team during his time at Campo he has rapidly advanced in Junior ROTC both as a student and leader he is currently the core Deputy Commander in this role he is a servant leader and mentor to over 40 other students in

031addition while at Campo he became a member of our swim and dive team after four years at the Academy Dean will be licensed as either either a third mate or third engineer by the U.S Coast Guard and eligible to serve on U.S ships where he may accept a commission into any of the armed services Dean plans to commission into the U.S Air Force and serve as a pilot congratulations Dean Brothers yes sir all right [Music] thank you is Dean's family here can you guys stand up please ladies and gentlemen these are the kind of students we produce here in Gilbert public schools and it's because of the great teachers and support staff and administrators but most importantly it's because of you as parents and the support you give to your children in our school district

032so thank you for everything we appreciate you governing board that concludes my recognitions for this evening thank you thank you congratulations [Music] foreign [Music] thank you Dr McCord we'll move to your superintendent's report 5.01 good evening everyone and again thank you for being here tonight before I get started I'd like to recognize uh some folks here in the audience Trinity are you here stand up it's Trinity batty she is a senior at Mesquite High School and she's also part of the superintendent student Senate and part of their jobs to come and be at some meeting that we have to offer and I just got to tell you Trinity we're going to hold back your diploma this year because I don't want you to leave because we love you thank you so much for being here

033thank you [Applause] Duncan Cheryl Becker please stand there you guys are hi guys they are Educators in our district and they are also in our Aspire program so they one day aspire to be administrators for Gilbert Public Schools so thank you for being here [Applause] please join me in celebrating our five new A-Plus School of Excellence Highland Park Elementary Neely Traditional Academy Oak Tree Elementary Sonoma Ranch Elementary and Val Vista Lakes Elementary a total of 36 Arizona schools were chosen for the honor this year and we are so proud to have 14 of our schools currently recognized as a plus schools thank you to all of our families employees and students that make our schools such wonderful places to live and learn so a hand to those schools and thank you guys it's read Across

034America week this week is read Across America week and our schools have invited many guest readers to their campuses to help spread the joy of reading to our students thank you to all those guest readers and thank you to all of our schools for being so welcoming to everyone last night this is our ESPN version of my speech last night our Mesquite High boys basketball team lost a heartbreaker to Deer Valley in the final seconds of the 4A semifinal game we want to congratulate those Mesquite High boys basketball players on a great season tonight our Mesquite High girls basketball team hosts Pueblo in a 4A State semifinal matchup at Mesquite High and our Gilbert High girls basketball team will travel to Dobson to play Dobson High for a 6A semifinal game tomorrow evening the Campo

035Verde boys basketball team will host Centennial in a 5A semifinal game and the Highland High boys basketball team will host Mountain View in a 6A semifinal game all these games will be extremely competitive and entertaining word on the street is the game at Highland sold out 1500 tickets like that so it's going to be really competitive and a lot of fun to watch Good Luck to all of our boys and girls teams and if they continue to win games will be played on Thursday evening championship games Friday evening as well as Saturday during the day so I think all those will be held at the Arizona Veterans Memorial Coliseum so come support our teams and lastly spring break will begin on Monday March 13th and continue through Friday March 24th school resume on Monday March

03627th I sincerely hope that everyone has a safe and enjoyable break Madam president or Mrs eugetti Madam clerk president for the evening that concludes my report thank you thank you Dr McCord we're now ready for 6.01 request to speak to the governing board and I'll read the admonition first request to speak to the governing board pursuant to ARS 38-431.02 H the board may make an open call to the public during a public meeting subject to the 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

037a matter be put on a future agenda however members of the board shall not discuss or take legal action on matters raised during the an open call to the public unless the matters are properly noticed for discussion 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 district as it may impact due process rights policies Keb and Ked are provided by the board for disposition of legitimate complaints including those involved involving individuals forms required for use of these policies can be obtained from the Gilbert Public Schools website and we have four calls to the public tonight we'll start with Mr Scott Glover and followed by Carrie Glover and Richard young and Howard help me with your last name Howard gimsoft

038is that correct hopefully it is ready to go okay begin the timer good evening governing board and superintendency I'm speaking to item agenda item 9.06 this evening my name is Scott Glover I began teaching at Gilbert public schools in 1996 as a single male with no dependents over the years I've married and raised two boys who have graduated through from GPS I had my two two boys on the GPS insurance plan and I just accepted the fact that over the years I was actually paying for like 2.3 or 2.4 kids but a few years ago we found out that our insurance wasn't going to carry out of state in any real meaningful way I was not thrilled but I was left with little choice right at that time our oldest had a great opportunity to

039continue his studies at a university in Minnesota and as we all know privates private and out-of-state schools are are very pricey and we my wife who's also a teacher here since 1994 had to keep the dependent coverage for our one child who was still living in Arizona then we had to Shell out about another 3 000 a year for another policy for our child in Minnesota so the current plan kind of actually acts to me as a deterrent to out-of-state travel and study and early on I spent a lot of time on the phone trying to get someone to answer uh or to determine what constituted an emergency and no one could really ever say that so we paid essentially twice every year for for insurance coverage for our for our oldest son so I

040respectfully encourage you to please vote Yes on item 9.06 this evening this will help people like a colleague of ours who broke her foot while on vacation in the Pacific Northwest and was driven back to Arizona to seek care because she and her family didn't think she would be covered and I could feel Mr McIntosh squirming I know that would have been covered I told her that would have been covered but she was nervous and nobody wants to risk going broke from medical debt so this will help employees worry less when they travel around this beautiful nation of ours and it'll encourage our children who want to spread their wings and seek higher education or jobs out of state the uh the irony of having to worry about losing Health Care coverage and the only

041Civilized Nation in the world where you can actually lose health care coverages and lost on me or many others so I want to applaud and thank the members of the superintendency and the trust who listened on this issue and we're determined to do something about it and make it better this won't help me much anymore my son graduated college he's fully employed has his own health care but I will gladly pay so that others can have the freedom to travel and study wherever they want and I just wanted to stand here in front of you and say thank you to those who worked on this and I encourage the governing board to pass agenda item 9.06 when the item comes up later this evening thank you thank you Carrie Glover good evening governing board Dr

042McCord cabinet my name is Carrie Glover and I have been in Gilbert for 28 years I have two sons who graduated from Gilbert but tonight I'm speaking to you as the president of the Gilbert Education Association on behalf of Gea and the 685 Elementary teachers employed in Gilbert I want to thank you for approving the hiring of 12 additional art teachers gea's mission is to advocate for positive working conditions for employees which create positive learning environments for our students currently we all know that the biggest challenge facing Us in education is attracting and retaining highly qualified teachers so last April Gea brought together a hundred GPS employees both certified and classified members and non-members for an event called 100 voices our goal was to determine what would it take to retain employees elementary teacher prep

043time was identified as the most urgent issue elementary teachers shared their stories about the stress they felt when they didn't have a daily prep and secondary teachers were shocked to learn that their Elementary colleagues did not have the same working conditions the group identified several possible solutions including adding an additional special to the Elementary schedule when I brought this idea to Dr McCord and Mr McIntosh last spring both of them were incredibly supportive your decision at our last full board meeting to give the GPS elementary students access to Art each week research shows that there is an importance for Visual and Performing Arts and Gilbert has always been a stalwart supporter of the Arts ga's my motto is together we do more when an organization such as ours listens to its stakeholders and addresses their

044concerns everyone wins this decision ensures that nearly 700 elementary teachers will have a planning period each and every day so they can craft the best lessons for our students this time will also help to make their job more Equitable in addition this decision sets Gilbert Public Schools apart from other districts who do not have Elementary specials every day which will allow us to attract more new teachers because working conditions do matter we are special and this decision showed Gilbert Public Schools commitment to their students and to their teachers so I thank you governing board Mr McIntosh Miss betz and Dr McCord thank you thank you Mrs clever Richard Young good evening to the board and to Dr McCord uh before anything I'd like to say I was enormously impressed with the young people who came

045up here they are a glowing credit to the school to themselves and certainly their families it was an inspiration to see all of them come out I live in Gilbert my grandson is a student in the Gilbert schools but I'm not here because of anything that he's encountered in fact another parent has come to me with a disturbing to them email that they received from the school I'd like to address that very briefly hope that you will look into it and then one other issue it has to do with standards-based grading and I imagine all of you are completely familiar with that here's what it says per District policy and hshash policy the lowest grade a student can earn is 50 in order to ensure mathematical Equity first of all the lowest grade you can

046get is zero fifty percent of zero is zero that is a peculiar form of great inflation disguise to they intended to disguise sub performance you're not doing any favor to a child you're not doing any paper to society by doing that somebody should be able to recognize he's not doing well and that he's failing a 50 percent handing in a blank paper which it says is possible is not right we saw a stirring comment about uh Martin Luther King and the Quest for equality this is the opposite of it this is to erase equality equality means standing up and earning what you earn not some fake thing and as to mathematical Equity could anybody tell me what that means I don't think anyone can what is it now what does it mean mathematical Equity by

047giving 50 to somebody who fails practically everything it is meaningless Equity actually in law usually means fairness Equity will intervene when there is no satisfactory resolution under the the ordinary rules of law it is fairness but mathematical Equity is used now in the educational system deals more with the very opposite of equity it's designed to erase achievement it's designed to disguise failure standards uh based grading is not a reasonable way to conduct uh grading there's nothing wrong with a through F I know you've done away with f bring it back I in school got F's and I knew that I deserve them there's something to that if you're teaching a kid to shoot baskets you don't pretend he's made every one you don't put a big funnel over the basket so everybody who throws a

048ball will manage to score that nobody learns anything from that thank you thank you your type and that is emotional learning program yeah you get yeah in the admonition I read it in the admonition you read it I'm sorry I didn't hear it well then I'll come back and discuss emotional learning okay and Mr Howard and I Pro I apologize if I did not say your name correctly what greetings Howard gimsel g-i-e-m-s-o-e I'm a Gilbert District taxpayer uh first I'd like to talk about is posting notices of board meetings the board meetings were not are have been unacceptable today's meeting was not posted over the weekend and the phone has been busy every time I call meetings shall be electronically on the district's website that's your words your rules if the district's employees do not

049follow through in a timely manner then perhaps the Board needs to take an active April in personal management what else is being done late what else is being done at the last minute also the Arizona school boards Association commitment to equity troubles me EK students need and should get all the help they need but Equity means equal outcomes and this can only happen if the strong students are not given all the opportunities they can use our community leaders will be among these strong students in years go by be careful what is being done in this District about Equity because it's a loser thank you thank you and that is all of our calls to the repo to the to the public tonight we'll move to seven point zero one under reports Proclamation National School Social

050Work week March 5th through 11th 2023 Dr McCord thank you madam president governing board members next week March 5th through the 11th is national school social worker week and we'd like to give a proclamation related to that whereas School social workers serve as vital members of the Education team playing a central role in creating Partnerships between the home school and Community to ensure student academic success and whereas School social workers are especially skilled in identifying and providing services to students who face serious challenges to school Success including poverty disability discrimination abuse neglect addiction bullying mental illness familiar stressors and other barriers to learning and whereas local educational agencies Community Support agencies should continue to work in partnership with social workers to address and access resources to support services in helping to meet students social emotional

051physical mental health and environmental needs so that students May achieve academic success whereas School social workers maintain knowledge of school climate which are necessary for responsible school safety plan and now therefore I Shane McCord do hereby Proclaim Sunday March 5th through March 11 2023 as school social worker week in Gilbert public schools and commend its observance to all in our district community thank you Dr McCord we'll move on to 7.02 fiscal year 2023 monthly budget report for month into January [Music] 2023. Dr McCord thank you madam president governing board members I will turn this over to our associate superintendent Mrs Bonnie Betts for our monthly budget report good evening governing board members Dr McCord Mrs eugetti this is a short report this evening oh good that's real short yeah that was very Speedy wasn't it

052yeah um would you like well there we go got it uh well it's on my screen okay there it is thank you just a note this is uh reflex year-to-date activity through January 31st 2023. so we are sharing with you the following groupings of funds District operating funds Federal grant funds state Grant funds and then a few of the other District funds so most notably and we share this every month is the activity in our maintenance and operations fund and classroom site fund and unrestricted capital so note that our available balance in the maintenance operations fund has declined a little bit showing an expected available balance at the end of the school year of just under 12 million dollars the year-to-date expended in cumbered has increased but also note that our pending revised budget number

053one we are still reflecting that as a pending because all of you approved the revised number one in February and this activity is reflective through January 31st but that 301 million dollars under the pending revised budget reflects the budget that you all approved in our first meeting in February classroom site fund this budget the revised budget number one reflects the final carryover amount from fiscal year 2022 based upon our annual financial report submittal and then finally understated Capital outlay you can see the year-to-date encumbered expended has increased substantially by about six million dollars from the last report reflecting that our deadline for unrestricted capital requisitions is looming right before uh spring break so our schools are working very hard at making sure they're getting their requests in and getting the purchase requisitions completed reflecting that

054six million dollar additional spend before I move on are there any questions regarding our operating funds great thank you so these are just the notes reflecting basically what I just shared the Federal grant funds wanted to share all of those it didn't go let's see some reason can somebody help me why the why my sharing is not moving um [Music] yeah are you streaming it up your computer my my yeah I'm streaming up my computer froze there but thank you it's working on my screen it's just not showing on the uh I guess so I got to give it some time to get there okay um so the all of the title title grants that you see at the at the beginning the e-s-e-s-e-a title one two and four these pending revised uh number one

055figures represent the awarded carryover from the Department of Ed the Arizona Department of Ed so all those are inclusive of the carryover from the prior year as well as the New Year's allocation in addition I wanted to point out the hundred day in-person Grant as well as the education plus up Grant a note that both of those have been we've been notified by the governor's office both of those grants came through the governor's office AC sent assist order was transmitted to the governor's office through the federal government indicating that the proposed rules regarding the spend of those monies were not consistent with the cares act funding laws so the governor has said that any dollars already spent through December 31st of 2022 will be reimbursed but no additional plan spend will be reimbursed reflective of

056the rest of the year I just want to make sure that all of you are aware of that you can see that in the education plus up Grant what what remained was six hundred and four thousand dollars that we will be giving back but in the 100-day in-person grant we are giving back most of those dollars that was the most constrained funding that we've received where had to be done at each individual school and each individual school had their own allocation based upon their student count so before I move any further on that are there any questions about the Federal grant funds okay I have a question how will that impact our budget considering that we were expecting to be able to spend those monies and now we've had a change so um there has

057been there's a minimal impact on the 100th day Grant just because of the constraints associated with those spending rules the education plus up the six hundred and four thousand dollars was meant to fund a portion of the second half of the fifteen hundred dollar retention stipend to be paid in June of 2023 so that six hundred and four thousand dollars we envision will come out of the maintenance and operations fund balance okay thank you you bet again these notes are what I just basically told you about and then the state Grant funds so instructional Improvement you can see that our adopted budget was three million dollars and our uh pending revised budget number one has dropped to 2.4 million dollars we um we have anticipated that the instructional Improvement monies which is the Indian gaming

058allocations that we receive here in the state of Arizona would ramp back up again now that we're out of covid however that has not materialized it is possible though that by the end of the school year that a third allocation payment will be made and we will let this governing board know as soon as we know for sure that that's going to come so we've been receiving about six hundred thousand dollars each payment generally we receive two payments a year last year we did receive three it's very it's very possible we will see receive three in the current year as well the results results-based funding those those payments to our classified and certified staff at the schools that actually earned the results-based funding were paid their stipends today so you can you can see that

059it's not yet encumbered we generally do not encumber stipends but the next time that we report when we report the February report you will see that those monies are expended and then finally the school safety program you can see that the revised budget has gone to zero there was a hundred and sixty three thousand dollars not spent last year it is uncertain at this point in time whether that carryover will be awarded so we're waiting to hear about that as well any questions on any of that I have a I have a question besides the fact that we got three payments yesterday last year from the Indian gaming what [Music] is that the only is that the only indicator that you have that we might get a third payment this year or has there been

060some other communication that leads you to believe that we'll get a third payment there isn't anything formal uh out there right now however staff did go and send an email to ask we received a payment in July is it possible that that that that we would receive an additional payment in July and they responded it's very it is very likely thank you you bet okay finally other District funds I wanted to share with you the status of the employee benefit trust which Mr Glover indicated that there's an action item for you to approve the funding of the employee benefit trust for the 2024 school year so this is just a reminder that our available balance is still very healthy and that fund is in a very positive status at this point and that's all I

061have for you this evening [Music] any questions from board members okay we'll move on to eight uh consent agenda items which are items for consideration discussion Direction and possible approval do I hear a motion for the consent agenda items as presented I move that we approve the consent agenda items is presented thank you Mrs Humphries is there a second I second thank you Mrs page it's been moved and seconded that we reapproved the consent agenda items as presented all those in favor please signify by saying aye aye so on a vote of four to zero they have been approved and we will now move to number nine action items number 9.1 appointment of Jared Ryan as the assistant superintendent of teaching and learning for the 23-24 school year do I hear a motion you want

062to talk first and then I'll do the motion sure okay um it's with great pleasure we bring before you tonight candidate for assistant superintendent of teaching and learning for the 2324 school year Mr Jared Ryan thank you do I hear emotion I move that we appoint Jared Ryan as the assistant superintendent of teaching and learning for the 23 24 school year thank you Mrs Humphries is there a second thank you Mr Thompson any discussion it's been moved and seconded that we approved the appointment of Jared Ryan as the assistant superintendent of teaching and learning for the 2324 school year all those in favor please signify by saying aye aye so on a 4-0 vote and Mr Ryan if you'll just be patient for a minute we've got two more to go and then we'll let

063you have a minute to talk 9.02 appointment of Andrea amrick as the principal of settlers Point Elementary for the 2324 school year Dr McCord thank you madam president governing board members it is with our great pleasure that we bring before you tonight as the fourth principle in its existence of settlers Point Elementary Ms Andrea Emrick for the 23-24 school year your emotion I move that we nominate the appointment of Andrea amarek as the principal at settlers Point Elementary for the 23-24 school year and is there a second and I'll go ahead and second that one so it's been moved and seconded that we have we approved the appointment of Andrea Emrick as a principal of Settler's Point for the 23-24 school year all those in favor please signify by saying aye aye and so on

064a 4-0 vote we approve Andrea Emerick uh 9.03 appointment of Dr Sean genitis as the principal of Gilbert excuse me Highland Junior High School for the 23-24 school year sorry Mr genitis do I hear a motion or no sorry again we would like to welcome and we're very proud to bring before you Dr Sean genitis says the next principle of Highland Junior High for the 23-24 school year thank you do I hear a motion I move that we approve the appointment of Dr Sean tinnitus is the principal of Highland Junior High for the 23-24 school year thank you do I hear a second I second that thank you okay um we it's been moved in and seconded that we appoint Dr Sean genitis as the principal of Highland Junior High School for the 23-24 school

065year all those in favor please signify by saying aye aye aye so on a 4-0 vote so we now have three new administrators Dr McCord yes congratulations to all three we'd like to hear from them in order so Mr Jared Ryan please come to the podium thank you so much Dr McCord Madam clerk governing board thank you so much for your belief and faith and and me and and the vision that Dr Newman has established for this department that is just outstanding I I hope to be able to move it forward in the ways that you all envision and the way that she has envisioned the team that she's created has made this an easy decision for me to to submit my name for consideration strong academic strong personal and strong Visionary individuals are rampant

066throughout the department so I'm excited I have to say I was nervous earlier listening to the oratorical students and feared I'd come up right on the heels of that but instead Finance got put in front of this so it worked out well I would be I want to thank my wife and kids are actually here which is fantastic so christening and Maguire and stand up children and Mrs Ryan and and Mama Ryan and Mama Ryan yeah so this is kind of a first coming out in in being here and it means a tremendous amount my older daughter Kennedy is on a softball field right now but um anyway we all know that work in this business it takes a commitment from everybody and my children were back there voting no when you were voting yes

067but um I think at the end of the day we're gonna we're gonna all do this together and so we're excited to be part of it and I want to thank you Gilbert's a special place gonna call it home the rest of my career so thank you so much next up if we could have the next principle of settlers Point Elementary Andrea Emrick [Applause] thank you I'd like to thank all of the governing board members and Dr McCord and the cabinet for entrusting me with this great community and the opportunity to be the principal of Settler's Point I've been there as their interim principal since Halloween and it has been a great experience the staff thank you to some of those who are here tonight have supported me and welcomed me our parent Community is

068amazing I look forward to all the amazing things that we're going to do to support that school to make Gilbert Public Schools proud and thank you to my family my husband and one of my daughters is here tonight they've been on this long journey with me and so I appreciate their support and again thanks for this opportunity family please stand there you go congratulations thank you guys and last but not least Mr Dr Sean genitis Highland Junior High Principal one more time for Mr United now previously I want to thank the board cabinet Dr McCord and the selection committee for entrusting me with this leadership role Highland Junior High I would like to thank my wife Angela who supports me in every Endeavor I pursue I love you uh thank you Mom and Dad for

069raising me to be the best person I can be and all my family for their support thank you Tyler Dumas Krista Cox Dan Johnson and Gene Woods for your guidance and support throughout my leadership Journey we have excellent leadership in Gilbert public schools and I feel very fortunate to learn from the best and many of whom are are in this room our students staff families and admin at hdhs are the best give them a ring [Applause] lastly again thank you for all who came tonight it does mean a lot go canes if we can take a five minute break to mingle and congratulate our new administrators and come back about 7 23. [Music] watch out we're here foreign [Music] all right thank you um thank you um she saved us thank you very much okay

070that's fine where I'm here um [Music] okay now we need to get back to our business meeting please [Music] thank you very much we'll move on to action item number 9.04 athletic fee increase for the 2324 school year Dr McCord thank you madam president governing board members uh we asked for your approval night for an increase in athletic fees for the 23-24 school year due to rising cost field trip transportation it is necessary to increase the high school GPS athletic fee to 125 per Sport and the Junior High Athletic fee to 100 per sport thank you Dr McCord so can I hear a motion to approve this this fee and then we'll discuss it if necessary sorry um I move that we approved the athletic fee increase for the 23-24 school year that would be

071a hundred dollars for junior high and 125 dollars for high school thank you thank you Mrs Humphries is there a second second thank you Mrs page it's been moved and seconded now we'll have discussion anybody have anything they would like to say so I I don't have any discussion points necessarily I just want to let the public know that as a board um we we didn't take this decision lightly we know that times are tough and that people are cinching up their belts more than they have in the past number of years and so this is not something that we just did arbitrarily this is something that we had to do we felt we had to do to make sure that we were able to um cover costs also attract the right Personnel for transportation

072and things like that and we sincerely think that raising this cost will improve our ability to make sure that the sports programs the transportation all of that can continue we can continue to be competitive but I just want the public to know that that we considered uh the situation that a lot of our parents are in and we appreciate that and want you to know that uh again that we we didn't take this decision lightly thank you any other discussion yeah I appreciate what Mr Thompson said those were actually the words I wanted to say as well but um it has been a long time since we raised the athletic fee it's been at least 10 years to my knowledge and I appreciate that that can be a challenge please if you feel like it's

073challenging to pay those fees reach out to your administrator at your school and have a chat you know with the athletic director or the principal because we don't want this to keep someone on the sidelines but we do have to pay those costs and we felt this was the best way to do that and um again it's a it's a very difficult thing to do but we haven't raised those fees for a good 10 years so and I echoed both of the previous comments thank you okay if there's no further discussion I'll ask for a vote for the athletic fee increase for the 23-24 school year all those in favor please signify by saying aye so on a 4-0 vote it has been approved number 905 9.05 district-wide wireless and network refresh Dr McCord thank

074you madam president governing board members we are recommending you award high-tech Network and Security Solutions to purchase Network and wireless equipment and consulting services using one GPA Cooperative contract 22-02 pv-08 technology Services recommending approval of the purchase of network and wireless equipment and consulting services to refresh the entire Gilbert Public Schools Data Network the project was approved by voters in 2019 bond election the implementation will refresh existing wireless access points and network hardware and provide consulting services to guide the best practice configuration during the setup of the new equipment the network refresh project is e-rate eligible with a reimbursement rate of 50 after the exclusion of district office complexes district office complexes are not eligible for reimbursement under the e-rate guidelines total for approval is nine million one hundred and six hundred seventy four thousand

075dollars or nine million one hundred six hundred seventy four dollars and forty cents e-rate eligible is three hundred ninety nine thousand seven hundred forty six dollars and seventy six cents ineligible I said an e-rate eligible is eight million seven hundred thousand nine hundred twenty seven dollars sixty seven cents with a potential reimbursement of 4.35 million dollars this will come from bond fund 630. we have our um executive director of Technology Services Mr John Castellano here uh when you get to the discussion point if you have any questions thank you Dr McCord do I motion to improve the district excuse me and network refresh I moved to approve the district-wide wireless and network refresh thank you Mrs Humphries is there a second I'll second it it's been moved and seconded we will now have a discussion

076if anybody has any questions of Mr Castellano I I did have a question um we're going to use these companies for Consulting who will be the actual who will be carrying out the actual work and will that be our technology team members doing that or what I mean this is a big project every school what would be the timeline and who's going to carry out the actual work yeah absolutely great question uh as Eugenie members of the board Dr McCord thank you for having us here tonight Scott Hussey our leader of Network Services is here so if you get too technical I will get right out of the way and let him answer the questions for you but um yeah so we're super happy to be starting this project if you remember back in 2019

077the AV refresh and this were two very large projects approved by the our community members so we're very thankful for that so we've been working with the same company for over eight years now even prior to when I got your supply more than 10 years so how that works is is they worked with Scott and configured our Network seven years ago so all that prior knowledge is there which is great we still work with them on a daily basis but so they will work with Scott and his team on all the initial configuration of all the major switches that does all the network routing in the district so they will do that with the new equipment they will knowledge transfer over to them as well so we gain that there and then the physical they'll

078work initially with the team on the first few schools we usually do a High School junior high and elementary school and then they'll kind of get out of the way and then Scott and his team will work to install the rest of the equipment so the project roughly will take us probably about a year just like the AV refresh has so we'll kind of follow a very similar timeline and a similar pattern with that so it'll be No Interruption installation meaning we will never interrupt the school day by installing any of this equipment so we'll have to be flexible with our schedules but we'll work early late during the summer as well um to physically get this done so his team's done it before and has had some familiarity with that yeah so we've obviously

079logistically lay this all out our project manager Jim Woods will work closely with Scott on that and some of our BenQ team will then work with the Scott and his team so we got some things down to a science and a lot of experience with it so that's kind of how we're going to roll this project we won't be able to start it so with e-rate e-rate Works similar to like our RFP RFQ processes so in April then we will submit uh if this is approved tonight back to e-rate who is under the FCC that's who runs the e-rate program and then we will obviously we have to have the money up front right that's e-rate rules so if it proves we can get to order but then it'll go to them for approval of

080that reimbursement which is in the documentation there are any I don't know dead spots in the schools or places where Wi-Fi does not work as well will those issues be addressed as well yeah you want to talk to that a little bit sure um it kind of depends on the area um with the new Wi-Fi standard it will um spread out further and better and you'll have faster and more bandwidth and more lanes and all that stuff but currently how we sit inside the school is very well covered so there won't be much addition inside the school itself on a separate project we're looking at other things like Press Box coverage and field coverage and stuff like that but that's a separate project but we'll be ready for that kind of stuff with this project

081okay all right thank you any other questions I just had a quick question um how long does this typically like how many years do we go between refreshes and how long is this equipment quote unquote I know it becomes obsolete very quickly how long do you expect and determine that this will be uh good for our schools yeah great question so our rule of thumb with the network equipment is about seven years when you get to that seven year Point could we stretch some of it possibly but so many things change and a huge addition um for Port space we call that actual spots in the switches to connect the wireless access points to you but so now since the last refresh we've added all the interactive boards in every classroom each of those has

082a data drop we are looking at the security locks on the doors those also take a data drop right security cameras were added also and those are still going in so those of all need we have an increased need for capacity and then what changes with those also is how those are powered it's all powered over ethernet so that power comes right from those switches so those standards change more power is needed depending on the end device so that's changed so you just kind of have to see how it's going right and how those standards change and how much additional once you're adding because there's a lot more things we could refresh in the district that will need a new day to drop because everything is over IP now it's all over the network so

083thank you sure can you can you explain to me a little more about how the reimbursement program works so e-rate is a federally funded program uh it's the universal service tax it's called if you look on your phone bill you'll see that taxes on phone bills and that's how that's been federally funded since the late late 90s early 2000s and and that's it's changed a little over years as far as like how they reimburse and what they will reimburse but that's exactly how that program's worked and then the percentage of reimbursement is based on your free and reduced lunch count so right now we're roughly the way the formula works out Gilbert's about 50 percent reimbursement rate so this this project after reimbursement will end up costing the district if I'm getting the numbers right

084about four to four and a half million dollars correct has there been any discussion about doing this in or is it possible to do this in phases so that it's you know maybe we can do we can do some now and some I mean is there some equipment that absolutely needs to be refreshed and some equipment that we can hang on to for another year or two that doesn't need to be refreshed right now so the usually that comes to how we're paying for it right since it's Bond money bunny there bunny was there and that was approved that helps us at this point because the we're still the supply chain thing is still a thing for certain products and network equipment is one of those products so if we do do it in phases

085it could continue to push the data out on those so we're just trying to keep in that time frame as far as the logistics go for us is something that we're going to stop work enough court and of course not it will continue to work but um you know if we were maybe using different fund and business Betts could help with this black Capital that might make that a little different on how we decide to phase that in and this is just I don't know kind of related but with all of these data drops with the the cameras and mostly with the cameras do we store that data locally or do we store it in a cloud like a like a Google cloud or something like that or where is that stuff stored how long

086is this how long are we required to to keep it in how long are we required to store it yeah good question so I'll adjust just the security camera piece um so um those are stored on servers within our Network so all of the elementary school and Scott correct me from this all of the elementary schools servers are in our data center in Guild Republic schools the high school essentially the larger capacity and more bandwidths needed those servers are at the sites and that's where all that's stored now there's a rotation cycle of how long those have to stay at a minimum that video on those servers before it overwrites so I don't want to misspeak to how long that is I believe it was a minimum of 30 days so we could go back

08730 days to retrieve any video and that's at minimum so as those get Fuller but that's the rotation of that is there is there a requirement that that stuff has to be stored on site I would imagine that it would be less expensive to store it remotely somewhere store it up and up in the cloud it just depends on that it truly just depends on the amount of storage needed the easy the access to it against speed can be an issue I mean it's not for us but but we have the capacity here in our data center we have a very robust data center here in the coolings in place and all the emergency fire systems in place so it just makes sense because that is already of course paid for and our data center

088is built out so that was another reason to keep that in-house thank you you're welcome I don't miss each other I just have one more question I presume that also with a refresh comes improved security because that's always an issue yes uh that is always an issue and um while we've tackled security and and a bunch of other projects um you know this security is always evolving and with the new uh new hardware comes new software and new advances a new all kinds of different stuff Wireless standards that have increased since our last implementation so we'll see you know like wpa-3 Enterprise instead of WPA2 we'll be able to take advantage of those kind of things so it's harder to crack and harder to um infiltrator Network all right thank you so yeah we've all

089seen Ferris Bueller's Day Off and so I think she wants to make sure that nobody's going in and reducing the Numbers number of absences that uh that they've had so yeah absolutely keep those no I just don't want any I don't want any ransomware that's what I don't I want to avoid none of us does none of us do yeah I have one more quick question um so if we're two years down the road and we decide we need more security cameras for whatever reason is there the bandwidth to put those in are we going to have to start from the scratch and bottom up with those absolutely not we definitely when we build these out we build out capacity so we've absolutely done that and like I said we looked at other things that

090we may Implement down the road and that's yeah absolutely good and it is scalable too um so if we do have a site that over capacitates a certain closet we can add to it very easily you know with a separate purchase but um we'll be able to do those things with this new equipment awesome okay thank you so much anything else okay thank you very much um so it's been moved and seconded that we approved the district-wide wireless and network refresh all those in favor please signify by saying aye aye so on a vote of four to zero it's been approved we'll next move to 9.06 employee benefits trust medical and dental insurance rates recommendation for the 2324 school year Dr McCord thank you madam president governing board members we bring Tina Knight the employee

091benefit trust internal committee as well as the employee benefit trust formal trustees voted unanimously unanimously to recommend a two percent medical premium increase for the 23-24 plan year this premium increase results in an increase in budgeted expenses to GPS the amount of about five hundred thousand dollars included in the two percent premium increase is the addition of a multi-plan wrap Network to all three medical plans this multi-plan network provides out of the state out-of-state coverage for members that reside or travel outside of Arizona and have an urgent need to access health care today the GPS Health Plans explicitly exclude out-of-state coverage except for the life-threatening emergencies only out of state medical coverage while traveling will be allowed for sick office visits urgent care services and Emergency Services note that the actuarily determined increase to the

092medical plan including the rap network is 3.2 percent due to the health of the employee benefit trust the two percent premium increase was recommended the potential drawdown of the employee benefit benefit trust reserves is approximately 500 000 in addition the employee benefit trust is recommending no changes to the dental insurance rates for the 2324 plan year uh Mr MacIntosh and Mrs betz are here to answer questions if you have anything do I hear a motion to approve the employee benefits trust medical and dental insurance rates recommendation for the 23-24 school year I move that we improve the uh increase as recommended thank you Mrs Humphreys is there a second a second thank you Mrs page is there a discussion or questions from anyone so how does this because it sounded like you said that currently

093are our employees insurance covers them for life-threatening situations that happen out of state correct correct what we're proposing is that this would cover and I I forgot the first thing you said but this would cover urgent Urgent Care uh sick if you're if your child's going to college uh at Washington State University and they get strep throat they need to go to the doctor or Minnesota um they'll be covered through our medical plan right now that is not covered and is that is it like typical Insurance coverages where it'll last until the the child is 26 I think is that is correct okay thank you yeah I had a I just had a couple thoughts first I I really appreciate how hard you've worked this is phenomenal that this is such a low increase I

094mean that is just tremendous um and I I do want to appreciate that coverage I mean if you go on vacation I mean I can see why that woman didn't go to the doctor because she broke her foot not life-threatening but still something that she needed some care while on vacation so I think that's really important that we provide that coverage um just because you know if you're just in Arizona most of us want to go a little further especially when it's hot get out of the heat for a few days so I really appreciate that um I don't know that I have any questions but I'm I'm really really impressed that sometimes when Kev you know medical insurance has gone up 10 or 15 percent in a year this is very very affordable and

095I really appreciate the work that is put in by our insurance trust and our Consultants to keep it this low does this and again this is just for clarity so this doesn't include anything elective that somebody wants to travel out of state for for some reason in other words somebody can't go to the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota from here specifically to get that kind of a benefit so that you know it recovers everything else but not something like that correct yeah that is correct and is is there a committee that approves if there's I'm sure they're not approving if a if a family member has a student in Minnesota and they need to go to the doctor for a routine checkup we're not approving that but if there is something urgent is is there an

096approval process that happens or is it just so they get their care coverage or whatever is happening out of state and if for some reason it's not covered medically um and they will have the ability to appeal to the employee benefit trust and that trust will hear their case and make a recommendation on whether to approve it or not thank you if I if I could add so remember that we are expanding the network so we have Blue Cross Blue Shield of Arizona in Arizona so this is a multi-plan network so the individuals that are out of state are obligated to access and in-network provider so I wanted to make sure that that was clear it's not they can go anywhere out of state they would have to go out and look to see which

097which providers are in network in this multi-plan well thank you for that clarification I think that's pretty important for people to understand I think I would imagine that does not apply to emergency situations and it does not apply to emergency situations that is correct thank you any further questions I just I just had a comment um I just wanted to piggyback on what Mrs Humphrey said I'm very impressed with the low amount in the increase and I also just wanted to State this is mirroring many of the major insurance policies that many other people hold it's not like this is some obsolete thing that we're proposing most insurance carriers if you have an emergency out of state allow you to go see a doctor so I think we're just coming into compliance with the normal

098insurance policies that are out there for other businesses correct that is correct the the biggest change is what everyone has talked about regarding the in-network access while you're on vacation or you have a dependent who's in a another state for um college or whatever so it just allows them a wider breath of Health Care in that work Blue Cross Blue Shield which in turn gives us better benefits here at Gilbert Public Schools to offer our employees that is correct and I think it's noted this was part of the plan how many years ago three four years ago and and then it was dropped off because as as a self-insured trust you have to mitigate uh all kinds of different things within your planned document in terms of what you serve in court in order to

099keep the rates down and so at one point the trust thought that we needed to drop this off and and so now we're back to we need to bring this back so does this benefit change make us make GPS more competitive when it comes to hiring new teachers or is this something that are we are we playing catch up to other districts around here or is this some are we are we leading in this regard so when we look back about a year ago our what Gilbert Public Schools costs to employees or for to buy medical insurance was lower than the surrounding District so to answer your question Mr Thompson I do think it's a benefit we do use it to try to attract new employees this new piece of it or the return of

100the new piece of the wrap is similar to what most districts are doing but the actual cost of medical insurance in Gilbert to the employee is lower than the surrounding areas thank you if there are no other questions I'll call for the vote all those in favor of the employee benefit trust medical and dental insurance rate recommendations for the 2324 school year please signify by saying aye aye so on a 4-0 vote and we'll get to number 10 request for future agenda items if you have anything that you would like to put on the agenda please see Dr McCord or Mrs wood and we'll move to 11 which is 11.01 city of Mesa liaison Mrs wood is not here so we'll move to the town of Gilbert liaison Mrs page thank you Mrs eugetti actually

101I'm going to be speaking on behalf of President wood also she and I sorry no apologies that's okay um she and I teamed up and we had some really great introductory meetings with the city of Mesa and the town of Gilbert when we met with the mesa city council member Scott Summers we discussed ways that we could reach out to the local businesses and how we could incorporate possible students receiving some type of credit work study credit for working in the local businesses in and around the East Mesa Corridor where our schools reside we mentioned to them that we would bring it back to the administration and let them get take that from there with the town of Gilbert we met with council member kaprowski and mayor Peterson and we discussed how we can ensure

102that all of our students in schools in GPS work together to provide a strong community in addition we also discussed with mayor Peterson the continued efforts by the town of Gilbert um to keep our schools safe they've got some really great things going on at the town and we're very impressed with that and then lastly I just wanted to just thank the town in the city's support we recognize that we need to work together collaboratively to have great schools in our communities thank you Mrs Humphries the Gilbert Education Foundation and audit committee so the Gilbert Education Foundation I just want to remind everyone that if they have seniors who are graduating this year that they should go check the website because there are scholarship applications available and don't assume that you have to be one

103of those top top you know 4.0 students they have scholarships for a range of students one scholarship for someone who's worked during their high school years scholarships for volunteers scholarships for most improved students so I think it would be great to go look at that I think the deadline is coming up on those and then the audit committee did meet in February and we just went over some of the items we're doing a remarkable job but of course there are some minor mistakes that we went over and that we're working to correct those mistakes that happen when people are doing things every day so that was it thank you Mrs Humphries um I'll report on the insurance benefit Trust we had our organizational meeting in the middle of February along with the the regular meeting

104with the staff members and I would like to just say that the the finance staff under Mrs Betts is going to be monitoring the fund balance of the Trust on a very uh regular basis and because we are doing well and hopefully we'll continue to do well and with their monitoring we may recommend a premium holiday for next year uh this will be the if if we get to that point and can do it it'll be the third year in a row that we've been able to give a um premium holiday to the teachers or to the not just the teachers the whole staff and we'll be meeting again next week thank you Mr Thomas so I I think a lot of us in here already know the the good news from the legislature uh

105that the aggregate expenditure limit was uh was approved is that the right waived was waived and so I think that puts a lot of us um at ease and I think it's going to go a long way in ensuring that uh that our students and our families and GPS are confident that we're going to have the funding we need to make sure that we can provide top-tier education here in GPS that's all doc McCord do you have the meeting dates yes our next board meeting is and work study a brief board meeting and work study is next Tuesday March 7th and we have a regular board business meeting on Tuesday March 28th and in between those two dates would be spring break awkward now we come to our second favorite part of the night after

106the recognitions the adjournment do I hear a motion for an adjournment I move that we adjourned for the knee for the meeting I'm getting nervous there for a minute do I hear a second a second thank you very much Mrs page and Mr Thompson um it's been moved and seconded all those in favor of adjourning for our meeting for tonight please signify by saying aye aye [Music] so on a vote of four to zero we are officially adjourned thank you thank you everybody that came and watched online