001good evening and welcome before we get started i'd just like to thank you for wearing your face coverings and appropriately respecting protocols that are set in place today is march 30th and this is a regular board meeting of the gilbert schools governing board we will call this meeting to order we'll begin with item 1.02 in a moment of silence and move to a pledge of allegiance led by mrs humphries would you please stand if you'll join me in the pledge 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 thank you thank you mr humphries we're at item 1.04 roll call mrs wilson would you please help us with that miss laurie wood here
002mr reed carr here dr charles santa cruz here miss sheila eugetti here ms jill humphries here mr president all boar members are present you have a quorum thank you mrs wilson now moving to item two which is approval of tonight's agenda item 2.01 is there motion submit thank you mrs humphries is there a second second thank you mr jetty any discussion it's been moved and seconded that we approve this evening's agenda all those in favor please signify by saying aye aye aye aye those opposed the same motion carries five zero we'll now move to item 3 which is reports we will have item 3.01 and item 3.02 dr mccord anything by way of introduction i just want to turn it over to mrs bonnie betts for our monthly budget report good evening dr santa cruz
003dr mccord governing board members this will be a short report that reflects activity in the current year through february 28th and i'll just proceed so please note the maintenance and operations line highlighted in yellow here you can see that our adopted budget was 258 just over 258 million the revised budget is nearly 253 million but note the revised budget number two pending you have already approved the revised number two that was done early this month but we are trying to be disciplined reflecting the transactions and activity at the end of february when it was still pending so all of the the available balance you can see there is from the revised budget number two pending so some of the details on that so there has been a continual increase in student count throughout the year
004just a reminder remember that we are now funded on current year student counts so back in december our student count loss was somewhere in the neighborhood of 3 800 students but we made some decisions and drove the collection of adm throughout all of our schools and so at the time that we were ready to revise number two we actually gained nearly 2 000 adm so i just wanted to remind you that during the school year this is why we're constantly revising the budget because our student counts especially this year are constantly changing we also had an increase in budget balance carry forward remember that the pending revised number two does incorporate the annual financial report and it and it does incorporate the revised annual financial report and then the available balance that you see there
005the 13 million dollars let me go back a second that 13 million dollars available balance keep in mind that about 10 million dollars is not at the discretion of the school district so that all that money has been allocated out to schools and departments and then please also note that the expenses have been reduced due to the enrollment stabilization grant as well as the esser funds and then unrestricted capital at this point in time there's about a hundred thousand dollars unexpended unencumbered um in understood the capital so state grants the only notable fund here that we'd like to talk about tonight is the results-based funding remember that when it comes to results-based funding we really don't know what the dollar amount will be but we set the budget based upon what the prior year receipts
006were so we we have received and expended all the results based funding or at least allocated out all the results-based funding and you can see that the results-based funding amount declined by about a hundred thousand dollars so last year we had 12 schools that achieved the target and this year we had 10. so the bond fund i really wanted to bring up the bond fund so we have two bond funds right now fund 631 is associated with the 2015 bond authorization from the election and is associated with the new 2019 authorization the only point i wanted to make here is you can see that the remaining balance as of the end of february is 1.1 million dollars in fund which is the 2015 authorization and fund 630. has a remaining balance of about 9.1 million
007in the facilities renewal category i'm bringing that to your attention because in the first work study in may albert and i will be presenting the summer projects to all of you so that you have an understanding of the projects that are are being completed over the summer and that is all i have to share tonight board members any questions comments ms betts once again you're very efficient thank you for that report dr mccord who moved item 3.02 anything by way of introduction yes dr santa cruz governing board members before i turn over to mrs betts and mr mcintosh i'd just like to say a few things last friday afternoon 152 teachers were told they're going to be rift that came as a shock to many if not all and for that i apologize as we
008discussed how to navigate this process with our attorney we were advised to be as concise as possible and stick to our policy the message that was delivered was cold and sterile and that was never the intention but nonetheless that's how it was given and it was received again i'm sorry for that we wanted a consistent message and no details were given on how individuals were chosen to be rift tonight we hope to lend some clarity to that process on why a riff is necessary i've received calls and emails about what i've just mentioned and i know several others are wondering as well again i hope we can help bring into focus a little bit more this evening since march of 2020 we've been faced with many difficult decisions regarding students and staff those decisions have
009been positive a positive or a negative impact depending on those decisions impacted the loss of student enrollment and the uncertainty of student enrollment for the next year has led us to this difficult decision that will be made this evening again these actions these decisions are never approached lightly and sometimes they slam in the face of my own mantra which is connect create and care as a 26-year educator superintendent who's has served during a walk out of boundary changes changing start and end times bought an override elections racial tensions virtual graduation and a worldwide pandemic and again a school closure that we'll be discussing this evening and a reduction in force i've learned two things forgiveness is our greatest superpower and that life can be extremely difficult i know life is extremely difficult for those who
010are impacted by the rift and i'm very sorry you have to go through this process bonnie shawn please proceed i was hoping does it work now okay great um i wanted to stand because there's a lot of complex charts in the next few slides and i wanted to be able to point to them so to begin go ahead sean if you go to the next slide so tonight i will be presenting information on enrollment as well as how enrollment impacts our budget and then i'll hand it over to mr mcintosh to talk about the staffing committee and the student student centered staffing process that we've engaged in over the last month or so so go ahead sean so this is our enrollment chart and note that we're starting in may of 19. so if you
011recall in the 1920 school year we all we actually gained about 600 students over projection so by the time that we finished the school year which was in about may of 20 you can see that our enrollment was just about 34 300 students since that time though do the pandemic the enrollment plummeted to even and it continued to decline through december of 20 down to just over 33 000 students so an enrollment is the metric that we use to determine to determine our staffing staffing district-wide misspells a quick question on that does that include those students who are in our brick and mortar and who are in our online program it does it's total enrollment so the 33 000 includes both of those so the the students have that aren't in either of those that's
012that's the loss that we're seeing that's truly the loss that we're seeing thank you and just to clarify further this is not adm this is it's not weighted adm this is actual students that's correct so as an example our kindergarten students are worth a half adm or a half student count but for purposes of this they're counted as a one okay so to put numbers to this graph so the 20 20 100 day enrollment was and 35 nine the twenty twenty one hundredth day enrollment is thirty four thousand two thirty five i wanna talk a minute about that the hundredth day enrollment normally by the time the hundredth day is here it stays exactly the same but due to the changes that are occurring with withdrawals and and add-ons it is continually changing albeit slightly
013not as much as it did the first hundredth day a hundred days but it is still changing reflective of the environment that we're in right now and then our projected twenty twenty two hundredth day is four hundred students less than that so this cal this was a calculation so i uh contacted and met with our student accounting specialist and she indicated to me that looking at cohort movement so the number of 12th graders that are leaving the organization and the number of 11th graders going into 12th grade and then also looking at the 6th graders going into the seventh and then determining which kindergartners are going into first grade she determined that there is an expected 200 student loss at the elementary and student loss at the secondary so that's where we arrived at the
014additional 400 students going into fiscal 2022. okay now um mr carr you did mention the average daily membership so we are compared to our peers by average daily membership or student count the enrollment data by school district is not readily available in the state of arizona but i just wanted to share with you that the loss of students that gilbert public schools is experiencing is also reflected in other school districts both in the east valley as well in comparably sized districts so you can see that this is our average daily membership we've lost two thousand two hundred and fifty four compare that to the expected two thousand enrollment so again that's associated with part-time students versus full-time students etc uh note that chandler has seen a loss of 2 700 average daily memberships or student
015accounts and mesa has seen a loss of 4 000 queen creek which is one of our district's neighboring districts has actually gained in enrollment they were one of the first school districts to go fully in person and they are still rapidly growing they are the most rapidly growing school district in the state of arizona at this time so that's only to provide you a context of the environment here in the state of arizona any questions on any of that on the enrollment versus the student account and again student count is what our funding is based on okay so next slide please so this is a chart that shows what has happened during this fiscal year directly related to the issues associated with the pandemic so note again that at the end of 2020 our final
016revised budget showed a 237.9 million dollar budget capacity we also knew that we were fortunate in october of 2019 to pass the 15 override which meant immediately we would see an additional 10 to 11 million dollars so our budget capacity rose to 258.7 million that that adopted budget also included the final governor ducey's increase to the base amount due to the 20 by 2020 for teachers throughout the state of arizona so that accounts for that large increase but now fast forward to november of 2020 you can see that the loss of enrollment at this point in time our loss of enrollment and our loss in average daily membership or student count was near 4 000 students and you can see that the budget that's reflected there is 232 million dollars versus 258 it's a loss
017of 26 million dollars in true funding so again this is a consequence of the fact that we are presently being funded by current year student counts in the past if we adopted a budget of 258 million it would stay throughout the year because the calculation was based upon prior year the past three years we've been funded based upon current year student counts any questions on that detail okay and as you go through time now so what happened after this november well in november we received a letter from the state of arizona saying gilbert you must revise your budget down because your budget capacity is expressed way above what we're actually calculating so at that point in time we worked with the enrollment stabilization grant we knew we were receiving that we knew we were short
01826 million dollars or so we asked for 30 million the enrollment stabilization grant resulted in just over 14 million so we're still short but at the same time we also knew that esr1 was going to be around as well and then and then we also were continuing to see some increases in our student accounts over time as students in our online application were collecting their minutes and increasing adm and then enrollment started increasing increasing again at that point in time as well because gilbert was in a nearly a full-time in person school situation at that point in time so when we revised number one we had accounted for the enrollment stabilization grant as well and that that enrollment stabilization grant we opted to use that to fund salaries in 2020 so we did a revised
019afr so that what happened is that that increased our budget balance carry forward so this budget of 252.9 million included about a 31 million dollar budget balance carry forward when our adopted budget had an 11 million dollar budget balance carry forward okay so now fast forward again we are doing revised number two which i mentioned that you all approved in the first meeting in march and at this point in time we've accounted for both sr1 and sr2 and by the way esser1 is the elementary and secondary school emergency relief fund sometimes called um a recovery amount etc numerous dames are being used out there um and so um there there's esther one and esther two and both of those have been fully accounted for and so then our budget went from 252.9 million up to
020260 million in the current year actually about 1.5 million dollars more than we adopted i'd like to make a cautionary remark though that so much of that is one-time money remember sr1 and sr2 is gone after we spend it it's not recurring and the budget balance carry forward that we started 11 million and now we're at 30 million those are also one-time monies that will not be recurring okay so next go ahead sean so now we're projecting into fiscal 2022 so the difficulty you can see the changes in budget capacity based upon enrollments going up and down up and down we had a lot more information in the past that would better able that would allow us to better project what our student count will be in the subsequent year it's really difficult to know
021what that will be but we know what's today and we know what the cohort movement is going to be so we we assumed for that budget development in 2022 that we would lose the 400 students so we accounted for the 1600 or so student loss in the current year plus an additional 400 which gave us an ongoing budget capacity of about 250 million dollars one other note about that that 250 million dollars includes 17 million dollars of carryover money which is important to note as that is largely one time as well so before i go to the next slide are there any questions mrs bets i might be a little bit ahead of myself in asking this question but i tried to read all of the comments and emails that we've received and i know
022that there is the proposition 208 money and that was a question but we that is not available to us for another year is that correct that's correct and and i do have a note in here about that very thing sorry that's okay that's okay this but maybe again similarly you might address this later but i'm interested can you explain the details of what where we are spending or have spent the sr1 and 2 money on because it looks to me like we have it it appears that we have money but i know that it's actually been spent not on salaries but on all kinds of things that we've had to fund while yes and so so the story there is uh we decided that the enrollment stabilization grant we would use in 2020 last year
023to offset the cost of teacher salaries at the last quarter of last year so in the current year the 2.3 million dollars of sr1 about 2.3 million dollars has been allocated to meet all of our pandemic mitigation efforts so extra cleaning materials extra custodial staff we added pp e face shields n95 masks we added the sanitization sprayers and and expanded our florida virtual to allow for our online students at wish to to go online so all of those costs that are largely one time in nature were applied to sr1 and then in addition with sr2 we determined that the best thing to do would be to move the staff salaries that were our excess staff salaries into sr2 so that we're able to balance our budget in the current year so the 9.7 million dollars
024of sr2 was used by moving primarily teacher salaries out of mno into sr2 so that full 9.7 plus the 2.3 has been spent and accounted for so the purpose of esser one in particular and i'm not sure about two was for mitigation more than anything correct it was first sent out because um because it was when esser one was approved and and the enrollment stabilization grant were all was also approved at the same time yes that's correct answer is the one from the feds correct right and the enrollment stabilization grant was actually from the federal government as well but it was passed through the state government right but the purpose of it was for us to to try to mitigate classroom safety correct that's correct ms betts if we can if i can ask you
025just to better understand the forecasting and how it plays into this um i know that you look at a lot of models and you we we have demographic studies and we follow trends as we try to figure out where student enrollment's coming it is the number one input to our budget that's correct if we were to ask you to be less conservative and assume that enrollment were to stay the same so we didn't see the decrease of 400. obviously we'd have more students would have more funding etc and then because we're going against your recommendation and that we were wrong what would have to happen when we find out we're wrong and we don't have that funding so next year which is one thing i vowed to never do after the downfall in 2008 but
026at that point in time we would have to stop spending immediately we'd have to freeze all hires and we may have to take money back that was allocated out to departments and schools and their worst cases and worst case we're we're doing a mid-year rift worst case or or a furlough that impacts everyone or a reduction in all salaries and and i just want to highlight that because one of the questions that i've received in quite a few emails and conversations is well why can't you just assume you'll have higher higher enrollment and if you're wrong reverse verse later and as much as we would like to do that if we're wrong on that call the impact to the individuals affected becomes much more enormous because you have no notice you have no timing you
027have no opportunity to find alternative employment it it magnifies the effect of this decision on the actual individuals is that an appropriate summary right anything else okay to move to the next slide so in this particular case i've been talking quite a bit about one-time funding versus ongoing funding so whenever you have salaries or salary increases for anyone whether it's a teacher classified staff member professionals of all of all functions throughout the school district those are those what you would expect to be ongoing so we would need to have ongoing resources for those so more student counts to that point if we got if we got all those students back we would have the ongoing funding to be able to support those salaries in the in the case of the current year and largely for
028next year as well there is a tremendous amount of one-time money that's available which is could and very well will result in a cliff a year from now where we have a lot of extra expenses but no way to fund them so in this particular case you can see that our normal i came in in 2018 in a normal budget balance carry forward is right around six million so in this final revised budget it was about three percent of our total 238 million dollar budget was budget balance carry forward go to the the fiscal year 2021 adopted we increased the budget balance carry forward by about 5 million which seemed seemed reasonable and still an appropriate amount at 4 percent now our our budget capacity plummeted by 28 million dollars or so now our budget
029balance carry forward is 4.7 percent of that total budget capacity moving into the revised number one where we have a great deal where the enrollment stabilization grant is included and the additional budget balance carry forward that we were able to add by other mitigation strategies that we used during the summer resulted in 12.3 percent of our total budget capacity being uh provided by budget balance carry forward it's important to compare the 258.7 million at 4.2 percent versus the 260.5 million at 12 so the same total budget capacity but you can see the percent of budget balance carry forward went from 4.2 percent up to nearly 12 percent so that is accounting for all of that one-time money that is going to be gone next year so then going into our new budget budget projection again
030a drop year over year of about 10 million again i assumed a 17 million dollar budget balance carry forward which is roughly six or seven million dollars more than you would expect so about seven percent of that budget is in budget balance carry forward any questions on that okay the final slide so if i summarize the history of the 2020 2021 budget what you're telling me is without the esser and the and and all of those things that came in in revised budget one revised budget two our budget for 2022 is actually over what we had two years ago i mean it what we're really showing here is where that esr money and those federal funds and the emergent funding was received and spent during this year's budget and we're down from that emergency money
031but we're actually up from two years ago and and we are primarily due to the override because we have a we went from a 10 to a 15 override there's other details in here though in addition so that 250.3 million dollars the decline of the 10 million is the the um there is an override contribution to that number so the override is 15 of your revenue control limit which is calculated based upon your student count but it's the prior year student count so in this budget the new budget our override actually declined by about two and a half million dollars because it's calculated based upon the 21 student count and all of this does not at all consider classroom site fund which is a large component of our teacher salaries okay and then the final
032slide go ahead shawn so this is you eugenie you asked about proposition 208 so as you all remember proposition 208 was approved in november of 20 this past november so the annual revenue that was projected at that time was approximately 800 million dollars projected to be approximately 800 million dollars the legislative session began in january and starting very early the conversation centered around should we exclude small small business owners from that tax premium and so this has not been approved at this point in time nor signed but the projection is that if that goes into effect and the legislature approves that then the prop 208 revenue could go down to as little as 370 or 80 million from 800 million and then okay you couldn't wait until it was your turn well we're waiting mrs
033betts could you just um ex we've spent a lot on things like hand sanitizer um the sprayers that we use on the buses and so forth do you have any idea what a ballpark figure that might be for some of those outlays for the everything we've used to mitigate in during the pandemic so um all of the costs we are presently tabulating but we do believe it will exceed the 2.3 million dollars associated with sr1 okay thank you so um in addition the final point about proposition 208 we've had numerous meetings with my peer groups over the last couple of months and we've had meetings with the joint legislative budget committee the jlbc as well as the office of strategic planning and budget ospb which is part of the governor's office and all of them
034are giving us information indicating that please don't expect the proposition 208 money until fiscal year 2023 remember that the final tax collections will not come in until april of 2022 and that and also there is some implementation cost associated with figuring out how to allocate out the money and all of that and so any any tax revenues that are received early would probably go to the department of ed to implement the program so we're not expecting to receive any of the proposition 208 monies until um july of 2022 which is the start of the fiscal year 2023 school year so the other thing that's out there right now president biden approved the last round of federal stimulus dollars or federal relief dollars and we are affectionately calling that sr-3 to date the application is not
035yet available they indicated that we won't know the dollar amount than any school district will receive in arizona until probably the end of april so we have no visibility about that and then finally 20 percent of any amount must be used for learning loss so expected to be used for summer school tutoring that that type of thing so based upon that that's all i have and i'm ready to turn this over to mr mcintosh unless there's any further questions for me this wood yes thank you dr santa cruz i my question is um so i understand and we understand because you've been presenting this to us all along the the esther money the one-time monies we've spent it on um also on substitutes and costs all the costs associated with that um there's been lots
036of one-time costs and different things that we've used to mitigate now i also understand the enrollment and you've gone through that month by month with us as well we've been tracking it looking watching so i guess though i have had some people say well can't you find other other ways to fund this what other ways you know are there other ways to fund it and i i was looking we've been looking through we've carefully looked at our budgets every month every all the time i was also thinking about basically we've had out of the last six or seven years at least that i'm familiar with plus before that we've had enrollment loss except for one year and some of it larger than others and we haven't riffed at all we've found we've mitigated we've scraped
037we've scrimped we've found ways we've tried to cut back on every other place that we could i just wondered what is your thoughts on any other mitigation strategy so and where we could find any mitigation strategy that we would come up with would again be subject to one time so we would be delaying the inevitable um the other thing is we sh we need to fund the need so if we if we have an enrollment increase we need to hire teachers back to fill the needs for those enrollment increases but if we don't have the enrollment to support them it would be it would be difficult to to maintain that fte the other other thing that's always playing on on all of us and if you remember otm worked feverishly a year ago on the
038compensation study to make sure that we can continue to be competitive and attract and retain personnel all personnel district-wide and so i do know to date that higley is offering a five percent pay increase and i expect that queen creek will do something comparable to that so um we could we could stem this off um for probably a year but we'd still be at the end at a cliff thank you but it's all about your priorities all right dr santa cruz is hungry i just wanted to um provide some clarity to miss what mrs wood um there was i believe is in about 2016 we did have to reduce our budget and lay off people we were able to mostly use attrition for that but we did have to there were a few people that
039were a reduction force at that time thank you anyone else i i i would clarify that i think it was before that before 2016 i'm looking at the kafir over the last five years um and if i look at the the kafir in 2015 we had 1831 teachers in 2020 we have and 1 six so each of those years we've actually we've seen some fluctuation but we've seen a general trend upward in the number of teachers that we've retained um and just to answer one of the questions that we've gotten well you know why what about district positions and so on in that same five-year time period we had 208 supervisory positions at the district level from that's going actually i should say supervisory period that's going from dean of students all the way up
040to superintendent in 2020 we had 146. so please know we we have cut costs everywhere but teachers we've actually seen an increase in teachers over over that time period while we've dramatically decreased administrative positions so there's no other questions i'll hand this over to mr mcintosh thank you miss betts mr mcintosh thank you dr santa cruz governing board members and dr mccord i'd like to discuss the 2021-2022 staffing and the process used in determining those employees affected by the reduction in force it's by way of history in april of 2009 was the last time that gilbert public schools had to do a reduction in force and at that time there were 267 employees affected also in that year it was determined that it would be all first-year teachers and all those teachers that were on
041phased retirement later in that year the arizona state legislature revised the statute 15502 which prohibited using seniority and tenure as a sole factor in determining a reduction in force and this year and the year 2021 in january the policy was reviewed and it was slightly revised and approved by the governing board that policy reads as such on the screen the criteria used in formulating these recommendations shall include but not be limited to qualifications and certification of staff members to accomplish the district's educational program including certification requirements for specialty categories and designation as a highly qualified teacher number two overall teaching experience academic training ability and performance number three contributions to the educational program of the district again teacher tenure and seniority should not be considerations in the retention determinations and then lastly personnel to be
042released shall be notified as soon as as possible practical this chart here is our staffing and enrollment which you can see is the blue line represents the student population the red line represents the certified faculty and the fds associated with it up until may of 2020 we have maintained our fts with a slight increase in enrollment in august the start of the 2021 school year when enrollment severely declined even though student enrollment dropped our actual teacher ft increased this was to accommodate staff and student needs at global academy again i want to reiterate what bonnie had stated earlier our sr2 monies this year one-time funding was used to offset the increase in salaries for the remainder of this school year this allowed us to keep our staff employed through may despite the decline in enrollment
043so we formulated a student-centered staffing committee it was three elementary principals three talent management representatives and three secondary principals the following timeline is what the student-centered staffing committee um got together and met with principals so in january the committee was assembled shortly thereafter the approval of the policy and february the introduction meeting there was a history of the reduction in force mid february we did a process design and timeline february 24th this scoring rubric was developed and tested early march we sought feedback from all of our principals we also trained them for scoring and utilizing the rubric march 9th each principal between the third and the ninth each principal utilized the scoring rubric scored every faculty employee on their campus reviewed the scores and otm reviewed the scores and determined the fts that were needed
044in the reduction on march 17th an overview of the student-centered staffing committee results developed and we we developed the employee communications on march 24th was the final principal training and preparation for employee meetings and on march 26th the reduction of fourth force meetings and notice of the upcoming recommendation to the board this evening there's four steps that were involved in this in step one we looked at normal attrition first we ran our staffing numbers based on current staffing patterns to determine the total fte needed for the 21-22 school year this was compared to our current staffing as i noted two slides ago with the blue line in the red line you could see that we were overstaffed compared to the decrease in enrollment this determined the total number of the fte reduction for next school
045year aligned to the policy of gcqa the committee developed a scoring rubric which i spoke about and i'll show in a minute we're conducting training sessions with all our campus administrators teams to aid in understanding of the rubric and accomplish inner rate of reliability among those utilizing the rubric each campus administrator then scored their certified staff based on the rubric after campus scoring was completed otn determined the score thresholds based on the ft calculated in step one i want to reiterate that at no time on the scoring did we know the number the actual score that would be needed to meet the number of fts needed into next school here principals didn't know otm didn't know nobody knew what the score threshold would be that would need to meet the number of staff to be
046reduced next year dr santa cruz go ahead and mr judy mr mcintosh when we go back to step one with the fte projections that was with people that you knew that were resigning and or retiring correct correct in january we knew that those who had already planned to retire and resign for next school year those were taken into natural attrition first determining so that that's how you determined your numbers based on that those people were included in next year's fts first but we were still overstaffed right okay thank you so the rubric the committee along with advisement from our attorneys recommended a scoring system to measure certified staff completely district-wide so the rubric across the top has a score associated with criteria going up and down um on the far left side there was a
047zero for ineffective a two for effective and a three for highly effective the criteria used is what i'll read and then i'll give an example at the end so the first criteria used for every certified teacher was creating an environment of respect and rapport growing and developing professionally showing professionalism clubs coaching and extracurriculars leadership roles overall communication demonstrating flexibility and responsiveness participation and plcs and last was promoting campus culture there are two criteria that were used for second additional criteria that were used for secondary only and that was certification and specialty programs thank you bonnie there was certification in specialty programs and program attrition so if we go to the criteria of participation in plcs a highly effective teacher would have been scored a three that would have been somebody who actively contributes in plc's
048takes learning from plcs into the classroom takes on a leadership role in a plc team an effective teacher with a score of two would engage in plc and contributes positively in the meetings and in a score of zero and ineffective that would be somebody in participation in plc's who is negative does not attend is late or there but complacent go ahead just one question sorry um you have these numbers two a and four f where do those numbers are associated with the evaluation okay all right thank you the last criteria that all elementary and both secondary would be in promoting campus culture a highly effective teacher goes above and beyond to promote the school and gps finds ways to promote leadership values culture attends campus and district events in the community fosters a positive school
049and culture an effective teacher would have been somebody who displays general respect for students and staff displays positive attitude toward the campus and the district and an ineffective score of zero and promoting campus culture would have been somebody who's negative about the school district gossips has social media negative relationships with peers students or parents teacher is not sensitive to others disrespectful lack of situational awareness and the last bullet in effect would be a teacher who discusses district school decisions concerns publicly and negative so that is the rubric that was used and again every principal scored every single teacher utilizing the same rubric after our inner rate of reliability and at the elementary level it was then determined that the score for this the number needed to to get to the the reduction in the fts
050at the elementary level was a score of 13 or below so those teachers who scored at 13 and below at the elementary level were the ones that were notified of the reduction in force that was the cut score therefore every individual in the district scoring at the elementary level of 13 or before or below was placed on the reduction in force list mr mcintosh just to clarify that 13 or below was not known until all the valuations were done correct all evaluations were done the data was looked at and that number of ftes below the 13 is the number needed at the elementary to be reduced next year so so basically we nobody knows we knew with the staffing model we needed to eliminate 150 positions roughly yep um and then we just summed up
051how many people scored one two three four five until we got to that number that's correct so prior to us determining what that cut score would have been mr reed we it depended on the number it could have been a 10 or it could have been a 16. it was determined that at the elementary level the number of fts needed it was a a score of 13 or below so principles evaluating had no idea where that cutoff was going to be no they did not neither did otm until we gathered all the data at the secondary level the score was that the score was at a 16. and below same thing the number of fts associated with the the loss of student enrollment and needed for the 21 22 school year at the secondary level
052was a score of 16 and below remembering that at the secondary level they had two additional questions so their total score was a 33 as opposed to at the elementary where the total score could have been at 27. so with 27 possible using the elementary level you could score effectively in eight of the categories and you wouldn't have been below that threshold correct because you would have scored two on each if you scored effective in at least eight categories you had 16 points you would not have been below that threshold so you really had to score low on multiple categories to be below that threshold yep okay yes sir the reduction in force um we're still answering questions regarding the buyback per the mou we get lots of those questions those who qualify will be
053afforded the buy-back if they're affected by the ref so if they're five-year employees with 25 or more days they will be per the mou afforded the buyback um given we will update the question and answers we're working with gea on their receiving questions so we'll be updating that q a um given the circumstances regarding the ft we also afforded all of all employees late last week through april 2nd with another opportunity to re retire resign and take advantage of the buyback we're working closely with legal there's been some changes regarding cobra and the cobra plan from the federal government we hope to push out that information on the q a as well we're working to get some clarity on the cobra from the federal plan and we continue to work with ga to assist in
054answering those questions after the training principles were given the list of employees to meet with along with the script a copy of the policy and the questions and answer sheet to cause minimal impact on student learning meetings were scheduled immediately after school last friday it was important that the message coming from administration was consistent and therefore they were instructed not to deviate from the provided script shortly after the meetings were conducted employees received an email communication with the formal reduction in force notice a copy of the policy questions and answers as well as eap employee assistant employee assistance counseling confidential resources for our staff we understand that this was extremely difficult and it may have felt impersonal at the time but it is what was needed in order so that the message was consistent among
055all employees affected so for that we apologize if it seemed cold the principal as well received a list of the employees the script the policy copy of the policy and the question and answer sheet as i discussed earlier in the presentation we were significantly overstaffed as a result of the decline in enrollment it is important to note that due to that overstaffing this reduction does not impact next year's student-to-teacher ratio those ratios are still set they are still the same um miss you jenny do you have questions could you expound on that a little bit because a number of the messages and emails that we've received have been from parents who are concerned that there's going to be 40 kids to a classroom and that i think that's that's a misunderstanding that maybe we could
056clarify tonight it is a misunderstanding the current staffing ratio the one we've utilized for the past i don't know six or seven years will be utilized again next year so if it's a 27 to one class first grade then that same ratio will be utilized next year if it's 31-1 at the high school it will be still utilized next year so i guess adding on to that if if there are some classrooms and some the district that do have that maximum capacity right now and then someone within that team was rift so they so teachers and families are wondering how next year will you provide the same amount of students the same staffing ratio when they're already at the maximum and now there's one less teacher so that teacher will be replaced through involuntary or
057voluntary transfers of the remaining employees so they'll still have a teacher in front of kids okay thank you mr mcintosh could you talk about how we're going to staff things like special ed and other hard to find category of teachers so i've also heard a lot of concerns about that right um again the staffing patterns from special education have not changed there may be some program movements but the the if the program's there there'll be a highly qualified teacher hopefully in front of it again with the loss of students and teachers who may hold multiple certifications may be involuntarily transferred or voluntary in some cases into those classrooms so sometimes remembering that special education teachers are k-12 and that teachers work for the district not necessarily a school or a site so there may be
058some teachers that have to move campuses or move programs based upon their endorsements and their certifications but they'll be offered a contract all right thank you for that miss wood one more question just as you said that can you give us some maybe this isn't the time maybe that's later in the agenda to talk to about contracts moving forward i know there's some with all of this that's gone on how how what's the timing how does that look like now so this evening you'll prove the basically the content of contracts for all employees there's no substantive changes in those so that dylan mr messel can start to work on preparing those contracts hopefully um we will be on april 13th doing renewal of teachers and and staff and administrators at that time and then it
059takes about a week to get all of the behind the scenes names salaries everything put into a contract so about a week after the governing board approves those then we can start to push out contracts for next year can you talk just a little bit about employee groups um you know this this has totally been about certified staff um can you talk about classified staff or um what we've been doing or what we can do under those circumstances absolutely so the other employee groups we every single year we we look at them as a whole and then based on the needs of the district the students involved for example paraprofessionals currently we put a freeze on hiring those we had 60 vacant positions that were unfilled and we've closed those and taken down those postings
060in order to hopefully utilize our current staff in the following year but every year we look at the staffing across the board for support staff for psychologists speech and language etc and based on the needs of the district we determine where they'll be placed all right thank you in closing we're hopeful that our enrollment will increase allowing us to open and post positions in the near futures future are there any other questions that i can answer for you regarding this presentation mr carr um mr mcintosh you know because we approached this at a district-wide level versus versus a school specific there may be areas where where one school was impacted more than another or where one department within the school was impacted as miss miss wood kind of alluded to that i think in her
061question does that mean that we will have openings to make sure that we keep those counts i mean if i don't have enough english teachers in a specific high school and i can't necessarily transfer because there were too many in that department across the schools would we be backfilling that through openings that is correct and those types of situations we would post the position those who are affected by the reduction in force if they hold the certification would be welcome to reapply for that position and that was going to be my follow-up question so thank you mr jenny i'm gonna go back um to your historical um first slide i think it was late 2009 the arizona state legislature revised ars 15-502 you don't have to go back there but you know just based on
062my own personal experience from many years ago it was always done by seniority could you talk to a little bit about what happened or how that was changed so that we have a clear understanding that it has nothing to do with seniority it doesn't the reduction if i'm understanding your question miss you getting mrs eugetti the the law changed at that time where you prohibited using seniority right so shortly yeah prior to that it was that was the way it was done but then they actually came out and said you cannot do that anymore that is correct i think part of that was because so many first-year teachers were ripped and were in in the midst of the beginning or wherever we were at when it relates to a teacher shortage and i think that
063they thought that partly that would damage people going into the profession even further so any more questions this wood yes on your previous slide before questions you you have student teacher ratio which you addressed and then administrative cuts and other employee groups i believe you you talked about that a little bit what i didn't hear what you said about administrative cuts so currently our administrative cuts we are down 7 ft between the district office as well as site administration for next year i know that community ed has i think 50 un filled non-posted they're down 50 positions for next year and we will continue to review those staffing patterns based on our student enrollment and if enrollment comes up then and there's a need that community had then we would add a position the same
064could be could be said for those other positions that were cut some instructional coaches um were unfilled left unfilled for next year and will not be replaced okay so really really what we're talking about is um all of these things and some other difficult decisions that we have tonight is really driven by the loss of enrollment and that's what's that's what's bringing this to the head here and that's why we're discussing these kinds of things is that's how we are funded and that's how we determine the rest of the structure of the funding so that is correct it's difficult i hope this helps clarify the process used in determining those employees affected so i i do have a question for dr mccord is just obviously we want to bring people back as much as we
065can bring students back can you give us any indications of what we'll be doing as a district to work on that and to try and draw students back into our schools we continue through our marketing department don antestenis our director of communications and marketing she's worked with all of our schools to develop some kind of marketing strategy to ensure people understand that we have programs we have space available and we're ready to bring their students into our schools and to recapture some of those students that have left we you know it's hard to determine exactly where they when i think you and i had that discussion before and that is some have gone to charter some have gone to other school districts some have stayed home and some we have a difficult time knowing where
066they're at and so we've we've got to make the effort and we have all of our schools have picked up the phone and called those students that have left letting them know that you know back when we opened up fully that our schools are back open please come back and we did receive some more students through that method and we're going to continue doing that as we move into the next school year all right thank you i appreciate it dr mccord that's been an issue throughout the state of arizona not just gilbert where they actually don't know where some number of students are correct that is correct i think it i i read something the other day and i don't know how accurate is but it was a little over 30 000 students that were
067possibly unaccounted for i know that you're asking for questions but i would like to just make a comment before you do that miss beth had something to contribute now i'll refer to you i wanted to address mrs wood's um comment or question so um there's a significant difference between the reduction in force today versus back in 2009 because back in 2009 the state did not have the funding available to fund the students that were here in our schools so just to reiterate what mr mcintosh said we're not increasing class sizes we're just trying to right-size the number of teachers to the number of students we have so really it is totally based upon the enrollment thank you miss pets miss you jenny um without getting into the number of years that i've been doing this
068i a year ago we had to make some difficult decisions about graduation and a number of other things and i remember saying more than one time that this was the most difficult decision i've ever had to make as an educator and i never every time i said it i never thought that the next decision would be worse than the previous one but i have to say that for me personally this decision tonight is probably the most difficult decision that i've ever had to make and it is not it's out of our control you know i believe that everybody sitting in this room who's had anything to do with any of this has done it with the best of intentions including all of our principals and and everyone that's involved and you know i have to
069tell you that i've lost sleep my heart has been broken i know a number of people that are involved in this and it is not easy for any of us to have to to even be having this discussion and i can only say i'm very sorry and i hope i just hope i never have to make this statement again that the next decision i have to make is worse than this one thank you miss eugetti and just to follow up a little bit on some of what miss betts has presented and what mr macintosh has presented along the way since march of last year we have convened and discussed uh various mitigation procedures at as each critical point presented itself dollars from the rescue plan and how that first batch would be used working through
070substitute issues and trying to mitigate the impact to the individual and to the district in that regard application equipment and and software for online instruction and how to fund that and on and on and on the one-time money is almost a magic trick in some regards because it's the aggregate of funds that are available for one-time use to try to mitigate a hole in the budget which we did not create and so i concur with what miss eugetti has said and probably the sentiment of this entire board this is a human enterprise and we don't miss cue on that issue not one bit it's important because people's lives are a part of this decision and we know that and we want you to know that we know that uh nonetheless we're backed into a corner
071and must make some decisions for the benefit of the students in the district the remaining faculty and staff in the district and for the community at large there has certainly been enough criticism in the emails we've received regarding mismanagement lack of creativity on the part of the board and and staff lack of foresight etc and that's a paraphrasing of what it is i've interpreted but i don't believe i'm incorrect in some of those interpretations and uh we're sorry that that is the opinion of some but we will continue with all due diligence to do the best we know how to do to make things right for this organization for this district and ultimately and focused directly on the students we don't disagree that students have been out of school long enough they've been they've been
072back in now for a short period of time we're hoping that at some point between now and august again that will start to approach some sense of normalcy whatever that means so on behalf of the board we respect the work that everyone is doing throughout the district both on the staff and in the classroom and we appreciate all of the efforts and we apologize that we are at this point but we are dr mccord anything dad you know sir i'd just like to thank uh miss bets and mr mcintosh for their presentation again i i hope it helped bring some clarity it doesn't make the end result of the message feel any better but i hope this helps out to a degree thank you sir we move to item four which is a request to
073speak to the governing board we have about 19 individuals who have indicated they have an interest in doing that before we play the recorded message let me request on behalf of everyone here including the board that as you listen to the message uh pay closer attention to this than usual the request is that we refrain from any personal attacks or insults if that occurs then we'll be directing staff to bring the mic silent we'll have three minutes to speak if you exceed that point we'll also bring the mic silent so please assist with that and before i set the lineup we'll play the recorded message please the board may make an open call to the public during a public meeting subject to reasonable time place and manner restrictions to allow individuals to address the public
074body on an issue within the jurisdiction of the public body at the conclusion of the open call to the public individual board members may respond to criticism made by those who have addressed the board may ask the staff to review a matter or may ask a matter be to be put on a future agenda however members of the board shall not discuss or take legal action on matters raised during the open call to the public unless the matters are properly noticed for discussion and legal action during the 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 policy k e k e b and k e d are provided by the board for disposition of legitimate complaints
075including those involving individuals forms required for use of these policies can be obtained from the gilbert public schools website first three speakers will be katrina nall angela fellpot and mike zadoluski katrina hi my name is katerina nall i'm a senior at mesquite high school and i came here to speak to you today about why i think that you should not be firing 152 members of the gps staff before i read what i wrote on my way here there were a few things that were said tonight that kind of threw me for a little bit of a loop the main one being the amount of amount of money spent on cleaning supplies because i for one have spent this entire year seeing teachers buying their own tissues buying their own hand sanitizer buying their own clorox
076wipes or not having all of these supplies in their classrooms and like a normal high school year there have still been days where the bathrooms have no soap stalls have no toilet paper so i'm really just wondering where all these magical schools of school supplies and cleaning supplies came from because i know that as a person who's been in person for the last about for the last majority of the school year i haven't seen them and superintendent mccord's letter to the teachers he states that it is that is that it is imperative that students needs remain at the center of the decision-making process tonight how are students needs being met by laying off teach laying out teachers with no warning how are students needs being met by only laying off teachers who have dedicated large
077portions of their lives to our schools who run academic departments clubs and student organizations you have contributed you have attributed the riffing to low enrollment and yes i will admit that i've seen firsthand that enrollment records were low this year however it is irresponsible and short-sighted to fire 152 teachers teachers will be back in our classrooms as quickly as they are safely able to do so and enrollment numbers will subsequently go back up coveted cases will continue to go down and enrollment numbers will subsequently go back up 16 people who are 16 year old 16 years old or older will not be able to get vaccinated which will help drive up enrollment numbers i believe one of the main issues here tonight is that you're thinking of these teachers that you're firing as only numbers
078and part of your budget the teachers you are firing are people like miss zachary who's the only arts teacher at my school whose passion for creativity coats the walls of the b building she is certified to teach ap classes mrs kristen thomason the only asl teacher at our school whose classroom has served as a safe space for students for years she has instilled in her students a love of an entire language and culture she is certified to teach weighted classes and dual enrollment and before the cleveland 19 pandemic was going to bring asl 4 to our to my school for the first time you're firing tracy weaver who speech and debate team has helped so many at mesquite find their voices and learn how to speak out about what is right like i am doing
079here tonight she is currently getting her second master's degree and is certified to teach ap and dual enrollment classes you've said tonight multiple times that what you care about is keeping certified teachers yet when i look to who is being laid off at my school the majority of them have worked here for years our department heads our foreign language teachers or specialized teachers who cannot easily be replaced they are the most certified teachers at our school they are the best of us and if you get rid of them why would people come to come to the school district why would they come and how will you get more people if you lay off every certified teacher time [Applause] and katarina i apologize for mispronouncing your name good evening my name is angela philpot and i'm
080a 7th and 8th grade teacher of english language learners at desert ridge junior high school i am a parent of three gilbert school students here in the district and i was rift last friday and not only was i rift without any warning but my twin daughters go to my school and so now they're wondering do we have to leave our school so i can follow my mom to whatever job that she has my son goes to desert ridge high school as well and he's wondering do i have to leave in the middle of my high school career to go to another school because my mother was rift i'm a 23 year veteran teacher with the master's degree and i was brought here because our ged program and our elo for adults program was in corrective
081action being placed in 25th out of 25 schools statewide so i came from the apache junction school district specifically for gilbert public schools to help get their program out of corrective action the first year i took over that program it went to 13th in the middle of all programs statewide over mesa public schools rio salado college and cochise college the next year it was number one in the state and we were program of the year and ged program of the year and if you're surprised to hear those accomplishments that i did for this district in two years it's because it wasn't publicized because the students that i teach or the unseen disproportionately um forgotten students in my in this district and so i do speak up for them quite a bit because my classrooms are
082100 students of color and during this pandemic they have endured more than you can imagine i've had students that have had to work and help support their families because their parents were laid off i've had students without water and electricity and our social workers had to do that and so during a global pandemic when we should be providing more stability for our students that is a student center committee we're going to lay off their favorite and beloved teachers they're teachers that care about them now i'm sure that you've heard i'm also a fish a financial officer of an organization as well i'm the treasurer of the largest labor union and i provide financials just like this happened tonight every month and i keep my board informed and we've had to talk about riffs with members
083and with staff and they always know about it way ahead and i always have great financial data so that way we can make those educated decisions so no one is surprised and so that's why for me to be surprised that i was on a list to be ripped with having an elementary license a secondary license an adult license an endorsement in early childhood esl and secondary english as well as being accepted to law school before i came here it's just shocking and my students are now wondering who's going to be our ell teacher and sure you could transfer somebody else but is that what my students specifically need and centuries and centuries of education employees have dedicated their lives here and even though you say that it wasn't taken into account you can't look like
084you can't ignore that data and so i really hope that you table this decision and wait for that april money from [Applause] next three martha romero todd signer and sue frye excuse me though i think i may have skipped someone mike did i skip you yes sir go right ahead no problem thank you for letting me speak today my wife works at this district and my daughter attends gps schools my wife has been a teacher for 25 years 21 years in gilbert public schools she's a department head for years and the last 10 years as an ap government teacher for less aid over the last five years she has given up her prep hour to teach an additional class she has taught summer school since 2003 and she has been an online teacher for gps
085in the first when it first began in 2007 for several years she has she was a coordinator for curriculum for the district i mentioned all of this to let you know how involved my wife is with this district on multiple levels she's a quiet steady force on her at her campus she doesn't like or need the spotlight would rather work behind the scenes and helps the school and her district explain one recent example in the last year when the district shut down the teachers had to work at home her coordinator asked her to write a curriculum for the last six weeks of school for the whole for the all the district teachers to use in their subject i remember spending hours in front of their computer searching links i'm looking for other ways to create
086a curriculum and was engaging in students to learn remotely via computer for her district and all the all the teachers to use she did not get paid for any of this she you will not see this in her professional development folder she was not given a certificate she did this without hesitation i don't even think the administration at this school even is aware but my wife she doesn't search out the need for the spotlight she finds great reward and satisfaction to do her job this fall we had to make a decision on whether she should return to brick-and-mortar teacher due to her health issues she wanted to stay at home i wanted her to stay at home and teach me morally she would not and could not because as she told me her ap students
087needed her this is why she was holding tutoring sessions twice a week and throughout the whole month for of april including giving a practice exam every single day i worry that she would come contract covid she just went along with her day wore her mask and did whatever she need to do and again that is my wife how she did how she is dedicated to her profession and district you cannot find a more highly work working effective teacher than my wife for this district but after hearing some of the names of others who are on this rift list i realized she's not the only one she did not want to speak today and she's simply too shattered to speak for herself but again that is my wife quiet steady leader for this district how can
088this district take someone who has been highly effective teaching to every evaluation thank you time good evening this has been a very difficult year due to the covid global pandemic i would say the hardest year in my 19 years in the classroom teachers in gps and across the nation struggled with a new way of teaching with slow internet connection and many obstacles to hurdle over even though it was a very difficult year teachers were dedicated to give their students the best education experience through virtual hybrid through virtual hybrid and in-person teaching many decisions have been made on the back of this pandemic that will impact our district for years to come in january employees at houston elementary school were notified that the district is proposing to review to repurpose the houston building to newly traditional
089school that's where i work as if the year wasn't already stressful enough add the stress of closing our school worrying about where we will be teaching what position and where our students will end up even though repurposing the houston building has been rumored for many years i can honestly say i was shocked that the district decided to propose to close houston in the middle of a global pandemic it really feels like the district is not looking at the social emotional well-being of the students and staff of houston elementary rather than the financial aspects the community loves the students and staff of houston elementary we are devastated about the proposed closure we are a family this past friday the district notified 152 employees with a reduction in force notice stating their contract will not be renewed
090for the 2021-2022 school year again this came out as a shock employees were called into a room at the end of the day with other colleagues and read a script by their principal they were not given a reason or allowed to ask questions the lack of compassion is truly disheartening many of our veteran teachers who have dedicated their careers to gps are in good standing and have exceptional evaluations they deserve a right to see their rubric and know why this happened to them more students will come back to gilbert next year therefore the district will need to hire more teachers when this happens employees rift should be on a callback list to return before hiring others gilbert public schools is supposed to be a family the 152 employees rift on friday did not feel care
091and compassion from gps i urge the board not to approve the rift until all 152 employees have had an opportunity to see their rubric and ask questions to better understand moving forward i ask that gps work on their transparency and ways of communication thank you time [Applause] hello my name is todd seamer i'm a business owner here in gilbert my wife is a doctor i run her office we have two kids a freshman at gilbert public or gilbert high school and a sixth grader neely thank you all the teachers this year you've been amazing um there's a quote by an author udai yadali failure is the greatest teacher so one year ago the children of gilbert were thrown into a tailspin a back and forth between politicians public health bureaucrats and the media they were
092denied the very thing they needed the most a stable learning environment months passed and then mass mandates were enacted school was taken back online students were forced to stay at home under contract contact tracing policies you all have sat in this room before and heard the concern of parents we want in-person learning as an option you saw the decline in enrollment the transferring of students but did you ask yourself why did you launch an investigation into what the cause was of declining enrollment did you call together parents to ask how you could do a better job to bring their students back you sit here today with an opportunity an opportunity that's squandered will leave you more out of touch with gilbert parents and a continued decline in enrollment parents have spoken they want a choice
093a choice of in-person learning a choice of whether they put a mask on their child or not a choice about whether to vaccinate their child or not and still have the opportunity of in-person education do not rush to be rescued from this consequence of your actions sit in this moment learn from this moment i want to leave you with this one more quote by henry ford he said failure is simply the opportunity to begin again this time more intelligently thank you dr santa cruz dr mccord and governing board i'm sue frye and i am actually speaking on a different topic than most of my my fellow speakers here tonight but on behalf of the gilbert education association i would like to thank the governing board and all people who participated in developing and reviewing the
094memorandum of understanding that is also on the agenda for this evening i would like to say that we we appreciate being a part of that process and we will continue to make input into that process and do the best we can for the employees of gilbert public schools thank you thank you next three speakers amber franco carrie vanderpool and amy rowe good evening gps board members and dr mccord i'm speaking to you today as a president of the gilbert education association and on behalf of my members and fellow educators in the district this past friday a number of our colleagues received notice from the district that their employment will end at the conclusion of the school year these are loved and committed educators that have dedicated their lives to gilbert's children many were shocked and
095angered and receiving this notice on friday at the end of their work day these teachers are valued they are essential and it will be a huge loss to the district our gilbert community and gea this reduction in force isn't about good or bad teachers teachers on this list have worked successfully in this district in some cases for over 20 years they have built relationships with their students and the communities they serve they have changed lives this reduction in force is about the consequences of dealing with the pandemic in a state that has not proved to value educators or public education at a level necessary to maintain the high quality staff that we have enjoyed here in gps if you have been impacted by this rift my heart truly goes out to you you are valued
096and you will be missed by your students your gea brothers and sisters and the gilbert community thank you for your hard work and your commitment to education and gps still as the magnitude of the rifts become evident colleagues and members reached out to gea for support clarification and understanding there are a lot of unanswered questions gea agrees that in order to move forward and accept these difficult circumstances those with questions need to have their questions answered and transparency needs to be apparent we know the decision to riff was not taken lightly together we have overcome some of today's greatest struggles this year gea has worked collaboratively with board members and gps district office from summer meetings to address the safe reopening of schools to navigating how to handle the pandemic surge and all the while
097still effectively educating our students and through all of this discussions to do what's right for students staff and the community were always at the forefront every stakeholder had a voice in the room moving forward we would like the district to continue with the relationship and trust we have built together and continue to allow a teacher's insight and voice into the future discussions regarding educator concerns we know we cannot fix the past but looking forward gea as a partner stakeholder and voice for educators believes will be beneficial for us to be more involved in these processes in closing during these difficult times we are called to be compassionate empathetic to the educational world who have faced throughout the year with unprecedented situations and the effects of the pandemic we'd also like to thank our educator community
098and friends of educators your outpouring of support means the world to us during this difficult time through it all and moving forward i know our motto still ring thank you good evening my name is carrie vanderpool i am the parent of four children two of which attend gilbert public schools my oldest is a sophomore who is six foot eight taller and larger wingspan than michael phelps join the swim team for the first time this year try and get all of that under control a coach that guided him gave him some advice mid cramp in the pool i heard this advice come out of my son's mouth when he had to make the decision to drop down to the jv level to spend more time with his best friend in varsity volleyball a goal that he
099had made for himself for like two years yet this coach's advice rang in his ears this coach is dave peters he is a teacher at gilbert public schools in the gilbert high school he i'm sorry i'm shaking i'm really ramped up i'm so sorry um he took on the swim team at campo verde high school since it opened in 2009 in 2019 there is a picture of this board with that championship team right here how proud are you to call yourself the gilbert school that has coach of the year on their staff and yet he is the one included in his that got rift on friday he has spent 19 years teaching at gilbert public schools one year away from retirement one year how many teachers does it take to touch a child's life how
100many teachers can you say you remember had an effect on your life do you remember that teacher there are good teachers they're great teachers and then there's gilbert public school teachers these people have dedicated their life and their time to our kids like many others gave up a passing hour or a prep hour to take on yet another class so when does he do his prep hour at home on his own time the english department at campo has been annihilated the german department at gilbert public gilbert high school has been annihilated at what point are we going to allow our children our hope for the future the people that we are saying this is where the bar is rise to meet it here is mediocre examples of who to be or are we going to
101say here is the bar rise to meet it i hope that you take the time to table this topic this announcement was given very cold very unfeeling it was deemed an emergency meeting that was mandatory that was awful absolutely awful i hope this discussion amy good evening governing board members and community it's hard to follow that i i work at gilbert high school my name is amy rowe i am a special education teacher at gilbert high school and a graduate of gilbert high school i have over a decade experience teaching in this district i need seven more years to retire up until about a week ago i anticipated ending my seven last years at gilbert high school and retiring proudly for my alma mater but i'm here tonight to express my concerns excuse me with
102the implementation of the student-centered staffing reduction in force from the consent agenda i was going to reference some board policy and things that i had emailed you earlier but i see that the board policy was not exactly what was used as our interpretation from my understanding from the presentation earlier it did clarify a lot of things for me so thank you for that information it appears that our brand new principal of our high school was asked to evaluate our entire school and rank every single teacher at our campus not knowing what cutoff scores would be not necessarily knowing how those may be used but knowing they would be reported to a committee that was looking at possible riffing i can say honestly that all the teachers i work with he's probably not observed the majority
103of them at no fault of his own and that is very concerning to me i am concerned that on my personal campus teachers who are exemplary as the man who's been spoken about earlier has been rift while we have teachers that all of us on campus could point to and say that person is weak and needs more support to grow and move into that role i am upset that we have lost two special education teachers on our campus who are fully certified while we still have two remaining on our campus who are not certified and two who will be leaving after the end of the year which means we may have up to six vacancies on our campus in one department the most difficult department to staff i am also concerned that criteria talked about
104this um idea of contributions to the district at large and we are riffing teachers who are dual certified ap teachers special education teachers ell teachers math teachers at the secondary level and people who have developed programs on campuses that we cannot replace these people amassing the board table this consent agenda item until you have reviewed all the rubrics used to create this list of people to see that the board policy was actually followed i'd like you to survey the staff the gps employees to gather that accurate information about who is planning to leave that hasn't put in for it yet so that we can use natural attrition rather than riffing people on a friday after work also the money from the american rescue plan that was approved by congress how is that being used to
105retain teachers oh snap i'm going to run out of time i'll get cut off but i want you to know what will be cancelled destroyed at gilbert high school next year due to this time [Applause] next speakers will be heather bartlett elsie velasquez and bonnie hickman good evening president santa cruz members of the board and dr mccord my name is heather bartha and i currently have the privilege of teaching honors algebra 2 and geometry at campo verde high school i moved here from tucson during a pandemic um i want to thank you tonight for clarifying some of the reasons why i may have been ripped but i am going to ask you for my rubric to find out where i fell short this year as an educator this decision extends beyond my career and this
106affected my family as well because of my position we decided to open a role my daughter as a kindergartner in quartz hill this year as you can imagine this year has been quite a struggle trying to balance and manage distance learning from my students as well as my kindergartner and it was heartbreaking to tell her that she would not be able to continue at gps for first grade in the school that she loves with friends she has finally managed to make during this unstable year i understand the vote tonight is probably more of a formality in that your your minds have been made up um i want to thank parents for giving me such wonderful students to teach this year to dr cox and the other camp over the administration you did an awesome job
107this year i cannot imagine the weight of the board's decision has put on you and know that i am truly grateful to have been part of the campo family if even for one year and most importantly to my students you were absolutely amazing you've had to overcome so much this year and you did thank you for being wonderful this year has been stressful and it shows how strong you are that you made it through it has been an honor to be your teacher and i am grateful that i got to know each and every one of you i want to thank the district for the opportunity to teach here our students faculty staff and administration are amazing and i will miss them thank you [Applause] elise hi uh good evening uh my name is elise
108fieskis and i am a gps k-12 kid and up until this current school year i spent the entirety of my teaching career in the district i've worked in gilbert for almost 10 years i love educators i've loved educators since i was a child i was raised by family of educators and becoming one myself has been the best decision of my life and giller public schools is a big part of that the gps educators were a big part of that i am sensitive to the task you have before you to respond to serious budget concerns and a major decline in student enrollment has been cited as a big reason for the need for budget cuts and there has been a promise to work towards increasing student enrollment in the coming years i'm here as a proud
109gps kid my beloved sixth grade teacher is sitting next to me my former high school principal president dr santa cruz sits on the board other familiar faces are here too several of my former students sit in the overflow room what i'm pointing out here is the power of relationships you know what helps drive student enrollment relationships how does a school board support their educators honoring relationships it drives everything in our schools save the money on marketing efforts and honor the people who are behind those shiny programs my heart hurts to see this must to see this much institutional knowledge years of experience expertise and powerful relationships leave the district it's one simple ask please honor and protect these relationships thank you bonnie yep she was my sixth grade student um um well respected board and
110dr mccord thank you for allowing me to address you this evening my name is bonnie hickman and i have been with the district for 26 years as a sixth grade teacher i'm speaking as an individual and not as a representative of any organization as i will be on phased retirement after this school year most of this the decisions that have and will be made will probably not affect me personally i do not agree with the way in which teachers were notified of this reduction in force i understand that in our litigious society it was probably necessary to do it like this we hear constantly about the shortage of teachers in the state and unless people were paying close attention to board meetings and the district financial situation or were members of the gea it's very
111probable that they had no idea that a riff was even a possibility unlike back in 2008 when we all knew we were in a financial crisis however that's water under the bridge i would just like to request that the board consider smoothing the fed the ruffled feathers and do right by the teachers who have served through such an incredibly difficult year and were most likely blindsided by this decision according to our memorandum of understanding teachers must have been in the district for a minimum of five years and have attained at least 25 days of sick pay in order to request the sick days to be reimbursed as you know many teachers held on to their sick days fearing that they would have to use them if they became ill with covid as the cares act
112did not cover us after january my concern is for the stability of the classrooms for the remainder of the school year the students have also ridden this crazy train right along with us and they deserve to have their real teachers with them for the last 39 and a half days that remain in this school year i would like to propose that the board consider overriding the guidelines in the current mou and allow teachers with less than five years service in the district and or less than 25 days in their sick bank to be paid out at the end of the school year maybe there needs to be a caveat placed in it that they can't use more than a day or two of the sick leave during the remainder of the school year my concern
113is that these teachers have earned these sick days and if they know they will not get reimbursed for them they may choose to take them between now and the end of the year i looked on the substitute line and the district it looks like is attempting to prepare for this to happen but it seems like a gesture of goodwill to the teachers who are leaving and also stability for our students to reimburse the teachers for the sick days which they have already accrued again i want to thank you for your unpaid service to our community thank you [Applause] next three speakers heidi leyva paul del rio and luke davis sorry about that i was in the overflow room i graduated from gps ghs specifically in 2010 so i experienced those first riffs that we were
114talking about hi dr santa cruz [Music] i'm so so angry and so saddened by the current rifts i'm not an educator i'm not a parent and i'm not a student but i'm here because this affects me in fact it affects all of gilbert and the surrounding areas arizona not to be cliche but kids are our future i'm here because of the gps educators that profoundly i'm going to get emotional that profoundly affected my life and i'm here because of the way that the form the other riffs affected my life then during the 2009 riffs i lost a lot including both speech and debate coaches several ap teachers and one of my itinerants and so much more i won't go on as the first speaker did an excellent job relaying what is happening to her right
115now you cannot tell me that these are not like the rifts in 2009 because to me they look exactly the same but now we're in a pandemic and now according to your own data we have a significantly larger budget this explanation tonight quite frankly only upset me more as a board as educators yourself i urge you to do better i don't think that this is an acceptable way to go not during a pandemic but not ever in 2018 i offered to make sack lunches for children affected by the walkouts my team and i got thousands of requests for lunches by far the majority of people asking for help were teachers for their students as always they were putting their students first when i went to costco to buy sac lunch items in bulk i got
116asked multiple times if i was a teacher because so many other teachers were there and as they always do spending their hard earned two small paychecks on their students and now we're in a pandemic i can't say it enough we're in a pandemic if you follow through with this rift you'll be hurting incredible teachers you'll be hurting students of all backgrounds but especially those most at risk you'll be hurting the city of gilbert and you will need to answer for it please i know this was not an easy decision but i push back that there's not another route to go i push back that 400 loss enrollments how can you project something in a pandemic please i know you're educators yourself i know you care i need you to do better gilbert students and teachers
117deserve it hi my name is paul del rio thank you to the board for allowing me to speak now i don't have a prepared speech i didn't think i needed one due to the fact that i have now been a proud member of this great community since 2002 what drove me here the schools both my boys went to gilbert public schools and what draws anybody here why do people build homes uh for the schools the schools in my opinion is the core of any community but what's at the core of any good school great teachers longevity and what they teach our kids it's not the how great the school looks or your best you know you got the best pool or the best track field that all decays but the quality of teaching doesn't decay
118see that carries on throughout a person's entire life and earlier i heard a little talk about well how are you gonna you know beef up enrollment and i hear a lot about marketing this is its own marketing and it's not a good one see deterring uh this this you know uh firing of teachers it's in this day and age of of you know of social media and just the words gonna get out and just for gilbert public schools alone i'd like to see it build up too i like to see enrollment uh improve but we all know why we're wearing this we're wearing this because of a a pandemic that has turned the entire world on its head and listening to the numbers and i see the numbers and i was watching and i was
119following along but quite honestly you can't put numbers on the value of great teachers and i do want to follow um on what was said about my son attends campo verde and uh his coach which means who means the world to him he's down to his last year and i know that seniority didn't play a factor and that kind of bothered me a little bit because a person at the end of their at their end of of their career who devoted their life to teaching in this community and this is the way you repay them just wrong and uh i just want i just want to enter the fact that as far as um what was said earlier as i was listening to the board well we don't want to just base it on that
120because we will deter teaching this deters teaching okay so how you treat your teachers it does its own marketing and the word will get out and you're worried about enrollment this is not going to help and trust me when i say gilbert is growing so as far as the enrollment numbers the folks are going to be out there but they might go to charter they might go to private what's going to bring them into the public school district something to think about thank you luke davis hey um i am a sophomore at gilbert high school and getting rid of the teachers the best teachers all these people that are all the teachers are getting fired they're not the teachers that people don't care about they're the teachers that all the students they love everybody that
121i talk to they're like oh my favorite teachers they got rifted like why is that the way that you decided to go you know with getting rid of all the best teachers like for example again dave peters he's my german teacher and he's got like so many people that are like how did you get fired you're you're a coach you've been here for 19 years you've never done anything wrong you push people hard you're a great teacher and somehow he still ended up in the rift like that doesn't really make sense and people like outside of our district they all know like kids are texting each other they know what's going on they know hey all these all these students they are leaving because they don't have their favorite teachers anymore all the good teachers
122are leaving nobody wants to come to these schools nobody's going to come back because nobody's going to tell their friends to come back to the school because they don't have any reason to if all the teachers are gone all the best teachers who are there to support the students why would they tell their friends tell their kids when they grow up why would they tell them go to this school when all their favorite teachers got cut just because they're older you know the older teachers did get cut and i know you said that they didn't but i don't believe that that's true because they the older teachers who get paid more because they're better teachers got cut more and that's that's not the way that it should be done and i think you know there's
123also what i heard is that gilbert they have six assistant superintendents why why do we need six assistant superintendents to do one man's job and we're firing 152 teachers it just doesn't make sense and that's yeah that's it thank [Applause] our last two speakers are john stevens and nancy munoz good evening staff members board members dr mccord i'm here as a community member i'm bringing up some very important things that people may not understand teachers experience is invaluable the state recognizes this and gives them gives extra money to the district called teacher experience index this when teachers are dismissed with experience you don't only lose through you don't only reduce the amount of money that the district thinks that they will be saving by removing all the experience that you can't that you can't get
124back is very important is very upsetting when people move to gilbert because of the schools and expect the staff to be supported well you are you are also letting go of nationally board certified teachers teachers with master's degrees many special education teachers teachers with hard to fill positions such as science and math who are very hard to replace these special education teachers that support these students as a special education teacher myself and as a parent of special education students that went through this district i came to gilbert because of special ed not because it was the best place for me to find a cheap home because it wasn't i came to gilbert because my ddd case manager told me gilbert was where i wanted my special education students to be my other concern is the
125esser funds these can be used to help retain some of the teachers and allow you to use some of that to avoid the reduction in force so that you don't have to scramble in the fall when many teachers won't be available these teachers will have jobs i can tell you that already you are giving up lots of experience and i can tell you from experience my principal came to me this morning and said they are ready to steal up gilbert teachers as soon as they apply another thing you guys can look at that you may not have thought about was freezing salaries this year to avoid removing teachers meet um meet again in the fall when the increase in student enrollment comes back to give teachers pay raises that's where i wanted you to understand
126these teachers have built relationships with these students and i don't understand how administrators picked these teachers because they were all teachers with lots of experience and it's very sad to hear that my kids teachers may have been ripped i'm not sure who was but my next door neighbor her child is a special education student at gilbert high school and i sure hope his teacher was not rift thank you [Applause] john stevens hello thank you for the opportunity to speak my name is john stevens i'm father of a special needs child that goes to mesquite high school one thing i'll keep it brief and i don't have a prepared speech but one thing i wanted to mention in the program earlier uh it was kind of glossed over somebody mentioned that asked about special needs somebody
127mentioned that the programs may be moved that that might be something that would happen i'm relatively confident that nobody on this board understands the impact that statement for a child with special needs who very much needs consistency and has every right to stay at the same school their home school where they've gone as as any other kid does and that seems honestly in this district we've lived here for 20 years two kids going through the district one with special needs and it has not been an easy an easy thing to essentially deal with the district and and and keep some consistency in my child's life and really every kid deserves that special needs or not to have that consistency to be able to have the right to go to their their uh their home school
128and to stay there to so to say to gloss over and to say oh a program might be moved here or there that is a very big statement these kids are coming off of a pandemic many of them don't even understand why they don't see their friends anymore what happened now they're back in school they're not in school they're back in school my son's teacher who is wonderful who knows him runs a great program was let go how this happens i do not understand especially for someone that qualified who who knows their students who's who's valued there and is a very difficult kind of person to find i would urge you very strongly to rethink not only that decision but the decision of just to say oh some programs are going to be moved around
129like it's nothing it is not nothing it is not rethink that before you act thank you [Applause] okay that was our last speaker we move now to item five which is the consent agenda items uh before we ask for a motion just right on your agenda there is a correction item 15 5.15 the marching band and symphonic strings from highland high school those should be reversed the symphonic strings should be where the marching band is currently and they will be going to hawaii and the marching band will be going to chicago are you talking about 5.15 overnight and out of state rival correct okay that would be the correction i received just before the board meeting from mrs wilson did i state that correctly mrs wilson okay so item five we are open and for
130emotion i move that we accept the consent agenda as presented thank you miss humphries is there a second all second thank you mr carr it's been moved and seconded that we approve the consent agenda as printed any discussion seeing no discussion we will call for the vote all those in favor of approving the consent agenda as printed please signify by saying aye aye aye all those opposed the same motion carries five zero we're at item six on action items and before i move to that section uh is the board interested in entertaining a brief recess we've got a pretty long agenda i'd welcome that before we get into that okay so with that said then we will recess for five minutes sure the principles were the ones correct what is to prevent the principal from
131taking out any personal agendas on the teachers specifically gilbert high school if we can call meeting back to order please board members okay good thank you we're back at action item but before we move to item six i would like to thank and recognize representative pollock who has joined us tonight welcome item six we are ready to move to item 6.01 dr mccord anything by way of introduction yes dr santa cruz um 6.01 is the closure of houston elementary and gilbert public schools the recommended action is that it's recommended uh the governing board approved the closure of houston elementary and gilbert unified school district number 41 at the end of the 2020-2021 school year just by understanding we've we've had conversations with the staff we've held three community meetings we've received feedback from the community
132and this is and then we presented it to the board about a month ago and then this is the next step in in making this happen um as former principal of houston mr mcintosh former principal of houston this is not um something we bring to you with a glee or or a lot of joy this is this is a difficult thing you know we we talked about individuals who were rift tonight and we also talk about a community and i don't want that to to go unnoticed in the evening like tonight because i know that community i know the people that live there that work there and the students that attend the schools this is uh as someone put it earlier this is something that's been coming for a long time and we're at that
133point but it does not make it any easier at all so i just wanted to interject that as we move through this motion thank you dr mccord and item 6.01 just for information's sake and as we move through 6.016 6.03 you'll hear terminology that's used and that terminology that's used by staff meets the legal requirements because all of these have legal attachments to them and we are simply trying to comply with that so we are meaning no offense those are terms that are in the statutes so item 6.01 we're ready to entertain a motion for closure of houston elementary in gilbert public schools is there a motion so moved thank you mr jetty is there a second second thank you mrs humphries is there any discussion i i would like to make some comments go
134right ahead someone at the first meeting at houston elementary asked because this is the same square mile where we already closed a previous school gilbert junior high i asked what lessons have we learned from that and since i've been on the board the longest and because i lived those lessons that we learned i i wanted to answer that question um first we as board members do have to make hard decisions we've already made some really hard decisions tonight hard decisions have to be made in a timely fashion and we have to move on because i think one of the most egregious things that came out of the gilbert junior high debacle was that we got new but we closed the school new board members were elected we unclosed the school we came up with a
135different solution that solution was voted down and so for five years that community got shaken i mean periodically things would come up again and i think that's very unfair and so i know it's hard to make these decisions but they do have to be made in a timely manner the second thing is that our community has to be with us and we've heard from a lot of people tonight and it we've made a hard decision tonight but we do not have the students to support all of the staff that we have and one of the reasons we wanted to make that decision early was so that people have time an opportunity to look and and get a position in another district having lived this i've learned that people leave and big shoes are left to
136be filled and people step up and fill those shoes but also i've seen us scatter a lot of gems in other places where um they bring up the um the achievement and the the work of another district so the the third thing is i think that um we as board members we have to we can't have an agenda we have to look at items as they come to us and we have to make the best decision we can even even when they're hard decisions because we have to move forward as a district i wanted to mention that i think houston has been a wonderful school we should celebrate all that houston has given to this district um the first thing that i attended as a board member was a 25-year breakfast in december of 2012
137and nearly every teacher that stood up that year had started their career at houston and so for many years houston has been the starting ground for wonderful people who have stayed in this district and even become superintendent you know i mean that's a contribution and i i wanted to especially say that i i feel like sam valles is a wonderful principal who stands up for his community he has absolutely let it been very frank and honest about um the feelings of the community both for gilbert junior high and for houston and i look forward to him having many more years in our district and wonderful work to do i know that the district is looking at opportunities for him and i know that there are many many wonderful staff members at houston and i hope
138that we can work to help them feel welcome as they change to a different school and that students and families will feel welcomed and i have been to burke and neely and i think either choice is a wonderful choice and i know that they will bring that community in and help them to feel a part of the school so while this is a difficult choice and it has been a long time coming and with the financial condition of the district and i i know it's hard but we need to make a decision while it's timely and we need to do it in a way that we don't undo the decision a year or two later and then have to try again i think that it's really important to have the consensus and move forward and
139and i just want to thank the houston community and staff and principal vallez for all that they have done because it it has been an incredible school and it's not because of the school that we're closing it it's that we have to make some difficult difficult choices again so thank you ms humphries any additional commentary yeah dr santa cruz i do to tag on to to what mrs humphries said and i would like to also add mr mcintosh and dr mccord may have been a principal but i was a founding teacher i started teaching and i didn't start teaching because i've been teaching for a long i was teaching for a long time but i went to houston the first year when it was at the holding school 87 and i think uh dr mccord
140and mr mcintosh were in first and second grade at the time uh i'm not sure maybe they were held back or whatever but at any rate um i remember how exciting it was to start that new school and um and how at that time and it was it was many years ago but we to think that we are here today after that and i remember at the time it was tempe was going through this and gilbert was just the opposite we were growing like crazy and every year we were opening at school now we're dealing with what tempe dealt with and what other what many other districts have dealt with through the years and so you know it once again it's an it's a very difficult decision but it's as mrs humphrey said we can't
141have an agenda anyone else seeing no additional commentary we will vote on item 6.01 all those in favor please signify by saying i i those oppose the same motion carries 5-0 item 6.02 is the expansion of burke elementary boundaries for the 2021-2022 school year dr mccord any introductory remarks yes sir it is recommended the governing board expand the attendance boundaries of burke elementary to include the current attendance boundaries of houston elementary for the 21 22 school year students currently assigned to houston elementary will be assigned to burke elementary beginning the 21-22 school year families can also decide to attend neely traditional academy thank you sir we're ready to entertain a motion on item 6.02 is there a motion i move that we expand the burke elementary boundaries for the 21-22 school year thank you mr
142jetty is there a second all second thank you mr carr any discussion the expansion the word expansion uh i hope can be interpreted as increased opportunities for that student population that aggregate population of burke and houston merging to become a student body that is bigger and more able to receive the kinds of additional programming that a larger population of students can afford with that said we're ready for a vote all those in favor of approving item 6.02 please signify by saying aye aye all those oppose the same motion carries five zero item six point zero three location move for neely traditional academy to 500 east houston avenue beginning the 2021 school year dr mccord any introduction it's just recommended the governing board approved the move of neely traditional academy to 500 east houston avenue gilbert
143arizona 85234 for the 21-22 school year you dr mccord motion for item 6.03 i motion that we move neely traditional academy to 500 east houston avenue for the 2021 2022 school year thank you mrs humphries is there a second a second thank you miss wood any discussion no discussion this is uh ready for a vote i was going to say something and i changed my mind uh all those in favor of item 6.03 please signify by saying aye hi those pose the same motion carries 5-0 item 6.04 is a resolution for closing a site location at 321 west juniper avenue dr mccord introductory remarks yes sir i'll state the recommended action and read the resolution it is recommended the governing board approved the resolution closing school site located at 321 west juniper avenue gilbert arizona
144at the end of the current school year subject to approval by the arizona school facilities board ars 15-341-g the resolution states uh resolve that gilbert public schools governing board has voted on march 30th 2021 that subject to arizona school facilities board approval in accordance with ars 15-341-g school site facilities located at 321 west juniper avenue gilbert arizona will be closed at the end of the current school year the reasons for the changes are one as a result of declining enrollment in certain areas of the economic efficiency considerations the governing board has approved the closure of houston elementary school at the end of the current school year which is presently operating at 500 east houston avenue gilbert arizona two neely traditional academy which is currently operating at 321 west juniper avenue gilbert arizona will move to
145500 east houston avenue gilbert arizona location beginning with the 2021 2022 school year for the resolved that the gilbert public schools governing board respectfully request the arizona school facilities board approval to close school site located at 321 west juniper avenue gilbert arizona effective at the end of the current school year in accordance with ares 15-341-g thank you dr mccord you have heard the rationale and the resolution is there a motion for item 6.04 so moved thank you ms wood is there a second i'll second thank you mr carr it's been moved and seconded is there any discussion dr santa cruz i haven't commented on the last several items go right ahead thank you i just want to kind of glump one set of comments rather than making comments on each one um closing the school
146repurposing the school these are hard decisions we recognize that we're impacting neighborhoods many of you have already said that i just wanted to want to say that we recognize this is another decision we're making tonight that's disrupting the lives of staff it's disrupting the life of students it's it's not made lightly um and we we hope uh as we've discussed this and previous school closings we hope that in the end the pain that is immediate leads to better benefit in the long term and we know that that doesn't reduce the pain today um but uh just just want to convey to all those affected in whichever direction that it really is our goal to lead to long-term benefit as painful as the short-term and immediate impact is thank you mr carr anything else no additional
147commentary then we will vote on item 6.04 all those in favor of approving the resolution and the rationale associated with the resolution please signify by saying aye aye all those oppose the same motion carries 5-0 item 6.05 school calendar revision for school years 2021 22 22 23 and 23 24. dr mccord any introduction dr santa cruz these are revisions that we've discussed at work studies as well as during board meetings and we have those final revisions for your approval this evening and these calendars were the same as presented at our last work study session so we will entertain a motion for item 6.05 i move that we approve the school calendars as presented thank you mr humphries is there a second i'll second the motion is there any discussion um i i just wanted to
148um i have one question and a comment on the 2021 and 2022 calendar the only revision is putting in those professional learning afternoons i guess i would call them is that correct i believe so yes there was one other thing i believe the original calendar that we approved two years ago had a teacher day on the monday after october after fall break and we moved that to before the school started is that correct i believe that is correct yes we talked about that like a year ago yeah we just hadn't entered it officially on the calendar yes we did it this year as well but we hadn't changed that calendar so that was the only other thing you are correct any other comments dr santa cruz i had one question we had had a few
149emails we've had a few questions about this one thing that came up was how do you determine and i'll ask mr martin since he's there how do you determine which weeks are the breaks why sometimes are we with mesa schools why sometimes are we with chandler schools why are we not with them and that impacts people their neighborhoods their ball teams and the different things to not be in the same so what how does that how is that determined and is there is there any way to change it or is good questions uh well currently right now as you know we're on the one two one which for the upcoming 21 22 school year we will still have one week of fall break and one week of spring break when i uh did look the
150earlier today at what some of our surrounding districts are doing this upcoming year which was approved originally two years ago all of our fall breaks will overlap with queen creek chandler mesa and higley realizing that many of those districts have a two-week break so our one week of fall break will overlap in the spring next year a year from now higley and chandler we will not overlap but we will overlap with mesa schools and right now when we're only having one week of spring break and fall break we either make it and we have that overlap or not now when i looked at the 22 23 and 23 24 calendars some of the surrounding districts have come out with their calendars and except for queen creek school district but chandler mesa and higley we will
151overlap with all three of those districts those two years when we have the two weeks of fall break and two weeks of spring break it may only be one week of overlap with some of the districts that also have a two-week fall break or spring break but they will be overlapping and the reason for that is every school district even has a different start and end date too and so even though we're many of us now will be on the 222 calendar some of our sister districts will still be starting a week earlier in july than we are and we always try to even the days out around 90 days per semester and then also even amongst the quarters we try to keep them close to 45 days and the 22 23 calendar and the
15223 24 calendar all of our quarters will be between 43 and 47 days per quarter thank you any other discussion sorry i i didn't get to give my comment if i could do that um one of the things i do appreciate about these calendars is the four professional learning afternoons half days for students and then teachers have that professional development in the afternoon and um you know teaching now um it's all about keeping up with change i mean it's not we're not teaching the same thing year after year we we are continually changing innovating and trying something new and that that's a lot to ask for our teachers so giving that them that professional development and giving it into to them in small increments so they can take it use it in their classroom um
153make it theirs before they get another little dose of professional development i think is is a really helpful tool for them and a way to help them to be excited about the things that they're doing and just giving them that opportunity to do it during their work day because there is a lot to be a teacher and if we had to pay them for all the hours that they put in we wouldn't be able to afford that on the budget either so i really appreciate those professional learning afternoons thank you ms humphries anything else no other commentary then we will vote all those in favor of item 6.05 please signify by saying aye aye those pose the same motion carries 5-0 items 6.06 party administration dr mccord yes we recommend you approving the third party
154administration tpa services and network for self-funded ppo medical and cobra administration under rfp 21-10-1 we have mrs betts and mr mcintosh here because they run the trust and they will be able to help you out thank you dr mccord we are ready for a motion on item 6.06 those no we won't vote let's have a motion first is there is there a motion so moved thank you mr sun breeze any second second thank you mr g jetty discussion just could you give us a quick overview of the change or the difference sure the next three items 606 607 and 608 are all related to the same rfp we went out to bid to because we were due to take a look at all these specific contracts so generally we do one rfp and often they
155are awarded to multiple providers so we separated out into three agenda items for each to account for each vendor that was awarded that portion of the rfp the most important of course is the tpa services and the network so by by going to amira ben as our tpa administrator we are able to maintain the blue cross blue shield of arizona network so it really minimizes the disruption to our employee base here in gilbert public schools in addition i'm just going to go through it all the medical utilization management is also the same provider that we have been using and that particular service is to provide case management to those undergoing a long-term illness and then finally the flexible spending account administration was awarded to a new provider we expect that to be of greater benefit
156to our employees to minimize the administration and the let's see the constraints i think to the use of their flexible spending account so we believe that these three recommendations are in the best interest of our employees and mrs eugenie if you have anything else to add that would be great no i i i agree we're trying to keep things as consistent as possible for everybody okay any additional commentary okay just for the record item 6.06 6.07 6.08 are all associated items but we will vote on 6.06 and the other two independent of one another so those in favor of item 6.06 please signify by saying aye aye all those opposed the same we move now to 6.07 medical utilization is there anything more that needs to be said no sir ready for a motion i
157move that we approve the medical utilization management rfp 21-10-10-25 thank you mr jetty is there a second a second thank you mrs wood any comment seeing none we'll vote on item 6.07 all those in favor please signify by saying aye okay all those posed the same motion carries 5-0 item 6.08 flexible spending account ms betts also reviewed that with us just a bit ago anything else to be said there dr mccord no sir we will entertain a motion to 6.08 i motion that we um we adopt the flexible spending account administration under rfp 2110 1025. thank you mrs humphries is our second second thank you mr it's jetty moved and said i didn't do you have a question sorry i was just going to open up your discussion and our question go ahead and make
158sure okay um sorry i thought you were going to move towards the vote so i wanted to get my question can you just explain that the flexible spending account is that with all the different insurance options and how is that different from a health savings account so um yes the flexible spending account is allowed um for uh is it a lot i don't see any i don't it's not the age yes so the flexible spending account is associated with an employee that knows that they will have a variety of expenses and are willing to put money aside to meet those expenses not just health benefits but also child care etc when so the fsa is only eligible under the ppo it's not eligible under the high deductible health care plans under those circumstances they would
159have an hsa so the flexible spending account the employee is able to put money aside to make those expenditures and it is tax-exempt so it's not the money that they put aside is not taxed however there is a risk so if they don't need it all during the year it is forfeited where the hsa once the money is taken from your paycheck but you have to be a participant in the high deductible health care plan in order to participate in the health savings account and the money stays with you forever it goes into your personal account and there's no forfeiture of the monies but it can only be used for medical expenses and cannot be used for child care expenses mrs betts i think an example of this if if i'm correct please help me
160is like if you know that your child is going to have to have braces that's when you would do that this one because that would you know you know you're gonna have to spend fifteen hundred dollars on braces this year and that's a great example can an employee opt for both hs hsa and flexible spending no you have to be a member of the ppo plan to to have a flexible spending account okay and the limit is 2500 to set aside and it's front loaded and then deducted from the employees pay throughout the course of the year and when this is open for open enrollment i suspect that there is a plan to present that to employees somehow correct okay those will all be options for employees just like they select their insurance option during
161open enrollment so some years they want the ppo plan and then they may decide due to their family circumstances to move to the high deductible health savings account okay all right any other commentary discussion okay we will vote on item 6.08 all those in favor please signify by saying aye aye those opposed same motion carries 5-0 item 6.09 base rate stipends and supplemental pays for 2021 2022 school year dr mccord introduction yes it's recommended governing board approved the 22 base rate schedule stipends and supplemental pays as presented this is something we bring to you on an annual basis for your approval thank you dr mccord and you have had an opportunity to review those in your packet uh is there a motion on item 6.09 i move to approve um 6.09 thank you mrs humphries
162is there a second a second thank you mrs wood been moved and seconded is there any discussion seeing no discussion we will vote item 6.09 all those in favor please signify by saying aye aye those oppose the same motion carries five 0 request for future agenda items item 7 7.01 as usual if you don't have anything to communicate related to an agenda item this evening please feel free to do so otherwise please transmit that request to mrs wilson and she'll be glad to take your notation and we'll work it into a future agenda item eight board committee reports item 8.01 mrs humphries well the gilbert education foundation is working its way through the scholarship applications and will be notifying the recipients and planning for their scholarship celebration i can't think of the word i believe
163it's april 22nd so we have that and we'll have several scholarships for students and and educators so i'm very excited about that thank you mrs humphries item 8.02 city of mesa liaison ms wood i don't have anything to report tonight thank you ma'am 8.03 town of gilbert liaison mr carr and 8.04 finance audit committee mr carr i have nothing report this evening thank you thank you sir item 8.05 insurance trust representative miss eugenie all mine were were on the agenda on the agenda and moved and passed item 8.06 as a legislative representative again uh welcomes pollock representative pollock and uh there has been quite a bit of activity downtown some of it favorable some of it not so much but to keep your eye on the ball and respond respond accordingly can i just interject
164go ahead i just want to again single out mrs pollock sheet she readily communicates with us gives us information asks our opinion i know as a governing board and me as superintendent so i appreciate that thank you for taking the time to do that and i would echo that sentiment mrs pollock all right meeting dates item nine nine point zero one dr mccord thank you dr santa cruz governing board members april 13th we have a board work study and a brief board business meeting april 20th we have a board policy committee meeting april 27th we have a board business meeting thank you sir we have now arrived at item 10 item 10.01 is a motion to adjourn is there a motion so moved thank you mrs humphries i was afraid we were going to camp
165today is there a second second thank you mr eugetti uh typically the deal of discussion for this item i did dr sanchez thank you who's sitting comments who came tonight thank you for the input that's been given along the way on different decisions thank you for just thank you for that in in this being a difficult subject thank you thank you miss wood appreciate that comment all right that having been said we will vote on adjournment all those in favor please signify by saying aye aye those opposed the same motion carries 5-0 we are adjourned thank you for your attendance this evening both live stream and in person we will see you next time