001This is Monica. >> Good afternoon. This is Glattus. How are you? >> Good, thanks. How are you, Glattus? >> Okay, good. We have you on speaker, so we'll get started in about a minute. >> Thank you. the skin. Santina, they're here. Santina. Yeah, they're here. >> Yep. And then in the Maxillianos in front. >> Yeah, they're here. Good evening everybody. >> You ready? >> All right. It is now 5:31. Good evening everybody. Welcome to the November 13th meeting for the Glendale Elementary School Board meeting. Uh Miss Sagata Jones, are there any changes to the agenda this evening? >> Good evening, President Martinez, members of the board. No, there are none. Is there a motion to approve the agenda? >> I'll move to approve the agenda. >> I'll second. >> Mr. Harmio, how do you vote?
002>> I. >> Miss Wilson, how do you vote? >> I. >> Miss Bartell, how do you vote? I. >> Miss Pimementel, how do you vote? >> I. >> And chair votes I. Please join me in a moment of silence followed by the pledge of allegiance. Please rise. 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. >> Right, jumping right into our special recognition, our Just Because awards, Miss Sagata Jones. >> Yes. Good evening, President Martinez, members of the board. If we can step down, we'll be getting those res or recognition. Good evening everyone. Thank you for being here. Um for those of you that are new, what we do each month is we select a an
003employee and a student randomly selected uh just to say thank you for choosing GSD and we call it the just because award and we're able to do that because of our GUA foundation. So this month we have our employee and the employee is Lucinda Samura from Discovery. She's the office staff at Discovery and she could not be here at this time. So, could I please have Discovery family come on up and let's um recognize Lucinda [applause] and we'll put her face in there. How's that? But we have her things. If you'll make sure she gets them and if you can make sure, Miss Molina, that she takes a picture for us and then we'll put that on our Instagram. So, >> we'll just put her face on you. >> Great. Thank you. Congratulations. [applause] Our
004student this month comes from American School and his name is Maxmilliano Korea Pña. Could you please come up please? >> [applause] >> Thank you, Max. Rio. Thank you. He wants the candy. Mom, [laughter] >> Max, we're very proud of you. Okay. All right. Remember, sign goes in the yard. I come by about 9:30. I honk. You wave. No Chinese. Got it. Got it. All right. Max, >> you're welcome. Welcome. Gracias. [applause] Now, um the next part of our recognitions, we have um Pat Kaiser is with us with Kowanas and he's going to um two awards we always give each month. A student award and then we have a school award. So, Pat Thank you. Good evening everyone. My name is Patrick Kaiser. I'm the with the Kowanas Club of Glendale. Tonight I am honored to
005recognize the Kowanas Club of Glendale Superintendent Student of the Month for the month of November 2025. The reason that this award is so special is that this student has been chosen by the superintendent for their hard work, passion for helping others, and helping to make our community a better place. This month's winner is Mitchell Jimenez. [applause] Now we get to embarrass you with all the all the kind words that everyone has said about you. Mitchell exemplifies the Mustang way in everything he does. Going above in both leadership and kindness. A core contributor to our weekly announcements, Mitchell brings not only creativity and commitment, but also a contagious energy that uplifts everyone around him. Mitchell is an integral part of the Mustang Minute Mosaic Club where his natural kindness and dedication shine through. Whether he realizes
006it or not, his positive presence spreads kindness to others simply by being himself. He consistently demonstrates respect and responsibility by showing up prepared and ready to work and always striving to represent desert spirit with pride. His willingness to try new things and contribute fresh and fun ideas has evaluated our announcements and brought sense of joy to our school community. Mitchell's infectious laugh and kind heart create a welcoming atmosphere wherever he goes. He is caring, empathetic, and deeply civic-minded. These qualities led to his well-deserved selection to represent Desert Spirit on the Superintendent Student Advisory Council this year. We couldn't be prouder to have such a thoughtful, motivated, and community focused student leader on our campus. Mitchell is always a shining example of excellence and an honor to recognize all that he brings to Desert Spirit. Congratulations,
007Mitchell. [applause] >> [applause] >> We have a certificate >> for you. We also have from the Kowanas Club of Glendale a $50 gift card to Walmart so you can go pick up whatever you like. We encourage you to keep up the good work. >> Okay. >> Are you embarrassed yet? >> Good job. >> Come on, Mitchell. >> We're not done. You have to get pictures now. >> The family, please. and Desert Spirit family as well. Great, Mitchell. We're so proud of you. We have some chocolate for you and also for your family. Thank you. >> You're welcome. You're welcome. Thank you so much. Very proud of you, Mitchell. [applause] >> Oh, no. He gets to choose. >> Mitchell, we have one more thing. Mitchell. >> Mitchell, we have one more thing. You get to choose
008from the treasure box basket as well. Whatever you'd like, Mitchell. Oh, >> hey, that's our theme this year. Good for you. All right, >> congratulations. [applause] Last year, in collaboration with GESD Superintendent, we created the Kowanas Inspiring Change School of the Month Award. This award recognizes a school in the district for inspiring positive change in education and community through vision, action, and innovation. This month's winner is Sunset Vista. [applause] Congratulations. And now we embarrass you, too. >> There's your trophy. This school is on a great trae tra trajectory in terms of their signature program academics and overall school community. Principal accol and her entire staff work diligently with the students and families to ensure all students have multiple opportunities to learn in a variety of means and to showcase their learning processes consistently through transparent
009collaboration and stakeholder leadership. Students are seen as partners in their learning and leadership. Of particular note, upper grade students publicly showcased their speaking and selling skills as they performed as Shark Tank entrepreneurs, selling historical innovations to a group of potential investors. The parents, staff, and other students in attendance were highly supportive, celebratory, and professional. Truly balancing high expectations, community involvement, and performance assessment. Lessons like this are not alone at Sunset Vista. These type of events are very inspiring and support student innovation. Sunset Vista will proudly display our traveling trophy at their school for the next month. And congratulations. Great job. Thanks. [applause] >> Do we have any more? Is this okay? >> [applause] >> Thank you, Pat. >> Okay, our next award is each month we look at student attendance and who has the best
010attendance and all schools are really making great progress with student attendance. I couldn't be more proud of the work that you are doing. So, keep it up. And this month, the award goes to Discovery. [applause] So, Miss Molina, thank you. >> Great. And let's take some pictures of Discovery. [laughter] Thank you. organizers. So, we're very proud to honor >> [applause] [applause] >> Very few of these awards are given out across the state and we couldn't be more proud of Ulyses. He's had the award for about a week. We told him that he had to bring it back. And if you if you don't know Ulyses, you know, he's he's a wonderful employee and he really does a lot for for our district. You know, he always volunteers. You see him and he's coached, he's refereed,
011keeps score. He's at move market on the move. You know, he does all the healthcare things. We couldn't ask for a more dedicated employee. But also, one of the things that he likes to one of his, you know, how people are often known for what they say, a quote or something, he has one. It's what do you think? [laughter] We know what that means. What do you think? So, today earlier um we were in the office and Mr. Barrian walked in and they were talking about this no shave thing. And so Mike says, "Ulisses, are you doing no shave November?" And says, "What do you think?" And I thought, whoa, okay, that's interesting. But yeah, I don't know. It looks They both look the same to me. So, I don't know if they're doing the
012no-shave thing or not. And it's something about if they clean it and they don't clean it. If it grows long and you can't touch the length and I don't know, it's a no thing. Shave November. Whatever. You got an award. We're proud of you. So, don't shave it because it must be good luck, right? Thank you again, Ulysis, for everything you do for this district. We couldn't be more happy for you. [applause] Could we Could we have the HR family come up, please? We have some HR people. >> Jackie, isn't Melissa here? Debbie, who else? Thank you, Elis. [applause] And that ends our recognitions for this month. At this time, the governing board will consider voting ing to recess the regular meeting in order to convene to executive session for the following purpose. In accordance
013with Arizona Revised Statute 38-43103A3 for discussion consultation with the attorneys of the public body to obtain legal advice regarding employee compensation procedures and related issues. Is there a motion? >> I move to recess the regular meeting in order to convene executive session as stated. >> Is there a second? >> I'll second. >> Mr. Harmio, how do you vote? >> I. >> Miss Wilson, how do you vote? >> Hi. Miss Bartell's, how do you vote? >> Hi. >> Miss Pimementel, how do you vote? >> I. >> And chair votes I. We are now in executive session. >> Parents, thank you again for coming out. You're welcome to stay, but you're also welcome to go home. So, thank you so much. This is Monica. >> Hi, Miss Fmentel. It's Glattus. You're on. >> Hi, Glattus. Thank you.
014>> Thanks. We got Monica back. >> Yeah. >> Okay. Right. Is there a motion to reconvene back to regular session? >> So move. Second. >> Second. >> Mr. Harmo. Hi. >> Miss Wilson. I >> Miss Bartell's. Hi. >> Miss Pimentel. I >> chair votes I we're now back in regular session. Mr. Sagata Jones, are there any calls to the public this evening? >> President Martinez, members of the board, no there are not. >> All right, that moving on to the consent agenda. Is there are any questions or comments on the consent agenda items? Is there a motion to approve the consent agenda? >> I move to approve the consent agenda. >> I'll second. >> Mr. Harmia, how do you vote? I >> Miss Wilson I. >> Miss Bartell's I. Miss Pimentel >> I. >> And
015chair votes I. Moving on to our reports and information items. The 2025 school and district letter grades presentation. Miss Sagata Jones. >> Yes, President Martinez. Members of the board at this time, I'd like to turn over to Miss Angelique Sai. She's the director of curriculum instruction. Thank you, >> governing board president Martinez. Members of the board, I am excited to be able to share some exciting news with you about our progress and this year's letter grades. So, here's just another reminder about the where our letter grades are calculated from and where we get our percentages. So the majority of our points come from the growth component. 30% comes from proficiency, 10% for our English language learners, and then 10% for acceleration readiness. Each of those categories, um here's just kind of a breakdown of how
016we get those points. So proficiency, again, that's 30% of our overall calculation. Students get proficiency points for scoring partially proficient and above. They get more points the higher they score out of those proficiency uh levels. We get those for both ELA and math. The growth component is 50%, that is to really monitor our progress and track students from where they were the previous year to this current year on their AASA. And it's an exciting part, I guess, because it helps us track their progress even when students have not yet mastered the standard. So, it's a great way to keep us all on track. We get 10% of those points from our Zella data. 5% for proficiency and 5% for growth. 10% comes from acceleration readiness. You can get that in a multiple ways. So you
017can achieve that by either decreasing your eighth grade math minimally proficient, increasing your eighth grade math highly proficient, decreasing your third grade ELA, by improving your chronic absenteeism from the previous year by having a higher percentage of your sped students um that are in like in inclusion programs within the schools. And then through our diverse population data, we can earn up to three bonus points on our science for our fifth graders and our eighth graders. And then we also can have two bonus points if your percentage of special education students is higher than the statewide average. Here you will see this year's cut scores. They have not changed from last year. And it is important to note that there is no rounding up with any of the letter grades. So overall this year, Glendale Elementary
018School District was a B district. Here's a breakdown of our schools. We have three schools that are a C Landmark, Mensendic, and Bsentennial South. Six that are a B. Desert Spirit, American, Horizon, Smith, Sunset Vista, and Jack. And then three A's, we have Discovery and our new A's, Challenger, and Burton. [applause] Currently, Glendale Elementary Online is in the appeal process through AD based on some discrepancies in that data. So hopefully we'll be able to provide more information on that to you very soon. Here is just a table of all of the schools, their letter grades, and then the point totals that they earned for this past year. And then you will see the school letter grades as uh a progression through time. And then here's just a snapshot of our district and compared to local
019elementary school districts that are in our surrounding areas. >> That list is not in order. It's only in order in um alphabetical order. It's not by us points or anything. So if you look at the percentage, we are actually in the higher part of if you did rank them of the percentages of districts that have A schools and B schools. So that is exciting news. >> And then we wanted to note this. These are some of the charter schools that are around in the area. There are two charter schools that are in the boundaries of Glendale Elementary School District. One of them is now just in its second year. So they do not have a letter grade for the previous year. But the one that is highlighted is within our boundaries again and it is
020on 43rd in Glendale. And as you can see they are a B. So they are not outperforming our district. And then here are some next steps. We had all of the principles met with our district leadership for their quarterly data meetings and their next step discussions that those happen after every quarter. Uh we are working really hard and really intentional on improving our tier one instructional practices and that really feeds into a lot of the action steps that we are taking this year. Uh with that is looking really closely at our proficiency maps and our tier one instruction and how we have that paced out. We are supporting our instructional coaches, our achievement adviserss um with their um I guess their strategies and the way that they support our teachers with uh their coaching cycles
021and helping them really build their capacity so that they impact our teachers and then in turn impact our students. We are providing targeted support to some collaborative teams across the district. Our site professional development has been focused on our tier one instruction as well as our district professional development opportunities. Of course, our principles are doing many walkthroughs and providing feedback when um they see evidence of effective tier one instruction or if they have support or suggestions on how we can continue to improve. And then we also are having a real targeted focus on our special education students and our ELD students through data analysis and support. And something that I think is really um going to help us this year is we're working closely with those departments to align our PD that we're giving our
022Jenna teachers to. We're also providing that for our special education teachers so that they have the same framework for what is expected in our tier one instruction, but just being adapted to how that would look in a special education classroom. So, we're excited to start really making sure that all of those things are really cohesive as we continue our work this year. >> Any questions? I don't know about anybody else, but it's exciting to see Discovery had 91 points plus. So, we know we can hit that mark. We had two more schools enter that A realm. So, that's awesome. And, you know, it's just amazing to watch how much work has gone in and we're seeing that evidence. So, I'm very, very proud of this district and the staff that makes these decisions every day
023to, you know, help our students achieve what we all know they are capable of. Thank you so much. >> We couldn't be more proud of our students and their accomplishments, but also, you know, it's the teachers who are in those classrooms every day teaching. We have some teachers in the audience. Would you please stand? Teachers in the audience, please stand. [applause] >> [applause] >> We appreciate what you do each day. We know your job is very difficult and thank you and for your accomplishments. We also with that our school administrators, principles and assistant principles, please stand. [applause] And we believe here in Glendale Elementary School District, we all play a role in student achievement. with our support staff and everyone else please stand and be recognized. [applause] I do not see Tom stand or Glattus
024stand and you play a critical role in that as well as I did not see my executive team stand and you play a role in that and again the governing board you play a role in that again. So thank you for your leadership. Could not be more proud of you. It is it is really nice to see these grades sort of come along over the time that that at least I've been here kind of see them inch up and inch up and we get uh a little bit a little bit better every single year and looking I mean we just missed it with Horizon just missed the A by a couple couple small points. Uh Sunset Vista right behind them. Um, Jack, Glendel, American, you guys are are are within within spitting distance right there.
025So, just keep working it. Um, we you you've all made tremendous progress and we're very proud of you and it makes it easy for us to be up here as a board. Um, and someone asks us, "How's your district doing?" I'm saying we're doing just fine and it's all because of you and and thank you for making our job easier. So, uh, any other questions or comments from the board? Yeah, I'm I I was looking at the trends from previous years and it's so um uplifting to see how throughout the years we've just been improving. And then for the other schools that with other grades, like I feel like that doesn't really reflect the work that the staff and the administrators put in. Um because I know from working in a school uh that you
026all work really hard and put your hearts and souls into this. So I want to appreciate those other schools as well. and I've never been more proud. So, thanks to all of you for your hard work. I've been on the board for well since 2009. 200 and I've seen how at the very beginning how we were struggling and how far we've come. So, wow. You um and so thanks to all of you for your hard work. It's um just incredible. I'm just so proud when people say, "Well, what board do you sit on?" Glendale Elementary. And it's just, you know, it's very, you know, people take notice. They really do. And I always tell them, you know, we're doing so well. And those schools that um just missed being an A or just miss being
027a B, you'll be there. I know you will be. >> Martinez, if I may. Um, also, and thank you for your comments, governing board, but you know, all you know, we all want to be A's, no doubt, but you have what we understand here in Glendel is that we really want all of our students to be highly proficient. And the goal is to get them to highly proficient. And so, I'm going to get on my soap box for a minute. And so, with that, kids are moving. They're moving from minimally proficient and they're going to proficient and they're going to highly kids are moving. That's what we want to see. And that continues to happen. And then when you when the all the stars align, then you get to that A. And then as you
028see with discovery, they're at the A, but they continue to grow. And that's what we want because you're getting more kids into um highly proficient. You're moving kids out of minimally minimally proficient and partial and then proficient all the way through. That's important. But I want you to keep in mind also um and I was having conversations. anybody that would listen to me lately on this is that we, you know, we all talk about um our funding, we need more money, our buildings, those things and all that is important and there's a lot of conversations about that. There's a lot of conversations about that with legislators and and at the capital and one thing the that's needs to happen in my opinion you hear uh Mr. Berg and I use and you'll see it in
029my report again tonight arbitrary and capricious decisions being made with SFOB regarding funding and um next year we do know that through Arizona Department of Education that AASA is going to change. It's out for an RFP and it's time for a new assessment. I think this is a time in which we need to be very vocal. I believe in accountability. There are some uh superintendents who not believe in the state accountability system. I believe that students have to be assessed and I believe there needs to be a state assessment. I support that. What I struggle with and I've always struggled with is that the assessment tool that we use is arbitrary and capriccious in ways. That's because when you have students and here's how it's measured. You have to be here a full academic year.
030So, you're here first day of school and you're here until that test is administered. That's a full academic year for a student. We have students that come in who are English language learners. They come the first day of school. They're here for testing and they still are learning English, but they are required to take this assessment. That is not right. Do I want English language? You know how I feel about English language learners. I director of that program. I'm bilingual and biiterate. I support that. But that is not fair to those students. That's arbitrary and capricious assessment they're using there. Why not test those students in their native language and see what they truly are capable of doing? And once our students do learn English, our ELLL students do very well. You see that you
031earn your ELELLL points. So to me, this is the opportunity. This is a time when the state is looking at the new assessments. We need to be vocal as administrators, as parents, as board members, as teachers about give us an assessment tool that is fair and equitable to all students. Do and if you're not going to do that, then do not compare me to districts that do not have English language learners. And do not say public education, we're failing in public education. We are not failing in public education. In public education, we take every student. That's how the system is built and that's how it should be. We do not discard students. We don't say, "Hey, you're not a fit anymore." It's wrong that we are assessing English language learners who have not mastered English.
032They're not proficient. And you are asking them to sit there and take an assessment that they don't even understand the language. And if it was so easy to be bilingual, we'd all be bilingual. And I'm going to guarantee you we're not. We're not. So, I'm on my soap box, but that's important because this is an opportunity. I'm not making excuses for us, but if you look at where we're at, we're doing darn good. We're holding our own. We have districts out there that don't have the same, you know, economic disadvantages that our families do or our students do. And our students are still performing. And that's because each of you sitting in those chairs do your job every single day. And it's hard work. And please know you make a difference every single day. This
033governing board knows it. I know it. And I could not be more proud of this work or this community. Keep it up. And we need to stand up and be strong about what this next assessment tool is going to be. I get we live in an Englishonly state. Why? I don't know. Sometimes I question that. But that needs to be changed and the only way that can be changed is as voters and we can get out and do that. Thank you for the time. Any other questions or comments from the board? All right. Hearing none, I will invite Missagata Jones to jump back on her soap box for the superintendent's annual report. always my honor to serve as this superintendent of this incredible organization. Truly is honored and blessed every single day that I come
034to work. So, it's that time of the year where I present I know how to operate this. um the annual superintendent's progress report, if you haven't um been here when I've done that before, um it goes from November of 2024 to November of 2025. So to me, the whole years are like a blur because there's it doesn't it just keeps going. So that's what it is. As you know this year, student, staff, family, community, great as GSD connect for that has been, you know, our focus and really, you know, the work um that we just saw really speaks to this. Just for the governing board, these are some of the or um organizations and that that I present at and I belong to. just for a ver a visual of that here takes me back
035to you know our opening day and uh great things coming uh out of that opening day and as we're halfway through uh this first semester we've really been focusing on the connect for and uh what it means to be you know a GSD employee and also the importance of it to mean how do we connect to our communities and I think we do a very good job of that and you'll see that throughout this presentation. So goal number one is to improve student academic success and growth for all students. That you your district letter grade is you see our A schools, our B schools, our C schools. Uh we have a school that's a PLC model that's recognized nationally. That's Discovery. American and Burton are promising practice schools and that is part of the work
036of the PLC's. GSD is a PLC model district that's recognized nationally as well. We have Desert Spirit that exited the federal targeted assistance. Um that is because of the work that you're doing and you're moving kids the way you need to. Uh we have 100 plus teachers that attended state and our national professional development and you see that u those practices in their classrooms every day. We had over 120 plus mosaic clubs and offerings that serviced over 1100 students. I think a picture, you know, is really tells it best. You'll see some of the um PLC recognitions. You'll see a schools in there. Uh you'll see the PD that was attending. You see our preschool in the middle. They also attend um PD outside. You see the governing board and yourself rec being recognized as
037a district with the PLC. That's um quite an accomplishment to be recognized at the national level. Here you see um what happens in classrooms every single day and what happens with mosaic clubs. We have those mosaic clubs that um you you've been out to performances. Um great. Couldn't be more proud of them. They've been asked to perform you know at different places in the state and then we had some new things going on. I think esports was today Mr. Horseman had their first competition um in with classrooms and that's a huge uh accomplishment for a challenger. Couldn't be more proud of them. Let's go to goal number two. That's be responsible stewards of people, time and financial resources. So, as you know, leading plaintiffs in the capital funding lawsuit, favorable outcome for us, we have
038prevailed four times in capital related court hearings for 11 consecutive years. There has been no in health insurance or in this district. That's almost unheard of. Consecutive years of the associating of school business officials international certificate of excellence and financial reporting award for annual financial report. And then we have four nominations for the AD's Office of English Language Acquisition Services Teachers of the Year because we have outstanding teachers. You can see our default ratings even with the decline in enrollment. We still remain stable and we have a prudent financial management while faced with these um decline in enrollment circumstances we're in. We have reduced the cost of health vendors by just over $400,000 by hiring GSD employees. And that's huge for us. You look at some of the things here. You know, we really want
039to promote things within the district with our wellness program. You know, we tried to launch the healthy heart. You guys u the governing board so gracious to help me with that as well. We have our trust board there who met last night. Thank you to Miss Wilson who sits on that board and the work that you do and your leadership. Mr. Beran is I believe presenting at the Flynn Institute there and talking about um you know he's the expert in finance and um he's always been asked to present and then that visual there is that's the lawsuit and SFOB that we you know constant reminders of you know what we continue to do and why it's so important to fight for um our students our staffs and families attorney general state of Arizona I want
040to talk about that a little bit last week I was with a group of superintendents and met with the attorney general's office to talk about um replacement. For us, it was my focus was on replacement schools and replacement buildings. Uh as you know, uh we um have deficiencies. We have buildings that have outlived a useful life. Uh the attorney general was very responsive to us. She was um unaware of some of the things. And so it was a great conversation and her questions to us were um what can I do and asking her attorney there what legal things can I do to help with that? So it was a very promising conversation. So we'll see what happens. So um that was a great great great conversation with the attorney general. Um goal number three is
041student and staff well-being. So we have Desert Spirit Menadic are capturing kids hearts in national showcase schools. Congratulations to them. Uh Desert Spirit is a Kuanas K club school. Smith is a leader in me school. Kuanas Club of Glendel. We have that student of the month. We see that we have uh Kowan's inspiring change of school of the month. Those are new uh initiatives that we've had. Gusto just because awards. We thank Gusto for being able to let us continue to recognize our staff and our students. We have sales student ambassadors initiative uh to help with our social emotional learning programs in our schools. We have the emergency assistant program housing emergency food boxes that happens. Um Desert Spirit and Smith are PBS award awarded schools that happened yesterday. Congratulations to them. That's a great
042honor. Uh we held the DEA youth summit at the system of care. We do so many things to help our community and our students with suicide prevention. Red ribbon, healthy heart, breast cancer awareness campaigns. We continue to be out there in the community promoting those things. 9,571 free meals served through our summer meal program. So, we thank um our summer meal program uh and our nutrition department, Miss Glee, for the work that you do. So, our students have meals throughout the summer. There were 2431 breakfastes served and 7,140 lunches served this past November to November. Here are some things that we, you know, are just proud to see, uh, what it looks like. Um, you know, so many things that we are a part of. That's just because our teachers um that are have been
043recognized as just because our campaigns, our DEA youth summits when we're out there for um our stack group or and SPACK and SAC groups that come and promote for the district as well. And um as you can see the governing board and I want to say that specifically to the audience that you have a very visible governing board and they're always out there and uh they play a great role in the success of this organization. Goal number four, employee quality. Attract and retain highly qualified staff who demonstrate GSC shared values and that is important to us. Um we just initiated a partnership with American Intercontinental University. We call it AIOU to offer masters and bachelor degree programs for staff retention. We have currently how that happens where you know the district is you can enter
044into this where your degree will be paid for and then it's re there's through a reimbursement process. We've been very um a unique way in which we've done it. We have one person that is in the doctorate 21 masters five bachelors and four masters with alternative search for education. This is offered to every employee in this district who can take part in this. Um, is there anybody in the audience taking part in this? Yes. [applause] Great. Um, maintain multiple discount programs and wellness benefits. And there's a fourth consecutive employee retention stipen. We've been able to do that from November to November. Here we here. Again, it's just visuals. I think visuals say it all. You'll see. I think one thing that's very important to me that we recognize and always support every uh employee group
045in this organization and those are just some visuals of that. Um it's always uh nice to recognize all's staff strategic goal number five family and community partnerships to promote positive interactions between our students schools homes and community. That's the whole connect four. I think we do a very good job of that. uh we know that basic needs have to be met before students can perform academically. So this is a critical critical goal for us. These are some of the highlights. You know we do back to school shopping through the sponsorship of Kuanas. 60 plus students get that over 200 partnerships you know across the district. That just happened uh last week the bullet number three recipient of a $25,000 legacy foundation grant. Let me explain that to you. Miss Hardig and Mr. Parcels is back
046there. um Legacy Foundation, VHS, um they have visited the system of care and they were very impressed with um how we do our food distributions and everything uh that is offered there. Uh they awarded us um it was their 25th anniversary of their foundation and last week they selected certain organizations to receive $25,000 grant. We were one of those organizations. So, it's incredible. Incredible. And so, that money needs to go to be used and they call it a grant and that money needs to be used to help with um food boxes and that at the system of care. They're very big on giving into you know helping the community through food distributions and we will continue to do that. They also had um given us a and awarded us a donation that we could have
047for our walk-in freezers so that we could have um perishable foods in there. So they've been a huge um supporter of us system of care. You see those things of you know close to 8,000 have attended classes. We have over 51 community events and you know close to 34,000 food boxes have been given. Those numbers are and you're really high. You got we do our tax returns you know that happen that help with with our our employees. all the different resources that we have, the summer meals again, how many families we help through holiday assistance programs. We do the two community Thanksgiving meals um you know that that fall under this goal. We will do that again this year. You know, they will be at um Challenger and Landmark and those um that is able
048to happen because of vendors have sponsored and donated to that. That is not out of district funds. That comes through donations. those donations come to us because of the partnerships that we have built with them and so we are very happy to be able to do that. Um you know we participate in the Christmas parade we do everything with downtown historic merchants association where we celebrate the arts. They've been a great um partner with us. Color Run, we do that through a partnership with Behavioral Health. That's a great event for us. You look at the family hub, that's just the hub itself. Over 300 workshops and programs, over 2500 referrals for services, and over 22 or close to 2200 parents are served out of that family hub that we have. Uh we've launched marketing campaigns,
049we do the digital traditional advertising, media outreach, and all enhance the social media engagement, which is important. So you'll see here some of those highlights that that we have. Uh we have Kowanas, we have our business partnership. Those that's probably one of the funnest events I think that we do because it gives us an opportunity to really thank all of our partners. They get a kick out of whatever theme it's going to be. And um because of those partnerships, they continue to give to us. Um in particular, you know, the 25,000 we just got u from Legacy. It's because of those partnerships they come and see what we do. Wonderful. Always to see the kids at Kohl's. That's a great If you've never done that, please do that. It's great. There's a foundation when we
050receive the 25,000 from Legacy here. Again, all the events that are happening at system of care, whether we're doing, you know, a water drive, we work with the Salvation Army for that. We do all of our wellness things coming out of there. And you know when we go with partnerships with Molina Health and and Glendel Strong uh we at the beginning of the year we're able to provide haircuts for kids at no cost. We do immunizations. We hold classes uh for our our families and our students as well. And of course every other week we do a food distribution. Also again these are just the partnerships that we have with downtown Glendale. We always want to um continue to build that relationship. And then again you can see those those events happening. Another key place
051of those partnerships you know we're always we are down for uh the day at the capital where our legislators we have great support from our local legislators and we continue to build those relationships. we able to grow as board as we travel to uh learn more about government governance as a governing board through NSBA and ESBA and then um really important to welcome new teachers when they come you see that and then really Glendel police department is been a good partner with us and that's the chief there and then again the social media so you start at the top that's the mailer that went home that helps advertise for us. We do uh we do mailers. We do the radio. You'll see Campina has been out. We do that. The other one is um a
052digital advertisement that we do. You saw that we had a billboard that we did. We do the Glendale Star. Um we have actual media come out and do positive stories about about you know Glendale Elementary School District and I believe that one's at Burton, am I right? And then I did switch to Instagram and so um I'm trying to figure it all out. The other day I deleted all my pictures. Didn't know what that was about, but you know, I don't know. I just asked and Carlos, hey, I don't have any more pictures anymore, but um so really trying to get out there about who we are and continue to brand this incredible district. So for the 2025 school year brings a focus for fostering on an inclusive, engaging, supportive learning environment that prioritizes continuous
053improvement. It is about continuous improvement. And you know, I've always said to you as leaders, you know, stay the course. Um, addressing declining enrollment by strengthening outreach, ensuring academic excellence through innovative learning opportunities. We see that through ums and we'll continue to to be innovative on what we're doing for our students. Mitigating chronic absenteeism by partnering with families. That's a big one for all of us. Everybody's doing a great job with that. And so, um, it's a struggle, but we're we're we're doing that. and then ensuring long-term financial solveny by conducting a thorough review of all programs and operations and that's what we do annually. Uh just some key takeaways. You know, we have three A's. We really want to celebrate that and the work that they've done. They worked very hard. So congratulations Discovery
054Burton and Challenger once again. [applause] Uh the next one take I think a key takeaway is really AIU and be able to offer that for our employees that they can get their degrees. That is huge for us. So we're very excited about that. um and you know thriving partnerships with this at the care. We need to continue those partnerships and so um those to me are the big takeaways. Um another key takeaway obviously the capital lawsuit victory was huge and and you don't have to play that video. I don't need to hear myself speak. Um you can listen to Mike if you want but don't listen to me. Those are um when we were interviewed and u that's a huge huge takeaway for us. um was winning that lawsuit. And then um I'm going to
055skip through that. And then again, you know, we've success, you know, we've uh that's it. Six success GSD. Six consecutive years. We have been voted the number one school district in in Glendale and um because we are the number one school district in district. So applaud yourself. That's incredible. [applause] And then I just want to end it with a little bit of is this my humor slide? Someone tell me that. Is this my humor slide? It's my I hope you get it because some people my own Where's my marketing people? My my youngan back there. He saw it and told Adrian, "Oh, that's really good." And Adana said, "No, that was Cindy." She thinks I'm too old to be, you know, with it. So I am with it because I have little grandkids that are
056with it. Here's some humor to end with it. Come on y'all. [applause] >> 67. I have two little grandkids. One six, one seven. And they always tell me none of them were 67, but then the other one turned eight. So now they're 68. So you know, I'm going to start that y'all. 68. 68. But um, you know, so what's next in 20 2026? Another incredible year. and I appreciate everything that you do. I truly do. You need to know that. And um always my honor to serve as your superintendent. Thank you so much. [applause] Questions you have for me? >> All right. >> What What is What is 67? You know, >> but all I know is that they say this 67 and and then all I know at Halloween the the coolest costume I
057saw because I'm hip now was two teenagers had miler balloons and one was a six and one was a seven. I thought now that was pretty innovative. I should have thought of that. >> Seventh day of school. >> Tomorrow's the six seventh day of school. Oh, that'll be good. That'll be good. >> There you go. All right. I'm on it. Come on. You had to like that slide. All right. Thank you so much. >> I did I did see an article and it said it was going to explain as to where 67 came from and I chose not to read it because I don't want to know. >> Uh any questions or comments from the board? >> Um >> which one? >> Oh, should we proclaim 67 day tomorrow? >> No. [laughter] Encourage uh student
058attendance. No, >> I I just want to point out this is this has been the best superintendent, >> you know, update that we've I think that any one of us has ever been witnessed to. >> My honor. Thank you. My honor. Thank you. [applause] You know, we thank everybody, but let's thank Let's think of Jones. [applause] >> Y'all still coming to work tomorrow. You can wear jeans, but you're coming to work. >> Thank you. Truly my honor to serve as your superintendent. All right, with that, the hour is getting late, kids. So, let's move this thing along. >> And Miss Wilson, I believe you have to head out. We'll all sit here and watch you leave to make it awkward. >> Bye. >> She can listen to the future meeting section as she walks out.
059[laughter] >> I expect you to watch the video on YouTube later. All right. So, there are no action items for this evening. So, Mr. Gutter Jones, future meetings and agend uh agenda items or what's coming up soon? >> Yes. December >> on December 11, we will not have to do a revised budget. Mr. Bergen, am I correct? Okay, that will not happen. Uh we'll do the phase retirement, Miss Valdez, that will happen. And then again, we will have to go to executive session uh for the superintendent's evaluation because the deadline is December 18th. >> Okay. All right. Any uh comments from the board? All right, we'll move on to the summary of current events, the superintendent report. Mr. Gata Jones, do you have any icing to add on your cake? >> No. Uh I just
060want to say thank you um to everybody for the work you do, but please have a wonderful uh Thanksgiving. Please take time for yourself and be safe. >> All right, moving on to the governing board report. Um Mr. share with us today. >> Since it's late, I'll be quick. I just feel joyful from seeing the student um the school grades and the report from Superintendent Sigato Jones. So, I'll end it on that. >> Right, Miss Bartell's um Ditto. And it it's an honor to be part of that. I mean, every single one of us is working towards the end goal of seeing our kids find the success that we know they're capable of. Um, and it's refreshing that people have stopped looking at challenges as a roadblock, but as a hurdle to be jumped and
061I am very very proud of this this district for making that happen every single day. Thank you. >> Right. Um, Miss since Miss Pimentel is on the phone uh currently recovering from surgeries, she has shared with me by via text as to what she wanted to share. Uh, so I will read this in her voice or pretend. Um, in this time of Thanksgiving, I'd like to thank our community for choosing to be part of the GESD family. So, thank you to our superintendent, Sigata Jones, our admin team, and especially our teachers and staff for everything you do for our students every day. Your tireless work is noticed by us, by our community, and it is an honor to serve our GESD familia with you all. Congratulations to Ulissiz Montes for receiving the Azelas as a
062Azelas >> ALS >> Azis Detora Corazison award. You make a huge difference in our community and I'm proud of you every day and happy Thanksgiving to all. And thank you Miss Pimentel for sharing those words with us. As for me, um I just want to say happy Thanksgiving everybody. Uh it is and I'm happy to share with everybody it is my favorite time of the year because I love cooking a lot of food. I love having family around. Um, it has been a tumultuous year in my house, so I'm happy to bring everybody together and just have a good time where there's really no expectations other than not getting food poisoning by showing up to my house. Um, I'm looking forward to uh volunteering at the Thanksg We have two Thanksgiving dinners going on at
063the same time, so it's going to be a lot of fun. We're going to be kind of wrecked back there giving ourselves carpal tunnel syndrome while spooning out huge heaping handfuls of uh stuffing and mashed potatoes and some turkey slices and we hope everybody can make it. If you if you know somebody, especially now, this is a time where there seem to be a lot of people in need. If you know somebody or family in need, uh invite them out. Invite them to come to Thanksgiving with us. Invite them to share that time with us. Uh and we'll have some extra special times to share with everybody. So, thank you all for coming tonight. Um, with that, is there a motion to adjurnn? >> Move to adjurnn. >> Second. >> All those in favor?