001[clears throat] >> Okay. Good evening. I don't I don't want to gavel. Good evening. >> Okay. No. Do you mind if I teach? I don't gavel. Good evening. Good evening. >> Oh, nice. Woah, who was that? Was that me? >> I don't I don't want to gavel. Good evening. Good evening. >> [laughter] >> Good evening. Good evening. I would like to apologize. That sounded way more aggressive. Good evening. While we have technical difficulties, we'll just use this mic. As we can call the meeting to order. Appreciate all of you with your patience and being here. Um I don't think that was planned. Uh Ms. Van Hook, are you still with us? being here. Um I don't think that was planned. Uh Ms. Van Hook, are you still with us? being here. Um I don't think
002that was planned. Uh Ms. Van Hook, are you still with us? being here. Um I don't think that was planned. Uh, Ms. Van Hook, are you still with us? being here, um, I don't think that was planned. Uh, Ms. Van Hook, are you still with us? being here, um, I don't think that was planned. Uh, Ms. Van Hook, are you still with us? being here, um, I don't think that was planned. Uh, Ms. Van Hook, are you still with us? being here, um, I don't think that was planned. Uh, Ms. Van Hook, are you still with us? being here, um, I don't think that was planned. Uh, Ms. Van Hook, are you still with us? being here, um, I don't think that was planned. Uh, Ms. Van Hook, are you still with us? being here,
003um, I don't think that was planned. Uh, Ms. Van Hook, are you still with us? Ms. Van Hook what are you doing with your feet? Is that what are you Mhm. >> Ms. Van Hook, are you with us? I am. Can you hear me? Yes, we can. Thank you. Thank you. Okay, perfect. Uh for those of you online, we apologize >> are you with us? Nope. I am. Can you hear me? Yes, we can. Thank you. Thank you. Okay, perfect. Uh for those of you online, we apologize >> are you with us? Nope. I am. Can you hear me? Yes, we can. Thank you. Thank you. Okay, perfect. Uh for those of you online, we apologize >> are you with us? Nope. I am. >> for this. I I wish I could be in there.
004No worries, not your fault. We'll we'll figure this out. All right. All [clears throat] right, Ms. Van Hook, we're going to try a test of this. Can you you know, state your name for me? Anna Van Hook. Okay, great. We're just we're just going to we're going to do that. So, when you need to speak, Ms. Van Hook, let me know and then we'll adjust all the things. Okay, good times. Thank you. No worries. Uh for now, Mr. Lotzenhiser, we are up with you for superintendent report. President Wade, members of the board, thank you very much. And again, audience, thank you for your patience. There's nothing like fixing IT with a couple hundred people just staring at you. No pressure at all. Um are we going to be be able to advance the slides? There
005we go. Higley Happenings. So, we like to start every board meeting uh celebrating uh a lot of the different things and happenings that happen within our district. And we're celebrating students and student success. And it's a very important time. I know we're very busy in here today and uh we have a lot of different people, but what I would definitely appreciate is as we have the different groups come up, if you could be patient and wait until we get to the end. I know there's not a lot of room, but it's nice. Otherwise, we have a mass exodus of people who leave while other groups are trying to get recognized and it gets a little awkward for that. So, I appreciate your patience with it, but it how wonderful is it that we have so
006many different students that we get to recognize for the awesome things that are do they are doing today. So, first off, what I would like to do is talk about our WGAZ, our performing arts at Cooley and Williams Field. If you could go ahead and It worked. All right. Uh recognize our performing arts and the outstanding state championships that we have. I'm going to invite Mr. Bob Edgar, the director of bands, to come forward and he's going to talk about our different groups. Because they're such a large group, we they are going to cycle in and we'll get to be able to recognize them and for all the work that they do, but we know that the performing arts and our band and our our um colorguard and our winter guard and our winds are
007such an important group and they do such an outstanding job representing not just Williams Field, but the entire district. So, we want to congratulate them on their success and I'm going to have Mr. Edgar tell us a little bit about each group. All right. First up is our uh winds group. This is a combination of Cooley and Williams Field students. I'm going to hand it over here to Miss Huddle. She is the director of this specific group to talk more about them. So, as Mr. Edgar said, there are students from both Cooley Middle School and Williams Field High School that make up this group. So, it consists of eighth grade through 12th graders. Um and this year they had a really cool performance of Led Zeppelin music. Um Stairway to Heaven. It was a great
008arrangement and they are first place in the state. So, these are your Arizona state champions. >> [applause] >> Okay, we're going to get a a picture with them and the board's going to come in, but quick show of hands, how many of you knew who Led Zeppelin was before the arrangement? Okay, yeah, the rest of you are faking it, I know, but thank you. >> Again, congratulations to the Northside Winds. Congratulations. Next up is our Cooley percussion ensemble state champions in the uh percussion scholastic junior high class for the Winter Guard Arizona circuit. This again is combined of eighth grade and seventh graders and represent uh the percussion section of our uh band program. >> [applause] >> So, this this year um been interesting. We've we've combined the seventh and eighth graders for the first
009time and I have to give a lot of credit to our seventh grade folks for stepping up and and reaching the level of our not all the way to the eighth graders. I got to give them their credit too, but rose to the occasion to compete and scored very high. They were I believe an 85 at championships, which is a very good good number for a for a score at the end of the season there. So super proud of them. Great job to the Cooley percussion ensemble. >> [applause] >> Next up we have our Williams Field High School percussion ensemble. Uh super proud of this ensemble. Um very competitive this year. We had some more more folks in our our class, more more groups to compete against. It's growing fast in the concert percussion world.
010So uh super proud again. Uh scored a very high number. I believe it was mid-80s as well and uh super proud of all that they were able to accomplish this year. So this is the Williams Field High School percussion ensemble. >> [applause] [applause] >> All right. Good job, Williams Field Percussion Ensemble. Next up, we have our color guards. Good job. Good job, son. This is our Cooley Cougar Color Guard. Say that four times fast. I'm going to hand this over to uh Beth Carlson. She's in charge of the guard program, and she's going to tell us some more about Cooley Cougar Color Guard. I will not say that four times fast. Um as as said, this is um our color guard. They are comprised of seventh and eighth graders this year. Um we decided as
011a staff this year that we wanted to push them design-wise, and we gave them lots of elements that a lot of high schools don't have, and they achieved it really well. Um and we are very proud of their success, and um everything that they do. They compete in a division that actually ends up between some high school rounds, and people think they're high schoolers, and they're not. They're seventh and eighth graders. So, their show was titled "With You," and they did a great job at championships this year. >> [applause] >> All right, guys. >> [applause] >> Uh follow Miss Edgar. Follow Miss Edgar. For a second, I thought that was upside down. Go around them. So, this is the Williams Field Black Scholastic Open Color Guard. They are this year's Scholastic Open State Champions. They
012did a fantastic job this year. I think we took lots of big forward as a program. Our motto this year was work hard, stay humble, and have fun. So, instead of focusing on what we got at each competition, we looked towards the end goal and they just worked really hard. We ended up in Dayton, Ohio making semi-finals in a pool of color guards that are truly amazing and they held their own and did a fantastic job and we are very proud of them. Their show was Land of Make-Believe, so we made lots of people smile. So, this is the Williams Field Black Open State Champions. >> [applause] [applause] >> So, just a real quick thank you to the district for all the support that we are given in our winter programs and band programs in
013general. We're super grateful for everything that you do for us and onward we go. Onward and well done. Thank you, Mr. Edgar. Again, let's give it up for Mr. Edgar and the rest of his staff. Teacher appreciation. I I think as parents you all realize how many hours that the teachers also put in. And while your kids are there practicing, they're there as well, and we are so thankful to have an outstanding staff. All right, at this time I would like to welcome Victoria Trejo to come up to the front from Williams Field along with Mr. Christopher Brock. Let's give it up for Victoria and Mr. Brock. We're so proud to highlight Victoria from Williams Field High School, a member of HOSA in the bioscience program. She's been selected as a TGen Helios Scholar. This
014is a highly selective and prestigious summer research program at Translational Genomics in Phoenix with only 20 scholars chosen annually from hundreds of applicants nationwide. This summer she will conduct hands-on publication-level research studying the molecular causes of metabolic diseases such as type 2. This remarkable achievement shows Victoria's dedication and talent in the field of science. Additionally, I'd like to add that Victoria's the our bioscience teacher, Mr. Christopher Brock, was recognized as the HOSA chapter advisor for the state and the Eastern Region. He is the advisor of the year. So, if you'll please join me again in recognizing both Victoria and Mr. Brock. So, I'm going to have you to say a couple words, Victoria. Congratulations. And what year are you, Victoria? All right, would you introduce yourself and then tell us what you're doing next year?
015Yeah. Um my name is Victoria Trejo. I'm a senior at Williams Field, and next year I'll be studying biological sciences and business finance at ASU. Um hoping to do something in biotechnology or potentially go to the medical field. So. >> [applause] >> Mr. Brock, can you briefly describe Victoria for us? Hi, I'm Christopher Brock, and um Victoria is also my AP biology student as well as being in HOSA our HOSA chapters is associated with biotechnology. And this is an example of the fantastic opportunities that our students are getting. I mean, she's getting an experience that I mean, you can't really put a dollar sign on it. She's going to know people who are so talented. I'm talking about top research scientists from around the world. TGen's an international level research institution. She's going to be
016working alongside some amazingly talented and uh interesting people. And uh it's just an experience you can't really pay money for. Uh and you're going to see our HOSA chapter also did very well in our state competition and it's really because uh the district, especially Craig Pearson, I don't think he's here. I rarely I don't think I've ever praised an administrator in public. But uh this is probably the first time. He's given us tremendous support. And I tell you we have facilities at Williams Field High School. I promise you they're unmatched in the East Valley. I promise you. That that is not a boast. And uh our kids, you know, they go through the biotech program, the three-year program. They they are going to be a certified lab technician. They're going to be a certified bio
017technician. Uh and then uh our internship program, which has been very difficult to get off the ground uh this summer uh this Friday, taking three students to an undergraduate research symposium at Scottsdale Community College. Their research posters are going to be there along with ASU students and SCC students. They're all were selected to speak at the symposium for 10 minutes presenting their research, which they designed and they conducted in our lab this year, and they're going to be published in the uh symposium summary. So, leaving high school, they're going to have a scientific publication that they can put on their resume. And again, I don't think there's any other school in East Valley that's that's kind of can kind of do this sort of thing. And you know, I think it's a you know, Williams
018Field if if your kids is interested in health careers or medical careers science careers, it's it's it's really becoming the place to be. Cuz when our kids when they get out there when she goes to college next year, she's going to be ahead of most of her competition when she steps onto that campus. And it is a competition out there. And uh she there there's congratulations and I'm really proud of her obviously. >> [applause] [cheering] >> And now we have HOSA. If you guys would like to stay up here for HOSA and if there are any other members of HOSA that are here with you tonight, I would invite them to come up to the front. Again, our HOSA chapter and the recognition as Mr. Brock talked about within our state competition. And so, we
019have some of them listed up there, but we just want to say congratulations to all the outstanding accomplishments that they've done. Victoria, you're welcome to come up again, too. It's all good. Right. And so, if I could just And so, okay. So, if you would like to introduce yourself and what you won. Um my [clears throat] name is Alyssa Hoppingarner and I won gold in biomedical equipment technician. Um my name is Victoria Trical and I'm going to be doing emotional well-being in international and I also got first in state for biology. >> [applause] >> I want to thank my parents for coming out tonight. I also want to do that. Uh I would like to make a quick mention that we actually started a got a middle school hosta chapter started this year and uh
020four middle school students from Cooley are going to be going to Indianapolis for international conference in June. Uh over 14,000 students attended international conference last year including from China, Korea, Canada, all I mean in all 50 states. And uh we're going to have four middle school kids uh traveling with us and those are the first middle school kids to from Arizona to go and compete at international since 2019. >> [applause] >> I I think tonight it is CTE programs at Williams Field and we're recognizing the outstanding work that they've done and so I'd like to invite uh right now our SkillsUSA competitors, all of you who are in as you can see the red jackets with your medals, if you could all come up here, please, as long with our coaches, Herb Williams, Bill McDonald,
021and Devin Adams. If you guys could come to the front, please. >> [applause] >> Again with SkillsUSA and the outstanding they work for their their um from their CTE departments. What I'm going to do because we didn't have their names on the stage and so if you'll just bear with me. So kids, here's what you're going to do. We're going to pass the mic. You're going to introduce yourselves and you're going to tell everyone what metal you got and then what First of all, what year you are. What metal you got and what you competed in. I'm Tyler Coronado. I'm in the second year of criminal justice and we won gold with quiz bowl. >> [snorts] >> I'm Ari Marchand. I'm second I'm first year criminal justice and I got gold medal in pin design.
022I'm Alex Walther. I'm in second year criminal justice and I got a gold medal in CSI. I'm Ryan Gabriel. This is my first year in criminal justice and I won first in digital photography. I'm Noah Montel. I'm a senior and I won gold in CSI. I'm Liam Blackburn. I also won gold in CSI. I'm Calvin Crowder. I'm a senior and I won gold in facility management. I'm Chase Mishra and I'm a junior and I won gold in quiz bowl. I'm Vea Thompson and I won gold in American spirit. I'm Maggie Kusnicki and I won gold in criminal justice quiz bowl. I'm Evangeline Artino and I'm in second year criminal justice and I won gold in American spirit. My name's Ava Sisson. I'm a junior. My name is Gabriella Rhenassia. I'm a sophomore. My name's Tess
023Barnett and I'm a sophomore and we got first in community service projects. My name's Daniel Berger. I'm a freshman and we won gold in quiz bowl. My name's Zane Clark. I'm a junior and we won gold in the quiz bowl. I'm Benjamin Tracy. I'm a junior and we won gold in Quizbowl. I'm Andrew Finn, a junior and I won gold medal on Quizbowl. Um, my name is Aurora. I'm a junior. This is my first year in criminal justice and I also won the criminal justice Quizbowl. Um, I'm Arisela Bustillo. I'm a freshman and I also won gold in Quizbowl. My name is Jayden Wallace and I'm a junior and I won gold in criminal justice Quizbowl. All right, give them a round of applause, all of our gold medal winners. >> [cheering] >> If I
024could have our instructor, Herb Williams, he's just going to say a few words. Somehow I got to outdo Brock. I don't know how I can, but we um we had 33 people compete, 29 people won medals. These are all the gold medal winners. We also want to thank Craig Pearson, our CTE director, gives us a lot, so does the board and our principal Mr. Dolan as well. Without all the support we get from the the families, the parents and especially the students, we could never be this successful and this is not an uncommon year for us. We we do very well. Raise your hand if you We have dual enrollment, so over the last 5 years we were also we competed in the high school division and the college division winning both state championships and
025national medals. So, raise your hand if you were in the college division. So, pretty pretty pretty well, but it's our last year in college, unfortunately. All right, thank you. All right, big round of applause again. >> [cheering] [applause] >> Congratulations. Well guys. Well done. You guys are good guys. Oh, thank you very much. Just like Just like we we talk about with our with our color guard and everything, let's give a shout out to our instructors. Again, Mr. Adams, Mr. McDonald, Mr. Williams, thank you. Thank you very much. All right. And our next, I'd like to recognize members of our Higley Leadership Academy. If you're a member of HLA, would you come down, please, and go ahead and line up right in the middle. >> [applause] >> So, the Higley Leader Leadership Academy plays a
026key role in Higley Unified School District's commitment to growing leadership from within. The Academy emphasizes personal growth, collaboration, and servant leadership, preparing participants to make a lasting impact across HUSD schools and the broader community. 16 past program graduates have advanced into leadership and administrative roles. This year, we had about 20 participants in the program, and I'd really like to thank them for their dedication not only to what they did outside, but to the entire learning experience going through HLA. For those of you don't know, HLA is simply a way that we in Higley can help develop leadership. It doesn't depend Doesn't matter what your role is. If you want to become a better leader, we have an opportunity to do that. Mr. Fields and Mr. Armstrong have led this group this year, and I appreciate
027their efforts. And really, it's it's been great to see. Um I know that your gala uh was an outstandingly attended and I want to say thank you much for all the hard work you did on the outside. Just like the kids, you're Okay, here's what you're going to do. All right, you're going to introduce yourself, the position you currently hold within Higley, and how many years you've been in Higley. Okay? Because I think what you're going to see is this is not just a a principal preparation program, but this is a way that we can grow people throughout our district for leadership. Nina, start with you. Nina Francone, Human Resources, and I've been here at 3 and 1/2 years. Nikki Shepherd, I've been I'm at um a fourth grade teacher at Higley Traditional Academy, and
028I've been with HTA for 5 years. Megan Rivera, I'm at Gateway Point. I'm a special education teacher, and this is my seventh year in Higley. Valerie Enrique, I'm a benefits specialist here at the district office, and I've been with Higley for 4 years. Heather Gossler, I'm a teacher at Williams Field High School, and this is my 13th year in Higley. Alyssa Turner, I'm an academic coach at Bridges, and it's my 13th year in Higley. Um Jessica Hoguin, and I work at the district office. I'm the senior administrative assistant for special education. I've been here 13 years. I'm Kenny de la Rosa, assistant director of student services. I've been in Higley for 2 years. Heather Lewis, I'm at Sossaman Middle School. I'm an instructional coach, and I have been with the district for 16 years. Antonio
029Gayedos, I'm the systems administrator here at the the district office. Nathan Cushman, I'm a IT support analyst. I've been here 8 years. My name is Monica Harvey. I'm at Santan Elementary. I'm a first grade DLI Spanish teacher, and this is my third year in Higley. Devon Ellsworth, kindergarten at Bridges and my 10th year in Higley. Paul Soriano, the PE teacher at Higley Traditional Academy and I've been in this district for 3 years. My name is Jen Harris and I am a fifth grade teacher at Power Ranch Elementary and finishing up my ninth year in Higley District. Angela Trujillo, I'm an HR specialist and I've been with the district almost 2 years. Adriana Cote, teacher at Cooley and this is my second year at Cooley. Jessica Campuzano at Cooley Early Childhood Development Center, uh teacher 13
030years. I'm Andrew Batios, I'm a teacher at Higley High School and I've been with the district for 12 years. Let's give them a round of applause and a thank you to our Higley Leadership Academy and everything that they've done. Okay. You guys are going to have to scoot up a little bit so some of us can slide in the back, okay? Make sure we can see you. All right, now we're going to get to a point where we're going to talk about our points of pride and get to recognize different people here from the district office, from transportation and from maintenance that were our points of pride. And and so as they pump up, first I'm going to have Josh. Josh, if you will come forward and uh talk about our transportation points of pride.
031>> [applause] >> Thank you. Tonight, we're recognizing two people with the transportation department. Mr. Joe Hasnik and Ms. Carolyn Gabler. Come on up, Joe. >> [applause] >> Carolyn, unfortunately, could make it tonight, but I'd still like to celebrate in her honor. So, Carolyn and Joe are routing coordinators for the transportation department. It's one of our most difficult departments within our department. They're responsible for routing all the students on the bus, which sounds easy, but they have to keep the buses on time. They have to make sure the special needs students have the right resources on the bus. And everything needs to be done quick. Everyone wants to be on the bus that day. So, they use a routing software to do that. And just kind of a fun fact that every student that boards onto
032the bus is actually a time delay for that bus stop. So, when we make bus stop changes or student adds or subtracts off of a bus, it actually affects all the other bus stops all the way through. So, they have to monitor that, and communication is a huge piece with that, having to communicate with our drivers, with our parents, and the schools. So, our routing department really is an important piece of our transportation department. Tonight, our routers are being recognized by two other district departments, the special needs department, sped, and McKinney-Vento, which is our homeless department. They're being recognized for their dedication to the students, going above and beyond in their role, being quick to respond to routing requests, and they have even found a way to transport students last minute when an outside vendor
033failed to show up. So, tonight, we recognize them in a very small way for their hard work and thoughtful work as well for many years. So, congratulations and thank you, Joe and Carolyn. >> [applause] >> Sounds good. So, from the teaching and learning side of things, I have our administrative assistant, Leah Cruz. Leah could come up. >> [applause] [cheering] >> So, Leah truly represents what a point of pride employee is and and how they operate. Leah does an outstanding job day in and day out with a positive attitude. But, this year we had an opening at district office in the admin support team and Leah stepped up and picked up the extra duties with a positive attitude. She worked seamlessly to make sure everything continued to run smoothly. She even learned how to deal with
034foreign exchange students and F1 visas and all of those things with Homeland Security, which is a daunting task. Leah plans a lot of trips, but doesn't go on any because she works with our schools to make sure all of their paperwork for field trips and things are submitted correctly. But, really it's it's her attitude. Her Her desk is the gathering place in district office. Everybody else kind of works in a cubicle or an office, but Leah's out in the open. So, it is the social spot of of the district office and she is a magnet for people and we really appreciate everything that you do, Leah. Thank you. >> [applause] >> Leah, don't take off. You You get to introduce who you brought with you. I brought my husband Hugo and my son Johnny who
035goes to Sossaman and my daughter Chloe who goes to Higley High. You got to stay for a picture now though. Good evening everyone. Um so today for the maintenance and construction department, uh we're recognizing our plumber Raul Galarza. So Raul, if you want to come up, please. >> [applause] >> So one of the things that I've worked on really hard is building a good culture in our department and this is the guy that I rely on to set that culture, right? Raul has great technical skills, outstanding work ethic. He always leads by example, truly sets him apart is his willingness to go above and beyond. He can always be counted on when pressure's high to get things done and he always maintains a positive attitude which is always you know, the best. His dedication and
036teamwork not only strengthens our department but also reflects the high standards we strive to achieve. So Raul, thank you for everything. Thank you. >> [applause] >> Ooh, donuts. >> [laughter] >> Thank you. You're welcome. All [clears throat] right, last but not least the special education department is honored tonight to recognize Tracy Myers. So Tracy, if you could come up. >> [applause] >> So Tracy has worked in the district for 18 years. She started out as a special education paraprofessional and then moved into our record specialist where she processes over a thousand special education documents each year. And she does this while also supporting our department, answering phones, and she's always smiling and happy to help and positive and brings humor to our office. Um I'm not sure I could do my job or the rest
037of my department could do their job without Tracy. So we are so lucky to have her and so grateful for her. >> [applause] >> All right, if you guys would all come out and we'll stage for our picture, please. While we're doing this, we're going to ask a few other people who they brought with them today. So Tracy, who came with you today? Uh my husband John and my team. Hey husband and team. Well, who came with you tonight? Uh I brought my wife and my daughter. All right. >> [applause] >> My wife Stephanie. >> [applause] >> All right, come Right in here, points right in the front, everyone else in the back. That concludes the superintendent report. I want to thank everyone who stayed for this. Thank you. >> President Wade, members of the
038board, as you can see we're just excited of all the different recognitions and how proud we are of our students who compete in the arts. They compete in in CTE and the successes that are happening. We thank you again to HLA and thank you to our points of pride. I think it's a great way that we can start our meeting to celebrate the successes that we do have. I'd like to talk about upcoming events. Speaking of successes, the culmination of the experience for us is the graduations. And so on Tuesday, May 19th, Williams Field will graduate from the ASU at 2:30. On Tuesday, that same day, Higley High is at 7:30 that night. The last day of school with our students is on May 20th. We do have the HTAP graduation ceremony at 10:00 a.m.
039and I encourage you all, if you can find time in your day, that's a wonderful event as well. On Tuesday, June 2nd would be our work board work study here at the district office at 5:30 and that concludes our upcoming events. Thank you, Mr. Lotzenhiser. We will now move to public hearing to discuss the fiscal year 2026 budget revision. This is Rushcamp. President Wade, could we pause for a second? Yes. Oh, yes. So, do you want this back? Ms. Vanhook, I am being told to tell you to join Teams. Testing. We can hear you, Ms. Vanhook. Thank you. All right. We will now move to public hearing to discuss the fiscal year 2026 budget revision number two. Mrs. Rushcamp. President Wade, members of the board. Um, tonight we are going to review the fiscal year
04026, the current year we're in, revised budget. This will be our second revision and this will also be our final revision for this year. So, we've seen this before. This is kind of the budget timeline. So, we start about a year ago, June 2025, preparing for the upcoming fiscal year. And then in December, the district chose to revise the budget just to true up the numbers to what the state budget came in at as we did not know that in June of 25. So, that was our first budget revision. And now for May, legally, we have to bring a revised budget to the board by May 15th. Okay. So, uh for the highlights, this is similar to what we looked at in December. We have adjusted our ADM to the 100-day count. So, compared to
041where we were in December, we are down uh 22.48 ADM. And then we also are going to true up our one-time funding adjustments. So, again, for the last several years, the state, instead of adding budget on to our DAA, we have been getting one-time supplementals, um and then to the district's discretion of which fund we choose to put those in. So, for our free and reduced-price lunch, that group B weight, we should be receiving $150,474 this year. And then for our one-time DAA supplement, we should be getting $319,666. And then as we've also discussed, we are currently in the second year of our override phase-down. So, we had started at about 14.1 million. This year we're at about 9.3 million, so that has taken close to 4.8 off of the M&O budget. Comparing where we
042thought we were in December to where we now believe we will be in May, again, I'd mentioned we are down 22.4844 ADM. That adjusts our revenue control limit because that is based off of ADM. So, that dropped us about $5,646. Our transfer from M&O O capital, that is staying consistent, the $3.55 million. That is what covers the two middle school lease payments that we have to pay from the capital fund. Our override, this is just um taking the latest budget 25 from ADE using their numbers, so that's increased $1,378 since December. Budget balance carry forward does not change, that comes off the AFR, which was done in October, so that's still 21.8 million. And then, as I'd mentioned, our free and reduced, where we thought we were in December to what school finance has published
043recently, that's down $6,797. So, comparing May to December, we're down just over $11,000. That was for M and O. >> [clears throat] >> And now looking at capital, which is the district additional assistance, this budget is built on prior year ADM, so we knew the numbers in December, they haven't changed in May, so that remains at 7.168 million. Again, the transfer we just talked about to cover the two middle school leases, 3.55. Budget balance carry forward for capital does not change either, that came from the AFR, so that remains at 6.446 million. For interest, we had uh $154,916. As a reminder, in the capital fund, we are allowed to spend our interest. This is what's generated from our funds that are sitting at the county treasurer's office, whereas M and O, you won't see that
044on the budget because we legally cannot spend the interest that we earn in M and O. And then, we also have our former Prop 123, which is now called the state aid supplement, that is coming in at $853,303. So, that is a decrease of 12,723 from where we were in December. And our one-time DAA supplement is 319,666, which is about $5,800 down from where we were in December. Again, we have the discretion of where to place those one-time funds. We are placing the Prop 123 this year in capital just to meet some upcoming capital needs that will have with textbook adoptions and um repairs to facilities and such. And then the timeline. So, today, again, doing our final budget revision for this current fiscal year 26. June 2nd, we will be bringing to you the
045FY27 proposed budget. That's the budget that begins July 1. And then June 23rd, we will be adopting that budget whether the state has um approved their funding or not. We still legally have to adopt that budget. So, we'll do that at the June 23rd meeting. And with that, I can take any questions. Do we have any questions or comments from the board? I have some questions if nobody there does. Go ahead, Ms. Van Hook. Okay. Um I'm not sure if I um, if you want me to ask questions now, uh, regarding the budget that we'll be approving in section eight. Um, or should I wait till then or ask now? Now. Okay. Um, so I did compare, >> [snorts] >> uh, the budget >> Hook. Yes. Sorry. What was that, Mr. Lotzenhiser? Okay, Ms. Van
046Hook, the budget revision we're talking about right now is actually for this past year. If you're talking about the questions that you have for our upcoming budget, that would be done later. So are you, cuz this is just revising the information from last year's budget, essentially. Okay, I'll just I'll wait. Okay. Thank you. No worries. Does any member of the, oh, sorry, go ahead. Yes, Mr. Um, I'm so grateful for the format of this. I really was impressed how we were pretty on point. What was that? 6,000 on the first slide for M&O and then 19 on the second for capital. Um, that's very comforting because, um, that I appreciate that Sharon and your and your foresight and touching base with Superintendent Lotzenhiser and and seeing where we can really kind of count on certain
047things, certain expen expenditures. So I really love seeing how those those numbers aren't too off. So I really appreciate that. Does any member of the public have any comments or questions regarding the fiscal year of 2026 revised budget? Great. We will now reconvene in open session. Next on the agenda are requests to speak. Can we please play the video? Okay, we have Mr. Travis White. Good evening, President Wade, members of the board, superintendent, district leadership, and community members. My name is Travis, and I'm a proud parent of a kindergartner in the Mandarin dual immersion program at Coronado Elementary. Let's start with the fun stuff. It's Teacher Appreciation Week, and I would be remiss if I didn't stand up here first thing and sing the praise to the board and leadership for our amazing teachers. I
048want to thank all of our teachers, administration, and PTO volunteers for everything you do. My daughter's teacher, Ms. Whittier, is an absolute gem. And as often as I try to show appreciation, I hope this additional gesture can continue to convey my gratitude. Beyond just words of appreciation, we show how we value our educators by how we treat their professional expertise. I spent time listening to concerns raised by some normally on this stage regarding teachers attending conferences. One board member expressed concern that teachers attending conferences and bringing things back simply creates more work, and suggested we should stick to existing policies instead of overloading them with new frameworks. As someone who works in a professional world, I find this logic baffling. If a senior analyst on my team, or maybe even a state agency, found a
049more efficient way to process data, uh or a new framework to improve departmental outcomes, they wouldn't be accused of overloading their plate. They would be commended for professional growth. Why would we hold our teachers to a lower professional standard? Attending conferences isn't a hobby. It's how professionals stay relevant. To suggest that our teachers should just teach what they were hired to teach without evolving is a recipe for stagnation. When a teacher finds an amazing tool at a conference, they don't go rogue. They bring it to their leadership because they're professionals who care about student achievement. Furthermore, I want to circle back to last month's um meeting about mental health and social social emotional concerns that have been characterized as not appropriate for our district. In any professional environment, proactive behavior management and emotional intelligence are
050keys to productivity. In a classroom, they're keys to academic proficiency. We need to stop using the full plates of our teachers and as as an excuse to keep them from the tools that actually make their jobs easier. I want my daughter's teachers to have the same right to professional growth and modern frameworks that any state analyst or business professional enjoys. Let's start treating our educators like the professional experts they are. Finally, it's one thing to have a different vision for our schools. It's quite another to manufacture a crisis using alternative facts. When it's claimed that 50% of our students are not proficient, it isn't just misrepresenting a spreadsheet, it's actively disparaging the hard work of our teachers and the achievements of our children. The Arizona Department of Education tells a very different story. For the
0512024-2025 school year, every single in-person Higley school in Higley earned an A rating. We don't just meet the bar, we set it. With a 61% proficiency rate in math, we are outperforming nearly every neighborhood district in our county. To call our performance a failure isn't just a lie, it's fear mongering. That is the end of our request to speak. So, this brings us to consent agenda items. I motion to approve consent agenda items 6.1 through 6.18. Second. Uh, going to give that to Mr. Glover. For the second. All those in favor? I. I. Miss >> I. Thank you, Vince Van Hook. Uh, motion carries 4 to 0. We would like to thank Cane's Chicken, Higley High School Parents Unite Booster Club, Power Ranch PTO, Bosch Building Technologies, and Concord General Contracting for their generous donations
052to the district and its students. Madam President, [clears throat] may I just make your comments? So, we just passed what, 6.1 to 6.18, correct? So, just in there, in case anybody was happen to happen to look, um, there are over $2 million worth of, um, savings that our staff has, uh, looked at and, uh, uh, ways to save money in this, uh, in this environment where, you know, every dollar is precious. So, there's over There's two at least two different items where, uh, we're saving probably over $2 million a year. Uh, not a year, sorry. One is over 5 years and, uh, one is about $120,000 a year. So, I just applaud those efforts of people looking at ways to be more efficient and to save money. >> [clears throat] >> This brings us to
053information items. We have 7.1 lease agreement information between AZ Aspire Academy and Higley Unified School District. Mr. Lotzenhiser. President Wade, members of the board, I'm really excited today to come and present an information and followed by an action item about an opportunity we have to lease some of our empty space at Power Ranch Elementary School. And so, tonight's presentation is to explain what space we are leasing, uh, and then our rationale behind that. And so, you have copies of the lease, but coming from the pictures, uh, the first one shows you the entirety of Power Ranch. You can see there are buildings and our extensive fields that we already have at Power. Specifically, the information which is 16,200 square feet that we are looking to lease would be in our B building, and you can
054see that's the smaller map that you can see right there. That's one portion of the B building, and so our job or our goal with this lease is to lease this space out to one of our partners, a private day school. And so, for a frame of reference, and I can come back to the map if we need to during the question time to be able to look, this is the location. So, you can see where it is located on the lower left-hand side of the map, and those are the classrooms that we're looking to lease. So, AZ Aspire Academy and Ascent Academy are private day schools that are partners with Higley. We already have some of our students attending them. They're private day schools that provide special education programming and related services for K-12
055students. These two academies operate multiple campuses across the valley, and we're excited that they were interested in combining with us. Again, is there a partner that we already use and are a trusted group that helps support our students. The timeline of the lease is kind of important, and which is why we were here today. We are looking and asking for approval of the lease here on May 5th. The reason for that is there are a couple summer construction projects that we'd like to get started that we can go ahead and get done during the summer should we have approval tonight. We can move forward on them, and those are specifically the parking lot and additional fencing that would go in. And so, if I were to go back to the map, the parking lot would
056be on the lower left-hand side. You'll see it a kind of a dirt area. We're adding parking in at that location. The reason we're adding parking is we don't want to interfere with any of the current parking that is done for our Power Ranch community. This would add parking for the tenant and would allow them to have a space closer to the entrance for them that could be considered their parking lot. The fencing, if you take a look at our picture on the right, the fencing would be basically the upper right-hand portion of that where we would separate, so they would have a smaller outside area that would be enclosed in a fence that would not have access to the rest of the campus. That would allow them to have an outside place for their
057students. With approval tonight, um should that happen, the tenant would move into the space on July 1st, 2026, and then we are looking for a 6-year lease agreement um for them to be in there to be able to support our students and students from the surrounding districts. So, the financial implications. So, this is directly from the contract. You can see that there's a graduated scale of increasing per square footage uh part of the lease. And so, part of that is that we know that there are startup costs for both us and for them both them early. And so, when you look, we start at $12 per square foot, gradually increase to $16 per square foot, and then 3% increase each year after that. You can see what the annual rent would be listed. Additionally, there's
058a playground that's located directly next to them. There's an additional fee that then for them to use that playground. It would be only for their students. And so, that would give the playground rental in a monthly additional income. Utilities, that is about 15% of the overall footage at Power Ranch, and so they'll pay 15% of the utilities each year adjusted for the years. So, if we use less, they pay less. If we use more, they pay more. So, we adjust it to that 15%. For the parking lot and the fence improvements that we just talked about, we are splitting 50/50 with them. Uh we're paying they're paying half of the cost, and we're paying half of the cost. And we We that off of the true value of the quotes that we had. We feel
059like we are a good partner with them. We're not looking to fleece anyone or do that, but just to be upfront about it. And so they're going to pay us 50% of that spread over two different years. Additional costs for maintenance, they will pay us, if you look through the lease, they'll pay us for that. Food service, we're not providing food service for them. They will not be going to our cafeteria. They outsource it themselves and they'll bring it in, whether it's Chartwells or a different company, they'll bring it into their classroom. So, there there is no food service provided for them. That is something that they would do. Additionally, they pay for their own Wi-Fi and will use their own connections that they do, so it won't be going through our district parts. And
060so, we think that this is a really advantageous thing for us, this lease, because, and I'll get to the next slide, the rationale. Number one, this is a partner. This is someone that we already send our kids to. This is not a competitor. We're not leasing it to an outside company that's trying to steal our kids or do anything like that. This is for kids with private day, so that we can service their needs a different way. And they again, this is a this is a valued partner. Strategic anchor for finance and operations. It really highlights the fiscal responsible stewardship and this identify and seek additional revenue sources. We know at Power Ranch, we had empty classrooms and we do have space at Power Ranch. Tonight's a heck of a night for technology, isn't it?
061So, we know we have open and additional space at Power Ranch. And so, what the what it has allowed to do is the either will be some classrooms that have to move, but we have space to accommodate them in the rest of the campus. And but it allow us to use some of that empty space for this tenant and allow us to create an a revenue stream. Additionally, the goal when we send students to private day schools to help support them with their needs. And the idea is that they can transition back to us when those needs have been met. Having them on our campus already in part and close to our district can help smooth that transition, especially for parents, so they don't have to drive further away. They're already located within the Higley
062district. And really, we looked at this and I and I want to thank, you know, uh Principal McNab for looking at this from the Power Ranch community side, and we said, "We don't want to impact what's happening at Power Ranch." Okay, we're very proud of that campus and how what they do to service our students. And so, when we take a look, I know questions have been asked of, "Hey, are these kids going to be Are the people who attend these schools going to be on the campus?" Only in the dedicated area that they have. They Like I said, they're not going out into our playgrounds, or nor they would be going to our cafeteria. They have their own dedicated within that space. Um the hours that they are are different than our pickup and
063our drop-off hours, and so we're not going to look for increased traffic at different times to because again, it's very important to us that uh the Power Ranch community still maintains the ability to do what they're currently doing. And uh we That's one reason why we added the additional parking. Um they don't have to go through the school office. There's already an exterior door located on that, which would be their main entrance. They don't require additional signage to go up on the street because a private day school is not a school where people drive by and then choose to enroll. Private day school is when we work with our team together and find the best fit for the needs of that student. And um I I I want to give a shout-out to a couple
064people. One is uh our uh executive director of special education, Ms. Shawna Miller, and to their uh CEO, David Jefferson, for coming up with a vision of how we can support each other and it'd be a mutually beneficial agreement within Higley schools and provide space for them and provide additional services for our students. So, I want to thank them for spearheading and bringing this to us a few months ago. Honestly, originally we thought this was a year out. We thought we had a year to work through them, but through our conversations, they have the ability to terminate the lease that they're located within Queen Creek, which is another reason why we need to move quickly on this so that they can terminate and be a good tenant there. And so, we said, "Can we figure
065this out in a few months to make it happen?" And it wasn't just those two individuals, but with our finance and with our maintenance and construction, the team really came together and came up with an appropriate way that we would be able to lease this building. I'm really excited about it. Honestly, I think when we look at the space that we do have, the ability for us to bring in a partner that's going to support Higley Kids. They also take kids from Chandler, Queen Creek, Mesa, Gilbert. Those kids will be coming to those locations this location as well, but it's a really a way for us to partner with them and use the space that we have. And so, I'm very, very excited about the opportunity to schedule this lease that we have with them.
066>> [snorts] >> So, with that, I know that's kind of quick, but as you guys have questions or anything comes up, we'd be I'd be happy to answer what I can or have the team answer what we can do. President Waite. Um Superintendent Lots Lots and Lots and Hizer, thank you so much for this presentation. I really it seems like it's very perfect placement on Power Ranch that we can So, I just want to confirm that the traffic is being addressed, that's all going to be kind of um diff- uh separate, uh safety background checks, that this organization goes through all the same protocols, employees, etc., and that again, that financially this is a good move, and then Principal McNab is informed in all of these so that way she can kind of talk uh
067everybody through the processes over there. Yes, they they have to follow the same protocol to have cleared teachers and working with students just like any other educational facility within the state. And we are adding that additional parking to address that concern. They will have buses that come and drop off, but if you take a look at the map, you can see there's already a bus loop there. And so, the buses will be using that existing bus loop cuz they'll be transported from other locations in, as well as their vans. So, the idea is that they use that section of it up there, um further away um from the front office and from the parking spots. And so, we do think it is a very um fiscally responsible way that we can do it. And again,
068to avoid uh things. Uh Principal McNab did have the opportunity to go through and and tour their current facility and ask questions because we know that she's going to field the brunt from the parents. And so, we wanted to make sure that she was understanding of what the program is. Currently, the program has about 25 kids in it. It's not very big. But with this additional space and talking with them over the course of 6 years, it could grow to maybe about 100 kids what all they'd be able to hold within the spaces that we have. Okay, and thank you so much for the financial layout. It really looks like a good move for Higley. I just I'm so excited to vote on this tonight. Okay, thank you, President Wade. So, you know, the well,
069as we all know, and as is kind of alluded to earlier, the times they are a changing. So, here we are being creative to try to, you know, get some of the funding that we need to continue to provide um all the all the good things that that we provide. Um you know, utilizing space that extra space that we have. I mean, hats off. Um once this program gets going, it looks like it could generate a couple hundred thousand dollars um per year. So, that's appreciated. Um I didn't see it in here, and I don't want to put you too bad, but did you you mentioned that our kids that would be in this program are getting a 50% discount? Is that still No. Okay. >> Not a 50%. There is a discount that we
070have negotiated a discount with them Okay. >> as well, so there'll be a some some savings on the sending side. Not 50%. >> Okay, sorry. I I don't know why I had that. Maybe that was our earlier conversation. Sorry. But anyway, there will be some savings there. Um and then you we you mentioned to me when we spoke earlier this morning um that you would you are would be willing to go out and talk to the campus. I think a lot of times you we it's the fear of the unknown. So, going out there and talking to the staff and explaining to them cuz I don't expect teachers to be watching this all right now. So, going to meet with them, giving them a chance to ask the the many questions that they'll have and
071you have you have plausible good answers for them. So, that's really important just to make sure that people feel involved. People can deal with facts. It's the unknown that when we get messy. So, I appreciate you being willing to do that and thanks to everybody. >> Clover and Mr. Armstrong, and I are scheduled to go speak to their faculty should this get approved tomorrow because we do think it's important that they understand what we did and why we did and and why we think it's a good move for our district. Ms. Van Hook, do you have any questions or comments? I do, thank you. Um and the 50% is the construction cost that will be split. Um so, that's where you're getting that 50% from. >> That is correct. Um so, when looking at the
072estimated annual maintenance and capital costs for the facility, how does that compare to the lease revenue? So, I I think when we're looking at the maintenance and looking at it, the lease revenue is going to be above and beyond what is going to require for us to maintain the buildings. There is a provision in there that they will support us additionally through maintenance and that would be an additional charge for them, but that's above and beyond what the revenue would come in by the square footage. Wonderful. And that includes utilities and everything. Correct. The utilities was negotiated at 15% of the overall for Power Ranch because 15 it is approximately 15% of the square footage of the entire school. And so we feel that that is a very fair way to do it with utilities.
073And so if we spend uh more this year on utilities, then will the their portion will be higher and we would do that proportionally. Great. And then as far as like operational impact on on staff and managing the site, um specifically like facilities and site administration, uh who would do that? Will it be absorbed by current staff or will there be any additional staffing needed for that? There will not be any additional staffing. Um they're the tenant and they will staff theirs appropriately and they will be in charge of that. Um they are not within our contract. They're doing an outside custodial piece where they have people who will come in but the agreement is following our standards for cleaning and using that but they will have that. So that will be staffing for them.
074We talked about food service. It's not an additional. That's again for them. And then we're not in charge of their students. They are not our students. They are just located on our campus. And so it will not our principal will not be responding to disciplinary issues or anything like that. They have their own principal and their own staff and own leadership of that. And so from when you talk about an additional burden, there won't be an additional burden added to the staff there. You know, I think what we've done is when we look at safety plans and different things, should we have to go into a lockdown, then yes, we will have to be able to call them and say that we're in a lockdown. But we won't be providing any additional security or measures
075or anything like that for them. That is what they do as the tenant. Right. So will but as far as like building maintenance and things like that, will still continue to do that or they'll have their own person that manages their own space? Yeah, we we will communicate that and that will be working through Gustavo, our head of maintenance and construction. And I know that we're doing exterior maintenance and making sure that that is appropriate, but that will be the communication to them. We already manage that space and we do it and it's appropriately staffed. And so, we're not anticipating having to hire any additional staffing for this. Right. And then, one last question as far as um legal liability for the facility, uh we do have that in the contract in case a student
076is hurt on, you know, on the premises and things like that that they're responsible for it and not Higley? That is correct, Governor uh Board Member uh Van Hook. And we used our legal department that went through this uh with a fine-tooth comb to make sure that we would not be liable. Is that correct, Ms. O'Brien? Uh yes, that the indemnification provision um will be in it's in the lease and um it's the same lease that's been used in similar circumstances with other school districts. So, um it's been vetted multiple times. Wonderful. Thank you so much. Listen, not to uh continue on the same record, but I also wish to say thank you for coming up with options. I think uh especially as we have made decisions to try to cut in other areas and
077save our staff and do these types of things as we are yet again dealing with the absence of an override. I feel like it is truly great that we are able to use space, especially for a school that had had space to be able to use this. I feel like all of the things in which folks are like, "Hey, these are the things you need to be doing." Good news, we're doing it here in Higley. So, to all, especially Miller, thank you for all of the the great options that you helped bring in with this cuz I think it's good things. Um question that I have in terms of like saving, I know they only have 25 kids and so the number of our kids who are there are probably small, but in theory we
078would also be helping with bussing if we're not having to get a specific bus for a student to go to Queen Creek. That is correct. Our transportation costs could be decreased cuz it's within our district. Sure. Thank you. Um the only other question that I have and I'm sure it will only be something after everything is done. Um mostly because my the school I live nearby Gateway has the ASIS school and I don't know what times those are, but when the ASIS pick up is it gets pretty backed up in that area. I feel like at the very least Power Ranch is probably one of our best locations in terms of that Ranch House Parkway road, whereas in the neighborhood it gets gets a little dicey over by Gateway sometimes. So I feel like that's,
079you know, again fortuitous for us. So thank you. This brings us to action items. We are on approval of fiscal year 2026 budget revision number two. Do I have any questions or comments from the board before I motion? Um I do have questions. Um I compared to um this budget to last year's and it looks like uh we're down uh around 308 students. That includes the 20 something we talked about earlier, which is equivalent to about $2 million um in revenue loss. Um but I also noticed and correct me if I'm wrong, but I um it looks like classroom site fund expenditures reduced by about 52%. And I'm just wondering if you can clarify what is driving that change and how uh that will impact teacher compensation going forward. Uh President Wade, a board member
080Van Hook, the auditor general changed the forms from fiscal year 25 to fiscal year 26. In fiscal year 26, they've made it much more transparent where for our budgeted funds, so we have M&O capital and then classroom site fund, they have added at the bottom of the sheet a cell where you place your anticipated carry forward to the next year. So, in the past, in order to get it to balance, you had to plug a number up in the budget because it had to be in balance or the forms would error out. But, now that they've added that cell on each of those budgeted forms, that's where we can place our anticipated carry forward. Got it. Um and then it also looks like we have uh a drop in regular education by about 24% and
081also an increase of about 10% in transportation. And I'd like to understand what is driving both those numbers. Well, for transportation, our costs have gone up just due to the cost of gas and diesel. That has significantly raised our expenses based on what we had budgeted. So, I will have to be adding more budget into the transportation budget for that just for the trips that we take, field trips, and then just for getting our routes. As far as the 24%, what was that question? Um I'm just it looks like regular education dropped around 24.7%. Um So, that would be similar to classroom site fund again. The numbers would have had to have been plugged in 25 to balance so that the uh worksheet did not error out. But, they allowed now for that carryover to
082get put down at the cell at the bottom. So, you're looking at true budgeted expenditure expenditures up in the top now with the new forms that they've provided. Got it. Okay. Thank you so much. Okay, great. I motion to approve the revised expenditure budget number two for fiscal year 2026 as presented. Second. That would be Mr. Glover is seconding. All those in favor? I. I. I. I motion carries four to zero. This brings us to tentative approval of fiscal year 2027 capital outlay budget. Ms. Rushcamp, I believe you have something before we do questions or comments. I do. Thank you, President Wade, members of the board. This is the 2027, so July 1, uh capital budget that we are hoping to get tentative approval on tonight. Uh main reason we do that is so that
083we can put in requisitions for long lead items and if necessary flip those POs and get them out to the vendor, so we don't have to wait so long. If we waited till July 1st and something had a 12-week lead time, that would set back uh the maintenance department. So, that is why we go out now, request this uh tentative budget. This budget will get trued up when we do the proposed and adopted budgets next month, but just a couple things to note from what we had looked at in April. there was a slight change on the district wide, the first line, that was just to add some additional software cost that we had. Also, for the textbook adoption, that we increased that a little higher because knowing it will be another year out, chances
084are the prices will be going up on that, so I wanted to have a more true budget there. I also placed a $100,000 in the transportation line for the bus. Um, we did have that recent bus accident, and it is looking like our bus could be totaled. So, if that is the case and we do not get enough from insurance, then I just wanted to make sure there was some budget in there for transportation. And then, for the furniture fixtures for the classrooms, that just adjusted due to the true up of the ADM. Thank you, Ms. Freshcamp. Do we have any questions or comments from the board? President Wade. Um, it looks here that we're transferring some M&O capital. Um, we're being very mindful of kind of our balances, right? The capital and the M&O.
085I just want to confirm that we're being very proactive. We're doing the repairs that we need to do, but also being very easy on our budget, though. So, I just want to confirm that we're communicating with all the parties involved, all the district admin and such. Yes, that's correct. Um, President Wade, Vice President Jerman, yes. So, when we're transferring that 3.25 million, that will be paying for the middle school leases. Typically, we've done 3.55, but with the override uh, coming down each year, and us putting some one-time funding into capital capital will pick up a little more of that lease expense next year is what we're anticipating. Okay, thank you so much for the explanation. Ms. Van Hook, do you have any questions or comments before I motion? I do not. Thank you. >> Okay,
086no worries. I motion tentatively or two tentatively approve the fiscal year 2027 capital outlay budget. Second. Ms. Jarman is seconding. All those in favor? I. >> I. I. I motion carries four to zero. This brings us to 8.3, approval of supplemental instructional materials. Do I have any questions or comments from the board before I motion? President Wade. I'll go for it. Um there was some questions about I think board member Van Hook brought it up about those videos and such. So, I just want to make sure that you guys are doing your due diligence just to protect the safety and the age appropriateness of this curriculum with the grade levels and such for adoption. Absolutely, board member Jarman. We did internally decide to remove those videos um from the approval process. So, we're just going
087to go forward with the textbook as a supplemental and not um [clears throat] option in with the videos. Okay, and then also when just touching base, do we have kind of a plan of action? I'm sure we can talk about it more later on, but just where you're where assessing that the supplementals are being used, they're worth the expenses, etc. here forward. I'll kick it off and then I will turn it over either to Superintendent Lotzenhiser or Mr. Berkshire. But yes, we are developing a system so that the supplemental materials will be reviewed on a cyclical basis. And I'd like to jump in on that one. Yes, ma'am. Mr. Berkshire and and Mrs. Davis have developed a plan as well, but I was going to talk about the coincide when we look at our policy
088IJJ, which we have a proposal from board member Van Hook that would be brought forth at the next meeting. But yes, that cyclical review and how can we make sure that once they get on they're not on forever and there is a plan and a proposal from our educational services department and we'll be presenting that to you at a future meeting. Thank you. Ms. Van Hook, do you have any questions or comments before I motion? I just want to say I I appreciate the fact that we're being proactive and the inappropriate content. Thank you so much. I motion to approve the supplemental materials listed as recommended by the pre-K through 12 supplemental materials committee for instructional use beginning in the 2026-2027 school year. Second. That would be Mr. Glover seconding. All those in favor? I.
089I. I. I. Motion carries 4 to 0. >> [clears throat] >> 8.4 approval of property lease agreement between Higley Unified and AZ Aspire. Do I have any questions or comments from the board before I motion? Ms. Van Hook? I didn't mention this earlier, but I I'm also grateful that we're utilizing the space that we have to bring in extra revenue and um I applaud all those involved. It's a great um way to get more money. So, thank you. Are you guys >> [laughter] >> I motion to uh approve the property lease agreement between Higley Unified and AZ Aspire Academy. Second. That would be Ms. Jarman seconding. All those in favor? I. I. I. Motion carries 4-0. This brings us to 8.5, authorization of expenditure parking lot project at Power Ranch Elementary to Copper State Pavement
090Inc. Any questions or comments from the board before I motion? Ms. Van Hook. If you can just hold on 1 second till I get to my notes for that. Um the only thing I had asked is uh I I know it had had mentioned that the slab was uh in not good condition, but it looks like um we don't need an extra quote for that cuz that's going to be done internally, so um that was my only concern. I think Board Member Van Van Hook that was about the cooling towers that were approved Oh. Yes, sorry. Those were the cooling towers. This one's This one's the parking lot. We waited to add it as an action item cuz if we didn't approve the lease, we wouldn't approve the construction, but because we just approved the
091lease, we're asking now to approve the construction of the parking lot. Okay. Yes, sorry about that. Um I changed the numbers around. Um for that one um the only uh question I had is I know we typically use uh our preferred vendors, but just to be able to see like more possibly more competitive bids, um it would be nice to for for big projects like this to be able to get additional bids instead of um just going to the preferred vendors. And you know, just typically in the in the future with big projects like this, it's at least three quotes, and I don't know if you guys did that with three preferred vendors, or just you just went straight to one person or one company? President Wade, uh board member Van Hook, it was with
092the timing and needing to get this done quickly because this will all have to be completed, well, first again, we had to make sure that the lease was um going to be approved, and then we'll have to as soon as the school is released for the summer, we have a short time window, so we went with a uh vendor who was on a contract 1GPA, so that all of the due diligence had already been done. Okay. Thank you so much. I motion to approve the authorization of expenditure in the amount of $111,062.85 for the parking lot project at Power Ranch Elementary to Copper State Pavement Incorporated. All those Oh, sorry, no. Second. Thank you, Mr. Glover. I got ahead of myself. All those in favor? I. I. I motion carries 4 to 0. This brings
093us to future agenda items. Does anybody have any requests for future agenda items? Um I just uh the uh policy IJA that um Mr. Lotzenhiser mentioned. Yeah, it's on the Yeah, uh board member Van Hook, yeah, we'll be looking to bring that at our work study in June. Thank you. Uh before I adjourn, I just wish to remind cuz it was not on the microphone earlier, uh for all those parents who weren't here during our technical difficulties and those folks online, it is teacher appreciation week. Thank you to all of our staff, all of our teachers, who are out here in the trenches towards the end of the year as everybody's counting down the days. We appreciate you and we thank you for all that you do. I motion to adjourn. Second. That would be
094Ms. Jerman seconding. All those in favor? Aye. >> Aye. Aye. Aye. Motion carries 4 to 0. Drive safe, everybody.