001Mike's even on. Hello. Good evening. Is this right? Yeah, okay. Hello and good evening. I would like to call this meeting to order. Mr. Lotzenhiser, may I have roll call, please? President Wade, please let the record know that all five members of the governing board are in attendance this evening. Please join me in a moment of silence followed by the pledge of allegiance. Okay, I motion to approve the agenda. That would be Ms. Van Hook seconding. I cannot either. Um So, also um we aren't using our computers to vote cuz you know, the hot mess and all that jazz. Um if you could when we vote, just turn your microphone on so then at least that way it picks it up and then that'll be easier. And that helps solve our problems. Um all in
002favor of approving the agenda. I. I. I. I, motion carries five to zero. Springs us to Mr. Lotzenhiser. President Wade, members of the board, very exciting for a lot of different recognitions that we have in our Higley Happenings um for this month, but before we go, uh I'm going to go off just a little off script here today because the first thing on the superintendent's report is to just thank uh board President Wade for deciding to spend her birthday evening with us here at the governing board meeting. And so, if you wouldn't all join me in just saying happy birthday to governing board member Wade, and we appreciate you're being here on your birthday. >> [applause] >> All right. So, if I could have our two Higley High seniors, our National Merit Scholar finalists Kendall
003Fentress and Donelo Parker come to the front, please. >> [applause] >> Guys, I'm going to have you stand right in the middle. So, our two our two senior Higley High School seniors, National Merit Scholarship finalists Kendall Fentress and Donelo Parker have achieved national national merit scholarship finalist status with their strong academic performance, impressive test scores, compelling applications, and we're very very so proud of the amazing academic accomplishments for you as your seniors. And so, I'm going to have you introduce yourself and say something really quick, but I got to get the remote mic. All right. Hello. My name is Kendall Fentress. I am a senior here at Higley Unified School District at a the high the Higley High School as well. Um So, next All right, next year I plan on going to college at
004UCLA. And uh I plan on studying biology and intent of eventually going into um the medical field. That's my plans. >> [applause] >> Hi, my name's uh Danny Parker. I'm a senior here at Higley High School. And next year I'm planning on attending um ASU with a double major in economics and data science with plans of doing econometrics on the international level. >> [applause] >> For those of you don't know how hard it is to become a National Merit finalist, it's a huge process. It's not just test scores, but a huge application. And so, we're so very proud of them and they truly have gone to the top 1% when they get to that. So, thank you very much for all the awesome things that you do and now we're going to get a picture.
005All right, one more time. National Merit Scholarship finalists. [applause] >> [applause] >> All right, next if I could have the uh Higley High School's Academic Decathlon group come on up to the front, please. >> [applause] >> So, if you guys would just line up right there, I'm going to say a few words and then So, the Academic Decathlon is a national competition that tests both knowledge and communication skills. We're thrilled to share that this year marked Higley High's most decorated state competition ever with 13 individual awards and two students invited to represent the Knights at the national competition. We congratulate the Decathlon team for their success and wish Ryan Cornett and Jayden Froloff the best of luck at nationals. So, let's give them a round of applause again. >> [applause] >> All right, so I'm
006going to I'm going to pass the mics on and I want you to introduce yourself, your grade, and what you participated in and the medal that you won. All right, and we'll start right here. Hi, I'm Libby Jolly. I'm a sophomore and I won silver at speech at state. Hi, I'm Mason Cole. I'm a senior and I won first in science at state. Uh hi, I'm Skyler Froloff. I'm a sophomore and I won an award in literature. I'm Sydney Dale. I'm a junior and I won third place at the state competition in the interview category. Uh I'm Ryan Cornett. I am a senior and I won third in science. I'm Jayden Froloff. I'm a sophomore and I won bronze in economics. I'm Carrie Matthew. I'm just the coach. >> [applause] >> That congratulations All right,
007and now who's going next? >> All right, if I could have the Higley High All-State Band and choir students come up to the front, please. >> [applause] >> So, we're very proud of the five students who were selected to participate in the All-State band and one student who was selected in our All-State choir this year. Congratulations to these students. I know it's a hard thing to go through to showcase your talents and go through this audition process and then rise to the top and become All-State. We can't wait to see what you do next and we're very excited cuz, you know, we've got to hear perform and we know how awesome you guys are. So, it's really good recognition and what I'd love for you to do is introduce yourself, your year, and what instrument
008or if you sing. I'm Reagan. I'm a senior at Higley and I'm in choir and I sing soprano. Uh I'm Mason. I play trombone and I'm a junior at Higley. My name's Kyler Spruell. I'm a junior at Higley and I play French horn. My name's Jeremy. I'm a junior and I also play French horn. Mr. >> [applause] >> Mr. Sharp and Mr. De Cost, any words that you'd like to say about these students? We're just so proud. They're They're really good. Congratulations to And we we just got to have a a superintendent cabinet visit to Higley High where we got to hear performances from the different groups. And I tell you what, if you haven't had a chance to see the fine arts and see them perform, it's fantastic and I know there's a lot
009of events coming up here at the end of the year. So, I encourage you all to attend and see these students perform. They're great. So, again, let's give it up for our All-State. >> [applause] >> Come on up. Come on up. Not to put you guys on >> [laughter] >> All right. And for our next recognition, oh, I'm so excited about this one. If we couldn't have Kelly and Chrissy from Cortina come all the way up to the front. >> [groaning] >> Mrs. Papkin, Mrs. De Bono, are the principal and the assistant principal of Cortina for the A+ and joining them Mr. Cantrell from Cooley and Shayna Las Arenza from Cooley for their A+ as well. So, congratulations to Cortina Elementary School and to Cooley Middle School in earning the A+ School of Excellence recognition
010from the Arizona Education Foundation. The statewide recognition honors public schools demonstrating high academic achievement, strong leadership, and sustained commitment to educational excellence. The process involved a detailed application, tour, interviews with panels of judges. We're so proud of the administrators for their efforts in this rigorous process to ensure their schools are meeting the highest standards. An A+ School of Excellence, for those of you who have never gone through it before, it's quite a process where we start, they write applications. The application has to get approved by a group of judges. Then they have a visit where they actually come and say, "Can we see what you wrote?" and verify that it's there. And once they do that, then we get this prestigious award and I'm so excited that our two schools who submitted this year were
011able to get the A+ School of Excellence award. So, here tonight they are to present to the governing board our our banners that that they just recently had and earned on their campuses and presented to their faculties. So, again, let's give a big round of applause for everything that happened with Cortina and Cooley. Okay, Mr. Cantrell and Shayna, if you guys wouldn't mind come right back on up again. Let's give a big round of applause for Cooley Middle School for their Schools to Watch recognition. Again, it's another rigorous process. They can keep rolling. J- Just keep going. Like, well, yeah. No. And so, in addition to receiving the A+ School of Excellence, Cooley Middle School is now an Arizona Schools to Watch. To earn the designation, schools completed a rigorous self-study and application and participated
012in a formal on-site evaluation by trained reviewers from the Arizona Association of Middle Level Education before being approved for state recognition and national recognition in Washington, D.C. Again, congratulations so much to Cooley for for getting this award and and what a spring. We have A+, then we have Schools to Watch, huge banners, but really goes to show the recognition and outstanding things that's happening at Cooley Middle School. Let's give them a big round of applause. >> [applause] >> I was waiting for Chad to walk all the way back so I could say, "Hey, it's time for our Cooley Points of Pride." Would our principal, Mr. Cantrell, and the assistant principal, Ms. Las Arenza, come ahead and come up to the front. >> [applause] >> All right, good evening, everyone. I hope you're not sick of
013me yet. So, um thank you all for being here. I'm going to pull my notes out. We are very excited to acknowledge some very wonderful people who are um here with us to uh to to earn some very deserved awards. We're very excited tonight to acknowledge um several people who make all the success at Cooley possible. And so, uh the first person that we want to highlight is our Points of Pride volunteer. That's Jen Keys. >> [applause] >> Ms. Keys is our our volunteer Points of Pride. She's our PTO president and there are people that it is hard to express in words how uh much they mean to your campus, how much they mean to you as a administrator, and how much um they do for the school. And so, um Jen is one of
014those people for me and uh she's been our PTO president for the last 4 years. Um I've been here the last three, so she has been an absolute fixture for me and somebody I know I can count on and rely on no matter what is going on with her and the amount of effort, work, time, care um she puts into Cooley is amazing. Uh whether it's looking for food trucks because one bailed at the last minute or uh finding different ways to help support student projects throughout the campus or teacher projects or teacher gifts or different things for student events to make sure that students can go who may not um I cannot thank Jen enough for all she does for Cooley, but for me as well. Um like I said, I This is my
015third year at Cooley and and Ms. Keys has been an absolute fixture um and somebody who I don't know that we could be as successful as we are without. So, um I'm very grateful for her. I'm very grateful for everything she does. And so, I just want to thank Ms. Keys. >> [applause] >> Should we just ask her who she brought with us tonight? She's proud. Oh, did you Who did you bring? I brought no one. I honestly was uh I'm on the Williams Field booster for baseball and I was at the game doing baseball stuff for Williams Field. So, I came straight here. So. Okay. Uh next up is our um Points of Pride classified employee, uh Lauren Thor. >> [applause] [cheering] >> Mr. Thor is the media specialist uh at Cooley Middle School
016and he is absolutely special to our students. He is the most warm and welcoming environment uh warm and welcoming person on our campus and that permeates through the environment he creates at the library. We have students lined up to go every single day who want to to in there. We have to limit it because there are so many students who want to be um in the library hanging out with Mr. Thor. He's setting up games. He's got different projects that they can do. He moves them around during the year. He sets up a library where students have a voice and a say in what's in that library. They They recommend books. They request them. Um he looks into them, make sure they're appropriate for the library, and then um fills them. And so, we have
017a very vibrant library that our students actually use and actually want to be in and want to use. And that's all because of the work and effort Mr. Thor puts in. Um he's amazing, and our students absolutely adore him as do our staff. Beyond the media center specialist, he goes above and beyond with tech support, setting up for events. Whatever is needed to be done, Mr. Thor is a part of it because um he believes in the school and the success of it, and and he's a huge part of it. And so, that's right, the A+. So, we thank Mr. Thor for all he does, and he's a um an amazing um part of our Cooley team. So, thank you, Mr. Thor. >> [applause] >> Next up is our certified point of pride, and that's
018Ms. Bowman. She is one of our She's our art teacher over at Cooley Middle School. So, welcome up, Ms. Bowman. This is my second school with Ms. Bowman. Um she's phenomenal. She called me the same exact day that I had an art teacher tell me that they were moving states, and it was fate that she came over, and our students um absolutely love being in her class. Um she's an incredible teacher. She goes through so many different types of art, different projects, allowing students to express themselves, whether it's 2D art, 3D art. She's bringing in artists from outside. She's taking them on field trips. Whatever it does to get kids excited and invested in art, Ms. Bowman is absolutely doing. Um Ms. Laserenza had a a lot of things to say, and so I kind
019of want to share some of the things that Ms. Ms. Laserenza specifically was talking about, and that is um Ms. Laserenza takes as much pride in Ms. Bowman as a teacher as she does as Ms. Bowman does her students. Um it's an honor that we get to recognize her because Ms. Bowman never misses an opportunity to recognize and express how proud she is of her student, and then how much of she values the effort they put into her class and their artwork. Um her communication is incredible with parents, with students, her artist of the week, her newsletters weekly, reminding parents of upcoming events that don't even have to do with art, but just making sure that kids and parents have have that knowledge of what's going on on campus. And so, um she has a
020remarkable ability um that stands out to uh build positive and trusting relationship with students, and it's her kind and calm demeanor that makes her wonderful to have on our campus. So, thank you, Ms. Bowman, for all you do for Cooley. >> [applause] >> And last up is our student point of pride, who we almost didn't have with us tonight because she didn't We were going to surprise her because she actually was part of the school budgeting project that our school purchase participatory budget project that presented earlier tonight. If you didn't have a chance to watch it, it's amazing to see all the different projects. Um there's a YouTube stream from it earlier that you could check out. And so, um she was part of that. We were going to surprise her right after, but it
021finished a little faster. And so, we didn't want her to miss out, so we had to ruin the surprise a little bit early. But, um our student is Layla Jessinghaus. I always mispronounce her name. Layla is an eighth-grade student at Cooley who has an incredible academic and extracurricular resume as you would expect. Um but even more than that, I want to highlight Layla's kindness, um who she is on campus. She's always there to help take care of other students, take care of her peers. Um she's truly genuine as a person, and you don't often see that. Um and it's just wonderful to work with Layla in anything she does. And I have a story in just a second, but I want to highlight some of her academic and um extracurricular endeavors. Um Layla is an
022A A+ student who um takes accelerated courses. She's a talented musician. She plays the violin. She dances in our Cooley dance program. Um and this is not exhaustive, but she's the president of our NJHS club, the president of our WEB club. Um she's a member of the Cooley student leadership team. Uh she's a member of the student participatory budget project that won for the school, the lunchtime makeover. Um and so, those are just a few of the things, but those are all huge. WEB is a critical piece of what makes Cooley successful with our new students, welcoming in others. It's a wonderful program. Our NJHS is involved in student leadership opportunities, volunteer programs. And Layla is a leader in all of those clubs, and that speaks to her. Um but again, going back to kind
023of that leadership and her kindness and just being an amazing kiddo, um when we were about to announce our teacher of the year, I needed posters. I had an idea, and so I wanted to make some posters. And I pulled Layla, and I was like, "Hey, I need like three posters. Just, you know, celebrating teacher of the year. You got this. I got paint for you. Here's paper. Tell me what you need." Um an hour in, there was like, "I needed M&M's. I needed all kinds of things." I think the M&M's may have just been for them to eat, but they did end up on the board. Um so, by by the time we made the announcements, I didn't have three posters. I had like nine. And they all were themed. They all had really
024funny slogans. They felt like almost like prom proposals, you know. Um they were amazing, and and that was, you know, a huge part of that leadership that Layla shows because there was a group of them, but Layla was kind of my my starting point, and just she was so excited to celebrate her teacher, um Ms. A, who was our teacher of the year. And she was just really excited to celebrate her because um that's just who Layla is, is somebody who cares about others. And one of the posters ended up with glitter on it. I didn't even give them glitter. I was amazed at where it came from. So, um Layla, congratulations. You're a phenomenal student for Cooley, and we're so proud of you. >> [applause and cheering] >> And now, not Cooley Middle School,
025but Williams Field. And so, if we could have Mr. Dolan and Mr. O'Neil come up present the points of pride for Williams Field High School. It's on. This thing on? I don't know how you follow that. So, uh I'll try. Um President Wade, board members, uh Superintendent Lotspeich, cabinet, thank you for giving us the opportunity to share with you some of the great people that we have on our campus. First one I'm going to talk about, unfortunately, is not here. Uh kind of chose some people based on some of our core values. And uh the paraprofessional we chose, her name is Lisa Rich. And the reason why we chose her is because of her dedication to um our program. She's kind of like a Swiss Army knife. Um when you walk into the classrooms she's
026in, she uh is a support in our math classes most of the time, but you'll see her in the resource math class, and she's sometimes up there teaching. Um kids really, really like her. She has fun with everyone. And for her tonight, she said, "Hey, I can't make it. My kids have softball." So, um I I think that that that's pretty neat. And I know that Mr. O'Neil has something he wanted to share about his interactions with her. Yeah, Ms. Rich is amazing on our campus. We appreciate all she does to support the students in all the classes. She's never afraid to to help out a student need, whether uh they're an A student or someone who just needs a little bit more support. So, we appreciate everything that she does on campus, and could
027be prouder to give us give her this award. So, thank you. >> [applause] >> So, I I like you, Chad. I brought notes. I don't know if I'll use them, but I have them here. Um our volunteer, uh Ms. Linda Smith. >> [applause] >> So, first, you tell us who's here with you. Pardon me? Who is here with you? >> I have my daughter and my granddaughter here, and the girl that got me into the gig is homesick. >> [laughter] >> So, speaking about the gig. So, uh you know, Chad said it, too. You You can't function as a school without people who are supporting you. And so, for us, Linda is amazing. Uh her talents, you can see, is in our theater programs. Uh whether it be uh when I walk down there, I
028see her sewing an outfit for some kid, having a conversation with a kid, they're running lines, etc. But, the way they look, how they act, the things that happen are mainly because of the things she does for our kids. And she's here all the time. Um I know I'll walk through the theater when we're uh you know, they're practicing, and she's there. Uh just giving up her time for our kids. and I just want to read a couple of things that Miss Bird said about her. Linda has been a consistent and dedicated volunteer in our theater program for many years giving her time and talents to support students. As our costume designer she brings characters to life with incredible creativity and attention to detail. She plays a huge role in our CTE technical theater classes
029by teaching students real-world skills like sewing, problem-solving and craftsmanship. We would be nowhere without her. So thank you very much for all you do. Thank you. >> [applause] >> Next we have our teacher Stacy Ventress. >> [applause] >> You get to tell us who's with you, too. Um I brought my husband Travis Ventress who also teaches at Williams Field. >> [applause] >> So even before I got here I knew Stacy. I know when I was even at Sossaman we got to practice track and field sometimes at Higley and I'm walking and I see her she's with her kids for sports medicine. Hey do you guys need anything? They have we having a we had a meet there and they did everything and you just heard her no no and it was just like clockwork. So
030now I get to Williams Field and the the term I think of from our core values for Stacy is selflessness and I think of that cuz I think of the things that she's done since I've been there. This is her third classroom. And I told her she has the same one for next year so she gets to stay there. She will teach whatever you ask her to teach. So next year I asked her would you teach anatomy? And she's going to teach some sections of anatomy. She's going to teach physical education, she's going to teach sports medicine. She does whatever is best for kids. And you see it the smile that you just saw all the time and I think we needed this year hey we have some kids that didn't finish their CPR. Could
031you help us? Yes, I can. So really will go out of her way to make sure that kids are successful and we can't function as schools if we don't have people like Stacy so thank you very much. >> [applause] >> And our student is Brad Cole. >> [applause] >> Okay Brad, who's here with you? My mom, grandma and dad. Okay. >> [applause] >> So I chose Brad because I actually got to know him a little bit this year cuz he's a teacher's assistant in the front office. And how I got to know him was simply the support that he gives to people in the front office. Our TAs will run passes. We asked them to make copies this year. We asked them to do a lot of other things but then there's a another young
032lady that we moved in to be a TA in first in the period that he's here. And I don't know if he even knows this but she has some struggles with people. Now when you see the two of them I mean they're just not buddies but you can just see there's communication all the time. She feels comfortable talking to him and I think that just is talks about his character. The other day I sat with him and I said hey what are you doing what are you doing at Eeveeit etc. And then the demeanor changed. It went this big smile he started talking about welding. And how cool welding is and kind of third generation right grandpa and then you your dad and then you. Then he told me a story about his grandma. He
033said that he made a door right for your your grandmother and I just kind of thought to myself wow like we start talking about what we want for students what kind of character traits we want. He's a kind kid. But he does things for others so that's why I chose you Brad. >> [applause] >> That's for you. There's a little thing on there for you. And that's for you. President Wade if we could just take a little short break so if and this is the point of time where if anyone would like to leave they can go ahead and leave before we continue on with the rest of the board meeting. Thank you Mr. Lotzenhiser. Okay so I'll finish. We always have one slide left and I think maybe next time I will switch the
034order because everyone wants to leave as soon as that last point of pride is done. But let's just talk about some upcoming events. Thursday April 23rd we do have our teacher of the year celebration at HCPA and so we invite everyone to join us for that and then our next governing board meeting is Tuesday May 5th and we know we are in the home stretch and that graduations will be here before we know it. But that concludes the superintendent's report. Thank you Mr. Lotzenhiser. Also I thought we had an agreement good sir but thank you for that at the start of the meeting delightful. Mrs. Zimmerman do we not have any requests for comment today? Okay so we have no requests to speak. So this brings us to consent agenda items. I motion to approve
035consent agenda items 5.1 through 5.12. That would be Mrs. Zimmerman is seconding. All those in favor? I. >> I. I. Motion carries 5 to 0. We'd like to thank Patrick Neilson with Alpine Turf AZ, Chaparral Elementary PTO, ECDC PTO, Higley High Booster Club and Higley High School Parents Unites Booster Club for their generous donations to the district and its students. Superintendent Lotzenhiser you have some announcements. >> President Wade we have some introductions tonight to make and so I'm going to turn it over to Mr. Armstrong but with your vote you just approved our new principal Faith Orr for Cortina Elementary School. So Mr. Armstrong. Yes thank you Mr. Lotzenhiser, President Wade, members of the board. Like Mr. Lotzenhiser just said we approved Mrs. Faith Orr who will be the new principal at Cortina Elementary. She
036is coming to us with over 20 plus years of experience. She has served as a teacher in multiple grade levels, as a principal, and she's currently serving as a principal in a neighboring district. So, we're super excited to have her come on over, and I'm going to take a minute to invite Mrs. Orr to come up to the mic and say a few words. Okay. First task successful. Thank you. Well, good evening, President Wade and members of the board. My name's Faith Orr, and it's a delight and an honor to get to uh move over to the Higley Unified District and to serve your students, staff, family members, and community. I'm just so excited and I'm looking forward to my time here. Um I will let you know I'm going to give it my absolute
037best. I'm really um upcoming something that I'm looking forward to is an opportunity to connect with families and students and staff. I think it's next week sometime, Mr. Armstrong. So, um just looking forward to immersing myself in the community. Um was really excited to see there's already a cheerleading squad that's that's ready here at Cortina, and I I just really wanted to just also commend you all on the way that you honor students as well as just take the time to really recognize the staff and those heartfelt gestures that uh your teams did really speaks high volumes of what you value as important here in the school district. And so, um I'm going to get on board and uh in in light of student success and what's best for kids, I'm really looking forward to
038serving and I I thank you for this opportunity, and um it's it's a it's a pleasure. Thank you. >> [applause] [applause] >> Second on this on the approvals that you did uh this time was we approved a new director of finance, Heather Skinner, and I will have Sharon uh talk to her cuz unfortunately, Heather can't be here today. Yes, that's right. Um President Wade, members of the board, uh Heather Skinner, she's actually attending the Tyler Technology Conference, Tyler Connect. Um started this evening and goes through the rest of this week. That is the software that runs our finance and our HR department. So, I'm excited for that for her. Heather has been within Higley for about the last 10 years starting at Bridges as a substitute teacher and then moving over to the district office
039in 2020 and then working her way up through finance. So, we're really excited to have Heather move up and take the director position. >> [applause] >> Welcome to Higley, Ms. Orr. And congrats to Ms. Skinner. This brings us to uh information items. We have 6.1 first review of the 2026-2027 capital outlay budget. Ms. Rushcamp. All right. Good evening, President Wade, members of the board. Uh tonight we are going to take our first review of the capital outlay budget. We had done three reviews of M&O and received tentative approval of that so that we could get our contracts out. And now um we will begin looking at capital. So, what is the capital budget? The capital budget, it's uh technically called the district additional assistant. We refer to that as DA. Um but then around the
040school uh it would be commonly referred to as capital. And capital versus M&O, the two differences, capital would be used more to purchase items that are physical items. They would be an item that has a useful life of at least 1 year. It would be repaired rather than replaced when it was worn or damaged. And it is an independent unit that retains its original shape, appearance, and character. These three criteria are set by the Arizona Auditor General. And so, that again is what all districts in the state use to determine what is capital versus what is M&O. So, some examples down here again, physical items, it would be athletic equipment, furniture, technology-related hardware. The one I find interesting is software um because that's not really something physical, but it is capital. And then also construction
041compared to M&O, which would be our salaries, benefits, supplies. If we were going to repair something instead of replace it, then it becomes M&O. I think we're good. Yeah. So, looking at some of the highlights, this is going into next year, and right now uh the of course, the legislature is still working on the school budget, so we are making assumptions. Same as we did for M&O. Um one thing we are taking into next year is we are not making an inflation adjustment. We have been holding steady for the last 3 years with the same pupil ADM amount for capital. Going into next year, we will be doing the same. There is talk of one-time funds again. Right now, we are being conservative. We are not adding that to the budget. And the hope is
042for 2028, we will actually see an increase to our capital funding. So, when you look at the middle, the capital funding for next year, again, we've been carrying this for 3 years, $549.45 per ADM for grades K through 8. 9 through 12 is $600.86. And then also, 9 through 12, they receive a textbook um funding of $84.93. So, again, same dollar amounts we've been looking at the last last several years with the hope of getting a supplemental added again one time. For our major maintenance projects uh that are subject to the SFD funding, historically, HUSD has been transferring money from M&O over to capital to assist with any projects that we've had. We've had the override, so we have been able to do that. However, with our declining enrollment and knowing going into '27 that
043is the last year of our M&O override, we will not be transferring any funds from M&O to capital for projects for any major projects. We will be doing our um usual transfer from M&O over to capital to support the lease payments, and we had talked about that in the three different presentations for the uh M&O budget. Okay, so this is looking at the departments and the schools breaking down the capital budget for next year. What we do is each December, we meet with the departments to determine what they believe their needs will be going into the next school year, and then we build our budget from that. One thing we did different this year well, going into next year is typically the software purchases have fallen under the information technology budget. So, going into next
044year, it was asked if we could move the software that pertains to a particular department into their budget so that they have their eyes on what the cost of the software is, all of the items included in that software, um just kind of had a a better understanding. So, that's where you will see some differences in that difference column. So, district-wide, that would include like the superintendent budget, the sped budget, human resources, student services, things like that. Um their budget, we are projecting 376,000. Again, the biggest reason for that is software cost. With some of the biggest software cost being in human resources just with the software we have to have for our application system, for Raptor, for our safety, and um all of the things that the teachers and staff have to take, the
045different classes. So, that's the biggest increase there. Our building leases, they remain the same. So, our two middle schools, as you know, we are leasing those. So, that is 3.55 million. Again, M&O will contribute uh 3.25 million into that and then capital will come up with the balance to pay for the leases. And then for Ed Services, they are mainly built on software and they have been picking up their software costs. So, that's where we see that total come from. We are anticipating having another textbook adoption next year. As you know this year, we did the ELA adoption. There was not enough money in the budget to pay for the K-12 adoption. So, the hope is going next year we can make up for 6-12. And then also in Ed Services, their supplemental curriculum. Again,
046that cost has gone up a little bit as well. Looking at IT, there are three different buckets there. If um if we leave out safety and security, that is up to the IT director to kind of determine where are the funds needed. Do we need more of a student refresh? Do we need more of staff uh refresh. So, based on that, we are putting 800,000 into student technology. Again, this current year we're in, they are getting uh quite a few computers. And then the staff will be having a refresh too for some of the staff to $300,000. And then district-wide software that they are in charge of, 1.2 million. That includes a 10% increase for inflation. And then safety and security, that is overseen by the student services. We do meet by weekly with members
047of maintenance, finance, and IT and also student services just to see where the needs in the district for items to be taken care of. So, that budget $125,000 will go to cover those items. And then for support services, which is our maintenance and construction, we are leaving their top two budgets the same amount as this year. Major projects, we're dropping slightly down to $2 million and for going into next year, we're looking at HVAC work, chillers, continuing to work on our cooling towers since we've had two cooling towers fail this year, try to get ahead of that. And then also doing flooring at one school. For transportation, for buses, for capital, we are leaving that at zero again this year. Transportation has a cash account where they are able to generate revenue from the field
048trips that we do within the schools. Also, if we offer that service to any outside districts. So, they have a sufficient amount of cash in their budget right now to make a major purchase if needed. We will put $50,000 in there just in case any of our buses need uh major work such as new engines. And then for white fleet, we are not budgeting anything for next year to replace any of the district vehicles. That's like the maintenance vehicles, the warehouse vehicles, and such. For the schools, as we had mentioned couple of times, we are not changing their budgets going into next year. The only reason you do see a slight decrease is because we again, as we've talked about with MNO, are anticipating around a 380 AM enrollment loss. Capital budget is built on
049$45 per student of it would be this year's ADM. So, that would naturally reduce a little just based on projected ADM loss. For the athletic equipment and the instruments, we are leaving those at 100,000 again. That's been working well for the schools. It's been supporting the athletic program, also allowing for the band instructors to get needed uh instruments. So, we will do that again. Another thing we will do again for next year is what you just saw earlier tonight at 4:00 p.m. It was the school participatory budgets. We will be putting $75,000 in there again for all 13 schools to be able to um allow them to continue to work on additional projects that they may have. And then under finance for the warehouse and print shop, the biggest increase there is we are picking
050up some of our software uh that would have been picked up in IT. So, that's why we have had an increase. And then our estimated carryover, so after we run through all of this, look at what we're carrying over from 26 to 27, what we believe our budget capacity to be bringing money in from MNO, we believe at the end of 27, we will have about 4.5 million to carry over to FY28. And what makes up those numbers again, we'll bring 3.25 million in from MNO. We are anticipating a budget capacity of 6.8 million and a budget carryover of about 6.7 million. And right now that's a low estimate. I would believe we will probably end a little better than that. Um we'll just have to see how some things come out with our ELA
051adoption and such. This chart takes what we had just talked about and kind of gives you a picture to see where the spending is taking place. So, if you take out our contingency of what we plan to carry over, you can see how much the middle school lease is affecting our capital budget. So, if you think about our ADM and what we will get just from ADM, that's like 6.8 million. And you look at our middle school lease and you look at IT, which would be you know the software for the students and um the computers, that's about $5.5 million leaving 1.256 for the rest of the district to operate for a full year. So, if we did not have the capability of transferring from MNO to help cover the leases and if we did
052not carry over any funds, it would be very difficult to operate once we had a breakdown of a chiller, another cooling tower, um yeah, it would not be pretty. I know a lot of people talk about and ask about the capital lawsuit because that capital lawsuit um was won last fall. Unfortunately, it is not going to be something that's going to be quickly put into place or give us any relief. Um the lawsuit was filed in 2017 by Glendale Elementary. August 2025, Judge Fox ruled in favor of Glendale Elementary stating that the Arizona capital funding system is unconstitutional. And then last month, March 4th, the judge gave lawmakers eight months to create a constitutional funding system to which nine days later an appeal was filed. Um so again, what we have been hearing is it
053could be several years before any of those funds could flow into the school to help. Ms. Rushcamp, can I just for the people that are listening, is um it's billions of dollars. Okay, and are the the uh state of Arizona's constitution um requires fair and equitable funding for K-12 schools and repeatedly the legislature has failed to live up to that. They lose, they constantly and continuously um lose in court. So, we're talking about billions of dollars for all of our schools, but I thought that this was sort of the last gasp appeal. It may take a while, but I think we're really much closer and I very much look forward to it. And also, I just wanted to say um welcome Ms. Orr Noonan and Mr. Orr. No one will think any less of you
054if you don't want to spend. You've got a lot of late nights ahead of you. I know you're being polite, but I think it I think we would all be okay. Okay. And and one additional thing to mention, um schools are reliant, especially a school like Higley who does not have a capital override or bonds, of the SFD, the School Facilities Division, to assist us when we do have emergency problems. Unfortunately, the state is not funding SFD as they should either. So again, they went into the start of this fiscal year already millions of dollars in the hole. We have qualified for multiple projects. Unfortunately, we won't see that money. So we will have to turn to our own capital to pay for those items till that can get fixed. So looking at our budget
055calendar, May 5th, we will bring this capital budget back for a second review in hopes of getting tentative approval. What that allows is it will allow for us to open requisitions for fiscal year 27. So maintenance can get some of their long lead items entered and get on the schedule of contractors for any work that they want to do over the summer. It would have to start July 1st or later, but again, that gives them that opportunity to commit to a contractor that we have projects to do. And then June 2nd, we will bring the proposed budget that will be for both M&O and capital. We'll also have classroom site fund on there. And then June 23rd, we will adopt that. And with that, I can take any questions. President Wade, the I know we
056were renting buses to other districts. Are we still doing that? We Well, we had leased some to Queen Creek for a while, but no, not to my knowledge. We are not currently leasing any. We do do field trips like I say for like some of the Christian schools or if a bus they have a breakdown or something, we will step in to help. I know we did that I I believe last year bus got stranded. It's great. And then the contingency of percent that equates to Is that the balance? Yes. >> That we're carrying? Yes. That would be the balance. Thank you so much. >> You're welcome. President Wade, Miss Rushcamp, can you touch base kind of with I just want to get a feel of the overall the budget, how the capital plan aligns
057with kind of long-term facility needs in hopes of like creating not creating future strain if we're being mindful of that, if you're working with Superintendent Lawsonheizer? Yes, President Wade, board member Jarman. We are we have a capital plan and actually Miss Johnson and I were speaking to that earlier today. I guess she had been overseeing maintenance this year. We have plans for and I mean in their spreadsheets to support this so for these painting at the schools, carpet replacement at the schools, which cooling tower is going to need the most work next. Along with that is preventative maintenance. So what can we do ahead of time using M&O to you know, do some preventative maintenance on these things to keep them running so that it does not have to turn into a large capital purchase.
058Miss Rushcamp, can I interject as well? An additional part of this when you look at textbook adoptions, so we've met with Ed Services and mapped out what does it look like for textbook adoptions for the next five years because we do know that some of our curriculum is coming due and we've had some older curriculum that is no longer supported by their publishers and so that's kind of pushing to the forefront and we have to be strategic about how we can place those to meet those needs and yet not at the same time overwhelm our budget cuz in reality when we look at capital we're for just for textbook adoptions, probably 4.5 million over the next three years for textbooks going through. Well, if you look at our contingency fund, our carry forward, that's 4.5
059million dollars. And so we have to be very strategic about what we can do to make sure that we provide those resources. And so Ed Services is tracking that working with finance to see what kind of schedule that looks like. I appreciate it. Thank you so much. Can you also expand? I really want the community to kind of understand the processes of the SFD? Can you briefly expand on that a touch? Either one of you, I apologize. Yes, so the school facilities division again was developed back when the funding was falling off again for capital projects as a way to support schools and to support the projects and it and it should be taking care of like the major projects. So for instance, we had the two cooling towers that went down at Williams Field
060and Cooley Middle School. HVAC is considered an emergency in the state of Arizona due to the heat. It is something you have to have in order to continue to hold class. So that bumped us up to the top. Unfortunately, even the emergency funds that were there were not enough to allow. Now we were able to finally get Williams Field approved. So that we are still working on getting that repaired. But it was getting too close for the time for Cooley. I mean there comes a point where it was costing more to continue to rent cooling towers from contractors than it would have cost for us to just have gone out and fix it. So I mean and there's several several items that again fall in that category. And we're on for weatherization for a couple
061of our schools. We're on the list to be to have that approved and to get funded, but again, the funding just is not there and it's through no fault of SFD. They're just not getting the funding themselves. Thank you. I think this is so helpful information. And I you know, AC towers certain things, you know, it's helpful to have something we're going through the hoops, we're doing all the processes we can and I'm so grateful for your foresight and your guys' strategic planning on really kind of helping the district just really kind of keep floating and I'm really grateful all the research and touching base with Higley High and I really I rest assured that these tax dollars are being spent very wisely in the district and I really want to point that out. Thank
062you. Sorry. So as far as the ELA curriculum, so even if it's still within state standards, we would consider getting new curriculum? Remember Van Hook. Yeah, what's coming up with the ELA curriculum is if the publisher is sunsetting it, therefore we don't have any more support for that curriculum anymore. Yes, we need to replace it so we have something that's supported by the publisher. And unfortunately, they're aging out some of the things that we have bought. So then they would have a new one and we wouldn't have access into the new one until we go through an RFP process to do it. And if we're going to do that, we're not just going to automatically renew with that. We'll go out for the whole process again. So it comes down to what we've purchased and
063whether they're being supported or not anymore. Great. Thank you. And I don't expect an answer now, but is it possible to get a total annual cost of K through 6 technology software and replacement like what that looks like just K through 12? K through 6 or K through I'm sorry, K through 6. Thank you. >> K through 6, so the total annual cost hardware and software. Yeah. Hardware and Everything just based on their technology that they're using. And is it do they have iPads or laptops? Chromebooks. Okay. Yep, if we can just get those numbers, I'd appreciate it. Thank you. Miss Rushcamp, thank you. For all of your information, I appreciate it. This brings [clears throat] us to action items. We are at 7.1 approval of overnight and or out of state staff travel safe
064and civil. Do we have any questions or comments from the board before I motion? Yes, just bear with me while I get there. All right, so I asked to have this pulled because I dug into it just to kind of understand what this is the purpose of this conference and I and I understand that it's uh the information provided based on my questions was that the purpose is to um proactive behavior management, clear expectations, consistent adult responses to reduce disruption and improve instructional instructional time. Now, um my concern with I I absolutely believe that student behavior is an issue. Uh and I just speaking to educators, that is a big problem in the classroom and I fully support addressing that. Uh but my concern is bringing in new you know, new information or new framework
065and causing, you know, this teachers to have to learn new tactics or or things like that, which kind of puts more on their plate when their plate is already full. And I know we have policies in place to address behavior issues and I would like for those policies to be implemented and be for us to be consistent um for the administration at each school to you know, talk to the teachers and see what their needs are, what the issues are and be able to address them versus overloading them with more stuff. And you know, I know that our staff has professional development, but I I feel like you know, new things come in and so they go to these conferences and then want to just keep bringing things back where that just creates more work
066for our teachers and I want our teachers to be able to teach um in an environment that's safe um and so that they can teach what they were hired to teach and our students can learn. Uh but again, adding more to their plate, I don't know if that's what we should be doing um versus implementing our policies and making sure that they have what they need in order to have um a classroom uh where learning is happening. Um so >> [clears throat] >> that's that's just my concern. Um and I I know that the information provided was >> [clears throat] >> just based on it looks like AI um you know, it looks like my questions were possibly put in AI and whatever the information was provided was through there, but I mainly just want
067to understand um what the purpose of these conferences are and what the intentions are um when they attend these things. Thank you. Mr. Lotzenhiser, for clarification as far as this travel, this is just staff development. Sorry, there are a lot of staff travel, so I just want to make sure I'm not confusing what the safe and civil specific one is. >> is a conference that we have two administrators at Cooley Middle School that we would like to send them to to help them uh learn skills and continue to grow professionally to be able to support exactly the implementation of our policies and um continue to work through their disciplinary uh expertise in terms of dealing with that. And so, this is a professional growth opportunity for those individuals at Cooley Middle School. I appreciate it.
068Um I also appreciate Board Member Van Hook in that I agree that our policies in place are what we should follow. Um I also respect that we have concern for not adding too much to staff's plate. Uh like all our trainings, I think it's important to to remind folks that when staff go to these conferences, ultimately you get a lot of information and some of that information is useful to you, some of that information is helpful. Some of that information does not align with what we teach, so then it doesn't matter um because it's not accessible to us or it's not giving any kind of benefit. And sometimes you go to a conference and there is something where it shifts and it clicks and it gives you new opportunities or new ideas. Um so, I
069I appreciate the the concern for our staff um and the information that we were provided as far as what this is for. Um because at the end of the day, any teacher or admin will tell you that uh as long as you have good classroom management, that's where learning will take place. And anytime a disruption to that uh impacts learning of not just the kid that is the disruption or the kids, but everyone else around you in that classroom as well. So, classroom management for sure is going to be always a benefit. Uh I appreciate it. With that, I am going to uh motion to approve overnight and or out of state staff travel for safe and civil schools conference. Second. That would be Miss Schultz seconding. All those in favor? I. I. Motion carries
0705 to 0. This brings us to 7.2 approval of overnight and or out of state staff travel for Schools to Watch. Any questions or comments from the board before I uh motion? Uh yes. Um I applaud uh the team for getting this this recognition um for but my only concern is I again researched this program and I I fear just if some of the information introduces components related to identity development, social equity, and expanded mental and emotional support that um that I think ex- extends beyond uh core academic mission of our schools. Um I if the intention here, again, I I I don't quite understand the program um but it looks like there's um annual fees that are involved um and I want to ensure that if this if the purpose of this is to
071help improve student achievement, great. Uh but based on the information that I found on the website this this goes way into uh the whole social emotional learning aspect, social equity uh which I don't think is appropriate for our district to be um to be bringing into our district. Our our purpose is academics um not mental health. And so, um that's where I I have a concern. So, I would like to learn more about this model to understand what the purpose is uh for the school to be utilizing it and how far are they going to go into the framework that's being provided by this program what the annual cost looks like, what the annual training looks like uh what it looks like for our staff to have to learn and have to implement uh within
072the classroom as well. Again, adding to uh the plates of our teachers to have to implement. And is this something like uh Leader in Me, where the students from the minute they enter the school, every aspect of their day is uh filled with things related to social emotional learning. Um so again, [clears throat] the uh the questions that I asked, uh the responses were based on AI, but I I want to hear from um somebody who's actually looked into the program and I mean, I would I would love to uh speak to Mr. Cantrell just to understand um you know, why you you know, where you even heard about this program, what made you interested, and what your intention is for the school. Um That's all for now. Thank you. Board Member Van Hook, we'd
073be happy to set up a conversation with Mr. Cantrell uh and yourself to learn more about it. Schools to Watch is a recognition program as well as a continuous school improvement program when there is framework that we continue to look at and evolve on our campus. And what's nice about when people come and ask questions of you like Schools to Watch or even going through an A+ application, it forces you to turn around and look internally, what are you doing? Student achievement is a huge part piece of that. So, what are we doing to make sure that we have appropriate student achievement and where are some gaps that we can fill in. And so, with this Schools to Watch conference, because we were recognized with the recognition of a Schools to Watch, Mr. Cantrell will
074be traveling back to Washington, D.C. to be recognized. And just for clarity, we are the only district in the state of Arizona that all of our middle schools are Schools to Watch because last year Sussman was awarded the uh Schools to Watch. And so, um as this as this group uh looks and evaluates schools, they recognize that there are really positive things that are happening at uh the Higley middle schools. And again, this one is because we have uh this conference because we have been a part and we have earned this recognition through the process that they have that Mr. Cantrell will be recognized at as well as to get to network with other Schools to Watch individuals for professional development. But I would be happy to help facilitate a meeting where you and Mr.
075Cantrell can go through it together. President Wade, thank you. And I would love to know since you said Sossaman has this, I'd love to know how they've implemented it and how have they seen this program improve student achievement since they've been part of the program if they have any measurable results? So if if you have any of that data, I'd love to see it. Thank you. President Wade, I am under the impression that there's no mandated specific curriculum or programs with this. Correct, it's not. It's it's just a process that allows us to look at what we are doing and then has a guiding framework to of how do we look for improvement as well as recognizing the positive things that we're doing, but it does not come in and we don't add curriculum because
076of a Schools to Watch. Correct. And and nothing's mandated, but it's up to us how we implement the program. First again to Mr. Cantrell, congratulations for the hard work that you have done at Cooley. I think it is remarkable what you have done at Cooley in the three years of time that you have been there taking it from where it was before at the start of my time here on the board to an A+ and a Schools to Watch. As Mr. Lotzenhiser expressed, Sossaman won their Schools to Watch last year as well. I struggle with the idea that we wouldn't want to send our schools or we wouldn't celebrate this opportunity for multiple reasons. A, this is an Arizona Schools to Watch, so they are very familiar with what education curriculum that is set by
077our state is and what that looks like. Beyond that, we talk about overwhelmingly, like all schools throughout this state, we struggle with enrollment. One of the ways you get enrollment is to be the best. That's how it works. And right now Cooley is one of the best middle schools for our state and the same is true for Sossaman when they earned theirs last year. As as Vice President Jerman also expressed, this isn't asking us to do something and to Ms. Van Hook's point, we are in control of how we choose to do these things here. I don't see why we would come in and start making changes when these changes are being successful and that's what's bringing us here. The benefit to things like Schools to Watch is other schools can come and other administrators
078from other schools can come and visit our schools to say, "Hey, what is your staff doing? How are they implementing these things? What makes Higley so great?" And it's because of things like this. I I recognize that there are trainings and then in this case we are going to a national place because there are states all across the country that have educators that do amazing things. And so you go to a place where you can share these ideas. And just as Maryland has their own state standards, we do here as well and the idea that we would only come home with what is appropriate here. I struggle to say that any organization, just because they have certain aspects of things that we don't like, we should stay away from. I also struggle if we sit
079up here and we talk about education matters and performance on academics matters and continue to do that when we know social emotional is part of that. We literally just talked about on the one previously that when a kid is disrupted, it's not just that kid's inability to learn, it's everybody else around there and it's like a ripple effect that impacts your classroom. I agree with you academics are important. I agree with you that it is important for our kids to achieve and continue to do better and continue to improve. Part of that comes with the fact that we understand social emotional, allowing a kid giving the kid cool tools to self-regulate is what helps them learn better and perform. Much in the same way that we talked about saving programs like art and music etc.
080because we recognize that those things help student achievement. All of this, everything we do at Higley is for student achievement and again, our schools are doing phenomenally well. We had two A+ just today that brings I think three for our entire district. And I look forward to the other ones that I know are right behind because we are all A schools and that's remarkable here. President Wade, I just like to point out, you know, school is very competitive. We've got school choice and I really support school choice and I'm so grateful that um for this award. And I'm grateful for the efforts. I've been in this community for 13 years. I'm grateful for the efforts that Cooley has done. So I applaud. We just toured when we didn't we tour Cooley? I feel it was
081Yeah, recently. Well done. President Wade, um first I never said don't celebrate. I think it's it's great. We should celebrate um the excellent work that he's done with Cooley. Um I also said I want to understand how they plan to use it. Um So I think there's a little bit of putting words in my mouth that I did not I did not say. Um things that I did not say. So um and as far as SEL is concerned, again, individual basis, it shouldn't be when the minute kids walk onto campus, every student is uh treated like they need social emotional support, um which is the whole purpose of behavioral support based on individual basis, based on students who are misbehaving, um not an entire school. I appreciate the clarification. I would also like to add
082not all disruptive students are the only ones in need of emotional support. Sometimes the quiet ones are, too. Uh it matters for all of our students equally. I motion to approve the overnight and/or out of state staff travel Schools to Watch conference. Second. Ooh, I that you know, I'm going to give it to Ms. Schultz. I apologize, you know. All those in favor. I. I. I. Motion carries 5-0. Brings us to item 7.3, approval of overnight and/or out of state staff travel for WEB, W E B. Any questions or comments from the board before I approve or before I motion, sorry. President Wade, yes. Um this again is another social emotional behavioral framework uh which again continues to expand the role of our schools beyond academics. Um So this is something else that I mean,
083once they come back, I I would love to be able to get some information on how they uh are they just going to a conference just to go to a conference or is their intention to bring this back to uh the school and implement it um within our school environment. Um I I just don't like I I want to see us focus on academics, which is our purpose. Uh we have 50% of our our students are not proficient in math and in ELA and our science proficiency rate's even lower than that. Um yet you know, we're having conferences on um SEL related programs. Um so I'd love to get information on this once they return just to see what they thought of the program and um if they plan on implementing any of it within
084our schools. Uh Board member Van Hook, President Wade, uh WEB is something that we already do on our campuses. Now, if you listen to the description of the young lady that um won the award today for the Points of Pride for Cooley, she's the president of the WEB. And what WEB does is it is a program where incoming students, seventh graders, um we have eighth graders that we have trained to help lead them, to welcome them to the campus, to introduce them to campus, to provide an opportunity where they have connections already with other kids on campus cuz we know when a student feels connected to the campus, then academics will rise. And that where their their belonging on our campus will be. And so what we're asking for is we always have changes in
085people who support those programs. And when we have um someone who might have been the WEB WEB leader before leave the campus, we get to have a new WEB leader that's trained. And so that's what we're doing with this conference is having another individual on campus be trained to lead WEB. And so, you know, when we look at it, Link Crew is what it's called at the high school. Um where you again invite those people who are new to your campus and try to lower their anxiety and their fear of coming to a high school for the first time because we know that's a big shot step for kids. We also know leaving your elementary school and coming to your middle school is a huge step for a lot of people when they're going to
086be combined with kids from other campuses. We do know that and so allowing them, and we do run WEB before the school starts and then have uh different activities throughout the year again trying to get kids to feel included and want to be a part of the culture that's happening on our campus. And so um like I said, that the young lady that we recognized earlier was a a leader in that and I know that that's been a positive program that's happened on both of our campuses, actually all four of our high school campuses for years. And so this is one that we just need somebody else trained in order to go through. President Wade, Mr. Lotzenhiser, thank you. I was going to clarify that these programs are already taking place and they're excellent programs
087on our campus with um students helping students and the uh advisors are just going to get more information to how to better these programs that are already in place. Um I I they're amazing programs. I just want to say that. But the my kids have benefited and one of my children was a web leader as well. President Wade. Yeah, I Okay. So, you know, I definitely can appreciate not wanting to add to teachers' plates and to make sure that the things that we do ask them to do are meaningful and valued. I also would remind our cabinet to when you can take things away. If you're going to add stuff, take some other things away. We don't need to duplicate efforts. Be conscious of that. But I also wanted to say that it certainly would
088be nice if all teachers had to do when they came to school was just to teach the subject area that they're supposed to teach. But I mean, we check the kids' spines, we check their eyesight, we check their hearing, we provided lunch, now we provide breakfast, we provide extracurriculars, we provide very important recess time. So, I wish we lived in a place where all teachers had to do was come and teach their subject area. But our schools do so much more than that. And our school nurses do so much more than that as well. President [clears throat] Wade. Mr. Latsinik, sir, um as far as I know, um, based on the information provided, so these students, um, get like a it's a script uh and and that's pretty much all they use throughout the program.
089So, to my knowledge and it's been a few years when since I've actively ran one or participated one. But when I was a principal, we had a link crew. There is you go to these trainings and they will help the leaders then learn what the ideas are or how to put these programs together and then they get a group of kids, web leaders, where people volunteer for that and a lot of times go through an application process to become one of the leaders and then they train them on how to lead these groups through different activities and it's activities that come in and are scripted and again with the idea that creating a sense of culture when someone's coming on to campus and and helping them feel like, "Hey, this is a place that I
090really want to come." Thank you. Sorry. I was just going to say just to clarify they don't have to attend. Kids don't have to attend these things. Events happen during the summer and you can have a link crew and a web leader and you don't have to be a part of it if you don't want to. Yeah, typically we do it right before the beginning of the year when they've gotten their schedules already. And so part of it is touring the campus and going through and again wanting to know where you're at. But then it's helpful when the link crew or the web leaders are wearing their shirts and on the first day you come to school and there's someone that you've already met, that you know, as well as some other people that you've
091already met again to help lower that I'm coming to a new school and this is all new to me idea. Thank you. I also would like to clarify we perform above state average in every level of our testing. Is that correct? To my knowledge, that is correct, yeah. Yeah, great. I just I I think it's important to keep in mind where we are at and what we're performing and what those tests look like and what they mean because a lot of things get said that are inaccurate. We are doing well here in Higley in all metrics. And and it's great to see. I I think it's remarkable. I motion to approve the overnight and/or out of state staff travel web conference. Second. That would be Ms. Schultz seconding. All those in favor? Aye. Aye. Aye.
092Motion carries five to zero. This brings us to future agenda items. Does anyone have any requests for future agenda items? President Wade. >> [clears throat] >> Um, I wanted to address uh the agenda Q&A. Um and the reason for that is initially when we implemented uh the Q&A process, the intent was so that the public can see the questions that the board's asking behind the scenes and uh related to the agenda. Um and so that, you know, it doesn't seem like we're just rubber stamping and that, you know, we're thoroughly reviewing agenda items. Um, [sighs] but in practice the questions are have been exclusively mine and during board meetings you'll hear hear hear a board member say, "Well, I I called or I I met with um the superintendent and asked questions." Um and so
093I asked, "Well, if board members are asking questions, why aren't they showing up on the agenda Q&A?" And I was told that if it if it's not in writing, then it's not included. Um and the line of questioning shouldn't be based on the format whether it's through verbal or text or email. Uh those questions should be included and it shouldn't just be the ones that are received by email. If they're agenda-related questions, then we should be able to see all the questions being asked related to the agenda. Um, for the sake of transparency for the community to to be able to see what questions are being asked no matter the format. Um I also think that a question should be attributed to the board member that's asking them. Um and you know, transparency shouldn't depend
094on um again, the format nor should it appear um that you know, only one board member is engaging um in the process. So, for that reason, I'd like to be able to uh bring that forward and discuss possible um updates to the process to include that uh again shouldn't matter what format and then being able to attribute questions to the board members that are asking them. Thank you. Board member Wade. Um, you know, I'd be happy to put that on the agenda again to come back to the agenda Q&A questions having been here since it from its inception and how it's evolved and then how the current board looks at it. I'd love to bring back to the governing board and have you guys decide what's the most appropriate way to get your answers prepared
095and so that you are prepared when you come here. Um, you know, cuz originally the Q&A was an internal document that was sent to us so that as a cabinet we could put answers together and then um and then we would be prepared when you ask a question because there is a very very public and transparent way that that we have to share questions that we have about things and it is here live in our governing board meeting. So, I would be happy to bring that back to you and add it to the agenda next time. I appreciate that. Again, would like to make a an expression. We don't ask the same number of questions as you. It does not mean that we don't ask questions and I agree with you that there is >>
096an opportunity to discuss what that looks like in future agendas. So, I appreciate that. Um I don't believe at this at this point it's asking for future agenda items and it's not discussion. Except for the discussion you took to explain why you wanted it to be one. Uh I I explained that >> to express that I get to at least address a false statement that none of us you are the exclusive question asker. >> This is not the appropriate time. During future agenda items, um, can you please explain Board member Wade. >> hook. I was going to point of order on you, but I was generous in that. So, let's just continue on, please. >> Works for me. Moving forward, we can stop the discussion where we're currently at and generally speaking, we should keep
097future agenda items, um relatively vague. So, it'll go on the agenda for [snorts] further discussion at the next board meeting in May. Thank you. Thank you. I [clears throat] motion to convene an executive session pursuant to ARS 38-431.03A3 and 4 for legal advice with the board's attorney and to consider its position and instruct its attorneys regarding pending litigation, specifically Apache Junction at all versus East Valley Institute of Technology. Second. I'm going to give that to Ms. Jarman seconding. All those in favor? Aye. Aye. Aye. Motion carries five to zero.