HUSD Governing Board Meeting October 15, 2024

001e e good [Music] evening I'd like to call this meeting to order Mrs Richards may I have roll call please thank you president Anderson let the record show all five board members are present thank you please join me in a moment of silence followed by the Pledge of Allegiance e I motion that we approve the agenda an a seconded all those in favor I motion carries 5 to Z okay okay Mrs Richards and the upcoming events um we're looking forward to our visit to Cortina Elementary that will be on Thursday October 24th we also have a parent event it is a drug Trends um I've got different stuff here drug Trends district office Board Room that will occur on the 24th also there is another board business meeting on October 29th and everybody's anticipating election

002day on November 5th that says bullying prevention and my notes say drug Trends Miss Miller it's bullying rather than drug trends for the uh there's a typo on here or something because I've got drug Trends district office boardroom October 24th and up there we have I believe it is bullying prevention for parents and students that's good what's up here is correct what I said is not thank you thank you for the clarification yes okay next is the public hearing we will now move to a public heing for an update on the current maintenance and operation override with Mr Moore good evening president Anderson members of the board uh tonight I'll be presenting our annual override report for fiscal year 2024 just a reminder what is this override report this override report is a requirement by

003the Arizona revive statute 15- 481 y I'm not going to read through that whole thing but essentially what it states is uh the district's obligated to present uh in a public form how the district spent its override if it does have a voter approv override or Bond uh currently we do not have any bond funds remaining so we had no bond expenditures for 24 but we do have a voter approv override so that is what I'll be presenting tonight that report needs to be presented between September 1st and October 31st um this board meeting is the uh we can present that um and so I will go into how we spent that override in 2024 first I want to remind the board um this override was passed by voters in 2019 the override was passed

004uh to allocate additional resources to these six bullet points uh the first one increased teacher compensation second one maintain and improve Elementary specials such as Arts music PE and Athletics the third bullet provides Staffing to maintain average class sizes four supports gifted special education and all day kindergarten and lastly provide educational resources for a lot of those programs looking at how the override expenditures took place in fiscal year 24 this is again last fiscal year um the override totaled an additional $13.8 million uh in additional M capacity for the district majority that money was utilized to uh maintain and increased teacher compensation uh second maintain and improve Elementary specials uh third was maintaining average class sizes and then last two supporting gifted sped all day kindergarten and provided educational resources to the classroom in addition

005uh this year the board approved our fy2 budget within that budget um we the board approved our estimated override amount in the amount of 14.1 million just a reminder uh here's a little history in timeline of our current override and and what voters have approved in the past um so Higley has a a history of passing overrides back to 20 2003 excuse me at that time it was a 10% override That Was Then renewed in 2008 um at that but this was um in 2012 and 2013 that uh did fail the uh District did bring back uh override in 2015 in that past and then the district renew that in 2019 So currently we're operating under that 2019 renewal uh just a timeline um the emino override is a seven-year authorization but only five years

006of fully funded uh this is our last year of our fully funded override from the 2019 renewal again that Financial implication as I just highlighted in the last slide was about about just over $14 million in additional M budget capacity that that's providing the district um the board did approve a resolution to put uh the renewal of this override on the ballot this November um so year six will look a little different depending how that election turns out if that election does not pass uh we'll need to move into what they call the phase down a reduction year so year six and seven of the override include a phase down approach um that uh amount and of reduction is outlined in statute so that first year would be a 33% reduction and I've earmarked what

007what that estimated would uh approximately would be it' be about 4.6 million we would have to reduce out of our budget if the district or board did not uh choose to go out for uh an override renewal after year six uh we would go then proceed into year seven and that would be a 67% reduction of this 2019 override which would equate to about $9.4 million reduction in M budget capacity and then ultimately year year eight would be the full um elimination of the semino override and with that it's a brief presentation um but that if there's any questions I'll be happy to answering no questions or comments from the board okay um I'm sorry yeah I was to say thank you um so we're gonna open it up to the public for public comments

008regarding the current maintenance and operation override but I want to read a statement before we begin the district is prohibited under state law from using public resources to influ influence the outcome of an election accordingly we ask that all speakers refrain from discussing candidates or issues that will U that will present in the upcoming election and it's now open for anybody from the public that would like to make a comment okay we will now reconvene an open session moving on to the consent agenda I motion to approve consent agenda items 5.1 to 5.11 second Amanda seconded all those in favor I I I motion carries 5 to zero okay moving on to our information items with beginning with 6.1 the annual financial report for fiscal year 2024 we'll go back to Mr Moore for the

009presentation thank you board president Anderson members of the board in kind of tagging along to the override report um we are also um on the agenda is the 2024 annual financial report this is a summary of all our expenditures for last fiscal year so what is the AFR again like I said this is a expenditure report required by the auditor general that's a summary of all our expenditures for fiscal 24 it encompasses five plus reports we did actually get a report off the list this year which is rare but the results based funding um as you know last legislative cycle was decommissioned and then put into um the operating budget um that results based funding was incentives for um High letter grades and test scores um but that now was distributed um across the maintenance

010and operations fund as a whole so that report is not required anymore um which is nice because we have a lot of reports that we do um this report encompasses over 182 million in total expenditures and again that's all funds uh not just maintenance and operations in capital and also uh 353,000 accounting transactions and so um this is my one time to give kudos to my team I get the pleasure of presenting this information but we have a finance team that really um looks at every single one of those transactions and make sure they're in alignment with state law and uh I I do give them Kudos because they're a great team um and I just get the liberty of presenting this information so we'll dive into the report um a part of submitting this

011annual financial report uh this report is used by the auditor general uh to create the classroom spending report this classroom spending report will come to you in November from the auditor general but I did I took the liberty of presenting what that may look like and when you get that report um classroom spending um or instructional spending represents um majority of our spending which as it should we are instructional institution um and I'll go through a little bit of these on the next slide but um this pyap was just a kind of visual representation looking at the specific numbers in a more graph form um I'll go line by line on how the district uh spent or how the total expenditures aligned into these categories that and these categories are assigned by the auditor general

012and so um I'm not making these categories up I'm just showing you how they're going to present the information as well so looking at the first line classroom um from prior to this year that down 3.8% we did have a board member asked questions on why that was down the main reason in declin is in 2023 uh the district adopted uh science curriculum uh for 2 .7 million that curriculum is in is expended from that classroom kind of category uh so when you take that out in 2024 you're going to see a reduction in classroom or instructional spending um those adoption Cycles right are are not annually but they they um happen year um on a five to seven year cycle so we'll see that fluctuate that's that's rather normal looking at instructional support this

013category compasses our Librarians teacher training curriculum Development Special Education media Specialists Etc uh there was a slight decline in that a lot of that was because in 2023 uh the distri utilized Co relief funds for retention siphons those retention siphons were expenditures across all these categories because we have employee Personnel that work in all these categories um so that small decrease was because in 24 as these Co relief funds are expiring those retention cment were not offered in 24 um so you'll see a net decrease that's going to come across the board in all these categories but that was the main reason that category uh saw a decrease from prior year looking at student support just for a reminder this encompasses our counselors uh speech pathologists nurses social workers and attendance Services there was a

014slight increase from last year just so we saw uh increases in group b weight so our sped students um and so the proportionally you'll see increases in costs Administration we saw an increase of 6% from 2023 to 24 again this was asked um in our board questions um a majority of this increase this is the largest turnover in administration the district's had in a long time a lot of our administration were tene employees uh they had a lot of time that that was owed to them uh we do have board policy that state that outlines how the district pays out vacation and sick leave and so um a lot of those tender administrators um were paid out for their leave as they either left or uh retired from the district so that was a that

015was a large cost I anticipate that coming um that percentage swinging back the other way next year um but again this this report is a snapshot of that year um and if you look at the averages we're still well below administrative spending um compared to our peer groups which are North at 12% looking at plant um plant encompasses a lot of our maintenance equipment repair Building Maintenance custodial Services grounds keeping Etc it also includes property insurance um we see our insurance rates are are skyrocketing um from year to year that's a f a function of not only we have we've had losses but a function of the reinsurance market in addition uh utilities are also paid from this category uh utility rates the town of gero just increased drastically um we're this 24 would have

016been year two of two of that increase which saw a 50% increase in utilities so naturally uh you're going to see more expenditures from there as those um costs increase and the district's obligated to pay those so Transportation a very small increase there um also results can really pick out a specific thing um it's just increased cost of a lot of the services that we typically do inflation um a lot of the repairs that we make on buses fuel costs um there was just slight increases across the board uh which resulted in that small increase with food service um we have uh a lot of our costs coming back um from the co era so when everything was free in 22 you'll see that 5.4% uh 22 and 21 there was a a portion of

017time when that was all free and so every single meal uh was was basically if a student wanted one they was free and so we were reimbursed for all those meals but we also paid for all those meals um those um subsidies ads offering still some subsidies for for free meals um we're also utilizing a lot of their fresh fruit and vegetable programs and stuff like that that are increasing cost but these are again the costs are associated with students using these services so um we're seeing a lot more um meals served breakfast is served in that program which would increase cost looking at our budget control funds versus cash control funds I'm my first touch on our budget controlled funds um these are our main our main players our M maintenance operations budget and

018our Capital outlay um our federal and state grants just a footnote are are also um technically budget controlled we do get um those budgets based on ADM or free to reduce percentage and so um that's why those are listed I won't I won't dive into those details but I just wanted to footnote that looking at the maintenance and operations budget and it's budget balance carry forward over the last five fiscal years um I've not shied away of how the district used Co Rel funding um and you can see from 2020 to 2023 the district um received just over $20 million in Co relief funds and with um the board you know voting to go back into session we we had very limited Mass reductions we didn't use a lot of that covid relief money um

019for for a lot of those causes rather we um spent money for retention sement salaries um and supplemented some of our operational costs in that in those time periods um that created a budget balance carry forward uh which balloon from again 2020 to 2023 as those relief funds are expiring we're going to start to see this budget bounce faer forward decline um you can see that uh starting in 24 as we are now coming down from 25 million to 23 million which is down 3% from prior year and represents approximately 18% of our of our budget which is still really healthy um I know the board member re has um seen this uh budget balance fluctuate over years um and has been an adant component of being conservative we are still very conservative and have

020a healthy Reserve at this point in time looking at the capital budget uh this graph is a little crazy um but I felt it was kind of important to highlight these four points because our capital budget has been used um probably different than maybe other districts in the sense that um on the first line looking at the graph we have a our state allocated capital budget and so you can see from the last five fiscal years from 2020 um that capital budget was just fully being um reinstated in ter in terms of full funding from 2020 to 2023 um you can see that state allocated capital budget was was minus School compared to what it was today I do want to footnote though on 24 um the 11 million there was 3 million of a

021one-time uh supplemental funding and the district appropriated that to Capital funding so we'll see 3 million reduced in 25 um but we appropriated that 3 million additional Capital funding or budget capacity to Capital uh for projects looking at prior your carry forward um that amount uh in previous years has been relatively High um it has been a goal of myself and our our maintenance department to work to prioritize projects and and spend some of that money down because um it does no good sitting in in account so we've allocated that to projects we've made um extremely Headway on on trying to uh repair um fix a lot of our issues and be Mak some preventative uh expenditures to our hbac and a lot of our um operational areas um so that that is going to

022continue to go down you'll see that after fiscal 25 drastically decrease um as what was approved in the board budget for f25 was uh carrying over $2 million so um we are using those funds for our needs um but at some point we we will run out of carry forward and will be then U relegated to our state allocated budget our M transfer again this is a area I wanted to highlight because I feel like this district has used that in different capacities uh versus maybe another District so we've utilized the M transfer to Capital to fund uh major projects um again as the the bond expired from 2013 um we still had a lot of capital needs again and so we've been transferring M dollars to Capital to fund those needs um as approved

023in 25 you know we are now just transferring the the the basic cost for our Middle School lease which is 3.5 million so again we are utilizing our Capital funding um for our projects and our needs and um you're going to start to see that um lower and in Decline uh as as we're spending those dollars and then the last line really highlights that what have been emphasizing is we're spending our Capital dollars on our needs and from 2020 to 2024 um over the last two fiscal years we spent $ 38 million or $38 million um trying to address our our our Capital our buildings um and projects so um we are putting U money back into our schools but again that will that's only going to go so far and so uh we'll see

024that in 25 um drastically come to a a lower um expenditure amount um but and then I just want a footnote on top in 23 and 24 a lot of those big expenditures were for the Higley High building in addition um we that the williamsfield uh field and track uh were also expended in 24 all right and cash controlled funds um just a footnote these are not derived from the state these are these are revenues that the district has brought in and then expended out and so these are um completely um um supported by just the revenues the district brings in in the the budget that they that roll over from year to year looking at the the four major funds we look at Food Service again from 21 to 24 when um everything was

025free we saw a drastic increase in expenditures and and sub sequential reimbursements from the federal government um so that fund has increased in addition in 23 ad had an interpretation on how the district um if you're contracted Food Service you can only transfer $25,000 to indirect cost previously it was up to 25% of your total expenditures which was equated to about $ 750,000 800,000 so we saw a drastic change in how they allowed us to utilize those funds which now is causing that balance to balloon a little uh unfortunately we we do have a capital plan to continue to replace um food service equipment uh I know Mr Dolan's here we have a whole new serving line coming at williamsfield um we've done a lot of serving lines at other districts we're addressing um our

026walk-in coolers and freezers but there's only so many times you can replace those those um those pieces of equipment and so I'm personally working with ad to try to get a different interpretation on on the if you're contracted Food Service on why we can't transfer additional dollars to support our op you know the operational needs um contacted food services using the same indirect areas as a self op program would be and so um they're still using the same electricity the same water um and so I'm working on that but until then um that fund is pretty restrictive we can only use that towards food service operations so um we'll continue to get creative and and try to leverage those dollars to enhance those areas and then that program and Civic Center that is um the

027proper term but that actually is our rental account um we've had a goal of of getting a fund balance to 750,000 we've rebuilt this account um we've established a new um rental system fmx um we've created new agreements with a lot of our renters um that align with our approved rental fees and so um we've seen an increase in revenue and so we're going to start to leverage that fund and put that back into those heavily rented areas and maintain them or enhance them uh so they can continue to be rented Community Schools uh that encompasses both the preschool program and the before and after school program um that those two uh programs are combined to what we call Community Schools um over the last three years um Community Schools was eligible for a lot

028of Co relief grants um I see Miss Reese nodding um so they they they were able to leverage a lot of that to rebuild their fund balance um we have had a goal and we still have a goal of getting a one year's Reserve their annual expenditures are are North as $6 million and so um having an annual Reserve to to cover costs in case of any instance again this is a cash controlled fund we're completely dependent on what money we bring in um and so we still have some work to do there um we are we do have a future presentation to talk about um our rates and how we continue to uh continue to build that program um we did see a net loss from 23 to for um and again I think

029we have a future presentation uh with Mr Armstrong and community and preschool will be there as well to talk about that and how we're going to move forward with um continuing to to build a fund balance to support that program both programs indirect costs um this is a account that we um collect and we can charge back to Grants um for the operational overhead to administer those grants um so my entire staff is paid from indirect costs um that's about 560,000 annually um the reason this account has again increased drastically over the years is we've leveraged um a lot of the co relief grants have had a percentage um that we can charge back indirect costs from those grants uh we've had we've utilized that we've charged a lot of these Co relief grants indirect

030cost because we do have a lot of people administering these including Miss Garland who's here tonight um m entire staff you know there's a lot of reports that we do um to make sure that we're in Alliance with the federal guidelines um so that account while it looks high right now it's going to it's going to see a drastic decrease over the next couple years as we um continue to support a number of staff from that fund um which is good because it saves operational dollars from M and then just a footnote on top um all our site cash funds so that includes like auxiliary operations extracurricular activities Student Activities um all my team does is really account for those those funds are all held and and managed with the sites and their and their

031clubs um and so that's why those those cash funds are not included because they're really 100% site driven student Le and and student owned um we just are responsible for making sure they're accounted properly and uh deposited within our our County treasure so some of I have three key takeaways uh kind from the Ana financial report and kind of fiscal 24 in a whole um one our our budget balance is is decreasing and so there there was a board question on on do we have a ending budget balance policy to adopt or in future or do you have draft language I do have a draft language that I would like to bring to the board and and have an information session to review um I feel coming um creating a policy would be uh transparent

032in the sense that both the board has uh a number or a percentage or some Avenue in which to make sure that the district stays in alignment with and that we also have that same Target so we can we can one work towards that Target and and everybody in the community knows this is a a board approved um fund balance that that we strive to to get to so um I feel that's a that's going to be an important policy or or something the board should consider as we work through a lot of these Co relief funds falling off and we work into um potentially you know um depending on the election on what the district is going to do in the future with these fund balances um and this it kind of um uh

033balances off the first note but the evaluating future cash balance funds so one emphasis is the community education preschool as I just mentioned we saw a drastic decrease in in their ending fund balance um so we need to I think it' be prud to review and possibly discuss increase in tuition pricing as we've seen expenditures and costs in those programs Rise um again I think we have a future agenda item on the next board meeting to to discuss that in an information session and then declining capital budget so future Capital expenses uh will be drastically limited um unless it is Capital funds become available um we're still working hard to address um and try to reach out for Grants from the school facilities board um I do have a capital update kind of a um

034construction update at the next board meeting where I'll highlight a lot of the grants that we've we've tried for um a lot of the grants that we have pending um for to try to supplement and and support our Capital needs um as we as as some of this fund balance starts to go away so with that I'll be happy to answer any questions president Anderson Mr Moore um I did ask um as far as our uh classroom spending uh going down um and I was wondering if you have an idea um what we can expect for classroom spending to be um in 25 I it's we're only 3 months into the school year I think um and we have we have budgeted um an adoption that uh for ELA tentatively um but again like a

035lot of our plants and expenditures it's it's it's too soon to to really know how we are trending um some expenditures for us are front loaded the early months of July as construction takes place so if I pulled the report now you would see School Plant heavily inflated um while a lot of our classroom spending catches up throughout the year um so I don't have an indication on how we're how we're going to trend for 25 until we get to the second half of the Year probably closer to Spring do you expect that um we can see more spending going towards the classroom um I know it's you know predicting but um I just my concern is classroom spending is going down and I know you said you know it's due to um curriculum um

036but I would like to see more funding going to to the classroom um for instruction for um teacher salaries um and and you know I discussed this when we voted um for the bond and override but I just I want to ensure that because right now you know yes Administration is up um due to uh salaries and retirements and things like that um but when you look at I pulled a bunch of reports and um so from 2023 24 to 24 to 25 our teachers went from our our student enrollment is down um but our teachers went from 700 to 732 so we increased by 32 teachers um our our Administration has stayed flat by 42 yet um there is that increase so um and then we're you know not only Administration but we're also

037seeing extra dollars going going towards buildings um and so I would like to be um be able to see those dollars going into the classroom because that is a major concern for community members um they want to see our teachers paid well and they want to see money spent on instruction um and for the people that I've talked to it's you know it's a matter of seeing educated students versus shiny new buildings um but just looking I and I compared it to Mesa Gilbert and Queen Creek um and as far as our teacher salaries um we are I believe um in third place um at about 64,000 and I understand that that's probably due to hiring um less experienced teachers um but the average turn your mic on sorry is your is that 65,000 the

038average it is it's the average 2025 salary we're looking at about 645 compared to Mesa um being at 666 and Gilbert being the highest at um so I would like to see that um and then you mentioned on page six of the presentation the carry forward um um I I looked at 25 so 25 looks like um the m is forecasted at 28 million and you mentioned that the capital um the reduction in the the 3 million is it because it was moved from Capital to and0 or or is that the the three additional million will move to Capital capital or maybe I'm mixing that number up well this report summarizes fiscal 24 and back so where did you see fiscal 25 um not 25 I'm sorry it's in the presentation on page six you

039mentioned um Carry forward reduced by 3 million and I'm wondering if that's because it's going to the dollars are going to be moved to Capital maybe maybe you can answer your question I'm not sure how to answer I I mean this is our budget balance car for M from 23 to 24 I don't that reduction is due to expenditures I understand but um I'm just curious to know is it 3 million or is it 3% 3% is what I yeah the the dollar amount from that is not 3 million it's just under 3 million um on the slide it's 3% from 25 to 23 million that's a 3% reduction okay sorry for the confusion it's okay um and then page seven 3 million to Capital um or M soor the state allocated capital budget is

040inflated by $3 million the FY 24 legislation had an appropriation of additional one-time supplemental funding and during the budget process we allocated that onetime supplemental funding to the capital budget which is why you see $1 million in the state allocated capital budget all our annual capital budget is um 3 million less than that okay sorry just reading my notes here and I do appreciate the fact that um you mentioned that um you guys are using those indirect funds um from the the cash funds um in order to save money um from the M budget so I I do like seeing that that we're utilizing it where we can um and then as far as the Community Schools fund so um any portion of that if needed um can be transferred to M correct those aren't

041yeah but as I stated their annual expenditures are6 million just over $6 million and so they ended the year with $2.6 million but coming into this year they don't even have enough money to to to fund out a whole year if they if the revenue completely stopped um and so one of our goals is to get that to one year's balance to make sure they are self sustainable um and the district doesn't have to come in and supplant that program with M dollars um I think a couple of board members were on here in the past and the in the program in the past has run in the negative and the district has had to supplement that program with M dollars which then hurts our ability to spend that money in the classroom or other

042um initiatives for the district so uh that particular program we are working hard to to build that fund balance to one year's balance to again to support that minimally fund that program for one year after that fund balance is built to 6 million we can certainly look at transferring that money to help um to ml to then um put back into the classroom as you stated earlier so um I know Miss ohanyan and our new preschool director are working hard to um modify those programs and I know they have an important presentation they they want to bring to you at the next meeting to discuss that further so great thank you one more thing before I stop I think I'm good president Anderson oh sorry um Mr War um I know we've always been talked

043about negative with the with the preschools and we want to hire certified teachers and still provide lowc cost so um I'm glad that there's a way that we're working to be able to to change that you said there was a presentation coming is that okay yeah so we have an information presentation at the next board meeting I may be cheating and letting know but um we know this is a priority for the sik um we've been we've been working in monitoring it um we just wanted to give our new preschool director some time to evaluate the program um because Miss Gleason was here for 10 years and so yes um you know give a fresh out of eyes on it and and give her time to formulate some plans for the future um before we

044brought those to the board but uh yeah we do have some ideas on on ways to change or refresh the program and potentially make that a little more profitable to then help the district uh in future years um so yeah I know it's been a concern for the board in the past with the preschool so I appreciate that thank you president Anderson um Mr Mor can correct me if I'm summarizing this inaccurately from what I take about this um part of the reason that we have been able to do some of the great things that we've done in the past years with respect to teacher salaries uh for example um is because you as well as District individuals were quite responsible with our Co relief funds and how we've managed to use them and when

045we talk about the importance of looking to you know mno override and how things can continue in the Future Part of That necessity currently of what we see on the immediate Horizon for us starting you know next year and the year after and so forth um is because we no longer have access to those same type of funds so we got balloon payments if you will are different grants to handle and manage some of these things and much credit to all of you because I was not on the board for this but how you manage things appropriately considering we know that some other neighboring districts haven't always made the same decisions and so they're experiencing some of the hardships currently that we're kind of battling if you will um and so I just want to

046make sure I'm clear and understanding part of the the importance of how we look to coming years with respect to our finances and the needs for our community to look at what is important is because these funds that were aail able during this time frame that we have used to the best of our ability are no longer going to be available to us and that is going to lead to us to have to get really creative if we aren't capable of renewing uh the m and so forth is that correct yeah I'd say you're correct in the Assumption and yeah it's it's when you uh again we've received just over $20 million in cover funds over the last you three to four years and so an influx of50 15 to 20% of your budget is

047nice right and we've spent a lot of money back on retention sions and keeping our staff and and paying staff and um investing in our buildings with hbac and infrastructure which are allowable in those um Federal Federal monies but um yeah that that is now you know expiring and and we are sunsetting those those monies and so why they're nice to have we do have to create you know make some tough decisions fiscally on on how we're going to proceed forward for sure thank you uh the other thing I wish to express just because it it plays into some of the budget things that we've talked about currently um board member Van Hook you talked about the importance of classroom spending first off to be clear as a former teacher obviously I am 100% uh

048behind that the fact that teachers have to buy their own stuff uh is is frustrating my daughter's teacher just now ran out of white paper and used her homework on card stock and I was just like the precious value of this card stock is crazy um but I also think it is important and some community members may not be aware of this we had an uh an AC situation at williamsfield that was very difficult and as a teacher yes I care about you know materials and things in my salary absolutely important but as an individual who's had to work in a classroom in which the AC is broken uh it's risky and it's dangerous and it's not great and it is really hard to learn or do anything when you wish to you know punch

049people because you're really really hot and uncomfortable um and I think that matters we had a situation in which we had to look at do we close Cortina for a day and what do we do for that I think it is important for us to also keep in mind that all of these things that we've been doing are great as we move forward but we have these things that come up like all folks do everybody does and it is increasingly hot in our summers which means our systems are working far harder for longer and all of this and so I think it is important important for us as a community to kind of keep that in mind when we talk about our funds and the needs of things going forward because I mean these things

050will continue to happen as some of our buildings are you know it's been a while since they've been updated so I appreciate the uh you know the mention of that President Anderson Mr Moore we um our utilities are being paid out of which um area as I mentioned earlier this comes out of that plant category again I'm just that's the categories assigned by the auditor general and so that I'm just kind of aligning those with how we spent our money so and then what about technology depending on where that technology is administered if it's in the classroom that would be in the classroom category if that's technology to support you know this room here that would be an Administration and so it just depends on and where that technology is implemented um and I do

051want to mention and and we've talked about this before um and I've mentioned it many times that um when we got those Sr funds um you know those funds were also meant for HVAC repair um and I don't know how many um how many we were able to do with those funds um but they should have been used um in those areas you know where where we needed them um also we've made permanent decisions with those temporary funds such as hiring three counselors um and and now that these These funds are gone we're having to pay for those um so I want everyone to keep that in mind as well um I you know we did get a lot of money um and and these are the decisions that were made um and now going

052forward um where we're having to pay for for things that you know maybe could have had a different outcome um considering we knew that those funds were going to go away um and I know and I did see that we we managed to allocate um majority of those funds uh prior to them expiring and I believe we were left with about $9,400 um and as is that what we have to give back or do we still get to because that was the budget balance for the SR we we obligated all our funds down to the penny oh on the um on the spending report um there was a a balance of 9,400 so that spending report from the forms the AFR forms um the the monthly Financial reports I'm sorry it looked like there was

053a 9400 that may have been because we just received the last reimbursements I don't know the exact date of that but all of the fund all of the funds were spent okay from Sr 3 yeah it's um line 24 it shows 948 okay um sorry let me look back at my notes here um and do you know what the um I I know have we reached the 100th day of school yet um do we have an idea of where we're at with um with ADM uh 40 days do we have a 40th Day number I I believe we I mean ADM as we trending right now we're seeing a slight decline as projected but um we can certainly come back with a a board agenda to talk about ADM if You' like um yeah I

054just because I I pulled the numbers I was just curious of where we're at um when we're looking at enrollment um because that that's part of my concern is you know enrollments down teachers are up um salaries to the classroom is down uh not salaries spending to the classroom is down but up on buildings and administration so um so I'd love to be able to get that number um from you uh so maybe next meeting um we can definitely discuss that that'd be great you can do a status update as well yeah Vice President Van Hook Marcus Burk shers in here and he's in charge of student information and data so I bet he could help us get that in status for you guys to see where we are great thank you so much sorry

055board member Anderson was last thing just to I apologize um when it comes to things like classroom spending right I think it is important to notice when you look back how year toe that it can change because I think while yes enrollment is down and I think that is important that is a national issue it's not just an our issue um and I think that matters and a lot of times what happens too is you see lower and enrollment in elementary and middle and then we catch them back when they come to high school um and so that's why some of the needs of our high schools have are at capacity or Beyond capacity for some of the things that they can function for example williamsfield parking situation that's led us to going to other

056places um so I I do think it is important to to keep in mind how these things affect from year to year and kind of what those things are happening because I feel like the the depiction that you know we're just spending in the areas but we don't have the same needs um is is not necessarily the most clear picture of what is or is not happening from from year to year especially when we have to update curriculum or how those funds come and because we know we have a curriculum update and it is going to cost a couple million dollars we have to budget appropriately that year and so I do think it is important to keep in mind Beyond just a singular year because we plan ahead uh and we know what what

057to look for that we as people do in general budget accordingly understanding this year might look a little bit tight and that year might be a little bit different so thanks president Anderson Mr Moore can you clarify um is it that we spent less in fiscal year 24 in the classroom or is it that we spent more because of the adoption in fiscal 23 because I don't know that saying I get the numbers but I don't know that saying that classroom spending is down so outside of the adoption is the adoption what inflated fiscal year 23 and it's not that we have less money than any other year going into there it's just that we had a larger expense for that or do we have less money going into for our classrooms than typical no

058board member re as I I answered in the the board questions too but yeah like the when you take 2.7 million in 23 you know that science adoption is all classified in classroom you immediately remove $2.7 million going into 24 um that will swing percentages the amount of money actually spent on teachers um there has been consistent raises that has gone that has consistently gone up the the dollars actually uh spent on teachers has been uh proportionate over the years um we continue to outperform our peer groups who are are in the in the neighborhood of 53.1% um and so board member Wade pointed out these percentages can fluctuate year to year based on on different needs that arise and like a science Tex adoption will will swing that 3% um in in one year

059so it's not that we have less money going into the classrooms it's just we had an in an infusion of more money because of the adoption correct okay thank you president Anderson Mr Moore um so full year 2023 we were at 60.1% in instructional spending um and so we're down 3.8% are you saying that that 3.8% equates to the $2.7 million for the curriculum not directly because there there's a that is the the bulk of our spending so there's a number of different things that have changed um from 23 to 24 but I'm saying that represents probably 75 80% of the 3.8% change um that 2.7 million okay and so now we're at 57.8% and our lowest fiscal year for instructional spending was in 2011 at 54.2% so we're like right in the middle between

060full year 2023 and our lowest point of in 20 2011 um so this is what I mean when I say I'd like to be able to see more in this area because we are getting close to that the lowest point we've ever been for the district um and then as far as um seeing higher enrollment in our high schools yes but looking at the trajectory as the kids in we and we've discussed this before as the kids in elementary get older and go into Middle School we're going to see the decline in in middle school and then when they get to high school we're going to see that decline in in high school so we can't look at it and expect that the high schools to remain at the capacity that they are right now

061because these kids are going to get older and get fill those classrooms and and we'll see that trajectory reduce um so I I don't believe it's fair to say that our high schools will continue to see this increase which based on our current numbers that's not accurate um and so we need to um acknowledge that um that's all we have those high school students here currently though right so I hear you in 5 years of time might those numbers change when we see through the six years of Elementary we didn't have the same you know student body but our high schools currently have students that are at a capacity that is larger class sizes this year alone I know at least at williamsfield the class sizes are a lot higher than they have been in

062a while um those things are happening now so I hear you but what do we do currently when that need is right in front of us for the things that exist at our our our our high school so I I think it is safe to say that in 5 years from now might we be having a different conversation for sure but until that is our reality I think it is important to keep in mind what currently is board member wait I think that might have to do with the birth rate too if we can convince people to have more babies as well so um and we do um board member band we get them back in high school which we've said a couple times is that they might homeschool or go to somewhere else and

063then they come back in high school because of our programs too so that's why it fluctuates there oh sorry it's hard to see whenever we're stuck to these categories where the spending is going right so we've got increases in student support what does that mean does that mean that that's going towards some classroom supplies that's going to other things so um I think we all are here and passionate about going everything going to the students and the teachers um is there a outside of this auditor general classification and I know you have a thousand reports that you give us and forgive me if you've given us one but is there one that breaks it down a little bit more um I'm not going to say it's easier to read but so that we can just

064kind of see more where those that spending going is because it sounds like a lot of it we're talking about salaries and we're talking about curriculum but I know there's a lot more in between that truly is and we have that fear of okay yeah you know we have that shift in spending but that that doesn't mean that like each Department's getting less to buy supplies for for their classroom when we when we have to do our purchase orders and everything but we can we just assume or you know we have that fear of that's what's happening president Anders uh yes we are stuck to this categories unfortunately and that this prescribed by other General um as of right now I don't have another way to present that but I can certainly create a report

065um ultimately when November comes around the auditor general releases this report comparatively to other districts I think that's where we we shine because it highlights um how efficient we are in spending our resour ources um but yeah unfortunately you know I wanted to show this report it's not the greatest report but this is what is going to be public and shared throughout you know newspapers the news and so um it's I might as well share it with you and and give you a preview of how it's going to look and tell you why some of these changes have have been made um but right as of right now this is the the best report to share I mean I'll be happy to look at trying to create something else but I know you're really busy

066but if it's something you know you've got a weekend off and you feel like just kidding if you happen upon an easy like generate report button and it does that great but of course it just helps to provide Clarity and calm some nerves and and answer some questions that we may have um as a board are there any other questions or comments I just want to say on the plant um category then it's not the shiny new buildings also we're we're getting older as a district and so we're needing to use these funds as far as HVAC and things like that go and maintenance and everything then when we were a brand new baby District growing so that's why that one goes up I know in addition to utilities as you mentioned which continue to

067rise president Anderson um I will share some of the reports that I used to pull this data um as far as um teacher admin specialist numbers there's a um report called s SD um sd30 um it's on the ad website and then there's the Tei average number of years um it's the teacher experience index um that will show the experience of our teachers um and then they also have the enrollment report on the ad website site um and then also the salaries come from The District budget but the other three are on the ad website thank you okay does that conclude our discussion and comments all right let's uh let's go ahead and transition over to our work set if we could take about a five minute break for that to happen and um then

068we will Comm me into our work study thank thank you and thank you Mr Moore for your information e e e okay I think it's a good time to go ahead and reconvene and begin our work study and we're going to begin with 7.1 danielson's framework for uh teaching review president Anders members of the board um tonight we have the opportunity to present the review of our Danielson teaching for framework tool um using the Danielson model and Melissa Garland is going to be doing the majority of talking but before she starts I do want to give her a huge huge shout out throughout the entire implementation of our Danielson model she has been so receptive to principles to anyone that's saying hey can we try this can we add this to the online tool she's

069going to talk a little bit about that but she deserves a huge round of applause for all the hard work that she's done over the last couple years as we go ahead and implement this tool so if we can give her a huge round of applause all right Miss Garland all you yes no pressure I'm blushing now um so of board president Anderson governing board members um tonight I have the pleasure of giving you an overview of the Danielson framework and how it got started first off is the history um it was in the spring of 2022 when we officially decided to move to using Charlotte danielson's framework for teaching um the process of this started well before then prior to the pandemic when we heard feedback from teachers and administrators that they wanted um

070a better way to provide effective feedback for teachers and also for teachers to understand more clearly areas that they may need growth in or areas they're doing well in and also how that translates into um total composite scores with um at the end of the year as well so that started us on a journey that got us to 2022 during that summer we had extensive training for our current School administrators and also District administrators who um evaluated certified employees so um during the 2223 school year that was year one for us and so it was a huge learning curve um there was lots of training not only for administrators but also for for our staff as we went along during the year um the administrators um had calibration visits throughout that year we actually had

071um a person a representative from the um Danielson group to come and help lead those days with us which were very valuable and throughout that first year that gave us an opportunity to revisit in the spring to decide um how we wanted to move forward board and I'll go through that in just a couple of minutes um first of all an overview of the framework the framework has been around for quite some time it was developed by Charlotte Danielson well before teachers were required to be evaluated in the sense they are now where part of your evaluation is tied to pay for performance and all of that and it was developed as a way to help teachers grow and it it was also developed in the sense that it didn't matter what content or what

072grade level you were teaching it reflected what a teacher does every day and those activities that teachers engage in every day are found in the four domains and you all should have the smart card that's on the screen right now so those are the four domains and these are the areas in which teachers are um formally observed oberved and assigned ratings we also have walkth through um protocols that cover primarily components in domains two and three which are classroom environment that's what you see every day in a classroom as well as instruction domain one for planning and preparation that's a lot of the behind the scenes things that happen but you see the results of it when you walk into a classroom whether it's the activities that students St are doing um the types of

073Assessments that they're doing the engagement that all had to be part of planning and preparation and then also domain four which is professional responsibilities those are things that Encompass what teachers do every day communicating with families keeping up with grade book um reflecting on their practice and participating as a professional whether it's with their grade level their site or with District opportunities or Beyond so not only do these four domains relate to classroom teachers but the um framework for teaching also has evaluation tools for all certified employees and so it doesn't matter if you're um an a occupational therapist a physical therapist there is a form for that person and so the four domains transcend all of those positions but they they are also tailored to meet the actual responsibilities and activities that those teachers

074perform on a daily basis and so one of the things that we've done to continue the implementation and Mr Armstrong mentioned it a couple of minutes ago after year one we gathered feedback from all of the administrators um because they were the ones putting the time in to complete all of the walkthroughs the formal observations and also the summative um conferences at the end of the year and we took their feedback and we found out ways that we can work more efficiently but also it caters to allowing the teacher to be very active in this process so the teacher has the opportunity to give input in terms of what happens in their pre um pre-observation conference they're providing evidence of their practice they do that in the post observation conference as well and then during

075the observation and walkthroughs everybody gets both parties administrators and teachers get the opportunity to dialogue about what was seen and what was heard in the classrooms and all of our evidence that is collected throughout the year it maps to the summative so you can see an overall picture of everything that has happened in a walkthr in a formal questions that have been posed answers that have been provided all of that is there for our administrators and teachers to see so that they can have a conversation about where that teacher is in terms of their ratings for that observation and also ultimately overall for the year and our administrators have continued to go through um professional learning as well well and Jeff if you want to mention a little bit about that yeah and before we

076do that we want to talk about how impactful this tool has been before we were using a certain tool and it it provided you were teachers were evalua on domains but this is getting into the nitty-gritty of the day-to-day practices that our teachers and and staff go through so if you take a deep look at the card you have and you look at just the instructional piece we're talking how are students or teachers really communicating with students um the expect ations for learn being specific this all goes back to our strategic anchor two of Highly Effective Personnel talking about question and discussion techniques engaging students in learning using assessment and instruction and demonstrating flexibility and responsiveness that's just the instructional component that administrators have to evaluate a teacher on and th that domain in itself

077is very impactful when we talk about what does that dialogue look like between teacher and administrator to go ahead and continue with the with the growth of growth of the teacher the other aspect is we continue with our we did calibration visits right and that was us how are we using the tool what does that look like and is everyone kind of seeing the same thing well this year what we've done is we've now gone into what we call a team not Mr T and those guys but Academic Teams where they go ahead and they discuss a school and we have two principles here who have already gone through it at the elementary level where the principal identifies and says hey we're working on differentiated instruction we're working on question we want to look at

078our assessments and how teachers are performing when it comes to check for understandings and assessments in the classrooms and what we are doing now is when we do walkthroughs that's kind of our Focus area we still look at other components that the principal would like us to look at but we really dive in and say we want to see this and then we come back at the end of that visit and all the administrators get to sit down looking at the tool and say this is what I saw on the teacher this is what I think is the teacher is ranked and then we have a true dialogue just on that one component and since we we've done all three of our academic team visits this quarter or in first quarter not this quarter um

079and I will tell you that the conversations that are taking place among principles and and APS who are aspiring to be principles it is truly impacting think about it this way and it's okay for us to say hey we saw this but you're te the teacher could probably improve here and it's good for that administrator to say yeah we're on the right track or o Maybe maybe I need to start thinking about this um and that should we're we're doing that three times a year so we're going to have one in second quarter and we're going to start one in the third we're going to have one in the third quarter as well but the but when we talk about collaboration we talk about the continuous development it's not someone getting up there and presenting

080to us the best professional development is that water bottle conversation and that's what these these principles are having every time we do these 18 visits and it's been truly impactful so and that that um Mr Armstrong just mentioned also feeds into the administrator meetings so as we're planning those like the one we had today everything we're doing it aligns to what our focus is for the district which is also aligned to what does it mean for Teacher feedback and for student outcomes and so there's not anything new we're just we're refining the practice of using this instrument as well as um how it fits with everything that we're doing and with that that's it if anyone has any questions president Anderson um I have a question and I don't care who answers um I actually

081I'd like the look of this having had the luxury of doing what we did years ago here um because I also when I worked back here was during covid and so things were all so different during that time frame uh where I went and taught in Maryland uh made me a better teacher teacher and part of that reason is because they did more stuff like this and sat down with you in a way to give you feedback that was meaningful that uh helped me look at how I I teach in a different way for example one of the things talk about how I just moved around in the physical space um was very interesting to to be able to see some of those things one question that I do have that I think is important

082is what does this look like like different from an administrative perspective in terms of how many times they go into a classroom or how they use this for a brand new teacher a new hired a district or like a seasoned teacher because I'm assuming there are differences right a new teacher would definitely benefit from this in ways more frequently because you know it takes about three years to even figure out what kind of teacher you hope to be um and I'm just curious because I don't know what that looks like for us yeah so as a district our group one teachers are those teachers who are with us no matter years of experience or not you have if you're a group one you're three or years less and you get two required formal observations in

083which the the remember the process for this that's a pre-observation meeting a minimum of a 30 to 45 minute minimum a 35 45 minute observation where we're sitting and collecting data and then a post conference meeting and so those individuals twice a year and then our group two teachers are teachers that have more than three years experience and they it's mandated for one that meets ARS now all of our principles I will tell you all of our principles utilize this information when we have walkthroughs we have two mandated walkthroughs that are in MLP that they can utilize but we have the luxury of adding more to go ahead and utilize this tool or some things that common practice that I used to do is we when I would walk in even if it's for me

084to take a break from my office I would sit in there do some work listen provide feedback and then it to which domain or which component it is so it's a continuous communication of what that what the teachers are going to see by the end of the year when it comes to their Summit of evaluation or Summit of meeting President Anderson Miss Garland um my biggest um or the the most important is how this trickles down to the students and the and the student outcomes um and so can you and and thank you whoever answered all my questions about Danielson but um I I would like it if you can elaborate on um how the student outcomes are measured based on uh the professional development that the teachers are getting does that make sense do

085you mean professional development overall are related to the observations whatever the development that they're getting through Danielson um what are we utilizing to measure the student outcomes student well I would assume that professional development ultimately is to improve student outcome correct so the professional development that teachers receive the one thing we try to make sure we do like whatever topic it is we do align it to how it can improve their teaching performance or part of this Danielson because everything a teacher does can be found somewhere in one of these domains in terms of student outcomes um like Miss Davis can probably speak to like next week there's going to be a K2 um professional development session she is presenting on so whatever that is that present the topic of that is tied to an

086academic component and so she can speak to how that would relate you know in terms of the student outcomes directly but in terms of this the the whole premise of having the evaluation tool like this specific speically is that you can see what a teacher does in a classroom they are reflecting on the assessments that they give students they're looking at that that's part of this process um in a postc conference for an observation a principal will talk about how did they do on this particular standard you were working on that day they can speak to that and say how they may have changed their practice it's all about the reflection and what you're going to do to make it better if needed or realizing they got it we're moving on to something new so

087vice president miss Van Hook I bet Marcus Burkshire wants to say something I can tell he's like I got something to say here in terms of student performance and assessment I just wanted to check did Miss Garland answer your question actually have another question based on what she said so um so if a teacher determines that whatever they imple implemented in the class so how how did they determine that okay maybe this didn't work and I got to try something else so what is what do they utilize to measure is it student grades um or it could be it could be a grade it could be a like like an inclass like check for understanding it can be a ticket out the door whatever they're choosing to have the student do to show their learning

088that's what a a teacher would do in the classroom every day to determine next steps like when we look at overall student outcomes like um when we think about like our state testing and all of that that is not part of this particular thing it's just how a teacher is assessing their students on a daily basis and using those results to make the next decision for their students other the class as a whole or individual students great thank you may I add a comment sorry did interrupt um I don't well did you want I wouldn't mind a PE elaborated just a teeny bit president Anderson if you don't mind I'm so sorry I another question and didn't let you answer no that that's okay um because I'm not sure what you mean by student outcomes

089um so certainly as part of the evaluation process the and the the observation collection of data around teacher performance principles are going to be having those reflective conversations with teachers as to this is what I see happening in your classroom this is the evidence of what you're doing and the impact and and teachers have those conversations with princip principles on a regular basis that all goes factors into that Summit of evaluation of where they are in each of those domains related to whatever specific piece they're looking at um in terms of student outcomes tied to the teacher evaluation that's a whole bigger issue at one point the state had a state law that said that a portion of a teacher evaluation had to be tied to um pre and post test result um which became

090very problematic because we have pre- and post test results that are very valid and reliable in ela and math and nothing else so you had a whole group of teachers that really couldn't be evaluated on student results in a valid and reliable way and and became very inequitable in terms of how th those evaluations were done they've since changed that law we have a lot more flexibility in terms of what we consider to be that so as a district to ensure sure that we're addressing all of our students and all of our staff our that portion of the evaluation instrument is around our district letter grade uh and and that allows us to ensure that every teacher is supporting us as a district and being evaluated based on how we do as a district so

091hopefully that answers that that question A Little Bit Stronger yes thank you so much now I'm not sure it's been almost 10 years since I've talked in this District in District I currently work in we have a data specialist at our school and um we don't the teachers don't meet directly with the principal all the time but we meet weekly at lunch and we take our data and we share it with him which he puts into a sharable form which shows our our test results our average scores and things we and we talk about what questions what standards did they struggle with um what do we how do we plan on um addressing it it's kind of like the PLC motto as well what do we want them to learn how do we know they

092learn it what we they don't want to learn it right um so that's that's one way um that we assess uh student achievement but um it has also been tied to in our my district to our evaluation we would have to fill out a spreadsheet that we would upload with our evaluation instrument to show growth or our scores through our district assessments which we call benchmarks and at one point in time we were doing Galileo whenever I worked here right do y'all do you not use district testing um to look at student growth here anymore so there's a lot of research around the use of test scores and teacher Effectiveness and most of the research says the minute you tie test scores into a teacher evaluation system you add in a huge element of desire

093to cheat to doctor the scores pressure on teachers a and and it really turns out that it's not about learning anymore it's about getting that test score um so what we've tried to do with our benchmarks is really turn around and focus on how do we use these benchmarks to impact instruction in the classroom so so when we administer the benchmarks we're asking our teacher teams to look at items and do a strong item analysis looking into why did kids perform in a certain way on this particular item how does that relate to how I'm teaching the standard and then what am I doing in the classroom in order to adjust my instruction and looking at formative assessment results to really look at where my kids are one of the challenges right now that we

094have is in developing our our instructional Maps is that we don't have those common formative assessments developed yet at the district level those would allow us to do a very strong analysis of where we are in terms of teaching specific standards that are prioritized and that's on the drawing board but we want to make sure we've got good maps in place first before we start talking about those common formative assessments so at this point in time we don't have a district um data repository where we're talking about teachers that's really more at the PLC level and our site principles working with their teachers on where are your where are your students based on those benchmarks what are you doing to to adjust your instruction around that and how are you formatively assessing kids in fact

095uh Melissa talked earlier today about we did a principal PD with our elementary principles today was focused on assessment practices at the site and really having a dialogue about what what they do with their site uh plc's okay and that's nice and thank you for explaining that in in no way are you um going off assessing students are you all using like the act or sat um scores for uh teach evaluation either or School evaluation like we set goals for increases and scores and all that the only thing tied to teacher evaluation in terms of data is our district uh letter great very good thank you president Anderson Mr Armstrong I just have a question because you said it twice a minimum of 30 to 45 minutes what are the average sessions then they're spending

096observing well I can tell you minimum is 30 minutes uh I'll be honest with you I was a little stubborn and I hung out in there a little bit longer than that maybe up towards an hour um because the more data we collect the better off it is uh but I can I I mean the two principles that are sitting here and everyone else when we have these conversations 30 minutes is the bare minimum and how much do you get in a 30 minute session and so we want to be sure that we're in there either a little bit longer or throughout the year we're in there more frequently um and when we I'm going to go back to the tool I've used this tool before so I'm a little biased but the tool that

097we were using when it comes to true feedback and when we're talking about the continuous growth of our teachers of our Educators this is so specific to the point where during a post conference I can say I'm not going to pick on you miss SCH but miss Schultz this is the questioning this is what I saw this is where I want to improve so let's go ahead and let's dive into this and this is what I'm going to be looking at over the course of the next couple of months and that way it's much more specific rather than a general consensus of how how you're doing as an educator sorry president Anderson just to piggyback on that for for those of us who also may not be in the classroom or have classroom experience first

098off good Educators routinely always do formal and informal assessments routinely and assuming you're not on an island and that you're the only one who teaches that subject we give the same test we give the same quizzes we share assignments we don't necessarily always give the sh same assignments but then we can talk about how did your kids do how did my kids do what did you do why was that better Etc something that is beneficial for this because the one that we used in the past is looking at how many of my kids are performing well on this test how many didn't what steps did I do to improve them what percentage of those kids improved and that is what I got evaluated on and to Mr bur shire's Point that's not necessarily showing how

099I'm effective at my job if I am just improving test scores necessarily because some of these things kids are smart and they will do on their own as their brains continue develop my kid may not be able to do all the site words right now but by the time at the end of the year just from merely growing up she is now capable of doing these things and I may have not been important in that endeavor as her teacher and so what's nice about some of these these breakdowns and the different categories is if I'm a teacher who my scores and everything else look okay but yet I'm still struggling with engaging with my students and how I do that and so I I talked about how I moved in my classroom one of the

100things that I was talked about in Maryland he drew everywhere I went in the classroom for the entire class period and showed how I stayed in a very specific area which we all do because it's comfortable and then what he asked me to do is go look at those students who exist on one side of the classroom versus the other the side I was routinely in and see if they're performing in the same level and they weren't and it's not something I ever thought about it was no way I would have ever been able to do that just some kids don't perform as well and on my list they're alphabetical but in my classroom they're not and so being able to see some of these things is what actually makes me improve as a teacher

101and how we can break some of those things down and I think a lot of times we get stuck in data as that's important because that's where we get finances from that's what people tend to care about the letter grade all of that but that's not necessarily helping you to be a better teacher and so looking at this now obviously I would like to see how the teachers feel on some of these things and where their feedback is If there really was growth for them personally but looking at at this and and being a part of of what we had before and and something that was very similar to this I think it is very beneficial from both an admin perspective but from teachers to be able to figure out certain areas that I can

102improve on that data alone might not have given me so I I am appreciative and I look forward to seeing some of that there is one one more thing that I want to add because we need to with the Danielson um tool we received the special education component so when we go in and observe our students or our teachers of our crosscat classrooms they're using the same tool but Danielson has provided us with what it would look like in a cross-categorical classroom so that it's specific to the students disabilities and and it gives such a different input for those teachers because it I'll admit it's hard to walk into a crosscat class and say okay I want you we're talking about environment where we have we may have students that are visit Al unable to

103control their bodies this provides us an opportunity to evaluate those teachers specific to that as well so it is a great tool um I I thank you for asking about the data of how how teachers feel that was one of the things I wanted to know because I I would I'm the teacher that looks at this and I would see I feel it's a little nitpicky I feel it's a little heavy like on micromanaging but that's just how I see it I'm not living it so you're probably like no no no it's not like that but I am that teacher that I will go through every every Dot and make sure that um I do my best to cover it but um one positive which I hope it fixes or helps not saying it's there's

104a problem but um there's a rotation like we have our approved evaluators and then one year I may get evaluated by this principal and then the next year it's another principal and there are two totally different people and how they you think some people right are a little more stric or I'm hoping that this makes it a little more consistent so you're not yay this evaluator this year versus like crud there are critical attributes within each one of these and there's look fors for every level of performance so the whole premise of this is when you gather evidence it's it's what you see and what you hear and um it Danielson really focuses on not having the bias and part of that so as uh an administrator is in a classroom and they're Gathering evidence

105they can clearly you know they can write down you know a teacher asked this question you know whatever the question may be which lends itself to that was a great way to engage the class in because it it fit in that category because it had the critical attributes needed to be distinguished or proficient or whatever so that the C you're looking at is just a snippet of what principles and teachers have available to see these are examples of what that looks like in a classroom and many many distinguished marks for a teacher to receive when we talk about the instructional component going back to uh vice president V Hook's question is it is student driven so in order to receive a distinguished Mark a lot of the the critical attributes speak to our students the

106ones asking questions are students the ones assessing one another are stud so that you know uh president Anderson your question about teacher that was kind of hard because teachers were usually distinguished according to our previous school but when we go into a classroom and they're doing most of talking and students aren't as doing as much talking then that distinguished Mark uh kind of goes to that proficient Mark which is good because it shifts their mindset to say okay now I need to figure out a way to get students more engaged in this in this lesson and moving forward from that point of of course you walk in the next dat it is that way you just snapshot that one day right could every [Laughter] time no no um no my classes are loud but um

107Can Can you show me how this evaluation tool takes into account um class sizes number of preps that teachers are teaching um number of special ed students the high percentage of students that some teachers may have and some of those that are in six fist where they those create a whole different um teaching experience than just the normal I don't know what normal is anymore for teaching but I mean those are higher stress and sometimes less prep time and um it it can like the days it can look bad on some days and really great on others so how does that take into account those experiences for those teachers yeah on the on the C you see the professionalism piece and there's pieces in there when it comes to the critical attributes that speak to

108that and so teachers who are willing to give up preps teachers who are willing to come to events that are after school on a consistent basis they're going to receive a little bit of a higher marking when it comes to that that difference between proficient basic distinguished they're going to receive a higher marking in regards to that and it's going to be it should be documented as evidence within their evaluation thank you is there ever a way for this to be um reverse used is there could we be one of these leaning districts to where the teachers can use it to evaluate their administrators let me make sure I understand are you asking if there's a are teachers using this tool to evaluate us as admin would that yes as like a future like hey

109would was that something that could be this tool could be used for if the district should say hey you know what that that's something that we want to take into account some time well this doesn't have a tool um but I will say that I think a a lot maybe I'm misspeaking but I will when I evaluate after our post conference the last thing I have before we leave is hey what is there where is there an area of growth for me that is in terms of supporting you and I think that open dialogue between us is going to help increase the the it should right it should help increase the relationship and it should help increase the reason why we're doing this particular tool or process to help both of us grow um we

110also have a variety of different thing end of the year climate and culture surveys and that kind of stuff that we have that that people evaluate us on so president Anderson um principal's assistant principal directors are evaluated and the tool doesn't say the exact thing but it looks similar so we are giving each other feedback which is important to all all of this there it just be nice to have a formal document to have documentation of feedback from teachers you know and I think you know he mentioned the culture and climate survey which talks about leadership too so that's something we've started doing again and I think it's been very beneficial because our principles are using it to set goals moving forward so they look at academic achievement data but they also look at that

111feedback and do I need to work on my culture and climate and hear some steps because your staff is the best source of how you're really doing a lot of times because sometimes I might think as a principal everything's fine and then Christina the second grade teacher comes and tells me it's not Sherry you have a problem so and maybe components because obviously much of this wouldn't apply to administrator but maybe there are components that could be used to build that climate survey well and a lot of a lot of the components that we talk about within that card I shouldn't say a lot but there's a handful the I mean our culture and climate surveys ask us about our communication our relationship our praising so we're talking we already have a bunch of those

112culture pieces and when the staff fill it out they give us that that evidence piece towards okay thank you thank you anybody else okay all right thank you everyone for the information and and for the presentation just one question can we get can you send us what the culture and climate survey a copy of that yeah I don't remember if I've seen it or not but I just want to see what it what it looks like or if anyone else does yes thank you okay thank you great ask um let's move on to 7.2 the hel UniFi School District cell phone policy with Mr Walker correct yep that's correct good evening governing board uh president Anderson uh tonight I'm here to share some information regarding our our practices uh and our response to cell phone

113use in our schools um first and foremost I think it's universally agreed upon that cell phones and social media is a big problem especially with adolescence um untethered uncontrolled access to the internet and social media is is dangerous we we do offer our social media dangers of Snapchat presentation um elicit drugs trafficking um there's all types of things that are happening online so the first um as a father and as a as an educator to to share with the community is that it's very very important to um be in tune with what your children are are accessing and have access to um so as a societal issue it's it's a big big big problem um what we do as a school that's what we're here to talk about tonight and I don't know if we

114can solve that issue as a school I wish we could um if I can snap my fingers and create a way to uh control cell phones generally speaking I would love to be able to do so um but in schools this year the Hot Topic that we've heard in the media is cell phone bans so we've heard about select school districts Banning cell phones so my first question when I hear that is what does that look like you know as somebody who works with policy and works with student discipline um supporting staff supporting students um as a former classroom teacher myself just curious what what does that look like so a recent Unified School District a peer District uh came forward in news they're they're kind of the flagship spokesperson for the ban um they

115came across with a ban but if you look into it they voted to ban the use of cell phones in school okay so that's that's interesting what does that look like if you dig further and what they really have is this your standard Progressive disciplinary practice first time a student has a phone out without permission they get a warning the second time it gets confiscated by the teacher and then the third time the parents have to come pick up the phone so that's kind of your standard Progressive discipline that you'll see for not just phones but for any type of misconduct that's not egregious that we like to work through that with the communication and education piece um information not to do this here's why secondary consequence tertiary consequence and it progressively increases um if

116the behavior consists so that's that's one of the districts we've seen um so they're banning not necessarily the possession of the cell phone but they're banning the use of the of the cell phone um another one they've kind of come up with a a catchphrase away for the day so they're not technically banned really the students are able to bring the cell phones to school but they're just expected to keep the cell phones stowed away uh throughout class um their goal is to decrease cell phone addiction uh remove classroom distractions and cut down on cyber bullying so when we talk about classroom distractions um from as a as a classroom teacher myself anything that's disrupting the classroom teachers have always had the authority to limit that so it's never been if a student has their

117phone out and you ask them to put the phone away because we're in the middle of instruction and they said no there's there's no policy that says I have to it it doesn't work that way the students are expected to comply with the instructions of the teacher and that's universally understood it has been uh 15 years ago when cell phones were not as prevalent but still a nuisance at the time um students were complying with directions and if they don't comply then there's Progressive disciplinary consequences for insubordination essentially um but when we pull our language from our handbook I really wish we would have maybe put an article in the newspaper because we would have been pioneers of the cell phone band so this language is not new um I've gone back as far as

118uh 20145 and similar language has been our practice in our handbook since um and it's according to the handbook this year this is this year's language students personal electronic devices including cellones may not be used during the school day except in the instance of being asked to use them for an explicit educational purpose and under the direct guidance of the classro teachers otherwise electronic devices are to be often not displayed for use if a student uses a personal device to engage in misconduct under another violation area the student may receive additional consequences so that kind of gives us you know the why right we have this this is the expectation the handbooks communicated to all of our families um parents have to see that at the beginning of the year acknowledge it it goes out

119uh secondary students see this they have to acknowledge it this is when people ask where does that say that in writing well it says it in our handbook and this is what we use to support our learning environment because we have this expectation is everything in the handbook followed to a te with 100% accuracy at all times if so I probably wouldn't have a job because everybody would be utopic applying themselves to every single consequence right but it's not but we do have language that helps us support our position on where we're at with cell phones and then it it further goes on to say the school May confiscate personal electronic devices and return them to a parent or Guardian at the end of the school day students are not permitted to photograph other students

120or staff or to record audio or video of anyone at any time throughout the school day unless granted permission the school's not responsible for loss theft or damage of the devices so that's kind of where we're at as a school district that's our language now how is that applied at our campuses what does it look like at our schools what measures can be taken bless you we're you know we always work with the spirit of continuous Improvement I think things can always be better so the moment that we stop pursuing ways to make things better then that's the moment we make a mistake right so what can we do to make things better well we've had some suggestions come our way um one of the things that we hear is these lock bags are kind

121of like a pencil case where students would have to come and lock their phone up before school starts and unlock them at the end of the day maybe you guys have gone to a comedy show or a concert or something where that's that's becoming more prevalent um in in in places but if we think about it from the lens of a high school 20200 kids what does that look like in reality of filing in kids to make sure their pencil cases are locked up and then unlocking them all at the end of the day and then they're $30 per bag so if we want to buy a bag who's going to buy the bag where's the money to buy the bags who's going to manage the bags is that something that we're interested in doing

122it's an option out there but it's a discussion grander than just myself do we want to invest the time effort energy and money into a a program like that um there's been suggestions to bring lockers from a disciplinary safety standpoint I would strongly say having lockers on campuses um is not a good move um we don't have lockers and I'm very thankful that we don't because lockers create a whole another element of school safety um and management that we don't have to worry about today even if they're small lockers or cell phone lockers where are they going to go who's going to manage them who's going to lock and unlock them those are all the further questions that we want to ask if that's something that we would want to consider sounds great in practice

123cell phones are locked up out of sight but the managerial process of it is some really questions that we'd want to ask what does this look like in practice and so we have the financial implications we have the thousands of students to manage and the reality of it is the compliance issue would be exactly the same as it is right now if a student just circumvents the pencil case or the locker or they lock up the iPhone 7 but they have the iPhone 15 in their pocket it would be managed the same exact way there would be a progressive disciplinary there would be a request to surrender the phone there would be a conversation and we would process it the same exact way that we do now without the expend Ure or the time effort

124energy and those type of um systems so we had a board meeting a few months back where we had um several community members come and express their concerns um rightfully so about just the concern of children and access to cell phones and so from that I surveyed our administrative team sent out a survey to kind of see where where we're at let's let's get the boots on the ground approach and see what our schools are experiencing what does this look like because for me from my lens I see only a snippet of it when you're actually managing the school managing your staff you're in direct contact with your teachers daily what what do we feel so 22 people were surveyed or 21 people were surveyed um 10 responded School administrators principles assistant principles and Deans

125do you see cell phones is problematic on the campus 10 yes 11 no it's not really valuable data kind of shows that it's kind of split um but the next question was do you have measures in place to address cell phones on your campus not the one that came up was no I was like no like what yikes um but I I was able to kind of dig into the no and find out more that was a a new administrative team at a school they were this testing out what their staff would need so they they were very black and white with the answer like at the moment in time when that was asked they didn't have it developed yet but they were working to put something together so since that it's it's 21 yes

126and zero NOS but so all of our schools have something in place to address cell phones on the campus and then the next line of questioning in the survey was and this is really just opinion uh there's really no supporting facts to back it up and it's just kind of getting a holistic lens from our administrative staff do you think a sweeping wide District ban prohibiting cell phones from being brought on campus is reasonable enforcable welcome warranted necessary or unreasonable unenforcable unwelcome unwarranted Ed unnecessary and that just again it's it's almost I wouldn't say useless data but it it just to kind of get a feel it's kind of all over the place which then makes it really difficult to come up with a consensus decision because you don't have a 100% yes it's enforcable

127yes it's welcome yes it's warranted if that came back and that was 21 across the board for all of them I think it would be a no-brainer to say we need to beef up where we're at and create something something new but since we're kind of all over the place it doesn't really give us a strong position to to change what we have right now again we can we can use what we have right now to better support our needs and so that's why I have uh select principles here to kind of share what it looks like on their campuses and so thank you to Mr Griggs and Mr Bickle from the Elementary School Mr pots from the middle school and Mr dlan from the high school they're here just to share with with the

128governing board what cell phone management and situations look like on the campuses specifically and we'll start maybe with Elementary if you guys wouldn't mind sharing what you guys do uh on a daily basis and what it looks like is it a problem is it a distraction how many teachers are they coming to you constantly asking for help are students compliant and that's what we're kind of looking to see what that looks like more more in tune with the day-to-day operations on the campus yeah so I'll start so I'm Brian Greggs from cornado so president Anderson members of the board what it looks like at Coronado um communicated um obviously through the handbook and then also actually in our back to school message before students even report on campus hey here's what we do with cell

129phones and even linked to the handbook so families can reference it in that email when you walk through the gates of Coronado it's in your backpack and it's off on silent and then when you walk out then that's when you take it out and you coordinate your ride home and and things like that so some kids may need it for that and so we're good with that but it's once who are walking out of the campus um really um I can count maybe on one hand you know if a cell phone goes off in a backpack and it's usually mom trying to coordinate you know you know pick up that in the afternoon typ type thing um and even our sixth grade you know team meeting with them uh during the summer talking about it

130and it wasn't really a concern of theirs you know kindergarten use of the cell phone is a lot different than sixth grade use of the cell phone and so with them um just making sure that everyone was on the same page of Once you walk in it's on silent off backpack and then go from there president Anderson members of the board thank you um I Echo the same sentiment as Brian it's not really an issue on our campus our kids are very compliant too if we see them out we just ask them to put them away and it's it's infrequent when that happens so um at the elementary level at least on our campuses I I don't see this being a a big issue and um like Brian said uh I really can't even recollect

131the the last time this became a major issue with a specific student even um our our kids really follow rules nicely good evening uh president governing board principal Sasa Middle School um just for you know I've been at sasman all 12 years so I've had a lot of experience from a teacher the dean handling the discipline on the principal role and so uh we communicate the expectations at our open house that's kind of the biggest to get that message out to families uh double down at our curriculum night um when when teachers enter the classroom teachers can talk about classroom specific expectations um whether that's in a backpack as a teacher that was my favorite location um taking attendance hey uh I see two cell phones in the pocket as I finish uh attendance make

132sure those are put away I see three you'll see five students put them away right and so quick easy way I never had it is an issue uh that we have our math department likes to have it in in the pocket folders um it's way for them to take attendance uh and so uh that's that and then in terms of disseminating our expectations to students um for the last couple years we spend one full entire day and the three administrators um are in the science classes and we present face Toof face a 15minute presentation then I bounce another class for 15 minutes and I bounce another class for 15 minutes and we squeeze all that in uh to those eight classes and we set the expectations for students our expectation is one they're in the

133building uh that cell phones are not in use um and so um it's not an issue um they they're allowed to have it during passing period outside of the building so if you've been on our campus before we have a main building and then a b building where our gym and our some of our Performing Arts elective classes are as well as some art classes so if they exit the building um they can then check their phone to do whatever um I stand in the courtyard well I kind of mix whether it's the hallway or the courtyard depending on where everyone else is we communicate every pass hey where are you where am I where am I going to go I don't see kids using them T typically transitioning um so typically it's before school

134or lunchtime when they're allowed to be out because that's that's outside um you'll see kids in the hallway sometimes checking them um they'll look at you and immediately put them away and I always you know we've tried to focus on the positivity assessment so I'll go up and just give that student a fist bump and just say hey thanks thanks for putting that away so they know the expectation just like adults they're going to check them there's time where you know they want to check those but um overall um it's not it's not a problem we're one to one school and so there's really not a need for it um to use them in class with our hsd devices president Anderson uh members of the board uh thank you for allowing me to kind of

135share with you what is going on over at williamsfield um I was online for a couple years so I love videos so uh uh for me when it came to expectations when it came to overall expectations but partly with cell phones uh I would send that home in the beginning of the year to families uh we don't necessarily have an open house like they would have at middle schools that would afford me that opportunity so I utilize that as far as in the classrooms we uh utilize our staff members to kind of share expectations for kids when it comes to phones on uh our high school campus they can use it prior to the day they can use it at lunchtime they can use it after school and they can use it in their passing

136periods uh there was the conversation of hey do we not allow them during the passing periods and I said I I'm not going to be able to uh police that going to kind of piggy back onto what uh Mr pot said I agree you know if expectations are set I know I can walk into a classroom and there are times do a kid does a kid have a phone app yeah should they no uh my biggest message has been you can use those phones at that point in time because once you walk in the classroom that's your learning environment put it away we have some teachers that have uh Pockets we purchased them for them heck I've even gone as far as saying hey I will buy you Chargers with five six seven different things

137on it and maybe that's the way you go after a kid using a positivity thing too like hey I see you're using your phone is it dying just plug it in here you know and and um trying again to make kids realize that uh the expectation is when they're in that classroom it is to learn uh I told teachers because some teachers are like well I need to use it for X well if you tell me what that app is I can reach out to it and maybe that's something you don't need to use on that phone and it gives us another ability to say that no we won't have to pit this teacher against another teacher because you're utilizing that particular phone on our campus the only classroom that is allowed to use their

138phone is our um criminal justice they have a I don't know what you want to call it but it's some sort of a glass thing that goes over their camera so they can look like a like a CSI person at those things so um I actually went into those classrooms and explained to the kids that you're you're kind of lucky you you get to do this so please don't blow it because this is part of your class um you know we want to afford you guys this opportunity so please please take care of that um as far as issues with it I I wouldn't really say that we have issues I I think think there's kids in anywhere they're going to challenge what we ask so we've tried to put in some positive things for

139kids when it comes to that you know whether it's uh announcements um or seeing kids and thanking them for you know they see you they put it away it's like that's when we see the police officer I slow down um you know I'm speeding but I slow down so I I think it's the same thing in the class but also those kids that aren't getting we did we do have some contracts that we put them in and Progressive discipline kind of goes into exactly what's already in our policy thank you um and then just to conclude you know we're here to support so if if a family or you know parents or students feel that there's not support there's distractions in the classroom we encourage that to be reported so we can address that right

140um same thing if if a teacher is not feeling supported um that they're bringing Progressive disciplinary issues to their Administration and their students that are still being defiant and it's not being addressed we need to know that so we can support that I I will say just managing discipline in general um our students in our school district are are are very well behaved relatively speaking compared to other school districts you guys see the suspension report you know if if somebody's suspended as a result of defiance or insubordination that's not the first time they've done that it's it's a couple occasions that lead up to that then the progressive discipline doesn't stop but you'll never see somebody who's long term suspended from our school district because they've been defiant so many times it leads to that

141our we have measures in place to meet with families to discuss expectations to put things in place to help support our learning environments um but drastic measures can be taken if there is a refusal to comply which we we don't have that and so if there are issues that our our people are not feeling that they are supported we we do ask that we're we're made aware so we can help to support that but um I'll conclude with that thank you to the individuals who came out of uh their schools tonight to present and if you guys have any questions I'm happy to answer president Anderson um Mr Walker thank you so much I know that I had asked for this presentation and I appreciate it uh because community members had asked about it um

142and thank you for taking your time this evening too um I think we maybe just need to toot our own home a little bit more and say that we have these things in place so that the community knows that we have them in place um and then that might be might have the issue I know that being the parent of out of two of the four schools then I know that Mr Griggs is correct I have a sixth grader I think she follows the rules most of the time and she is very diligent that she cannot have her cell phone at school until she walks out of the campus um and same with uh Mr Dolan my uh ninth grader is not on her phone um I think in junior high maybe she was a

143little bit more which she would sneak it but um uh but I or middle school I'm sorry but I I know that she follows those rules and the and the um uh Cubbies thank you work very well but I do appreciate that I that a full ban wouldn't work because of the reasons that you said as far as using it for a CSI person and in different ways that they look up things and stuff like that so um I think it's just working together as a community to try to keep kids off of their phones as much as we can and engaged and so I appreciate everything that you're doing thank you president Anderson thank you for taking the time and going through this obviously these are Big topics um can you tell me how

144many of you guys spoke to your teachers asking them if there's a problem I know we have administrative responses did you go out to your teachers and ask them do you have cell phone problems yeah so one of the things that I did coming in is new principles I met with folks in July and said hey what are things that are working what are things that are not working and and one of the things that sixth grade asked like hey are we still when when they walk in we're still good with you know the the phones are off and backpacks I'm like I don't know if that was working you know because I had been gone for a semester at Power Ranch so I was making sure that here we we still good you know

145doing my fact finding and and I'm like yeah know that that lines up with what what we do and so yeah no that was that was part of the the fact finding just coming in as a a new administrator so you stole my thunder uh coming in same thing meeting with uh teachers community members kids uh one of the big things that they talked to me about was just kind of the follow through would there be follow through what if whatever we were going to do um and uh there was a policy in place but they just felt that sometimes it wasn't as consistent so um for me uh it just to me it's about communication if we keep communicating the same message uh and the teachers something they wanted to make sure the kids

146understood that hey I I want you to be engaged in my classroom uh so I would say for williamsfield it as long as we communicate the teachers did share that there was something they wanted to make sure that uh kids understood please put them away I I know several teachers and the reason I ask is um I think and it may depend on their campus it may depend on their subject some of the responses is it's not a policy so I'm not going to enforce it and I have too much other things to do than to worry about if a kids on a cell phone um you know I've got to get through my lesson I've got you know so if this one's on their cell phone I I can't stop class to address this

147one and and I've told that one I don't know how many times and this one's mom won't quit texting them in class and you know and so I mean just hearing different things from different teachers I know our our handbook and our words are around it I don't know if the word policy helps that any it doesn't necessarily mean it needs to be different but that it's an actual policy that maybe then staff could feel more supported they can feel instead of going we'll reference your handbook I can reference the policy that we don't allow this during our school day I I mean I'm just throwing some of these things out because I don't know if teachers just and I'm not saying all obviously but that they don't necessarily feel that there's support behind them

148and I'm not saying not support from their administrators but that that there's something to go back to and I know one of the biggest frustrations of what am I going to face because it is the parent that's continuously texting this child and if I take their phone away and that parent's upset because then they can't communicate with their child that that's not the interaction that the that the teacher really wants to necessarily invite with maybe you know some particular parents so I'm just wondering I mean has these things come up to you guys I know I've heard of these things so just kind of throwing that out there yeah I guess here's what I'll say um again going back to the just the general idea of communication so you gave some specific scenarios so if

149talking to teachers and they share that what's important to them is that they want the ability to teach their kids and some of the struggles they have or dress code or kids get into class on time or cell phones so if we all as a staff make a decision that that's something we're going to do to me it's about collaboration and talking to everyone to do that so if we all say that we're going to follow through with that hopefully we've already kind of said well there is a policy this is the things we need you to do but then there's the follow through too so whether it be the Principal the assistant principal Etc helping them out by walking through classrooms and sometimes you do see it out right and like I said me

150driving my car you know I'm going to slow down you see the kids kind of put that away and then maybe that leads to a nice conversation with the teacher like Hey how do I help you because it seems like you're you feel like you're you can't tell a kid this but know that we're going to be here for you that to support that while I can't help it because Johnny's mom keeps texting him okay well can you do me a favor email Johnny's mom and tell her something along that line that hey you know you can call the front office if you really need to see Johnny but please don't text them while he in the middle of class CC me on it so I can respond myself so again I think it's the

151communication making them feel that they're supported by us hopefully can help U not cut down because it's still going to happen but get them to feel the support so they can kind of follow through with whatever the expectations of the campus are if I can add as well one thing that I think it's important to remember and of course special education kind of muddies the water in this regard but assisted technology is huge huge for the special education population and unfortunately a lot of the apps and things that are available to that population are found in the Apple Store and you don't find them in the other stores to upload on some of our devices that are the one toone devices for example we have several kids that lack the ability to speak and they

152use their phone as their communication device so that makes it really hard for administrators too to walk into a classroom and you have a student with their device app that is their voice that you cannot ask them to put that away or take that away from them so just something to kind of keep in mind as well I just wanted to bring to perspective we have four schools representing but our data that was brought to us says 10 said yes that cell phones are problematic even with 20 saying yes we have measures in place so some of these teachers may be from those schools or I mean let's I mean I'll be the bad guy it it it is hard to be consistent and my kids went to williamsfield and I know that teachers some

153teachers were a little more lenient than others and I was the mom that drove down to get my kids phone one day um um and and we did put we my husband spent hours if not evenings locking down his phone only for him to figure out how to unlock it all um maybe a couple nights but um um it so my question going back to is are we working with those schools that said yeah we have measures in place but no I mean yes they are a problem so if you guys are champion championing this maybe it's a good time to go work with those schools and have teachers work out but um uh thank you for bringing up the apps um that was one thing um as I talked to some teachers and teachers

154that were also parents is um yeah there's like medical apps on there that they use too that that they desperately need um and so I started out being the teacher of Hey listen you know I'm going to treat you like a human you're going to treat me like a human and you're going to learn how to adult with a phone in a classroom it's going to come out and I'm going to say put it away we're going to play that game and um I I became a little lenient because I became exhausted about it and yeah I I just don't want to you know you're picking your you're choosing your path you know but it comes to a point where you you work so hard to teach them where I finally said that's enough and

155I started looking at what other teachers doing and the pockets are definitely working in our schools and thank you for purchasing it for your teachers because I just bought my own um overbreak which I plan on using in my classroom um but I didn't ask that they would point being is um I gave I gave the talk to my classes I said you know what it's coming I was like District sard to talk about the ban don't give teachers a reason to want to support Banning your phones I was like it's coming I said but I'm also going to go ahead and imple Implement in my room and I had a couple kids mad and I stopped and I said wait a minute why are you mad why are you mad that I'm asking you

156to put your phone away whenever I'm giving every second of my life and I said I'm giving more time to you than my family many nights why does that make you angry then I'm saying please put your phone away when I just want to teach you for 52 minutes not a response not a response and I tell you that changed I'm not saying oh that was the thing that changed their life and they have they don't use hell phones anymore but I saw a drastic less use of a cell phone and it's going to be even more so when the pockets get used but you can also use it as an incentive um I said okay pockets are coming later this week um but you're performing performance may enable you to you know maybe you

157don't need to put it in the pocket that day or or you can we can work our way to you have more control of your phone in the classroom which is growing you to know you have able to be disciplined and and work in a classroom with that distraction put away you're making the choice to put away and that's where I want these kids to be when they leave school I like the idea of the policy it's it's not that it's like it's not putting a sign of no weapons on campus and people just stop bringing weapons on campus but I like how you said if I'm taking it right way but it helps empower the teachers to say it's the policy and the policy protects me and if I need to take your cell

158phone then that policy backs me up and then when the parents get pushed back well I'm following the direction and I have a backing when it's policy I've got a backing of the board I've got a backing of my Administration and other teachers and possibly you know other parents in the community so that I I was I was perplexed whenever I was looking at ji student rights and responsibilities and jic student conduct I was oh we don't have a policy um quen Creek has a policy and their language is pretty good and not to go off task but to say when that time comes if we do just have a discussion it be a good good thing to look at thank you president Anderson Mr Walker when you did the survey and the 10 people

159that said they didn't how did you proceed from there or I mean you don't have to did you have a discussion or was there no at that point that was this initial perspective of where we're at with our schools okay thank you president Anderson I'm conflicted um about a complete ban um I understand that the the intention behind it is to provide a Better Learning environment um but I do see concerns regarding student safety um personal property practicality um I also see an issue with any of those like Cubbies that are used some teachers have like those shoe racks on the doors um most of these phones are around ,000 um so that opens up for the situation of phones being stolen um and then we have a polic you know our existing policy says

160we're not responsible for loss or theft um so that's a bit contradicting considering we're telling them to relinquish their phones but then we're telling them we're not going to be responsible um because they're valuables are unprotected um while I do have major concerns about um addiction to cell phones um social media uh em MF radiation um but I think that we need to look at a balanced approach um I think an you know instead of an outright ban um the the silencing when they come into a classroom and being able to keep it in their backpacks um and um and I I know that our teachers do a lot in the classroom and that's just one more thing that they um have to monitor um but I think it just unfortunately comes with the environment

161um I also think that um aside from you know to prevent theft um I think the kids should be able to have their phones and their backpacks in case of emergencies um and as we seeing the results I mean it's split um but I would like to know what is the difference between the two um the ones that said you know they may go back to so uh problematic so why do I mean it's almost split so what is the difference why do some think it's problematic and not others are the ones that don't see a problem are they using a specific process in their classroom that might work yeah it's not a clearly defined um question question I mean to be honest it's a pretty generic question problematic is defined individually so who knows

162I mean we can definitely expand upon the survey and and and dig a little bit deeper um that was just kind of a initial approach just to kind of see can gauge where we're at right I agree that that would um be better suited with some more specific language about what that means for sure perfect um I think um implementing a ban um just complete ban um you know obviously creates uh we have we have to ensure that they you know if we do have a policy in place that it is consistent obviously across the board um but I also believe that um they should be able to use their phones during lunch breaks um especially for those students that like to sit by themselves um you know I I would hate to see them

163um feeling more isolated um when they're having lunch by themselves and they don't have their phones to entertain them um but so based on that um you know I think that we can work um to find something that benefits everyone um versus a complete 100% ban at a school that's all thank you any other comments or information thank you all for coming tonight and staying late and helping us understand I was I was very curious about elementary school are they on their phones they have phones they to have phones Wild there way you're right thank you all right let's president Anderson sorry one more question um how do you handle um watches smart watches is it do you have them turn those off as well I can speak for my campus we just ask that

164they're used as a typical wristwatch and that's it um but again it's kind of the same mentality if it becomes an issue we ask them put it away put in their backpack that type of thing you that that was something that it did emerge in discussions that no the phones aren't the problem at the elementary school but the watches are the problem I have a six-year-old who's snapping pictures and taking videos on his watch um but the kids that often that ride the bus and the parents use that it's that's another hard one how do we manage that because it serves a very valuable purpose on one hand but it can become a distraction on the other so it's the same type of thing Communications expectations relationship building um but at the same time it's

165Elementary School and if a student's seven years old it's a learning experience and it can definitely be frustrating for an elementary school teacher to be managing it I think it's like a 21st century problem to have and we're it's emerging and this came about that the phones are okay but the watches are the one that's really the pain right now so and and just to um remind everyone we did have a a bill that passed and unfortunately or Fort you know like I said I'm split about the situation but the bill was vetoed um and I believe that was for a complete ban um so yeah I'm I'm very split I I do know that superintendent horn has formed a task force and I'm curious to see what comes about from that because if the

166ad imposes obviously will comply with whatever they request and so that's in the works too as we speak and so it's kind of waiting to see that was kind of happening in concurrence with um the board meeting that we had when the com complaints and concerns came forward that was happening around the same time so I've yet to hear an update of where they're at with it I'm assuming they're probably in the same boat because it is a pretty challenging um circumstance to navigate to come up with the right answer so and most likely they'll probably introducing introduce the bill again um next session and see where that goes yeah potentially but then again the ad has the authority to kind of go outside of uh the legislature to have their own ad enforcement measures

167as well too so we'll kind of see what that looks like thank you okay let's move on now to uh 7.3 the governing board initiatives for the 2024 update president and Anderson I want to thank these four administrators that go to work early stayed here late this evening we appreciate you guys all right so we're excited to share with you andette dat on the governing board strategic goals and initiatives I'm going to pass the packs the paper down if you're interested in paper because you'll have a hard copy of what we agreed on you'll also have it in this format if you want to take notes here you'll also have this other document that you guys approved for the superintendent evaluation you don't need to use paper because it's my understanding at some board docs

168if you want to make any notes you do not have to take notes all right so I'm gonna let Christina pass that down will somebody pass it quicker yeah all right you get to see this over and over on purpose how important are our mission vision and core values everything we do isn't about individuals but the team which includes the governing board cabinet administrators teachers support staff and very importantly community and parents so we want to provide quarterly reports to keep you a breast of the progress we're making and also give you the opportunity to give us feedback all right so I am going to brag and I don't have to because you've heard from a lot of the individuals in the room tonight and I say this over and over uh we do we

169have the best team here that supports our schools and our teachers and our parents so I'm really proud of them so I hope you're bragging on them too when you're out in public because I certainly am all right you know about our four strategic anchors and our indicators so tonight you're going to hear more specifically what what have we done this first quarter all right teaching and learning Student Success we're all about that right so we have to ask ourselves are our kids motivated and are they resilient because we're learning more and more how important that is are we giving them enough leadership opportunities what are they doing in terms of working with the community you know about Higley helps and then are we given them a strong background not just in reading and writing

170but what about math and science and stem or steam so beginning in January we've decided we need a student uh leadership or superintendent team advisory team is what we're going to call it so you'll remember when we created our strategic plan we brought in sixth graders middle schoolers and high schoolers and the wisdom a lot of it came from the kids obviously so we're going to put that back and force and we're going to learn what are we doing and doing well and what kind of suggestions do they have for us moving forward and we'll come back and report and maybe they'll come report to you guys too so um I was fortunate enough to attend a national leadership conference for superintendent last week and it was a it was a opportunity of a lifetime

171there were over a hundred superintendents there and it was in Annapolis Maryland which I think somebody at the end of the row down there knows about right um topics they covered included effective leadership effective evaluation addressing Innovative models of instruction Smart Learning environments student engagement Mentor Rich organizational cultures and we got to hear from this gentleman named Dr Mark Bell who's the superintendent of an anaro County public schools in Maryland you anybody want to guess how many kids he has no he probably wishes do you know okay 85,000 students and I it blew my mind he has about 6,000 teachers but it was incredibly motivational um in terms of of where he's been where he's going how he works with his community how he works with his staff um so it was a great opportunity

172yes how this is his second year I believe he came from Kansas City which was even inspirational itself because I didn't realize that that's a tough District the can Kansas City schools he had worked really hard to increase their student achievement and work on culture and climate and he told the unfortunate story that two kids went in a restroom when they each had a knife and one of them didn't make it and he said I hope and pray that nobody else goes through this experience so you know he worked through it and he finally decided you know I think I need a new opportunity but he said nothing will rip you up as a school Community like that so anyway I just say that because he's still on man that he got 22 job offers

173so very inspirational men and I think he can handle 85,000 students and it's 85 for how many school um I have to look at the exact number there were 6,000 teachers but it's significant right and spread out but I also wanted to share with you uh we had the opportunity to visit the Naval Academy which I would never have that opportunity in my lifetime if they talked about an overview of the application process um they brought in a leadership panel of kids and also we toured the academy itself and the reason I'm sharing this is I wanted you to see their academic Majors I wanted to highlight they told us over and over how important project-based learning is Hands-On learning is the strong stem background the leadership experience which these are the things we're focusing

174on and also working with the community so his his kids go out or their kids go out they tutor they shovel driveways because they have snow there which you guys don't know what that is but anyway but hand in hand the community works with these midship men was which are their students and they almost adopt them so I was inspired by this and I wanted to share it with you and I want to I want to reemphasize that we are working so hard and this team of people are more committed than anybody I've ever worked with let's see we'll see I want to show you a short video maybe it'll work maybe it won't so I show that to you and I'm not advocating that we ever throw a game right athletic director do I

175say throw a game no we're not going to throw games okay but there's we're not throwing the game but there's a bigger statement here about leader ship supporting one another and modeling it all the way from the adults down to the kids and so just so happened today I went to saucan to visit classrooms and I see things very similar to this I went in a Spanish classroom and my little my little student from Bridges when we open Bridges is sitting on the front row and I can recognize her she's all grown up but I learn she was in Cross cats at Bridges nonverbal now she's in honors classes at saucan taking Spanish and one of the leaders well does that make your heart jump there's a lot of good things happening then I go

176to Unified sports today and this just was like magical I walk in and I see another one of my kindergarteners who's an eighth grader that's in their you know General Ed working with these kids and she said I couldn't recognize her hey Mrs Richards she said I love it in here and let me tell you what I'm going to do when I graduate I said really what she said well I've gotten injured so much in sports I'm going to be an orthopedic surgeon or maybe a physical therapist listen either one of those is fantastic so it all ties in and it all ties together and I just wanted to share every time I go in a building I'm blessed so now you're going to hear from the rest of the team and you're going to

177hear about the work we're accomplishing so far and I'm going to attempt to use the clicker appropriately we we've got another Clicker Marcus has got it he's ready to go I have a clicker too okay and so from the uh Educational Services Department we're going to be presenting today on strategic aner one teaching and learning Student Success and so when you see uh we have Mary Davis and Marcus Burkshire that will each give you an update remember this is an update this isn't the end of the plan but this we just wanted to share where you were on focusing on our goals so far Marcus all right um so our first goal um is to increase the district ride proficiency rate by 2% is measured by ASA Ela in math and our ACTA in math

178um to date right now um it's really small to read but um we have really focused in on being intentional and our district professional development so our sites are all doing professional development at the on those early release Wednesdays and with their their staff but as a district what we are focused on uh working with principles uh since admin Retreat we've really focused on that um supporting teachers in aligning their resources and instruction to our district instructional Maps um and in addition what Melissa was talking about earlier today we've also been very intentional in trying to ensure that what we talk about has a tie in to the Danielson framework as well so so as we work with principles how can you see these things that we are talking about in your classrooms and and

179provide feedback to teachers around these uh in addition at the elementary level with teachers uh we are working on the district PD days analyzing using data to make instructional decisions has been the primary focus there uh secondary on their um PD days uh We've we're doing a format of assessment practices and application uh series with them as well um and then uh we had talked about benchmarks earlier we we we do administer benchmarks with our our staff but really trying to shift that conversation around how do we find value for that at the district level in terms of gaps and Trends and that kind of thing but then at our site level what kind of conversations are our principles having with teachers around those benchmarks and and helping them to see the value to it's

180it's not the Benchmark is not what we should be planning off of but we are using the Benchmark to identify where we need to make adjustments in terms of our instruction and really how does that get reflected back into our format of assessment so we'll have we start those uh Benchmark conversations this week actually tomorrow is our first one right um so those are kind some of the things that we're doing in order to get to that 2% increase at a district level thank you um one of our next um goals this year is to continue the development and implementation of our district instructional maps and what that looks like is adding on our Ela and math instructional maps for K5 last year we were able to do kindergarten and first grade ELA maps and

181that involved identifying our priority standards for kindergarten through um sixth grade and this year we will continue that we will have our Ela Maps completed by mid November I'm very excited to have those up and ready for teachers and then for our K5 math instructional Maps um we will start to roll that out more in the second half of the year um I do have a new um elementary math coach so get allowing her time to get settled in this role and work with teachers to identify those priority standards um I have mid-February up there it might be finished more mid-march depending on the assessment schedule as well um and then for the secondary Fine Arts and electives um we are working on getting that rolled out so we can schedule time with teachers especially

182our Singleton teachers um for the Fine Arts and electives it's not as easy to pull a whole group together so working on how we can pull um and work with those individual teachers so that's where we stand with our maps and then our next goal is adopting and implemen menting a comprehensive District instructional coaching model or framework to ensure common practices throughout the district um and have Clarity on the role of instructional coaches our progress update on this is we have done um surveys um of our instructional coaches and our Administration to kind of better understand what the coaching roles look like currently and what a framework would look like throughout our district um this year we're hosting quarterly District um coaching meetings with our instructional coaches K12 so this year we have instructional coaches

183in the secondary role as well um so bringing them together to understand what their roles look like and how we can work together to have a more unified approach to coaching and have that framework um put together we are looking at um Frameworks such as Jim Knight or Diane Sweeney will pull together a task team to help us really dig into what that looks like so is a decision um across the district not just me Mary Davis saying I like this let's go with this model we want to make sure we have a um representative voice um that will best support all of our coaches and our teachers as this is something that will impact teachers and students in terms of getting them the best support back to you and it's back to me uh

184star fourth goal uh in teaching learning is uh to develop District uh professional learning community and multi-tiered systems and support Frameworks to ensure uh districtwide alignment to the Strategic plan Danielson and Clarity on using data and research-based practices within a collaborative culture um so we have put together two task teams one for mtss one for PLC uh they will start that work uh next week actually to to Really identify what as a district we We Believe means when we say we are a professional Learning Community the district what does that mean what does that look like um some common practices and expectations districtwide same for mtss so we'll start with the theory of action and really identifying what that those if and then statements that we need to accomplish in order to get to that

185goal a and then do A needs assessment as to where are we currently as a district sight by sight and where are those gaps that we need to start looking at um we have K12 representation on those task teams as well as from various stakeholders trying to Ure that this is again just like Mary was talking about with the coaching framework a districtwide unified uh framework that applies to to all of our school sites um and for all kids good evening this is Mike Q we're on number two thank you Sher um highly effective personnel and I apologize for the voice already uh strategic anchor number two and our Focus so far has been on one continue to provide meaningful professional development and support to all employee groups number two continue to evaluate and seek

186effective means to pass on potential benefits and cost savings to employees so just a little bit about our progress um thanks to Mrs Miller who's not in the room uh she has been providing some special education professional development she had 23 new special education teachers this year with monthly professional development as well as 138 classified staff meaning our par ones and Par twos that have been provided quarterly professional development we're very proud of that next you'll see our progress that we have now created a new classified evaluation tool we heard a lot about Danielson tonight so we took some of the information from there as well as uh kind of ped other school districts to see what they were using and we have now created a new classified evaluation tool which is all online in

187uh mlpf Frontline we're using the same software Ware system for Danielson as well as the classified evaluation tool the evaluation tool does have an element I want to make sure that um the board knows about the element of self evaluation which is really great an employee can go in and start evaluating themselves and putting their goals in there as soon as August of the of the new school year so they can go in with their supervisor or they can do it on their own they can have the conversations with their supervisors we're providing Hands-On training and both for the employees and the supervisors most recently over this fall break uh myself and Nina frankone uh who has put this all into Frontline went and we did uh a training with all of the plant managers

188and the facilities folks so worked out really well we'll continue to review this tool and see how we can um make it even better as we go along this is our first year we had the pilot last year and a few of our departments used it but this is our first year of implementing districtwide next a little bit of progress on recruit hire and retain we hired over 100 teachers this year to join us um on our journey of teaching the students of Higley we had we hired over 200 40 uh staff members and this is just in the first quarter we continue to hire we still have a few vacancies remaining Mrs Miller had told me the other day she still has two special ed teachers that we need to hire so that's just

189a little bit of what we're at but we're doing the best we can and one of the things you'll see in here is the additional advertising we're trying to reach out to specific areas where we might be able to recruit specific teachers or other staff members as needed so we're really looking at what we can do um in that respect we had the new employ orientation we added the more than sad when folks come in to learn about their benefits and get uh orientated to Higley we have added the morida sad training to that dayong where they come in they learn about benefits they learn about more than sad they do their Vector training all of that happens in a day uh we did have an additional Vector training unit added this year um we

190are working on and we just had three employees get certified in our health services so that we can offer free CPR and first aid training and recertification to employees that it is part of their current job description so those are usually employees that are at the lower level of pay we thought this would be an addition benefit to the employee again reducing the out- of pocket costs for our employees and giving them a benefit where we could provide this the cost was minimal um employee recognition uh years of service Tyler Moore and his um staff put that together and then turned it turned that over to HR this year and we're happy to have it and recognize our employees I talked about the additional advertising the other thing that has increased due to advertisement and

191um a better how do I say this a better format for people to follow is how they can increase their salary through salary advancement and that's educating themselves with um college courses and applying for additional salary advancement so we saw a 42% increase uh kudos to Nina again Fran Con and the HR staff that are really promoting this and I have to say Kudos also to the benefits uh Department because they do a fabulous job of orientating our new employees as well great things are happening so we have um and this is thanks to James Walker sitting next to me um he leads this program of professional development this is our um Higley Leadership Academy and we have 35 candidates this year and and about half of them are certified employees and the other half

192are classified employees we opened it up last year and had a good response this year we had an even better response from a variety of employees who really want to take on leadership roles in the future so we're looking at that I think we have another class this week right yeah Thursday night the finance session oh boy so yeah and I'm sure yeah so okay work please there we go another area of progress um and this is a benefit to our employees is the wellness we hired the nurse Navigator this year through uh kyus and her name is Meredith alur and she is doing a fabulous job of reaching out to our employees and um sharing how she can help them find places like uh for instance like where should I go to to have

193an MRI what would be most beneficial how can I reduce my cost my out-of-pocket cost as an employee so she's working with employees on that we also have the benefit Fair coming up on November 13th looking forward to that we have many vendors coming as well as we will offer Biometrics for the employees that are currently insured as well as um vaccinations just for employees that are in Curr currently insured as well well so we have uh Wellness Wednesdays which is great we have contest of how many people can answer the wellness questions correctly and we're just offering all kinds of things in the area of Wellness to our employees and really looking at the data that's available to us to focus on those areas of needs for our employees okay there we go and

194Jessica's next that's me good evening president Anderson members of the board I'm excited to talk a little bit about um our efforts in communication and community relations tonight um so the marketing and public information team worked really hard this summer on the launch of our new website um our priorities uh align with strategic anchor 3 which is to engage all stakeholders through transparent respectful timely and consistent communication that's a huge component of that um we're also continuing to refine our branding our engagement efforts and our marketing this quarter so at the end of last school year we set out to focus on this year's efforts on indicators one and two and that's to establish processes for communication and relationships in our community so we're proud to have accomplished several of the board approved action items

195already this year especially as it pertains to what I mentioned the website launch and implementation we have completed two training events um for the website content contributors across the district this is um every office manager at each site has been trained to manage the content on their website we had a second training that was optional for those who'd taken it before um I would say almost every single one came to you know ask specific questions or to get a Refresh on that content management system and then we opened it up as well to anybody who managed um specific Pages for their sites and that was optional for them um we've ALS also uh implemented the board approved directives including um some tweaks to that communication and website eliminating those um extensive teacher pages and making

196it in a staff directory uh which also makes better use of the system itself um and then prominently displaying board meeting dates and other events um the website has a calendar integration that works really well with that um so uh those are some of the the website area action items we accomplished in the area of Community engagement we've also established a subscription button on our website for our district newsletter open to anyone in the community who wants to receive that newsletter and we implemented a new format thank you to those of you who attended the business and Community partner breakfast this fall um we worked with school connect and um brought more brainstorming and project um integration into that event and it aligned with our hickley helps in initiative and we sent out a postevent

197survey that was um widely received so people um gave a lot of really great feedback on the new format for that event our ongoing marketing efforts continue with the goal of boosting Elementary enrollment and recruitment in the district uh quarterly marketing campaigns focus on our special offerings and our running strategically targeting relevant audiences and we have some analytics uh that pertain to that first quarter of the digital marketing campaigns um as you can see we've had more than 4,000 click-throughs to our enrollment page from our digital ads these are ads that are running across social media Facebook Instagram um we run recruitment ads specifically on LinkedIn um we also have search ads and display ads um that are uh you know managed through the marketing and still to come we are excited to continue enhancing

198communication by launching and implementing a new Mass notification system so if you recall the transition of the website was due to the fact that Blackboard um the company that was hosting the website previously was purchased by a company called final site they um also had purchased that element that Blackboard owned which was the mass notification so those emails text messages attendance alerts uh we are going to be transitioning that system over next um so we're going through training that ourselves as our admin team right now um and we're going to be rolling out that uh new system in the second semester of this year we're also um finalizing new content to promote each specific school and we're excited to continue that um that's slated to be complete and ready to print before enrollment opens up

199in um the end of the semester strategic in care four uh we focused on 4.2 and 4.4 uh so in the in the area 4.2 we look to identify and seek additional Revenue sources I see this as additional Reven sources above and beyond what we do every day so I remind the board we are constantly looking for Grants working with the school facilities board to to Garner Revenue um to support our Capital needs um so a couple areas in addition to that the uh review of District fees I've mentioned that already um looking at commun and preschool making those programs profitable so we can then in turn um bring some of that money back into the operations budget a Commerce Bank this was a a board approved agreement uh to pay vendors via a if

200they so choose um these are vendors who want uh do not want the papercheck they want their money instantly um and we have an agreement in place where we can charge them a fee if they want that um paid via a so that has just been implemented so we we don't have a complete progress to that yet but um we'll look to uh watch that and track that Revenue um in addition we have a lot of other programs that help supplement our district um one of them being our foreign exchange uh students that uh the district um Services those uh students uh are brought in through an agency uh Mr liser um kind of oversees that um that money is is comes into the district pretty much unrestricted and so we typically try to put

201that back into the high schools and so leveraging um maybe a higher fee to some of these agencies um or more foreign exchange students um to get uh additional Revenue um back into a district that's kind of un um unrestricted uh is an area we're looking at and then more um our our Sports programs all our extracurriculars are costing more and more um the cost to take a student trip or to um coordinate um with the AAA and and all our fees um we know we we try to avoid asking more fees from our parents in terms of participation fees uh gate fees stuff like that um but we are getting close to the point of subsidizing now with operational dollars to to support those programs so um as I think I've been a rhetoric

202uh looking at fees again to make sure that we are at least bringing in what we need to bring to support those programs uh is something we're continuing to evaluate in addition uh we um I mentioned earlier in the AFR um that fund balance is continuing to to grow and how do we leverage those revenues into in that specific fund that's relegated just to Food Service um to our fullest advantage and so we're researching um the benefits of being contractive ver sell Bop um ways like I've mentioned to reinvest back into equipment um and and seeing how we can leverage that those Monies to best support the district I think James has the 4.3 yes uh 4.3 our security updates so we're currently underway in our camera phase number two which is our secondary schools

203we have 105 new cameras distributed amongst both uh Middle Schools they're currently being installed and and uh sent online as we speak and then there's 164 cameras that's going to be distributed between both high schools um that order is in place and once our our technicians are finished with the installation at the Middle Schools they're going to be moving right on into the high schools um another phase that we're working towards is our uh traffic control traffic calming and so the first phase of that is the the speed bump analysis and so that's been complete and then the speed bump installation uh is is taking place throughout the district so we'll see that um over time all of our schools will be outfitted with strategically placed uh speed bumps to help control traffic and create

204a safer environment at parent pick up and and drop off and then our mass communications protocol for Emergency Operations um by way of informacast um that pilot process has begun and we anticipate um rolling that out gradually throughout the district uh for the remainder of the school year thank you any board comments or questions president Anderson yeah um Mrs Johnson Ro Fest did you how many did you say how many teachers we were short I know you mentioned just to special ed now right now that's that's what I thought I just wanted to make sure I understood that it was only yeah which makes me happy because I think last year we were in a different place yeah we've pretty much filled everything uh we may have some long-term subs and some positions based on

205people being out on a leave or something but overall we're doing really well we just filled a high school math and I believe no we didn't get the third grade but we will'll get that one so yeah I believe I got an email from Mr Dolan about we just hired a new algebra teacher correct for extra support so that's great because I know that's a very hard starting soon very soon very nice um thank you you're welcome and then I just had a question for um Jessica uh you said highlight each school on which platform on the they rolling out to highlight each school on what was your oh this the school specific communication so what we're doing is we're putting together branded um uh one sheets and supplemental material for each School site to

206actually distribute and also um it'd be used for the school tours um but we are also using that information and content to make um branded uh digital advertising a lot of our advertising right now is districtwide and it's for enrollment specifically Elementary um but we've also got um advertisements running that have say DLI programs highlighting those different um uh things that initiatives that are happening at specific schools that we can kind of call out and promote as well I love that thank you and I couldn't bring this up before because it wasn't on the agenda but you mentioned the business education breakfast and I loved that format it was the best that I I've seen and done especially attending other events like that so it was great and I thought it was very helpful in

207getting the community involved um with our schools as well we're hoping to do a similar format for our um spring with College and Career Focus I loved it thank you president Anderson um m Batista um I've had several people reach out and say certain things on the website don't work yes so we are still in the process of optimizing all of uh the pages of the website um we we you know launched over summer um with the knowledge that some of the work was going to continue to be done throughout um so we're still cleaning I'm I would say we are probably 95% there but um we've also um sent communication to our sites and we're receiving that feedback um so as we get those different um you know broken links or something like that

208a lot of the content um on the previous Blackboard website some of it um didn't migrate correctly and so we're going back and kind of retrieving and fixing those different things a lot of that work has has been successfully completed um but we are you know still receiving feedback here and there and we urge anyone who has an issue to come forward with it sometimes also it's a matter of the user having to clear their cash or clearing their cookies in history and then refreshing that website so that it's not pulling up that old website information is there a um does the site like list something where like for technical issues if um call here can we make that Avail like easily available so that if they do run into an issue they know who

209to contact or email by phone yes um our departmental address is the contact for the website but we can make sure that information is clear on the footer yeah that'd be wonderful thank you thanks and then I do have one more question for you um you mentioned the morn sad training um can you tell me how that's utilized how it's utilized how like their how the training is implemented it's in person while they're here on boarding and it's about a 30 minute training and it's something that we are mandated to do it's a mandatory training for all employees and then do the employees then implement it in in the schools in the classrooms is it all administrators all teachers all staff all staff are trained I'm more than sad yes yeah more than sad uh

210satisfies requirement from the Mitch warock act if you recall I presented maybe a year and a half ago or so to the board um we're obligated to present a suicide awareness uh training protocol that's prescribed by the state through project aware and um um the more than sad is the um the module that we've elected to use and so we we have to train everybody um the law dictates 6 through 12 that deals with students in 6 through 12 we've elected to go above and beyond and then this to all of our staff because as a K12 Unified School District we never know who is and who isn't uh exposed to sixth graders right so with that being said we it was a it's an efficiency step because we didn't want anybody to get lost

211in the shuffle because we do district-wide trainings to start the school year but we have so many employees that start after the start of the school year that it made it really hard for the schools to track who's starting when and who's delivering the training so now we can catch everybody really before they start at the orientation wonderful thank you one last one sorry Mr Moore I just have a quick question you had mentioned um you know everything's costing more are we in line with other districts as far as what we're charg for sports or do we have wiggle room uh really varies all over the place some districts do do a lot more uh supplementing from their operational budget in there and they've kept some of those fees low where then we have other

212ones that are probably double where we at we are through the course guide process you know we bring back a fee SC schedule to you for approval through that and we are going to be examining that and presenting that to you in November and then December as we take a look at where we're at thank you president Anderson um the fees for sports goes into the Student Activity fund correct or does that get applied to another account because in auxiliary or or tax credit however the parent designates okay and that's that's designated back to um a portion goes back to the athletic director to cover cost for game entry transportation of the game um equipment Etc and a portion goes to the program itself as well so when we get the Student Activity fund reports

213is that part of that's a separate fund that's uh Club monies oh got it and that's obligated to be reported separately okay thank you okay thank you again uh let's move on to uh we are at 7.4 the novel committee selection process with Mary Davis good evening um so I'm going to go over our selection process for the novel committee um all the details are up on the slide but I'll walk you through it so you don't have to read everything up there um our applications were open from August um 1st through August 21st um from there or during that time frame each school was provided with a um snippet of information to include in their newsletter that they sent out over that time period giving us a reach of over 15,000 people which garnered

214us 94 applicants which was a much higher number than what I was expecting which was exciting um and then we were able to very verify the um which applicants were eligible using the two um Criterion that we went over during our um board meeting at that time which was July 23rd I want to say um and those criteria were they needed to be an husd teacher um a district office staff member husd administrator or um an husd parent legal guardian or Community member that resides in husd boundaries and then as the application they also had to check that they were willing to commit to reading a novel every four to six weeks um that might be outside of their usual preference um and because we had so many applications um we did opt to do

215a blind selection or a blind draw um meaning that they were randomly selected put the names into a bag and Drew them out by their stakeholder group um and that process was done with seven members of our ed services um group um we were in the room for that um we then Drew like I said from each stakeholder group the number needed for that stakeholder um group we wanted to make sure we had equal representation between Community member and husd members um our goal like I said was to have that proportionate representation to get to that 28 members of the committee um so the breakdown of applications that we had we only had one site administr Ator apply so that person we automatically moved in same thing for three District staff members and then we

216had 10 teacher applicants um so then we drew from them to create that 14 um higgle Committee Member group and then the rest were all community members parents legal Guardians which is super exciting so we drew from that group to get 14 parents legal Guardians community members um we also have a chair which is myself and a co-chair which is Miss Miller um and that's how we comprise the 28 members of our novel um committee and then um president Anderson you did ask for an update of our um committee so far um we have met once for each committee um we met on September 10th for the 6th through 12th grade novel Review Committee the meeting was pretty easygoing because we just reviewed the purpose of the committee the Norms the expectation and we went

217over the rubric um that they'll use to review the novels as the requests come in um pretty much every applicant said that they would go for any grade band so we identify what grade band they would like to work with as they read novels and then um review um requests came in for new novels um um that week so I was able to assign those out um the books came in and so they're reading those books and submitting their rubrics so that we can discuss those um recommendations during our October 23rd um meeting so a week from tomorrow and then our prek through 12 supplemental material Review Committee met on September 25th same breakdown of how that meeting went um we did have um one supplemental material submitted at that time it's a K3 writing

218material um and I have two more that have been submitted at that time that I can now roll out to those um members are all very eager to get their hands into the work and start reviewing material um so that's where we are so far any questions president Anderson Miss Davis I'm trying to find my um list here but um when I reviewed the uh list of the 28 out of the 28 17 of them were staff members um and only I believe 11 um had no employment ties with the district so that was concerning for me because I I do want it to be equal um as far as the different categories um but obviously we do have employees that are also parents um but when you look at the the 28 members with

219yourself and Miss Miller being um chair and co-chair is um and then the remaining um there are 17 that are employees out of the entire list um to point of clarification um for Miss Miller and myself we will not be reviewing the novels along with the members we are there to facilitate the meeting um that is just part of how the committee Works um but we went through Synergy and we identified exactly who is a staff member and exactly who is a parent we are very clear on if you are a teacher you are a teacher you won't count as a teacher and a parent um so if you're a teacher you were a teacher first um so there are 14 um husd staff members and 14 Community or parent legal Guardians I'm trying to

220to pull up my list real real quick so I can okay I mean unless something changed from the the last employee list that I received um that I was able to compare to um I was able to locate 17 and and let me go back a slide it is an husd teacher there's a teacher there's a lunch a it's teacher is the category it's a teacher a office staff member from the district office or a site administrator we it is open outside of that we are only counting teachers in that count so if your parent outside of that that was open okay so three um weren't teachers so they are counted parents correct out of the 17 okay because yes there are categories where teacher district office site administrator parent Community member legal guardian those

221are our four categories okay thank you of course any other questions yes sorry um I was waiting for somebody else to speak in case they had to um one um thing that I will mention also for future agenda items but um for here I wanted to um to find out if all the committee members have been um notified of the state laws that apply to book selection and curriculum yes that was part of our first training for both both committees was going over all the the state laws that pertain to um reviewing the books and reviewing supplemental committees and that um on board docs we have a dropdown um for both committees where you can find our agendas and what we reviewed is in there and ARS 151 12.03 is in there as what we

222went over okay so is it just that one statute that is the one that is pertinent for our novels yes okay um okay thank you so much thank you and um just to put it out there uh to say publicly that the if you go to about husd correct and then you go to um District committees that's where you can find the dates and the information for this committee and then in board dos is where you can find the correct minutes and everything yes okay so so all information about the meetings the agendas will live in board docs and then the meeting dates will be um on the website under about H USD correct thank you okay let's go on to uh 7.5 the summary of board meeting minutes this one's um going to was

223requested by Miss re um are you going to be leading this one yeah I just wanted to be able to have a conversation with with the board um I've been seeing some repetitive questions in our superintendent reports um whether it's come up before or I really notice um after a board meeting that there's several questions regarding information that was covered in the board meeting so I wanted to give us an opportunity to have a conversation to see if there's a process that we can put in place that would help for us I know we used to get the summary of the board meeting um and I don't know if getting that again would help um but like I said I I've just noticed that there's some repetitive questions so how can how can we create

224something that that can help us find that information and if it was a in a board meeting if that summary would help try and help cut down some of their time answering the same questions or again that something that we had just covered in a board meeting so is there a process that we wanted to consider is there something that could help us president and I was just say Mr doesn't the staff receive a summary currently or do they still or I can't remember sorry yes the staff is receiving a summary but I don't want to put you on the spot but Christine sending that out right okay so is it the same thing that we would receive then I mean I know the first question was asking what this was so it's probably a

225good idea to have a summary I don't know if it used to be more detailed cuz now I feel like it's almost this was the agenda item here was the boat help me Virginia if I'm wrong it was more DET it used to be more detailed and now it's more like they discussed whatever and here was the boat and so if we need to go back to being more detailed we certainly can you know well we used to get that as well I think Mrs Ree what we used to get was was the same thing that the staff got which was more detailed yeah than I what I remember and like I said since the board questions the first one was asking about what this was then maybe it would be helpful to jog our

226memory during it we can do that for sure I mean if the benefit is ultimately saving District time so you don't have to repetitively answer the same questions I think also the benefit too is either we can just store them someplace but we can have it listed this board meeting on this one and that's the one you can click so like if you know there was a topic you wanted to go back to or whatever because sometimes looking at the agenda and then going through and like reviewing the video sucks so the idea of having that summary you know sounds nice okay um are you um president Anderson re um are you talking about just the superintendent report or what exact what questions are you referring to yes primarily the superintendent report when we get

227a weekly report that has board member questions I I'm seeing a lot of repetitive questions of stuff that was covered in a board meeting and so I'm wondering if we have the summary we I don't know if you ever received that summary we used to get ever seen a a good summary of what transpired not as DET well maybe similar to the minutes but it's not the minutes if that makes any sense and so if something comes up it's like wait we talked about that in the board meeting let me let me go back and so we had a reference point and that way we could go back back and reference stuff that was covered in the board meeting so that way we have a reference point that we can go to like board member

228Wade said that we're not reviewing all the video or something that we have a reference point that we could go back to that would answer our question if we can try and have something like that first before sending it to them that where we have some resources of our own to go back and reference right then and there are there are several instances where we do let's say discuss something at a board meeting and we request the information and then we don't get the information then it's a followup to get that information or if it's having a meeting um and requesting information and then not getting that information again and then having to request that information again so sometimes it gets listed multiple times because I still don't have the information that I've requested yeah

229I'm not referring to information that was requested I'm referring to information that was provided in the board meeting I I get what you're saying yeah I'm a little confused as to like what exactly like you're talking about which is why I at the top of my mind before when I asked for this that I I can't necessarily think of I don't know if anyone has any specifics um but it was something that I had noticed it's like wait we talked about this in the board meeting we you know that I'm seeing it wait this was covered in the board meeting this is the same answer that that we had in the board meeting so I'm just wondering because sometimes yes after a board meeting you're thinking about some things um and not it it was

230covered is what I'm saying and so if we have a summary or something to ref refence to first before we're asking cuz going okay we covered that topic in the board meeting let me see what it was okay so um as an example um prior board meeting there was a question about I believe Brain Pop and so I had asked a question regarding that specific item and the response to my question was we've already answered this well no the prior one was about Pebble go it was not about Brain Pop and so before I ask questions I actually search excuse me um I do a search in all of our board meetings because I can do keyword searches and things that come up and I can look and see at the at the meeting minutes

231what was discussed regarding items and if something doesn't pop up with the key word then I have to ask be able to ask that question okay but I never even said it was you asking the question I'm just I'm just giving an example so I'm giving you an example because you're not giving me an example so I'm giving you an example of a situation where there might be a repetitive question so I'm I'm explaining that that's one reason why um that might seem repetitive so I don't know what your example is so I don't I'm just trying to understand well I don't I brought this up what was it three so weeks ago so it was like I said at the top of my mind at the time I had requested it to go on

232there um and I I don't even know who's asking the questions that's why I'm saying that if there's something that we could a process that we could have that maybe help all of us review so if we have a question about what took place in a board meeting is there something that we can quickly review a summary asking if we want that summary again so I guess that's all I'm coming down to because I am seeing repetitive questions of oh well that was covered in the board meeting that was covered in the board meeting and again I just I can't give you a specific so I'm asking I guess the board if it would be helpful if something's coming up and we're asking maybe having a summary of that being easier to reference yes oh

233sorry I think so sorry Mrs go ahead no we don't have our control up there you know limiting us to two I was going to say ultimately I don't think an example matters so much as I think this would be a benefit right we may not have an exact example of a repetitive question at the present moment time let's remove the repetitive question from this this will still be a benefit for us so I think we should just do that if that's possible got it yes but if it's a topic that that's hit a lot though if it's if it's specifically the budget or if it's specifically the policy it's something then then that that would be okay then let's we're we need to maybe come back and and better explain or whatever but yes

234let's I like the idea let's get that back on track we can decide this because Christine's not here she'll be fine with it let's go on to uh our action items correct okay action item 8.1 um regarding the approval of the fiscal year 24 annual financial report I motion that the governing board approve the fiscal year 2023 2024 annual financial report and attachments as presented are there any questions or comments second Amanda all those in favor I I I motion carries five to zero uh 8.2 the approval of the Field Print fingerprint Services agreement um are there was there any discussion for this one okay president Anderson I just had a question about this and I didn't send it before but Mrs Johnson I think you're probably the one to answer this um are employees

235paying then for the service I was confused about the $18 then do they cover that or we cover that President anderon um no they will not be covering that what they will pay for is the cost that they currently pay for to get a fingerprint card the district would absorb that cost based on offering a convenient easy location here a service that we could provide to people that will speed up the the hiring process excuse me so they would come here and do their fingerprints here and we would have access to that information as well so it would speed up the process we would only be offering this service to volunteers coaches and applicants who are applying who don't have a card we're trying to um provide an additional service for that $18 and it

236will cost you know some in labor of current you know people here doing those we currently only do them for volunteers and we do them by Inc this would be electronic this would be a service that would be provided to people that are going to be either volunteering or working for us and we cover the $18 they cover the cost of the $67 paying the $67 we're just yeah they have that is a cost that we couldn't absorb at this time right um so we we would take on the cost of the 18 in the internal labor that to do those fingerprints okay thank you very much you're welcome president Anderson just throwing this out there I mean is that something that you would or that the district could consider offering as a service and

237charging people the $18 um James is g to go he's been working on this project along with um myself so so we've been working very hard to try to create um an Enterprise solution for it where we can set up shop as a fingerprint Center for anybody and then make it a profitable however Field Print has essentially two different models um one is that would be the in-house version that we're bringing for you guys tonight the other one though is contingent on their um region reps and they explore business developmental areas and they wouldn't put that with us because it wouldn't be profitable in their lens if there's another one somewhere close by so I really don't like to go to Higley and Baseline I would really like to go down the street I've been

238making a strong pitch that we have the warehouse we have the print shop we have an opportunity to provide centrally located Gilbert they're in New Jersey they they don't see Gilbert I think like we see it but we're still fighting to try to bring that to our school district as an option but right now our hands are tied they won't let us do that until they give us the approval so okay keep working Mrs ree I agree I think a lot of the government services has have gotten rid of it too that used to offer offer an in-house so it would be helpful president Anderson is this where I can second the motion no okay a motion wasn't made yet a motion yeah um I've emphasized before that um we need to scrutinize our spending

239and focus on Necessities rather than wants when the district is requesting an 83.1 million bond from uh million doll bond from the community it's vital to prioritize essential needs over conveniences while fingerprinting is necessary allocating funds for an on-site fingerprint machine may not be the best use of resources under such a large Financial askk the community expects These funds to go directly to supporting students and Educators spending $9,000 annually on a convenience service undermines that expectation especially when combined with a $2500 setup fee there are already plenty of available fingerprint locations and while scheduling an appointment May be inconvenient this is a small burden compared to the importance of ensuring that funds are directly are directed to the areas that have direct impact on students approving this agreement risks setting a precedence for future spending

240of conven ices rather than straining the budget um and shifting Focus away from the district educational goals we must ensure me and spending $9,000 annually for convenience I don't believe is it thank you we apologize for the backround music Mr Walker please remind me how far off were how how far off are we from possibly having that opportunity offer the services here it likely somewhat likely I it's really hard to say I mean right now they've essentially said no without saying it by being unresponsive um they' basically said don't call us we'll call you we have your number and if it's something that we find to be um beneficial for the organization so don't know but I think this if anything puts our foot in the door with the organization who knows but I I

241couldn't honestly answer that with confidence right now president [Music] Anderson um yeah I mean so obviously it can't be used as a revenue Source but at the same time I feel like if somebody's going to schedule an appointment to come here to get a fingerprint what's the difference of scheduling it down the street to go get their fingerprints um and um the minimum required is like 500 prints um and even with if we were able to cover our entire staff what would it cost us as um as the absorption of dat the fees and how is that beneficial so the $9,000 is the minimum we have to pay to them for the $18 times 500 people 500 prints basically is what you're talking about so we have about 700 volunteers a year um not all

242of them need a card because of the different tiers that we have as I stated tonight we had aund over 100 teachers and 240 employees hired a staff uh it is we believe that we would come close to that number each year depending on turnover um resignations Etc you know so it yes it is a convenience but it also um provides us with security in in a quicker fashion and we can get people hired faster if it's right here and we extend the hours we plan on you know looking at when people can come coaches coaches work during the day you know they're going to have to make an appointment at some point you know we'll look at the hours and what we need to do to accommodate the people who need these fingerprint cards

243some people come with them already others do not it it it brings us another level of security a lot quicker because without that card they can't they can't start working right and not put them in a job as of now well we haven't put them in the jobs but we would not put somebody in a job working for us without a cleared fingerprint card and background check and you know and we shouldn't um but I as I said I think there's so much we can do with $9,000 um and I think spending that annually um for the sake of convenience um I don't believe it's beneficial um for a district and um especially at a time where um we need to scrutinize um our spending um because we're asking the community for a lot of

244money and if um if that doesn't pass um this is a big ask because yeah we can do a lot with this money thank you m Johnson quick question um does this have any effect on how many volunteers we would be able to have in a year I know that there's sometimes or nothing I just wanted to probably not um volunteers at you know we turn people away because of the fingerprint costs like as far as no cuz as far as clearance currently we already um we are doing those in housee and sending them okay I'm sorry yes but I can tell you that process is very cumbersome yes I know I've rolled all the you roll them then we have to cut a check CU they don't take anything else then we have to

245mail them to them and that process alone could take 10 days before before they even get the fingerprints this way we could do them electronically they would go immediately and be done and within probably anywhere from usually one to three days we have results back so if we needed a last minute chaperone it could be possible absolutely it can be also in a sense that through Field Print we'd be able to have immediate um documentation of approval whereas now we're waiting for the card to get delivered in the mail and then you run into somebody lives moves and gets lost in the mail or they live in an apartment complex and it goes to the wrong you know all those things that can happen this way we have a direct connection through field front with

246the employee and we can get them cleared um and volunteered or on you know the sports field or hired much sooner with confidence that they're approved and they're they're in compliance with the background check through the DPS card president Anderson we also talked about at a board meeting previous viously um an issue with essentially sped and some of the outside busing that we do and a issue that another District had with respect to you know those types of things so I I do think there is some benefit not just wasted in terms of just merely convenience of having the capability of of doing it ourselves getting that quickly getting the answer quickly in order to fill these positions but fill these positions with the confidence of yes we can go forward with this individual based

247on the information we have um I recognize that you know the the cost of it doesn't necessarily seem like a benefit when there's other things but if we can't get some of the the certified or the classified staff that we have or the volunteer positions or or coaching those types of things we may lose people um in in in ways that we may not want to in that they aren't getting the task done they aren't going to do those things and so then we have to go someplace else start the search again Etc because that person fell off um and I think there is some benefit at least to being able to say hey yes you agreed now let's go into this other room and accomplish that task um so I think there is more

248than just convenience factor even though that's the large driving force of this there is still I think some benefit to the overall functionality because if we can't get somebody in there then we have to fill that position with somebody else at the present time subbing Etc and that's still leading to more cost president Anderson board member Wade speaking on the special edification piece with the need of par Professionals in our district we hire those based on student need not on you know any other reason and when we have to wait that 10 days and sometimes it's more than that based on where the individual has lived in the past that's 10 days or more of time that our students needs aren't being met and a lot of times on top of that that's a classroom

249disruption because that additional individual is needed in that classroom to support that student for whatever reason and so the convenience of this for the special education means that those students needs that have already been identified by an IEP team would be met much sooner and minimize the distractions in the classroom that are occurring because that student doesn't have the supports that they need thank you president Anderson um the incident that happened in the other District these employees don't even work for us so we can't even fingerprint them so to to compare that situation it's not comparable cuz we are using their services they're being fingerprinted by their own company and then doing a third party service for us um I get it convenience is great that's why we order pizza instead of cooking I get

250it um but ultimately it costs us and the bottom line is $9,000 annually this isn't just a one-time fee this is every year and I don't believe right now is the time to consider spending $99,000 when we've gone out and told our teachers that if you don't push this Bond and it doesn't pass your job's going to be cut or we're going to have to make Cuts we need to consider right now is not the time maybe let's see what happens with the elections and then come back to it um to to go out to the community and ask for millions of dollars and go we want to spend $99,000 a year because it's convenient for us I don't think it's practical and I don't think it's fair to our taxpayers and our community members

251and so because of that I I think that we need to hold off on this um and see what happens but I I truly don't think it's fair to to say you know let's let's make it easy because you know we can't keep doing what we've been doing all these years um and spend this money that's all president Anderson what what was the determination on not charging them this this $18 because you want to work in this field you pay it and and I'm not saying that saying that to say you pay us it's when I use fieldprint I have to go somewhere my fingerprint card doesn't cost me just $67 costs me $85 or $89 is what it is I think because there is that Associated fee so why I mean I think that

252that's definitely great to be able to I agree you have them here do it um but I why would we look at at waving that when if you're going to work in this field you're going to have to go somewhere and I I am concerned about the 500 because how many really really come with of our teachers and everything how many people are we really hiring that don't already have one many of our um many of our classified staff do not have a fingerprint card if they've not worked in education before so to to meet that 500 every year because they're good for six years we hired 240 classified staff so far this year and you some had some didn't so yes I won't deny that I mean that's that is true right so I

253mean even at that that's that's half yeah um we do have tier 2 and tier three volunteers that we're already doing um that we already do their fingerprints with ink and mail those in 10 days later or whatever um so you're talking about parents that go on field trips right you know shop around during the day things that when they're going to be with the kids for long periods extended period of time of course of that would help and that those were already doing so that would just be added to that number I get you know um why not charge them to 18 I mean we can but again we want to create an environment where we're helping our employees like we did with the CPR and the first aid we can make them pay

254for that but this is a benefit of being an employee here is we're going to help you by giving you the right credentials that you need to and these are our low you're talking about our lowest paid employees our hourly employees mostly that need this service so you know they might have to wait two weeks before they can afford to pay for fingerprints we can give them the option of having it taken out of their paycheck too if we want to that's another benefit to this as well but we could do the same thing if we were charging them the $18 we could charge them the $18 absolutely I agree I think that this is definitely something to explore I'm just and I hear you about the benefit um again we're trying to attract people

255here we're trying to get people and give them the smallest of benefits I I don't I don't I I understand what you're saying and if it's if the board wants us to charge the $18 back we can we can charge them the 67 plus the 18 that's probably what you paid right 89 or you know whatever it is we can charge that fee back to them like I said my bigest concern is convenience is it's just here instead of having to go down the street my biggest concern is that 500 requirement that yeah and we thought about that too but we think we can fulfill that each year at the current rate of hiring you know be and our volunteers so we've got volunteers and hiring and we hire throughout the year we pay for

256background checks we PID a a lot of money for background checks and have that done we're not we're really not asking them we're asking them to pay for the card um and not the fee at this point but if the board is inclined to want to pay for the fee then we can do that as well if the concern is about the 500 and meeting that number then I mean there's there's compromise here absolutely president Anderson Miss Johnson uh so what happens if we don't meet that 500 we still have to pay for it it's a minimum requ um I mean yes we we want to make it convenient for our employees but you know do we do we provide housing for our employees do we you know pay child care I mean there's so

257many things we can we can do um to make it life convenient for employees but when when they apply they know the requirement is to have a fingerprint and so they that's something that they just have to do so to say we're going to lose employees because we put this requirement on them um and they can't get it here so they might just quit no they applied for a job they know this is a requirement so they're going to have to go somewhere and get the service like they've been doing all these years um so you know we can do do a lot of things to make life just very convenient um like I said you know put little Cubbies outside that they can sleep in and they can just wake up and be right

258at work but realistically speaking you know we are spending taxpayer money and we need to make sure that is it needs or is it wants and in this environment we need to make sure that it's absolutely necessary um and that's that can I just share that it's just not about convenience it's about the hiring process and Expediting that hiring process is important to our administrators to have those people people in the classroom whether they're special ed or just gen Ed or a new assistant helping somebody or registar it it's it will expedite the process of hiring so is it a convenience fee maybe is it Expediting and retaining and attracting people I think it is so this is something that we've looked at we feel that and I say we because we have thought about

259we talked to all the HR staff that we'll have to do this work because it's not something they currently do um other than the volunteer fingerprints so I believe that it will expedite our hiring process and give us an advantage in that in that in that way and is it worth the money I don't know that's why we bring it to you that's why we let you decide can you can you remind me it's been a while when they go to places and they get fingerprinted wasn't it at some point in time where they could just bring you the receipt the paperwork and say hey I got printed and that was sufficient enough and then they could begin their job um yes and unfortunately um we've had issue with that so we are no longer

260allowing them to start their position until they have their car makesense they are cleared yeah that makes sense so that is something of the past today and it will no longer be done okay until they are officially cleared and that we can see that and we can prove it um they do not stop okay and then um I just found out over break because my fingerprint card was expiring and I needed to get it on the brink and I thought dear God I got to drive down to wherever it is I think it's in Mesa was the one and uh but now I can just do it online the re RS are now online which is nice but it used to be we'd have to come back in and get printed again so um that

261that takes away some of the numbers you're going to have your initial prints and then that's it there's no more and so I see where our numbers um could be affected or just meeting that requirement if we're being if that's what we're holding on to is an issue well there's not many places that do the weet prints anymore because when you go through the DP s website to renew your fingerprint card it is online and it takes you right right to Field Print and then it tells you the different locations you can go to and you set an appointment and you go and it takes two minutes because you get a you your application's filled out online and you go in their electronic it takes 2 minutes if you have Cooperative print but um the

262last time I and I hear you on the not the last time I did mine like I said it was at higgle and Baseline Little mail place um by the time I got home I already had an email that it was completed and done and my new card was being sent because the electronic is much faster yeah same here like I was like oh that's that's great great Mr Walker where is that other location at are there cross streets for that one I I don't know at the top of my head no I I haven't looked to see that when I got mine it was at uh kirene and Hardy so I mean it's yeah that's not close so yeah the closest one here is higgle and Baseline that that I know of when I

263did mine two years ago okay um I motion that the governing board approve the agreement with Field Print for fingerprinting Services second Amanda seconded all those in favor I'll say I I you said I all those oppose n n I'm sorry was that a n a n and a n okay and it's a a for b as well so motion fails sorry let me have to take my notes real quick okay president Anderson can I just say something that if they could the motion could come back with $18 it might be something I don't know to consider that okay I think that's that's valid thank you oops moving on to 8.3 the consideration of possible selection of superintendent search firm Are there any comments or questions I mean we we're g to we're going to

264go through it but um I just wanted to bring up the um I I talked to Miss Richards um earlier and asked about you know what would it be like if the in-house was considered not and it doesn't have to be fully in-house but maybe there could be more of an involvement of our Administration this time and are there any firms that are versatile like that and so I would I would like to put it out there that hey is that something that when you go out for the search if if the board likes to say um do we have a more flexible team or or firm absolutely yes we can um go out as a requirement of the quote that we would like that to be a collaborative search committee of both the board

265members if that's what you're asking for is both the board members and some administrators is that what you're asking for I wasn't thinking board members but if that's if that's what other board members would like I was just thinking more of cabinet um and being involved with the firm but it's open for discussion right now of course can I interject and just say in some of the discussions that I've had sometimes they'll come back with different models or whatever for you guys to look at like let's say it's ASA I'm just using that as an example they might come back and say hey here's a Model A District choose where they they the board worked with cabinet or District administration at this phase that phase or whatever so I'm not suggesting anything believe me I

266think if we're gonna if we go with a firm I think we can tell them what we want I didn't know if it existed if you know I didn't even know that was an option with our last experience um well I think that can always be discussion and saying these are the this is what we want this is how we want the people to be involved this is the process president Anderson I'm a little confused as to what so you just want the the search process to involve Administration it I'm open it can be just that part it can be more more involved in other parts as well I just I just wanted to say we if there was an option where we didn't have to fully rely on a firm and and just be

267given information if we had more people and our team involved um this time so are you just asking because we've done that before are you asking primarily that our HR department handle the process that maybe the firm feeds us people I I don't have the big picture Vision I just wanted to bring forward an idea of this time instead of solely being the firm if there was a way to involve that they could work with the firm I don't know at what point in process I I just there was it was just an idea if there were any firms out there that were flexible and like Miss Richard said maybe they have some things some plans out there like hey this is how we can involve your team then you might be able to decide

268you know we we like this firm this group or whatever and then get down to what it looks like but I haven't done it either so and I'm not coaching you guys but I think we could get information and bring it back to you so you could have a discussion off track okay I I I think we can figure out how all that works once we determine a firm yeah president Anderson I think you're asking to because it would save us money as well I would think if we're just using partial Services I know that Mrs Johnson previous ly you talked about that it your expertise you we would prefer to have a firm come in to help but if it's something that could save us money as well so I guess you're asking uh

269the HR department myself to um go ahead and get quotes is that yes yes yes please okay with different types of models is that correct yes okay and we did start last time we started in October correct uh we actually started a little bit sooner so we're a little little behind at this point but not terribly behind if we move forward soon okay and I just ask that we do not do what we did last time where we were put on the spot at a board meeting when we were not expecting to be got it thank you I motion that the governing board requests The District administration to acquire quotes for conducting a superintendent search second that was Anna for a second all those in favor I I motion carries 5 to zero future agenda

270items um we had already had a request maybe it goes in status for the 40th Day ADM information um are there that was yours correct that 40th Day um average daily membership but that might be to status was there any other items that we wanted to add or request for discussion I do have a couple more um so I would like to uh discuss all laws related to curriculum and book selections there's actually a lot um and just the process of you know um the laws that relate to board member approval um of these things um and so I'll send a list of all that I was able to find um and then we can go from there um another item is the counselor policy um and then um sorry I would like to um

271look at um like a sample of the vector training if possible yeah I mean we can figure out a way I mean there's multiple modules um kind of if you can be more specific about exactly what you want to see I can we can make it work figure something um maybe just go through a couple modules just to see like you know what the training looks like what kind of um information that they're sure I'm just curious and I I just it'd be good to see it um and then another question I have is um I know uh Department of v um superintendent horn has a new SRO Grant and we've talked about this all the time but I I really want to see if we can um get some of this grant to um

272to help pay for the SRO even if it's for a year um and I know it's first come first serve so if we can see if we can take advantage of that and how you know if they would be willing to give us this grant to cover knowing the situation and just knowing how much Queen Creek is charging um so well we're working towards that as we speak so we've already been in contact with Chief Bryce from Queen Creek and also with uh the grand application process so oh perfect so I don't know if you'll have enough um information back in time for the next meeting but at some point um I'd love to discuss that that's all I have any others uh moving on to adjournment I motion that they we adjourn this meeting

273second that's Amanda for second all those in favor I I motion carries 5 to Zer good night everybody or almost good morning just kidding