001a roll call yes Vice President Van Hook let the record show that four out of our five board members are present thank you please join me in a moment of silence followed by the Pledge of Allegiance e I motion to approve the agenda second all in favor I I I uh motion passes for to zero um Miss Richard do we have any upcoming events thank you Vice President Van Hook as you can see we have conscious discipline training here for our parents on Thursday August 22nd at 6: PM everyone's invited to attend also on Tuesday August 27th we have our next board meeting right here in the district office and next on Thursday August 29th we will have dangers of Snapchat parent night here in the district office Bard thank you thank you um we
002will now move to public um to a public hearing to discuss the fiscal year 2025 adopted budget Mr Moore president vice president Van Hook members of the board uh tonight I'll be presenting on our budget revision number one um a little background on why we are revising uh this early in the game um first uh obviously this is um the previous budgets that have been approved so far for 25 in June 5th we proposed the board approved our proposed budget on June 26th the board approved that proposed budget and adopted it uh tonight I'm presenting budget region number one um and then as we look into December there'll be another opportunity to revise the reason we are looking to revise uh this early in August is we had uh we are looking to correct a
003budget cell on page two um this particular cell has implications on our Ida funding and several grant funding uh essentially we under budgeted uh the adopted budget um included a budget of 102,000 uh and in reality we needed 1.2 million uh for that a particular cell um so that put us below what they call the maintenance of effort um that ad tests when we submit our budget up to ad after the board approves it um and so below that maintenance of effort um for sped funding they uh basically cut off our Ida grant funding saying that we did not meet or exceed our special education funding so um the revision right here will correct that um one cell in budget appropriately on what we intended to budget um again that was typo and a mistake
004on page two in addition while we were fixing this we did adopt on the preliminary budget forms because we um our board meetings are in June the legislative cycle was still ongoing uh and did not get and did not finalize until July so we took the opportunity to update our budget forms and and um present this revision on the finalized budget forms which have all the legislative Appropriations that were approved in the legislative cycle for fiscal year 25 so what has changed um again not not a lot um m is exactly the same as what you adopted again the only the main change on the ml was changing that one cell for sped Transportation on the capital side um there was a slight change um this is because we um utilized the final budget form
005so if you remember when we adopted um there was discussion around the capital funding and how um the increases were going to be appropriated for fiscal 25 if you remember the final decision was to appropriate the capital increases on a one-time basis and not an ongoing basis and so I took the Assumption when we adopted that they were going to be ongoing and so the final forms um they reflect the one-time increase but what that means is 80 has not given us those one-time numbers yet so we have to basically take out this appropriation uh that I anticipated coming what I envisioned is in December when ad gives us the final number we'll be adding this 322,000 back in the budget but the issue is the final forms don't have that number in it so
006when we when we are revising to these final forms I can't legally um put that number in there until ad gives us that number so I have to take it out of the budget revision and that equates to 322,000 but I completely anticipate bringing that back in once ad gives us that final onetime appropriation so that is the only um budgetary change in this revision is there any questions on those two cells before I get to my last Mr Moore I do have a question um so if we made the mistake of the 1.1 million um you said in cell g19 and then um which is the IEP Pupil Transportation cost with program 400 correct yeah that's directly related to sped Transportation costs okay so how come when we're doing that it doesn't make an
007impact to the total budget of the 6 million yeah so it doesn't change our total budget implication it just indicates how we budgeted where we budgeted funds and so um that budget number is just uh it's not derived to the formula at all it's just saying we intend to spend 1.2 million on this area it it has no delineation on the funding formula or the budget formula it's just one of those cells that's built into the um outdated I would say budget forms that we have to indicate how much money we intend to budget for out of the total M budget it's not saying you can increase your budget it's just saying how much do you intend to spend or to budget for sped Transportation has no relationship to the overall budget formula in its
008entirety so we're not taking it from somewhere else and applying it to transportation and that's why it's not changing the total number correct okay thank you so I took the opportunity to also fill in the board and and the public on kind of the 25 budget calendar um going forward again bringing this budget forth tonight uh fixes that correction on page two which which then puts us in compliance with uh the maintenance of effort um requirements from the Arizon Department of Education in December um we at that point in time ad issues a letter um and if we are um over budgeted by 1% or more they will ask us to revise our budget um we have to wait till December but that's at that point in time ad has reconciled our ADM to what
009we adopted um and at that point we get to kind of true up or reconcile um the adopted budget or tonight the revised budget to where our ADM numbers are reflected in December January through March uh that is our timeline where we review our FY 26 budget estimates and then on May 13th uh we do our final revision that could be either budget revision number two or budget revision number three depending if we need to revise in December and again that one revises to the final day the average uh 100 day ADM and that um that day is January 10th but again that 100 day is the average of from the start of school to the January 10th day the average ADM for those 100 days that is what we're finally funded on and what
010we revised to in May with that um take any questions I don't have any further questions but um if any member of the public has any questions or comments you're more than welcome to speak at this time nope no questions all right uh we're moving on to the consent agenda I motion to approve the consent oops oh oh yes sorry um uh at this time we reconvene into Open Session and now we're moving on to the consent agenda I motion to um approve the consent agenda items 51 through 510 second all in favor I all opposed motion passes 4 to zero um at this time we'll take a short break uh while the mo uh board moves to um moves for the work study e e e we'll turn this time to miss Richards for
011the AI presentation thank you vice president Ben hook members of the board and Community we're excited this evening we have been working on this for over a year so I think you're going to find it informative and fun and we don't have fun in these meetings but tonight we're going to so about a year ago for me I went to the trust model policy update program in August and that's where I went into a session with an individual named Matt disi and I was like wow this guy is ahead of us and I like that when other districts or other places get ahead of of us but AI is a real thing and it's out there as we all know so I spoke with Matt and I convinced him to work with us a little
012bit he works closely with Mesa public school so he uh did a couple of meetings with us and then he came and did a presentation for leadership and that happened in December so since that time we've all been working together to learn and grow and gain knowledge so I would be aiss if I don't like highlight the two experts in the room their names are Janie Ramirez and Valerie Thomas they are your instructional technology coaches so they have been very very interested and sometimes a little pushy about how slow can we go you need to hurry up but yeah I called you pushy in a good way so they've attended and we've attended several professional development sessions probably one of the most interesting one was hosted at ASU and they had kids talking and presenting
013and convincing us that we need to learn how to use it it but use it right and so that was part of our journey you're going to have you have several handouts in front of you um our main mission initially was how do we implement the use with guard rails and a vision so that we support teachers but we also give them parameters and guidelines so you'll see a document that says getting started with Gen generative Ai and this is the guide for the higgle Unified School District and so Valerie and Janie I mean if you're on our AI team raise your hand and this is our team and Armstrong you're part of the team now you're just late H Jeff Bickle is part of this team as well so you have a lot of
014people working to understand and do things correctly so this guide is kind of our vision and our guardrails let's call it that so we know you know where we're going and how we're going to get there safely and these guys are going to present in a minute so I don't want to keep talking about all of this but you also have a um generative artificial intelligence K12 education guidance document this has been very instrumental all the top experts in the state have worked to develop this including ad um NAU in a bunch of school districts so you'll see a lot of references here I'm wanting all of us to go to an AI Summit on the 23rd of September in AGA friia School District High School District they seem to um have done a really
015good job and they're working really hard on responsible and ethical implementation so build building a strong Foundation gaining momentum and then continuous Improvement one thing that's in this report it's the future of jobs reports of 2024 by the world economic Forum it forecasts by 75% of surveyed companies plan to implement AI so we need we need to learn about it we need to be responsible with it but I don't think our kids eventually can function if they don't have that knowledge so that's part of our journey in addition there's a three and three challenge document which we want to accept as we are putting these um steps in place there are a lot of districts across the State of Arizona that have accepted the challenge and I think you're going to be happy with what
016you learned this evening from our experts so I'm going to turn it over probably to Jamie first right right thank you so before we get started we're going to give you access to the AI literacy presentation so in your search bar down at the bottom of your screen if you type the word camera you'll find your camera app and once you find your camera app it will open and it opens directly to the camera but on the right hand side below your camera app there's a little QR code so you'll just need to switch to that if you have any issues finding it Valerie's here to help we also have quite a few of the Tech Team here that can help and once you find that QR code you'll you have a QR code in
017front of you if you hold this up to your QR Code Reader a link will open up on the bottom of your screen and if you click that link it will give you access to the presentation for today so if you have any trouble getting in please just let us know [Music] spe no you're fine okay everybody over here is think Amanda may need done [Music] okay is there anyone who's not able to get in that still needs a minute okay I think most people are in so this gives you access to the entire presentation that we'll go over today but the reason we wanted you to open it just so that you'll have access to some links for an activity we'll do here in a minute but to set our purpose for tonight this
018AI literacy training for teachers provides the basic knowledge of gen AI as well as information about the AI implementation in Higley so before we get started we're going to have a little fun this is the fun part we're going to do a little activity and because we're a Microsoft district for this activity we're going to use Microsoft co-pilot it's called a large language model and it's sometimes referred to as an llm and a large language model can understand and and generate human language it works by being trained on vast amounts of text Data from books and websites and other resources out there this helps it learn patterns and structures in language so when you ask it a question and or give it a prompt what it will do is it uses what it's learned to
019generate like a relevant response that a human would give you or what you or I would give someone so what we're going to do first we are going to click on the on your screen go to Coop pilot. microsoft.com so just click on that link and then you're going to sign in to Microsoft co-pilot using your husd login credentials do you want yep all right so step three let me little let me explain a little bit about what we're doing here on step three first before you get started so step three is a template and this is a template that I created and so you are going to use this prompt template to create your own Pixar style yearbook photo of yourself so the template you're going to copy and paste paste it into the
020Microsoft co-pilot and so what you once you copy and paste it into co-pilot you're going to change all the words that are in capital letters to fit your characteristics because currently it's fit it's it's reading towards to describe me so we want it to describe you does that make sense you're going to copy and paste prompt three into co-pilot we'll people come around and [Music] help e [Music] e e e so once you've created your character feel free to share with each other what what your new characters look like e e e I hope you enjoyed that this was just a nice little warmup just to introduce you to co- pilot and to get us thinking about generative AI do not um close out that tab because we're going to come back to co-pilot here
021in a little bit [Music] all right so it's important for everyone to be literate in the basics of AI so this statement from digital promise describes AI literacy so please take just a moment to read it and all of these pieces here in the statement will be addressed at some point in today's presentation so why why is AI literacy important because it's our responsibility as Educators to help prepare students for future success so what does that mean for Higley everything that we are doing with AI ties back to our mission vision and core values as well as the components of husd um portrait of a graduate such as being a responsible citizen an Innovative learner and a College and Career ready we need to expose students to AI so they are better prepared because universities
022like ASU are embracing it and they're partnering up with AI and for students who go the career route there will be there will be fields that they go into um that will require the use of AI such as digital marketing social media managers it support technicians so this AI literacy presentation focuses on key indicators 1.1 1.3 that's under the teaching teaching and learning Student Success and 2.2 under highly effective Personnel so the first topic we're going to talk about is demystifying AI for educators so the term AI is used very broadly but there are different types of artificial intelligence so the three types are stage one machine learning stage two machine intelligence and stage three machine Consciousness the world is currently just over in stage one at machine learning and what machine learning is it's
023the ability for computers to learn from experience or data without human programming so this graphic shows how AI technology builds from each subcategory and one subset of AI is generative AI so if you look at the very bottom generative AI is it generates new text audio images video or code and it's based on content that it's been pre-trained on and pre-training is a technique in machine learning where a models trained on a large data set to learn General features and representations so for example if we show an AI various pictures of dogs and they're all labeled dog as well as other animals that are not dogs once AI has seen many pictures of dogs it can identify any dog even if it doesn't look exactly like the specific picture the more pictures it sees the
024more efficient it is so AI is everywhere and it's not anything new so on the screen are some examples of AI in everyday life so some examples might be streaming apps like Netflix so when you log into Netflix it might suggest certain movies for you based on your streaming history or navigation and travel you might use Google maps to get to a location or SmartWatches lots of us probably have those on today we know Educators have a lot of valid concerns regarding AI there student safety issues like data privacy and misuse just with all online tools we need proper safeguards in place help protect the students and their data there's cheating but on the other side AI has the potential to enhance student learning when used with clear guidelines in place there's also content issues
025like uh misinformation but with strong safeguards and an emphasis on critical thinking students can learn to evaluate the ai's responses so this is a graphic from the Arizona guidance document that you have and as with any online tool students need to be taught how to use gen responsibly so on the left hand side Education Without AI is like riding a mountain bike the human's in control but has no assistance too much Reliance on AI the center picture too much uh Reliance is like riding a motorcycle you could go fast but it's unpredictable and could be dangerous so our goal would be the image on the right um using as a learning partner so using it as a learning partner is like writing an ebike the human's in control but the ebike can reduce the struggle
026and result in more productive learning so AI is similar to the calculator in the Internet it's a gamechanging tool that will transform education whether we're ready for it or not our second topic is transforming learning with AI there are three guiding principles the first one is AI is ubiquitous AI is everywhere 169 plus countries have access to Ai and the second guiding principle is that AI is undetectable so there are AI detection tools but they're not effective because they give too many false positives so because of this students may turn in an assignment and be accused of cheating even if the work they turned in was completed without the assistance of AI and higher education institutions have chosen not to use those detectors the third guiding principle is that AI is transformative it's going to
027transform how we live work how we teach and learn in terms of redefining academic Integrity I'm going to read this quote from Arizona's official generative AI document which you have in front of you within the educational implementation of generative AI lies a transformative opportunity to reconsider the methods we use to teach and assess student learning AI can help us rethink what we ask students to do and why now let's hear the thoughts of a 25-year veteran writing teacher Spirit Week jammies get over it my brain is hurting because I thought today long and hard about all the new tools coming out all the new sites like chat GPT there's a new one called simplified that I hadn't learned of until today I don't know that we as a human race need to necessarily still know
028how to write essays very well just like we stop needing to know how to do long division all by ourselves at nauseum we need to understand the elements of good writing we need to understand what it looks like and how it works but I don't know that we all need to be able to do it really well anymore this coming from a 25-year veteran teacher of writing instead I went back to square one why do I teach essays I teach essays because I need students to have opinions that they can support with evidence and then make arguments and I suddenly realized that I believe and I could be wrong I believe the future of essay writing is going to be reverse of what we do now I believe that what we will probably see are
029essays given to students and they have to dissect those essays specifically looking for thesis identifying the evidence looking for how well the argument supports that evidence and that opinion it's a whole new world we're in my friends and we can drag our feet on this and pretend this isn't happening and try to insist that everybody still knows how to write their five paragraph thesis based essay but I think it might be the end of a time period that we've come to folks adapt or die actually in this case adapt or spend the rest of your life being the AI place not my plan thank you all for doing the good work in other words generative AI offers an opportunity for rethinking how we teach and learn so here are some ways Educators may use generative
030Ai and there are a lot of opportunities for AI in education so for example a teacher might use Microsoft co-pilot which is what used at the beginning of the presentation to get ideas for how to make a lesson that they're using more engaging and there are also future opportunities for AI and education for our students so for example a student might use Microsoft co-pilot to get a tutorial for steps on how to solve a math problem many opportunities for student use of generative AI but we are not promoting the use of AI with students yet all right and while there are plenty of opportunities with AI they're also risk to consider and mitigate so our third topic is ensuring a responsible approach to AI so on the screen here are five things that we need
031to consider when using generative AI bias misinformation intellectual property data privacy and Equitable access but I want to focus primarily on data privacy to emphasize that personally identifiable information should never be fed to an AI and AI is like any other tool guidelines and policies surrounding student information must be adhered to when using AI Jamie can I ask Miss Davis to elaborate on something because we don't want to miscommunicate uh she knows what I'm looking at her to say I think um I just want to go back to the video of the 25- Year veteran teacher that we watched um that is not to say we are saying throw out writing throw out explicitly teaching writing we are saying that we can use AI as a tool to enhance writing instruction so instead of going
032and finding um Exemplar pieces of writing to use when modeling writing we can go to Ai and use that as the tool um we can go and find or utilize AI to um pull the essay and then say what let's find a good thesis and use that instead of having to always have our students write that when we're trying to get them to identify what makes a good thesis so we're not saying stop writing stop teaching writing never no we still have to explicitly teach writing um but when the point is for students to be able to identify what makes something good in writing we can go to AI for that support So when AI can be a good tool that's when we want to use it it's never to stop explicitly teach something so
033once students have a handle on that like long division we can turn it over to the technology to help out with that to reduce that burden on students um because I know I frequently don't do long division by hand I'm going to go to a calculator for that so if I can go to AI to help me reduce a burden of writing an essay I'm going to do that so how can we help students get to that step we're not saying stop writing or teaching essays so now that we all have a basic understanding of AI literacy let's try a prompt together let's go back to Microsoft co-pilot so in your other tab on your computer I want you to type in the prompt and it's this prompt create a list of famous people I
034should know and then share your results with your neighbor e interesting okay can can you share um what you noticed about your response anyone I'm sorry just like one person from the list or do you want the whole anything you noticed about the response that it gave you um I don't know if there I'm supposed to like recognize a a connection or okay maybe compare your list to we were just talking about our our difference and what did you notice between the two lists I don't know she got Cleopatra I got Marilyn Monroe so I don't [Laughter] know got JK and I got Bill Gates why do you think we got different responses I don't know based on how we look it's got to be it's it's got to be compared to like like the
035previous oh photo because it kind it generates based on the information that it has about you and the only information that it has is our description of ourselves yeah yeah your response is only as good as the information that you gave it so this particular prompt that create a list of famous people I should know it's very broad it's open so you you two are going to get two different answers whereas in the beginning when I gave you that very detailed prompt for you to go ahead and change your characteristics it was really really detailed and it gave you a pretty good little Pixar character of yourself so again it's um it's only as good as the information that you give it we call it kind of a there's a there's a saying for it
036and it's called garbage in garbage out all right so what's next where are we with the implementation of AI and Higley so some sites have had uh the AI literacy training the rest have all been scheduled teachers can use AI for things like planning for instruction student engagement ideas however we are not promoting the use of AI with students yet we're setting our teachers up for Success which will then set our students up for Success it's just the beginning and teachers will receive ongoing trainings in the future on AI resources and tools to use in their classrooms Jamie did you explain how you might have um co-pilot operates in terms of what we put in there if we close out of it what happens yeah so the reason we had you log in with your
037husd credentials is because co-pilot is closed for us in Higley so there should be a little green symbol up in the I think it's the right hand corner that's a little shield and what that means is once you type information in there and you exit out of it when you come back your responses are not saved unlike using co-pilot if you were at home and just you know Googling co-pilot so it's a little bit of a safer model that we have here in hickley questions uh Vice President Van Hook um I do have a question actually I'm curious with since it is on our Clos system if I put stuff in here do we have much in the same way if I try to go to certain websites I'm limited to what I can do
038is those same limitations in terms of what search results we have I guess I'm thinking about it from a student standpoint in the future good evening uh co-pilot does not is not filtered the way that we filter our websites uh light speed our filtering software U we're investigating whether or not in the future it will it will do that but at this point in time it does not uh Microsoft does have safeguards in place um we we for example uh as a test asked if it would show us how to make fireworks uh it will not uh so it there are there are safety uh structures built within um the model that prevent certain types of results and U Microsoft continues to refine those but at this point in time um it is not filtered
039in the same way as a as a web search is filtered and does it have the capability of knowing this is for I don't know what grades we're planning on using this for if it's just for high school or middle school but do we have the ability to put in there that it's for these grades these a groups so that it doesn't allow kids to be able to pull up like inappropriate content as of right now we're not recommending the use of co-pilot with students so it's just being used by our adult uh employees so that's where we're at right now um I don't have so I don't have uh anything beyond that thank you and and thank you for explaining about the uh the Tik Tok video because that was literally like I was
040like what we need to um obviously kids need to learn how to write um so that is a concern and then obviously data sharing is is a concern of mine too um so it's nice to know that there will be safeguards in place uh so that student data isn't shared um and and I think AI is great it it's the endless possibilities in education um but my fear is uh the bias um the information that uh you know inaccurate information um that it gives uh also uh the potential of [Music] um not allowing the critical thinking skills for kids uh is concerning as well um you know I don't want it I don't want kids to heavily depend on it uh and if they're using it obviously here they're limited as to how much they
041can do but they can go in at home and and use chaty PT um and so obviously the the importance of using it in a proper fashion um learning that is is crucial to all of this and to to know that don't depend heavily on this tool um because it will impact their their thinking ability as they grow up so um those are my three biggest concerns with AI thank you go ahead vice president v um thank you for kind of walking through this and and the different aspects and I like how we're thinking from an educator standpoint I know we're not going to quit teaching writing but what a concept of the teacher saying what are we ask what why are we asking them to write an essay what are we expecting them to
042get out of it and um looking at that from a reverse engineering St Point going well I want them to be able to cite evidence of something and so obviously it's much easier not necessarily totally accurate all the time that if they go home and write an essay because of these resources are they asking what we're are they learning what we're asking them to that if we're kind of going backwards and providing them here's the written essay now I want you to find the supporting evidence is it appropriate is it really evidence and so um and I know that was just one teachers Tik Tok an example but it does make you start to think of we talk a lot of about intentional teaching and intentional learning and again the good point of long division
043we all learned it we all had to do it over and over and over again and I'm with you I never write out long division um you you used to be lucky if you had a calculator and now everyone has one all the time with them because everyone has some type of phone or electronic device so um the thought of this is out there it's at their disposal um we can't control it so how do we make sure that they're still getting the intentional piece of what we're trying to to teach and how do we use that to to teach and to I don't want to say to our advantage but to our advantage for them to learn a skill so um I like the process that you guys are going through and and thinking
044and thinking of the teachers and not just I know when um chat what was it GPT I don't I don't do it but when it came out like all everyone was freaking out going okay these kids aren't going to do anything they're just going to go home and they're going to use this and turn in these essays and turn in this paper and this report and everything um and so everyone kind of was really afraid I think from the educational standpoint of well what are we how are we going to teach these kids when they have this resource so learning and thinking how to utilize this resource both from an educator and then from the student standpoint I I appreciate you taking your time and learning about it and how we can help our teachers
045utilize what's there to ensure our students are learning what they need to anybody else um thank you uh I use AI every day and it makes my life way a lot easier I can get a lot more work done um you said there's no we're just using it for adults right now is there a timeline for students to eventually use this good question uh so right now we are looking at it first we want all the teachers to have the same information so we want to make sure that they all get the same AI literacy piece and that they get the proper training and the proper tools and then we need to look at our policies and the backend um agreements and things like that for data privacy and making sure that students are the
046right age to be able to use things and then from there we'll talk about which tools that might be appropriate to start using with students but there's not a hard timeline yet we want teachers just practicing with things first to get comfortable with it and then eventually we'll make a decision on that do you know if there's any programs Beyond co-pilot I mean there's lots of AI programs right now um that is geared towards kids that might have those safeguards or something that's out [Music] there oh yeah there's all kinds out there and there's a lot of things that are embedded within things that they're already using but yeah there's quite a few there's for example there's Magic School some school districts are adopting that for student use a lot of those are are paid
047um versions and so some people are doing Pilots they're us they're pretty expensive but everything's new right now so we're hoping at some point you know it kind of balances out and maybe an add-on that we could get or something like that but and it's always nice to see what the other districts are doing so they can like you know get all of those little bumps out of the way and and then we can look and see you know how well it worked there and before we try it here co-pilot is included as part of our Microsoft Suite so we don't pay anything extra for it so that's one reason why we want to go to that Summit um at AA freia cuz so many districts are there and we will learn from each other
048and we are going really slow on purpose but I want to applaud the team for all their work and intentionality on this very good job um Vice President Van Hook I wish to Echo the same thing in that this was very informative um starting today I'm resistant to AI I think for for rational reasons as a teacher right in that you want to focus on the skills and I think the most important thing is to take a step back and ask what's the intention right and so I'm very appreciative of the information that you shared because I feel like it it opened a box of my brain that I was resistant to in general um the way I think about it specifically as I remember uh when computers started being in classrooms which is the
049start of my my teaching experience and the complaints of well kids won't know how to handw write and how important that is and it's just not proven to be the case right is because ultimately there's still acquiring language they're still learning how to do that and as far as our older Generations being upset with how they're writing that's just a normal cycle of events so I'm greatly appreciative of of giving teachers maybe an opportunity to start looking at things in a way that has always been diff difficult because like for example I'm not an English teacher and I still taught AP and they still had to write a thesis statement and I taught High School seniors and the level of frustration of like sweet pee that is not a thesis statement um is really hard
050and so I think being able to have quick access to a lot of opportunity rather than relying on my mental energy to do so especially being a singular individual I feel like all of us in education can understand I can explain something 17 times and then one person comes in and you're like oh my God that was so much better so I am very grateful if it's at all possible I don't know how others are feeling I'm very interested in some of this information so like maybe just seeing how these things are impacted or other ways that we can start doing that mostly for my own edification I recognize that these are a slow process I just you know there are options that I didn't necessarily think about so I'm I'm grateful for that thank
051you I just like to jump in I had the opport this summer to chaperone for the national speech and debate tournament and so I was in De Mo Iowa with five uh National competitors in uh public forum debate and the national speech and debate Federation is basically said use Ai and the kids were very clear if you use AI you won't win AI is a starting point but the Nuance that they need and the detail and the the ability to be able to speak about their their subjects to a certain to to a higher degree means that AI gives them the starting point but they have to take it to the finish line and So speaking to some of those concerns about critical thinking and that kind of thing I saw it firsthand this Summer
052that AI is a tool and and when kids are really invested in what they're doing they're going to use that tool but they're ALS it it they need to do more in order to to to be effective sorry that gives me one other thing actually I would like to from my understanding like in jat chat gbt because we don't have access to like academic journals verus public ad and that's expensive I could type in to chat GP to basically create an in and they create sources right they manufacture them they they write them in ways that make it look and appear as if this in fact was an actual academic journal and it is not so one of the things that I'm interested in maybe as we go through this is there a way that
053we might be able to as an education system get access to more than maybe just Google results for some of these things because like in my head I think one of the things that would be beneficial at a high school level is everybody having to take a course of being able to look at what makes a good study and what doesn't so when we get information to find answers how do you you know look at what was qualifying and if we only have access to Google we're very limited on what those can be it doesn't mean there is a solution but I I feel like this is something at least in the future I definitely can see a benefit to if we can from an English perspective especially be able to look at some of
054these things and decide our science this what is what makes a good study versus not just you know if we can um and to add to that um I'm an it so in in I can literally type into chat GPT asking it to tell me how to use our our work system and it will literally it knows our our system so it will literally tell me how to do something um and so it kind of that's kind of what you're asking is to for it to have access to any like on online applications that we use and things like that to create any type of curriculum or supplementals a I think that'd be beneficial from a teacher perspective I was more looking at um if I have to write a paper and we're looking at
055what makes a decent paper right and people will often cite sources um from a history perspective we're limited because we look at who's the source coming from it's a picture it's a letter Etc in science or other English ones if you're doing a research paper how do I know that this information that I have looked at is a study worth quoting in those types of things that's more of a college level in general but part of me is curious in how we can potten potentially include that because if I'm an English teacher and I know they can get manufactured sources that's really hard from a teacher perspective to how to know where these things are and incorporating that as part of lessons seems beneficial so that way students themselves when they type into it can
056look at it and be like ah this is crap right this one's made up to kind of help set them up for success I think later which goes to that critical thinking skills it goes to how we can use some of these things I just don't know if that exists that's what you all are smarter than me for kind of deal I'm just curious because I think it could be very beneficial and that could potentially help with like bias information that it spits out um anybody else have any questions Vice President Van Hook we had wanted to end this with my voice telling you all to go home and take a siesta but we didn't get that far because when Matt came he did that and everybody in the room was like where is she
057because it it was my voice through Ai and I never said it so it was really it's an eye opener right there are a lot of things we have to learn and be cautious and aware of so I want to applaud the team yes thank you so much are you good letting them go yep absolutely thank you so much all right um we're going to move on to 6.2 um policy update for J NB uh technology resources um and instruction Miss Richards yes Vice President Van Hook tonight we are proposing changes to this policy specifically to address the use of artificial intelligence so when you look at our proposed changes specifically on page two you're going to see a large paragraph that emphasizes the proper use of AI the fact that it should be guided
058by responsible and ethical considerations um and in including mitigating bias as you say and we all agree promoting transparency and providing AI benefits to students if it's used in the classroom it should be approved by the site or District administrator and teachers instructions and expectations AI should also be guided and monitored by teachers and their administrators in align with the district guidelines and policies so as you'll see um the very last sentence speaks of AI systems should comply with the family educational rights and Privacy Act furpa and should support data privacy and security so we're asking for these changes or additions and additions to be approved this evening sorry I just trying to jump ahead excuse me I apologize everybody else is like nope first read first three um all right um and then um
059onto uh 6.3 uh I'm sorry uh questions or comments about this policy nope all right um moving on to 6.3 um an update on policy bbba board member qualifications pres Vice President Van Hook tonight we are proposing adding that a convicted sex offender is ineligible for membership on a school district governing board policy verbage is being added uh to add legislative updates so you'll see that highlighted in blue and this is a first read um thank you for that it's it's a I'm glad that we're adding this um it's crazy to think that you know um it could be a possibility the other way so um glad to see this is being added anybody have questions comments I agree I too was like I assumed this was part of it but here we are but
060again I I think the argument probably is the reason it wasn't is because why would we vote for that but you know here we are I'm assuming it happened somewhere so there was a law created to prevent that um all right now um moving on to 6.4 policy ikf graduation requirements first read Vice President Van Hook if you'll take a look we are updating the graduation requirement because by state law we need to include a statement that you can see in blue on the second page that says including instruction on the Holocaust and other genocides for at least three class prayers or the equivalent on or at least two separate occations during any of grades 7 through 12 that needed to be added to the social studies part so if you take a look at
061page two of it in blue that's the verbiage that we are adding additionally we added some clarification on the math courses what they can consist of and three credits of science as well those were clarifications from the uh asba policy however we needed to include the uh blue language specifically for the Holocaust and the genocides any questions or comments no all right um all right um that um vice president Sor really fast with this policy it doesn't change anything we're doing we're just we're already doing all of this correct correct we just add that language to it okay thank you all right now we are um going to move to the action items um a motion um that the governing board approve the budget revision uh number one for fiscal year 2025 as presented second
062oh all in favor I I I I uh that was four um motion passes uh with four eyes zero a 7.2 ratify payroll and fense voucher um um I do have uh a comment regarding this um and I had met with uh Miss um Richards about uh hop skip Drive um and uh just to discuss if we were using it um and I I had shared my concerns about um this company uh I'm not sure if anybody saw but there was two incidences with this organization with this company in um Scottdale unified uh where a um a student was sexually assaulted by a driver um and then another student was physically assaulted by another child that was in the same vehicle um and so my question is um because we don't do the background checks
063um and we depend on the background check that the the company is doing um how do we uh ensure that our students are safe um you know being with these drivers and and some of our our kiddos obviously you know are um vulnerable students um in the care of a driver without an adult and so that's scary for me um and and [Music] um you know I I want to make sure that we're also uh I know when we we discussed it that um we didn't necessarily share what the parents that are using the services um of the incident that that happened in in Scottdale and um and I mentioned that you know we we can't assume that people are are watching the news and and paying attention to the news to know this information
064um and I would assume that most parents think that if if the district's providing that service that it's a safe service so I want to ensure that our our uh parents are notified of any incidents that occur with with companies like this so that they can make an informed decision of whether they want to um have their child use that service or not um and um one of the questions I also had was that um we're utilizing it for I believe um oh no that oh it is for the outof boundary kids correct that and is that the reason that the transportation cost increased part partially because of this company the the budget modification in this um particular vendor are not related not the Hops Drive provides contracted transportation for our mcken vento students so
065are homeless uh students um those students we are required by law to transport um and often times with a driver shortage uh those routes are are not filled and so um we contract out with hops drive we also use another vendor ever driven um we have had no instances within our district um and unfortunately the escal did have that isolated instance with that driver and so um we do have a vendor registration form that all vendors who do work with us they sign in um indicate that they are vetting um their individuals they do have um uh background checks cleared with them ultimately we have to rely on the vendor it would be we don't have the man-hours to to go and and ask for that for every single one of our but by them
066signing that agreement we can then hold them liable if something does happen um that they agreed to that uh vendor registration form saying they would have background check if something did happen we then have um the upper hand um to hold them liable for that instance um you know like the type of background check that they do like the extent of the background check that's being done is it just basic $5 background check that they pay for online or um you know it would be nice to know like to the type of background check that's performed on their drivers um are the background checks um performed before and after hire date um and how often are they background checked um board member Van Hook can I ask you a question about the Scottdale one real
067quick before you go on for that in the case of that um because it's pertinent to what you're talking about are you aware one way or the other if that individual had anything prior because part of me goes I agree with you we need to do background checks and I also think asking how often do you do it those kinds of things fingerprint clearance card all that genuinely matters I'm also if that person had not been convicted of anything then that also I think matters with respect to it doesn't change the situation in terms of it is horrific and not something that obviously anybody would want but it does play into what we can and cannot do with respect to who we hire who we use Etc right no and I understand if you run
068a background check and they don't have any priors nothing is going to show up um which is why I'm asking like how often are they doing background checks in case something changes after the higher date so Vice President Van Hook we can definitely reach out to them and get specifics on this um I do know that the director of that organization reached out to meliss gardland who's our director of federal programs and compliance and I know she shared that with you but at the end of the day this is helpful for information for us to get and we will put it in status thank you um and just a clarification point if they because DPS has recently I guess in the last year changed their fingerprint process assuming that they have to go through and
069get at least a class one fingerprint clearance card because they're dealing with children um DPS has changed their process that now an employee is actually assigned to an employer in the past they weren't and so they we could have their fingerprint clearance number we can check and make sure it's valid but if we weren't attach to them if something were to happen regarding their fingerprint clearance card in some cases it was almost impossible for them to notify the employer now like I said in like in the past year um maybe even less recent than that um now fingerprint clearance cards are attached to employers so if something does happen during that time um with their fingerprint card it's much easier for employers to be notified now so it doesn't I get what you're saying and
070I agree too I mean a background check is only as good until something has happened to show up on a background check right um but assum like I said assuming they have a fingerprint clearance card because they're dealing with children um it it's much easier now to be notified and DPS has also started doing some different background checks as well um so and that's even been more recent so so but what could like we don't have a contract with them I think is what was said in the Q&A um they're possibly anou or I just want to know like contractually like what what forces them to tell us what's on the background check of their employee um you know are they obligated uh to to share that information with us if it's a driver of
071one of our students and that's a good question as well as were we notified of the situation with another driver do they notify the people that the other districts that they work with I'm sorry no that's board member yes we were notified um and I can't remember when this happened like vice president Vin hook do you remember the date that it happened um I don't I I know it was last year some time we can provide a summary of what happened and how we were notified and then answer all these other get answers to those thank you you're welcome um I also know that they had a Cyber attack um and a major data breach uh although um I believe it said it was their driver information that was leaked and not necessarily the student
072information um but that's that's an issue as well um and I did look into the the person that's in charge of like their security and she used to run like a doggy dat care so as far as experience with kids I think this is like her first time working for you know for a company that's driving kids around so um that concerns me as well um and you know my ultimate um issue is just to ensure that the the company is o obligated to notify us when they find information um about their drivers um and then in return were notifying um the families um or um I think the situation in Scottdale um I forget the um possibly home like a homeless child she was like a homeless child um and so um you know
073there's got to be some sort of guardian or something anyway that they're notified um that's all anybody else all right and this was 7.2 I motion that the governing board ratify payroll and expense voucher 11 second all in favor uh and I will abstain just because I I'd like answers to those questions all right uh motion passes three eyes and one exstension um on to 7.3 approval of license agreement between Higley unified and SL Saro solar um LLC I motion that the governing board I'm sorry um yes I motion that the um unless somebody has questions anybody have questions um again I motion that the governing board approve the license agreement between Higley unified and SL sororo solar LLC second all in favor I I all opposed did I hear four all right um motion
074passes with four eyes and now we are at 7.4 communication protocols bear with me here um on page four of the communication protocols and I actually thought that um the last time we talked I thought that this was going to come back for another discussion um because when it first came out we talked about changes occurring and then we held off um due to the superintendent situation um and so I actually expected that this come back as uh as a discussion item versus an action item um so um I would like to [Music] um recommend some changes on here to be done um and so um I would like to um make a motion to table this uh to have uh further discussion and possible changes before we make a vote we can have that
075discussion at this time but can we make changes to it before we vote we can so we can go through you can make a recommendation for changes if the board agrees then we can vote on those changes and when we make the motion it's just either with or without those changes with this change without that change okay um that's what we'll do then um so uh let's go with uh page four number two um it says if board members plan to attend Community meetings um the superintendent's office should be notified um I think that this needs to clarify that this is District hosted meetings and events [Music] um because for me for instance I've been involved in the community for many years and things things that I do within within the community are not board
076business uh board related so um that's not something that I I need to you know go through you so um I think that we need to just clarify that that it should say District hosted meetings and events I I I hear what you're saying but the intent of this is if I'm going to attend a town of Gilbert council meeting um then it to let the superintendent know hey I'm I'm attending like if we've been invited to certain Community things as board members as board members you do not need to notify the superintendent's office if you're as a individual person attending some meeting if you're attending as a board member or on behalf of the district then that's when we would need to notify them right that's why I want clarification so it's not necessarily
077District hosted but we could use phrasing there because if if I'm attending my community HOA meeting I don't need to let Miss Richards know I'm attending my community HOA meeting so now if I'm attending my community ho HOA meeting because there's something being discussed regarding the school or on behalf of our district they invited board members because they wanted to get to know us something like that then we should let them know yes I'm attending this but those meetings are the ones that are coming through that the invitations we're getting through the district right so um right but that's why like it needs to specify that it's it's board related attend Community District hosted Community meetings as board members if the invitation is yeah if the board members are plan to if they plan to
078attend a community meeting as a board member the superintendent's office should be notified community meeting as a board member um and um District hosted meetings and events but not all those are district hosted right but I'm saying and in addition to we can I think the expectation is if the district's hosting it that we would be there or we would let let them know obviously okay okay but either way I mean if like I said if the district's hosting something then we're board members are um and I and I think I've shared um last time that um there was like I you guys are wanting to make sure like open meeting laws aren't violated that there's no more than three board members but there is information that I I think I've shared with Karen possibly
079that says um more than two board members can be somewhere um and as long as board business is not discussed that it's not an open meeting law violation um so I but we practice that when we attend events all the time District events yes not events um I think like the Chamber of Commerce Awards I believe is one thing we've all been at right but like for me like I go to City Council meetings like I I shouldn't have to disclose that I'm going to a city council meeting not if you're not going as a board member no and typically I mean because bottom line we're still community members we can right we can still go so it's this is primarily at at when we're attending as board members it has been the district's practice
080that if they know that there's going to be at least three to air on the site of caution that we post it just in case that anything were to come up because like I said we're all community members we're all involved in different things and if I see you somewhere I'm going to come and talk to you you know and so um if I if I see any of you guys hey how's it going what's up you know and we just don't want it to be misconstrued so any time that there's been a scheduled event that we're attending as board members it has been our P our practice to try and post that just to air on the side of caution got it I think to add to that board member ree we also can't
081control how public respond to us when we're there and so I think the benefit of doing that is again just doing everything we can to ensure that we stay [Music] compliant all right so for that one um board member Van Hook I want to make sure we have the exact language that you guys want there so Christine did you grab it yeah just after meeting yeah just add as a board member okay perfect thank you um and then there's um number 6A um board meeting packets and supporting documentation prior the meeting usually at least 5 days prior um I just want to I know we also discussed this but that going forward we are going to get the pack packages on Wednesday um um Vice President Van Hook Miss Richards for cabinet I know the
082reason we had talked about keeping it on Thursday before is to make sure that we can get some of the information that we are after in order to post I recognize we now have meetings on Tuesday so I guess my question is are we in the same position that we were prior to moving the meetings to Tuesday or because the meeting are on Tuesday now some of those things have shifted because I ultimately I'm I'm after a packet of information that we have rather than you know trickling in information kind of deal so I'm just asking how that impacts where we are at so bember way we are work working really hard to get it all together um meet with the board president go over the agenda and our goal is if the the following
083Tuesday the governing board meeting is scheduled to just send an email to you guys and let you know it's ready I think you do know that um Miss Zimmerman puts information in there if she can so we've missed the target a couple of times but you know it's been Thursday morning but we are working on it and it's a it's not a good excuse it's just we're going to keep trying you know and and if we are then like once you guys meet with Michelle and work on the agenda than anything else that's added afterwards um for instance this the solar agreement um I don't think it's fair to add it to the consent agenda I think it should be a separate item um especially the fact that it was just added yesterday um and
084all of a sudden it's part of consent to allow us the the ability to have a little more time to to review it um and also just for the purposes of transparency if we can put those items as an action item separate action item instead of part of consent I'd appreciate that um if the if that's what the board wishes we will do you understand what she's saying I do I'm just trying to um I guess I'm trying to understand the point of of making some of these changes I I think in terms of adding it as verbage so much as an informal practice right because part of me goes oh I'm not asking to change verbage I'm just just discussing that section what I'm what I'm trying to say is I think that request
085at least in my opinion in the way I would view it and I obviously there are other people here on the board is the situational right so we get our thing on Wednesday and something gets added on Friday you guys send us an email the second that happens I I don't think there's anything wrong with putting that in consent agenda considering it's a consent item a lot of times the things that you update is either specific numbers or the dates or those types of things and that still gives us time to request to pull it should we do that because that's already our practice as it is if a singular board member asks it to be pulled it gets pulled um so I I guess I'm hant to say this needs to be done for
086everything I think it is realistic to say especially considering our meetings start on Tuesday should we get a Monday change send an email out of saying this is going here does anybody want to pull it because it just got added today I think that's really realistic and that follows with the policies that we currently have because it may be something that you can go check in that email and go oh no I don't care like it's fine to be in consent agenda does that make sense so I feel like if it depends on the time frame with which we are given in order to do that seems realistic to me I don't feel like every change needs to be something because sometimes these are clerical errors that get updated or just normal business practices just
087to put it in something else um for me personally um for me personally I I would like for the sake of transparency to be able to have uh a lot of these things in consent get approved with one vote and and they're done um this specific situation uh was added after our deadline to be able to ask questions and get answers and so that removes our ability to be able to question something that's been now placed on consent so when something is added so late then we don't have the ability to ask questions on an item and we have to approve it without being able to get our questions answered so that is the reason why I'm asking that if it's something that is past the deadline for us to be able to get our
088questions submitted and answers back to us um then that item should not go into consent it should go into an action item on its own so that we have this ability to be able to ask questions about it board member or sorry Vice President Van Hook so it sounds like we're in agreement then that if our questions are due by Sunday end of day that would be any changes we add on Monday would that not I mean we're not getting any email notifications on Saturday and Sunday as it is that they have changed these things so if it's not on Thursday by end of business day not on Friday by end is business day I think it is realistic to say that Monday it gets put to to an action item I'm specifically saying the
089Monday I agree with you that that seems a realistic desire a change for Thursday or Friday feels less realistic to me because you still have time to ask your questions does that make sense yeah no I'm talking about adding something after our deadline to be able to ask questions so that would be Monday which is this situation this agreement was added yesterday and I asked that it be moved to consent can I clarify that though the agreement was added Friday morning for Sundial uh okay so and that's and that's another thing like if I'm done reviewing the agenda I assume everything's there and I don't have to go back because I I assume nothing's being added so it wasn't until Monday that we were told that there was changes made and then I so I
090think for just general practice if anything gets once you email us that our agenda is out there if anything gets added I can email sooner I usually call it out on the questions and answers but I can just email you sooner so once I send you on Wednesday hey it's ready to review if I change something I'll just email you right away just email us that something's and I won hold it till questions and answers I think that might solve the problem yeah because that's exactly what happened is I was done with all my stuff and then I didn't know changes happen till yesterday well I'll call them out sooner to you guys I guess my question then on where it goes I'm trying to understand why that matters from even using this as an
091example it was pulled and put as an action item we didn't have any questions and didn't talk about because then I I had time to review it last night right and if I did have questions I would have asked today sure but then at that point it dur if you haven't gotten just the same on any and consent if you haven't gotten the information you need will one pulling it from make a motion well pulling it from consent um if you don't feel we have enough time whether it's in consent or an action item if you don't have enough time to review it you don't have enough time to review it no matter where it's at on the agenda so um if you feel you haven't had enough time to review it then that needs
092to be a whole different conversation on if if it should be there or that you could make a motion that it come off and be tabled to the next one um right but it still requires a motion and potentially my I don't get a second and now I can't move something out of consent and I can't talk about it well and that that's the other thing is that um by because something's in consent doesn't mean we still can't ask a question right but it allows me so if now I've had the time to review it now it's a separate action item and if there's a concern now I have the ability to vote just on that one specific item let's say I didn't agree with this agreement now I have the ability to vote no
093on just that agreement instead of the entire consent you like yes and you could always make a motion to request that it be removed out of consent and then my my motion doesn't get seconded and then I can't move it I I don't I don't see why it wouldn't be seconded to move it's happened before to be clear in the past the second was for something different than this specific scenario I I think it is important to know that I agree with you and I think it is important that we have adequate time to be able to do things I think Miss Zimmerman's suggestion of emailing them as they happen gives us that opportunity but I'm talking about last minute items like this situation Miss Van Hook I hear you my point is if you
094make a motion and I recognize that there is frustration when some of these things don't happen considering the fact that the assumption is all of us have had the same amount of time and have the same information in front of us and if you second that you would like to move it because you have concerns with it and there is no other individual on the board who agrees as frustrating as that is that is the nature of having five individuals here to make that decision right so like I think it is important to say that during any consent agenda item if you have not requested previously to move it you can make that motion you can do those things I agree with board member Ree and that we have had opportunities to express it but
095again there are still other members here that if we don't agree with you and we wish to move on that is the nature of of a a democratic process but we as board members all have a right to request something to be moved to so I I think the the arguments is is is mute point because no I just I'm just saying I think it just depends the only purpose of this particular and again we go to this particular scenario because it's just happened the only purpose was changing ownership so I I mean the agreement would still stand the terms of the agreement nothing we didn't have the ability to change anything I hadn't even looked at it I understand I understand but knowing that the only thing we were voting on is because the
096company were contracted with their name changed I understand that after I looked at it but I hadn't looked at it when I said when I got the email that something had changed I immediately said can you please pull this off consent I haven't had a chance to look at it well and I think we can continue with that same practice I don't think that we need to have a blanket if something's add it it automatically goes into action I think if we look at it last minute is my concern right and and she's going to email us so now we'll know ahead of time and the email we got was like 4:30 5:00 I don't remember the exact time that the email came back we just talked about yeah we just talked about a general
097practice if something gets changed will email that something was changed or added I Vice President Van Hook I just want to clarify something for transparency the district has never denied us answering our questions we do have a deadline but they're always willing to answer our questions so I just wanted to be transparent that they're always even if it's last minute they're still willing to get back to us we don't have a deadline that we can't ask anymore just for the Public's knowledge no absolutely um it just that in this specific situation we got it last minute I hadn't had time to look at it so I wanted the ability to be able to review it knowing it's an agreement um and not knowing what the changes were I wanted the ability to be able to
098ask questions during the meeting instead of passing it through consent um and so all that all I'm asking is were notified as soon as changes are made and if it's added at the last minute that it be moved as a separate action item because we haven't had the ability or the time to be able to review and and get our questions answered as part of our Q&A so that's all um um on the um shared agreement um what page are you looking at I'm sorry page two and bullet point uh seven so this one um says board members and staff will maintain strict confidentiality in all matters discussed in executive session matters for which confidentiality has been granted by statutes federal or state regulations case law or policy including but not limited to students records
099and discipline um of individual students private uh Personnel information and privileged information that could cost the district money support or public confidence um it's obviously we we've had situations that have occurred um where information out of executive sessions has leaked um information has been shared um on social social media um based on things that have been said in executive session um and so uh that's definitely an issue [Music] um but at the same time I want to ensure that um we do handle matters in a in a transparent um way um before things escalate um other than obviously you know private U Personnel issues that can't uh be shared publicly due to you know laws um but I think just talking to to the community um you know their their biggest thing is is transparency
100and ensuring that um we are as transparent as we can be within the laws um and I I have um so what is your recommendation on this bullet point I just mainly making a statement um okay and not necessarily A Change gotcha sorry just reading through my notes here right that's it for that one um and then for number eight uh board members and superintendent will serve as ambassadors um for the district emphasizing the positive aspects of the district um I'm sorry where are we I just um want to make a statement in regards to that as far as board members um and superintendent serving as ambassadors um I think it's crucial to address negative issues um that occur within our district um and sometimes those negative issues unfortunately overshadow positives um and we must
101strive to improve our district as people in the community have serious concerns that are not being approp appropriately addressed parents have um are having to withdraw their students from certain classrooms because their concerns aren't being taken serious significant issues impact ing the learning environment should not be ignored I have repeatedly asked and requested that we remove politics and ideologies from our classroom but given but given um excuses as to why they can't also legal advice should prioritize student safety over political convenience and that has been extremely lacking with bad legal advice our administrator our Administration is receiving it is also challenging when community members Express the lack of faith in the district feeling that students are not prioritized such as repeated issues um with sexually explicit books um books related to race critical race Theory
102sexuality and many other obscene things Higley is not immune to this garbage unfortunately we are seeing it all over the country but we can change that instead of modeling districts like Scottdale uh we should be our own model for other districts um where we can prioritize the students well-being and um without the interference of politics and ideologies and I just I I don't know how else member hook I I I'm struggling to understand how this is pertinent to our specific Communications beyond that you're as it's happening right now you are making a political statement as you're talking about this policy so what I'm asking is how is this pertinent to something specific in the policy point of order um I am not making it political I'm asking that we stop because if we're supposed to
103be ambassadors for our district it's hard to sometimes do that when I as a board member I'm coming to the district and saying this is the concern for my constituents and their voices and their concerns are not being heard so I'm asking that if we are supposed to make these statements that oh all board members have to be ambassadors for the for the district then we need to ensure that we are doing what is best for our students I board member Van Hook again I I hear you and I appreciate the concern that you have for students in our community because I think it's something that all of us up here agree with and that's why we are here I recognize and understand that sometimes as things happen when we go through policies we are
104limited by these policies and that is frustration I guess where I'm failing to understand is what it means by ambass here is that as a board member when you go out and you do things you behave with the understanding that your behavior is reflective back on the board in those moments routinely we have constituents who come to us with concerns and expressions and being human persons our perspective on things may not be always what is reality and getting that information to figure out who the what the where the when and the process do matter and we have policies for that what I imag asking then is is there a proposed change or suggestion you have because while I get that you feel passionately about what it is that you just described it still is not
105pertinent to this specific agenda item that we are dealing with it absolutely is pertinent because of the statement that's written here I want to explain that if we are expected to be ambassadors for the district district and you know are we are we going to pretend that everything's always okay no can you define for me then what you mean by what is it that you take ambassador to mean in that sentence because I think where the difficulty is is maybe the way I Define that and the way you're defining that are two different things in this moment right because at the end of the day you are still a a free citizen who lives in this city who gets to decide how you feel about things and I think it is important that you can
106express yes I am frustrated with how some of these things get done absolutely I I I'm struggling to understand how what you're describing and the way the sentence is in terms of ambassador to me do not meet the same thing we are not saying you cannot be critical and in fact routinely every two weeks when we have board meetings we tend to be critical that's part of our job that's how we ask questions that's what we're doing so I'm struggling to understand how what you described an ambassador as it's meant in this policy if you could explain to me the way you take that to me [Music] right that I I feel that by this sentence it means that I have to be able to promote the district at all times times but at times
107it is difficult for me to be able to do that by expressing these concerns I think to be clear two things can be true at once I can say hickley is great and there are things that I'm upset with or frustrated or have concerns about I also think the way we have things which is why I said what I said at the beginning Fair ma'am what I'm trying to get at is right now I understand that you have concerns what I'm failing to understand is how those concerns would change what we are literally writing in there because nobody is telling you you cannot go and do certain things as a board member it is dangerous for you to make comments that directly undercut certain things that the boards board does or if we vote as
108Focus understanding it but obviously you can't comprehend the fact that by by what I'm reading this is how I feel about that sentence so it's it's not really a debatable issue I'm stating that based on this this is how I feel and so if I'm if I'm expected to be an ambassador for the district that which I am yes but there are major concerns which is why stated that some of sometimes the negative issues overshadow the good can a question then and if you're here to express how you feel which is great and I'm here for what is it that you suggest we do because then the way I take your statement just now as a point of clarification is you wish to express that you're frustrated with this situation great if that's the case
109then we can move on I I understand your frustrations I think every single person up here has experienced some of these frustrations and we've only been here for a short period of time right because I've had to make decisions or I've had to do things that ultimately are for the better of the district because that is my job in this role so my question to you then is your choice in making that statement do you wish to just make it or are you expecting us to engage with how we change this protocol going forward if it is merely an expression of you are frustrated by this circumstance great I understand that now and we can move on from it and you can go to your next point or are you trying to make a statement
110to change our protocols that's what I'm after the purpose of my statement is to ensure that we are doing everything possible to ensure that our students are not impacted their educational environment is not impacted so that we can be continue to be ambassadors and and promote our district and and then when we do that we don't have parents going uh no I'm pulling my kid no I I I don't like the district because of this and this um and then it it creates other issues so I'm literally just making a statement and I and I hope that we could look into fixing these issues to provide a better environment for our students and our families that we are here to support agreed and as as an ambassador we should be doing that we should be
111um representing the things that need to be fixed we should be bringing that to our superintendent's attention so as yes as an ambassador that is exactly what we should be doing we should be working to improve what we already have so it's not to say there's not things that need to be changed changed but as an ambassador we represent it all and that helps us be with our community and bring issues to the superintendent to be addressed for for the better of all of our students for sure that is all I was was trying to say here for sure um and then for um number 12 all communication um news media so um for this policy um this policy is specific to um all communication with news media so this is specific to um statements
112on behalf of the district um so I wanted to I wanted to make sure that um we clarify in there and it it does say providing official statement from the district um and it does reference that policy adding verbage to say on behalf of the district is what I was looking well underlined it says providing official statements from the district to me that reads that the district is giving the statement No that be if we're indicating we're providing an if we're saying Christina ree Higley school board memb says this like if I if it is coming across that I am making a statement on behalf of the district yeah I like the word instead of the word from to change that to um statements on behalf of the district and that would be fine point
113of clarification if if a news media Outlet contacts me because I'm a board member would not any response I give to them be on behalf of the district no I the reason I'm asking that and the reason I I say that is because if one of us gives an interview to a news Outlet on a specific agenda item we run the risk of getting into a very big gray area with respect to open meeting laws part of that especially if it's an item that has not been voted on one way or the other and you in your statement or I or whoever else give some indication of how they feel about a specific agenda item it is a gray area admittedly because these laws were written a while ago but we now run the risk
114of putting ourselves in a potential open meeting situation especially if multiple of us who are unaware of the other person already answering decide to do that unless I'm misunderstanding how open meeting thatall Works um I believe your misunderstanding because we as individual board members um um have uh the right to speak to the media on how we individually feel about something we cannot give statements on behalf of the district um but we can speak personally personally um that is our First Amendment right uh not only as individuals but also as elected officials um so the this specifically is related to providing a statement on behalf of the district which I would never do our board policy addresses this so for sure but for future if you make a statement on how you feel on a
115future a board agenda we specifically had lawyers twice Express this to us so if you are giving how you feel about a specific agenda item or an item that ends up becoming one you run the risk of opening yourself up to open meeting violations that is true yes that is true also if that was the case then an open meeting violation could be filed against that person yes correct that that is that is true that if you are making a statement to the media on something we haven't voted on and you're indicating things and that could potentially run into an open meeting violation Y and then that would be handled through the AG's office for sure and the other intent of this is um if you are providing a statement to Media it is asked
116that you share that with the board or with the superintendent as an informational so that the district is not caught off guard a statement was made VI president then and members of the board are we rewarding that or leaving it um I don't see a problem with changing on behalf of the district I would just like to clarify instead of saying from from the District onf of the district on behalf of the district um Vice President Van Hook and members of the board can I just point out also that that's a Verbatim from kdda policy bullet point 12 on the communications mirrors the governing board policy that is so we can change it in our protocols because it's not policy if we bottom line we're still Bound by policy so absolutely no thank you for
117pointing that out we can these are our protocols these are as board members what we agree to do um and at some point then policy kdda could come back for a a request for revision but thank you for pointing out that it's the exact thank you So Christine you have that right okay okay um have we addressed I think your changes uh I think that's it yes okay so so now make a motion um should I just need one one motion for both would I I'll go ahead and so I'll make a motion that we approve the communication protocols with the changes as discussed yep yes with with the changes as discussed yes um all in favor I I I I who seconded that who seconded that Amanda I just knew it came from down
118there all right so then our communication Protocols are agreed upon okay um I motion that the governing board approve the communication protocols as as amended that was to change it no that we approve them as With The Changes provided okay sorry I thought we had to make motion to make the change and then motion to no because we never had a motion to begin with so our motion included those changes got it okay yep we're all good um that's it all right that's all for Action items um we're on to um 8.1 future agenda items anything and then um moving on to 9.1 uh 2024 25 governing board initiatives no no all right um I motion to adjourn this meeting second all in favor I hi