001e good evening I'd like to call this meeting to order I motion that the governing board convene an executive session pursuant to ARS 38-43 1.03 A3 and4 regarding vendor vendor contract issues and to AR ARS 38- 43103 A3 and four regarding the process of a superintendent search and a seconded all those in favor I I I motion carries forward zero Anna e e e okay we're going to reconvene an open session um I move to approve um the direction given in executive session second give that one and I heard Anna she's right next to me give it to Anna second all those in favor I I motion carries 4 to zero all right we're going to go ahead and uh do a moment of silence and well we not going to do right yeah okay
002just going back we we we ultimately skipped roll call but I I understand now Dr Len heiser's question what you asked earlier all right moment of silence and Pledge of Allegiance please e before we approve the J want to do a roll call just so that we have it so Dr lot Dr Mr liser roll call please thank you for that President Anderson uh let the record show that we have four members in in attendance today and Miss Schultz is absent thank you okay I move that we approve the agenda all those in favor I motion carries 4 to zero all right Mr liser do you have any reports any information for us today thank you president Anderson um I'm filling in for Mrs Richards as she's out uh this evening uh first we'd like
003to jump into our points of Pride uh this tonight we are celebrating points of Pride from our maintenance construction transportation and the district office and so we're going to have the supervisor of the individuals that were selected come up and be recognized for our points of Pride and we will start with Mr Tyler Moore uh recognizing Mr markling thanks David uh so Matt unfortunately could not make it tonight hit a prior doctor appointment um but I just want to say a few words about um Matt markling uh Matt's our payroll manager um Matt often uh payroll is often a thankless job uh we all you know appreciate the pay uh the the paychecks being deposited but um what goes on behind the scenes is constantly processing and paying and so um we appreciate Matt um
004and all he does to ensure that our employees are paid appropriately uh taxes are are uh accounted for um but Matt not only you know does his job diligently but um Matt is one um individual that is caring um he's hardworking uh in this district is very appreciative of all he does for our district and so again he couldn't make it this evening but uh we appreciate Matt uh and all he does this evening um and for our district so thank you [Applause] Matt so next up I'd like to invite um Karen Johnson human resources to talk about Paula Walter and we'll have her come to the middle I get the privilege of talking about Paula come on up I'd love for you to stand right next to [Applause] me so Paula was nominated by
005Mrs Richards yes our superintendent she couldn't be here tonight so I get to fill in so um Paula plays a pivotal role as the first point of contact for many individuals interacting with our school district and her positive attitude helpful demeanor and unwavering commitment to respect makes her an invaluable asset to our team Paula's welcoming and friendly nature creates a warm and inviting atmosphere for visitors staff and families alike she consistently goes above and beyond to assist everyone who walks through our doors uring they feel valued and supported from the moment they arrive Paula is an exemplary performance for our district uh receptionists and embodies the core values of our school district we are fortunate to have Paula as an integral member of our team and her contributions make a wonderful and meaningful difference in
006our daily operations thank you Paula who did you bring tonight oh um I have I have my husband my mom and my in-laws and my friend [Applause] Gabby have a little gift Transportation wonderful thank you John's actually going to present tonight Dan come on up Dan kimin um he was nominated by he was nominated by Tammy Henderson um and here's what she had to say we appreciate Dan's hard work and dedication he has a friendly welcoming attitude making the bus environment positive and comfortable for the students and I would like to add that Dan has been with us for about a year and a half and in that time I have found that the the students and parents all give him praises and appreciate him on the bus he is definitely the kind of employee
007that we wish we had everywhere he's the kind of person we all wish we had at a friend Dan just is that person he's that guy congratulations Dan congratulations [Applause] so today I want to recognize Dave come up Dave so Dave has always been a team player he has a great attitude he understands his role in the maintenance department he keeps every project on time and on budget and that's why I appreciate him thank [Applause] you all right here we get a picture oh yeah sorry David who'd you bring tonight uh my mom is sitting right there Joan [Applause] okay e president Anderson uh normally we have a Higgly happenings we don't have a slide this time but I do want to recognize and in case you guys weren't paying attention um that we had
008Katon Jones a swimmer from migle High who graduated last year who just qualified for the Olympics and so he will be competing and representing the United States in Paris Katon is an outstanding young man and we recognized him last year and it's so neat to see him compete on an international stage um upcoming events uh Summer's over sorry here we are but if you take a look Tuesday July 9th a new teachers start we're right back in action we have our welcome back rally coming on Thursday July 18th and then Monday July 22nd first day of school and we're very excited for that and then on the 23rd jumping into our next board meeting so that is our upcoming events and concludes the superintendent report she might have I'm going to wait until um we
009see if Miss Schultz can join in the meeting okay just so working on it and those of you that were here for the awards if you we're going into business if you want to take off go home get some dinner you are more than welcome to leave this would be a great time to do it in the meantime we're going to begin our public hearing um presentation on the fiscal year 2024 2025 adopted budget um with Mr Moore all right good evening president Anderson members of the board tonight I'm presenting um pretty much our second review of the the adopted budget um previously at the last board meeting I presented the proposed budget um essentially it's the proposed adopted budget tonight it's the same presentation although I do have some couple updated slides um regarding
010how the legislature kind of wrapped up their session um so um tonight again looking at the adopted budget um so we are on the second iteration of this time chart um again Arizona School District budgets um we have about four different times in which we bring forth budgets to you um the June 5th we brought forth the propos tonight we're bring for are adopted this will be our budget that we take into fiscal year 25 um and as I mentioned multiple times we kind of have to anticipate enrollment or ADM um if we are off by any uh Which Way um we have opportunities to revise our budget um in September and December so looking at the uh adopted budget highlights um the legislative conversation um as I mentioned the legislature did approve a state
011budget that passed June 15th at 10 p.m. um the uh kind of highlights in that legislative package that was approved for specifically looking at K12 highlights um a was Exempted uh that was just a one-year exemption unfortunately so we're we're still um we'll be on the hook for 26 uh and seems like I've mentioned before this seems like it's going to be the kind of theme right there it's going to be annual exemptions to that aggregate expens limit um we were anticipated to exceed that by 1.3 billion so that would have been another 16% % in a potential Cuts so um that's reassuring knowing that we can go into 25 and we'll have full budget capacity um for next year um one uh kind of unexpected expectation um was 200 million was awarded um in
012the building renewal grant program so as I mentioned Higley has been a beneficiary of that um higgle highes weatherization that painting uh we were recipient of $1.2 million from that Grant fund to uh paint and weatherize that camp so uh we will look to continue to tap into those funds um and utilize their um Grant portal to submit up applications and so um hopefully we have some additional renewals coming in fiscal year 25 um or bring forth I guess project approvals to the board out of that fund so um one kind of negative the daa funds um that were appropriated um and the governor duy legislation so that three-year appropriation of increases um we were going into year three of three of those increases um however the legislature moved those um increases to onetime funding
013so what that means is we will we'll see the increase in 25 but immediately in 26 that will come off our budget we'll already start to see a capital reduction um it seems like uh just a reoccurring thing unfortunately I felt like we were just emerging out of this um but now we'll see a capital reduction in 26 unless additional legislation U changes that in uh in the 25 year so um that's unfortunate uh again provides another emphasis on looking for additional Capital funding um and you know one thing we do have on the ballot is a bond so the other point we uh the remove in the leg they remove the Statewide kindergarten entry assessment um I can't speak to that personally but maybe some of our education side but that was just another
014point on the K12 kind of highlights that I wanted to emphasize um one more thing I didn't include on there was I think the board or I think everybody's kind of a heard of the quasm kind of leg you know lawsuit and judgment and so um one thing I did um kind of remove from our board agenda I had originally a resolution on there um when the on the last Thursday but we pulled that um after assessing our cash balances with our levied funds uh we will we don't anticipate needing to do any sort of resolution to tax our tax base additionally to Garner um the 3.4 million that we are um assessed in that judgment so we'll be able to cover that completely from our cash funds or levied cash funds um we have
015enough cash on hand to cover that 3.4 million obligation from that judgment um and so Higley again will will'll have no resolution um brought forth to the board as all that will be handled U with our levied cash funds that we have um the known implications um these are the the same pretty much that I anticipated and that were approved in the budget and so um we were proactive and put these known implications in my you know preliminary budget form so the adopted form or the final forms that were released the final budget forms already had these numbers in there um so uh I don't anticipate needing to come back to the board in September to revise our budget because we already are maximizing uh what is um legislatively available to our district in terms
016of um the K12 budget so the highlights of those again again 2% inflation adjustment that's in statute if inflation is Runing above 2% which it was about 3.5 the state legislature is obligated to at least minimally fund us 2% which has been the practice estimated again increase in capital they they did appropriate that increase but they moved that to one time so we will see the increase for 25 but it'll immediately come back off in 26 unless further legislation changes that uh and then again just another bullet point this is our last year of our fully funded M override unless we renew that November 2024 again that's about a $4.3 million implication to our m&o budget uh it would be that first year and then again it's another phase down over the next two years
017it's a total of a three-year phase down but the immediately the immediate impact is $4.3 million the budget transfer again our practice um to pay off our or to continue to make our payments for our Middle School leases has been to transfer M dollars to Capital as I mentioned we have to pay um our lease obligation from a capital fund so um We are continuing that um but we are not transferring any additional dollars for major projects so um just making that transfer that $3.5 million that's our principal and interest obligation for our leaste payment next year uh and we just rering that amount so our proposed uh adopted budget is um not changed since I last presented in June um just to give you the highlights again in 20 in May 8th 2024 we
018revised our budget to $126 million that included um the reconciliation to 100 ADM which finished off at a loss of 226 um that budget did have a higher transfer from M to Capital um and which is one of the reasons why you see going to 25 uh kind of the budget increasing right we're not transferring as much dollars to Capital which in in terms those those M dollars stay in M we are projecting a 100 ADM decrease um that 128 million does include the 2% inflation um I already mentioned that the capital transfer being less than what we've previously done again leaving more money in ml and we're anticipating ending the year with $22 million in budget bals carry forward which will be down approximately uh one and a. half million from where we ended
019prior year so uh you you add those together and we'll see a fy2 proposed budget increase of 1.9 million in the M budget um one of the the main uh points um on the M budget that's on the cover page is our average teacher salary um I talked about this at the June 5th board meeting um to summarize um you may be wondering the board just gave increases why are we seeing a decrease in average teacher salary um couple of reasons our average teacher years of experience has decreased in terms we are hiring newer teachers coming in at a lower rate at a starting pay versus paying experienced teachers that are have 10 or 15 years of experience which will Garner a higher salary so those new teachers brings the average teacher salary down um
020it's not an indication of um not doing raises that's just an law of averages um in addition we had two very 10year teachers um again that have an excess of 50 years of experience moving um off our payroll to ESI um that's going to swing and average a lot right you take a that big um 10year teacher and move those off you're going to swing the average quite a bit so again the calculation does not include menal pays um again and it does include the board approved 1.5% increase from M and the 2 to 3% increase from the classroom site from base amount looking at the capital budget again uh same instance uh this is a statutory um formula on the capital budget it's derived from ADM the one difference from Capital to m is
021capital uses a prior year ADM calculation um don't ask me why it's in the rule book um so in May 8th we revised our capital budget to 26 million again it uses a prior year ADM calculation um we were transferring moreo dollars to Capital right so that would increase the capital budget um in in that prior year now moving to fiscal 25 um we're anticipating a capital budget re budgeting 15 million um again it uses prior your ADM funding um that includes the 4.6% increase um but you'll see a decrease in capital because we're not moving over as much from m&o to Capital um so we're not transferring as much we are transferring to 3.55 um a big difference is our estimated carry forward is now down to 4 million that was in excess of
02210 million in PR prior years but as the board has seen our Capital plan and approves our Capital plan we're obligating those Capital dollars to projects um that we've identified um within our within our scope of our capital budget so um our carry forward is now at a point where we probably won't touch that or probably bring it lower than $4 million um within the capital budget typically if there's an emergency you're going to have a larger expense right if it's a building emergency you're going to have a larger expense versus um uh m per se so we'll want to keep a a contingency in there for those emergencies um and I feel like as we end the year $4 million will probably be where we try to cap it so all that in consideration
023our proposed capital budget will be down to 10 million or is is being reduced by 10 million um 700,000 but again a lot of the that 10 million being reduced is is money spent towards projects right um it's not a reduction from anything we're doing from a deficit wise we're obl we're using the money right and so we're going to see a reduction in in funding in the budget calculation so looking at the budget calendar again we're in the adopted budget phase um there's very little change from the proposed um and previously I mentioned there may be a potential to come back in September and Revis the budget but as I've kind of stated um we we have the final budget forms I've already included um the estimated increases that I was 99% sure would
024take place in the preliminary forms that were approved on June 5th so there is no um we will not be back in September 15 because the forms in the budget that you're approving that are on the agenda tonight um are are pretty much maximizing the Dish's um budget based on the state uh K12 budget that was approved by the legislature so um there was a chance that we were hoping optimistic that there could have been appropriated more money for K12 but that was not the case we're kind of um held flat um and so what is on the agenda tonight is our final budget for 25 unless again we revise later in the year of 25 based on ADM movement and what we've estimated so with that I'll be happy to answer any questions president
025Anderson Mr Moore um now I don't I just want to mention about the lawsuit in Maricopa County um that's forcing school districts um to have to pay back all this property taxes and I think higley's portion is about 11 million 3.4 million 3 sorry lots of districts oh money um so how is that impacting our budget I think that was mesa's amount I'm sorry about that yeah like as I st earlier it's it's not affecting our budget capacity at all um so we're using levied cash that's sitting at the county treasure to to um kind of fund that obligation that the district owes um it statutorily they cannot affect our budget they can't tap um our our our budget limit because that's our budget's formula controlled um and so every year we Levy funds um
026via our property taxes right um our Levy funds sit at the county treasure we do have excess funds um to satisy that judgment um and so that's that is what we're going to utilize thank you any other questions from the board it's open to the public now if there's anybody that would like to come forward and ask questions it's for each one that's okay okay then we will now move on to uh 6.2 the public hearing for the instru instuctional time model and this one will be presented by Mr birkshire good evening president Anderson members of the board members of the public if my presentation comes up um tonight this is our second uh required public uh hearing related to updating our instructional time model as a district um as I said uh last time
027uh ars1 15- 91.8 gives us the ability to um adopt an instructional time model that provides some flexibility uh in the method and the manner in which instructional hours are provided to students um we have some students in very unique attendance situations primarily our homebound our chronic illness students um our students that are enrolled in hlc and htap as well that a alternative method of tracking attendance uh is preferred uh gives us some flexibility with those students um for example with our homebound students those are students that receive instruction at home uh typically it's an hour a day um but if they are unable to receive that in-person instruction on that day we can't count those minutes currently um and so adopting an instructional time model will allow us to say on this particular day
028they're unable to attemp to access the in-person learning but they could access learning through canvas for example and count that time on canvas for that particular student we are really looking at making sure that these are for very specialized unique attendance situations that are different than a normal attendance situation where a student is absent and they're they're doing makeup work afterwards the requirements for the instructional time model uh we have to identify what the modes of instruction are um how are we going to track attendance and again the the public comment through the uh two required public hearings for us what we are proposing is that uh our typical mode of instructions is in person um through the instructional time model we are proposing that there be options for students to receive those hours necessary
029through remote instruction ction they may also do so through Mastery based learning uh we see that primarily benefiting our hlc students who work with Apex uh which is an online uh Competency Based uh system and then Project based learning that one we we believe our htap students will be able to primarily access and benefit them it can also be a uh variety of these different a hybrid of these different modes um a and we've provided you with some documentation that is very initial in terms of draft as to how that might be set up at the site level tracking attendance if uh currently in person students are tracked uh in k6 Daily 712 uh by period if students are engaged in the remote currently with our uh Higley Virtual Academy parents track their students hours
030and they document that within Synergy we would do something very similar with students on the instructional time model with the hybrid Mastery based learning again through Apex there is uh anticipated time on task basically that they're expected to do and they receive credit once they successfully pass that in of unit module kind of thing so we would identify what those minutes are and and by successfully passing that they would receive th the those minutes uh Project based learning similarly we would identify what kind of timeline that project should be expected to take for for a typical student and then upon completion of Milestones throughout that project we would then provide that time and and communicate that to uh ad in terms of assessment classroom assessment would be identified in that initial contract based on the
031mode of instruction between the teacher and the student student in administration uh could be virtual could be in person could be a hybrid of both um district and state assessments the requirement would be that they would attend they would take those State assessments and District Assessments in person at their home site so that's pretty much it again um open to questions president Anderson um I just have one quick question for excuse me for um the one for athletes um it states that they have to be out three consecutive days a month so if let's say one month they're not out then they don't qualify so the way we have modeled this is really anticipating students that are participating athletically in things like an Olympic development program where they are out every month a spe speci
032ified number of days every month uh we want to ensure that they have that continuity of learning and that they don't hit that 18 Mark and be identified as chronically absent um students that are involved in typical sports activities where there are tournaments where they may be gone one or two times uh every couple of months we believe that our current system of providing them with makeup work working with the teacher in on an individual basis should accommodate them in that way we were really really looking at those students that are Elite students uh that they're going to be out on a very consistent basis and making sure that they still have the ability to to participate in learning uh with their classmates and not have to make choices about where they're going to go
033and how they're going to make all of that up okay thank you you're welcome any other questions from the board okay this is now open for the public comment or question there's anybody like to come forward you turn the mic on for homebound I believe we had eight homebound students last year so this would be a very small number of students that would be impacted by this and then given the proposal um or the model with the athletes in different situations you haven't estimated how many students we could have you're looking at a range of 50 100 10 I don't um I can say that every year we have one or two students at each of the high schools that attend a program through for example Harvard or Yale where that requires them to miss
034the first month of school um so this could potentially be an option for them because right now we have to there there's a lot of work that we have to do on the back end uh we have not had a chance to sit down with our site administrators to really work through that process and and and make sure that we've got it put in place so initially we believe this is really going to be apply to our homebound students and our chronically ill students as we work through the process and make sure that we we're doing best for all of our students sure you mentioned hva currently does the remote already the Mastery um based in Project based do any of those currently exist or those new programs that will be developed so our students
035that are enrolled at hlc they currently work through a program called Apex a and it's basically a self-paced um online program so they they are engaged in um learning through uh online lessons activities and then there's usually a an end of unit assessment that they take within Apex um so that would be very similar to what we that's what we believe would be a Mastery based learning process uh frequently with our hlc students these are students in an alternative setting program that need some adjustments requ related to their attendance due to their their their unique circumstances so allowing us to use Apex and the time anticipated on apex to provide to ensure that we're being able to to say they're meeting the minutes that we expect them to meet and and and be appropriate really
036reimbursed by the state for those um we believe is a a a much better option than what we're currently doing um htap uh is our transitional program and shaa could probably describe it a little bit better than I can um but those students are really involved in project-based learning uh from my understanding they they they are out in the community doing some kind of work-based learning and and so we believe we can use this model again to to better identify these are the hours that they're engaged in those projects and and more accurately report to the state uh our minutes excellent thank you um you mentioned Apex currently does the kind of Mastery based would they be the the same we use Apex going forward or with this new proposal would we be revamping that
037I would anticipate we'd continue to use Apex we we found a lot of success with that program so I don't anticipate us looking at to to purchase something different the last question I have um we me you mentioned that it's athletes or people who are in in special academic programs could someone could a family come and appeal to for example let's say there a family business and they would like the the child to work in that family business and they want to be absent a certain number of days are there special cases that can be approved or how is that regulated that's that brings up a good point we hadn't looked at those kinds of situations so uh I do remember I used to have a family that they owned a a Vineyard in Utah
038and they would go and spend time there during the course of the year it's something that we can look at um in as we work to develop the the final form that our site administrators were will use this we believe this would be initiated by a family by by sites identifying families that have come to them or they've seen that students are missing a lot of schools a lot of school frequently with chronic attend illness that's how it works is we notice this child has been out and off a lot conversations with with the parents we we determine there's something going on in terms of an illness and they work with their physician and the school to create a a chronic illness plan basically that's it would be very similar in these kinds of situations
039we believe it's a case by case very unique gives us some flexibility where something comes up that we would negatively impact that student's ability to continue in school um sorry I thought of one last questions um you mentioned that there are in onsite in person requirements for testing and things like that um students with disabilities or chronic illnesses do they are they required to come to the sites so our goal is to bring them in to test on site um frequently especially our our homebound students that's not they're they're unable to do that and and and we don't ask them to do that uh but we do want to set it up as an expectation that if you are able to attend in person then we're we want you here in person so we can
040Proctor that uh appropriately and the followup question that you mentioned for using your example the a family with a farm or a Vineyard in in another state could out of state students take advantage of this program no they would have to be enrolled in our schools and in order to enroll in our schools they have to have that Affidavit of of um um where they live and so they have to be within the State of Arizona I don't believe we'd be able to do anything without a state students thank you for your time appreciate it you're welcome thank you anybody else okay we're going to reconvene an open session um I want to confirm before we move forward is M was Miss Schultz able to join us miss emmerman no okay thank you all right
041moving on to uh request to speak we value inut from our constituents this time on our agenda has been set aside for anyone from the audience who wishes to address the board those that wish to speak should have filled out speaker cards which are due prior to the start of our meeting members of the board may not discuss comment or take action on matters raised that are not specifically identified on the agenda therefore pursuant to ARS 38-43 1.01 I action taken as a result of public comment may be limited to directing staff to study the matter responding to any criticism or scheduling the matter for further consideration and decision at a later date also we ask that audience members practice proper public meeting decorum refraining from either negative or positive responses including clapping or verbal
042Outburst to ensure fairness to All Points of View those that refuse to follow these rules may be asked to leave in accordance with policy BH public participation at board meetings if considered necessary the governing board president shall set a time limit on the length of the comment period in order to ensure that each individual has an opportunity to address the board the president may also set a time limit for individual speakers thank you for your cooperation all right first to speak is Kathleen Richards good evening board and members of administration thank you for this opportunity um I wanted to ask I have been looking through all of the different um Personnel items that have come up on the last several agendas and I feel like I am seeing a trend of Exodus whether it is
043at an administrative level in our particularly it seems in the um k6 crew um but just in general and I have paid attention to jobs within Higley District in part because I have a wide n network of really experienced awesome teacher friends and I am always looking to pull as many awesome teachers into this District selfishly as a parent um to participate in the education of my own kids um as well as the kids within our district in general um and I worry that part of what is happening is um that our teacher base does not always feel the level of commitment and support from the very top whether that means the diets whether that means Administration um that they are finding opportunities and there isn't a strong enough pull for them to stay here
044and over the last 18 months there's definitely been an increase in openings here in Higley and the same way that during the um citizens committee I asked the uh team with Tyler to take a look at we weren't necessarily tracking Why students are leaving there's a lot of discussion in the Strategic plan about uh marketing and retention and as much as we need to retain our students obviously and we want to pull as many students as we possibly can in here from the charter schools because we have a lot to offer and we have amazing opportunities here within Higley School District I would encourage and ask as a community member and as a parent here that we are being um proactive in understanding why teachers are leaving teachers are leaving across the country it is
045not a great time to be a teacher it is hard in the classrooms but what can we do as a team here on Tim Higley to make sure that we are keeping those who are really representing the best of the best um because that will influence our ability to keep students here as well so that was just my ask um I hope everyone's having a great summer and thank you very much thank you next we have Sarah jarm Harman good evening members of the school board I'm here today to advocate for the importance of listening to parental input when it comes to decisions regarding our children's education as parents we are the primary caregivers and advocates for our children and it is crucial that our voices are heard and respected in the decisionmaking process parents
046have a unique perspective on their CH children's needs abilities and interest we are intimately involved in their daily lives and are keenly aware of what is best for them by listening to parental input and taking our concerns into consideration the school board can ensure that decisions are made with the best best interest of the children at heart it is essential that parents are included in this decision-making process and given opportunity to provide feedback on issues that impact their child's education we are the ones who know our children's best and can offer valuable insight and perspective that helps shape those policies and programs that will ultimately benefit all the students I urge the school board to prioritize these parental rights and actively seek out and listen to the input of the parents when making decisions that
047again affect the children's education by working together we can create a school district that values and respects the voice of parents and ultimately provides the best possible education for our children thank you for your time and consideration thank you next we have Mindy brocker he thank you very very much for the opportunity to speak today I will apologize in advance for not being properly prepared but it is summer and really um unlike everybody who's spoken tonight I do have three kids in this District two of them will I hope attend Higley schools from kindergarten through graduation and I just wanted to come out here on the last meeting of this Academic Year I suppose maybe the next to last and say thank you thank you to the board for all the work that you guys
048put in it's a lot of hours it's a lot of work we appreciate you thank you to the administration who puts together um curriculum HR payroll just keeps this whole machine moving it's a great machine we sincerely appreciate you I mostly though want to thank the site Administration and staff who pour their Blood Sweat and Tears into our children I over the course of this year alone we have had I've had children in AP classes dual enrollment classes special education classes we've had kids in band I've had kids in drama um and I'm a very lazy parent and still my kids get all these opportunities so I've talked to so many teachers teachers that have loved on my children and cared for my children taught my children and made them think so I just wanted
049to take this last opportunity this time this summer to say to you know to fulfill my promise of positivity and to say well we appreciate you we value you we look forward to next year and thank you and have a great summer thank you thank you uh next we have Heather Balch good evening governing board and cabinet um before I get into what I prepared I just wanted to piggyback on what uh Mr Len Heimer had said during Higley happenings is that what we're calling it um Alyssa Colbert she is the 2021 williamsfield graduate she made it to the semifinals for the Olympic trials in the 100 meter uh and so I was really proud of her and I think higgle should be as well tonight the board has the opportunity to vote on theou
050which is a memorandum of understanding between the Higley Education Association and our district last year there was lengthy discussion about this topic I actually went back and watched it today um and I just wanted to highlight a few things anou is a professional agreement between in our district Higley Education Association and our District administration this allows the two parties to work together collaboratively throughout the year in order to ensure our students receive the best education experience possible when teachers and staff are supported and provided with the appropriate resources our students are the ones who ultimately benefit if the nmou were not in place teachers would not have an Avenue in which to share their needs with District admin that'd be really challenging ing for Karen to receive you know several different calls on many different
051topics um and so we work together uh to work through meet and confer process to share those concerns with our district admin I fear that if we did not have an agreement and a process in place that those issues and concerns would just end at the site level um but we're able to work together to provide success across our district I would like you to vote Yes on this agreement tonight so that our district can continue to be a leader in supporting teachers that support our students thank you thank you next we have Scott Kent president Anderson and members of the board thank you very much this is a response to um several speakers at the last meeting um unfortunately wife cannot be here but I am reading an email um that was provided to
052some of the uh the board and to the uh williamsfield Administration um I'm a proud parent of four children in husd Schools starting their attendance in kindergarten they are currently at kolie in williamsfield I do my best to let teachers teach I believe the best foundation we can give youth is a strong education and a moral compass I let schools guide the first part and do my very best to guide the second last week my older kids came home sharing about Mr boy being put on leave and it had to do with a book my first comments were really three weeks before finals his poor students when I asked what book they just replied on level classes it could be different than ours coincidentally at the same time my husband pointed out a post on
053the neighborhood Facebook group calling for Action at the next school board meeting because of the offensive inappropriate nature of band books being required reading at williamsfield high school so explicit she said she couldn't even finish reading I was a bit surprised I have found williamsfield high school English Department to be exemplary and I am well aware of the process the teachers follow providing the list of reading materials requiring permission slips for mature content and the ability to work with them on alternative materials if requested and any given year I have had to sign a syllabus assignments and book specific permission slips so my husband and I got to work inquiring about the book titles three of them have been read by someone in our household as well as books by one of the other authors
054we were a little stunned when the poster provided us with a full copy of Mr parish's complaint letter first the letter outlines that the process works but at a greater issue I believe his letter is the perfect example of why the subject matter of these texts are needed into today's curriculum there is nothing woke about preparing children to think and act in a world that sadly is full of these experiences and people that have lived these situations this Guardian included an excerpt offended by graphic description of sex missing the point that it is sexual abuse and rape rape of a teenage girl by her boyfriend is relevant and real possibility for teen girls regardless their in regardless of their innocence in fact millions of people may M and female regardless of gender have faced intimate
055partner violence during their teens the fact he saw sex is part of the problem I have no issue raising concerns to the school and District I am not only an advocate for my kids but for the public schools I have other commitments with my children and cannot be present school board meeting to voice my support of the school and teacher please accept this letter as my heartfelt support for Mr Boy and the williamsfield English and social studies departments it was the williamsfield high school English Department teacher that encouraged my oldest son to pursue honors courses he is graduating in a couple of weeks proud he has learned and ready to take a challenge of higher education and a broader more diverse world than Gilbert Arizona he with a strong Foundation built at home in our
056community and at williamsfield thank you thank you okay moving on to the consent agenda I motion that uh to approve consent agenda items 8.1 to 8.29 second second it all those in favor I I motion carries for to zero all right Mr lson Heiser do you have some introductions tonight thank you president Anderson members of the board yes we have some uh people here today that you just approved to become members of our administrative team and so we're going to have their supervisors go ahead and introduce them tonight to you and so first U Mr walker uh president Anderson members of the board it's uh my pleasure tonight to introduce Mr stepan Reed as our new assistant director of student services uh he comes to this department we welcome him to this department with many
057years of Higley experience working with students in uh various capacities most recently as uh coordinator for special Ed as a behavior specialist uh assisting our sites and he'll be a great addition to the student services team welcome aboard Mr Moore good evening president and members of the board tonight I have the honor of introducing Mr John Stone as the new assistant director of Transportation so John is a hardworking people oriented person uh he's most recently served as a field trip coordinator uh and train Transportation has been within the district for 10 years uh I do also want to plug he was a heager leadership academy uh participant so another crudos to Mr Walker and the program that he runs um uh so congrats John and Mr Armstrong all right president Anderson members of the board
058we're super excited um you just approved the new assistant principal at Coronado Elementary School Mrs Alice St [Applause] in I have to correct myself because she's a recent graduate with her doctoral degree from na so a huge congratulations to you Dr stortini it's a pleasure Dr stini comes to us from a couple of other districts with 23 years of experience in education where she served as a teacher an instructional coach at the site level at the district level she served as an administrator for the summer school uh program in her other district and I will tell you that she is super excited to go ahead and start connecting with the Coronado Elementary St uh staff students and Community uh Mr Griggs and his committee that came together I'm telling you they are bragging about her
059so let's be prepared and Dr stini welcome to higgle Unified School District [Applause] all right I have the mic for one more we are here to recognize and honor it's a privilege to say this but Mrs Amanda day is the new principal at Centennial Elementary School Miss day has been with the district for 11 years serving as a teacher served as an instructional coach and has served as the dean of students as well as her most recent uh position at HT as the assistant principal and I will tell you she is super excited to go ahead and get involved with Centennial Elementary that school community and continue to make the great strides that they are so welcome and we're very proud and honored to have you serving as principal [Applause] congratulations congratulations and welcome thank
060you for your dedication and commitment to the students and the staff and the whole District the whole community okay we're going to go ahead and move on to 9.1 under information items for the school calendars presentation for 2025 to 2026 2026 to 2027 2027 to 2028 school years president Anderson members of the board I had the opportunity to facilitate the calendar task team this year and this is an opportunity I've not had in the past so I was really excited to be able to be a part of this and and learn some new things um and tonight I'm going to present to you kind of how we came about the decisions we did uh talk a little bit about the team um and the process that we went through so we were tasked with developing
061school calendars for the 25 26 26 27 and 27 28 school year um originally this sounded like an easy task no problem I never realized how much turmoil leap year could cause you so it took me about 40 minutes to figure out where an extra day came from because I could not count for quite some time so it actually opened my eyes up to a lot of different areas in the district that are affected by the school calendar and allowed me to facilitate that discussion with a wide group of people our team members came from many different departments and and all these stakeholders had brought something to the table to facilitate this discussion um because of this we were able to really dive into all of the things we needed to take into consideration when
062looking at the calendars from transportation to the payroll calendar to our classified staff um all the different pieces and so um it created quite the discussion in the meetings that we had and we did a really good job of respectfully disagreeing with each other and being collaborative talking about the concerns that we felt staff would have the community would have and and how we could address those concerns as the team um when doing this we came up with quite a few discussion topics those included professional development days um the hly the high school late start was a huge discussion that we had for quite some time we talked about middle school and the opportunity that they have for professional development and the need for an early release more early release opportunities for them um we
063talked about transportation and how our decisions were going to be affected by transport we're going to affect Transportation all kinds of things in this process one thing that the team was adamant about is while we had all of these stakeholders at the table they felt that it was really important that we get additional input from our community and staff that we felt we really wanted to hear from them and so as a team we talked about the topics we felt they would be most concerned with and we developed a survey that we sent out to the community as well as all of the staff we were pretty excited about the response rate that we got now is it great absolutely I mean not as great as we'd like considering the size of our community but
064in comparison to other surveys that we have sent out in the past we felt that we got a really good response rate here you can see the response that we got to the questions we identified we felt would be the most important to get the input from the first one was the middle school early release Wednesday as you can see the staff were predominant said yes we need this time for professional development consistent professional development that's planned um and targeted and continues on a consistent basis just for reference the NA means that the staff that because we couldn't differentiate if they did not teach Middle School they did not respond to that um and then for parents you can see too that we had parents from middle school were also in support of the early
065release Wednesdays so the next question was having the Wednesday before Thanksgiving be a non-school day I did a little bit of research at looking at our surrounding districts and we are one of the few that have school on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving historically our attendance is is not great on that day um and so as you can see what we were recommending kind of aligned with what staff were thinking as well as parents um beginning of the year soft start so when we looked at other districts um offering opportunities for professional development that were full day PD days the way that they are able to do that is by having a soft start and what that means is instead of starting on a Monday you would start midweek the week before which then gives you
066extra days within the calendar year for those professional development days um and again as you can see the yeses still outweigh the NOS we did have some parents that were no and they were able to put in comments um but overwhelmingly the the support was in the yes area the discontinue high school late start on Wednesdays was an area that we wanted staff input on um in our questions this week so the late start the high schools were starting at 7:40 versus 7:25 so it was a 15minute difference um we spent a lot of time as a team talking about those late start Wednesdays were they being beneficial at this point and the committee overwhelmingly felt like we would like to get discontinue those moving forward so one thing that did come out in our
067discussions was we truly felt that the teachers needed an addition of two professional development days and those would be added to the calendar on the Mondays we returned from fall break and winter break um and so that is one of the recommendations that you see on the calendars that we're pulling forward the other recommendation that came pretty strong from the team um was that while these calendars are just for the 25 26 26 27 and 27 28 school year they would like to see the late starts end next year and not wait another full year to do that um and so they would also ask that the the board consider doing that change to the 2425 school year so any questions president Anderson silly silly to think that the calendar would not be the calendars
068are it it seems like a simple task but it is not there's a lot that goes into it um I'm going to respect all the work you guys did for sure and I I will support this I am going to express my concern on the 25 26 school year of starting July 17th that when we started in when we creeped back and started starting in July which was in the late 20s of July that was one thing then things started creeping a little bit earlier in the 20s and now we're at July 17th and there's a huge difference between 2025 and 26 and then 26 and 27 because I I see we go back to at least we're in the 20s um I have a huge concern all the way around one I think I
069counted and it it's seven weeks and so from a staff perspective we have a lot that occurs during the summer there's a lot of Summer Camps there's and when I say summer camps I mean like you have football camp you have band camp Camp um you have stucco camps um and so those usually occur in that earlier part of of July that mid July before school starts and so we're putting a one an added burden asking our teachers to come back even earlier I respect that you asked the question about a soft start but I don't know that if it indicated we'll be starting that much earlier even um in that question cuz I think that that's a big thing yeah so uh board member reys one because as I was developing this and counting
070days over and over and over again I noticed that early start date and it took me a while to figure out why why is that date so much earlier than the other calendars and so I actually plotted this out six years and then I went six years in the rears to kind of see is this and it is a trend every third year you're going to get an early July and the reason is if you look Memorial Day it fluctuates up and so onee Memorial Day is the 25th and the next year it's the 31st so there's quite a big change in that and so every third year you're going to see that and the committee talked about this quite a bit and they felt that it was so important that teachers get out before
071Memorial Day and not have to return after Memorial Day that they felt they would be willing to compromise that early start date in July and I respect that for teachers but we have to remember families too yeah and that doesn't leave a a a huge time also and I think too speaking to several different schools and people in administration or offices we already see a a higher absenteeism at the beginning of our school years because we start so early and families have family reunions who people are back east and they're still on they're summer I mean they're summer all through August and so having our families are still taking their vacations so this is going to this particular year is going to creep in even more so and I think that we're going to see
072even a larger attendance concern at the beginning of that school year um so like I said I know there's a lot of work there's a lot of discussion a lot of considerations um and I I love that we're putting in additional professional development days and things like that and just for future cuz I know these are three years in advance just my two cents I would much rather see some of that time come off of the two week break versus starting earlier similar to the soft start maybe go to school Monday Tuesday Wednesday and then have Thursday Friday and then the whole next week but then you have some days you can take from um instead of having the those two solid weeks for fall in Spring um and then we can still start a
073little bit later in in the summer there um and not creep into into some of those breaks because next year is going to be tough it really is but I just wanted to express my concern with that thank you for the proposal of the late starts um that certainly did not go as as it was seen and intended so um I know it's a lot of hard work and I appreciate the committee and everyone who came together because it's not easy so thank you for all that I just want to express my concern for for the next year and and I'm sure plotting it out May look very different cuz even looking at Memorial Day for the end of that school year I think it I think I looked and it was like the 20
074Fifth Fifth but then for the 26th and it it was the 24th it was only a day earlier so it's like wait we have a huge discrepancy on when we start when you just look at the two years there's only a day difference in Memorial Day so it must like you said plotting it out have a much bigger Trend there so and I was able to see that when I couldn't find the leap year leap year yes thank you president and Anderson um first Miss Miller I to piggy back off uh board member Reese I I appreciate all the work that you did as well as everybody else that took the time to to be at the committee because it is definit def itely something that is a gargantuan task um as far as the
075the summer I hear you on that especially being in a place where they had 10 week summer one thing that I can tell you is a lot of places not just in Arizona we know our neighboring districts are are doing the same a lot of places even on the East Coast are starting to do the same thing in terms of going back earlier and earlier um granted they're still in August but their summer was 10 weeks prior to um and so I I I I I noticed the same thing ultimately um my biggest concern which was the concern I put forth and so I would like to just address it again uh from the teacher perspective they have three days uh to prep their classro um and one of the first things that routinely happened
076when we moved back all those years ago um was a loss of prep days and so I guess my question is what are we doing uh at an admin level to sure that our sites are creating the space and respecting that time for our teachers to make sure that they can get their classroom set up and all of those types of things because three days is not a lot of time uh to get all of those things especially at the elementary level when you also have meet the meet the teacher night that you have to prep for but like I mean you have copies you've got things that you need to make and that's I just want to make sure that we're doing something to protect that time board member Wade when we were looking
077at the calendar we that was one of the discussion topics that we talked about quite a bit and of course you know High School teachers had a much different perspective than our elementary school teachers and what that looked like we also talked about when the meet the teacher night was and and what that looked like and one thing that we agreed to is that we will be speaking with administrators at the admin Retreat this year to talk about what those three days look like um to ensure that only the most necessary things are shared with them and that they are given ample time and to make sure to save those non-emergency non-immediate topics for either their regularly scheduled staff meetings or that first early release in July sorry one other thing um cuz talking to
078somebody who actually was on the committee from a teacher perspective because I know we have all of those lovely videos that we have to go through um every year you know like don't touch the blood with your fingers those types of things um is it possible um that we could because know now it's all just online right like you have like a big chunk it's a little bit different than what I still taught here but is it possible to give that like when I worked in Maryland once you had your signed contract they gave us like a week before school or even longer they would send it out I from my understanding I know we increase the length of time that they can do it but I just didn't know if that was like an
079option James sure uh board member Wade through Vector Solutions that's our training uh portal that we use uh one of the things we're looking looking at is one making sure that the modules on there are uh compliance necessary and they're not overwhelming uh the staff with training that's that can be shared in a different manner um but then two uh every year we open it up on July 1 it gets a little bit tricky because um people aren't expected to be working but that is the communication that's going out last year and it's going to go out again in the next uh couple hours is as of July 1 it's it's up and running and it's accessible and then we don't have a really a hard deadline immedi medely uh we we are flexible and
080cognizant of the time it takes to complete the courses and we can work with sites and individuals specifically to get it done that best suits their needs perfect thank you okay no other comments thank you and thank you to everyone that was on the committee and put in their time and effort and it's nice to see the that it's so far out um so people can plan well in advance okay uh we're going to be moving into uh 9.2 um policy IG GAA curriculum development first read with Dr Mr lsen Heiser I apologize if you'd like to give me an honorary doctorate I would happily accept it um that would save me a lot of time I've already spent the money but that would save me some time anyway um these next three uh information
081items were coming to you on the first reads remember when we look at policies we like to do a first read so that we could give your hear your input from it as we come then back next meeting for a second read when we look at three these three policies uh you'll notice that uh when we went through the changes and we looked at uh changing the policies we're going to the asba language uh because we needed to add some things to make sure that our policies were compliant with State Statute and so you'll see those changes in there so I just wanted to say that for the next three that's what they are and now we'll go through each of them individually uh as we look and so our first one is IGA curriculum
082development and you'll notice the blue that was added in there uh just making sure that we're compliant when we do look for this curriculum development that meetings of board authorized textbook selection committees that's what it's really specifically about is our textbook selection shall comply with open meeting law requirements and that's where you see the statute that's going to be required there the rest of the uh policy stayed the same but we wanted to make sure that we were in compliance with our policy going through that process so we can stop here we can have questions on this one I do have Mary Davis in here to help and support uh to answer questions as we go through these policies any questions or comments on the policy IG okay I think we're good okay so let's
083move on to the next one uh which is 9.3 then our policy igd uh the curriculum adoption you'll notice the one that we had I'm pretty sure it was from 2001 and so when we go to make changes uh you'll see the new one the new one is directly from State Statute and that's what it's following and so to make sure that we're uh compliant with it we're just adding that language again about textbook um selection committees open meeting law but then what we're going to look at with the instruction looking at the curricul curriculum adoption this is directly from State Statute so if you were to look at it you would see these listed out directly from there once again making us compliant through that process um president Anderson um so all the bullet
084points are from the state statute um the the letters we yeah yeah that that specifically spelled out um State Statute so I'm just wondering if um so prohibited instruction um should that include and I don't know if it references the AR statute at the bottom but as far as um explicit content and the the prohibition of explicit content uh not to my knowledge the the section and Mary if you want to add that um president Anderson and Vice President Van Hook not in that um particular policy because this one is about curriculum adoption um the next policy that we'll get into is um JJ which would include that particular um AR statute all right so now let's jump into the third one JJ textbook supplementary text and supplementary material selection adoption um as we went
085through this and tried to go Red Line Blue Line there was just too much to try to combine them together and so that's why you'll see the redlined policy completely removed and then we're looking to add again the asba uh direct policy um language from the policy from asba and so I'm going to have go ahead and and Mary uh jump in and talk a little bit about JJ um so the big updates with JJ is really giving us the opportunity to have a um committee come together especially when we're looking at novels and supplementary materials um so we'll have committees formed for those we'll really dig into this um in our next board meeting and have that 60-day review so I'll turn it over there's any specific questions but as um Mr laen Heiser
086mentioned it is tied directly to um the state statutes as well president Anderson um Miss Davis uh can you remind me the statute that refers to the um prohibition of sexually explicit material um president Anderson and uh Vice President Van Hook as I was looking through it um I did notice it's not listed in this one it is um ARS 151 12.3 um it is not listed in this policy but the way that we have built out um our guidance it is very explicit about how we would utilize materials like that okay I just I want to make sure that that's included um so that it it's very clear that um it is against the law to have sexually explicit material in our schools yes and we'll cover what that statute says um and with
087literary merit when we go over the guidelines um for our novel selection thank you so much so for clarity under the legal references that statute will get added is is that what I'm understanding I'm sorry president um Anderson I could not hear you oh I'm apologized under the legal references will it get added to the list of statutes absolutely we take a look at at adding that and and our goal is with this first read for you guys to have exposure to give us feedback on it when we come back in the second read and we come back at the end of July we're also looking at bringing back back our processes so that we can explain them to you more about uh our curriculum adoption and supplementary material adoptions thank you president Anderson just
088a quick question um so it's referencing we've always had a 60-day review period is that correct um for curriculum adoptions okay and it was my understanding we also had a book committee has that not taken place um that was in prior to my being here there was one and I don't know at what point that that did not exist so we are bringing that back to make sure that we have um Community involvement from schools and um the general community of hitle okay cuz to my knowledge we had a committee who reviewed any novels any books who they could provide input for anything and then we had a list that those for our schools and our teachers that these have been reviewed and approved that they may use them um if it was not on
089that list they could do a special request that requesting this book so just kind of getting the vibe is that not what's been happening um president Anderson and member Reese we will really go into this on July 23rd um but we do have that list that teachers are utilizing of approved books um or approved novels for secondary teachers and we have it all detailed out as to how teachers would select those books um and even put forward a request for how they can add novels to that list going forward President Andrew Miss Davis um will you guys discuss at the next me um meeting how that committee is put together okay thank you yes um regarding the textbook or the supplemental reading materials there was concern regarding the um permissions slip not is it permission
090am I saying that right is there permission slip yeah permission slip parent notification um how it was worded of the information provided um is I don't know if this would be the right policy is that something that's going to be standard um the language on it is it going to be revamped um what's given out to parents is it going to stay the same and if and would that something if it's going to be standard is that something we can make an exhibit to this policy so the goal is yes when we come back on the um the next meeting in July that we yes we have that and be able to share that with you about all of the different things not only the selection process and what that's going through to make sure
091that things are on the list and approved appropriately um through a committee process but then what do the communication going forward uh in terms of to parents as well okay thank you president Anderson is this policy coming back to us at the next meeting for approval yes okay cuz it seems like I mean it's hard to sit here and read a policy and then what we're hearing and seeing and things like that it seems like having that information um might help so I don't know if that's the first time we're hearing this I'm just throwing it out there I don't know that I would recommend unless there's a a time uh crunch on it that it be put for maybe a second read but not necessarily an approval if we're getting a whole lot more
092information that goes with these policies so just throwing it out there because it sounds like we're going to have a lot more information so yeah I I will consult with superintendent Richards on that any other questions or comments um I was just going to say um that if we could have a another um informational item to be able to fully go um through the additional information that's going to be shared with us next meeting instead of having it a second read but have it actually be another um informational item so that we have the opportunity to see everything um on one um policy thank you thank you okay let's move on to our action item for 10.1 uh I move to approve the adoption of the fiscal year 2024 2025 proposed expenditure budget are there
093any sorry any questions or comments anything we want to do before just a second okay all those in favor I I motion carries four to zero all right 10.2 the mill price increase for fiscal year 2025 um I move to approve the meal price increases for fiscal year 2025 president Anderson if I may members of the board I just um I specifically pushed this to action so I can just give you a little contacts but uh these meal prices increases um the meal prices are are strictly regulated by ad the Arizone Department of Education their nutrition service department um we are 60 cents below where we are required to be but um they only require us to minimally increase by 10 cents which is um we are um recommending the increase to 15 cents to
094try to um not catch up but really um kind of get and meet the meet between the differences between what um we are paying for food and what we are charging so um if we continue to be you well below the average we're going to potentially get to a point where we'll be subsidizing our food service program with operational dollars it won't be self- sustaining so that is why we're recommending increase slightly above what we're mandated to increase so thank you for explaining that and we had Anna second the motion all those in favor I motion carries four to zero idon point three the approval of the instructional time model I motion to approve the instructional time model second all those in favor I I I motion carries four to zero 10.4 yes um I
095just want to clarify um president Anderson um Mr birkshire um will there be additional changes to this model or is this pretty much set so by approving the instructional time model you you've deputized me to go to ad and they have a form on their website that we fill out and basically the information in that form is what was in the PowerPoint Slide the details of how we will Implement and and that contract and all of that that's not something that ad really want that they don't ask for that um so all we do is we submit here are the modes of instruction and here's how we're going to track attendance and we uh say that we had our two uh public hearings and I hit submit and at that point in time um we've
096adop we've given them that we have a new instructional model um it's very vague as to how ad then that they don't really monitor it it's on us to monitor our itm at that point in time they just need to know that we have one thank you good question all right moving on to 10.4 the 2024 2025 governing board initiatives a motion to approve the 2024 2025 governing board of initiatives second all those in favor I motion carries 4 to zero 10.5 approval of the 2024 2025 school calendar removing late starts at the high schools I motion to approve this calendar with the removal of late starts at the high schools and a second all those in favor I I motion carries 4 to zero 10.6 approval of school calendars for 25 26 26 27
09727 28 school years without reading that again I motion to approve second all those in favor I I I I motion carries four to zero we are on 10.7 the approval of theou between the Higgly Unified school district and the Higley Education Association president Anderson yes I have some questions um I guess maybe just some clarifications we had on our questions and answers I think what came out would confused me more than reading so um I'm just trying to get clarification on the 30 minute uninterrupted or un non-duty time uh for lunches is that um how is that going to be handled from is it sight to site is it how are we going to handle that board member ree um through the negotiation process with uh the haa the lunchtime is um going to
098be handled by the site but if the employee is not given the lunchtime because there is some other some specific reason um that they could not get a lunch then they would be um granted that time to leave early after the students have left for the day okay so I guess my clarification is that it is in the case that we are unable to provide it not in the case of somebody choosing not to take it that is correct so we we should not be having people choose not to take time we're giving and say no I I'm just going to work it I'm going to just work through it I'm going to work in my classroom so then I can leave early because we do have contract time yes that is correct and this
099is not an option for employees to take it or not for the teachers um um it is if they are not able to take it that specific day then they are allowed to leave after the students leave okay it's not I go early I leave early that that's where I want to seek clarification because I don't want it to be interpreted as well if I just don't take a 30 minute if I choose not to if I just choose to work in my classroom and work through that that then I can leave at the the end of the instructional day versus if we're providing that time for them that it's not I choose not to take it right correct you are correct okay the site the site administrator will oversee that process but every teacher
100should be allowed the 30 minute lunch period if for some unforeseen circumstance they are not able to do that this is not I opt in or out this is you are given a lunch period if you do not get it because of something unforeseen then you know that would be an option for them to leave after the students have left okay thank you I just on that day president correct to clarify too this is already been in practice part of our conversation was to just formalize this and get it in writing so it's consistent across our district okay um and one example of somebody who may not be able to take a lunch as if we had a sped teacher who maybe the Paro didn't who called out that day sure that that SP needs
101supervision on the playground or whether it be a lunch and so that that SP teacher may not take a lunch that day um that is one example okay well now that we're seeing it in writing because I have heard concerns from site to site that we have some side agreements I guess if you will that perhaps us an administrator is saying you don't need to to do this that you can leave every day at the end of when students leave that they don't have to stay their contracted time and those are are kind of site agreements which um I think we need to be very careful of that as we've known we've experienced some concerns happening when some side Agreements are made and so um seeing this and hearing from other people about some of
102these side agreements which I will have a separate conversation with you um that I didn't want this in this writing now that it's out there to give permission if you will that we just do this so that's why I was clarifying that this is not an it's not a choice thing this is if we if we're unable to fulfill Our obligation then this is what happens for that day is where I was clarifying it's not I'm going to choose not to take this because I want to leave um or I'm going to choose not so anyway be with it being in writing that's why I wanted to make sure so thank you thank you for clarifying is there are there any other questions or feedback or comments president Anderson um I asked last year and
103I didn't get a response um as to the percentage of staff that we have that are members of haa um I think it's important um that we have that information when we are voting on such an agreement is it 15% 25% 50% if it's only 15% um why does haa get to speak for the other 85% of teachers there must be a reason why 85% of um of teachers choose not to be a part of haa um whether it's membership dues um whether it's due to their views um political views whether whatever it is um ha Should um not be able to speak on the other 85% um and before anyone claims um that I don't support teachers um which is absolutely not the case um um I think that um I don't believe that
104we need anou um for the haa to perform its duties that they get dues for um in order to do um AA is already responsible for advocating for and supporting its members without requiring an additional agreement their ability to fulfill these roles should not depend on anou um the proposed suggest a meet and comfort um process to address these issues collabor collabora oh geez I can't thank you um collaboratively um however um the means for collaboration um and negotiation should naturally exist within the ha's fra framework and its interactions with the school district teachers and staff are um are already paying dues for the these very um purposes and anou does not enhance the representation do I agree um with some of the demands um do I disagree with some of the demands no but
105I believe that the things outlined in theou should be discussed directly with these teachers to understand their needs and determine how the administration can support them in performing their duties and making their life easier um when it comes to their roles here um I also believe that a a pay for performance compensation should absolutely be a factor when determining disciplinary actions you don't incentiv incentivize someone when they violate District policy state laws or cross a line that should never be crossed and the fact that um theou uh protects that um I find to be a bit ridiculous um but anyway that's all I have President Anderson uh board member Van Hook one thing that I wish to express um just because I don't know if you're aware of it um having obviously worked in multiple
106states with that uh the benefit for the haa is I don't even have to be a member of the haa and yet I still can have access to those types of things so for example should I be a teacher that I feel like I have a legal matter even though I'm not a paying dues member I still have access to legal representation via the haa something else that happens frequently on sites every site has an haa rep sometimes multiple depending on the site um and often one of the things that they do uh is they create Avenues and opportunities for us the teachers who are nonmembers and teachers who are members to be able to discuss and express things that we have issues with or concerns so even though our representation percentage might not be
107you know at some arbitrary percentage that makes this beneficial the point is 100% of our staff actually have the opportunity to be represented with respect to your issues and how those things go you just may not be a a paying dues member um a lot of times teachers aren't in this state because we are a right to work state so our unions function a little bit differently but also with respect to salary I mean it's a significant chunk to be a member of it so I know a lot of teachers essentially utilize their site reps even though they aren't paying dues um because again we all get the benefit of whatever they advocate for or however that process is um something else that I can see objectively having worked here uh you know and been
108a part of the district for over a decade now uh being a teacher who worked when the AA didn't necessarily have this Cooperative relationship ship with District uh things were a lot harder um and a lot of times our concerns and our issues never really get to feel as if they've been met one of the things that I can see having this relationship is a lot of times some of the decisions that we've made which have negatively impacted teachers with respect to our teacher raise that we have done in that teachers collectively agreed to a smaller percentage uh our blackout dates calendar which I still obviously have issues with um there are a lot of things that have happened that ultimately I feel have been very beneficial for staff across the board with respect to
109this working relationship and we had public comment tonight discussing essentially teacher retention and a lot of that comes down to the benefits and the things that we do with that relationship so I understand your your views with respect to them as a union in general and I I understand that but I do think it is beneficial to at least list out and see the gains that this Cooper relationship has directly done for the the staff here in our district so as a former staff member and somebody who obviously has to make decisions that Impact Staff I am appreciative of the fact that we seem to have a very Cooperative relationship and even though teachers may get some of the hardship with some of the decisions it's nice to know that they are backing that decision
110because it makes it easier for us going forward president Anderson um board member Wade um I've spoken to um several teachers um within our district and other districts um and you know knowing that they have uh you know for instance Mesa you know mea um and I've heard often that when let's say a teacher feels like they're being retaliated against and they're not a member of it of the Union um and all of a sudden they feel like they need assistance um and they go to to rep at their site um they're told sorry we can't help you um it's too late because you're not a member and we can't provide that legal service um I've heard that often um another concern I have um is uh many teachers feel like um because of where
111haa members stand politically um they don't feel supported um and they see I I see it myself um you know haa members uh they're you know they endorse certain candidates over the others and it it creates this um issue with teachers that don't align with the political beliefs of H members um and it creates this negative feeling between them and they feel like well I can't go to them because they won't support how I feel and my beliefs um and so that's a big problem and if they truly supported all teachers um all students all parents um then um I I don't even remember when the last time a they um endorsed a candidate that was in support of parental rights um and I've seen it often and it's really disappointing um and if they're
112truly going to support all teachers then maybe they really need to um pay attention to their nonpartisanship that's all to be clear board member Van Hook that I understand where you're coming from with respect to the candidates that they may endorse one way or the other that is not pertinent necessarily to this specific agreement this agreement are for the things that are happening with respect to our district contract hours the idea that I'm legally obligated to get a lunch and to ensure ways that my legal uh contract is supposed to give me that's what this is here specific so I I I think it's fair to say that there might be things that politically you don't agree with with some of the stuff but that's not what this action item is for uh president Anderson
113board member um Wade uh my point to that is the fact that how it makes other teachers feel that they don't feel represented um not necessarily it's not I'm not talking about my feelings about the situation is when teachers see certain individuals and and how who they support and how they behave it makes them feel unsupported so when we have haa members negotiating things on behalf of let's say 85% that are not members but those members aren't members for a reason um and those are some of the reasons why they might not partake so um I mean I I don't want to create this as a debate but those were just some of my um statements I have a a few questions can we get that percentage the number of staff that are members is
114that something we can get in status I can get that from AA yes okay that' be great uh my next question is the fees man I'm starting my 10th year teaching in I I'm embarrassed to ask I don't know a lot about um the haa or or the groups in other school districts but the fees that the teachers teachers pay a fee to join correct I I would imagine they do okay it's out of each paycheck that you pay or maybe once a month I don't remember what option I selected um but you pay you you decide whether or not you join um and then you have a a crew fee so every paycheck essentially you're paying and then what does that money go to does that go [Music] into is it even a part
115of the districts no president Anderson AA is not an entity of the district and so what that's why the mou's in play because we Higgly unified is um wants a memor of understanding with HDA HDA is its own entity and so a lot of reason why we don't have those numbers um that that is not our that is not our entity to to pull those numbers or pull the membership numbers or to but we employ one I mean meaning we pay the we U miss one of the teachers who's the the lead gets money from the district correct yeah so I don't know um I'm just saying I mean I understand there now that they're s entity but then they also get money from us to be that do that work or whatever Sten to
116be the liaison for the district yes okay it's the extra time she's giving to meeting with the district to ensure that the district is sure but it's a separate entity I didn't I don't understand why it doesn't come from the fees if it's a separate entity I'm just trying to understand the the flow of money here I can um when we discussed this last year um what was brought up uh essentially is the reason that that fee was there was because this directly benefited the district and that's why we were choosing to do this because to have that working relationship and the things again like the calendar decision that comes in and that type of stuff having that relationship made it easier prior to us having that when we didn't um a lot of the
117concerns that individuals have and that you know District doesn't feel or or hear what the ha is about those types of things it created a better working relationship between the two and because her fees or the things that happen with the ha they have ha obligations that are outside of this they do things outside of of what is specific to the district amongst their haa this was for working with the district directly that's to Mr Tyler's Point Mr Moore president Anderson so so last year the district had paid $4,000 so approximately $4,000 for at least the last few years the district has paid to the haa president to attend events and I argued the fact that um as the G reps they're already getting dues to attend those events we shouldn't be using taxpayer money
118to pay them to attend events to act as a union representative when they're already getting dues um and so obviously that that continuously happens we're we're using taxpayer dollars to pay union members to attend events that they're getting dues to attend in order to support their members um and so that is also my frustration that we continue to do that um and yes I feel like obviously they're very involved the haa members are actual teachers um and um the fact that we do have this involvement with them um when I ask what percentage of our teachers are members of haa um I find it weird to be told that well ha is a different organization so we can't give you that and then be asked to vote on an agreement with haa without knowing how
119many of our teachers are members I think that information should be made available to us so that we can understand that relationship that we truly do have with haa um so I I understand what you're trying to where you're trying to get here um and that's my frustration president Anderson vice president can I just make one clarification on the stien that stien is to compensate a teacher and it just our practice has been it's been the hga president for additional duties additional obligations that districts asking that individual to be at so events um different uh Higley um outside of their their normal contract hours um the practice has been that that in goes to the ha president it does not have to do with haa uh responsib she's not out there advocating we've asked the
120practice has been that the ha president is the advocate the teacher advocate for Higgly unified and that's what that snip in comping sending her for to go to events outside of her normal contract hours so I just want to clarify for example the new teacher hire they will be at that um that is something that happens always where they talk outside her contract hours yeah um president Anderson that's right and she did attend the new teacher orientation last year and what did she do she promoted haa and then when you scan that QR code that was on that screen where did it take you to Nea um and so she's there to promote AA to promote new teachers to sign up for AA um and so again I I still that should not be the
121district's respons ability to pay her to come there to try to recruit more members for haa that's the ha's role and if she gets more members that sign up because of her coming to the new teacher orientation and promoting haa and they sign up well guess what it benefits the haa not the district financially um so I mean we can you know say it however we say it you know she it's not haa duties it's extra duties ultimately when she attends events she's promoting haa and she's she's trying to recruit more teachers to sign up for haa so it is haa role it's it is hga duties again I think it is important to keep in mind that there are other benefits that the district gets Beyond finances to ensure that staff is in a
122situation in which there are direct things that Impact Staff the policies we make the decisions that and how they're enforced at an admin level regardless if you are a member or not of the haa all staff benefit from the fact that we are contractually making sure that we are legally given the things that are part of contract the 30 minute time for example and those types of things uh as somebody who has seen it both before and after I I think it is incredibly important to keep in mind how that working relationship has led to some of our policies that again might negatively impact teachers with respect to time or the expectations that they have put on them but when they have the opportunity to do it through representation that and and get feedback because
123that is stuff the haa does they get feedback from both members and non-members before they go in and make these decisions and how they present to it that is a direct benefit to us here at Higley AC across the board because you have staff buy in for what is happening in these decisions that is not the political aspect that haa does I'm talking about the calendar we're talking about the salary increase those types of things that is the stuff that we directly benefit from with respect to this relationship and from a a board member perspective I am very much grateful that knowing the policies I'm putting forth are policies that are put forth with not only District in mind not only parents in mind but also staff because if our staff aren't behind it they
124leave and that matters especially as education is is bleeding uh teachers president Anderson um benefit to the district as far as salary recommendations um when we approved our salary increases I I was trying to be able to ensure that the salaries that we were going to give our staff was going to be sustainable um and I didn't see the recommendation that was brought to us by haa as a benefit because after approving that then we're told that if we don't get this Bond and override passed that we're going to have have to make 15% Cuts well how was that salary sustainable and at the same time be told we're going to have to make Cuts if the override does not pass if this is truly a benefit to the district then we really have to
125consider long-term impacts of these salaries that are being recommended by haa how is this going to impact our community when their taxes are increased in order for them to be able to help our teachers in the long run so that their salaries aren't cut those are the considerations that need to be considered when making such decisions and I mean this this lie that's going around that oh Anna does not support our our teachers and it doesn't want to give their you know our teachers a raise that is not the case I wanted to give our teachers a raise but when we are getting recommendations from haa to increase salaries across the board that's not sustainable so like I said I I do like some of the suggestions but I don't have a union in my
126at my work they ask for our opinions we give them on things that we would like to improve on and you know they survey employees and make make those adjust adjustments to help employees why can't we as a district be able to have that and be able to work with with our teachers and say what is it that you need how can we how can we work together to make it better without having an agreement with ha I just think that we should be able to do that our admin staff should be able to do that and be able to provide for our teachers and make their lives easier without an agreement that's all I'm saying thank you president Anderson I'm just gonna make a quick point that um just a clarification is that haa
127is not the one bringing forth the recommendations that's meet and confer which is both district and representatives so it's not I just want to clarify it's not like haa coming and saying here's our proposal what what gets presented to us is comes out of meet and confer and that is through um discussion with all levels of of different District admin site admin they have a variety of people on that team so those are our discussions which I just have to say I appreciate it coming that way instead of a back and forth you don't want to get into bargaining or or anything like that they kind of hash it out there and say okay I think we have an agreed proposal if you will that we can take to the board for the district and
128um I hear you about sustainability because that is probably all Mr Moore heard from me for ever when he got on here is how are we planning for the future how are we doing this and I'm thankful because we had a very large unexpected expense that we have to pay back and as a district because of planning and talking about planning and sustainability um and I hear you and I I don't I hope that no one's turning around and saying well we're going to give you a raise and then you're we're going to take it away if we are faced with uh an override that does not pass then multiple decisions will be needing to be made and that will impact everybody and so you need that relationship whether it's haa whether it's meet and
129comfort you you need that because that's where those decisions are going to have to come from and I hear you and as an employer I'm the first one to say I'll survey my my staff on what will make them you know what will help them this and that but I don't I also don't do their job and I have made decisions in changing something adding something taking something away that there is unintended consequences on because I don't do their job every day so when we're making these decisions and we have people who are there um that can help have that conversation then that helps us from minimizing those mistakes so I I I hear you and I I don't I honestly don't know that legally that they would have to provide the amount of members
130uh I hear your understanding saying if we're only if only 10% of our staff is are are members do they deserve a quote unquote seat at the table so as a membership I I hear what you're saying um but I don't know legally they have to provide that information as we've asked for it I don't know legally they have to provide it because it is a a separate organization it would be very nice to have an understanding of of what that population is but um I think the memo of understand standing just again it it outlines the expectations on both sides and and it keeps that agreement on keeps everybody in check if you will and I will say this till the day I'm gone is I would hope anyone member or non-member and teacher
131or not teacher any member of our staff that had issues concerns problems I in my heart of hearts would really hope that they can address their supervisor whether it's a site admin whether it's our maintenance whomever it may be that they would be able to go to that person that they could have that relationship and go to that person and express their concerns and that it can be reasonably worked out from an individual standpoint if we have staff who feels that they can't go and and address their administ rtion and get a personal grievance whatever it may be uh resolved then I certainly would hope that they could come to our district office and express that and get that and I also understand that we sometimes only hear one side of the story and it's
132sometimes it's people's perception and that perception is not always what has really transpired so they feel wronged and it it's their perception and so they feel like they cannot but I in my heart of hearts I would hope that anyone who has a grievance within our district or concern or problem or issue with that's work related could go and so um I don't need a memo of understanding for that for sure and so I I think this helps guide us and helps us kind of keep each other in check but I certain don't need that memo of understanding with anyone for any of our uh s any of our staff to be able to express concerns or needs we have policy for that we have the grievance policies you touched on I still had more
133questions but you touched on one of them no that's a figured it would it would move um can it's the Higley Education Association not teacher so can non-teachers join as well okay perfect thank you and um I've taught in this district and I have had whenever I was having issues I've had the an ha member on site come up and and talked to me and offered to help me out and I've never been a um a member so yes they do work with people who are not members absolutely um regarding um the president and the stien and and going and doing other things is that option open to other teachers that maybe want to take on that task and maybe be would like that opportunity to grow and learn and and and gain that that
134that's part of haa so whoever is the president is really to my understanding and Tyler can elaborate but that's their role yeah president Anders that's just I think our practice is just that one St so I think within ha if they want to elect a different individual to be you know take that role or sensely um you know that would be up to their membership but um as far as our practice it's been um unless they give us a different name the ha president has resumed those roles and responsibilities for coming to those events and um doing those additional duties so okay I can probably follow up with you um what the a president to understand uh better how they kind of delineate some of those tasks or maybe share some of those roles and
135and give different opportunities for uh teachers or individuals a part of that Association okay president Anderson and I know it's slightly off topic and we really need to get back to it but can we somehow work out it's my understanding that that stapen hasn't always been there it's several years but not always um can we figure out from a district standpoint what the expectation is to earn that stapen what are the roles and responsibilities to earn that stapen um if we're if we're going to have a stapen we should have expectations as to what we're paying for just the same as we have stens for all other things but there's an expect there's an expectation there so if we could get that figured out that would be very helpful what what the time requirement is
136for that amount of money what the expectation is um that would that would be helpful and then just again real quick I think due to the memo of understanding and and where we've come as a district with the haa that has been very beneficial to our district in the aspect of covid when teachers when we we decided to come back to school we were one of the first districts to come back in person and members or non-members they looked to the haa what are we doing as as a group a as a um as teachers whether they were part of it or not they looked to the haa for guidance and it was because of our relationship with the haa that we were able to work through and get our teachers back in the classrooms
137after covid and like I said we were one of the first districts back in the classrooms and so that that was very helpful and I know members and non-members that ATA was flooded with concerns questions what's going to happen what about this what about that it gave one Avenue and then those that they were able to filter information so if you had all these teachers who are asking questions in in all these different ways coming to The District in in different aspects we they had one Avenue they didn't have to communicate that way that's how they chose I'm some did come through the district but because of the communication with haa and all of our staff it allowed that communication it allowed them to express the concerns so it it was beneficial to the district
138because I know other districts could not get their teachers back in the classroom so we were very very fortunate that our not every teacher just not every person had the same viewpoint but the majority of our teachers respected the the response and the request of haa that we return to our classrooms and that benefited our district that benefited our students so I think it's because of the relationship we've built if you don't have a good relationship with that Association then people aren't going to care and so it was helpful again everyone had their own opinion there were people who didn't care and they were going to do whatever but they looked for them looked to them for guidance to help and that was helpful to us right and president Anderson um board member Reese and
139to that point they were also responsible for keeping the schools closed and our children masked so that wasn't helpful for all the parents that wanted their kids in schools and unmasked um they were responsible for that too so you might find it beneficial I don't find it beneficial because it impacted a lot of kids and the school closures and the masking now we're seeing the mental health aspect of how negatively these kids were impacted and now we're coming in going we're going to save you with all our social emotional learning and mental health support that we're going to provide because we damaged you for 2 years and or however long the the schools were closed so yes eventually they agreed to open um but they did a lot of damage before they did I can't
140speak to teachers in other places or anything I'm speaking Higley alone Higley returned to school in August before anyone else did um it was not the teachers who required students to wear masks again I'm not going to get into that we had an executive order that was to the school boards that forced us to do so and there was a lot going on so I can't speak to any other place I can't speak to any other District I can't I can tell you what Higley did and Higley was back in school in August I think we had three weeks after we would have normally started so I want to make sure we stay on on point yes okay all right we are on 10.7 and uh nobody's motion correct you motion I did we didn't
141motion Michelle motioned I think I read it you did motion you motion then I motioned and I'll second that okay all those in favor I I I all those oppose nay motion carries 3 to one all right 10.8 the approval of payment procedures um for ratified vouchers and salaries for fiscal year 2025 is there any discussion on this one this is the resolution the resolution as outlined in board policy dke for the execution of warrants between board I thought this was pulled yeah so this is the resolution for the warrants yeah pulled for discussion correct oh pulled for discussion oh I I consent and we I think board member asked to be pulled this action got it sorry I thought you said it was pulled I thought you me you guys pulled it off the
142agenda completely okay um yeah my first concern is the fact that um obviously this is a um it's an exhibit to a policy and the fact that this was on the consent agenda I have concerns with um I think it should be a separate action item on its own which is one of the reasons why I asked to have this pulled um I'm just going to read my statement um allowing warrants to be executed between meetings um diminishes oversight risking unauthorized and inappropriate expenditures without immediate board scrutiny this increases the chance of errors or fraud going unnoticed until the next meeting when it may be when it may be too late to address then current board meetings ensure transparent and public financial decisions this resolution undermines the transparency eroding public trust in the board's commitment
143to accountability it sets a precedent for bypassing the board in other decisions potenti ially leading to financial instability future boards or other or Administration could misuse this resolution to approve controversial or non-essential expenditures without thorough review given the district's history of financial fraud we should be especially cautious and not allow this instead we should enhance communication and documentation so that the board can quickly convene even virtually for Urgent approvals maintaining full oversight voting no on this resolution preserves rigorous Financial oversight transparency and accountability upholding the board's integrity and public trust any adjustments to Warrant processing should be carefully considered to avoid unintended consequences and ensure we have robust governance thank Mr Moore can you elaborate on how how this works and what it ends up that there's president Anderson members of the board so this
144uh resolution is a annual renewal that we bring forth to the board uh I believe we have 16 board meetings uh next fiscal year um we process warrants or checks uh to our vendors weekly um by not approving this this would greatly inhibit our ability to satisfy obligations to vendors who have um uh provided Services supplies Construction Etc um you know potentially you know risking the district to you know not have these relationships or not have the ability to pay warrants uh we could go into default we could be um uh you know again not an entity that vendors would want to work with because we would have an inability to pay them in a timely manner um so again this is uh unfortunately due to the number of board meetings we have um and
145the time between board meetings um this resolution I think is imperative to continue the operations of the district um not only is it warrant on the expense side but it's also pay War warrants that you approve and ratify um at every board meeting and so um by not having this resolution in place we would not be able to play pay employees on a bi-week bi-weekly basis um and I think that would greatly um disrupt our ability to hire and retain employees uh if we had to modify uh their payroll schedule from bi-weekly to match our governing board agenda so and we see it's not that we don't see them we just may see these expenditures after the fact is this what that's correct saying that correct yeah and at any point in time if the
146board I think as the practice um has an issue with the expenditure or voucher we've typically pulled that to action and discussed that and then provided any uh information that we have on that expenditure explaining you know why we expense that or um I think we've even you know changed our process you not expensing that in the future so um we're happy to have those conversations um after the fact but I think greatly you know not passing this res would greatly inhibit our ability to function on a day-to-day basis president Anderson um Mr Moore here's an example we have a voucher from May 1st that's in this folder for us to sign um some of us signed it last meeting and it came back for um more signatures um now how has that impacted our
147ability to be able to bring it to the next board meeting for signatures yes president Anderson member Vice President Van Hook uh So currently we have a resolution in place for fiscal year 24 um so those vouchers have been paid and expensed that's why you're seeing that that packet at this point in time so that those you are signing those you are ratifying those vouchers um because this resolution's in place now if we didn't have that all of those vouchers that you have in your hand would not be you know uh expensed essentially vendors employees would be waiting for your signature uh to approve um those vouchers and we could not physically expense those unless we have a resolution in place so currently we have a resolution in place which is why you're approving those
148ratifying those vouchers um if we did not have this in place we'd be bringing vouchers to you asking you for approval to cut checks or to expense vouchers to employees so um you can see from May yeah that that's a there's a lot of money on those vouchers that would not be able to be expensed from our um accounts um until the board approved them right so when when vendors bill us um typical 30 60-day that 30 yeah um so what prevents them if they're billing us net 30 what prevents us from waiting until the next board meeting to be able to make that approval because that's that's the board's responsibility so what's happening here is you guys are paying it and then the board so what if the board votes no what if you
149guys have made a payment but the board decides to vote no are we going to go back to the vendor and go give us our money back even though you've provided the service and we've paid you now we want the money back how I mean that puts us into a lawsuit right potentially legal legal issues so why wouldn't we if the if the vendors billing us net 30 net 60 why wouldn't we allow the board to make that decision at the following board meeting when we still have time to be able to approve that is the board's responsibility to be able to approve these expenses and not be told oh we already spent the money we just need your approval I don't see that as as a prop ER way to to be financially responsible
150and and as I said knowing the history of our district it's great we have we have great admin you know everything is great things can change if things change and some somebody we hire a new superintendent there's going to be time to be able to trust that superintendent and ensure that there's you know that they're acting um you know honestly um but in the meantime we need to ensure that we as board members are responsible because it's our job to be responsible for our finances but if if money is being spent and we're having to approve after the fact that takes away our responsibility as a board to make those decisions and if we are being as if we are being built 30 or 6 net 30 or net 60 that should give enough time
151for the board to be able to make those approvals that's all I think those are valid questions is that something can we get a do we get a glance at these before you pay like hey these are the things that will be pending or things that we'll be paying in advance you know pending approval I mean but then I guess it could open another can of worms for I guess the disagreeing with them thinking out loud um right now we've been doing this for how many years this is a standard practice um I'm not aware of any District that does not ratify vouter I think part you I don't know how involved the board wants to be but part I think the Board responsibility is to hire individuals to make um decisions based on uh
152approved board policies and and strategic plan and so I think part of my responsibility right is to review expenditures as well and making sure they're in line with the district's goals and and initiatives and so um I I feel like you know I have all day you know my my responsibility and my you know role in the district is to to kind of do that and so um again that's why the ratification comes uh before for the board because I think there's procedures and systems in place to uh ensure that expenses align with what uh the board's goals are and the districts ini ISS are so president Anderson and I I hear what you're saying I but I think that it's unfortunately greater than that um it's not just a vendor who's building us billing
153us net 30 or net 60 we have payroll we have town utility bills we have we have a lot of other bills um that we have to pay that may not fall in line with our board meetings and trying to assume it does payroll trying to get payroll approved prior to that would be very difficult um there are some months we only meet uh once during during the month um but business still goes on um I hear what you're saying what if the board you know were to say no we we don't want to approve that expense well you said that in your example you said they've already provided us a service and now we don't want to pay them then we also have another problem so um how do you accept a service how
154do you have someone do it and then not pay um we do get a look at them there have been plenty of times where I was like hey what is this is this what we need to be doing and I've never they've asked what would you like and we've adapted some stuff now I hear you also about unfortunately some of our our district history there has been Leaps and Bounds made to better protect the district um and quite honestly I given with and during that situation I don't even know that having this not in place would have stopped that because that was creative but um so um I I think I hear what you're saying it's our responsibility the only thing I can potentially suggest which then I think would create a ton of work
155is separate out what couldn't could not be paid by a warrant the expectation of your normal course of utility bills your payroll um our health insurance our while it's once a month it just also depends on how the bills fall too um by the time it's received they've got to handle it process it and then we may not come together and I'm sorry I also heard through a very tumultuous process of trying to go through a superintendent search and the amount of time that we had to meet and the amount of meetings we had to have I heard a lot of expression of inconvenience to board members and and we did spend a lot of time so I can only imagine if we're having to even meet virtually I mean you'd almost have to meet
156virtually once a week to make sure things are paid they're paid on time and then it's by the time you receive it it's got to be all put together for you you've got to have time to review it and we already have concerned about the amount of time we have to review our our board packet so literally you would have to at least meet virtually once a week and like I said I just don't know I I heard a lot of discontent on the amount of time that we had to take to for for that um and I think that we're we're just I think it would cause more harm than good and I I hear you this is our responsibility we are financially responsible and I think that we continue to put measures in
157place that help try and protect the district we put dollar amounts to you know for stop gaps to make sure that that no you can't pay this before it comes to the board you have to have approval before you can even agree to this like it's not even a matter of you can't pay this you can't even agree to it until it comes to the board for our approval um and so I think that that we would be causing more harm than good it is hard for looking at these things after the fact but I also know that with this admin and working with them that if we've expressed a type of payment um we've had lots of questions what I don't want to just see that we paid Amazon this I want the details
158what was this Amazon purchase and they have been gracious and great on providing that and I know that's their responsibility to provide it that takes time so um is it ideal for us to actually review payments and pay it after they're paid no it's not ideal um and we can continue to try and put processes in place that can meet everybody's needs but you it takes Manpower too and you have to have the people to do that um and then you have to have the the commitment of someone who of at least three people who are going to meet every week to approve them after they've had time to review them some are going to be greater than others it just depends on what's on the the payment plan that week so I understand what
159you're saying is our fiscal responsibility um to make sure that we're being responsible and only paying what we believe to be true expenses and if we have issues and we're seeing stuff on there that we're not comfortable with we have had a tremendous response from um this financial team and and our admin team to get us any information and to adapt anything that we're asking them to so um yes it is our responsibility I agree with you I just don't know that there is any good answer that does not cause a complete problem president Anderson board member ree um to be fair the superintendent search was in the morning I mean it was all during times where where you know I was supposed to be at work so that was the inconvenience not the fact
160that if we were to have these meetings you know in the evenings or whatever um such as board meetings that it would be an inconvenience no it would not um so it was just because it was in the mornings and um different hours during the day where I was at work so but if this is District normal course of business don't you think it should be done during their normal course of business and I that's actually not what I was talking about but since you brought it up don't you think that that should be done during their normal course of business if we're having to get together to approve it don't you think it should be during their business day during our board meetings no if it if we're having to come together every week
161to even virtually to approve these things because of time sensitive matters don't you think it should be during their business day not so what do okay so an example of something that we pay out weekly payrolls done every two weeks okay so but not weekly so we wouldn't come together every week but it just depends on when those would fall right so if so payroll obviously the one of the most important things we've got payroll we want people paid so that's bi-weekly um everything else utilities we have at least a month to pay utilities I know that um what other example would be something that would be that could not absolutely wait till the next board meeting I think student field trips um are constantly uh you know I don't know if that field trip
162right is next week sometimes revenue for those trips are collected up until that final week and then we expense a check um we have but we approve field trips during or board meetings student travel student TR that's the approval of student travel for um either out of state or overnight these we're talking about warrant approving the expense check to the vendor providing that travel service so you would not be able to cut that check to the service that's providing the what it would be the hotel um the charter bus airplane ticket we would not be able to cut that check and the students would not be able to travel so how long in advance do we know this information it's Case by case um there's also instances where we have uh Cooperative contracts that authorize
163if we um pay within Net 10 net 15 we get a a percentage discount I mean there's a number of different cases where it's not just a blanket net 30 on all expenses so I would really have to um do some due diligence and understand the true implication but um it's not as I think black and white as as we are making it be so yeah I just I I have a problem with taking away our responsibility and I mean this it's our role like and then we're giving that role away um I just have a problem with that and I I don't I don't know a solution to be honest uh can this can the wording be changed to say you know anything less than net 30 or I don't know can can changes
164be made to that effect um but ultimately it's our responsibility and we need need to take responsibility for it that's what we're here to do um and I mean what if this what if this said policy they're going to approve the policy and then they're just going to come to us afterwards to ratify it like how would you feel then it's a problem it's our responsibility to to approve these things that's all I have sorry president Anderson um I think there's a lot of the structure of how this system works and how this process works that has some feeling of discomfort because of the manner of time legalities or things that we have to do right we can't even set a board meeting without making sure we have 24 hours notice before we post it
165and these types of things right so there are a lot of logistic things that sometimes we're just beholden to the process um and understand that there is concern we have policies in place we have approved vendor lists we have as much as we possibly can in order to ensure that the system continues to function to Mr Moore's point this is how it is done everywhere with respect to education in terms of the practice that we are doing it's a practice that we've been engaging for for the newest members of us the last you know uh year and a half um and I I think it's important to keep in mind that should things happen in which something arises that we are as a board unhappy with what happens then is we set policy moving forward
166and how that happens um we are dealing with humans right at the end of the day we have all of these policies in place and when somebody does something to violate the policy I recognize that it doesn't feel good to be like after the fact we have to go and change it but this is also not my Minority Report we cannot predict the future so we have to do the best we can to essentially assure that the system can function and I think given the the length of time it took to even try to grasp just the ramifications of not following through with this policy I I I don't I don't think we will ever do anything that necessarily would would you know ease your concerns board member Van Hook but I also go the
167the number of things that are negatively impacted by trying to create a a situation beyond the policies and and those types of things I don't think outweigh the benefit of the system that is in place and again our ability to update policy and and make those changes as they are needed we have done above and beyond a good portion of things with respect to making sure that our our vendor list and those types of things we follow through that policy and grateful for how we've changed and updated the policies obviously from past things to ensure that we're compliant um I I just think it's important to kind of keep in mind that that is part of the reason why we have these policies in place and yes it doesn't feel good should they somebody violate
168that policy to have to go back but that's literally kind of the nature of how Society functions in general um and so I mean I I I think it would be far more detrimental to not not go through with what is clearly an age-old practice these would be I think the date on this is some of these were like 612 which was in between the two meetings and these would be open for a board member to stop by or or set a meeting with you just to review prior to the meetings or even show up absolutely for our time is now moving to 6 um to show up just a little earlier and review them and ask questions as necessary I'd be happy to accommodate that any other comments or questions no okay then I
169motion um that the governing board approved the resolution as outlined in the board policy DK policy exhibit I guess DK d e for the execution of warrants between board meetings second all those in favor I I all those oppose I'm going to I'm going to abstain okay motion carries three with one abstention all right that's the last item correct all right future agenda items anything what are we doing the communication the communication protocols protols do we have a sorry I like the work study plan I was just any other suggestions recommendations questions okay I'm sorry all right I motion to adjourn all those in favor I I motion carries for to Zero have a great evening and uh I she said it um first and back to school just want to welcome everybody back to
170school I think this it