001e good evening everyone good evening I'd love to be the [Applause] meeting all right I would like to call this meeting to order thank you Mrs Richards may I have the roll call please yes president Anderson like the record show that all five board members are present this evening wonderful thank you please join me in a moment in silence followed by the Pledge of Allegiance e okay I motion to approve tonight's agenda second oh I heard Anna first all in favor I I I motion carries 5 to zero next on the agenda is the superintendence report with Mrs Richards thank you president Anderson members of the board it's another session or segment of Higley adventures all right you're all invited to the Fine Arts Festival this Saturday April 6th at williamsfield high school from 9
002to noon this is an exciting event and it's free you will get to experience music art dance and creativity showcasing the talents of our students and local artists please come enjoy the live performances admire artwork and of course indulge in the delicious food that will be there for you we hope to see you all there and a special Shout shout out to Mr lenher and his Fine Arts Festival team thank you all right this is an exciting thing today we're so proud to share with you that higgle High's 11th grade student Olivia dorte and her Hy mugs ceramic work was recently showcased at the national C A2 Exhibition at the National Council of education for the ceramic arts in Richmond Virginia because of Olivia's exceptional talent and creativity she was an awarded a prestigious scholarship
003worth $100,000 from the Kansas City Art Institute and also received 2500 to attend end their preol summer program which she'll attend in June and earn three college credits at completion Olivia's accomplishments here highlight the importance of nurturing young talent in the Arts and inspires others to pursue pursue their artistic passions congratulations on this wonderful achievement in Olivia if you're here with you stand [Applause] up all right next We Have Allison Manon she is a Flynn scholar this is amazing more than a thousand Arizona high school seniors applied in the fall for this chance of earning this 2024 Flynn scholarship and a full ride to an Arizona Public University today we are thrilled to announce that Williamsville senior Allison was named a Flynn scholar this is the first time ever in williamsfield high school's history the
00439th class of Flynn Scholars will receive funding for tuition housing meals and of course study abroad a value of more than $130,000 that is an incredible achievement Allison impressed interviewers not only with her academic Excellence but her leadership and her dedication to the community as you can see from her pictures she's been on a path to success from a very early age although she can't be here tonight because she's attending a Flynn scholar reception we want to let her know that we are proud of her achievement and wish her the [Applause] best Mr lenhard can you take this President Anderson members of the board it's with great pleasure that I would like to introduce the dynamic duo of Administrators from sasman Middle School Mr pots and Mr keing to talk about an undefeated Championship we
005had at San Middle [Applause] School you want Mr keing does I feel a lot of pressure to be dynamic now and I'm sorry to let you guys down it's not going to happen awes uh Mr pots and I are not the stars of the show our coaches are and our players are so I'd like to invite them up as we say great things about them coach Flores coach D ladies come on [Applause] up so the sasman basketball program has has been achieving great things over the past few years in the last three years we've played in the championship at the seventh or eighth grade level every single year and so it's been a great great thing that coach Flores and Coach D have been building um what's unique about this group and and that Mr
006Len Heiser mentioned is they did it in an undefeated fashion they won every single game they played so hard every minute and I want to say huge congratulations to our girls and to our coaches let's see that Banner [Applause] all right so coach and I are really excited for the next season and so going on forward and hopefully to get the eighth grade one back and keep the seventh grade one from here on out yeah thank you so much for being here [Applause] e it's either go all right president Anderson members of the board we're ready for points of Pride I would like Christine Hansen and Terry pepper to come forward these are your administrators from chapparel elementary [Applause] school yeah all right can I have the paper uh this okay good good evening everybody
007I'm Christine Hansen proud principal of what we like to call the Shark Tank and it is my pleasure to be here this evening to recognize some very important people from our Shark Tank my name is Terry pepper I'm the assist Chapo we're very excited uh we have some amazing people all over our campus but uh tonight we get to highlight a few of the exceptional ones all right so we're actually going to kick it off with our certified staff member Mrs Wendy Towery stove please come forward oh yeah you got it it's a long walk up here thank you come on over you got to stand up here all right so Mrs stove is currently our our math instructional coach at chil we're very fortunate to have her not all schools have a math coach
008um but Wendy stove is recognized as our Chappel points of Pride certified staff member for her wide range of contributions to both Chappel and Higley unified Wendy is our Title One math instructional coach and you will never meet anyone more passionate about empowering students teachers and educational leadership in their mathematical understanding Wendy has been an integral leader in professional learning collaborating to develop professional learning presentations for chapparel for Higley district and educator groups across the State of Arizona Wendy also serves as a facilitator of our crazy8 and math Think Tank student action teams as well as our achiev goals staff action team she has brought new research-based practices to our school that have re-energized a love for mathematics and a love for learning mathematics with both Educators and our students we truly value you and
009appreciate you Mrs [Applause] stove and do we want to introduce who you who you have here supporting in the back so my shat family is here thank you guys so so much um my sons are both in college so um I'm brok and flying solo tonight and my husband unfortunately had to work but I do appreciate all my lovely colleagues back there who came to cheer me on yeah thank [Applause] you all right and I have the pleasure of recognizing our classified uh points of Pride recipient and it is Miss Miss IET Meyer come on down Miss [Applause] Meyer all right so miss Myers are are being recognized as our points of Pride classified staff member for her invaluable contributions to our campus she serves as a resource parah educator and crossing guard um she
010ensures a safe and supportive environment for all students um on many occasions you'll hear her wishing people good morning over the radio and starting off our days on just a super positive note um her active involvement with her leadership environment action team showcases her commitment to enhancing our community and her collaborative spirit and win-win attitude further distinguishes her as a vital asset to the Shark Tank um she gives her all no matter what um orw she is on campus and she does it with a smile we really truly value and appreciate Miss Meer for everything that she does she's amazing all right Miss Meer who did you bring tonight I brought my husband Randy and my son Sebastian and my Shark family all right next I would like to recognize our student points of Pride
011Miss Rosie Whitmer please come [Applause] forward congratulations all right this young lady I could go on forever but I will stick to the script we are celebrating Rosie Whitmer as our cherel points of Pride student Rosie can always be SE modeling the seven habits and is well known for exhibiting habit 8 find your voice she is a member of our leader and me student Lighthouse team and has impressively recruited business partners while shopping at Costco and incoming kindergarten students at our meet the teacher meet the principal breakfast excuse me her active involvement also extends to providing School tours she quickly built an impressive reputation with coolly early childhood velopment Center where she proudly showcased our Shark Tank initiatives and that is a very sweet story for another time uh Rosie's leadership and effective communication exemplify
012her as an exceptional student and a value valuable contributor to our school community and we are so proud of you Miss Rosie Whitmer congratulations all right Miss Rosie who did you bring this evening I BR my mom my dad and truly my [Applause] sister all right and last but certainly not least um it's my honor to recognize our parent volunteer points of Pride recipient and it's Miss Mindy Beverly come on down Mindy [Applause] um we're honoring her tonight for her just exceptional contributions to our community our school Community um she's a dedicated parent on our campus she actively engages in our PTO um she goes above and beyond facilitating our masterpieces classes uh classes her efforts um have not only enhanced our educational experience but also significantly increased our parent involvement in classrooms um she
013consistently goes the extra mile um crafting handmade cures for our family for our first family dance um offering beautiful face painting at our fall spectacular um and creating an inviting Winter Wonderland holiday shop um her creativity and dedication makes these events extra special and leaves a lasting positive impact on our community thank you so much Miss Beverly and who did and who did you bring tonight okay so tonight I brought my husband Stephen my children Kylie Katie and little Stephen and my mom Dr Terry Bingham and my dad are here too and that's who I brought oh and my Shark [Applause] family and [Applause] all right thank you shark family now president Anderson I think there's some coyotes in the [Applause] house all right Mr Jeff Armstrong you get up there you're fast are like
014a ninja I'm gonna be your assistant oh thank you appreciate that all right good evening president Anderson members of the board cabinet I thank you guys for giving me the mic for the next 45 minutes they told me I have to stick to the script because I don't like talking all right we're going to start off I'm my name is Jeff Armstrong proud principal at Coronado Elementary the coyote nation and at Coronado we have a real strong belief and that core belief of ours is we are one we're one staff one school one community and each individual that is going to be honored tonight embodies that in some way shape or form and I'm super excited I told you for 45 minutes so bring your get your popcorn ready we're going to start off with
015our certified staff member Mrs Jenna Brandenburg got [Applause] it those of you that don't know Jenna she is by far one of the strongest Educators in the state in this District in that any child's parent can ask for Jenna serves as our gate specialist she is not unheard to see her in a classroom assisting students assisting teachers unfortunately we had a teacher that had to resign and for an entire quarter Mrs Brandenburg stepped in as being the teacher and when I was interviewing she told me Armstrong you do not get me out of the classroom until you find the right person to teach these kids I don't want them to lose what I'm giving them we did find the right teacher and she was able to get out but she went back and she started
016doing her job and if you want to talk about an educator who cares deeply not only about kids but as well as growing other other teachers or Educators in a not official leader title position that is Jenna Brandenburg so give her a huge round of [Applause] applause I brought with me my husband my daughter and ing cornado coyotes all right we're going to recognize the class classified staff member and that is Mrs Tammy Overton behind every great administrator is an even better office manager and that is Tammy you want to talk about someone who cares deeply about people for being a person you are witnessing one of the strongest and the best individuals being honored tonight it is Tammy will be there early she will help out Whoever Whenever if it's a family that needs
017assistance she drops what she's doing and she runs straight out to assist it is incredible in fact tonight a parent said said you have to read this and handed me a handwritten note from one of our Coronado parents Tammy embodies the spirit of Coronado Elementary she is warm welcoming enthusiastic and encouraging to all her positive energy which feeds into everyone around her is exactly what we want our children to experience when they walk through the doors of the school she makes every parent and guardian fill a great level of comfort dropping our child our child into Coronado's care each and every every day that is the epitome of what Miss Tammy stands for give her a huge round of [Applause] applause I brought my wonderful husband Don and my son Aiden and bestie and my
018wonderful cornado [Music] family all right we're going to recognize our parent volunteer and that is the amazing Mrs Kristen fno come on down now this is for no one amazing parent I will tell you it is when you walk into the building you will probably see Mrs fno carrying two jugs of milk and some half and half to put into our staff's refrigerator so they have it for their coffee she goes above and beyond Mrs fno is also serves on our PTO and is in charge of Hosting many of our events she is there early she helps us in any way and it's it's amazing to have this kind of PTO but it's the she is the voice to ensure that whatever we do impacts kids and the school as a whole and I'm telling
019you Coronado is lucky to have Mrs fno and her wonderful family she has a very stressful job I will say that what she does that does as a career it's stressful but she still finds time to assist Coronado and higgle unified as a whole in everyday work so we thank you very much Miss fno I brought my husband Bob and my two boys Hudson and Grady who love coronan all right the best for last the reason why schools exist and that is our students and I'm going to recognize Miss Cambria Godfrey come on up Mrs Godfrey is one amazing sixth grader she serves as our our student council's vice president it is seen every day the leadership that this young lady possesses be ready she's she'll be president one day watch she will help out
020any staff student throughout the day when she's not doing that she's reciting lines for our next play and if she's not doing that she's taking her time studying or reading while she's walking through the halls but everyone knows who Miss Godfrey is and everyone knows how much she cares and loves Coronado and the students and the staff that are attending that campus so we are so so proud to have you representing cornado on your future endeavors great job I brought my mom and my [Applause] dad that's it right do you want me to recognize anyone else I can't my time's up okay should [Applause] oh man so fun thank you everyone and congratulations and thank you for your service and dedication students congratulations on um being just great and above and beyond but if you
021would like to go home you this is a great time to get up and go um you're welcome to stay we're just saying if you'd like to go you're welcome to go thank you e president Anders and members of the board we're excited to report some upcoming events Friday April 5th is our higgle High School visit we hope you can join us for that like we mentioned before the Fine Arts Festival is this Saturday at williamsfield high school our board retreat is scheduled for April 17th and it's a work study session here in the boardroom and finally we have our teacher of the year ceremony scheduled for Thursday April 25th at hcpa at 4:30 and I can tell you for sure you have some amazing teachers we got to listen to their stories and their
022lessons and I couldn't be any prouder thank you Miss Richards okay uh next are public comments we value input 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 a speaker card which is 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 AR 38-43 1.01 action taken as a result of public comment will 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 the AUD audience members practice proper public meeting
023decorum refraining from either negative or positive responses including clapping or verbal Outburst 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 part 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 we will hear from Jill Wilson now is it on okay thank you dear governing board and cabinet my name is Jill Wilson I'm currently a parent of williamsfield high school or currently a parent of a williamsfield high school student I've sat in
024this boardroom for 9 years probably I'm looking around Mrs Reese might be the one who has longer time than I do I think correct me if I'm wrong um I've sat here for 9 years watching these meetings I don't say that to be boastful I say it to show how committed I've been and involved in this District today I ask that you start thinking about our professional development mornings that we are doing at our high schools they're 20 minutes long our teachers don't have enough time to do meaningful work in that 20 minutes professional development is not working for our staff students or Administration they need more time for professional development and 20 minutes isn't cutting it I've heard from teachers that it's not long enough to get any real work done and especially when
025students are in and out of their classroom and meeting spaces as a parent I know it's very difficult to decide if today is a late start or early release day and you're trying to figure that out in the morning on Wednesdays uh I am concerned about the parents who are letting their child ride a bus and the liability that is opening our district up for letting students on campus and not being supervised I personally believe in professional development and I want our teachers to have this I just want it to be meaningful and that they're able to get it uninterrupted I ask that you make the switch quickly as possible and for next school year so our students and admin and teachers have time and meaningful time thank you thank you next we'll hear from
026Marty Bender um good evening I'm here to ask the board to help the district avoid what would be a worst case scenario this November that is putting both a bond and an override extension on the ballot in November and having them both fail I want you to reject the the citizens committee recommendation coming and only put an M override on the ballot the avoidance of the worst case scenario here financially is your duty and your duty alone the failure of the finance team in not stressing this worst case scenario enough during the committee meetings led to the recommendation you're going to receive and I'm asking you to execute on one of your main duties that is helping to ensure the financial health of the district let me share with you what I heard as a
027Committee Member and why I voted for an M override extension only first we got a demographic survey and what that survey showed us is that our K through six enrollment has already peaked and has started to decline our Middle School and High School enrollment will Peak within the next few years and subsequently start to decline we also learned that our elementary school usage in six of our nine elementaries is below 70% capacity in two of the six they're at 49 and 55% we have a ton of wasted space in this district and wasted space is the biggest waste of money we also paid $115,000 for a taxpayer survey and what the survey was for was to get the attitude of taxpayers regarding overrides and bonds and here's what we heard they wanted money spent on
028really three main things one is safety of student students and staff two is maintenance of buildings to make sure they're safe to be in and three is retention and pay for teachers to make sure they stay what they didn't want money spent on was Athletics and unnecessary infrastructure space we also heard that the chance of a mess a measures passage goes down if multiple measures are on the ballot finally we heard about the bond spending plan and just like in 2021 and 2022 the plans don't really match what the taxpayers are asking for $12.3 million in the bond plan is for safety security and Technology spending of that about a million will go to security cameras about 11 million will go towards laptops networking and infrastructure $4.3 million of capital Improvement projects of those 1
029and A5 million goes to secure the front offices while 17 million goes for athletics including sand volleyball courts and competition gyms and 22 million goes for infrastructure that we may not even need in the next few years did the team even listen to the taxpayers responses to the survey tonight only you can help ensure that the district avoids truly the worst case scenario the bond fails the override fails and we're left with a bunch of excuses as to why we need to cut programs and staff thank you thank you next we have Mary and P good evening come to you very concerned when the primary Bond holding companies stifle for schools has been historically gone after by the SEC since 2006 the federal secc has taken stifled to court at least four times back in
0302006 stifel was taken to court by the SEC for defrauding the five different school districts in the state of Wisconsin over $200 million if this is the bond company that we are looking at floating the school bond through if this bond gets passed big if then this is of a huge concern on top of that stifel through their Barkley's holding is also involved in the world economic forum and this year stifel's president actually gave one of the speeches to the world economic forum is that really where we want our school district putting their money if that doesn't make it any worse stifel has started a few years ago with a d program since they started their die program every year on record their employee retention has decreased by 2% their own employees are fleeing the
031company over their policies if you doubt these comments you could go to glass store to research their employee confidence you can find the actual SEC lawsuits against them on scc.gov stock law.com um westlaw.com so there's all this evidence another thing to be worried about is our new super and the fact that he wants to do all sorts of buildings but it appears that he is also kind of getting into bed with ADM out of tempy who specializes in school gyms funny our Su new super is very comfortable with that company and we're looking to redo two School gyms my time is up I thank you for your time thank you next will be Valerie Marsh I'm the director of arizonans for safe technology I hope you've had a chance to look at the information on
032the health effects of cell tower radiation which I emailed you yesterday Trisha asked me some very important questions to which I responded however your email system has been down all day and those answers ought to be considered seriously before you make a final decision on whether to approve the cell tower for the past seven years I've been involved in public education on the health effects of pulse modulated microwave radiation this is a type of radiation that comes from wireless devices like cell phones and computers and the cell phone tower you are considering now even though Verizon and other Telos will tell you that this is non ionizing radiation so it's safe I am showing you images right now that will prove otherwise if you look at the top visual you will see um the yellow
033image on the left called control that's a photo of a healthy DNA in the middle photo you can see damage caused by gamma rays ion radiation now that damage that you're looking at is the equivalent of 1,600 chest x-rays but if you look to the right you will see almost identical damage on a DNA from the supposedly non ionizing radiation that is supposedly safe that Verizon will tell you is safe but you can see for yourself that it is not and that damage is from 2 hours of exposure to that radiation from a cell phone the tower will emit radiation 24/7 day in and day out the bottom image called blood has a photo at the top of healthy red blood cells that are round and separated so they can fit through our tiny capillaries
034if you look at the image right below titled carrying exposure you will see that after 45 minutes of exposure those blood cells clumped together in Aggregates Aggregates that cannot move through our capillaries to deliver oxygen if you turn the paper over the top is an image of a healthy blood brain barrier but the middle image shows what happened after 2 hours of exposure to relatively low level of radiation do you see those brown lesions not only were there lesions but 2% of brain cells were damaged there was genetic damage and memory impairment the bottom photo is a closeup of those lesions and if you look you can see actual perforations in the bloodb brain barrier I could talk for hours about the documented health effects including cancer autism cognitive issues learning impairment decreased fertility sleep
035disruption and a host of others a cell tower placed dangerously close to the students and staff you are charged with protecting will also affect all of the Neighbors in your vicinity you will receive $224,000 per year but you will be personally liable for damages from health effects this radiation is proven to cause cancer it costs $45,000 just for the first year of treatment for for childhood leukemia but the cost is so much more than financial if I were you I would not want to look at that cell tower every day and know that I was responsible for allowing it to be placed on my school thank you so much thank you next we have Mindy brocker thank you so much for giving me time to come and speak to you um I missed last week
036because of spring break but or last month but I was able to catch it online after that absolutely demoralizing meeting from last month I wanted to speak up as a parent of public education students the people who sit up here and try to save money on the backs of teacher pay are also the same people who will actively fight to dismantle our public education they call teachers indoctrinator accuse you volter your motives they disrespect respect you and don't trust you teachers while gaslighting you and insisting that teacher pay is their priority but I have to believe from the depths of my soul that these people are in the minority they're a loud minority kind of mean pretty frustrating but they are not the community at large the large large majority of us adore our children's
037teachers we appreciate and respect the time the tears and the love that you give to our children we also recognize that you are perpetually underpaid and underresourced we shouldn't have to make a choice between student supports and teacher pay truly honestly classroom resources are worthless without teachers to utilize those tools and help our students to succeed to succeed but I know talk is cheap rent is expensive so I want to say I want to ask for a couple things I want to beg of other parents to make a difference in somebody's day in a teacher's day I'm a full-time employee I'm a parent of three students I don't have a lot of extra to give but we can all do something pick something do something next please remind our governing board and your neighbors with
038and without children that teacher pay and public school supports are more vital this year than they have ever been please take some time to Wade through conspiracy theories and politicking to know that it's important that we all need to step up when asked and I will remind the board here and in front of me that your words they matter your actions they matter and our teachers absolutely deserve better thank you okay next we have Kathleen Richards good evening governing board and husd team I wanted to take this opportunity to thank everyone involved for putting together the citizens committee that met um over the last three months months especially Tyler and the finance team they put together a lot of really excellent education for a group of individuals who don't see eye to eye on the
039state of funding in Arizona let alone in our school district um they were excellent about providing us the resources that we asked for and frankly in letting our team that had been assembled from the application process uh go through that information and reach our own conclusion without any level of or attempt of influence based on whatever it is that they I'm sure and I know think would be the best way for us to move forward um the committee was not in total agreement in terms of moving forward with both the m and the bond and I will say that I acknowledge that it is going to be a hard cell and that is what we were told from the survey from the company that conducted the survey that education was going to be the primary
040component and what has been lacking in so many of the failed bonds that we have seen both in our district and in surrounding districts but as we learned on the committee at by touring both the oldest campus and some of the newest facilities that are available over at Higley High School which were beautiful by the way you couldn't tell the walls from the windows very fancy uh uh Meanwhile my kids go to the oldest school in the district HTA and we have walls that you can see through not because there's some glorious window but because the buildings are so old they've settled and because the water in certain rooms is not pable because it's got lead in it these are safety issues they're also maintenance issues and that was something that several of the committee
041members brought up that when we talk to our community about what is safety in a school safety in a school is a roof that we are not patching continuously but we are finally taking the funds to repair it is flooring or concrete that we go ahead and fix lighting that we increase on campuses so that families who come to events that happen after dark are not tripping over who knows what it's it's all about understanding all of the different components that go into it and the unfortunate part of funding in Arizona is that some of these basic needs like roofs like floors like concrete like paint and things of that nature come from a bond and an override and we have had opportunities to pass a bond before that have not have not qualified and
042have not met what the voters need and it's our job to educate and to and to make it clear that these are needs for our students these are not luxuries and I I am urging the board to consider all of those factors when you look at that proposal thank you okay moving on to the consent agenda I motion to approve consent agenda items 5.1 through 5.21 second that hey Tiffany second all those in favor I motion carries five to zero and I believe Mr lson Heiser has some comments or introductions to make yes president Anderson members of the board with the approval of the consent agenda you just approved uh for next year uh two new administrative and administrative leaders at williamsfield high school and we have both of them in the audience tonight and
043so first I would like Mrs Shaina lass orenza to stand up if we can give Shaina a big round of applause for the past two years Shaina has been the dean of students at williamsfield high school and now she will be the assistant principal of activities moving into that role we are very happy with the work that Sheena has done there and we know her ability and her aptitude will make her successful in the role of assistant principal second that you uh approved was the approval of Mr John Dolan as the principal of williamsfield for the next next year if you could stand Mr Dolan to those of you who have been in Higley for a while Mr Dolan is no stranger he is currently the principal and he was the founding principal of the
044Higley Virtual Academy prior to that uh Mr Dolan was the principal at sasam men middle school but even before that he was an assistant principal of academics at williamsfield and so this is a full circled moment for Mr Dolan but throughout the process his knowledge of husd his experience as a leader but really his passion to return to williamsfield stood out and we are so excited for Mr Dolan uh to take the Reigns of williamsfield and Lead Blackhawk Nation uh in the future so thank you Mr Dolan [Applause] congratulations thank you and congratulations both of you I've heard um really there's a lot of excitement echoing throughout the district welcome and thank you um Mrs Johnson um is going to give a a benefits presentation for item nope that's that's not right next will be
045Community Education from Dr Lindsay and giving us an update thank you good evening president Anderson and members of the board tonight we have Miss Kim Ohanian our assistant director of Community Education and she's going to provide for you an update on all the amazing things that are happening within Community ad board and cabinet thank you for your continuous support and Leadership to our district I am Kimberly Ohanian Community Education assistant director and this presentation is to update you and the community on the husd Community Education Program offerings including kids club enrichments and our higgle Youth Sports League our students are the heart of our district and Community Education is a true example of how we build connections within our Community to provide opportunities for our students to flourish outside the classroom as you know connections
046is one of our core values and students grow with us through education into our own employees as anchor number two states from our district strategic plan highly effective Personnel the goal is to establish a climate and culture that sustains excellence and retains high quality employees we have our new hires train at a site for 3 to 5 days based off of their position because we need them to be ready and equipped to care for our students our success is due to our staff in all areas of Community Education I'm going to provide a brief a brief overview of each of the component of Community Education and an update of our activities of this year kids club is a before and after school Child Care Program offered at each Elementary School in both Early Childhood Development
047Centers we are open Monday through Friday from 6:30 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. with a break for the regular school day we are licensed by the Arizona Department of Health Services in accordance to our license each employee is required to obtain 18 hours of training a year which we exceed here at Higley each of our locations follows a ratio of one employee to 20 students and a ratio of 1 to 12 for our prek students when school is not in session we also provide kids club camps for our families which includes fall winter and and spr spring break and throughout our summer during these camps we utilize 15 to 20 rooms at our hosting elementary schools each Camp has a different theme and each room has a purpose aligned with the theme these students do not
048repeat activities during the camp our incredible staff puts a lot of work into designing these handon engaging activities related to the themes of the camp so for for example Our Last Summer Camp was hosted at chapparel elementary and the theme was summer at the movies we rolled out the red carpet and we transformed our parent drop off pickup room into a box office students played minute to win a games they reenacted Scooby-Doo they also reenacted scenes from their favorite movies such as I'm still standing from sing and much much more our fall Camp was hosted at Cortina and the theme for this was fun at the farm at this Camp students took a field trip to Mother Nature's Farm in Mesa roosters Cog burs and we even had some on-site animal visitors students participated in
049various science experience experiments made paper bag owls and had some more fun engaging activities our camper celebrated winter around the world at our camp at Bridges Elementary students made passports and traveled on our own Higley Airlines to different countries around the world we made cookies from various countries and we learned some important facts about those countries with some more of our Hands-On activities we also celebrated the holiday season through field trips at the Majestics theater to see elf and the Grinch finally just a couple of weeks ago over at HTA we hosted our spring break Camp the theme for this year was career Quest where students learned about various jobs and career so for example our fourth and fifth grade ERS went to Peter Piper Pizza and we got a behind the scenes Tour on
050how to make their own pizza and what it really is like to run a business on site students practice sewing skills and design their own patent Stitch we owe a big thank you to our Gilbert Fire Department for showing the campers and sharing about their jobs and how the fir Truck Works we got to learn some more important work of our own husd maintenance team and to see what they do to keep our schools operational safe and looking amazing finally our students learned some more important careers at the airport through our field trip to the Mesa Gateway Airport the pre even prepared for this trip with a little bit of their security training each grade attended this field trip for the behind the-scenes tour of what happens to our luggage visiting in a hanger and
051those important safety protocols that actually happened on the tarmac in addition to Kids Club Community Education also offers after school enrichment clubs in courses for Elementary and secondary students these site specific opportunities are led by District employees mostly our teachers who want to extend those educational opportunities outside the regular school day throughout the year our fabulous husd staff provides enrichment courses and camps showcased here are Mrs Leatherby's Mandarin Thrive class over the summer exploring the Wall of China through 3D virtual Quest and her Mandarin summer fund students Mrs paa over at Power Ranch provides a creative Club she also leads a slime club for the students after school as well also highlighted on this slide is Miss Schmidt from cornado elementary and her wooo Club performing at the husd Chinese New Year our higgle Youth
052Sports league is a Recreational Sports League that offers basketball soccer volleyball flag football baseball and cheer our focus of hysl includes player develop ment skill building teamwork and fun Power Ranch Elementary is our current site that hosts hysl on Saturdays we also have Monday evening basketball our cheer season for K through six practices from October to march with a showcase to wrap up the season hysl coaches include District staff and many amazing parent volunteers to whom we are incredibly grateful so we're always looking for coaches so let me put a little plug in to our community we do need you so reach out if you are interested in coaching sports for next year for hysl as I mentioned hysl Al also offer also offers an inclusive chair program at each of our elementary schools from
053K through six we had our largest turnout this season with 416 cheerleaders our showcase was hosted at the end of the year at Higley High School on February 28th in addition to our cheer leaders and their families our awesome coaches we wanted to recognize the higgle High varsity cheer team the JV palm and our Higley instrumental Association for participating in this event speaking of a good turnout as you can see our registration in community ed education program has increased over the last three years the mission of husd Community Education is to provide quality affordable academic recreational and enrichment programs to all and we challenge to inspire all me members of our growing and diverse Community we continue to work hard into to achieve that mission we also had some fun organizing our own little District
054employee in chural League which supports a healthy Higley initiative so far we have hosted softball volleyball and we're getting ready to kick off our husd Olympics this quarter we've got ideas to bring some employee yoga and Hiking soon so stay tuned to learn more as we continue to expand those opportunities for our employees Community Education believes investing back into our schools we have act we have actively pursued grants to help fund some major projects over the last year $600,000 of grant money was utilized to upgrade playgrounds at various elementary schools shown here are the upgrades of the rubberized chips on Coronado's playground the obstacle course that we helped fund at chapparel repairs to a climbing structure at Bridges Elementary and swings interactive panels rubberized mulch to the Kinder and the first through six play areas
055at Cortina as we speak the HTA kinderg ground playground is getting a much needed makeover as well so finally I want to highlight our staff since 2021 we have also grown from 74 employees to 160 many of these employees include husd student workers from Higley High and williamsfield we provide a learning experience for these students as they imply interview and on board within Community Education for many this is their first job so we want to help them learn grow and be their very best for our husd students and families that we serve I invited two of them to briefly highlight their experiences so at this time I'd like to introduce to our kids club and hysl staff Mr Jared and Mr [Applause] Rigden good evening my name is Jared Gunnell and I've been working here
056since October 2021 I started out just doing kids club and at the beginning of this school year I started coaching for hysl sports leagues um I love kids club but coaching really is the most rewarding part of the what I do seeing these kids over come little stuff like shooting a basketball from a certain spot or seeing them progress through the season learning different ways to improve themselves and build up their teammates while being a good sport the whole way our program has brought students together who otherwise wouldn't have got an opportunity to meet each other become friends and uh one of the most touching things I've seen being a part of community ed was a student who really struggled um with his confidence in shooting the ball um one of our most recent games
057he it was the first possession of the game he just pulled up from the three-point line drained it over like the biggest Defender it was it was awesome um it was really great to see how how his demeanor changed and and how his teammates like rallied behind him and and uh it's really inspiring to see uh this job has open my eyes to education in general and has inspired me to further myself and pursue teaching um thank you for the opportunity to speak about my experience this evening and being a part of Community Ed hi my name is ricken Owens I'm 18 and I'm a senior at hickley uh on June 17th of this year it'll be my official second year working for kids club uh in these two years I have hands down transitioned
058into a way better person uh I walked into this District terrified uh not even able to hold myself up uh and I just not even knowing how to talk to an adult uh this job has forced me to embrace the things I never wanted to do like public speaking uh major leadership roles and relationship building with kids club being my only ever job I've ever had I've had so much work experience here over our summer at the movies uh Camp my job was to be an usher I greeted families uh helped kids get to where they needed to be with the fun themes of Camp we've also had themed job titles to match it during fall camp we had fun at the farm I was a farmand and held set up in the morning field
059trip organizing and just anything that was needed this job has taught me many things going into real life besides those very real resume building things I have also learned valuable lessons whether that is how to hold an adult conversation CPR teamwork and lastly to understand how important jobs with kids truly are this job has truly shown me that we workers make a difference in these kids' lives sometimes we are only their we're their only examples and that is truly terrifying but while that is terrifying it's also amazing to know that I have a purpose and create an impact lastly I want to say thanks to Kim and bell for creating a program that not only allows these kids to have fun and learn but that allow for workers to flourish and learn thank you and
060we also have a little guest speaker from chaperel come on up Miss Ken would like to share some words as well thank you hi my name is Ken banon and I'm in second grade at chaperel elementary I've been in kids club since kindergarten it is a fun way to make new friends learn new things and go on fun field trips during Camp all the teachers are so nice all the kids are learning while having fun I've even learned how to sew and crochet I brought a few examples of some projects I've did during camp and school first this is my I learned how to sew and crochet a button and uh do a cross stitch with that and I also brought one that I did from school which was um a rainbow coming out of
061a pot for St Patrick's Day that I finished at home because I didn't have enough time at kids club and my teachers are Miss Martha and Miss Debbie who taught me how to sew Miss NAA Mr Jared M Lisa Miss syia Miss Maddie Miss Cheyenne who just had her baby they all make kids club great I have known Miss Bon's kindergarten and she makes everything about kids club amazing and fun kids club helps me have fun till my mom gets off of work thank you so much for letting me share What I Love About Kids [Applause] Club so as we look forward to summer in the 2024 and 2025 school year we wanted to remind our community that summer C camp registration is open our theme for this summer is cruising through the decades and
062that includes a celebration of American pop culture we want to share that kids club rates and fees will remain the same for the 2024 2025 school year and that being said as a part of our ongoing commitment to providing high quality programming we will be researching some rates at our neighboring districts in May propose a rate increase to the board for 2025 2026 school year so I'd like to close by thanking our community for your continued support in a role that Community Education plays in our district and I happy to answer any questions if you have some thank [Applause] you phenomenal work thank you for sharing all that with us um Jared and Rigden the is correct well done and and welcome to working through your fears and working with kids you grew up a
063lot I do want to say you are appreciated more than you could probably ever know because just as you have the butterflies in your stomach each day probably at least at the beginning so do the parents um my kiddos went be before school or after school and in the summer um it's a life-changing experience and you guys and all that you work with really do help these children to feel comfortable being away during the summer and missing their parents and helping the parents to just keep on and know that they're in great hands so thank you thank you everyone thank you okay um moving on to information item 6.2 Mrs Johnson you have information about benefits tonight president president Anderson members of the board um I'd like to invite um both my benefits manager Miss
064Isabelle and um Miss Jennifer Sherman up to the podium they're going to help me with this presentation tonight and I can't top that I just there's no way oh wow what work they're what great work they're doing with our kids this is awesome and our new employees right up and coming so tonight we're going to talk about a benefit update and and this is the schedule of benefits for our employees that they will have choices three different choices and you can see the costs are there as well and the monthly cost in uh is across the board so this year we experienced an average of 6% increase to the employee benefits the district husd will be covering that cost uh for the employee the only group if an employee chooses to stay on the choice
065500 they will see an increase of approximately $593 per month for their own health care so a very minimal cost to our employees this year and there are no increases to the dependent or the uh the dependent coverage for this coming year next I'm clicking I got it got it so we have next is the uh on celery uh the voluntary benefits that people can select or employees can select you will see that there are some increases to both the Delta Dental and the total Dental administrators at a rate of three and 4% respectively the one new thing that we were able to negotiate this year if you look under the metti um this is our uh short-term disability policy in the past an employee had to exhaust all of their General leave before they
066could tap into this benefit even if they had purchased it and everything and paid the premiums now that will no longer happen they are eligible at the time of when the short-term disability kicks in so they will be able to use their General leave to offset um uh their missing work and then also they would get their short-term disability payment as well so that was thanks to kyus this year we negotiated that with them and they went to metti for us and said hey we want this and this is a great change for our employees who choose short-term disability next I am going to let Jennifer talk about this new addition of the nurse Navigator program okay uh kyos had instituted a program called nurse Navigator program um I think it's going on four years
067ago now and have had um incredible experience great opportunity for savings but more importantly also improve improved outcomes for members um some of the areas in which the nurses get involved with the membership include on the page that you see in front of you helping to find in network providers we know um as the industry faces Financial struggles those provider networks are shrinking so our nurses are available to help people find the right doctor at the right time um help with prior authorizations we know sometimes people struggle to get the paperwork and the steps push through the system for those prior offs so the nurses help push that along um post discharge Outreach reach from a hospitalization the nurses oftentimes May reach out to the members to make sure they understand their um treatment plan
068and have access to their um Pharmaceuticals that they need and um all other things to help them get better care coordination is another way that they get involved just general how can we help you manage your Care Mental Health support a year ago we actually realized um and invested in a mental health focused nurse so our team is made up of five nurses today we're looking to hire another nurse one of those nurses does have a mental health focus and she is specific Ally in place today to help members find access to counselors which again we've seen postco has been a struggle for people to find um they help with coordination of EAP again um assistance with mental health support they do claims review and monitoring so oftentimes members will um have say a hospitalization
069and they receive a myriad of bills and statements and they're you know concerned about what do I pay what do I not pay what's my responsib ility we immediately get them in touch with the nurses and often times we find that sometimes there's double billing or something of the sort and we work with the healthcare providers to fix those processes and refund the money to the members um resolution of questions and concerns again there really isn't an option for the nurses to say no they're there to provide a service and to support our membership so very service oriented they're there to help in many ways even going as far as helping people find um access to food banks if they can't afford groceries versus prescription drugs we're going to try and eliminate all of those
070barriers to care and finally prescription support um for anybody that's had a new prescription medication you know sometimes it's challenging to understand why the costs are so high how much do you have to pay before you can pick up your medication those nurses have helped many members apply for prescription assistance funds and the like so they're available for that level of support additionally um within the Navigator program one of the ways that they help with Administration is they are doing claims data review so say for example we'll see high cost claimants and we do meet with Higley on a regular basis and review those claims sometimes we'll see a claim that comes through and it does seem egregious in the amount that it's being built and those nurses are diving in to find out why
071is that cost so high for a procedure when we can see benchmarked it shouldn't be that high of a cost identification of lower cost service options so they are firsts in pulling data out of a claim system and being able to say well it looks like if you go to this place of care you would experience maybe this type of payment option for a service versus going to that type of care one of the biggest resources that we found is helping to move people out of the hospital system when possible for services like labs and x-rays and advanced scans if we can send you to a freestanding facility we know it'll help save money for the member and for the plan monitoring of high cost in RX and Medical Treatments we we talked about that
072already monitoring for claims inconsistencies I kind of stole my own Thunder there and finally worksman workman's comp is another area that we have found a lot of success oftentimes members when they have a workman's comp claim they may not even just talk to the HR people or follow the right processes and they go to their doctor and give their insurance card well we are able to look at those claims and realize that might be a workers's comp injury and reverse those claims out of the health plan budget and push it over to workers comp it should be placed um new this year to chyos we're very excited and we think we're going to have tremendous um support for our membership is a program called Kum Health Kum is something referred to as a center of
073excellence Kum actually works with providers Nationwide whoops to find the best type of provider for certain types of procedures and you can see on that page um the procedures include cardiovascular care major Orthopedic procedures and some Cancer Care but if we do find somebody that qualifies for those types of procedures we're able to connect them with Kum and Kum is able to connect them to centers of excellence or the top quality providers in the area and sometimes not even in the area maybe in another state to receive that care if they if the members choose to work with a car and provider we know that those costs are a bundled charge and they're much less to the Higley Health Plan um their managed costs and the member actually has access to that care if they're
074on a PO plan they pay zero for that care if you think about average cost for a hip replacement a knee replacement or worse cancer treatment um to be able to provide those provide those services at zero cost is really a powerful thing for our membership we're very excited to be able to provide that solution um if a member was on a high deductible health plan because of IRS regulations they will have to meet their portion of the deductible which in this case the IRS requires $1,600 but once they meet that then zero cost for the remainder of that care this is a voluntary program as I mentioned before it's available to anybody that is enrolled in the plan that includes active participants as well as Cobra enroles take a moment to brag a little
075bit because last year Isabelle our benefits manager put together an awesome program to go out and service every employee at the sites one onone and her and her one other person Valerie are going to head out and do it again and so that open enrollment for our district begins April 22nd and through May 10th there it will be a passive enrollment but yet there will still be available to everyone one-on-one support if they need it they can sign up we have a EGU and a guide book that between those two women up there have put together and we'll work with our employees to make a selection over that time frame I'm really excited about um the service that we provide and hoping that our employees will make some great selections for their health care and
076the next one is questions for myself or for our guests president Schultz I'm sorry president Anderson um I just wanted to know if there's any uh risks associated with being self-insured yes ma'am anytime um an employer is building a Health Plan there's risk associated so risk if you're fully insured or self-funded um this is not a one um easy conversation to make those decisions um as we started talking with Higley and the team we did go through a thorough analysis of Financial claims and also provider Network benefits and we're able to determine in making that move that not only were we able to provide a comparable if not better solution and service options but also were able to save the district approximately $1 million in the first year embedded in the self-insurance product if you
077will we have a a solution called stop-loss protection so that just means that any high cost claimants that hit the plan there is a threshold at which those claims go up to a certain level and then the stop-loss or the reinsurance carrier picks up that additional risk so we do feel confident and we do have evidence after the first um year and change with Higley that we have demonstrated that that stoploss has actually been effective and the plan has still been able to save money over that fully insured platform I hope that answers thank you so much yeah no other questions all right thank you very thorough and I appreciate the information that you shared tonight thank you um next we have item 6.3 um well several items that we'll hear from Mr Walker good
078evening president Anderson members of the board um 6.3 first read for EBC emergencies um we're bringing forward a recommendation that miror language from ars1 15- 341 that just includes language that emergency response plans uh includes how to communicate and provide assistance to students with disabilities there any questions or comments any additions okay thank you Mr would you like to take us into 6.4 on the JKD student suspension I'd love to 6.4 and 6.5 um they both have the same statutory requirement update um that's um revised the K4 suspension um stipulation uh that was passed two years ago in legislation it's been since updated um it provides some language that the suspension for students in grades K through four um cannot exceed uh two consecutive days or an aggregate total of 10 days throughout the school
079year um prior to that there was a Prohibition on suspend ion in grades K through 4 um and then students under the age of seven there was a complete prohibition without any circumstances other than a firearm and so the firearm uh expulsion requirement has just been added to this policy um it's already existed elsewhere but it's just been included in uh both JKD and jke so you'll see the same language updated in both policies JKD is student suspension and jke is student expulsion no comments or questions thank you uh do you want to roll through 6.5 as well or do we feel like we covered both without a doubt I'd be happy to do that so 6.6 uh jlh jlh is policy missing students um the title is a bit misleading what that policy in
080regards to is the administrative uh window for School requirements uh it stems from HB 2060 that Chang as a result of ars1 15-8 28 it increases the window of time from 5 days to 10 days to request um records from students coming from a different school or school district and that was borne out of uh the request through legislation to reduce the administrative burden and give more time to process the documentation so again statutory language just mirroring what's in the statute thank you all right item 6.7 review of the fiscal year 2023 classroom SP Report with Mr Moore please good evening president Anderson uh members of the board tonight I'm bringing forth the uh FY 23 classroom spending report uh this is a request from the board to review and so I'm presenting that tonight
081so if we go to the next slide uh very short presentation but I'm actually going to take you to the link but I wanted to provide a little background on on how this report came about and uh why the auditor general does it so annually the auditor general takes our annual Financial report and puts it um and compiles it into a classroom spending report and that's what we'll go through in a second um this was introduced um in statute um and started back in 2001 so this practice has been going on for about 23 years um and so uh again the auditor general is completely independent of the district they take our financials and then U provide an analysis um and this link uh that we're going to go to right now is public link
082that any uh Community member board member or um uh staff can can go to and so uh this is what our uh higly unified classroom spending report looks like again this is based off our fiscal year 2023 annual financial report so that was uh the year encompassing july1 2022 through June 30 2023 and so I have a few highlights I'm not going to go line by line in this report um but a few highlights uh on how we fared across um our peer groups as well as as our district so first and foremost um I think the big uh thing that that comes across right the big piece of the pie is instruction um we uh across the board um have one of the highest levels of uh expenditures in instruction and I do want
083to clarify this is all expenditures this isn't just m or one sort of bucket this is all expenditures um compiled into this report and so when you take all our expenditures um 60.7% of those fall into that instructional category um that is 7.6% above our peer groups and about 10.8% above our lowest member in our peer group uh and you can see how uh we've kind of fared on the bottom there across prior year we've actually increased over La over fiscal year 2022 from 59% to 60.7 moving down the page keep going a little bit farther the auditor general right here the auditor general also analyzes um percentage Point spending by area as well as per student spending by area um each one of these areas kind of uh again resembles all expenditures but um
084you can see from uh year to year um our expenditures in in instruction have increased as well as student support and instructional support and just to remind the board what those categories kind of entail uh instructional support instruction is pretty obvious that's our teachers our classroom supplies um everything that is involved in providing instruction to our to our students instructional support is our Librarians teacher training curriculum development um special education media Specialists and instructional related technology um and you can see that was up over last year um or excuse me to student that's student sport um student support is up over last year I got this wrong student support is up 1.4% that includes counselors speech pathologists nurses social workers and attendance services our instructional support is about level or flat um our Administration is
085down over last year over fy22 excuse me plant operations are down food services slightly down and trans transportation is relatively flat um looking on the right graph you'll see again comparison per student spending by area um pretty much increases across the board um a lot of that is derived from our our budgetary um numbers and our again our total expenditures increasing from fiscal 22 to 23 the one area again I want to point out food services down uh the the main reason that is down is because Co relief funding um in 22 co uh meals were free the federal government issued a a memorandum that had meals be free and so in 23 that expired and so you'll see that expenditures not every student was now eligible for meals so we spent a lot less
086money um in that food service category if we scroll down the page please we'll look at operational efficiency measures um again this graphic um takes our operation categories measures them against um the state average our peer average and then you can see our district average and so um across the board I think we farare very well um amongst our peer averages so Administration um just for example the state average uh per student is $127 um our peer average again that's peer districts who have similar ADM or or student uh size is is $1,116 per student and whereas higgle is under $1,000 and again I've I've I think I've mentioned this to the board but we operate very lean in our Administration and it's resembled in this independent report you'll see student per administrative position uh
087Higley is 81 um 81 uh per student so whereas our peer average is 65 and so it just tells you how many more students our administrators are are basically handling on a case-by casee basis and so that's where you get the spending relative to peer group average on very low um some of the other highlights um kind of again with food service um some of the reasons we track very low uh a lot of this kind of depicts on our our demographics um we are not a high freeing reduced population and so um coincidentally we don't have a lot of those High meal costs because we're not providing a lot of free meals and so um being you know some of this is demographic based and you can kind of um grasp some of that
088information off of this page um when you look against some of our peer districts who have very vastly different demographics um they'll have a lot of high spending in food service and transportation where maybe those families don't have the means to provide or send their student with a a meal from home or the transportation to drop their student off they utilize the school bus uh or the the Food Service meals that the district provides and so that's where you see kind of Transportation Food Service trending very low in our district some of that's demographic based if we scroll down the page keep going right here so we'll look at scroll back up just slightly there we go so this is average teacher salary um this has been an emphasis by the auditor general ever since
089the uh 20 X20 plan and to really track and um highlight some of the efforts that districts are doing across um teacher pay um you'll see our teacher pay our average teacher salary is 66,000 um and they actually break out the exact amount from classroom site fund again that's averaged um across all our teachers so when when you see our amounts on our um salary schedules um you have to take keep in mind when you average that across pro-rated teachers who who work part-time and full-time teachers a lot a lot of times that number will be lower than what is listed on the our salary schedule because it's averaged over a mean of of all our teachers so some of the highlights um I think we're $3,800 above the state average um on a on
090a average teacher pay um just three years ago you'll see a graphing at set we were below the state average so um kud so the govering board and the district for for making uh vast strides and getting to a competitive Point um in terms of teacher pay our average years of teacher experience is 10 years um next year we'll actually um um have a a TI teacher experience index um uh boost on our on our budget very small but we have now kind of creeped up into the area of U meeting um kind of the average or just above the average teacher experience uh amongst districts and so that means we have a a larger experienced teacher staff um and so we're not we're not the young higgle anymore we are we are uh we
091are growing up to some extent um and so it's represent here you'll see our average years of teacher experience 10 years so um they do they did a new comparison this year with um first year teachers within their three years and then teachers four years or later um you I could have told you how that would that would have paired out you know younger teachers generally have less experience um whereas teachers you know four years or greater have more experience which is why their pay is is is slightly different in that sense um if you move down the page this is a graphic here that where I was um alluding to where we were below the state average in 2020 and so if you look at the line um that's that's going across the page
092that's the state average for teacher salary the pink amount is the amount from other funds so for the most part that's M um and the gray amount is the amount from classroom site fund monies um that supports that teacher pay amount so um you can see as of 2021 uh we exceeded that that state um average teacher salary and now we are well above that that Mark um and and regarded as one of the the higher paying districts for teacher pay um amongst not only our peers but um nk12 education Arizona so again um I do want to highlight though that gray amount within that that bar graph um you can see a large majority is coming from that classroom site fund and so that six cent sales tax um does play important role in
093and again um not only supporting the level of teacher pay that we're at now but also increasing it and so um a lot of factors go into that number and and it's it's the illustration I couldn't created a better graph so this is why we're we're looking at the uh AUD jour's website because I think it's Illustrated well here if we scroll down um keep going down the the two years ago um they added um if you scroll up just a little bit so we can just scroll up a little more there we go okay they added a student achievement section um and again I think it's no secret that higgle is an overall um High achieving District um and again it's represented here not only um so you can see our district represented in
094the gold and our peer groups represented in in dark blue and then Statewide represented in light blue and so um you know it's not just me telling you we're High achieving that the data in auditor general is is um showing the the data that that this district is Contin continually achieving above not only state average but our peer groups um and several of the categories such as math English Ela and Science and so um with that I'll be happy to take any questions but again this report is on the audit journal's website it is a public report um and anybody has access to go view it and do a deep dive into the data president Anderson Mr Moore I just want to go back to the portion where it shows the student per teacher and
095that we are averaging about 17 18 students per teacher yeah I mean the footnote there right right below it um that is divided by the total number of certified teachers um and that includes specials Arts music physical Ed um so when you take in a lot of those classes when you go to a high school PE class that you're going to see very high but when you look at some of our specials they Trend below um 20 kids for student so um again it's averages it's hard to depict that as um you know general education you also have special education in there which are are a lot lower than 17 um so just keep that in mind thank you thank you um if we can scroll back up to where you were at the beginning
096talking about the percentage Point change in spending area um when you went over it we were on the fiveyear comparison so I just want to show that we can toggle that to the one-year comparison oh I'm sorry that's okay just look a little different that's all and then again Open Access so anybody can sit there and toggle between the years and and look got it but this um this has changed over the years too it's definitely more detailed and have more data which is so nice to see and then you can look at other districts sneak into theirs and um it's just not limited to everybody there any questions or comments okay thank you Mr Moore um next we're going to move on to information item 6.8 the citizens committee recommendation oh Mr MO is
097back on yes uh good evening president andon members of the board T I'm going do my best to uh present a summary of the citizens committee process um I want to I'll get into it a second but um so again I just want to remind the board about the citizens committee um again it was uh an item brought forward from myself to the board to um kind of change the process and how we've called for elections um in the past and so um there is several community members as as well as um uh individuals in our district um that wanted a more uh involved process and so this was my um recommendation to try to um achieve that result and so again we um brought forth uh this this um notion um all meetings um
098were open to the public information from each meeting and the minutes are all available on our website um or thanks to our PR team been uh doing a great job of keeping that updated as the meetings have uh transpired as well as uh any of the minutes being approved so um if I don't do a good job of summar of this you can go and do a deep dive into each one of those meetings just to highlight the the timeline so again I brought forth this recommendation on November 15th uh the governing board approved that recommendation the district received about 80 applications for this um and as a reminder um each governing board member got to nominate an individual as well as well as the District administration um Pick 10 at large from those um
09980 applicants so um the series of five citizens committee meetings occurred between January and March um there was five meetings um I tried to stick within an hour but there was a lot of questions there was a lot of good questions um there's a lot of information to cover and so I think cumulative we spent about 10 probably 10 to 11 hours and I don't know what individual time each member spent but um between these five meetings tonight I'm presenting um the committee's recommendation um again doing my best to summarize that process um I do want to highlight though tonight's recommend is just to the approval of this on a later agenda item is just to give me direction to bring forth a formal resolution so those who've been through the election process Miss Reese
100understand that the this is not a a resolution to call for an election this is a recommendation from the committee I will still need to bring back a resolution um drafted by an attorney um that officially calls for the election and so that will take place on the May 8th meeting pending um the board's decision tonight so um just want to highlight the citizens committee um I know a few are in the audence and maybe they can stand up um I appreciate you know all their time that they spent um maybe we can give them a round request um I I appreciate all the time they spent in in not only just willingly coming to to learn about this um but but being deeply involved in it um asking a lot of questions um and
101again I feel like the recommendation tonight um is expression of the committee as a whole um I do want to note Jennifer Newton has missed the first meeting and then at the second meeting she did um indicate that she would not want to be involved in the meeting and so the committee voted to just not fill that position so ultimately we went forward with 14 members uh not 15 so all right so let's get a highlight of the committee meeting process so meeting number one um I presented the the same school Finance 101 uh presentation that I've done to the governing board um that present that presentation covered a high level um uh information about school funding formula and how H HC calculates its budget also at the meeting uh we discussed the M override
102history this is a snippet of the of the history um it just represents the snapshot of the last three years but the full timeline is actually on our website um that timeline dates back to 2003 when Higley first passed an M override and at that time that was a 10% override but I do want to highlight so this graph shows currently we are fully funded in through fiscal 25 I've mentioned that in my budget presentations um in 26 and 27 uh there's a phase down while it's a seven-year authorization there's only five years of fully funding and so again if um again pending the board's decision to move forward with an election um and that it passes on a ballot we would proceed into that 26 um phase down period that' be phase one and
103that' be a reduction of 33% of that override and then again pending any uh uh further elections um in 27 that' be a phase two down phase two and that would be 66% reduction and then if we get to 28 with no uh ballot initiative passed to continue this override that would be completely phased down and just for note that was $13.1 Million on our last budget um adopted Budget on meeting number two um we had applied economics uh in and do a updated demographic and enrollment analysis report um again the committee also recommended of High Ground Consulting conduct a registered voter survey uh I'll cover that in uh meeting number four when the survey results um when I actually have the survey of results in here but just to um give some preference on
104the applied economics demographic report uh semiannually the district does a deeper dive into our demographics um by way of third party Dem graphic report so applied economics is one of the the state's best demographers or demographers um and this data in this report represents um what they presented snippit from what they presented to the committee and so looking at the first graph on the screen this shows history back um from 40th Day headcount back to 20201 um on the uh on the blurb to the right you can actually see that enrollment Skyrocket from f th000 students uh in 200201 to nearly 10,000 students in 2010 to 2011 uh that was the period in which Higley went through a hyper growth phase um that represented a compounding annual growth of 30% um even despite the Great
105Recession and so during that phase a lot of our schools our elementaries were built in that time and funded by sfb because of that growth number now uh looking at the current year you can see our growth has kind of leveled off um and we'll jump to the next slide where I've uh looking at the detail by grade and so looking at grades K2 represented in red 35 represented in purple and 68 representing green as well as 912 represent in blue um as I've highlighted to the board of my budget presentations we've seen um at most recent the last couple years a decline in elementary education or education enrollment and that is representing that the red graph as well as the purple graph where you can see over the last couple years ever since Co
106we've seen a steady steady decline in those numbers on the flip side you can see cohorts in grade 68 912 as I've mentioned have seen an increase um and with 912 Contin Contin continuing to see a steady increase ever since uh 2016 2017 now I don't expect you to read this um verbatim but I'm going highlight the bottom kind of cell that I have highlighted there in the in the light blue um this is a deeper dive into the numbers um but I think it provides some context and some important um information to the board so uh the First Column reading left to right so the First Column uh represents our fiscal year pretty self-explanatory there the second column is our total households within the district boundaries so it's 30 1 133 and so you'll
107see that number continually increasing over the course of that timeline um as we've been as our 24 square miles that continues to be built out right we still we continue to see housing developments um but that land is starting to level off like we're starting to see some of those not as much vacant land within our district and so we'll uh anticipate seeing that level off on the third column is the total number of school age students within our boundaries and so that is represented at 23,24 the fifth column represents the percentage of households that have school age population students which is 74% so that means three out of four houses have a school age population student in them on average which is very high that is that is extremely high um looking at our
108enrollment uh column six uh that is our 40th Day head count again 12,920 you take the enrollment number divided by the total number of households and that gives you column s the percentage of households that have Higley students so again that's the percentage of households that have Higley students that's 41.5% column h8 shows the net difference of higgle enrollment versus a total school age population at 10,327 which would be a capture rate of 55.6% however you have to back out column 9 which is the out of District enrollment which represents [Music] 1839 and that determines our true capture rate which we take column 10 the district enrollment of 11,81 divided by the total school age population to get again a true capture rate of 47.7% so we in our 24 square miles out of the
109total eligible uh school age population of students we capture 47% choose Higley um and again that shows really our our competition right we we know that we have Charters across the street we have um Gilbert Christian right we have a lot of competition within 24 square miles and so that's it's um showcased in this in this number right here moving to number committee uh meeting number three um at this meeting we reviewed the current M override uh and the capital needs of the district um the M override was briefly discussed at the committee as I think the majority of the committee understood what it was already supporting um and so there's limited discussion on the override but I did provide the bullet points again as a reminder for the the governing board the majority of
110the time was spent on the capital needs and the proposed projects of the district um these were presented the committee and the complete detail can again be found on our website to summarize the 12.8 million for safety security and Technology Improvement represents a continued investment into security cameras classroom technology including display panels student devices and network infrastructure to support these devices the 25 million in essential maintenance projects represents the ongoing maintenance needs of the district for the next five years the committee reviewed the district's 5-year Capital plan which indicated replacement cost for life cycle items across the district including Roofing flooring weatherization HV in playgrounds on the next slide I'll cover the let me go back on the next slide there's the next slide but I'll cover the 40.3 million campus improvements but on the
111the 5 million allocated for buses the current a average age of our Fleet is 12.4 years um we have 27 buses over 15 years and two over 20 years and so um that number indicates a level that uh about three buses three to four buses per year uh to help us keep up with the Aging Fleet uh of our transportation so like I said the 40.3 million in campus improvements was spread across the two High School District or two high schools uh first looking at Higley High School the campus uh front lobby um does not have a necessary feature to Total secure the lobby which include um restrooms there's no public restroom so if it uh guest is visiting they have to be let into the campus uh whereas all our elementaries and our middle
112schools have restrooms uh where guests do not need to enter our campus to be to use a restroom number two and number three um well I want say the rest of this list um the main theme for the next six items relates to the school outgrowing its original design um higle high was built in 2001 which makes the school 23 years old uh with drastically different enrollment numbers from when the school was originally built and so again these these next six items reflect a lot of The Growing Pains that has occurred um during the course of that time so number two and number three would be relocating the ten courts to make room for additional parking to support not only the student population um but also the htpa as well as various events at the
113the Higley High host number four is addressing the Fieldhouse which was built in 2010 when the rollment was half of what it is now the plan would be to expand the Fieldhouse not replace it um at that time that uh the district Higley High was in a 3A um uh category in terms of AAA Sports which is we are now 6A uh again doubling in size in terms of our participation in athletic sports um creating some safety concerns with the the Fieldhouse and the capacity in which it can house students safely um as well as staff number five is addressing the practice fields um these these high school campuses are used almost 247 um as practice fields are not lit um so by lighting them it would allow for greater use for not only our
114um uh sports teams um but also for rentals um number six again addressing capacity issues would be expanding the bleachers to allow more occupants for events um our bleachers do not cannot even hold the entire capacity of our student body um is Mr field still yeah he is but um he has to multiple sessions when doing um any sort of um districtwide or Stu or schoolwide um student body presentations Etc as well as our games if you've ever been to a football game or any sort of event um those fill up rather quickly number seven is a carryover from the previous bond proposal but again addresses the lack of capacity within the gym facility and it looks to expand that uh gym again was built in 2001 to allow additional op options for the campus
115so again allowing for potential to host a stu a whole entire student body um events um allowing for the potential to host AIA events um we have outgrown that facility on the flip side looking at williamfield you'll see a lot of the same um themes um again our high schools have outgrown um the current um footprint of where they when they're originally built um the first the number one item is moving the transportation facility um you can see on the bottom of the screen Transportation facility takes up a majority of the that williamsfield high school campus um approximately eight Acres the district does have a vacant piece of land um behind Target and which um currently we do have the intention of building a new school um is perfectly uh zoned essentially for industrial um
116and so utilizing that vacant piece of land by moving the the transportation facility will open um Williams Field's campus up for additional options um which include number two U much like we did at Higley High School William fill the Z and capacity and there a need for a classroom addition um so that would be number two number three again Williamsville has the same issues Higgly high in regards to the front lobby um there's no no public restroom in that front lobby so when again guests or parents or anybody visiting that campus um needs to use the restroom they need to be let into the campus which prevent which opens up a safety concern number four includes moving the tennis courts and S volleyball courts to make space for number five which is an additional practice
117field if you look at uh williamsfield versus Higley um Higley has some additional options for practice field space um williamsfield does not that main field gets used 247 that is lit and so by moving those two u 10 scor and St volleyball courts to potentially where the transportation facility was um it does open that campus up to provide additional practice space for the sports that take place um and have to share space currently between football band soccer um Etc so uh gives that campus a little more flexibility and um allows them to bre a little number six again addressing capacity issues is again the bleacher expansion um again these were original bleachers that were built when the school was adopted and so um looking at our enrollment numbers we've greatly um outgrown that original capacity
118and again number seven much like Higley focused on renovating that gym to provide a space um to um allow additional capacity for various events not only their their sports teams now um but also hosting events um and then utilizing um that gym space in a a more effective manner again to host maybe student body um uh pep rallies Etc so that summarized meeting number three meeting number four the committee toured Higley Traditional Academy I want to thank I know she's not here but Miss Bacon uh she provided that to her um along with u Miss day um and gave us a quick tour of Higley Traditional Academy as one of our oldest schools in the district we have some buildings on that facility from the 1980s um in addition High Ground Consulting reviewed the registered
119voter survey results which I'll cover in a second and then the district presented the capital funding calculation showing the deficit in capital funding to maintain the current capital needs this was at request of the committee and so uh you'll see the the capital funding deficit calculation below what this shows is are major maintenance totals um across from fiscal year 25 which would be next year to 29 um this is based on life cycle replacement timelines so for example um within that 8 million there'd be several weatherization and flooring projects because at year 15 that is the general timeline in which you you replace flooring HVAC units are General um chillers are big um chillers and and cooling towers those are on a 20e cycle so those would be we we track that as a district
120and those would be we have a we have a realist or we have a should say realist we have an optimistic time in which we should replace those and then often times um we are kicking that can down the down the street because of budget constraints which is represented in the line number two uh approximately 16% of our capital budget is for maintenance needs and later on the agenda you'll see our capital budget there there's not a lot of Wiggle room um in terms of adding additional budget capacity to that um and so if you take that our annual maintenance capital budget that is provided by the state of 850,000 and we maintain that 16% um you'll see the deficit that we continue to track um year over-ear U by not replacing those items on
121the time in which uh they should be replace based on their useful life um so then we get instances where um for example High we went well beyond its weatherization exterior painting and so you know that that campus looked horrible and so we have flooring that has duct tape on it we have several instances where items are being stretched pel use for life and so um in a perfect world we would be able to replace those at the time in which those expired um but realistically we have been unable to keep up with those needs and um right now we are realizing all those needs at once because of of that hyper growth in 2006 and 2007 so all right jumping into the survey results again I mentioned in meeting to that the committee chose
122to move forward with a a survey of our registered voters um High Ground conducted the survey among amongst 400 likely voters from February 5th through February 12th the margin of error um according to high ground for a survey like this is plus or minus 5% um and so so what in his experience you can take these results uh to the November election and be within Plus or plus or minus 5% and so um I've snipped a few of the survey questions that I felt reflected the the results but again on our website you can find the complete results of the survey um to start off the survey asked some general questions about K12 education in our local community and you can see it represented here um that in general the question was in general would
123you say that your local community is heading in the right direction or wrong direction um generally um 53.8% say that our local communityi is heading in the right direction 33% said totally wrong and then we had 13% that did not know or refus the answer you can see the demographics on the the bottom half of the slide um age demographics also with kids or without kids the survey also asked um some questions regarding K12 education on a national level um and so the question was in general would you say that K12 education new community is heading in the right direction or wrong direction and so you can see how the trend um on the national level is vastly different than our local um question so 37% said um totally right whereas 45.8% said totally wrong
124and so um the theme uh and what I garnered out of this was on the national the national narrative is is is a lot different than what's happening in our local community um amongst our registered voters again this is our registered voters again same demographics on the bottom again kids no kids and so getting into um some of the the tests against ouro override and a potential Bond um The High Ground um utilized one thing I want to point out they utilized the actual language that will have to be in the ballot and so I think that's important to note because um this language is is tough to read um it is not read well if you're not um familiar with school Finance or school overrides um but they did test that exact language that
125the district would have to use in a ballot and so uh the question asked shall the governing board if higly Unified School District adopt a general maintenance and operations budget that means override uh which includes an amount that exceeds the revenue control limits spec specified by Statute by 15% for fcal 25 26 and for six subse additional years um again knowing just what you know now would you vote yes or no on this budget continuation and so again this was considered the pre-test I'll explain the post test in a second but um with that question being asked you can see um across our registered voters and who was surveyed 47.8% said yes 41.2% said no um after the series of questions the survey participants were provided a few additional statements regarding possible reasons someone might
126support the override such as Higley unified as an a-rated and district and excels academically and the budget continuation is not a tax increase in addition the survey partici participants were also provided statements regarding possible reasons someone might not support the override such as schools in our uh country are out of control and deserve don't deserve another Penny of our taxpayer dollars and even discussing that Higley has had its fair share problems and shouldn't renew this funding until the district gets its act together so looking at the post test so again after the survey members were provided that information um and asked the same question again would you support the override um I'm not going to read it for btim but you can see after that information the the uh results fared a lot better in
127in the favor of the district so 61.1% said yes 30.9% said no and so um looking at the net changes of that you can see across all demographics with providing some of the additional context into what this is for um a little bit about Higley um it to the one to the individual surveyed um it had them um change their vote and change their mind into which way they were voting um the one interesting to me is the biggest change it was the 65 plus over 20% so again we did the same thing on the bond and again the bond question was shall hegle Unified District be authorized to issue and sell General obligation bonds of the school district in the form of classb General obligation Bonds in the principal amount not to 75 million
128at the time the committee had not finalized the recommendation so that was the number that was used um but for the purpose of raising monies for school safety renovation and repairs and monitorization other General Capital expenses so again knowing just what you know now would you vote yes or no on the bond looking at those results um surprisingly it fared um above 50% 58.3% said yes whereas 32.7% said no and we had about 9% that said don't know or refuse and again um the uh post test well here I'll show again um this was asked preest um in addition we also asked the survey individuals about several of the items that might be in the bond um and asked um regarding how would you vote on the general obligation Bond and pulled various categories such
129as these again we weren't finalized with the citizens committee recommendation yet so these categories um may not all be reflected in the final proposal but um I think it provides some interesting context for the board um again the scale was one from one to five uh one being not important at all two being not very important three being neutral four being somewhat important five being very important and so um School Safety and Security improvements um as well as hbac and air conditioning and security cameras all fared um extremely high in this um in this poll um you'll see as we make our way down the list um some of the things that did not farewell or were just above mean uh flooring transportation and maintenance facility as well as williamsfield monitorization and energy efficient lighting
130so interesting information um from our surveyed voters um again they were provided a a post test um they were also again provided statements uh that you might might hear as as reasons to support the bond and statements that you might hear as reasons to oppose uh the bond the bond proposal and so you can see this fared drastically different um than the override in terms of pre and post um this actually the post- tested um this fared worse on the post test once they knew once they were asked both of those um statements um supporting the bond and opposing the bond um looking at the the comparison the net changes um across the board prettyy much um well I wouldn't say across the board so interesting under 29 it actually increased um 30 to 39
131it decreased and then 40 49 it increased but then the rest either remained flat or decreased in terms of that post once they receive that information again um whether those statements regarding support or oppose the bond so with that the final question um again was asked if both budget and continuation and bond issues were put on the ballot which of these opinions come close to your closest to your own and so they asked um I would likely vote Yes on both um that was 44.3% I would likely vote only for the budget continuation I would likely vote only for the bond and I would likely vote vote no on both and don't know refuse and so the continuation if you add likely vote Yes on both as well as the vote only for the budget
132continuation you can see has 63 63% support the bond is the total of the likely vot both on yes as well as the 7% and that is at 51.3% um yeah all right the last meeting um we met at Higley High School in the new um building Edition um I know several members got to tour that facility and I think Higgly tradition was fresh on their memory um and so I know um that was a drastic change in facility um uh space but the committee received a presentation from steel reviewing the potential tax implications of the proposed emo override and continuation as well as the bond proposal in addition the committee took a roll call vote at the end of the meeting um and voted to bring a proposal at and present kight to be
133brought forth to the board um a couple of the slides I want to highlight from the steel presentation and include um this this snippet of the graphic below um our statutory bonding capacity continues to increase um that part the main reason is our net full cash full cash assess valuation so our property values um continue to increase and I think it's no it's no secret if you get your your tax bill you'll see your your tax taxable amount on your residential home um is increasing um as well as the market rate is increasing um but it's important to note that um uh assess valuation um net full cast is used for bonding capacity um and then um there's a limited assess valuation which is used for your tax rate but the the main point on
134this um we have approximately um going into next year an estimate them at $328 million in bonding capacity you'll see the recommendation doesn't even come close to that um we have approximately as of 9124 61 million and outstanding Class B Bond debt so that is Bond debt that has been issued that we're still paying down um I'm not going to have you guys read through this slide but this is a example of a debt schedule that would be potentially approved or put into a a voter pamphlet um the main things I want to highlight um are on this next slide which include um some of the estimated tax impact for the current proposed 83.1 million um a residential property um you can see the reflection of the first um the first graph or chart $287,450
135is the is our Gilbert um right now um average uh assessed value residential home so on the on the average um residential homeowner for for Gilbert for this bond proposal it would be an estimated average monthly cost of $761 an estimated average annual cost of $913 um for a estimated um uh total cost over the course of the the 20-year Bond of $2,110 48 that's on the notes to the right um I'm not going to go over commercial residential but they're they're assessed on a different tax basis and you can see their tax impact being higher than a residential family I'm Sorry Miss Reese okay so the recommendation um from the from the committee again I I mentioned earlier overwhelmingly I think the continuation that emo override um was was holistically uh a no-brainer for
136the committee I think everybody was in support of the M override and so um when I presented this U proposal to vote on for the board um this was indicated as item number one um because again this was um unanimous in terms of the committee's opinion to to continue um demino override um where we had a discussion and where the votes came in um different were on the bond recommendation and so um we brought forth three recommendations represented on the top graph was the full bond package that I presented tonight 2A that totals 83.1 million um 2B was also presented um this was a a conversation that we had to remove um some of those short um those items that have a short useful life such as technology um transportation buses so um those were
137removed um and that represents just essential maintenance and campus improvements or excuse me um campus improvements and Safety and Security I said that wrong they removed the central maintenance and left in safety security and campus improvements option 2C uh was no bond and just focus on the m&o override um for this upcoming election and so on the right there you can see how the votes um hand out so seven votes came in for option 2 a zero votes for 2B three votes for 2C um one emailed a vote for 2A I did not get to share that with the committee in time um but I didn't want to note that I did want to note that and three did not vote um or were not present at the time we took the vote and so
138um with that I do want to I do have a couple committee members that um I invited um who who asked to speak um and wanted to provide um their experience on the committee so I don't know who wants to go first Vanessa or Eric but if you want to hi good evening my name is Eric Brown I um I have three students in the district uh one in elementary one in middle school and one in high school uh one's in special ed one is in the gifted program and one attend EV it too so we have had all of the benefits of the public education in our family um in my day job I'm a assistant Public Works director for the town of gilber and I have a deep understanding of the disconnect between
139local government and the public and so I wanted to use my experience for the benefit of our students um by serving on this committee um as I'm responsible for utility services in Gilbert I have to find ways to pay for the increased cost to deliver those Services um to our community and I know that our professional staff can get Tunnel Vision on the needs to provide the service and they can forget that we have to inform our governing bodies of those needs and the public that ultimately has to pay for those so my job is to connect all those dots and so I wanted to do that here because I suspected that Higley might have that same problem based on the results of the last override and bond elections so I knew going into this
140process that there were funding needs in the district but my eyes were opened to how many um the team did a great job Tyler Gustavo did a great job um detailing how funding is allocated by the state and how the district uses the funds and you just saw all that today um and then they just showed us the budget shortfalls that are just um fundamentally built into the state formulas and I was really surprised by that um even though I thought I had a pretty decent understanding before I was on this committee um now there will always be a chorus of people that believe that the district the schools and the teachers can be more efficient and can do better with what they have and although I do believe in that call for efficiency I
141also know that a ream of paper can be a valuable commodity to a teacher I learned that higgle is doing a great job with the resources that they do have but that the structural funding problem cannot be solved by efficiency the override is funding is critical to sustaining the success of our students as an infrastructure nerd I looked very carefully at the capital projects that were proposed by the staff to make sure that they were needs and not wants the safety improvements the large facility maintenance improvements and the transportation proposal are all needs that will improve the educational environment for our students um so without these the experience will degrade for them and that is what convinced me that we should recommend the bond package as it was presented today even though I was initially
142skeptical um and lastly I just want to state that um we have a responsibility to convey to the voters what will happen with these additional funds but just as importantly what will not happen with them and what will be cut um because that course of efficiency will say that you can do it without them and that and a silent response will make their view the default that the voters have to be moved off of in order to support these proposals now I know that the district cannot Lobby on behalf of any of these things but you have to put out the straightforward message of what will happen and what will have to be cut in an educational way not in a lobbying way just so that the voters can be informed and have an educational
143decision before them with facts and not conjecture and not opinions by others I had a great time um I I will say Tyler needs a um a little bit of time management an hourong meeting turned into two and a half hour we all but it was because we dove into these into these issues um we even lamented the state funding and and um spent a few moments um wishing we could fix our state but then we had to focus back on continuing for Higley and I feel like we got there as a committee it was a great experience and thank you for for having this committee and for the suggestion that Tyler put out there and for for going forward with it so thank [Applause] you good evening I'm Vanessa Shephard I'm a wife I'm
144a Mom I'm a friend I can sometimes be somebody you might not like when I'm coming around doing inventory but I am privileged to be able to say that I live in this community I work in this community with the finance department and I'm the property control specialist I see things I'm underfoot and people don't even see me I hear conversations and I get to feel it's not just about the job I get to feel the people I get to go into the classrooms and see the students we volunteer for breakfast and lunch duty I think everyone here at Higley is dedicated to the real main root of why we're here is our students and just like we run our homes just like we run our businesses we we can't run them with love and
145just air it doesn't work like that so my role involves maintaining accurate records standing compliance performing moderate to complex clerical and Technical accounting functions related to property management and inventory control of the district's valuable assets but one thing I learned about community and the reason I joined the citizens committee was because I grew up in a community that work together we if you didn't have milk your neighbor had milk and you had corn you swapped it out that th those are old school values that never die and my parents actively participated in our community my father owned his own construction company where he helped design and build homes schools and fire departments my mother was employed by the Richland County School District for over 20 plus years and retired as the Director of parent education
146so choosing to get involved felt natural being on the committee has afforded me an opportunity to learn more about school funding and land use it's afforded me an opportunity to have a voice in decision making it shown me where to lend my talents and expertise with the children and to serve this community speaking honestly My overall experience with the committee and the group left me with many emotions sometimes I went home sad because we seem to be losing sight of our mission many of us were looking in the rearview mirror instead of using that big windshield in front of us to guide us to the bright and promising future ahead I was so ignorant and unaware to what an override was what a bond was prior to becoming part of the group PRI prior to
147coming to this committee and coming to the school district attending the asbo and and the the continuing education workshops and all of the things we have at our fingertips that give us a better Insight on why we do what we do I took advantage of everything I sometimes paid for my own classes just so I can understand something and you can't go into something not knowing what it is so I did my research on what a bond was what an override was and I did I thought I knew what it meant to have a budget or a school budget but I quickly got a love tap of Revelation that is not as simple as we think I did I'm going to be brave and say I did vote for both the override and the bond
148because I feel that if you're going to take a risk and you want to ask for something don't ask for a little bit ask for everything because you might end up getting it so I have seen for myself what a difference it makes to be involved have dedicated employees that champion each other and have a sound financial plan and program with a guru like Tyler Moore at the hand him I am not just saying this because I work with him I say this because I trust him I trust you I trust the people in this room I trust the people in the classroom and yeah there was a lot of opposition and sometimes you walked out of those meetings and you're like boy I don't know if I want to sit next to this person
149in the restaurant we might not like each other anymore but then it made me really think that we got big brains we're not a lot of power we got a lot of smart people and just because we don't agree don't mean we can't come to a unified decision that supports the the thing that is the best and when I say Tyler is a guru and as y'all can see we had 25 pages of data okay I saw some shifting legs I saw some but an overall presentation like this takes a smart person it takes a person who loves numbers and that gentleman over there he loves some numbers okay and to break it down on a layman's term I got all the statistics we got all the yay and nays you know we got everybody
150up in an uproar about why this or that but when it comes down and and what it all boils down to is that Tyler he's an expert at Finance he's real respected by his peers and his colleagues I've seen this for myself and I also believe that his moral compass is navigating this District in a direction in which we can Leverage The District Finance to give our students the best and that's why I'm here I like being the best I got a feeling everybody in this room likes being the best and higgle is the best before my family and I moved here we've seen Arizona I'm from South Carolina I've traveled a good little piece of this Us in my career with Bank of America over 20 years I spent a lot of time on
151the road I've seen a lot of states and I've seen what people do but I love being the best so that's why I chose you I'm glad I'm here I'm glad we disagree because that lends to an opportunity so that we can agree so I encourage us to unify to support husd so that our children can see what it looks like to be the best and what it takes to be the best and sometimes being the best means that we don't always agree but we're unified in the effort to make things better and the best all the time so thank you for allowing me to be in this community thank you for allowing me to speak this evening and thank you the board for making the decision that I know that you all are going
152to make cuz it's always going to be in the best interest of higgling thank [Applause] you next time I'm going to review Her speech before um with that I be happy to answer any questions from the boardy president Anderson Mr Moore now we have seven schools that are below 60% capacity what are the chances of doing redistricting in order to provide more space for for instance like HTA which is close to H close to williamsfield to be able to do some sort of redistricting and be able to provide HTA space for our williamsfield students I mean that uh president Anderson Vice President Van Hook that is not something we have entertained um just because I I don't think the sheer capacity moving the entire School of hga across our elementaries that are not in that
153neighborhood uh are appropriate for our families who utilize the school as a neighbor neighborhood school so but that that is not something we have researched but we can certainly look into yeah I'm just I'm concerned because the fact that we have seven schools below six 60% or below capacity physical capacity we need to consider what our options are when it comes to being able to redistrict financially I mean that that's got to be something that we we do consider um we've got I mean the space the the funding for um water power like everything that we're paying for these facilities is it a possibility that we can consolidate um another I just lost my train of thought sorry go I I completely lost my train of thought go ahead if you have other questions president
154Anderson um along those same lines Mr Moore um you know looking and seeing that we're capturing just under 50% of our own students obviously that talks about our competition um that families are are getting needs met elsewhere um is there still ongoing conversation about um specializing certain areas to increase capture rates and looking at um perhaps some magnet schools kind of along the lines that Miss Van Hook was talking about without leaving an empty building the maintenance on an empty building becomes horrible um it it really actually becomes very expensive to maintain an empty building um and I don't think any of our neighborhoods want empty buildings but is is that ongoing conversation of looking at some type of magnet schools to increase um to increase our capture rate yes and president Anderson uh bo
155re um I know I've been with um discussion with Miss Lindsay um and looking at some of our elementary schools um in terms of other magnet programs I know we've done Miss Lindsay has done tours um and some of our elementary principles have done tours um and so uh those are initiatives that we are researching and still looking into um they require a lot of man hours um if you look around there's we're down individual in our in our admin team and that being a superintendent M Sher Richard has been doing a great job but we have been um spread thin this year and so um but that is something that we've been um ongoingly um researching and looking at potential options um to implement in the upcoming fiscal years well and some of these
156items that you touched on I mean they are bleachers sound like nothing but if you've been to the schools during events there's huge safety risks um that they're overcrowded they scare me actually um and so these are our needs um for some safety for our students for our visitors um and in addition we are in competition with our neighboring districts so um while it may not seem like a need to one it is a need to another it is interest um I'm just if anyone's been out there and has seen Hamilton's gym I mean I I get we're not as big as them but wow they have like I think there's three courts back to back inside you'll get lost I'm not asking for that I'm asking for us to be able to house our
157student body so um um and then have the opportunity to create Revenue I know some of our schools cannot hold certain competitions that are fundraising um because we're not big enough so um that eliminates certain activities from that as well so um I just as long as we're still having the ongoing conversation on how to utilize space I know that's important um and understanding demographics there's EB and flows and so we may we everywhere has seen a decrease in uh K3 education since covid and it's going to come back up and so most neighborhoods turn over every seven years and so you'll be capturing more kids and so we it's there I think we need to there is some things we can look at to continue to to better capture our own students but I
158think the potential is there yeah and I just want to point out president member re that I think the representation of this proposal reflects the the current um kind of needs in in of our district right we understand there's competition but we myself and Gustavo our director of facilities and mainten it's um really looked at what our needs were we try to internalize um what are we we understand we holistically understand there's competition but um you I don't know how you know obviously that can be decided on that could be influencing somebody's individual perception but I think we looked holistically at what our needs were in terms of our high schools being outgrown of the current facilities and that's where a lot of the project proposals stem from well and I think too it's also
159you have to understand some of the history like you said we went through hyper growth a lot of our schools were buop by sfb which were bare minimum they their items are coming if not past their lifespan um and like you said we've kind of band-aided them but at the same time that these were aging schools that would have needed those maintenance and repairs is one when sfb quit funding anything and two when we started losing um the state started taking money back from the district they started taking capital and I'm the way they phrased it is that they were they were only going to the reduction was only going to be 90% or um things like that so the time we had we would have been ideal and proactive in taking care of of
160some of these things that funding wasn't available we found ways to bandaid it other things have have come up and these things need attention so um understanding that when they would have or should have gotten attention we weren't getting the funding for that so um we had to find ways to try and get through Mr M I have a quick question about the the committee three people didn't vote did they attend all of the meetings and then just at the end chose not to vote or yeah president Anderson member Schultz I think this the the note to my time management skills um we you know several meetings went past six to you know and and so I think individuals had obligations um at the last meeting U we had to you know I think that
161attended the meeting then had to leave and before the vote can take place and so that's what those three um represent one did miss the final meeting but two one was online didn't stay on until the vote and one I think left early and so thank clarify I got some work to do on my time management I'm sure there was a lot of things to manage during that time president Anderson Mr Moore who's mistake was it to put the bleachers on the wrong side whoever build the school I miss ree has may you have more history than me it was the builder so why didn't we go back to them and have them fix it um has the time lapsed to where we can force them to fix it I think president Anderson Vice President
162Van Hook I think you know after the district signed off on those invoices that we you know somebody took ownership to to obligate that you know to authorize building them in that place and so I we don't have really any authority to go back and and hold that Builder accountable for something the district approved and signed off on so unfortunately I don't think we have any options in regards to holding the Builder accountable to change those so at the time of approving the district knew that the bleachers were on the wrong side and still approved it or we just didn't catch it I I have no context of of that time in which those were approved and who approved those so I don't I don't know who vice president I can look into that to
163try to figure yeah I mean I I wish that we I mean now it's it's too late obviously but it would um and and do you know when it was done well when williamsfield was built it that's how it was built oh so so I I mean it was that they were after it it right it those are the originals and so um and perhaps at the time whoever signed off on it that school wasn't nearly as big as it is now and so they could have looked at it and said hey I mean this it's backwards but the school's got to open and we're ready to go and we don't have enough students to fill it now in anyway so and I'm just saying I I wasn't there but that that's a potential because
164the school has grown tremendously since then thank you also uh president Anderson Mr Mo correct me if I'm wrong even if it were placed in the appropriate location as far as the away being on the opposite side we would still need the larger beachers for what we currently have as far as capacity right like I mean because they would have been the same size they just would have been on the opposite sides of the field right that's correct the president and member way that it the proposal addresses two things moving the bleachers to the correct side but also increasing the capacity of the bleachers to hold the student body and the current needs in the the school I I just want to make a comment that I I really um like what Mr Brown said
165um and he was very straightforward and and also in what he said about um having a straightforward message and how important that is um should we decide to vote to move forward with this of what will happen and what won't happen and I appreciate that and appreciate um your Insight as well no you thank you president Anderson uh um some things that I am I'm grateful for with respect to your presentation as well as the individuals from the community uh the committee that spoke out today um some things that I know to be true uh is it's very difficult uh to understand the way Finance is set up for education in the state and I recognize both as you know a member of this board a former teacher who taught in this District but as
166a parent and taxpayer um that it often feels frustrating that we have to make these types of requests um the way that the state structured it and its reasonings um are designed so they don't have to have the responsibility um and I can understand why they would like to do that because these are not easy conversations to have but it puts a pretty big burden uh on us to do so and that's that's a very difficult space to be in so I appreciate how we you know hope to go forward and and maintain the ability to try to educate individuals on what that means and why this is a necessity because if you are angry at this mere existence then get angry and and tell our state legislatures of these types of things um we've
167made me several mentions of the fact that we are losing enrollment which is true and competition uh and some of that enrollment loss from covid um there are other things that are at play there with respect to vouchers um some things that are new that I think are also important to understand because a lot of our facilities focus is on high school later years uh I think it's very easy for individuals to homeschool if you don't have a background in education at an elementary level but then as your kids get older and the needs of that those subjects and everything else that's part of the reason why they come back in middle and high school and why those numbers continue to increase because there's a lot of things that are there not only sports clubs
168academics and I recognize that home school kids still have the option to do those things but there are subjects that you just you're not an expert in everything and that's really hard to do and provide and so I think things to keep in mind that are important is as all of these things are true and we have all of these new builds and more new builds that are coming one of the things that people do is shop for and the look of things the offerings that we have is what makes people come here we have great academics and we have routinely had them and that's part of the reason that people come here but not everybody is academic centered I was a former AP teacher and I'm not academic centered I think there are other
169things that public education can provide and do for the community and for those individuals who also don't have students and struggle sometimes to see the benefits our property values increase and it makes it easier for us to be able to do these things so it's yes a benefit to the students and ultimately that is the responsibility of us here on the board here as a district is to be here for our students and do what is right for them and in their best interest but for those individuals who may feel as if they don't see the benefit of this I I challenge you to take a step back and look at some of the things that not only the schools provide for the community but how that reflects on your neighborhood your home value and
170the desire for individuals to be here because that all plays a part into why these offerings which I'm very grateful to the committee for for doing and I recognize that it is a risk but I again you miss the shots that you don't take kind of deal and so I think it is important to keep that in mind as we go forward so thank you for that President Anderson Mr Moore um I you talked about uh or relocating the tennis courts at uh Higley does that mean um we would then have to stop paying um the church at that point too for parking for parking and I can't remember the amounts for the church parking no you're relocating the tennis courts at we're relocating the tennis courts oh yeah yeah okay then never mind ignore
171me but I thought didn't we all do we all we use the church okay I was like yes sorry thank you I thought I was right they just tried all night we just recently we just recently adopted an agreement with um the church across from williamsfield but uh moving Transportation would then open up more parking spaces um to allow for students then yeah to sever that agreement and then um move those individuals on the campus the church parking lot at uh over here across from Higley um that the church I think in in kind um lets us use that lot so um we do not pay for that so okay but they would have to stop crossing the street so that's safety right yeah you get them all on the one yeah okay thank you
172I just had a question just for clarification uh regarding the workout area um for the football what it called there it is um is equipment going to be included with that or is it strictly just building currently at this time it's just uh Person in Just building space we just need additional space for um locker room capacity um uh to help assist with supervision having students have their own space um and giving a space for each one of our programs currently there's a lot of shared locker room space um and so um expanding that to open up um to meet the capacity needs of of of those programs who have greatly increased since that was built in 2010 um yeah thank you and for the bleachers I just want to clarify it's new bleachers not
173expanding upon the bleachers that are already in place is that correct or has that even been decided I would new bleachers at this time that off top of my head yeah we can look into the opportunity of expanding to potentially save some money um but I know the age of those bleachers um we've had to do warranty work on those especially especially at higgle High um so I would have to I can't answer that off top of my head but we would look at options to save money obviously um but in my opinion I think they would be replaced due to the age of them I was just wondering what what you were talking about one or the other are there any other questions or comments regarding this okay thank you thank you for those
174that came and spoke tonight um and thank you for the committee members that that went and and gave um apparently more than an hour um each time to learn and participate and give input we really appreciate it um all right so that concludes our information items we're going to head over to the action items and action item 7.1 we're going to uh vote to approve uh the citizen committee's recommendation are there any questions or comments before we make a vote and and if if that's I don't know if that slide is going back up can that was the 15% for the override and then a bond for 83 million yeah president Anderson that the recommendation from the committee was to um put on the ballot a renewal a continuation of the 15% M override and
175um option 2A which was the 83.1 million bond proposal and again uh as I mentioned this is just to accept the recommendation the community to give me direction to discuss with the attorneys um to bring forth a resolution to officially approve it so tonight again you're not putting anything on the ballot you're just giving this is giving me some direction to bring forth a an official resolution to then vote on to put that on the ballot so there any discussion okay um I motion that the governing board approve the citizens committee recommendation as presented in option 2 a second all those in favor I I I all those oppose I'd like to explain my vote please um attending the committee meeting was enlightening but it also brought light to some troubling issues it's disheartening to
176see certain members push for a bond regardless of the recommendation by high ground or dissenting opinions many of the committee members showed up to push for a bond No Matter What was presented a member at the last board meeting said that the top priority for the bond was teacher pay and that is false the top priority for the community was Safety and Security she also told the committee at one of the meetings that if you aren't working uh if you aren't willing to work on the messaging then you shouldn't be a part of it I'm not sure what messaging that is the disrespectful treatment of M Bender from some committee members was appalling at the last meeting from one's Outburst to another's dismissive gestures and at one point Marty president Anderson and I thought one
177member was going to hit Marty another member had to use her hand as a gavel to stop the Outburst it's clear that the Civility and respect was severely lacking why would any Community member want to take part in such a committee in the future when this behavior is tolerated Marty merely presented the survey data and his recommendations based on that data meanwhile no attempt was made to correct misinformation being spread by other members instead the only person using the data provided was gaset the tactics by High Ground including deceptive survey questions were concerning as well I actually got the survey call and we'll tell you that based on the wording used for those questions were me were very deceptive if these questions were asked a different way they would have gotten different results their survey
178showed 45.8% think that K2 through 12 education in our community is heading in the wrong direction High Ground claimed that this dissatisfaction stems solely on national news which undermines the issues within our state in our district including ideological conflicts and many other issues affecting our students and families directly one member claimed that parents are pulling their C kids out due to Aesthetics parents are not pulling their kids out um due to superficial reasons such as Aesthetics but because of fundamental disagreements with the direction of education and I know this because I've spoken to many parents who are on waiting lists for Charters and private schools blindly approving proposals without considering long-term consequences jeopardizes Financial stability and public trust we've all seen the news regarding the superintendent that we have hired that should be a warning
179to all of us as to what could happen when board members rubber stamp everything that is printed presented to them instead of asking tough questions we have a board we have a board member wored about $8 business cards but not the millions that are rubber stamped by this board without question I said at the last board meeting that we can't make decisions based on the hopes that a bond and override passes and was told that if Mr Moore didn't feel confident that he wouldn't present those that option but at the same time say that if it doesn't pass Cuts will have to be made for me cutting programs for children is not an option that's that's why kids are here and I've said this before transparency in spending and prioritizing needs over wants is a
180must I've always discussed that we need to look at budget reductions because we have to go back to functioning without Sr funds the district has made permanent Staffing decisions with temporary funds we need to look at that as well we are to pay approximately $150,000 for the election to date we have paid 15,000 for the survey it will cost a uh $750 per question on the ballot 13,600 to applied economics and I'm not sure how much we'll be paying for stifle so not counting stifle we have already paid out $330,000 before we even consider a bond the true implications of a bond and override must be communicated honestly to the community while Ed that an override is not a tax increase in reality it is a prolonged tax burden we must uphold honesty integrity and
181accountability in all of our actions and with that my vote is no okay motion carries four to one all right moving on to action item 7.2 tentative approval of the fiscal year 2025 capital outlay budget any questions comments discussions okay um I noticed that equipment was listed on here twice uh Furniture fixtures and equipment so ones under Educational Services and one ones under under schools do we know why that is yeah president Anish member Van Hook um the highlighted section represents the department in which that budget is under so the educational service department has a instructional Aid Furniture fixture and Equipment budget as well as each one of our um under our school budgets each one of our schools has a Furniture fixture and Equipment budget so um the reason it's listed twice is because
182it's under two different departments each department has a budget for that purpose okay and um the instructional Aid um what would fall into under that category yeah so uh president Anderson Vice President Van Hook um that is utilized by the educational service department to to provide supplemental resources for our DLI programs um our traditional programs Etc um those um uh resources are annual obligations that the educational service department has to procure um annually and so um those are supplemental resources to support those programmatic schools and and this is based on funding we have currently correct yeah these are budget numbers based on the estimated budget um capital budget um for next fiscal year great thank you so sorry thank you any any other comments or questions no okay I motion that the governing board ten
183tentatively approve the fiscal year 2025 capital outlay budget all those in favor I I did I hear your name oh oh okay all uh so five eyes motion carries five to zero um I I'd actually like a motion uh to make a motion to table this item um and if I can explain um why that is um are you talking about 7.3 yes um I another statement written um so given my experience in the health Freedom world I've been deeply involved in advocating for protecting our citizens from potential health risks one of those risks is posed by electromagnetic fields emitted by Source sources like cell towers these concerns are critical to address especially when considering placing such Towers on school grounds there's significant data indicating that exposure to electromagnetic fields from cell towers can lead
184to various symptoms including headaches fatigue sleep dis dist disturbances additionally um there are well-founded concerns regarding the potential long-term effects of radio frequency radiation on health with some studies suggesting possible links to increased cancer risk notably brain cancer furthermore research has indicated potential neurological impacts such as alterations in brain activity and cognitive functions as well as effects on uh reproductive Health it's especially considering uh concerning considering the vulnerability of children whose developing bodies may be more susceptible to the effects of RF radiation Beyond health concerns residents nearby May view the tower as undesirable potentially leading to decrease in property values in the area moreover the risk of electromagnetic interference with the electronic devices within the schools such as technology communication systems and medical equipment a couple weeks ago two two residents in Washington won a
185right to intervene on a lawsuit against AT&T in federal court regarding a 65 ft cell tower going back near the um going up near their home the claimant is 100% reliant on a pacemaker and his exposure to radio frequency ra radiation can interfere with his pacemaker in 2022 When AT&T and Verizon rolled out 5G they were instructed by the White House to hold off on the roll out within 2 miles of all airports due to the possibility of dangers on PL um to planes given these risks and concerns the safety and health of our school Community must remain a top priority and the potential risk associated with cell towers on school grounds outway any Financial gains I can provide further research to anyone that would like to see it there are over a thousand studies
186related to health risks from these towers this is not communicated this was not communicated ated to our community no public input was considered snuck into consent agenda not necessarily stuck that you guys did it on purpose but it was in the consent agenda just to get a 5 and0 vote and and move along and then incoming emails today from 8:00 a.m. at least until 4:30 p.m. were blocked from community members and we were not able to see any of those emails that were coming in I would encourage that we have um I would encourage that we have a town hall and listen to our community and hear the evidence that is out there on the harmful effects it has our community deserves to voice their concerns and and be able to communicate to us whether
187they want this or not the people that live around the school should be able to voice their concerns if they want those near near their home when want it near their home I'm shocked to learn that we already have two towers at two other schools which I'm sure was passed and consent by previous boards without any question or public input this isn't being transparent why do these companies Target schools one might question because districts typically will put money before lives and we need to consider the health impact that this has on our students our teachers our families that live around these schools so I beg you I urge you to allow us to table this let's have a town hall allow the public to come in and speak and share their concerns I even worked
188HB 2636 and 22 to get this legislation passed that if it's cell tower is going to go anywhere near residential area that 80% of residents had to vote on it and unfortunately it did not move further um due to random reasons but um I I just I would just ask that I'm I'm not asking you to vote Yes I'm not asking you to vote no but Le let's allow a voice from our community Mr Moore If This Were to be tabled would would there be implications on anything as far as building or contract purposes uh president Anderson no we have not nothing has started in terms of construction or um the process to move forward um I do want to note though just a couple things the all the emails that we received um today
189I we do yeah some were blocked due to the the email that was coming from but all of those emails were not um community members or parents of our district in addition Queen Creek recognizes the district as a political entity under a law and Queen Creek does not require a zoning permit um I I think the legislation that you were working on would would have required that but currently um does not require a zoning permit if the site of the cell tower set back more than 300 ft from a resident which this proposal is um but at the same token Miss andon it would not impact um we can continue to delay this as you can see the original agreement in which I found was not board approved in which I'm bringing tonight was in
1902020 the amendment that I've been working on which I thought was off the original agreement um is what I was asking for tonight to proceed with um the cell tower but we can continue to push that off um at the board's request so president Anderson um Mr Moore um I do know there was community members that whose emails did not come through and even the the few emails that did come through even if they're not immediate community members these are state taxpayers whose money goes into the state funds who and and that money is put out to all the districts within the state so whether they live here the information that they were providing is valuable and is necessary for everybody to be able to see um so so the excuse that they're not community
191members is I mean I don't know I it's it's it shouldn't be looked at that way um we should value every email that comes in um with information and the fact that after 8:00 a.m. these emails were blocked is extremely concerning um um and I don't know I don't know what the reasoning was the last email was received at 7:45 and then it just completely stopped we were getting other emails but nothing related to to the cell tower um and and I did have people calling me going it's my emails are getting kicked back I can't and they literally one guy tried from you know 7:30 up until 4:30 um as as I pulled up he was calling he goes I still can't send it so um based on that alone I think that we
192need to um allow for public comment and um and and I urge you to be able to allow that because we're here for our community and we need to be able to hear their voice president Anderson uh board member van hook I think um a couple things I would like to to address as far as your statements overall I received emails all day um so I do recognize that these types of things happen but I think it's important at least publicly to express that that some of these issues may be in certain specific instances depending on all kinds of things I mean emails routinely go down we get we get emails about the fact that email was down or something to that effect um and notific Etc um so I I receiv received them all
193day um from all different types of individuals I also um struggle with the statement that because these individuals are not part of our um constituency that they have the same Merit especially when your concerns which I I hear and are valid and I'm not saying that we can't table it or that I wouldn't support a table um but you're also talking about it the importance of hearing from our community members on on how they feel about it somebody who lives in Tucson or Prescot is irrelevant to that specific conversation and a good portion of the emails I got today were not even in Maricopa County um that matters in terms of how you're feeling or how you're talking about things I also think it's important for us as we progress and if we continue to
194talk about this get more information none of us are scientists and so when it comes to looking at studies to determine whether or not certain studies are valid or the validity of some of these things or when you look at some of the studies that were sent to us didn't have their data a lot of the stuff that was sent to us is these are the things that I fear here is the the evidence but there there was no explanation on where they got this data how many people they got it from especially when you're looking at things like cancers I mean going outside and taking a deep breath in our state is not great we have massive amounts of smog leads to beautiful sunsets but there are reasons that we have high rates of
195asthma and those types of things so yes I do believe that it matters and I'm to have these conversations and getting that information but I think it's important to keep some of those things in mind as we progress I also don't think it's uh fair or Genuine to say that our district is putting Finance over the safety of our students um I just don't looking at the things that we have done the decisions that we have made I I don't see that to be a true statement um and so from my perspective and the things that I'm doing and the things that I see routinely I feel strongly that Higley routinely makes decisions that that are for the safety and well-being of our students and that is something that we always keep at the Forefront
196uh that matters I also think when you look at finances we just talked about proposing a board or a bond um you know if those types of things pass then we don't have to look for other avenues to look at ways in which we can get some funds to offset certain things so again I'm I'm willing to have some of these conversations as we progress or look forward but I I think it's important to be reflect Ive of how we paint a picture or what we see personally and how we feel about that versus making statements uh on behalf of others or without the full scope of information president Anderson Anderson I'm sorry go ahead it's okay um Vice President Van Hook president Anderson I did received the concern that they weren't some of them
197weren't going through so we have it looking into that because I personally got a whole bunch but then I saw some say when I would forward it it's suspicious so they're looking into it and if we have information to report we'll put it into um status this week so sometimes it's just somebody's address or whatever but anyway I wanted to follow up and tell you they are looking into it but I got a whole bunch I think also a lot of them had websites or videos which is also part of the reason that they get filtered out to avoid fishing and those types of things yeah yeah if it just says look at a link then they Avid those out I mean we routinely get emails that say this is on hold or do you
198want to accept the spam that sometimes don't come in that day but tonight you might have that that you can approve it because they're not sent right away and I did get a ton of emails myself I even asked a qu several questions the speaker referred to me as Trisha but um I did ask questions of them to get more information and receive the reply as well and I think we all did um president Anderson um yes I I did get that one and then all the ones um you forwarded I had already received those those were during the day um but to say we shouldn't consider um to board member um Wade's response to say we shouldn't consider people that are not within our immediate constituency um I find it interesting that when we
199were proposing the bond committee um that there was a request to allow people that didn't live in our district to be able to be Bond part of the bond Committee just because their kids come here but they don't they live in panel County um and we had received that email specifically from one individual um wanting to be a part of it so um we can't have one way and not the other um and the information that was being provided today um is important information and there was emails from professionals who deal with this on a daily basis that um are Physicians um that deal with it and I didn't say our district puts money before children I said districts um I know two weeks ago um there was same thing happened in Tucson um and
200a neurologist spoke um and explained how he is seeing an increase in brain cancer in children um and so that is something serious that we should consider um I would hate to um have something awful happen to any one of our children or staff um so to be able to take in that input um from the community is important to me and um for $244,000 a year um yeah I mean it's nice to get you know money but uh at the detriment of our community um no that's it's not worth it um for me if it was a million bucks it wouldn't be worth it um at the the damage that it can cause um so for right now I am only asking that we table it we allow a town hall and allow our
201community um to voice their concerns um and then we can make a decision um after that President Anderson um well I think and you just even said it too we were getting emails some were kicked out but it's not like all the emails regarding the situation we're blocked so it's not like people couldn't get information to us which was how it initially sounded but um I I do have issues receiving emails from people in presc Prescot Valley Tucson um where actually I I don't know that I saw any from any of our community members like that are actually local that are in that area that not even in our district um clearly there was a call to action regarding this item because our very first email regarding this item came in at 50:3 last night
202and our board packet doesn't go live until 5 o'clock so our board packet went live at 5: p.m yesterday and by 5:03 I was already receiving emails so people knew it was on our board packet there was already a call to action for us to get inundated with emails um from people who aren't even in our area so obviously it it was sent to groups political groups regular groups anyway there whoever there was clearly a call to action with this being on our our board packet um and if people are reaching out you reaching out to you directly saying I'm trying to send you an email um then it just I got a Wonder but um clearly there was a call to action with our board packet hitting at 5:00 five3 having an email um
203about it I'm not saying I I wouldn't agree to table it but um I can't put the Merit into emails I'm receiving from all over the state on a call to action um request versus people who it's going to impact so I uh like I said I'm not saying I disagree with tabling it I'm not saying that that we can't decide something else but um but there there is a clear reason we were receiving these emails president Anderson board member Reese um I made a call to a friend to to get information and that friend obviously put out a call to action and these are people that care about the health of children that it doesn't matter what school it is that they will reach out provide information in order to save and protect the
204health of children so I'm sorry that that bothers you but the fact that these people careful for the health of children should speak volumes and the information that they provide is also valuable so it's not that I put out a call to actions like I said there's no reason for you to wonder I made a phone call to a friend who then realized what was on our agenda and then put out a call to action to anybody that is involved in protecting Children's Health so um so yeah I I know that there's you know several individuals that were trying to email and their emails weren't coming through at at one point somebody mentioned like 22 emails so um I maybe received I don't know maybe five six yeah so it it it wasn't coming through
205for me um the initial one this this gentleman I know the initial one it was you Sherry and um oh my gosh I just went blank Tiffany um whose whose emails were kick kicked back and then after that everybody started being kicked back um but put it possible my name was spelled wrong it is constant that my name is spelled wrong and so so I don't know but I I I just hope that we can at least table this for right now and let's let's hear our community let's hear what they want and what they think and um and then we can vote on it another day the next meeting but in the meantime allow the ability to do some sort of a town hall and hear hear them out um can I ask just
206a couple thinkk you can I ask a couple questions Mr Moore um did we reach out to them or did they reach out to us for this cell tower since I wasn't around for the origination of this agreement um there was other Administration that signed this um I do not how know how the connection got okay um I appreciate the map um I don't understand the map where exactly where exactly is this Tower going to be president Anderson if you're familiar with San um I guess if familiar with San or cool either like for like um there's a concession stand that resides kind of um specifically in s in the middle of the campus um in between the two Fields um there's a small little concession stand so there's a light pole there those fields
207are lit U this would be placed 80 ft um up on that light light pole um much like our other cell towers that are Gateway and williamsfield High School okay um I I'm okay also with the table of this my um my husband um has a master's degree in radio frequency um electrical engineering he's rfic and um over almost 30 years working with it and in his building in his labs they have protocols in place um there there power levels there's frequencies with and fre within frequencies and it has sparked Communication in our household and and I want more information he he of course has you know started a little bit to research himself um as far as the the emails I hate to bring that back up but I will say um I if
208it you know if it's a push for something you know no I'm not I don't really respect it but if it's truly people cell towers are everywhere in fact that's what I spent my afternoon looking was you can Google and get to a website that'll show you all the cell towers and antennas by City And I could see um we have one just right here across the street uh on Recker and posos and then plenty more within our district so if it's something that people are experiencing outside our district and wanting to share and bring awareness I I absolutely um appreciate that um so I'm not going to go in the back and forth about the emails but I just wanted to make that statement if it truly is something concerned because cell towers are
209everywhere um and communication is now space to ground um let's let's hear it and I'm okay with tabling it and getting some more information and hearing truly from our community if they would like to provide import if they would like to become more knowledgeable in this manner as well as long as again and you say that this shouldn't hurt contracts or or bring anything that we need to no president no we can um push the I mean it's not until the board approves I cannot sign off on this and so um yeah we'll work with legal to push the the date back um if the board so chooses so it it's been three years so I think we're F or four years four years I'm sorry it's 2024 so I think we're okay for a
210slightly longer time president Anderson um I just want to say that when we did receive the email starting at 503 as Mrs Reese um pointed out that I did think oh I'm missing something you know cell phone towers are everywhere I did become worried of course I don't want to put Children at Risk um I did do some research one of the things was that this causes more fires I asked fire officials um and they said that is not true um I several fire officials not just the one that lives in my house um but um you know of course we want to keep our children safe and if it means you know doing a little extra then that's great uh or that I'm happy to do that and I'm happy to table it as
211well um I just also wonder you know we do use cell phones on a daily basis if these people that you know are concerned about this are also not letting their children use cell phones because I'm guessing that that's also a big factor I don't know because I'm not a scientist or a doctor um that if that's contributing to the brain cancers that you mentioned as well um but again happy to table this um to see if our community parents um um you know are concerned about this especially those at saan as well and and teachers and staff president Anderson could your could you share your husband's stuff with us that'd be great thank you no um I second the motion or I'll make them um I'm or I thought I did I so I
212I second the motion to table I think she did she'd like to make a motion I'll do it again I'd like to make a motion to table this second whatever what number is it 7.3 7.3 all those in favor I I ition motion carries 5 to zero I just want to say thank you so much for considering to table it all right thank you let's moving move on to um 8.1 future agenda items do we have any requests to add to our list I I don't have a future agenda items but just um one of the speakers uh well I guess I can say this right now just one of the speakers that talked about um the teacher times the professional development at williamsfield if that's something that we can get more information on and
213see if that's something that our teachers are concerned about how we are able to provide better professional de development for them um board president Anderson Miss Schultz yes we're already working on that some because Miss Miller's been working with the calendar task team and it's been coming up so I think we can come back and provide some more information or we can provide it in status and so maybe initially we'll provide you an update in status and then because some individuals are requesting that it get changed for next school year so and that calendar is already established but I think there's been a lot of conversation with Mr lots and Hauser and of course this task team with Miss Miller so we want to do the right thing for the kids and the teachers so
214uh Team where Mr lotson haer's gone but Miss Miller could we provide a brief summary of the feedback you've been receiving in status um I'll be coming to you president Anderson members of the board a l um at a later date with a detailed presentation that really gives you what the calendar um task team has been doing and how we came to the recommendation that we will be bringing forth to you to approve at a later date but in the process we did send out a survey that talked about that late start at the high school and and what everyone felt would be best moving forward predominantly on that survey the majority of the people that responded said that they would like to discontinue the late start Wednesdays at the high school um we've spent
215a lot of time discussing the professional development opportunities at the high school level and again we'll have some recommendations for you and additional information on what we're bringing forward on that at a later date um the question then was if the if the majority of the people are not wanting to move forward with the late start um would it be possible to discontinue that next year instead of waiting until the new calendars take effect in the 2526 school year um and I think that that was probably why the speaker this evening came and and kind of put that on the table because that is something that's been talked about not just in the calendar task team but also when those individuals on that team are going back to their campuses at the high school level
216And discussing this with some of their um colleagues and peers that that is a a common Trend that they're getting is that they'd like to see that discontinued sooner than later is uh sorry Miss Miller is it possible and I'm assuming you would probably already do this um when you give some of that info if we can look at like how staff feels about that as well I mean because I worked at williamsfield when we did this this was so we didn't have meetings after school um because you have like games and those types of things that other people had clubs stuff like that so I'm assuming that's in there I just was meaning like whatever is proposed in that like where does that shift to um president Anderson board member Wade I am intending
217to share all of the survey results with you in a graph form so you'll be able to see for that specific question because the buses run on a normal schedule um the group that we did survey for the late start was the staff so I do have that result for you I'm sorry president Anderson I think I cut you off I just didn't want the conversation to go into too much detail since it's not AG gendi so I just want to make sure we thank you thank you anyone else thank you for the recommendation um I just wanted to just kidding I move that we I move that we adjourn second all those in favor I mo i motion carries 5 to zero some