001good evening at this time it's the last call for request to speak press this I just talk to my principal disine and Par of the kid that they're so good evening good evening I'd like to call this meeting to order I can't hear it can you you hear me that's terrible good evening it's terrible can you hear me good evening I'd like to call this meeting to order Mrs Richards roll call President Schultz let the record show that all five board members are present thank you would you please join me in a moment of silence and Pledge of [Music] Allegiance to Black of the United States of America and the stands nation under God indivisible I make a mo I'd like to make a motion that we approve the agenda all those in favor I
002I motion carries 5 Z Mrs Richard superintendent report yes we are very excited this evening to uh accelerate everything that's going on in our schools specifically our letter grades so at this time can I have Mr lson haiser and Dr Lindsay come up with Shaun and Miller and we are going to introduce the best District in the state of Arizona can you give our schools a round of [Applause] applause you're going to get to celebrate each of our schools and then uh we have Marcus birkshire here to celebrate specific data points so Dr Lindsay take it away all right we're going to an alphabetical order so to kick us off I'd like to um celebrate Bridges Elementary for their a letter grade [Applause] and congratulations principal ble and assistant principal Mr Berg the board the
003board is going to come take a picture with you as well sure in the center sounds good good congratulations Bridges we want you to do stand over here on all right next up we've got Centennial Elementary and we've got principal Rachel Broadley and assistant principal Matt veral so congratulations Centennial we're so proud of you [Applause] guys [Applause] all right we can advance the slide next up we've got our sharks from chaperel [Applause] elementary principal Christine Hansen and assistant principal Terry pepper way to go move over down a little bit [Applause] coyote Nation congratulations to Coronado Elementary we got principal Armstrong and assistant principal Brian Griggs scoot down a little [Applause] bit next up we have Cortina Elementary principal Kelly papy and assistant principal Chrissy devono want to break the rules [Applause] congratulations all right next
004up we have HTA Higley Traditional [Applause] Academy principal Karen bacon and assistant principal Amanda day y way to go ladies [Applause] all right next up we have power Ranch Elementary with inter yes congratulations power we've got interim principal Mr John Dolan receiving congratulations the power ranch super proud of you guys way to go next up we have Santan Elementary principal Ray Marcado will be accepting this award congratulations Santan super proud of you guys major award [Applause] do you want to do a big picture with all the elementaries why don't we have everyone try to come in we're going to do one with all the elementaries Ray will be right in theid keep going a little bit around [Laughter] we [Music] [Applause] all right as we transition to secondary schools once again a round of applause
005Elementary all those awesome A's all right first up secondary we have the whoops upside down saam and [Applause] Spartans Mr pots Mr keing Miss mola representing today we'll do a we'll do a secondary one okay and Higley High School come on down Higley [Applause] High we have principal Allen Fields accepting the banner well done Mr fields and higly high [Applause] oh where's Mr Dolan the higgle Virtual Academy [Applause] vipers congratulation that is a nice color and a wonderful logo I I don't know who designed it but they did a great [Applause] job and finally we have williamsfield high school principal Dan Fox athletic director Daryl stangle all right let's have everybody come on out right there good there's four so we should be nice excellent way to go secondary schools n our a oh in
006the moment you've all wait oh wait it's already on the screen congratulations so as a district when you look at all of our schools and the scores of all of our schools together we earned an a as a district congratulations to Higley Unified School District our governing board if you would come and accept our Banner please you guys get hold it this time we stay on the outside oh no oh no I'm standing I'm standing on the [Applause] outside president Schultz members of the board where excited for the next chapter of higgle Adventures if individuals are in the audience this evening that we are highlighting will you please stand up and wave let's begin with Jessica Batista she is our director of public information and [Applause] marketing Jessica joined our team on November 13th as
007the Director of public information and marketing we did Stiller from Queen Creek and we're pretty proud of that anyway we're excited to have her here and we're confident that she will make significant strides and advancing us toward meeting our marketing goals welcome Jessica as I believe everybody in this room is aware we need to celebrate Higley kns once again principal Phils are you still in the room right back [Applause] there Higgly Knights 5A state champions again two years in a row led by head coach Eddie Zoo they won this in the fight or the championship game on December 1st against Desert Edge congratulations knights we are so proud of you additional recognitions will be happening during our January board meeting [Applause] congratulations our Air Force Junior RC Cadet corpse Commander Tyler bubela from williamsfield high
008school received first place in state second place National sons of the American Revolution enhanced scholarship Awards in addition Tyler was selected as the October 20123 Gilbert Town Council student citizen of the month the award was presented at a special ceremony on Tuesday November 28th at the Gilbert Town Hall we're so very proud of Tyler and can't wait to see what's [Applause] next in November Higley High School had 12 students compete in the academic de cathlon which is the ACP Invitational the students scrimmaged with top teams in the state and earned to combine nine Awards which include essay economics math music science speech and literature congratulations to Miss Matthews and all of these students for a job well done participating students included Cody stelle Logan Pendleton Savannah Pendleton Jana Lopez Chase Goodwin Ryan cornette cydney Deo
009Victoria Tesh Colin Westbrook Marshall Moser Ranken twit and Mason Cole congratulations to these [Applause] students on this slide we have the academic de cathlon participants who brought home Awards we'd like to congratulate these students on their achievements congratulations Cody for economics Logan for economics and Essay Jana for essay Chase for math Tori for speech and literature Ryan for music and Sydney for first place and [Applause] science Higley Unified School District has earned two national awards for its exemplary financial reporting and accountability bestowed by both the association of school business officials International and the government Finance officers of the United States and Canada these recognition misss stand as a testament to the district's ongoing dedication to exceptional financial management in addition the certificate of achievement for excellence in financial reporting was bestowed upon Tyler Moore higley's
010Chief Financial Officer this was by the government Finance officers of the United States the certificate of achievement is the highest form of recognition in governmental accounting and financial reporting this was judged by an impartial panel to meet the high standards of the program including demonstrating a constructive Spirit of full disclosure to clearly communicate its Financial story help me in congratulation congratulating Mr Moore in the entire finance department we are so appreciative of your hard work and yes you do have to stand [Applause] up okay moving on to our points of Pride can we have Miss Patty gleon and Miss Stacy Utley come to the [Music] front well what an amazing night we get to continue the celebration um I'm so excited to see all of you um president Schultz thank you so much for having
011us members of the governing board and cabinet so tonight we get to celebrate preschool and we're going to start with preschool first and we would like to honor Julie Val as our teacher point of [Applause] Pride you have to come up front all right so up we exit hold all right we are recognizing Julie tonight um because she has been the Cornerstone for our preschool our preschool since we opened in 2013 her solid classroom management skills and her support of instructional strategies have created a classroom family environment where all children succeed and they're ready ready for kindergarten she is passionate about her students and playfully connects with them to build a strong relationship that is vital to Student Success her students and families love her she's a problem solver and a solution and solution oriented
012and we always count on her to get her done and her get her done attitude there are many ways that Julie has contributed to the success of our preschool and our students throughout the years but one in particular comes to mind she had a particularly um challenging student last year um and she worked diligently through the year to learn about him connect with and work with his parents and seek outside support for him and then make sure that his transition to kindergarten provided all the support that this little child would need she is one of our treasures and we are proud to recognize her as our teacher point of Pride at all right so next we are going to recognize Carrie tis is our classified point of Pride for kolie [Applause] preschool all right Miss
013Carrie so we're recognizing Carrie because she's such an amazing support to everyone in our preschool and even in the Middle School when needed Carrie is compassionate kind and comforting to everyone she interacts with and that means every child parent teacher and guest that comes to kolie ecdc she's always ready to come and help when called bringing her trusty thermometer and her positive attitude her office is warm and inviting and all the children know her love her and trust her as she triages and takes care of cuts bruises bumps and other assorted boo boos she knows her job inside and outside is and is on top of every protocol procedure and care plan making sure that everyone in our Center is safe she also helps in a variety of other ways when she isn't caring for
014our Littles she'll help in the front office do lunch duty help out in the classrooms when needed she helps make kcdc a very special place to be and we honor her as our little cougar support staff points of [Applause] Pride all right so fun I get to do it all again all right um now we're going to celebrate our student point of Pride would Morgan Fontes and her teacher Carrie brunette please come forward Morgan come on up there show your beautiful smile there you go Carrie do you want that sure so I was happy to nominate Miss Morgan here because she is a ray of sunshine in our class she enters the room each day with a huge smile excited and ready to learn she loves learning and engaging with the other children in the
015room she always is excited to participate in classroom activities and she always works hard Morgan is kind and compassionate she has the ability to include everyone and make them feel special she is everyone's best friend in our class Morgan is a leader and always willing to help out she is the first to volunteer whether it be as a helper to answer or to answer a question her confidence and spunk Make Her Shine in our room we are lucky to have her in our [Applause] class did you notice the skip right it's so good all right and then our last point of Pride from kolie is our volunteer Nancy McCormack would you come up [Applause] please got to get our hugs in all right so we're very excited to honor Nancy um fondly known as gamy
016in our Center um I know it's so perfect it is and that's what she that's what who she is so um Nancy or gamy as our little cougar family finally calls her has been a gift to Mrs campuzano's class and preschool this year gamy has been a consistent volunteer and she actively seeks ways to contribute in the classroom Miss Miss Jessica's classroom and in any classroom that you found that needed help which is wonderful um she shares her love joy and her playful presence with our little cougars we're so happy when she when we see her come into the building and she's genuinely happy to be with us she even shows up to volunteer when a grandson is out sick what a beautiful blessing she is for all of us thank you [Applause] gamy you
017oh yes and would you introduce who you brought to um celebrate you tonight my husband oh her Julie's husband Mike is here all right and I think you're family I know that's right all of our staff at kolie yes I know we got a lot right there and Morgan's got her whole family grandma grandpa mom and dad and her mother is actually a teacher at our school as well miss Haley yay and theny I'm from Virginia so I don't have much family here but my it's my grandson's fourth birthday so he is at the arcade with his friends and my daughter was very upset but I said that's okay you need to be at his birthday party but you'll join them next right okay there you go so thank you and thank you all for
018coming to support them today [Applause] too congratulations thank congratulations yes and wait there's more um now we switch over to San and again what an honor to be director of both of these amazing schools and to be recognizing these fantastic people today so I would first like to acknowledge you Jennifer Ziggler is our teacher point Pride from [Applause] San come on out okay oh wait a second that's wrong one hold on here I don't think I can say it by memory not very good is that it or is that's not you know what I put it in take it out like there this one there she is okay thank you sorry about that okay worth it it's worth it um so we're recognizing Jay-Z as we finally call her um because she's become the Hub
019and the backbone of our Center bringing Jen Ed and special education preschool together Jen is the first one to jump in to partner with and help her colleagues with challenging children and to provide service to anyone in need need she is solution-minded and full of ideas always bringing her best self to the table to support in any way she can she wears several hats this year in addition to being a stars and a 4day BB teacher she is also one of our leadership team she's helped with the itinerant teacher duties as we wait to hire um a a person for that position and she's now a part of the preschool eal team at sasman this year as well and also head of our Sunshine committee so again you are all always doing everything Miss Jay-Z
020it's so wonderful so her students and her families adore her she makes everyday learning experiences fun and exciting for Littles and brings learning to life with lots of props and decorations to immerse them in their learning she absolutely loves Disney and like Disney she shows how she knows how to appeal to all the senses of the children that she teaches thank you for all you do and we are so excited to honor you tonight [Music] right so our next Honore is our classified staff and we took her right out of the building because she was working today Raina Fishman would you please come up here she's our [Applause] custodian [Applause] I know I need to give you the day the night off don't I but I know you have so much to do come on
021up here we need to talk about you all right all right we love this woman uh we're very excited to honor Raina tonight as our classified points of Pride for San ecdc Raina is an amazing woman with a work ethic that is raled by none she keeps our entire Center shiny clean and safe for all of our little Spartan family she has a great attention to detail and takes such pride in all her work I have never seen anyone work as hard as she does and our Center is big and she does it all by herself she knows um everything that oh this is a part two that I love about her um to go along with her Mighty cleaning skills she has a wonderfully big heart and she loves our teachers and children and
022always makes time to check in and see how everyone is doing she knows everything that is going on in our Center and it's kind of like the mom of our Center taking care of all of our needs and making sure everyone is doing well thank you for loving us and doing all that you do to care for us Raina we love [Applause] you this is for you too thank you all right and next we have our student point of Pride Daniel Barnard will you please come forward and one of his teachers Lauren or excuse me Len is going to be talking about him today and reading a little bit about him thank you oh Daniel so good to see you can we give him a round of applause right yeah okay Daniel can you all
023right we are very excited to honor Daniel Barnard as our student points of Pride at San ecdc Daniel was nominated by three different teachers Mrs child wrote he is the kindest student and has the most helpful moms Mrs Marcel was his teacher last year and she wrote I would like to nominate Daniel Barnard from Len Garrett's Kinder prep class as the student point of Pride I was Daniel's teacher last year and he was kind always helping peers and a joy to have in the classroom he is respectful of others and a true asset to the classroom and school and always has a smile for everyone Mrs Garrett that's me is she wrote this is Daniel's thirdd year at our Center it has been a joy to watch him grow as a student and a kind
024friend to his peers when Daniel is absent I often hear friends say I miss Daniel and then they all say me too Daniel is so excited about learning new things and is genuinely excited when his friends have something good happened to them he comes from an incredibly kind family Daniel adds a special love to our classroom [Applause] family and then I have to tell you I would have nominated Daniel too um I I love hugs and whenever I see Daniel in his classroom or coming or going home from school he always seeks me out to give me a hug those hugs are the highlight of my day Daniel they're so good you have an amazing future ahead of you and we are very very proud and honored to have you here with us to start
025your journey one more round of applause hold back thank you stay up there okay and then our final honory tonight is our volunteer and would Lauren Davis please come forward she's one of our Middle School [Applause] Tas okay again we're very excited to partner with our middle school and we're very excited to partner with c and Lauren is one of our rtas so we're very excited to recognize one of our Middle School volunteers Lauren Davis Lauren Volunteers in Mrs child's brilliant Beginnings classroom and has proven herself to be indispensable she comes to help every day in the AM and an early release days after school she's made wonderful connections with the students and is adored by The Littles in her class she knows the classroom routine and always helps any way she can she independently
026runs the name Writing Center as she greets the children at the beginning of the day like mother like daughter Lauren was meant to be teaching and working with young children um she is the daughter of Jennifer Davis who is the prayer professional in the classroom as well so it's pretty wonderful she is so dedicated that she even comes to school to volunteer when her mother is absent that's which doesn't happen very often um thank you for all you do to make a difference in the lives of our children Lauren we are so proud to have you as part of our class family got this okay now who did you bring today to celebrate you everybody there you go all of our my husband my daughter her sidekick my work wives I've got three of them
027here my work family that I live with every day and and you guys okay yay very good how about you miss who did you bring today um uh before the everything I give the thank you the honor to Jesus Christ and God because you know what for him I know here thank you for everything that him because he gave me the strength he help me to me and do it everything do it you know for everybody and fair for he and C for everybody stuff in the S prechool thank you for everybody and my family is here thank you everybody yeah we love so good so good and then Daniel who did you bring today um I brought um my mom's yay and little brother yeah and little brother and you know what I got
028to speak for Miss Garrett um I brought some I got some dipped pretzels was for you I don't know thank you think we just heard about her always thinking of others and then who did you bring I brought my family her family is here as well so thank you thank you big round of applause ready okay president Schulz members of the board next we have our higgle report of upcoming events and in case somebody missed it winter break is about to start nobody missed it uh we're all looking forward to that and wish everybody a wonderful holiday on Tuesday January 9th we'll have our first citizen committee meeting here at the do at 5:00 p.m. Wednesday January 10th we have another sped parent meeting night preschool to kindergarten Miss Miller and her team are doing
029an outstanding job with these meetings so we encourage you to attend if you can next week we have our spelling be at the hcpa at 5:00 p.m. on January 11th and finally we have our next board meeting on January 17th here in the district office Mr Moore has an exciting update to share thank you m Richards uh president Schultz members of the board um tonight we have uh here the citizens committee members um I want to thank the board for at the last meeting as a recap the board authorized uh utilizing um a Citizens committee for the upcoming um well specifically to address and look at uh the school funding uh initiatives that we have upcoming including the M override and a potential bond issue um and so with that board meeting and that approval
030from the governing board we opened up um the selection process over 70 individuals applied U for these 15 spots so it was a very um engaging and and basically there's a lot of interest uh within um our community our our teachers our staff and being a part of this committee um we as a Cabinet team looked at the the 10 at large bids and try to have equal representation with our teacher groups um our parents our communities our um um our community leaders um and we feel like this committee here that is represented tonight represents I think Higley as a whole and as a reminder all these um meetings will be follow public open open meeting law and so um while if you were not selected for the committee um there will be um agendas
031posted meeting minutes and anybody is welcome to attend um any of one of the committee meetings so um with that I know we have a couple citizen many U members in the audience so I'll read off the names um and then look forward to a robust conversation at the start of the new year so um the assistens committee selections include Christopher sexon Vanessa Shepard Jennifer Nunes Victoria Payne Melissa Johnson Domingo Santos Eric Braun Taylor Francis Robert fno Aussie Lewis Marty Bender Michelle bug Melanie Shahi Kathleen Richards and Scott Hamilton so uh we have a few individuals in the crowd today so um look forward to the conversation um in addition to myself uh the director of Maintenance and construction Gustavo loras uh will be intrical part of the conversation as well so um again look
032forward to the conversation and I guess give a round of applause for our committee members concludes my comment is that all for the superintendence or rep Mrs Richards thank you very much I should have said this when the other schools were in here but congratulations to all the the schools on the a ratings and I know we're going to go more into this in 6.2 but uh several of our other schools had um made strides this year as well that we'll talk all about that so congratulations it's a testament to all the amazing work that our district admin and teachers are doing and I am honored to be a small part and to have my children go to the school so thank you very much and I'm looking forward to the citizens committee too Mr
033Moore we got new microphones I apologize moving on to requests to speak 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 speaker cards which are due prior to the start of the 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 ARS 38-43 1.01 I 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 although we ask the audience members also we ask the audience members to practice proper
034public meeting to Quorum refraining from either negative or positive responses including clapping or verbal outbursts to ensure fairness to All Points of View those that refuse to follow these rules will be asked to leave in accordance with Pol policy bedh public participation at board meetings if considered necessary the governing board shall set a time limit on the length of the comment period in order to ensure that each individual has the opportunity to address the board the president may also set a time limit for individual speakers thank you for your cooperation first we have Mrs Alexander uh president Schultz um members of the the board and the district cabinet thank you very much for letting me have this opportunity tonight I'm going to forewarn you that you will hear the quiver in my voice it's just
035my passion coming out so I apologize um I really want I'm Cynthia Alexander and I am uh an educator I've been for 31 years 17 years in the district of Higley um and I wanted to take this opportunity to express how great it is to be an educator a parent and a Community member of the hickley unified school district there are many reasons within the 17 years that I've been here so that could highlight how wonderful it is to be a part of this community but I want to shine the light on one particular moment um to recognize many people who helped make something happen in our district on Saturday December 2nd Chael Elementary hosted of xiq tournament um robotics tournament 48 teams from around our state uh including Buckeye and Tona attended this event
036approximately 200 students their coaches their their parents and their families were in attendance at this event for students coaches and Spectators to have a positive experience our club needed many hands to help I reached out to our High School Middle School National Honor Society and our National Junior Honor Society the robotics the engineering the CTE classes and the clubs at our and the fellow Educators around our district and I reached out to our parents as well excuse me the outpouring of support was tremendous we had 17 parents 20 high school and middle school students and 26 Higgly Unified School District staff members jump in and support our tournament on a Saturday during their personal time personally this is rare it doesn't happen in all districts every time I ask for volunteers to support students the
037Higley Unified School District Community response they rally and they work hard to create a positive learning experience for any Arizona students The Spectators took notice of this support they commented on how amazing it was to see the level of volunteerism and they complimented us for supporting their students personally I want to thank the following Higgly unified staff members for their commitment and dedication our registrations filled up fast in two days my tournament was full and not all Higley teams got to attend but um Melanie Bodner and Shay Timco from Cortina Donn Litwin and County fnck from Santan even though their teams couldn't attend they judged 50 engineering notebooks for us um Trey Austin from Cortina ran the MC and the uh referee for the entire day making sure all the matches ran smoothly thank you
038to John Burke and Kelly mlan Christine Hansen Rick Hansen Wendy stove lindsy momes Penny Montes Molly Montoya Renee Dawson Tim price and Ted Schwarz for conducting team team interview and working through the judging process thank you to Sarah Bennett and Cindy douly for stepping in and ensuring that concessions happened oh my goodness thank you to Barbie John Burke Melanie Bodner and Tera price for sharing our robotics Fields thank you to our custodial people Angel ornus Sean Clifford da Dave todero forting um facilities and thank you to Robert Lafayette and Nathan kushman for making sure it had us running um if I could take just 30 just two more seconds to say I'm humbled to work with and in a community of dedicated individuals and it reminds me how great it is to be Higgly thank
039you thank [Applause] you Miss Maggie borse I apologize what is it president Schultz members of the board my name is Maggie boury I am in my sixth year as the secondary English language arts instructional coach and I have the privilege of working with all of the sixth through 12th grade English teachers in this District when Higley leadership took a chance and hired me I was a high school English teacher in Mesa I knew Higley was much smaller but after a month of my position I knew I was in a very special place I work with 53 English teachers all of whom are nothing short of magicians of their craft they are creative and Innovative professionals who truly want what is best for their students trust me when I say teaching teenagers is no easy feat
040and while I would love to recognize each teacher by name please know each and every one of them deserve public accolades this evening not only am I a district employee but also a Higgly mom when I started my position here I knew this district is the one I wanted my kids to attend you can imagine my delight when we found our Dream Home in the community I have a first grader at Cortina Elementary and there are not enough words and there are not enough words of gratitude for my son's team of teachers darn it I was going to try not to cry there are not enough words of gratitude for my son's team of teachers Miss Maxwell Miss bar Miss Hagerty Miss Patterson Mrs Parkinson Mrs ranell his specials teachers and his former kindergarten teacher
041Mrs cook my son is a unique learner and these wonderful teachers continue to provide the love and tools for his success Mrs papy and Mrs debono go above and beyond not only for him but for all of their students I wanted to make sure Cortino was recognized tonight because we are a proud tiger family my three-year-old is in the brilliant Beginnings program at the San preschool and his teacher Mrs monano and her Aid Miss Maddie are absolutely amazing thanks to his teachers and the preschool curriculum my tiny tau is thriving most importantly he has learned how how to calm his big emotions through coping tools they provide and for that I am truly thankful Higley is a wonderful place thanks to the teachers staff principes our supportive directors and our fearless leader Miss Sherry Richards
042I am so blessed to work and live in this District thank you and happy holidays Miss Jody Walker good evening I'm Jody Walker and I am the district K5 Ela instructional coach before I was an employee hick League I was a parent I have three boys my oldest two have graduated from williamsfield and my youngest is now a freshman at williamsfield and my boys have also attended Gateway point and K Middle School I could stand up here for an hour and tell story after story about the amazing people um at each of those campuses I never get emotional tell it's my kids sorry um who have made a difference in my boys lives um who have gone above and beyond to make sure they were successful who have celebrated their successes and supported them when
043they have struggled now you might be thinking well you're an employee so they're going to support your kids they're going to go above and beyond this was long before I was an employee I was an educator in a neighor neighboring district for 20 years and as I saw the education that my boys got in Higley when I came and volunteered when I came and just was here for um programs and I just saw the amazing things that happened in Higley I thought I want to be a part of this district and so this is my fifth year in Higley and I have not regretted a moment of leaving my prior district and coming here I have never wored worked in a district or even heard of a district where their employees are more cared for
044where people truly care for each other anytime I'm in a meeting um with people from District the first question is always is this what's best for students and is this what be is best for teachers that's always at the Forefront of every decision that is made um I want to thank my fellow District instructional coaches for everything they do I support the elementary literacy coaches who are amazing people and I want to thank um Mrs Richards Dr Lindsay Mary Davis Marcus Burkshire Melissa Garland and everyone at the district office for all the hard work they do every day to make sure that we're making a positive impact on hitle students next is Mrs D Ambrosio this is the most exciting night ever I love all the celebrations the accolades hello president Schultz governing board cabinet
045uh thank you for allowing me to speak um I wanted to share a couple other celebrations that are going on in Higley that are so incredible um over at HTA the third graders have initiated a toy drive to give back to kids in need um as of today I think we're at 189 gifts for kids in need another really neat thing is that we're gonna have our 20th annual um jingle J um at HJ on Friday we would love for you to come and see this incredible event that was started 20 years ago by a retired teacher now but Miss Judy Benson um I wanted to bring um up the Higley Leadership Academy um it is such a great opportunity that the district's offering to teachers and coaches to come and learn a little bit
046more about District policies and just what it goes what goes into being a district um I had the unique opportunity to work with Miss Deborah Welch uh Shadow her for a day her role is a behavior specialist so at one School site we went to a first grade classroom to a friend who has really made some strides this year and Debbie and I got to reward him for his amazing behaviors um and I see her impact not only on students but also on teachers she mentors new to new to Higgly or new to teaching teachers um and she's just masterful and she gives so much support and i' seen that was so much fun um and lastly I just want to say thank you um to m Richards for being amazing for your role in
047leadership for supporting all levels of staff from from certified classified administrative maintenance um for visiting classrooms for signing for doing science experiments for reading to students um for working with our stakeholders to make sure that hickley stays Forefront in our community and for stepping up in such an important role with such dignity and Grace so I thank you all so much for what you do and I wish you a Merry Christmas Miss Ginger [Applause] Smith hello my name is ginger Smith and I am a mother and an aunt of children that live in this District I am a taxpayer that helps fund this District I was already concerned about what is going on in the schools based on what I've witnessed in the area but my concerns are growing every time I come to these
048meetings it is appalling that there is a group of teachers that we are meant to trust our children with more hours a week than we get them ourselves teachers that are angry with parents like me that want to know what is being done with the funds I contribute to these schools teachers that are angry with parents like me for questioning what is in the curriculums teachers that constantly sit in this audience scoffing hissing and trying to intimidate parents like me that simply want to ensure our children are going to school to prepare them for their future I'm concerned that we seem to only be grading our education results against other districts in the state and not Nationwide shouldn't we be striving to be better than other states to benefit our children's future successes and I'm
049concerned Why We Shouldn't prefer to have an attorney or legal team working with and answering to the school board it seems the current system leaves much room for error and Corruption shouldn't all of our overall concerns be about these kids and coming together to be sure we do what is best for them even if you feel there is no reason for parents like me to have these concerns why are we met with so much hostility thank you Miss Heather balsh good evening president Schultz members of the board cabinet it's good to be here tonight congratulations to Higley for all the great things that we're doing um it's really exciting I did just want to take a couple minutes to talk to you about an a agenda item that's on this evening and that's about our
050Physical Therapy Services um one of the companies Wester guard I have the privilege of working uh closely with through the evaluation process um their team members are professional they are so courteous they're kind to students they're putting students first and when working with contract agencies you don't always get that and with Wester guard you do so I'm really happy to see their rating that they got and um fully support them um the other thing that I wanted to talk about is as governing board members There are rules that you have to follow um and rules are set and that's great there are also ethics and ethics I think sometimes might be forgotten or overlooked so I did want to just um review some of the board member ethics on policy BCA that I ped pulled
051from our policy um I'm going to review four of them but I encourage you to go ahead and look over them just a refresher the first one is render all decisions based on available facts and independent judgment and refuse to surrender that judgment to individuals or special interest groups the next one is avoid being placed in a position of conflict of interest and refrain from using their board position for personal or partisan gain take no private action that will compromise the board or Administration and respect the confidentiality of the information that is privileged under applicable law and remember always that the board members first and greatest concern must be the educational welfare welfare of the students attending our district I encourage you board members to stand by this this code of ethics that was created
052and um follow through with that moving forward and I wish you all a happy holiday thank you Mr Taylor Francis m madame president and members of the board and cabinet first congratulations Mr Mo for your for your uh recognition congratulations to the district and each of the schools for a rating I wish to speak to you this evening regarding transparency I believe it an understatement to iterate that parents were left dissatisfied Following last month's board meeting between protests emails letters Facebook groups phone calls and public discourse the resounding call among each is for more transparency some who Herald the call may not even know for what it is they petition or even what more transparency might look like the resounding commonality with every plea is one for answers we the parents just want to know
053something what is going on yet with the cries still echoing from the power rants incident I see tonight on the agenda item 5.4 where another teacher is being let go this time from HHS this particular case was made notable from an online journalists report being circulated through several circles and with the power ranch memory fresh in our minds no official statements or answers from husd and now a third incident at Bridges Elementary just last week rumors fly speculations abound but no word from husd how many instances of School Employees being relieved of Duty for well we don't know why but how many must we have how many demonstrations or angry parents must we have before the school district provides something whether it is a question of not knowing how to communicate or refusal to communicate
054something must change please do not ignore us all all we ask for is answers thank you Miss Mindy brocker of course 30 seconds before I walk up here I managed to lose what I wrote so speaking from the heart here um thank you again for the opportunity to speak to you uh about why I love my public schools um this last month um we've been dealing with some issues with my oldest child he's on the autism spectrum diagnosed very early around three years old and um so we've really been through the ringer he's now almost 17 and a junior and what I wanted to say today was that I've had some conflict with Higley and with different people in this District but one thing I've never doubted about every person in this District everyone that
055works here is that they really truly care we may disagree sometimes but you really truly care and so I wanted to say thank you you know one time I um attempted to put my child into a private school and they wouldn't take him they rejected him despite taking Arizona dollars for Arizona students not public institutions can curate their students they can curate their test results and public schools cannot but here at Higley we were accepted with open arms um my child was has not only learned but he has grown he has grown socially he has grown emotionally he has grown in responsibility and in ethics and that is a no small part to every public educator that he has dealt with who has worked with me to create an environment for that to happen so
056I just wanted to say a special thank you to our hegle Unified School District our special education department and to our uh AP and honors instructors that really work with these kids that are sort of they call them sometimes twice special but unique interesting and impressive as hell honestly this kid um um but it's because of this District so thank [Music] you thank you moving on to our consent agenda items I move that we approve 5.1 through 5 11 second all those in favor I I any oppos [Music] motion carries five sorry um president Schultz um I had requested to um move an item off the consent agenda um it was an expense voucher and it was not removed um and unfortunately um because of that item not being removed I have to vote no
057on the entire thing which is really unfortunate um the one expense that um I wanted moved was a book um that was purchased and um the fact that the book is promoted um and by UNESCO and castle and it utilizes those Frameworks um unfortunately I cannot support that so my vote is a no only because of that book motion carries four to Z four to one information item 6.1 husd letter grades all right good evening uh president Schultz members of the board uh cabinet it's my pleasure tonight to share with you our um a little bit more detail on our a through F letter grades this year um do I have a clicker sorry reminder tonight uh we're looking at strategic anchor one which is teaching and learning and Student Success and specifically we're focusing
058on indicator 1.5 supporting a collaborative culture using data and research-based practices as we uh saw earlier tonight with our Banner we we are an a-rated district and so I want to uh congratulate uh you the board as well as all of our students staff and families for earning an a this year um it the a is calculated by adding the number of a schools multiplying by four then adding the number of B schools multiplying by three adding that together and dividing by the total number of schools kind of like a GPA and so that's where we get the 3.86 out of 4.0 um 35% of leas in Arizona earned an a 38% earned a b 22% earned a c 5% D and then less than 1% of the school districts in the state earned an
059f um as a point of comparison one of the districts that we score very closely to in aasa and act Cape Creek they also earned a 3.86 looking at some of our neighboring uh school districts uh you can see uh on this chart we're on the far left and then uh Chandler Gilbert kyne Mesa Queen Creek and Scottsdale are all listed uh the First Column is uh the percentage of schools that are a second is B and then the following uh uh columns that we don't have are C's D's and Fs um as a point of comparison in terms of that letter grade uh score Chandler earned an a with a 3.59 Gilbert was an a with 3.52 kyne was an a with 3.54 Mesa was a b with 3.04 Queen Creek had was an
060A 3.64 and Scottdale was the closest to us with an a at 3.72 so again uh we are the highest performing District in the East Valley some highlights um coie mle Middle School we want to congratulate them they exited from what's called additional targeted support and Improvement which is a federal accountability status uh by improving their special education performance this past spring uh they were placed in that status last fall um and were able to exit early this spring based on their performance this spring uh Coronado Cortina and sasman all improve their letter grades from a b to an a uh huge Improvement right there Bridges Elementary is one of only 39 K8 schools in the state to have a maximum 30 points in the proficiency column of the K8 letter grade calculation Higley High
061williamsfield were both highly uh rated um as a whole Higley High was the 12th highest scoring uh traditional 912 high school williamsfield was a 27th highest uh percentage score uh 100% of our schools earned an A or a B very rare when looking at the uh typical public school districts within the state and then Coronado Elementary huge Improvement for them they had the highest Improvement all our schools in the district going from a b to an a with 11.38 percentage Point increase so congratulations to all of them and as you go through we are we have celebrations in every one of our sites uh and and they're doing amazing things across the board we're going to start with hang on so I'm missing a slide but that's okay um what you see here is a
062pi um the letter grades are calculated uh by a um uh there are a number of things that the State Board of Education asked to look at when they were uh when we were calculating letter grades um what they want to look at what is like a student's grade the letter grade is a summation a collection of evidence uh and not based on a single Factor um so the State Board of Education when creating our model thought it was important to attempt to reflect the overall nature of a school and what the state expects out of a public school which can be difficult to do when much of what a school does for students can't be numerically Quantified so the letter grades are their best attempt to provide hard data that can quantify what a
063school performance is um So 20% uh uh 30 % of a letter grade is proficiency on a asaa in the K8 category uh 50% is based on growth and that's a student growth percentile where uh students are their performance on aasa this year is compared to their peers from when they took aasa last year and the year before and how much have they grown compared to that peer group uh 10% is based on El performance on the AEL test um that's only if you have 10 Els if you don't they drop that out and you're out of 90 points and then the final uh 10 points or 10 percentage points is based on acceleration and Readiness and that's a calculation that looks like multiple factors including subgroup Improvement um chronic absenteeism Improvement um third and
064eighth grade ELA and math Improvement and special education inclusion so there's a variety of points in that acceleration Readiness category there's also bonus points special education enrollment uh we get two bonus points for that if we're above the state average and then a side performance uh we get points based on our performance compared the state average there as well oops well there's that was my slide they just got flipped so that's the one I wanted to show now it makes more sense so we're going to start with Bridges um Bridges you can see earned an a with 92.0 points um as I've said earlier one of the celebrations for Bridges is that uh proficiency proficiency score of 30 out of 30 schools can actually earn more than 30 points but it's capped at 30 so
065uh being one of the the few schools in the state to be able to have that capped point value is is phenomenal Centennial earned an a with 87.8 three points uh their growth score of 46.5 n was the highest in the district uh so kudos to sentennial in the work that they're doing in growing our students chapparel was an a with 9.85 um as I mentioned earlier that acceleration Readiness category they can make way more than 10 points with everything that's in there um it could be it depends on how many subgroups you have the subgroup performance you're capped at six but there are probably at least 24 points available just in there um Chael earned an actual 31 points in that acceleration Readiness category uh largely due to the performance of what that of
066what they've done with their subgroups kolie middle school earned a b with 74.0 three points uh and again as I shared earlier they they were able to exit that Federal accountability due to improvements special education and that's in proficiency growth and chronic absenteeism Coronado earned an a with 92.8 one and again they were the highest overall percentage increase in the district by that 11.38% Cortina earned an a with 89.1 two points uh one of the U bonus points is AI they are one of the few schools in our district to earn the full three points on AI they actually had the highest science passing rate in the school district with 63.3 n% of their students passing science this year Gateway Point earned a b with 80 points um again in that acceleration Readiness those 10
067points there is a category for improving our minimally proficient third grade ELA so actually decreasing the percentage of kids that are minimally proficient and Gateway Point had the highest decrease in the district uh by uh 10% uh of students um fewer that were minimally proficient H leag Traditional Academy earned an a with 93.0 five and congratulations to them they topped out the scores in the district they were the highest scoring uh ka8 School in our district power ranch earned an a with 86.7% um again it hidden in that acceleration Readiness is The Chronic absenteeism decrease uh Power Ranch uh saw their chronic gaps in ISM decrease by 6.5% which is a huge decrease Santana Elementary earned an a with 87.8 one points um one of the um areas within acceleration rating this is that subgroup
068Improvement uh specifically one of the subgroups are are kids that are receiving free and reduced lunch and that can be a hard group to see improvement from year to year in both Ela and math San's one of the few schools that was able to do that in both Ela and math um improve both both that subgroup in both areas San earned an a with 84.2 far um again in that acceleration Readiness area uh 8th grade they get points two and a half points for increasing highly proficient performance and decreasing minimally proficient performance in math and they earned both the two and a half points in both sections so for a total of five points so congratulations to sasman and their math Department there moving on to the 912 model um 30% of the school's letter
069grade in 912 is proficiency on the ACT um 20% is based on subgroup improvement from last year this is the new this year and this is the only year by which they will be evaluated on that category um next year we will return to a student growth in that category using uh NE this year's Junior's performance on ACT Aspire as ninth graders so they'll be looking at their growth from ACT Aspire to the ACT this year um and that will be consistent from here on out uh the subgroup I'll show you on the next Slide the reason why uh El is 10% graduation rate is 20% and then the CCRI which is the College and Career Readiness index that's a collection of measures uh the college side is are kids passing uh National and state
070tests so AP exams ACT SAT um then there is a career side so how are they doing in CTE are they passing CTE cours uh sequences um are they passing those CTE exams and as I've shared earlier um our kids do phenomenal in the CTE um so that cc is is a huge U point value for us as well and again we get bonus points for science special education enrollment and then participation in ACT Aspire sometimes it's hard to get kids to come to tests and so uh they at the high school level they're getting rewarded for having 95% or more of their kids there on the test day and actually take the test so as I mentioned subgroup is 20% uh this year um this La this past Year's Juniors so this year's seniors
071the last time they took a state test was in 2019 as seventh graders a and so being able to calculate that growth from seventh grade AZ Merit I think it was at that point in time all the way up to act as Juniors that wasn't felt like that would be a valid uh calculation and so the State Board decided to go this year with subgroup Improvement um and so what they're doing is what they did is they looked at all of the eligible subgroups at the high school and an eligible subgroup is any subgroup that has more than 10 students students in it um and so subgroup proficiency improvement from last year's act performance to this year's act performance um was 10 points and um they looked at the number of eligible groups that we
072had on the denominator side and then the numerator side is the number of subgroups that actually showed Improvement um so if we had 10 we got five out of 10 that would be 50% multiply that uh 0.5 time 10 we got five points there if that was the case subgroup graduation rate Improvement is another five points calculated the same way and the same thing for subgroup dropout rate Improvement so Higley High School uh earned an a with 95.9 points um again they were the uh number 12 traditional 912 High School in the state um something that I didn't mention and you'll see this when we get to Higley Virtual Academy uh there are k8s and there's a scoring system for them that's the reason why the cut scores are different for 912 than they were
073for the k8s then there are traditional 912 schools that are comprehensive nice high schools that only serve a population of 9th through 12th graders then we have a large swath uh particular Charter Schools but also some of our neighboring districts of schools that serve in addition to 912 they serve seventh and e8th or 6th through 8th or even K through 8 um they're called a hybrid and they are scored a little bit different different so when I say we're the number 12 Traditional High School that means in comparing us to all other traditional 912 Comprehensive High Schools um so higgle high was 95.9 with an a um williamsfield um was at a 91.9 s that CCRI score they went up by 2.1 points compared to how they had done last year which is a huge
074increase um that calculation is hard to get to to that that higher score um and then higgle Virtual Academy this is our first year with a letter grade um again when we say hybrid that means they're getting points on the K8 side and they get points on the 912 side you'll see that they don't have all of the categories represented in the the pie charts that's because again they still have to have that end count of 10 students so for example on the 912 side they only had nine Juniors take the ACT last year um Mr Dolan enrolls a lot more kids than that in his program but those kids are primarily attending Higley High School or williamsfield High School we're only looking at kids that are full-time attendants at hbaa that count into their
075letter grade um but this gives you an idea of how he did with our K8 side um and then the 912 this is what those hybrid schools like um ala nor um East Mark U those kinds of schools this they're they're operating under the same kind of model as we are so the percentage of kids in the K and the percentage of 912 that then factors into the points that they receive um one of the uh two things for hbaa uh number one virtual schools don't get A's if you look at our neighboring districts uh they are B's and c's for their virtual schools it's very rare for a virtual school to earn an a so that right there is a Kudo to the work that Mr Dolan and his staff do and then that
076growth score of a perfect 50 out of 50 as well uh so so we I really wanted to call that out because that's amazing work that they're [Applause] doing next up it's small and I apologize for that um but this is how we did in relation to our K8 charter schools that are within our boundaries um there's a dark vertical line on the far right side of the chart that is the cut point for an A so anything to the right of that line are schools at earned in a anything to the left would be schools that earned B um or C and you'll see there are some sites in there that are that hybrid model um they they will show up on both charts uh so what I am able to do is pull
077out their K8 scores and show you how the the K8 side scored on the K8 model and then I can show you how the 912 side scored on the 912 side so we can kind of compare how our elementaries and our middle schools are doing compared to their Elementary Middle School component and their Comprehensive High School side is doing against our Comprehensive High Schools um so for example Ben Franklin High School has a seventh and eighth grade so that's the score that their seventh and eighth grade earned um American Leadership Academy Gilbert North is K12 that's their K8 earning uh score that they earned for example and then finally we have our 912 Charter comparisons um again that dark line is the the cut score between an A and A B um and these are
078the charters that you find within our boundaries Mr Brookshire just one quick question when you back at the last chart are they graded on the same same scale even though they're non-traditional is this data so let me go back to actually HBA so they are graded using the same criteria um again they have to have the the the end counts to get points within a category but what happens is for example if I've got 100 Kids total and 25 of those kids are in the K8 and 75 of those kids are in the 912 25% of my points are going to come from the K8 point value so so whatever I earn on the K8 side multiply that by 0.25 and then 912 whatever I earn on that side multiply that by 75 add those
079two numbers together and then they're evaluated on the high traditional 912 scale so uh which is lower than the K8 scale um the cut for in a is 82 on the K8 scale SC the cut is an 84 okay so just so I'm reading it quickly such as like Benjamin Franklin it's rated on the 9 through 12 scale corre so they get an easier it it depends it it yes they they they have fewer points that they need to earn in order to earn an a um but it depends on what percentage of their students that they are serving is in that category so my uh Ben Franklin did earn an overall B uh this year um you can see that their seventh eighth grade um was not did not perform very well um probably
080I don't know the percentages they they don't share that information in the data file that they share with us um but my guess would be probably that seventh and eth grade is probably about 40% of their population and then when you look at the 9th through 12th grade grade that's about 60% um so if they had just had the 9 through 12 they probably would have been an A but because that seventh and eth grade was so low and weighted fairly heavily it pulled them down enough that they earn to be overall thank you you're welcome so uh before I go into the last part here I I just want to share with you a lot of the information that I pull and the work that I do I couldn't do without the team that
081I I work with and since he's here in the audience today I have to call him out and I've called him out before so I just want to say thank you to Brian Campbell for the work that he does we couldn't do what we do without him uh here so I appreciate him being here and and he's even wearing a tie and a jacket that uh so in conclusion I just want to say say that I hope that as a school board you recognize the work that our staff our students our families put in to earn these letter grades a and that you represent the highest performing District in the East Valley um and we are among the highest performing districts in the whole state of Arizona it's quite an accomplishment it's a large responsibility
082as well um but uh I'm proud of being here and the work that we get to do every day um and while we celebrate these achievements internally and externally we also want to share with you that we are all committed to uh continuous Improvement and I'm excited that based on the work uh that all of us are doing from the district level down to the site down to the classroom level um I believe we'll be able to continue to share these celebrations with you for many years into the future so with that I will pause for questions questions I mean it's amazing thank you you I know and it's a very high a for the district so um Kudos again to all of the district and admin and teachers questions comments um president Schultz I
083do have a question um as far as the two schools that have bees and I'm sorry if you already answered this throughout um the presentation but so what needs to happen in order for those two bees to come up to an a lot there's a lot of different factors there um uh proficiency um both Gateway and um there's some room for growth in terms of asasa performance um right there we get points based on partially proficient proficient and highly proficient and so it's really diving down uh one of the advantages that we have with our our DNA uh assessment platform is they give we are able to administer uh what they're called mimics um they mimic the the state test and th those have been calibrated by um Renaissance to look at if you perform
084here on our test this is what we believe you'll perform on the state test so we've administered that twice this year we'll do it one more time in February that gives us an idea of where kids currently are um and we can use that to compare to where they were so that gives our teachers some some actionable information right there that these are kidss that I need to Target to help improve just that proficiency side um the other part is that student growth um that one's harder to quantify because we're being compared to growth by students from around the state and a student growth percentile basically says if I started out at this score as a third grader I'm being compared to every other kid across the state that had that same exact score and
085the kid that had the highest scale score growth is going to going to be at the 99th percentile the kid that had the lowest is going to be at the first a and so I don't know how the other kids around the state are performing so I can't quantify that um but the conversations that I get to have with principles in terms of that data culture and how we're identifying those priority standards and and looking at common formative assessments and and all of that collaborative work that our sites are are doing around standards and and skills um that really helps address at least we believe internally based on the data we're getting we're seeing tremendous growth our hope is that we are more rigorous in our expectations and what we're looking for than everybody else
086around us so we're at that 99th percentile rather than that first um so those are the two big ones growth and proficiency um there are definitely some areas in that acceleration Readiness that we have to be uh looking at Chronic absentee is ism is worth two points it's not a whole lot but just making sure that we are aware of who those kids are and that we're having those conversations and and uh trying to ensure that we're decreasing that number um with our uh Acadian and fastbridge uh screener looking at those minimally proficient third grade ELA kids at gate at Gateway and uh something similar we can be doing with kolie with the eth grade highly proficient minimally proficient so there are a lot of different factors and I know that the principles we've already
087sat down with them and talked to them about those scores and areas that they can improve in and they're all it's kind of site dependent so uh we'd really have to bring them up to kind of talk about what they're doing but um there there's a lot of different ways that we can address that and work through all those uh congratulations to all schools students teachers parents it's a lot of work a lot of hard work and it looks really good but I just wanted to make a comment regarding um because I taught there and I just want to give an extra shout out to those those teachers and that staff because they are some of the strongest hardest working teachers I've ever worked with um everybody can easily say that middle school is is
088difficult to teach and most people whether they taught it or not yes absolutely and it is um but I I just wanted to make a public comment about the kly teachers phenomenal and congratulations on on doing well no doubt that this is going to continue to improve thank you thank you Mrs Anderson I agree with you as a mom of a middle schooler I can't imagine it's a big change from sixth grade to seventh grade and their feelings towards School sometimes um uh one thing I wanted did you mention when we talked about the high schools and where we ranked how many schools were in the district I know that [Music] um did you already mention that if I missed I didn't uh so when I said that we're number 12 and number 27 there
089are 230 traditional 9 12 schools in the state um and it's hard it's harder to quantify the hybrid numbers um there are 123 hybrid schools so I don't know whether all of them are 712 some of them could be 68 or 69 that kind of things so trying to add them into the equation um but 230 traditional comprehensive 912 schools um so um higgle high is in the top 10% uh right there and uh williamsfield is in that top 20% uh so again great work to to both of them yes awesome amazing work and even in the hybrids even just looking at the surrounding from your charts appears we're we're quite a bit ahead of of them as well even though they don't count as part of it correct yeah okay thank you very much
090I appreciate it thank you any other questions comments all right we are moving on to 6.2 Educational Services Inc presentation good evening uh president Schultz members of the board tonight we're going to talk about Educational Services Inc this is the company that we utilize for substitutes and retire to rehire program so as I said they Supply us with certified Subs classified subs and they are a conduit to the retire to rehire program they are a huge source for the valley uh for class or certified subs and the reason that they are a a great source for us is that they do the work for us so they recruit hire and onboard candidates they track and pay out uh paid sick time they manage benefits eligibility they handle all our substitute questions regarding any employment and
091pay because the sub is employed through ESI and they manage employee relations issues for us as well next as you can see they serve over 60 school districts throughout Arizona and their subs have many options and opportunities and I'll share a little little bit why they come to Higley in a minute our fill rates currently for this month the month of November were 99% we filled we filled they filled it for us they assisted with that we have very high fill rates um for the certified staff we were at 93% and that's almost unheard of because that's mostly Paris so we're doing great with they're helping us and doing great with that they provide us with 247 customer service I can call them at any time uh our HR assistant that works closely with them
092and our assistant director of HR also works closely with them they are fully automated they partner with us they're not just a vendor out there doing their own thing they're actually partnering with Higley to make sure that we're provided the service that we need need to accommodate our kidss in the classroom making sure that our fill rates are high they provide us flexibility when needed spur the moment Subs they also uh there is training and development for the employees that work for ESI the subs both certified and classified can do online training if they so choose to do that so they provide some additional training for them as well just a couple other num our current fill rate for December um is 98% at this moment and we're what December 13th so we're doing pretty
093good so the rehired the retired to rehire program that is ESI provides a service uh to the district to allow an employee to retire when it is their time to retire but also also someone who is not quite ready to retire they'd still like to contribute more to the district to their classro or as an administrator any any position really so retire to rehire allows them to allows us to have great employees stay with us we get to retain them it retains knowledge base it retains experience and it retains consistency at all of our schools and throughout the district how it works now this is a complicated slide so I'm going to break it down for you a little bit um Esa is allowed to retain our great employees and it provides us with um
094Gap it's basically when employee is ready to retire after they've completed uh their you know time within asrs which is the Arizona State retirement they uh have to do a waiting period of 365 days before they can work fulltime for an asrs employer so ESI provides them a mechanism to come back to work immediately because they're not working for the asrs employer they're working for ESI but they may be placed at one of our sites one of our schools at the district office depending on what position they have um they can't work for that 12 months unless it's just part-time which I think one of the questions was do we have any part-time folks doing that no we do not we're not we're not in the business of using ESI for part-time employees we bring
095back full-time employees and I'll discuss their rates and everything in a minute but we only bring back the full-time employee through ESI for the oneyear period and that's the only year that they're allowed to use ESI they provide a kind of a hasslefree Zone where we don't have to be concerned with um you know their insurance benefits or paying asrs any longer as a district there we go so how it works as you're looking at it from the employees perspective they apply to on ESI only retiring employees can you use ESI this isn't for an employee that worked for us a year and then wants to go on ESI it's just for retirees so the employee would um go through HR and through their supervisor and put in a notice saying we'd like I'd like
096to transfer to ESI it that is reviewed and then if it's approved the employees notified either way they start on ESI on July 1 now there is one exception to that if you remember back when school used to start in August um we have some teachers that have been with us that long that they started in August and that was their first day so we may have to make a couple Exceptions there if those folks are interested but normally a employee would start July 1 through June 30 depending on their contract too if it's a 9 10 12 month contract so after one year of being with ESI and being paid through ESI then they would have to make a decision whether they want to just exit the organization completely piggley Unified School District or
097if they'd like to come back and teach for us again or work for us in another capacity so if they make that decision then they have to put that request in as well and then we approve or deny that request based on the needs of the district at the time we're always looking at what the needs are right so that would be um reviewed at that point on the next slide you'll see what the district actually pays each employee these are based on um three different employee groups the certified teacher the classified employee the an administrators so if someone in is um interested in doing this we look at what employee group they fit into and then we there is a decision made and then this is what they would be paid so if an
098employee were to leave us this coming June 30 in 2024 they would leave us at the salary they're currently at minus 20% of that only 80% of that salary is what they would get if they transferred into ESI employment so there's a savings of 20% there they're still eligible if it says under their employee group for performance pay or supplemental pay they're still eligible for that pay at the full rate the district saves 12 just a little over 12% on the asrs cost and the employee gets no increase to their salary for that year as I stated and then if they decide that they'd like to come back and we approve that that there would be no increase to their salary although they would return to 100% of the salary that they left at so
099the other savings to the district to is for the one year is the savings on the health insurance we would no longer be paying for their health insurance they are obliged to find that either through asrs or ESI or a spouse or something of that nature it just depends on their circumstances so as you can tell all employee groups are only paid 80% of their wage that they leave at for that one year on ESI and that helps us as an employer to pay for the cost of using ESI Services more there we go Okay so currently um this is just a a salary I took 60,000 nice round number right um if they were to continue as an husd employee uh they would be uh at 60,000 if they move to ESI for the
100one year it would be a $48,000 salary the cost to us under the 60,000 is the 12 just over 12% and I rounded it just for purposes of the of the slide but that cost to for husd is $7,200 for asrs there's no fee of course in that column because we're not paying ESI yet and then the medical uh we took the high deductible plan I used that as the number of what the the district currently pays per employee and that's $ 6636 so as you can see it comes to $73,345 and the fee for ESI next year will be um 18.5% for the return to work so that's the number I used as8 8,880 and we don't have to pay the medical we don't pay asrs so actually we're reducing our cost as you
101can see the number is [Music] 56,80202 so they would come back at the salary of 60,000 what they left at we would not be paying asrs 12% at that point bringing back a retiree it's about 10% is all we pay um and then of course we they could be on the medical again thank you I just want to make sure I understood no problem thank you for the question so this is This is the End um questions at this point more questions oh the budget question sure so there was a question earlier um today and the question was is the ESI the agreement like that we have currently with them for the what was approved by the board $2 million does that include the retired to rehire employees yes it does because of the fact
102the way the procurement rules are is we have to even those those are on separate POS it has to be combined because we're using one vendor so we have to acknowledge how much we are spending with that one vendor so we are we have authority right now to spend up to 2 million this year but that does include um we currently have five people on on retired to rehire as well as our subs and one of them is actually coming off in January and so there'll be four people after January so right now that amount is included in the $2 million and that's just you have to remember when you're talking about five people and their salaries those salaries would have been paid anyway because we would have needed to hire somebody to replace them
103if they didn't you know if they didn't go to ESI other questions I was just going to ask um and I know it's probably an unfair question and I'm sorry this is new to me do you know how much the district has used the retire to rehire I don't I don't believe it's used it that much but I see it as a mechanism of people moving to retirement then to ESI and then making that decision um there are other districts that use it originally it was created because there was such a shortage of teachers and it gave them that opportunity to kind of retire but yet still teach a lot of these folks entered the workforce and their early 20s right out of college and you're not quite ready at 30 years to you know
104um leave an organization maybe leave your career so it was a mechanism that was created a while back thank you for sharing the information and kind of explaining how it works like I said the the retire to rehire this was new to me to find out this is what we were doing because every time we've referenced ESI it has always regarded substitutes um so I was unaware that we were utilizing it in this fashion so thank you for putting this together and explaining it thank you anyone else president Schultz Miss Johnson we did increase this by uh increased this twice right the funding last year yes we did it was twice yes last fiscal year this year we're we'll bring you a report for the next quarter and you can see where our spending is
105at at that point I believe that would be in January yes so you should see us back with a report in January I could have sworn we voted twice to increase last year but I wasn't here last year but for I mean in the spring it did happen twice CU that was up through June 30 yes okay yes yeah last school year not 2022 right okay this thank you thank you Mrs Johnson moving on to 6.3 williamsfield High School track and field replacement Mr Mo yes president Schultz members of the board um typically we don't bring purchases through information and action but it's been our practice with these major projects to take the opportunity to highlight the process as this is a high dollar amount um and a one of our major projects that was
106approved um on the tentative Capital plan by the board so um I have a short presentation tonight to go over the uh williamsfield track and field replacement just a little background uh williamsfield High School opened in 2007 um I think Marcus did a great job of sharing a lot of the accolades um and why they're rated by US News and World reports is one of the best high schools um they are a-rated accredited there's over 53 Sports uh and clubs uh that participate on this campus and approximately you know at any given point during a year 700 you know student athletes with various you know your spring Sports your football um your soccer and your winter um excuse me spring fall Sports is is football winter soccer uh Spring Track and then you also include
107band a number of student bodies utilize this area um and it is a focal point on that campus on Friday nights as well so um a little history on the track and field in particular um that track is original um again open 2007 so that track is original since 2007 so it's 16 uh years old um it has been resurfaced a couple times um but that is the original concrete pore um a couple highlights to shout out the track program over there the 2021 the D2 the girls finished um runner up in the division 2 championship and then uh just last year they had a stellar athlete come through um Sarah Prince um she graduated last year in 23 but she sets two um Arizona State records in the 110 100 meter hurdles and 300
108meter hurdles those are current State records uh with William Field's name on them so um Sellar athlete that has gone through that program in terms of the field side um the synthetic turf was installed in 2015 um originally that field was grass and then that 2015 was the first year for Turf um so that makes it nine years old um and then our football program two time state championships both in 2016 and 19 and so when the district decided to go to that synthetic field Turf in 2015 you can see on the far right there some of the benefits of synthe Synthetic Turf um Synthetic Turf field Fields have resulted in increas in safety and playability um they reduce maintenance costs and then it's year round play right we're not shutting it down to either
109winter seed we're not um at any given point having to fix irrigation leaks um it's year round play and in Arizona when we have you know the 300 days of some right um it is utilized often and and regularly so um another benefit um on why a lot of Arizona schools have moved to Synthetic Turf on their U Main football field so diving into the the process uh for this field and track and field replacement so um I know it's been a while but back in April 5th 2023 um it's been our practice to bring forward our tenative Capital plans for the following fiscal year and so the board did approve on April 5th we had um mentioned in the in the plan a major project being the replacement of this track and field in
110some of the planning we've been very very uh this this first pretty much six months of the year has been a lot of planning um for this replacement um we've been very methodical in our approach and so um that first bullet um we conducted a geotechnical evaluation of the soil um I believe I attached that report to the the action item later and it's a it's a long report but let me summarize that for you essentially it says we built on farmland and that soil is unstable um so what that report kind of um resulted in was indicating that a lot of the West part of the field and the north part of our field had higher elevations um than other areas on the field and so what that creates is an unev playing field
111um it also results if you walk our track or if you've been on a track or field you'll see large cracks you'll see Foundation breaks um and so a part of that is the soil that's underneath that um and so one of the in result of that evaluation that test um one of our recommendations um you'll see in the bid is to not only rip the field up but rip the track rip the concrete up and then go down and dig another two to three feet into the soil restabilize that soil um and and then start building up from there on the bullet point two we also conducted a a gmax testing um I got a crash course into uh understanding Synthetic Turf safety um through this process and so the gmax testing kind of
112measures shock absorption on a on a on a synthetic turf field and so um those test results um are often on a are rated on a scale from 0er to 200 Zero being a very plush soft surface it's almost like if you're stepping on um like a foam cushion pad right that's not typically playable so um there's generally a rating right in the middle either from like0 to like 120 in which you want to be because it also then you have the shock absorption but you also have a firmness to step on it make Cuts Etc um William seal Tess results came back um they averaged 197 they measured 10 different spots several spots over 25 what that means is uh a massive safety concern for our student athletes or anybody using that field who
113is taking a hit whether it's a football player or soccer player sliding down that the um probability of a concussion or a serious injury um greatly intensifies when there is no shock absorption so um basically it says that that feel is hard as a rock and um you know we and do for replacement essentially we knew that we did though want to go through and and make sure we did our due diligence and make sure that this was exactly due you know due up for replacement and is was worse than what we anticipated um it probably should have been replaced last year but um we wanted again to do our due diligence as this is a high dollar item the third bullet point um throughout some of these conversations we had multiple meetings uh Mr
114Fox Daryl single Gustavo landeras our director of facilities as well as Coach Campbell several of the track coaches um I mean this is this is their their field this is their school and so obviously um you'll see throughout our decision processes none of those are made in a in a silo um we we share out and we want our feedback from our schools this is um a place they utilize they live on and so um several of those meetings that we had um had some um logistical like changes which I'll cover when we look at the pictures it's easier to explain there um but again another opportunity of of planning um and making the completely you know an educated decision for the future of this program and not just looking at it um in a
115micro uh kind of sense the procurement the district issued a request for quotation um we received three prospective biders um the recommended better bidder of General acrylics is is again recommended later in this agenda the two other biders Elite Sports biders uh was very um um close in price um there were some different um um when we evaluated this bid there was not just price we' um evaluated U the plan the method approach um a little bit of the uh the biders um history the the individuals that were going to be responsible for doing the field and so um it was very close between General clicks and Elite Sports Builders the third B helis was about a million dollars above so that was an easy decision um in terms of price and then just you
116know feasibility construction um we have slated pending board approval um to go on 226 through 6:30 because of the extensive work with the soil um that we would be uh displacing track and moving them to Higley we have worked with again Mr stangle Mr dly at at Higley High um to make sure there's accommodations at higgle High um for that U for that williamsfield track program as well as if we need to bus um or maybe it's just an extra warmup it's pretty close I'm um but if they need busing we will make that accommodation um but yeah it would displace uh track and field for the spring and then be open uh scheduled to open in uh the next school year 2025 so with that I'll look at some of the rendition so and
117talk about some of the logistical changes that we're kind of recommending so your current tracking field here um some of the areas I'll highlight are the left side of the field or the South side of the field you'll see the square track pad there um on the new proposed rendition we're looking at making that a full they call it a dzone um and that red line uh is an indication um of pole vault that's where we'll bring pole vault up um to the field and then that will be an area for pole vault in high jump coming back um on the far north side of the field or right side of the the photo you'll see long jump and triple jump be there um they would now be moved down to the where P vaa
118was which is if I had bigger picture but it' be on the um just north of the track on the northwest side um and that um moving that down there gives them their own space um we were having issues with sand coming into the the turf on the previous rendition um elevations were had to be different to accommodate the pits so you can keep keep the sand in the sand pit so um by moving this this way it makes a lot of sense it also gives that whole um Turf area um extra use so Coach Campbell had some ideas of putting some drills down there um and allowing another area for his players as well as another for soccer players to do different various drills on a Turf surface so and then lastly the obvious
119ones are obvious the the new colors right uh we got some um taking the opportunity to uh continue to push School branding um you can color tracks that is a possibility and so the gray represented here is a little lighter than what is actually being going to be um put in place it's a more of a charcoal gray uh the rendition is not showing 100% correctly but it'll be more for charcoal gray and that red is going to be a kind of a williamfield red um on those are called The Exchange zones so when they do relays um those zones will now be clearly marked um and highlighted and then the field um really that's all Coach Campbell um you have it's called a watermelon kind of style where each uh five um yard line
120is a different color um I guess it's the new hip thing to do um and then some of the designs again taking another opportunity to add on the the far bottom of the field williamsfield and their slogan Dominate and then on the west side of the field williamsfield dominates so that is it for me if there's any questions I'll be happy to take any questions it's really pretty it looks really nice and I'm so glad that nobody's has gotten H so really fast nobody's we're done practicing on it then right right with track and field soccer's finishing up well we'll have soccer finish up um as the the seon has already started and talking with with Mr Sangle displacing them in addition to track was just we don't have their procurement done there's a lot
121of free um work to be done um so soccer will continue to play on that field throughout February 26 which is the end of their season um so yeah we have one more sport to go through okay thank you president Schultz Mr Moore do we have planned phases for the project it's all one I mean there there's within the construction time there's various phases of of demo um and and a lot of those um what we've worked closely with the Williamsville team to establish a timeline um we're still laying out a lot of those plans like where they're going to um put their staging right um and how we can keep students safe um so a lot of that is still in motion um we didn't want too ahead of ourselves as we still waiting
122for governing board approval on this um to start really engaging with that contractor um and establishing temporary fencing um and stuff like that so and is the new product that's going to be used does that have like a longer lifespan than what we currently use yeah so the new product we we'll be using would be rated within that 0 to 200 scale brand new it would come in about um 100 110 um it's a shock pad that goes underneath the service currently there's a rubber um I guess fill underneath the current service um but that does provide an 8-year warranty um and then I believe if they um service it over the the eight years that they will extend it up to two years um depending on testing and stuff like that so it could
123be up to 10e warranty on the field the track itself is a 10year warranty um and the warranty includes the maintenance no the maintenance is the responsibility of the district so in the recommendation on the action item we have included two years of Maintenance that is the the extent of which they'll they'll commit to initially after two years they'll obviously want to test and make sure that we are doing our due diligence as well it's not just solely on the contractor to upkeep the field we also as a school district have to do our upkeep and so after two years then we have an option to do annual maintenance with the vendor and and maintain that warranty status and do we see like long-term costs being more than what we're currently paying on the existing
124actually they might go down some of the the new technology with the infield actually does not need water to cool it the cooling technology in the advancement with the synthe Synthetic Turf um have have grown exponentially since the nine years in which this was initially um installed and so um some of the new stuff that doesn't even need water to cool so that is actually saving on the little bit of water usage that that is utilized current currently um so in general since we already have a synthetic turf field um this is part of the expectation when you start that um every 10 years to evaluate that cost but we are not watering this field I haven't done a complete cost savings on um Turf to Synthetic Turf or excuse me grass to Synthetic Turf
125but um thank you I I like the fact that it's got the cooling technology cuz that grass can get extremely hot during the summer thank you this Rees president Schultz um just a note regarding the soil we also had issues with the school that had to be addressed because of the soil so there's no surprise that it's uneven and unstable it was previously that had to be addressed within the school so [Music] um summer for football camps band camps is there a thought process to I mean yes we can move track obviously for their season that you guys have worked out but those fall Sports utilize those fields for the summer and so so um that's almost coming right up to when almost when school starts yeah uh president Schultz member ree I'm actually gonna
126have Mr stangle answer that because these conversations are are happening like in that planning phase we have been intentional to start having these conversations and uh Mr shangle has worked on some plans for some of those areas that I think he can provide some insight president Schultz members of the board um we have met multiple times and it's not going to be easy obviously because we have such little real estate at at black at at williamsfield to deal with as it is um but we'll have uh we'll have the ability to I mean we still have magnificent weight room where they'll be able to do all their all their training um we have the Outfield of the JB baseball field which we can convert to a practice football field a practice facility that's not used
127by baseball during the summer um so baseball will move all their stuff up to the varsity baseball field and we'll utilize that space and then and um by the if this project goes according to plan then we should be fine by The Time band camp comes back for them to they'll be the first ones that'll actually get to utilize it um for for their Camp so hopefully we've addressed all of uh you know all the issues and all the concerns nobody's completely happy but we're not going to be it's a little bit of sacrifice for a lot of reward perfect and I know to at some point there was discussion that when the field was replaced that it would be replaced and turned the way it was meant to be with the home side on
128the west side not on the east side um I see the rendition here of the logo that's facing that East Side was there any further discussion of fixing and putting it the way it was intentionally supposed to be yeah president Schultz remember we yeah that was one of the first things I think we talked about you hit uh a sensitive topic with what um yeah so we we did have some conversations unfortunately every other you talk the Press Box everything is on um the east side of the field and so looking budgetarily we did not budget for U modifying or replacing the the bleachers in the Press Box on the other side um and we did look at some numbers that they're extensive um to do that so currently the Renditions are showing as is
129we did talk you know obviously you know Master planning in a perfect world yes we switch that um with our current um layout and our current um limitations with with funds um if the home side if they weren't going to sit over there then we we weren't going to move it um and correct me if I'm wrong right this right Dale we just because of the the master we we just could not flip those bleachers in the in the Press Box and um so they weren't going to sit over there so we just left the hom side on this side on this that's the current conversation yeah I just know it was kind of Field's going to have to be replaced and maybe when we do that we'll fix the way it was supposed to
130be but I get it there there is cost to that and so I was just asking for clarification yeah I know that that's in our Master planning you know within our our larger conversations with capital planning and and um you know williamsfield in particular there you know Renovations and in campus Renovations so um I I imagine that will be a conversation in the you know Capital project with the bond committee um ciance committee excuse me and um so that is a greater master planning need but uh with the limitation of funds right now it was not flipped so president charz board member Reese I think that um williamsfield being closer to the park like home being closer to the parking lot I think a lot of people are in favor of that versus having to
131walk all the way across to the other side so they rather make like visitors walk all the way across they have the sun in their face and they can't see that is true that's one downside that that is the big part of that and the initial draw the initial plan was that the west side was supposed to be the home side so which is typical right yes Mrs ree thank you for clarifying that because I actually said to Mrs Anderson I don't understand why we would care if we were on the other side okay I think I stand at the fence line usually so maybe I I don't make moves a good portion of the game I mean it's the time of the games is sunset so I mean it's it's and it's hot yes
132it is hot I will give you that I just perfect thank you Mr Moore anything else I I had a question Sor sorry it kind of Segways off of Miss Reese's question um not only for band camps and everything but will we lose any revenue for rentals for that field as well I don't know how much it gets rented during that time but I'm sure you guys looked at that just yeah I mean we've had to block in our facilities management system we have we've had to block those for any future rentals for that time period um yeah I mean there's going to be a cost benefit right but like I think Mr Sangle mentioned it's a little bit of um you know I guess give for a lot of reward right this field will
133be you know it is in need and so there's no perfect timing when you're trying to block out four to six months on a high school campus um there is no perfect timing and so we felt this was the best um timing in in the grand scheme of things so of course not arguing that um just if it assuming it gets approved tonight the communication will go out to our usuals as far as those that normally use the FI just that way I'm sure the changes are pretty big trying to find sites similar familiar yeah and president schel those conversations have already started um those started in our initial planning phases um a lot of it will now be just finalizing that like yes this will be closed from this time um but those conversations
134have started and a lot of that um initial um Talk has been initiated I guess what I'm trying to say so thank you Mr Moore moving on to 6.4 BBA agenda preparation and dissemination first read this CL or Mrs Richards president Schultz members of the board uh we have a board member Miss Van Hook that has proposed some changes to this um policy so I know she would like to discuss that thank you um so I asked uh to bring this policy up for discussion because uh we used to get the agendas on Friday um the Friday before the meeting and had to have our questions turned in by Monday before the meeting um and that policy was changed um by one individual board member and now we receive the agenda on Thursday before the
135meeting um with our questions due by end of day on Sunday um and because that's not how polic policy changes work um I wanted to bring this policy up for um discussion and a vote um and so the proposed policy um change aims to streamline um the preparation process um allocate more time um for thoughtful consideration and promote a balanced and sustainable approach to board service um this will um be achieved by allowing board members ample time to review agenda items enabling them um to spend the weekend with family and attend to personal com uh personal commitments um the policy uh proposes changing the um the day we receive the agenda to Wednesday instead of Thursday um and that gives board members more time to carefully consider research agenda items and prepare for the meeting
136Shifting the day from Thursday to Wednesday not only grants board members the opportunity to dedicate their weekends to personel and family time um uh sorry I lost my place um allow uh it grants board members the opportunity to dedicate their weekends in personal um to personal family time um which is crucial for uh those of us juggling full-time jobs alongside our unpaid board responsibilities um and uh Administration will still have until Tuesday uh to respond to the agenda questions uh where before they were getting the questions on Monday and had to provide the um had to provide the answers by Tuesday so this way they they get the two days and this is um already in practice um I'm just asking that it be added to the policy um and I believe that this change
137will contribute to the overall effectiveness of board meetings and um ensures that decisions are made with a thorough understanding of the agenda items um and one thing that um I would like to add to the proposed policy is uh a line for like a 24-hour notice for emergency meetings if we um have to have an eer mergency meeting um to add that verbiage in there as well that's currently not in the proposed policy now would you like me to Jennifer do you uh do you want me to read this sorry M mclan or do you want me to read this or do you want to read it U Madam president Miss V hook I'm not quite sure you mean read the propos just to go over the the proposed policy I I think the changes
138are on the screen um um in front of you so my understanding is the proposed changes are in red um miss van Hook's comments are in purple um and if I understand correctly you want to add an item that would also address um the ability to hold an emergency meeting with only 24 hours prior so okay thank you president Schultz Gra looking at the I guess it's the third paragraph where it had said 24 hours and it was switched to five working days um and Miss mlen help help on from a legal standpoint I the way I read the initial one is that way if there is something added to the agenda um per se and um or something changed that we can't by law we can't change it within 24 hours anyway so I
139think the 24 hours there was kind of referring to that I don't I didn't read it as the standard um board packet so I don't know I I think the 24 hours was probably there because they we can't get anything less than 24 hours um because once it's posted 24 hours before our meeting it's posted so I don't I don't know I I just noticed that so if if we from a legal standpoint because that's we can't get anything less than 24 hours um do we leave that and then make a separate one to request our typical board packet no less than five days five working days so Madam president miss ree I think you have hit on a concern ER with the proposed changes which is that the open meeting Law requires that uh
140CH there are no changes to the agenda uh in the time period that are 24 hours prior to the meeting um there is not any exception in the current language proposed that would allow the administration to um add something to a board agenda within that 24-hour period so the proposed language would have the cause and effect of extending that 24hour period to a 5 working day period and that would um potentially hamper um your Administration and their ability to place items on the agenda if needed um within that time period so uh knowing what my intention is here um are you able to assist me with with language to be able to um allow them that opportunity um but still ensure that um it states that we can't change anything after the 24 hours and
141with with what the original language um purpose is but still be able to say um to get the agenda five working days prior to the meeting Madam president miss Van Hook I'd be happy to assist in trying to Fashion something something for your this is up for first read I can try to assist and fion something for a second read so the board can consider that option if you choose to do it I'd appreciate it thank you and if I might be heard on the second point if that would be all right um so the the item related to board members being required to submit questions and adding that into your um into your policy itself um I don't I would caution you against putting what are established practices in the district into policy because
142then you don't have the ability to change that without a board Vote or the ability to make exceptions to that so there may very well be times when your Administration gets let's say a question 15 minutes before the meeting or you know and we do want to make sure that we're allowing that practice to continue and not um stifling your ability to get information and I also have a little bit of concern about that paragraph because um under the open meeting law most of the discussion regarding you all have a very transparent process but the discussion regarding items should be occurring in a public meeting and so by sort of codifying your practice about how you answer questions and how you communicate with the administration um in policy I I have concerns about that from
143an open meeting law standpoint so and these questions are posted public right um and and the answers so um so that that's a transparent process but it doesn't happen in in a meeting and I don't know how that would be viewed so my my my best advice is that if you have communication protocols that you want to work out with your Administration that you create a separate document outside of policy that discusses those communication protocols I don't know if has that already you do yes we do so my my advice to you would be that you revise your communication protocols to address these that issue so with your permission when it comes back for a second read I'll remove that but I'll address the 24-hour 5 day okay thank you so much um I just
144want to make sure I understand so if to have the conversation about let's say we felt that the timing of receiving the materials I understand that I understand your point about it being in policy but to have that conversation because I think that we should have that conversation just our experience with you know some people work and feel like it's not enough time and and I see that it could be stressful on staff to try to meet within those time requirements so to have that conversation the five of us um when could we have that we would just have a discussion it didn't have to relate to policy is that what I'm understanding if if I understand correctly you have a document that discusses your communication protocol so you would just have to have that
145on an upcoming agenda okay and could if we wanted to put more formal language about the protocol I'm not sure if M Richards whisper or somebody did is that an exhibit or regulation or something not an exhibit but a regulation that could be attached to this policy so that's something that doesn't have to be voted on it just just like our dress code and other things it's just kind of the common practice that doesn't require board approval so go ahead vice president Anderson currently it is on your governing board web page and it's what was adopted in 2021 with the assistance of asba so that's definitely what we could look at and talk through and revise if you guys are interested in that I don't know that it's necessary that it become an exhibit but
146president Schultz Miss mcclinon um my concern um when it's not policy is exactly what happened is you know one board member made a decision to change the process um and no other board member was involved in the discussion process um and so I don't I don't want that to occur again I want all board members to be able to have a voice in whatever you know even if it's changed in the future um that it's not just a communication protocol um that it's a policy to where all board members could have a say in that okay so M Madam president miss fin hook what I'm hearing you say is that you want that language to remain proposed in this policy not to be removed um and that's a decision for the board next board meeting
147um so okay yeah and I just I mean I'd like to be able to discuss like how do we go about ensuring that um anything like this in the future involves the entire board so again my recommendation would be that you address it through the communication protocol that you already have and that would a change to that protocol would require the board to change it because it's a board adopted document so my my suggestion would be that that third paragraph be that the discussion on that piece be moved to a future time when you all have the uh communication protocol in front of you so the so the communication protocol still requires the the whole board to approve if it was a document developed with asba and it's in my experience boards have in the
148past adopted various prati practices or protocols sometimes they concern uh visiting campuses for example but if you all have a communication protocol that's already been reviewed by uh your a prior board and you want to revisit it that would be something that the board can do thank you president schz is that something that we can just put on our regular calendar as far as communication protocol there's certain things we have to do every year and have time frames and things like that is that something that maybe we should put on our January meeting is to or our January Retreat to talk about or and then if there's any changes that that is Revisited every January if typically if the board's changing it happens in January and that with new people coming on it's a good
149idea to have conversation about our protocols and um if based on whatever makeup the board is or the current board if our life has changed a little bit over the year maybe revisiting that every January if we just have that every January review of communication protocols well uh president Schultz board member re if correct me if I'm wrong I don't remember exactly when it happened from my understanding our policy which would have to be adopted because that's what we did with the asba was the timeline originally of we get the board docs on uh Friday and then we have our questions posted by Monday to get them back on Tuesday and uh and president schz can correct me if I'm wrong we moved it to Thursday for you miss hook um because and I don't
150know when this was I want to say it was like marchish plus or minus um you had talked about how it was hard over the weekend and so we kept the same time frame and Miss Richards you can add to this the reason we kept the timeline is because you all have jobs Beyond responding to our questions and so it was to ensure that as far as the number of working days that you guys have to be able to respond to stuff as well as put things together especially under normal circumstances we have two meetings a month this means every week essentially we're either having a board meeting or discussing the agenda so the the time frame of the number of days is what stayed but then we moved it to Thursday so that way
151your weekend wasn't shot and you had more time of regular working days to do that um something else that I think can be considered is because yes we are new but we've now been at this for 12 months so the idea is that our learning curve to go through this stuff for certain things shouldn't be taking the same amount of time essentially because there are some things that are routine right we always have the same vouchers that come up in terms of yes we can look at what the companies are but the process is the same and so I recognize that some of this might have been difficult but I I guess where I have concern and this again would be the input that I'm after from edmin district office is how long and how
152much of your time frame does this change impact certain things for you because I want to make sure that business as usual is still being done but I also think it's a little bit disingenuous to express that it was just changed willy-nilly without input when it was a direct response to a previous meeting board retreat where we had talked about the length of time that you were doing and that's why we switched it so I recognized that there could still potentially be frustration and that's okay but I I I just don't think it's necessarily accurate to say that it was done without input when the change was literally made because you said you were using all your whole weekend so for those who can add to that I think that'd be helpful to the conversation
153but as far as questions Miss Richards I would like to know you know like how that impacts district office so board member way yes I believe we tried to make adjustments to assist everybody it was you know how do we give you guys enough time how do we have enough time to adequately answer but then there is preparation involved in getting these presentations ready all the supporting documentation and sometimes Thursday comes really quickly right Mr Moore so um you know back in it up another day would be challenging in my opinion but if other cabinet members want to to chime in you know we want to we want to make this work for everybody involved and so you know it is time is time right so I don't know that's my input cabinet any thoughts
154uh president schz member Wade yes um like so every day you move back we process vouchers you know weekly um and I don't speak for HR but we hire people daily um all these are would be you know if every day back up that's that's one day we don't get to get them on the next board agenda so then um depending on the classification you know maybe an employee now can't start till the next month um or those vouchers can't be approved till the next meeting um that those are some of the immediate thoughts in my mind um some of the others are um you typical daily purchases there may be in instances and we do have some Authority with emergency procurement but in getting a lot of that documentation to you timely with accurate
155quotes accurate information and numbers um it just it pushes us back a couple more days so um it does complicate the process but um again if that's the expectation from the board again I think like Mr mclan mentioned I think a deeper study session would benefit both the district and the board to kind of come to a solution where we can both um you know work together I think that's a deeper conversation and possibly a study session um but yeah every day you push back there there's implications so um president Schultz uh board member Wade um yes that's um I was told that it was changed because of that but where before we as board members had until Monday to turn in our questions um and now that that it was changed to Sunday it
156completely eliminated the weekend um so I you know I don't think I mean I wasn't aware until the change happened um and that's how I found out that it had been moved um [Music] so that's the purpose of being able to update the policy um to allow the additional weekday um and even now when um even though we get the agenda on Thursday um just like on um what was it Monday we got an email that a bunch of things were added um so we still have the ability to do that up to 24 hours so if there's expenses or anything else that need to be added we still have that ability um for Christine to email us and say hey this was added this was added did just like she did on Monday um
157so it doesn't eliminate that um so if there's anything new um we can still do that I guess my only oh sorry president schz board member of Ed hook I I think that's I mean I hear you in terms of days what it sounds like is you want another day at it right because the time frame was the same because we got it on Friday questions by Monday it move to getting it on Thursday questions by Sunday but if I'm understanding this request correctly it's giving you another day to add to to look everything over is that what I'm understanding yes so it's it's moving it to receiving the agenda five working days prior to the meeting so moving that day from Thursday to Wednesday I think the only concern I would have for that
158so whenever we decide to talk about this going forward um is if it is difficult for whatever reason if we start routinely getting last minute emails of updates and changes I think that gives off an image that I don't necessarily want to uh establish as like a precedent or common practice right like we did get them this week and for some of us that was a real big complication because we had other stuff going on or that type of stuff I I guess I just something for us to think about when it comes around the next time is this might happen more frequently that we get things added after we already have it and I don't know how I feel from a board perspective if we're supposed to be getting something but then we also
159get a second update because I'm lazy and I like to be efficient if I'm going to do something and spend time on it because it is unpaid this is my free time I sit and do it once and I craft out my time to do that now there's a potential expectation of me having to do that twice and I get that the second time is less potentially if it's only a few things I just that would be my concern going into this is establishing a routine in which we are then after the fact adding more right I just president Schultz uh board member Wade um I mean this I'm not asking for you know two weeks ahead of time I'm I'm asking for a day and what is the difference What A Difference A Day
160Makes um as far as a agenda items um I don't see it being that big of a difference um and I guess being able to decide you know is this something that can wait till the till the following meeting um or not I mean they could do that now um so um you know we're not having a lot of that now so I don't see one day making um such such a huge difference but it would make a big difference um for us and us as board members um you know signed up to to do this and part of our responsibility is to um you know take the time to review our packets um to ensure that uh we know you know what's in these packets and uh be able to properly speak and vote
161on things um it's our responsibility so um I don't know if you know for me I I take that seriously and put a lot of effort into um the research um you know it it might not be everybody um but that that is our responsibility and my my request is just for one additional work day just I just have one uh uh Mr plus you could go off of this I think is the President we meet right with um District to go over it and I know a couple times for me and I don't know if this was in the case when you've been the board president um the schedule has had to change a little bit due to work or whatever um and so there wasn't a lot on it if it was early
162and I don't know what that looks like as far as the days and I don't remember exactly when we changed it I think we had to meet on a Tuesday once maybe and then with fall break things were a little bit off too so I don't know if that makes a difference to you guys with the day and if it would be that much more of a change because then we would have to meet or the president would have to meet on Tuesday or Monday Monday Tuesday Tuesday okay because currently we meet on right okay yes yes and I'm yes I'm sorry for me it's a little bit tricky but Mrs ree did no I mean I I mean a day doesn't matter to me but it's just the district is that most might value
163your time and you know what you guys are doing well I think to um there I have a couple thoughts one to be honest when we talked about getting the packet on Thursday maybe I missed it during that conversation I wasn't prepared for the question J to be backed up a day I thought we were going to get it on Thursday and that questions were still going to be due on Monday so when it changed that questions were due on Sunday it was like okay I mean I didn't I didn't anticipate that when we talked about getting our packets a day earlier I didn't anticipate our our question timeline being backed up a day so um that just kind of caught me off guard I get it's the same time frame it I just didn't
164anticipate that um based on our discussion um it I mean it all the way around I know it's difficult most of the time and Christine I'm not real sure the shell and the majority of our packet like it's uploaded as you guys are getting it so that if I if it's Tuesday and I can go in and I can see what's there at one point in time it was all uploaded at one time and then I know Darlene started adding because we were I mean sometimes we get big packets and I I hear what you're saying I work I travel for work I have a family um in some cases I'd like to think I have some resemblance of a life but um and like that time goes by quickly um um from Thursday to
165Sunday and who knows what's going on and it's like oh I got to do you know I got to get through this and sometimes it can be rushed versus I know for me if I get through the weekend and I can take some time Monday morning without hectic stuff going on and I can get my questions in I know for me that that's helpful um or if I'm looking at the packet over the weekend sometimes I go back and look at like I have to formulate my thoughts too going okay let me read that again how to make sure how I read it before I asked questions so um I know losing that day has been difficult for me as well um but if the packets are are primarily as you're getting them uploaded we
166can look at some of that that's helpful um and I in my opinion and I know you guys work really hard on these presentations and there's sometimes it seems like we're just I'm sure you're already working on the next meeting it's like we haven't even finished a a meeting and you're working on the next one and I know that's really hard um but when we have some larger ones sometimes that's just not enough time either the and it depends on how you view things um the course guide oh that's that in itself is going to take a couple days to get through that's so when there's sometimes we have to stack agendas because of what's on there and I mean we have time frames that certain things need to be done and so some of
167our agendas we know that are heavier than others so [Music] um in one aspect I I don't think it's in my opinion I don't think it's unreasonable to expect it five working days in advance um I'm good with Thursday but I'd like Monday back so I mean so and I know they work hard on it and like I said you're probably working on January and February you guys put all that together um but it sometimes it's difficult when again yes we're volunteers we're not paid when we have other jobs and we have families and and that time goes by really fast and we want to commit to our responsibility um to thoroughly review it and I I think that we have to recognize some time that it takes to do that I believe that the
168issue was the sheer volume of questions and how long it was taking and so we weren't getting the packet until Wednesday and that was the problem we none of us had time to prepare and so then that was if memory serves me correctly Mrs Richard it was the questions and the amount of time it was taking District took until Wednesday afternoon and then we weren't prepared for the meeting and there was a followup questions and so that was the reasoning behind it because also even though we say Sunday nobody's looking at anything on Sunday I mean they're not looking at till Monday but if you don't get it till Monday night and then it's Tuesday which some then we don't get the information till Wednesday afternoon I believe there were a couple meetings back to
169back where we didn't get the board question like the responses to our question until literally right before the meeting and I think it was after those two backtack that we because it we had had the conversation around that same time frame um I think the board retreat happened after those two meetings and then it was switched if memory serves board member way president Schultz I think that's correct I mean our goal is to make sure we have the information and we provide it in a timely manner and sometimes some things take longer than others you know so president Schultz um I want to be able to give them that additional day to be able to get get those questions answered which is why I'm asking for one day forward on the other end so that
170you guys still have those two days and and I I mean we get the board packets on Thursdays and I I work on them from Thursday to up to the the day of the meeting um with you know trying to squeeze it in on the weekends I you know my daughter plays soft softball so I'm softball tournaments all weekend and I come home and I work late so my questions on Sunday typically don't get turned in till you know sometime midnight or 1 in the morning because I'm up working on it um so I I want them to have those two days to be able to get those questions answered um but also um can we maybe figure out a way to be able to separate those questions between um what would be required in
171order for somebody to make a vote versus something that's just for informational purposes Madam president members of the board I think I think since we've made um a recommendation that on the second read the paragraph related to the questions be moved to the discussion about the communic unation protocol I think we ought to save that discussion for when you all revisit those communication protocols perfect thank you moving on to 6.5 JK student discipline first read good evening president schs members of the board uh first reads brought forward for policy JK um board member Van Hook recommended four changes to the current policy and they're presented for the first read as is president Schultz um I asked to bring this policy forward uh because the first section of the policy um did not align with State
172Statute um the policy stated that the superintendent shall recommend policies and develop procedur procedures where the um the law actually states that the governing board of any school district in consultation with teachers and parents of the school district shall prescribe rules for discipline suspension and expulsion of students um so I wanted to ensure that the policy did align um with State Statute um the other change on the policy um was um the section about um the uh suspension for K through2 uh there was an uh a law passed this year um that was related to the K through2 suspension um and that was not in the policy so I wanted to ensure that that was added um and then um although not a fan of confinement um that was not included in the policy at
173all um and that is within State Statute so um I wanted to ensure that that was in there and then um at the end where it discusses uh bullying or harassment um targeting particular individuals um that um per state statute um States serious or severe bullying or harassment targeting particular individuals so the um policy change is to ensure that it aligns with State statutes and not um anything that I would like to change personally president Schultz uh members of the board just a couple points uh from our looking into the policy and how it's aligned a policy um is is meant to be framed within the uh to interpret with within the context of the law so it's not always necessarily going to be verbatim of what the statute says um 188 or 15843 is
174very comprehensive uh and there's pieces of our policy that are pulled from that but not necessarily the entirety of of the law so as far as the introduction goes it's almost a preference of how we want it to be worded um we do have policy BG BGC bgb that uh basically discusses the role of the administration um implementing applying uh administering policy as and then as the board adopting policy so that's it's sort of addressed in additional policies as a whole of our normal practices um so again there's there's nothing that would be necessarily out of legal compliance the way it's currently worded um but also changing the wording wouldn't necessarily make it in compliance either so that's just a preferential language update um you beat us to the punch on the K4 suspension that
175at the end of November that just actually came into effect and so we're in sync with that that does need to be updated to align with the bill that was recently amended to change the stipulations behind the K4 suspension um as far as confinement goes we do not use confinement as a disciplinary practice so therefore we had omitted from the policy because we never ever use confinement as a student disciplinary practice so that's why it was omitted intentionally in the prior or the currently existing policy JK and then as far as the language of serious or severe bullying um again that's preferential it's worded that way in the law and maybe Miss mclen can further clarify what Our obligation is to have those adjectives included into that section of the policy Mr Walker can you
176please repeat the policies that you said that it it kind of sort of is already addressed you ran through them real quick I just couldn't write them down yeah no problem it's policy BG and BGC and bgb and those are just our our policy um policies you and you were stating that those policies contain fractions of the 15-h um no no ma'am uh th those policies deal with the board adopting policy so the language proposed to change the process for prescribing policy at the beginning of JK is is not necessarily legally required it's already addressed in in the B policies president Schultz Mr Walker um so why wouldn't we want that policy to align across the board um with all our policies to ensure that um it does provide the language from the state statute
177um because the way that it's written now um it says that the superintendent shall but that's not within the law the law states that it's the governing board in consultation with teachers and parents it doesn't say adopt oh recommend policies right so I just I'm just thinking that if if we have other policies that state that it's the governing board's responsibility that it should be the same across the board and that this policy should align with State Statute I think the other policy talks about the governing board's role and our role is to adopt policies and approve policies this is just saying that the superintendent shall recommend policy regarding it and then develop those procedures the procedures aren't it's just that they recommend the policy it doesn't they can't they can recommend a policy but
178without us adopting it they can't utilize it right but if we don't use the language that's within State Statute then the governing board doesn't have the role to work in consultation with teachers and parents and when it comes to student discipline that is what the state law says Miss mclen can you clarify as a legal expert for us please sure um so the the existing language within your policy now is from asba sample JK which says the superintendent shall recommend policies and develop procedures in that comply with ARs 15843 the language of ar1 15843 is the language that Miss Van Hook is is indicating requires that the governing board adopt the policies and that it be developed in conjunction with teachers so your existing Language by referencing that statute incorporates its requirements um it's not
179uh legally incorrect to lift the statute and put it into policy um asba does that often but in this instance they chose not to so your existing policy is compliant with state law the proposed revision would be compliant with state law in either method your the governing board has to adopt the policies regarding student discipline in fact you do so when you adopt your student handbook every year because that's the place where you're getting the teacher input you're getting student input you're making changes on um based upon what um Community sees as the expectation for students so that change isn't legally required um Mr Walker is correct Miss V Hook is correct that the change with regard to um the the K4 um H is in effect right now and the changes proposed on page
180two of the policy are um in compliance with state law the issue on confinement um you you have a current regulation that addresses restraint and seclusion it's j i-r so I don't find that the the recitation here is necessary given that you don't use confinement as discipline and you already have a regulation that addresses the use of restraint and seclusion which is seclusion and confinement are the same thing so that section I don't know is necessary and then the last change with regard to changing the language to severe or serious or severe bullying or harassment um targeting particular individuals that is a that is language that is in the proposed uh regulation issued by asba as well um I believe that stems from case law not from State Statute but from case law about when
181you can discipline someone for off-campus conduct so from a legal perspective the the language at the top of the policy is your choice um I do recommend that you include the language regarding the K4 students um I would not recommend that you include the language on confinement because it's addressed somewhere else and I the last change is um would make it align with your asba policy which is your current resource president SCH Miss mcclinon um can we at least add if we remove the confinement portion can we add something at the bottom that cross references that policy regarding confinement um and uh correct me if I'm wrong but I I've heard situations where we have confined students um so it might not be regular practice but it has been used within the district correct M
182president I think we'd be a little bit off topic if we start talking about what has happened to students you all definitely are entitled to that information but if if there is a student restraint or a student use of a seclusion room there's requirements that those items be documented thank you m m and board member V hook if I could add uh the current policy does have JB referen uh on the very bottom of the policy and that does point to the seclusion restraint and that's different than jic c-r so uh oh it's jic so jic is included but not jic di well jic R is um is a dashr or jic R jic it's j i-r so so that would be the regulation not not a policy so the policy that's referenced is jld
183DB jic well J jic is just our student conduct policy in general and then but the bottom one uh the cross references seclusion and restraint policy okay also one more thing too if I could point out the uh the language for the K4 suspension it does reference charter schools in that so I would recommend to uh eliminate that that portion because we want our policy to speak directly to our our school dist District yeah okay thank you Mr Walker thank you Madame President with your permission and with Miss V Hook's permission I'll revise this to reflect the conversation thank you very much you I'd also like to apologize that we continue I continue to call you by the wrong last name oh I because we've done it for so long I apologize meenon you can
184can say it any which way you want but M Lennon is the right okay J anything you want no I would like to say your name properly I apologize M Lennon right please don't apologize it's a hard last name you moving on to action item 7.1 I move that we approve the 2024 2025 course guide for high school middle school special education and Higley Virtual Academy second questions comments concerns I know Mr Len Heiser wi over this um president Schultz I I do have a concern because I asked for um I asked to see if we can separate one course guide from all of them and um I was not able to do that um so based on that I'll wait till till the vote um but or or I can should I say where
185I stand now or no because you have to call the vote I'll wait till you call the vote okay um all those in favor I Mrs Reese did you okay thank you uh all those opposed um I oppose um and again I just want to explain that um I wanted the sped course guide uh separated um so that I wouldn't have to vote no on all of it um but due to the um based on the last meeting where we talked about the castle framework um being utilized um for our sped course guide um I just I can't support um anything with Castle um especially for our vulnerable students thank you motion carries 41 moving on to 7.2 author authorization of expenditure williamsfield High School track and field replacement to General acrylics seconded questions comments
186concerns all those in sorry yes um I I was curious why we're not receiving three Co quotes uh even even though we have a contract uh well not a contract but a did we receive oh I I missed that I'm sorry and we sent out a RFQ which was different than an RFP as well because we had the difficulties with the Fieldhouse um with having numerous change orders that we also wanted to make sure we were getting a quality contractor correct Mr yeah president um members of the board the we did not include the other quotes but we can get that information to you um so you can see that um but yeah I think that was the question but yeah the other part the procurement side um we have utilized different procurement methods for
187larger projects to try to avoid some of the issues we had with um our the request for proposal or we call it hard bidding where they're bidding on a project without uh essentially that's their final best and final price without any uh preliminary discussions it's basically nor research so um we've moved with our larger products to go towards request for quotation request for qualifications but um member Van Hook we can get those other quotes to you if you want to review those as well yes please I'm sorry I I didn't see them attached so I I wasn't aware I missed the the part about that um and then how many buses do we currently have in our Fleet oh we're not there we need to vote on the track and field different all those in
188favor I what am I miss oh the numbers were changed I'm sorry the numbers were changed on the agenda so I didn't change it on my end thanks how are you voting yes sorry motion carries 5-0 moving on to 7.3 I move that we approve RFP 24-02 d29 contracted Physical Therapy Services all the any questions comments concern all those in favor I I I sorry I motion carries 5 Z moving on to 7.4 I move that we the for the authorization of expenditure to 84 passenger buses from Arizona bus Center second weird any questions comments concerns this is where my question is regarding the three quotes I was so off on my numbers um did we receive three quotes for the buses uh president Schultz member Van Hook um we have worked no we did
189not with this we utilized a Cooperative contract um for this recommendation um and this uh Arizona bus Center is a a vendor that we have done business with in the past um and we felt comfortable moving forward with the pricing that is represented so even though we have a Cooperative we can still obtain typically we could still obtain other quotes we just chose not to do that with this correct and so now my question how many buses do we currently have in our Fleet just over 80 um and a little bit of statistics on the fleet average Fleet age is 12 we have a depreciation schedule about 15 years once the bus reaches about 15 years of age um it's reached essentially the end of its life cycle um and about 27 of those buses
190out of the 80 are over 15 years old um so this is another area where we have fell behind on terms of replacement schedule um and that is why we are bringing this recommendation today and does this include any of the buses that we currently allow the other districts to borrow this is not no okay um and I noticed that the invoice did not have a tradein what are we doing with the old buses so those were previously approved on a disposal list on the consent agenda item we've utilized um I believe we brought um the vendor Sierra auction is a additional um company that we can use for uh disposal they're a state approved agency that um basically auctions off the buses um we felt like they provide more value than a trade in
191trade and you typically get bottom of the barrel they're just uh kind of taking it off your hands so to speak um so we've utilized it's a little more leg work but we're getting more back to the district by going through the auction process um and that's how we've um utilized our disposals essentially that's the process in which we've gone through with disposals thank you and uh I saw that we've been able to leverage funds um but are there any potential sources of funding such as grants that might be available for these purchases so uh our director of Transportation Jos Crosby he's been with the district over 23 years he's uh very in tune with uh the trans Transportation world he sits on a lot of um Transportation Administration boards um a lot of the
192grants out there right now that he's seen um are for electric buses um and I know it's a a topic of conversation we've had multiple meetings in which we've discussed that is that an option for our district and right now the biggest hurdle is infrastructure we do not have the infrastructure so these grants will fund the bus or portion of the bus but then we have no means to one service it charge it repair it um and so we have looked at that but most of the federal grants and the grants out there are for electric buses um and what are the warranties that come with the new buses I do not know off the top of my head on that it's okay um if if you can just provide that answer later that'd be
193wonderful um I'm just curious as far as like the term of warranties and what it covers um and then um maintenance costs um do the purchases come with any maintenance packages no the these are new buses and then uh once we take ownership unless it's a warranty item there is some warranty I just don't know the exact coverages which I can get to you um it is responsibility of our our vehicle mechanics um which we have on staff to um continue to keep the bus in service and what is the timeline for delivery of the new buses once purchased so these are uh 3 to six months out so we'll be hopeful to put these in service for next school year thank you so much all those in favor I motion carries Z 7.5 I
194move the for the approval of IgA between Higley unified and Arizona Department of Education regarding art regarding Arts consumable Grant questions comments concerns I mainly uh president Schultz uh I mainly asked for this policy to be uh taken off the consent agenda or not policy I'm sorry we're on the IGA right yes sorry uh wrong words um asked to remove this off the consent agenda because I wanted to um just ensure that you know anybody watching was aware of this agreement um and also um to find out uh are are all teachers made aware of this IGA in order to take advantage of it and what is needed for a teacher to be eligible I can take that one president Schultz member Van Hook um the reason we're bringing this um IGA as a representation
195of Higley Unified School District is part of the Grant application process as the district has to um work with ad um and then then the district administrator down to the teachers no individual teacher can apply for this grant a district has to engage in an agreement with the ad via an IGA and then at that point we can apply for the grant by listing as you see in the IGA the eligible teachers that meet the criteria of the of the grant so um I know multiple districts are aware of this we actually got several Fe um um teachers saying hey this is out there can you apply for it and so um while we were already in the works of that um teachers do are aware of it but it is a district responsibility to
196make that um agreement with ad before funds can be or the grant can be applied for so yeah no I I think it's wonderful and I just uh you know I want want to make sure that teachers are aware that the district has this agreement um and being able to get those supplies um paid for by the state is great thank you all those in favor I I motion carries 5 Z moving on to 7.6 bdg School attorney second read seconded sorry I was drinking questions comments concerns um yes uh president Schultz uh the reason I I'm proposing policy changes um or changes to this policy um is to [Music] um you know to ensure effective functioning of our institution um our current policy bdg dictates that only uh the board president and the superintendent
197have access to legal counsel um and um and that any legal questions or matters must funnel through them as a single point of contact um all board members were duly elected and no one board member has more rights than the next the purpose of a board president per policy DB bdb is to manage meetings and to help create the agendas it is crucial for all school board members to have the opportunity to speak with legal council this practice promotes transparency accountability and fairness within the board allowing all board members access to the same information by which decisions um the legal action of our vote votes are made while also serving the best interest of the educational Community ultimately benefiting the students teachers and the community as a whole as for concerns about the cost that
198would be the same if we went through the superintendent board president or called them ourselves directly avoiding concentration of power allowing only one person such as the board president to communicate with legal counsel can con conate power in one individual this concentration poses a risk of information being filtered or manipulated as it passes through a single Channel similar to the game of telephone a fundamental principle of governance is the presence of checks and balances this Safeguard helps prevent potential abuses and maintains the Integrity of the decisionmaking process risk mitigation in the the increasingly complex legal landscape of Education board decisions can have significant legal ramifications allowing all board members to consult with legal counsel can help identify and mitigate risk more effectively reducing the likelihood of costly legal disputes or compliance issues preserving intent specifics
199and preventing miscommunication legal discussions often involve specific details and nuan es if information is funneled through one person there's a risk of losing the intended meaning specifics and nuances direct communication with legal council helps in preserving the original intent and the details of legal advice communication is complex and relaying legal advice or information through a single um intermediary increases the chances of miscommunication again um similar to the game of telephone each board member May interpret or understand information differently direct access to legal counsel minimizes the risk of information being misunderstood or misinterpreted accountability to constituents Schoolboard members are elected or appointed to represent the interest of their constituents when only a subset of board members have access to legal advice it can undermine the trust and confidence of the public allowing o all members to
200consult with legal counsel promotes transparency and demonstrates a commitment to serving the community's best interests transparency for stakeholders just as parents expect transparency in school operations board members should have access to information directly from legal councel this aligns with principles of openness and transparency instilling confidence in stakeholders that decisions are being made with a clear understanding of legal implic ations collective decision making and active participation school boards function as a collective entity with each board member contributing their unique insight and perspectives ensuring that all board members can access legal counsel Fosters a more collaborative environment where different viewpoints can be considered before making important decisions it ensures that every board member is well informed engaged and capable of contributing meaning to discussions and decisions related to legal matters and lastly elected officials um may have
201concerns about confidentially confidentiality of their legal inquiries having a direct line to legal council can provide a more secure and confidential channel for discussing sensitive matters um now with that said um I I have request requested assistance with the language um for this policy uh several times and unfortunately I have not received that assistance um in order to um to have proper legal language um and so um do I think this this policy is is ready to be voted on um no um but but uh I think that we can definitely have a discussion um and then based on that um I would like assistance to um come up with proper language for this policy [Music] um um in order to move forward with it president Schultz M re um well I think I think
202there's a couple things we need to do before we move forward with a policy like this um when I think that the Board needs to have a discussion on what we want to do regarding legal councel um I know we've been waiting for um a dollar amount that we've spent already on legal council we haven't gotten that yet so um I know for me as a board member having prepaid legal versus having legal on staff I've had both um so I think dollars make a a difference on where we're at and things like that because then does that need to go into a discussion on do we retain do we retain an attorney on staff um and I think that makes a difference in this policy because if we have an attorney that's on staff
203um I know when we had a staff attorney here we had access to them all the time um which makes a difference because they're working for us they're employed by US versus an outside legal council that we paying an hourly rate um so I I think for me how this policy worded I think that's important at least for me um the other thing is potentially determining a dollar amount if we want to allow board members um if we have an outside attorney and we want to allow all board members to have access to an attorney which I I hear your points um then perhaps the B the district or the Board needs a budget for that and again that would be a discussion at another time but these are thoughts and conversations I think need
204to be had before we perhaps look at changing a policy um to see where what is our best Avenue um I it was my understanding that you were supposed to get help on on the legal language so um however this is supposed to however we want it to transpire um if we want to have those other discussions if anyone else has the same thought process or not that that's a discussion obviously for another time this policy is not for that discussion but then do we look at getting that on an agenda and have that discussion and then revisit I don't know Madam president members of the governing board it would it be all right if I provide a little bit of background on my experience with with school attorney policies the um the proposed language
205in here as proposed is not um uh incorrect legally um but it so in other words youve you've indicated that you wanted help to make this legal it's a legal policy it does POS some very practical problems in terms of how you interact with your legal counsel and we discussed some of those at first read um so for instance one of the uh concerns that Miss Van Hook has indicated is that if the communication is only with the board president um there might be a misinterpretation of that information as it's passed on but in fact the passing on of that information from the board president would create an open potential open meeting law violation if there is that sort of telephone uh sequencing daisy chaining of the information um which is why I think the
206policy does exist as written so that if any board member does have legal questions any of you can ask for an executive session you all hear the same information at the same time and the attorney the open meeting law permits the attorney for the public body to obtain Direction which can really only be obtained from the board as a whole so um I'm just going to give you an example from recent past uh I wrote an opinion for a district the board president wanted that opinion to be sent to the Attorney General's office I told the board that is a direction that I have to be given as a whole so it had to be brought to the board as a whole to make that decision on whether that opinion should be forwarded so there
207are some complications with this I think Miss ree's Point as to if you choose to hire in-house counsel um I have seen governing board policies that differ iate between a board member's ability to communicate within house counsel versus a board member's ability to Comm communicate with outside Council so if this board chooses to open up a position and hire in-house counsel um I would agree with Miss ree that that would be the time to relook at the board policy because if you have an in-house attorney as you have in the past um you would be able to create a different working relationship with that individual and to your point just and then I'll end here um to the point about establishing a dollar amount you really can't do that with your current structure because you're
208not paying uh you're paying a set rate to get the expertise of the prepaid legal council so if you there is not a dollar it doesn't cost you more to have me here tonight but um next year if you if your usage has gone up by a certain extent then it would cost you more so that would be a difficult thing to do as well uh one of my present Schultz U Miss mlan uh one of my suggestions was also to and I don't know if this would be part of the policy but kind of like the Attorney General's website where you can go and see you know legal opinions um if somewhere when we log log into board docs if we can have an area to where we can see um legal opinions uh
209related to you know different board matters so that um if we have a question we can go check there to see if that question has been answered previously I don't know if that's something that could be done um but that might eliminate the need for having to to go to legal and ask a question that might have already been answered Madame President Miss Van Hook so that would require this board to wave the attorney client privilege for those opinions and that would if those are publicly accessible no it's only log in only for board members when we log in to look at like draft agendas um so it would we have administrative yeah yeah so then it would just be um only those with login access okay but that that's certainly something that is feasible
210it's uncommon for me in my practice to be asked to give a written legal opinion most of the work is done by email and or by phone uh to try to answer the questions that you all have and there are a myriad of questions that arise in the school district setting so um to give a formal legal opinion is is unusual I in fact I can't remember the last one I've done for hickley unified so but that's certainly a feasible option um and something you could that would be more protocol than and policy related though so based on the information that I shared are you able to whether you agree with me or not um whether you like this policy or not um are you able to assist me with coming up with legal language
211based on what I'm looking to do if if that's the direction is the board as a whole the board has an option to table this policy and ask me to revise it it as I would see fit based on miss van Hook's recommendations the board has the option of voting on this policy and voting it uper down tonight or the board has the ability to um table it until you make decisions regarding how you're going to employ your Council next year um So based on that um I'd like to make a motion to table the policy um in order to get assistance with legal language and then have it come back for a third read president Schultz um I just at the very Le want to make sure that I express to go off of
212what legal council has adved some of my concerns with this are that we won't all have access to the same information um part of the stuff that you read in there you talked about what if it was something we wanted to keep separate and I would argue that goes against transparency I feel like in the idea that if we go through the superintendent or go through the board President we get status updates of some of those conversations and how those things go and they're released to all of us at the same time my concern would be if we had individuals being able to access when they wanted that we have the potential of going to a board of old that you would describe board member reace in which not all of us had access to
213the same information not all of us were given the same information or at the same time and I think that to me is the biggest concern um in terms of being on equal footing I also think it's important that we reiterate should you feel concerned because you know you talked about checks and balances and the idea of that legal process which speaks to my government teacher heart um we still have power and Circumstance in which we can do executive sessions we still can do things if we feel like going through the board president or going through the superintendent our issues aren't being heard so I don't necessarily feel that we are in an authoritative structure with how it is done um I feel like the structure creates an opportunity to make sure that we all
214have access to the same information because that's my biggest concern uh as we progress and move forward is who gets what information when and how is that released so we are all on the same page because if we're making any kind of decision and three of us have you know three different pieces of information it makes it hard for us to be able to do ultimately what is best for students and what's best for hickley so that's that's my biggest concern so when it comes time to whether we table this revisit the language that is where the biggest concern for me lies with having this process president Schultz board member Wade um in the last uh paragraph um my recommendation is that uh all communication with legal counsel um be provided to the rest of
215the board um with weekly reports um so that uh we should if if there's information um you know if any one of us are going too legal to get information I think that's something that all board members should be made aware of um so my recommendation is to provide some sort of report for all board members um so that there's no uh secret conversations with legal so that is part of my concern as well I guess my sorry president Schultz board member ven hook what I would be wanting to make make sure is because sometimes some of us may go to legal counsil and get an answer that we do not like or get an answer that doesn't necessarily require any kind of changes or further action and we still don't have access to some
216of that because the nothing was done because as far as like it shall be in writing when practicable like I I I guess my concern is I'm not really solidly understanding how the structure is not done in a way that a is still giving us the authority to get legal counsel when we need to and is is creating any kind of opportunity for a lack of transparency I feel like given the structure that we have and how things are being released I I I guess I'm not feeling the same lack of transparency when we get access to the stuff that we have and we still have the ability to call for executive sessions or add stuff to Etc so that's that's really where where I was at is that there are sometimes legal questions that
217get put forth that come out on the status report that we get each week and that's where we see them so that is already happening it's just there was a person in between the board memb question and the lawyer but it's still already happening so I I guess I just well don't understand sorry uh president schz um board member Wade um I feel like that's happening with one individual um I there's uh you might feel comfortable as far as transparency because uh you know currently uh you have a relationship with the pre board president who might share that information with you um I'm just hypothetically speaking um which the same information you know I don't have a relationship with the board president so any any of those types of questions might not be shared with
218me um so which is why I'm you know you stated that your concern is you know there's conversations that can be had um that the rest of the board would not be um you know would not know about it um and that's the purpose of providing weekly reports on any type of communication um between the board and legal so that all the board members have the same information um and I I don't I don't believe that you know that's currently happening across the board [Music] um Madame President you you all do have a motion on the floor you haven't had a second and if I could be heard on this point about this paragraph for a minute there again I have some concerns about creating a policy requirement regarding communication protocol I mean what you're
219talking about I hear one board member saying she's satisfied with the level of communication that you're getting regarding what advice you get from legal counsel and Miss Van Hook clearly you're not satisfied with that level I think that discussion could also be bumped into a further discussion about communication protocol but there are times when the advice that's given by legal councel should not be shared with the board as a whole for instance if your uh HR Administration is getting advice on an ADA issue it would be incorrect for a full report of that to go because it's medical information that you all don't have a need to know so that's one example um or you know there it may be premature to share the information with the board on a weekly basis if for instance
220there's you know some type of negotiations that's going on that you know that it would be better to get it solidified and then presented to the um board as a whole for for your decision making on it so I do think think that this paragraph might be best served in your communication protocol um and I also would like you to either second the motion or move forward with um you know you can have further discussion after the second but little wanted to president Schultz and Miss mclennen um clarification I I did not mean any HR or superintendent requests I specifically mean board member requests with legal um but I will repeat my motion um I'd like to make a motion to uh table this um to get the assistance that I have requested in order
221to draft the language in this policy um for a third read all those in favor I all those opposed n nay motion fails 3 to2 all those m m do I start the motion back over again or do I or I can just say all those in favor on 7.6 BG School attorney School attorney second read president Schultz what do we have we already seconded it okay you have questions okay no I I would like to in general I didn't support the previous one because I don't want it to just for legal assistance for language I think we need to table this and kind of figure out where where we are and then I think we need to go from there um so are are you making a motion to table Miss re I would
222like to make a motion to table this policy revision until um a later time till the board determines direction for legal councel a second all those in favor Michelle sorry Mrs Anderson's confused so how is that different than my motion sorry no no I'm not I don't want it to be tabled to get legal advice for how it's written and to bring it back for a third read yet I think we need to table it I think we need to get some more information on how we want our legal policy itself to be where are we going like Miss mclen said we um sorry I know we're all so bad about this um that we need to have a discussion where we want to go if we're going to figure out how much we've spend
223on legal if if that is a direction we want to go um for in-house or not or where we're at and then I think from there then we look at what this policy needs to Encompass because then we've we've Revis we've made a revision and then if we change our stuff then we have to revise it again so I'm I'm just I think it just needs to sit for right now now until we figure that that that's what my motion is that's my explanation my my original vote was my original vote was to table I I guess the back and forth about the language of the tabling I was I thought we were just the motion was to table for to get legal assistance and writing it for a third read I'm just asking we
224hold it right now until we figure some of our other stuff out until as a board we so so what is uh what do you recommend the next steps be to have that discussion I think we need to get it on a a board agenda in the first part of the year I think we need to get some information from Finance on where we're at kind of estimated we'll be determining our where we're going anyway um for next year expenses and so I think that we need to get that on a an agenda item for information so we can have more information and have discussion to determine direction we want to go thank you and it it got off track and I I wanted to bring this up is we're also going to have a
225new superintendent soon and I imagine that there will be some changes in um and the way legal procedures are just increase in fees as well as there's an adjustment to who overt takes the seat so I just wanted to put I meant to bring that up a while ago we just got Way Off Track thank you I did second your motion okay all those in favor I I I motion carries 5- Z future agenda items 8.1 president SCH oh pres sorry and we looked at having a future agenda item regarding legal council and discussion yeah I think so Mr President Schultz I'd also like to add a future agenda item as things we've talked about repetitively uh that is to look at the Higley Unified School District uh governing board superintendent and District admin Administration
226communication protocols because I think we need to revisit uh how we talk about things what board members uh policies are regarding communication amongst ourselves uh as well as you know District admin thank you anything else um I hope everyone has a very oh Sor yep I would thank you I would love um to hear about and whether you do this in the superintendent report or if you bring it to the um community in a meeting is hear about how AI is being used um in classrooms and how the school district is incorporating it or what what's going on just an update thank you I hope everyone has a very nice holiday and a safe holiday and we will see you in the new year Mee I move that we adjourn I move that I I
227move that we adjourn the meeting all those in favor I motion carries 5 Z