HUSD Governing Board Meeting November 15, 2023

001e what time is it at this time if there are any other request to speak please fill out your form in the lobby request to speak is now closed if you haven't filled out your form good evening I'd like to call this meeting to order Mrs Richards roll call yes president Schulz like the record show that all five board members are present thank you please join me in a moment of silence and Pledge of Allegiance iedge Al to the FL of the United States of America and to the stand One Nation God indivisible I move that we approve the agenda all those in favor motion carries 5 to zero Mrs Richard superintendent report yes thank you president Schultz here is another segment of Higley Adventures tonight I'm going to help this there tonight we want

002to recognize Bridges Elementary they recently collected 1,500 food items for the House of Refuge in Gilbert we are so thankful that higgle supports our local community way to go Higley and way to go Bridges and this is part of our higgle helps portrait of a graduate initiative all right here we go Mandarin teachers J Shen Shang and P leatherby were recently awarded the Arizona Chinese teacher Milestone award by the mayors of both Gilbert and Chandler and the United Chinese Association of Arizona this was for their dedication to teach Mandarin and Inspire students in Arizona Public Schools there were a total of nine teachers recognized with two of those being from husd we are proud of our thriving Mandarin program and this is so supported by J Jan and P and if when I go through

003these if somebody's in the audience stand up and wave in a minute I know somebody's here that's getting recognized so I don't have P or here do I okay all right this is the person that is in the [Applause] audience a special recognition for higgle High's teacher April French she was honored this year at this year's State lesbian Festival as the Arizona thesbian teacher of the year for the east region this award is presented annually to a teacher who demonstrates exceptional courage and Devotion to the performing arts program at a school it is a prestigious honor that recognizes the best of the best within their ranks the Arizona thesbian executive board considers many factors in choosing the recipient of this award including years of service leadership and character Miss French's ability to encourage higgle High's

004theater program to be one of the best in the state Setter apart from all other candidates so congratulations April this fall two husd teachers were recognized by the Arizona language Association as outstanding World language teachers these individuals are Williamsville Alison lock and Coronado's lii liia they were each awarded an engraved plaque which was was presented during the Zella fall conference Allison and lii were nominated by our modern and dual language instructional coach Rebecca Rod Rodriguez our Allison and lei in the audience I know a principal is in the [Applause] audience so miss lock is a Spanish teacher at williamsfield high school and was recognized for her outstanding secondary work with students she is an excellent team player and also a leader on campus she's always working to improve herself in her professional skills for the

005benefits of students lii is the Mandarin fourth grade teacher at cornado elementary she was recognized for her outstanding Elementary work she is always striving to improve her instruction and her collaboration with her team and leading in any way she can she is also a great advocate for cultural competency and works tiously to teach both content and language with a constant background of culture her students learn and grow as she holds them in high standards and creates an amazing learning environment oops go back all right next this is williamsfield high school senior Tyler Bella he was invited to the Navy acm's candidate weekend in Maryland October 12th through the 14th candidate visit weekend is a program aimed to expose candidates to all facets of life in the Naval Academy and offers opportunities to sample University level

006academics this program is offered by Invitation Only In addition Tyler was invited this past summer to the Naval Academy summer seminar is Tyler in the audience all right well congratulations to [Applause] Tyler the National Merit Scholarship program is an annual academic competition among high school students for recognition and college scholarships that began in 1955 names of semifinalists and commended students for 2024 were recently released and higgle high and Williamsville students were of course on the list higgle high students included Bianca doson Caleb ladok Grant Olen Gabriela shopman McKenna sharp the higgle High semifinalist were Mason Osborne cutter ralden and Jennifer white if you're in the audience wave real big will we'll cheer you on let's give them a hand for this [Applause] amazing here are the williamsfield high school students students who were recognized by

007the National Merit Scholarship program our students are Ryan uh whenin and case Curtis not pictured we also have semifinalist William Robinson we are proud of these students and wish them well are you guys in the audience but let's give them a [Applause] hand okay that's it for higgle Adventures okay ready ready for points of Pride yes thank you for sharing all those wonderful accomplishments all our teachers I think it's booah bridges too right booah Bridges is that righto yes yes yes all right okay we're ready for points of Pride at this time I need Rachel Broadley and Matt bille they are the administrators from Centennial Elementary thank you all right give us one second we'll be quick [Music] sorry all right so we have the honor to recognize individuals from our campus tonight we're super

008excited so when you hear your name come on up and are we keeping everybody up here for the whole okay perfect and then we'll do a photo and then at the end we're going to run outside and take group photos together so we're going to start with our certified staff this one goes to Miss Crystal Smith so come on [Applause] up Crystal Smith is our points of Pride award recipient because of her commitment dedication and passion passion that she puts into everything she does at Centennial Crystal serves as a stuco adviser and on our TPS design committee she is also actively involved in the Stu student culture committee and often steps up to tackle various tasks such as creating inclusive character lesson plans that celebrate diversity and organizing our student crew structure as a teacher

009crystal is known for creating a fun and supportive environment where students feel safe taking risks in the classroom working collaboratively to problem solve and dig deep into the science standards students often come back to visit Crystal because she is a teacher who impacts their lives and leaves a lasting impression if you've ever seen our welcome back assemblies crystal is The Mastermind behind her amazing choreograph dance moves I just wish she could like make us all look better like I want to I want to look like she does when she dances I just don't have the Rhythm um as a colleague we appreciate Crystal's trustworthiness and willingness to do whatever it takes to get the job done so thank you [Applause] Crystal [Applause] yeah she always puts the slide thing and I have two left feet

010so that um we'd like to move on to our student our sixth grade Avery Gruber come on [Applause] up um she was nominated by several teachers so I'd like to read what one of those teachers had shared with us Avery is a hardworking kind and responsible student she can sit next to any student and make them feel important and welcome Avery is always willing to help others especially when we're working with partners and in groups and is kind and patient with everyone towards her teachers she shows willingness to participate and complete her best work she is sweet softspoken and truly exemplifies what it means to be a centennial Cardinal we are very proud of you [Applause] Avery okay we'd like to recognize our classified staff Miss dedr [Applause] Aledo so I'll I'll read what we

011wrote but um just in a nutshell it it takes a lot of people to to make a school be successful and and and run the way it should and we all know that we're not always all there and when we're when we're not we need people to step up and did she ever this year um Dedra is our points of Pride recipient this year because of her flexibility and taking on additional tasks in working with and supporting students outside of her case load this year D was slated to work with fifth and sixth grade students within our resource program but has recently started working with our Kinder students when she was approached with this change in her schedule she accepted that challenge with a smile and a willingness that shows her adaptability and commitment to

012our program and especially the needs of our students we appreciate dedis a sense of teamwork and dedication to our students in school thank you so [Applause] much all right and finally the guy that puts a lot of you know makes us amazing and doesn't get paid for it is our volunteer Mr James Quin so come on [Applause] up James is truly a joy to be around he currently serves on our PTO executive board as the treasur and used his expertise and background to effectively track our finances as well as to help us think creatively creatively about options to enhance how we serve our school Community he is quick-witted and keeps everyone in stitches with his sharp sense of humor which makes coming to the PTO meeting so much fun James consistently volunteers his time during

013our fun Friday donut donut sales as well as at other school events he has become a well-known face around campus and we are so grateful for the love and support he pours into our schools so thank you all right you guys all right and before we take our photo we're GNA see who came out here to support everybody besides our Centennial crew so uh Crystal who are who' you bring here my husband and my two kids Gavin and Gracin and Miss Avery who did you bring tonight uh my mother and Miss D who did you tonight I brought my husband Len and my daughter Sienna and James who did you bring tonight I have my wife and my mother-in-law here and also my daughter Katie who's a student at uh Centennial and my son Peter

014thank you guys all right ready next we want to invite Lindsay reev she's the AP at SanTan Elementary to recognize her points of Pride so we may give them a minute to yeah photos up here thank you all for having us here tonight Mr Marcado unfortunately is under the weather so he sends his congratulations and I get to talk about all the wonderful people at SanTan and I am going to start with our amazing Miss Leila [Applause] Peterson so normally at SanTan this is when I hand over the microphone to Ila so I'm going to go ahead and hold it tonight but tomorrow morning it's right back to you Lea is our student body president at SanTan this girl she's kind Dependable positive and just an all-around great student leader she recently LED our schol

015white assembly and she's even taken the microphone roll away from Mr Marcato and those of you at SanTan and around you know that's a big accomplishment so she's a dynamic presenter we love her leading it the student Botti enjoys her listening to her stories how she facilitates everything she this girl will do great things when she goes on to the secondary level and Beyond and Watch Out World cuz she's coming and her teacher quoted her as she's an amazing and kind person so congratulations ilila and thanks for all you [Applause] do and this is for you you got a lot of people here with you tonight um I brought my mom my dad my little brother Blizzer my older brother Graham my little brother huxton my little sister kaora and then I also brought my

016grandma Farnsworth and I also brought my grandpa Farnsworth and my grandma Farnsworth and I also brought my nana she's got a packed house all [Applause] right then next up we have our classified staff member Britney Gilbert come on up [Applause] Britney Britney is an amazing staff member she is a positive supported member of our front office she is calm and positive in every encounter that she has with all of our stakeholders she's professional positive supported she truly does her part to make our front office positive inviting and run smoothly so we appreciate everything you do Britney and one of her colleagues was quoted as she has worked hard learning her job and is Pleasant to everyone all at the same time she has a stressful job working with lots of different people parents staff teachers

017district and representatives and she never loses her cool which is awesome as our registar and our attendance clerk she deals with tons of people every day and we just always appreciate her calm kind heart and she gets the job done so thank you Britney who did you bring with you tonight I have my husband here and then my mom my dad my sister my brother-in-law and then my mother-in-law is over there and then all of our Santan family [Applause] oh and there's your certificate so now our other two points of Pride are also under the weather tonight and they are watching live at home so I told them to tune in to hear all the great things that we appreciate about them so we have Miss Megan manasco who is our certified staff member that

018we're recognizing tonight Megan's a differen maker on our campus she daily brings all she she has to connect engage and inspire all of her students she's a team player and always willing to lend a hand in any capacity she can to support students staff and the overall School Megan's a wealth of knowledge and she's willing to help in any way that she can she dedicates her days to help her students and the teachers of Santan so Megan get better we need you back and thank you for all you [Applause] do and then our volunteer is Mr Brett hayan and I'm going to have to read this one because it's got a lot of technical terms on it um he volunteers his time weekly if not daily to assist our robotics program at SanTan he's knowledgeable

019and passionate about the program and enjoys helping the kids understand the Dynamics of gear ratios coding programs and robot construction Brent gives not only multiple days a week to basically helping run the technical and construction side of the robotics program but he can also be found every Saturday that there's a tournament as the tournament manager he is encouraging and supportive and frequently guides and facilitates teams towards success success he was also stated Brent has been volunteering his time to help with robotics team for years he lendes knowledge and helps kids learn new things he goes to competition helps with all the equipment and he's just an incredible volunteer that makes a positive impact with our students in on campus so thank you Brent [Applause] w okay were you ready yes all right president Schultz upcoming

020events this Friday is the school visit to chaperel Elementary we hope you all can join us I know they're ready because I've been hearing rumors about how great it's going to be also who's looking forward to Thanksgiving everybody uh next week the 23rd and the 24th and then our next governing board meeting will be at 5:00 pm here in the district office on December 13th that concludes upcoming events thank you Mrs Richards my favorite part of the meeting for sure thank you okay request 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

021board may not discuss comment or take action on matters that are not specifically identified on the agenda therefore pursuant to AR ARS 38- 431.073 action taken as a result of public comment will be limited to directing staff to study the matter responding to any criticism or scheduling the matter for further consideration and decision at a later date also we ask the audience members to practice proper public meeting decorum refraining from either negative or positive responses including clapping or verbal Outburst Outburst to ensure fairness to All Points of View those that refuse to follow these rules will be asked to leave in accordance with policy bdh public participation at board meetings if considered NE necessary the governing board president shall set a time limit to the length of the comment period in order to ensure that

022each individual has an opportunity to address the aboard the president may also set a time limit for individual speakers thank you for your cooperation due to the number of speakers tonight given our agenda and the number of people requesting to speak we will be limiting the length of comment period to 46 minutes in addition in order for all individuals to have an opportunity to address the board the time at limit for individual speakers is now set at 2 minutes prior to this I want to just as a point of clarification the executive session requested regarding power rants was previously resolved with our attorney in executive session our first speaker is um Mrs Mindy brocker to speak with you today I do have a concern that has recently come to light and I hope you will

023listen and investigate further it's my understanding that one of our coaches has been offering extra practice to his team outside of school hours the at the local LDS meeting house just outside of williamsfield please let me say this is a generous offer for which I understand that his athletes are very grateful as a parent community members supporting our schools in this fashion is normally a wonderful thing however as it has been related to me this coach is overstepping and we should all be very concerned first I have heard that this coach invites adult missionaries from the community to play as opposing teams this brings unvetted adults mainly men 18 to 24 years old to interact closely with our teen athletes this is extremely inappropriate if parents are not informed second I'm told that at the

024end of practice without parental consent the athletes are required to attend a 15minute this minute religious study including reading from The Book of Mormon devotionals and prayer I believe this is an egregious violation of the Arizona parental Bill of Rights where um I'm summarizing ARS 1602 it states all parental rights are exclusively reserved to a parent of a minor child including the right to direct the moral or religious training of the minor child I always try to give our staff the benefit of the doubt and perhaps this is considered extra practice and the coach didn't think this to be inappropriate but the secret nature of this religious study parents are not fully informed and parents and students are not given the opportunity to opt out of the religious training is absolutely out of bounds however

025it is in no way fair to yoke athletic opportunity for husd athletes and additional coaching opportunities from husd coaches only to those athletes willing to endure prizing this incl excludes students from other or no religious um from other or no religions from team building and athletic Improvement I hope you'll investigate the matter further and take appropriate action to assure parents and volunteers will not be using husd team sports to indoctrinate athletes into a coach's preferred religion thank you thank you Adam Mr Adam Brock brocker excuse me thank you very much I'm going to be repeat uh reading a statement from Barbara Summers who was uh has some sick family members uh first I wanted to express my thanks over the inclusion of parents in the community in the superintendent search I went in to the

026in-person session and rallied some friends to join and loved being able to share our thoughts and wishes with the group I also loved hearing from the rep that she had just uh had a group of Higley students in the morning to do the same I know I can't say it enough enough but I want to see the board and District administration uh include more student advisory committees and parent and advisory committees so this made my comments and asks feel validated I appreciate the district and board taking the time to listen and to be inclusive in these matters second and it Fe it feeds right into the first topic I'm so thrilled to see agenda items .2 and 7.2 on tonight's agenda as I said above I have been asking for this for years and while

027we have had committees and some smaller aspects I am so glad to see a more formal advisory committee I did have a concern over the inclusion guidelines and would ask that you open it up to the Imp parents of husd students who might not live within our boundaries as school choice is such an important topic and we have so many amazing parents who choose to send their children to to our schools and are active positive par participants within our district Community even if they are unable to vote in some of the elections that affect our district I know so many who have worked tirelessly on things like our bond committees elections volunteering in our schools Etc and it would be a shame to leave their voices out some of these individuals are far more involved

028than the bulk of the parents who do live in our district also with at least one board member with a student who is of age uh to attend one of our amazing schools and chooses to send them to another another District it feels like the board should take into take into account those who are actively using and loving all that our District offers thank you thank you Taylor Francis Madame President and members of the board I'm a parent of two husd students discontented with the proficiency level of the district's Core Curriculum scores in fiscal year 22 one of every three students is not proficient in mathematics and English language arts and two of every three students are not proficient in science in a classroom of 30 20 students are incompetent in science every meeting I

029hear board members questioning science camps conference for teachers software books and a host of other resources which include controvertible topics from from highly partisan and ideological groups only to be responded with the effectless and trifling blanket statement of trust our administrators trust our teachers they will stay within standards Madam president and members of the board I am sorry I cannot simply accept this statement when 60% of your school cannot pass science test and to say other districts in the state face similar numbers is fallacious and dismissive you are here to represent an answer for your students in your District I would love for my own children to go to overnight science camps I think it would be a wonderful opportunity I wish I had such possibilities when I was a youth but perhaps we should

030be focusing more on the core Basics like passing a simple math English or science test I would ask that you demand the same results of your school administrators and teachers the taxpayers of the that the taxpayers demand of you be excellent in spite of the rest of the state you owe it to your students Miss Kathleen Richards good evening thank you for the opportunity to speak um I wanted to start off by saying thank you to whoever whatever team it is that organizes the I believe their quarterly meetings um I had the opportunity to attend the last one that was done on drugs and what it is that you should be looking out for as parents um and I had the opportunity to speak with the counselor who works here at the district level um

031after the meeting because I had a ton of questions um and she was very patient and gracious to answer all of those and point me in the right directions um I would encourage those that are watching those that are here CU there's goodness gracious um to attend as many these as you possibly can because they're incredibly informative and as a mother of a six sixth grader and a third grader there were things that I just simply didn't think of that I didn't know and my kids are actively dealing with in elementary school and I think sometimes as Elementary parents we put blinders on and think the worst thing is you know someone's kicking sand on Me on the playground or something akin to that and that simply isn't the world that we live in now

032the other thing that I wanted to address quickly is that I I am a little bit concerned here within the district about communication um over the last several months and I would even say over the last year or so um there have been several incidents or larger issues within the district where the rumor mill goes like that and it is quick and it is cruel and it is often Incorrect and it is something that could be gotten out in front of and I think it is really important and I'm talking about rumors about board members meeting with teachers outside of this Arena which would be inap appropriate I'm talking about uh academic inappropriateness I'm talking about all sorts of things that really if we could increase the amount of communication while balancing the the things

033that you need to have discretion about but I see other districts doing it and I hope Higley can do a little bit of a better job going forward thank you please refrain from clapping as a reminder there's no clapping during the board meeting thank you Mrs leam and next after that will be Heather box so we can just have the next person ready to go balsh I'm sorry Heather Bosch um good evening president Schultz members of the board I'm grateful for the opportunity to address you all today with something positive I'm a proud parent of two young girls in hickley District and my heart is full of gratitude for the incredible Educators who have played a role at their lives my husband and I feel truly fortunate that each step of our daughter's educational um

034past have been Guided by remarkable teachers not only have our girls excelled both socially and mically but we have also found a second family in hickley today I want to take a moment to express our heartfelt appreciation for each of the dedicated teachers who have been instrumental in shaping our daughter's education to Mrs compano and Mrs Mayan for at KY preschool thank you for taking such great care of our girls your class has truly made their time at kie special and laid a beautiful foundation for their education to miss E Mrs ibersol and Miss Pascal at hga thank you for teaching our Lily how to read and fostering her love for books we love being your pen pals and staying in touch to miss Peterson Mrs jtil Mrs Roberts Miss Myers and Miss Alita at

035gayway Point thank you for creating such a positive inspiring and inclusive environment this is meant the world to us we are impressed with all the opportunities you are providing our girls they are thriving and we could not do it without you in addition to being a mother I also serve as an instructional coach here in the district for the secondary math teachers and I want to also take a moment to share my appreciation for and celebrate their incredible dedication and passion for teaching while I cannot individually thank all 70 plus of the teachers that I work with I want to express my gratitude for their commitment to our students our Math teachers are lifelong Learners attending local and National math conferences like CM they fearlessly Embrace new approaches setting a powerful example for our students

036what is even more remarkable is their collaborative Spirit among our Math teachers they share ideas support one another and contribute to a learning community that benefits both them and most importantly our students thank you thank you and next up after will be Mr William blankin ship good evening my name is Heather balsh and I um am happy to be here tonight thank you for having me I just wanted to take a moment and tell you that in preschool last week we celebrated our veterans um it was very exciting to see all of the photos of our family members that were posted in our school um our students made cards to give to Veterans and we invited them in for coffee and donuts uh last Thursday morning so that was really fun thank you to all

037of the veterans that we have I'm also very excited about the citizens committee I think that diversifying perspectives within our community can enhance um engagement and Foster Rich exchange of ideas and experiences and I would love to be considered for this committee thank you after Mr Blen ship will be Miss luren conine I apologize I believe I didn't say that correctly but you're good to go thank you Mr Howdy Folks uh so I feel like we've kind of uncovered a pretty serious problem in the school district this week and it's a lack of communication and a lack of transparency my school currently doesn't have a principal I wasn't told that by the school district I still I don't know how long he's been gone and I have no idea why he left and I think

038at the end of the day this like this institution built on trust we as parents we trust you with our children and ultimately I feel like you are responsible to us the parents and that only works when you communicate with us and uh I feel like I've been told or I I I've been told and it's my understanding that when we see silence like this it's generally on the advice of legal counsel um in most cases I feel like that's a reasonable tradeoff but when it comes to a school district a school district is really no place place for secrets and I feel like your increased exposure to Legal Li liability really should take a backseat to like us as parents feeling safe sending our kids to school tomorrow so uh I feel like I

039have three explicit requests today the first is if you were in fact given legal counsel to keep secrets from parents I would ask that you reconsider that legal advice because anybody who is promoting the idea of keeping secrets from parents really has no place in our they they don't have place a place in our community um I feel like as parents we want to know one that you know what happened CU we don't know that know that you know what happened that you are working on figuring out how and why it happened and you were doing the due diligence necessary to prove to us that you were trying to keep it from happening again and instead of communicating that to us you have shown us that no matter what the issue is we are going

040to get silence it doesn't matter if an instructor gets caught selling drugs in a classroom you're not going to tell us if a teacher is abusing a student you're not going to tell tell us no matter what it is you're not going to tell us and as a parent that is terrifying and that is not a room I can send my children into so I'm here demanding I'm glad you said you figured it out with the attorney I'm demanding that moving forward we adopt a position of radical transparency and proactive communication with parents because a school district is no place for secrets and anybody who is promoting the idea of keeping secrets from parents you don't have a place in our community thank you [Applause] I know I'm going to ask you one more time

041and we'll just remove you from the audience we can't continue to have disruptions good evening I have been a proud member of the power ranch family for almost a decade I stand before you today with a broken heart to express my concerns and lack of trust in both the school board and the district's decision making process the recent new news of the forced resignation of our beloved principal Chris reuter has cast a Shadow of Doubt over the Integrity of the decisions made by the district and its governing body Chris ruer is an Innovative leader a source of inspiration and the unifying force within our school Community power ranch truly is a family and this is due in large part to Mr reuter's leadership he has tirelessly worked to create an inclusive and supportive atmosphere where

042every student and staff member feels valued and heard Mr reuter is not merely an administrator is a mentor a role model and our biggest cheerleader the open door policy that he has maintained allows students and staff to voice their concerns ideas and suggestions creating an atmosphere of collaboration and mutual respect the various programs and initiatives Mr rder has spearheaded such as the house system and Wednesday electives have not only elevated our students academic success as seen by our a rating but also instilled a sense of Pride and unity among students teachers and parents alike how this decision was handled has has left many of us feeling alone confused and angry it has caused us to question the transparency and accountability of the school board and the district we've been told over and over again that

043we are valued respected and supported but actions speak louder than words our concerns extend beyond the removal of our principal they also includeed deep unease about the decision-making processes and the priorities of the school board in the district our community has been told that husd believes in transparency open communication and collaboration which are essential elements of a successful District however for almost a month now we the teachers and staff of power ranch have been left to field unanswerable questions from parents and students while we try to keep a smile on our faces and show up for our students which we have done amid lies rumors and ridicule I urge the school board to reflect on the gravity of this situation I ask you to consider the overwhelming support from students parents and staff members who

044believe in Mr reuter's vision and Leadership I implore you to reconsider the decision regarding Mr reuer but more importantly I call on the school board to commit to a more transparent and inclusive decision-making process that rebuilds the trust we once had in our district leadership we are pan Panthers are proud Miss Lindsay Taylor is next and then we have Miss Carrie Edwards my name is Lindsay Taylor reuter these are my daughters photos Savannah reuter and Brielle reuter Savannah is a fifth grader at Power Ranch Elementary she's an honor role student secretary on student council plays in the school bond and is on the robotics team Briel is a second grader she's an exceptional student a role model a power ranch cheerleader for the third year in a row and is currently playing her fourth season

045of husd soccer these are the types of children you want growing up in your school district yet these girls will will not be growing up as Higley students due to the concerning and unwarranted actions being taken to remove Mr reuter their father from Power Ranch Elementary Additionally the disgusting accusations being made by members in the community about their father have created a nightmare situation of lies and rumors which have damaged his reputation what would you say to Savannah and Brielle when someone asks you about the names their father is being called how would you tell them that they're going to have to move schools away from their teachers and friends who love them because of this situation we wish you would have spoken out to help clear Chris's name since husd knows the truth about

046the horrible rumors even still the damage is done but I'd rather speak about Chris as a leader and a principal being married to Mr reuter for over a decade I know his morals and character better than anyone I've witnessed firsthand his tireless dedication to his career and more specifically Power Ranch Elementary he spends long hours early mornings evenings weekends pouring into his work answering calls returning emails putting in Sweat Equity to make his campus a safe place to learn I often would just that I was a power ranch Widow that's how much he loved his community he's beloved by an overwhelming majority of staff students and parents and it makes me lose some hope in humanity that the minority of disgruntled voices are being listened to and valued more than the enormous amount of love

047and support that Chris has but my hope and humanity is restored slightly when I look around this room and see all the support that he has these people are demanding that their voices are heard as well and they're willing to share truth and shed light into what feels like a very dark place right now I hope you'll take to heart the words that are spoken here tonight Chris does not deserve what is happening to him and power ranch doesn't deserve to lose a leader like Chris Mrs [Applause] Edwards we're going to have to end public comment if we continue listen I've asked for order well listen to me we've asked for order several times so we need you to remain so we can keep order and we will listen to everybody but we have asked

048several times for you to stop clapping and cheering I understand your passion and I understand what you want to say but we're going to have to end public comment if we don't if we continue like this Mrs Edwards those conjecturing about what Mr reuter did or did not do obviously don't actually know him if they think he would ever knowingly put a student In Harm's Way Mr reuter deeply cares about every single one of his students not just as test scores but as well-rounded human beings the time effort and care he puts into the students who need it the most is astounding but he makes sure to support and encourage every student on campus he supported missc constin in bringing a mindfulness room to campus so that students have somewhere safe to calm down and

049learn coping strategies instead of exploding and ending up in the office he led an assembly about sportsmanship earlier this year that my first graders still refer to on a regular basis he established electives so that students could explore new talents and hobbies he built in dear time to help encourage kids to read for just pure enjoyment he established the house system to build connections and encourage children to show character traits like perseverance kindness and integrity Integrity is important to Chris reuter every time he does the morning announcements he ends with a reminder to do the right thing even when no one is watching I wish that all of the people who hold Chris ruer and power ranch's fate in their hands cared about integrity I wish that our board members would do the right thing

050even when no one is watching instead of having secret private meetings with disgruntled former employees I wish the District would do the right thing and issue a statement clearing Chris Raider's name instead of letting rumors and gossip control the narrative I wish the district cared about their current employees and families if you look around the room the message is clear we support Chris reuter Miss Miss Victoria breuck is next and then after that we have Mr Christopher Hil figure it is with a heavy heart and a sense of Duty that I address you regarding the recent discussions surrounding the potential dismissal of our esteemed principal Chris reuter but more importantly I am here because of my commitment to standing up for what's best for my students that is why I became an educator and myself

051and all power ranch Educators always keep the needs of our students at the Forefront I mention this because it seems that Focus has been lost during the recent events Chris wer has consistently displayed a deep understanding of the diverse needs of our student body he has implemented Innovative strategies to address these needs fostering an environment where every student feels valued and has the opportunity to thrive some of the examples that you've heard already are the elective program the house system the mindfulness room the results speak for themselves with improved academic performance and a positive impact on the overall School climate power ranch is an a-rated school that all comes down to Chris's leadership I implore the school board to carefully consider the broader impact of this dismissal the potential consequences is then beyond the loss

052of an outstanding leader it has the potential to also erode the morale of the entire School Community let me repeat that the potential consequences extend beyond the loss of an outstanding leader it has the potential to erode the morale of the entire School Community stability and Leadership is Paramount for the well-being of our students and the sustained success of our institution I am proud to share that I have been at Power Ranch for seven years and the reason I am still here is because of Chris reuder and the climate and um culture he has supported this decision will jeopardize the invaluable contributions Chris reuer has worked so hard to make in our community I cannot explain the polar opposite mood that has been on our campus for the last few weeks let us continue to

053work together to build upon the foundation of Excellence that has been laid and to ensure a bright and promising future for our school we appreciate your willingness to listen to our various voices who are concerned about our students thank you Mr hillfigure and then after Mr hillfigure we have Miss Laura Garcia I'm Chris sell figure I'm not going to take a lot of your time um teaching is a second career for me I have worked a lot of jobs I've worked for a lot of people and a lot of the people that I've worked for I have not respected and I've had to endure a lot of things but when I came to power ranch when I decided that I would be a teacher um I never expected to have I never expected to have

054Mr reuter be the person that I would have the privilege of working for I respected Mr reuter with every single fiber of my being I don't think I've ever respected a person more actually anytime that I needed help he would drop everything to just be there and do whatever needed to be done I never questioned that I never questioned his integrity and I never questioned anything about power ranch I felt home when I came there and every day when I came to school I felt home now I don't I feel betrayed I feel like the trust that I had I feel like my home is broken I it's like I just feel lost and that's [Music] it thank you Miss Garcia after Miss Garcia is Miss Brenda curry good evening I have been working for

055Higley Unified School District for 20 years all those 20 years have been at Power Ranch Elementary I was hired a year after power ranch opened up I have seen the many changes challenges I've witnessed what this school has gone through each and every year I have also witnessed how Mr reuter and Mrs Kota have made Power Ranch what it is today they are amazing leaders Role Models they are always there to listen give feedback or to support any staff members and students they focus on the well-being of students and their teachers each year they make it a priority to form positive relationships with not just staff students but also parents I feel our district is lacking in a lot of those things that I just mentioned but there's also a lack of communication and transparency

056power ranch has been my second home for the last 20 years years and now it does not feel like home the last 3 weeks I walk onto campus I feel like I've entered a different place and I shouldn't feel that way both of my kids have been at P at in the Higley School District since Kinder and I never once doubted taking them to a different District because of the leadership that Mr reuter has had at Power Ranch I want Power Ranch to feel like a home again and the only way it's going to happen is to have our principal back thank you Miss Brenda Curry Then followed up by Lauren Miss Lauren [Music] moek I come before you not just as a staff member of this wonderful school but as a parent that purposely

057brought their student to Power Ranch Elementary because of the leadership of Chris reuter under that leadership our staff and our students and our parents have felt supported my student the gains that he overcome the challenges that he overcame at at Power Ranch are a testament to Mr reuter's Dedication to staff students and parents I am supported as a staff member I know that I could go to his office or approach him at any moment on that campus and his time was mine the students felt that the staff felt that the parents felt that how a minority few have been allowed to override the voices of the many is unbelievable I stand here with a broken heart for our staff for our students for our parents for him and his family it is disgusting what has

058happened I am glad my student is not here anymore he has graduated and moved on because I would remove him based on what has happened after Miss W will be Miss Joanne or Joan I'm sorry reuter interim superintendent members of the governing board executive directors of the district you all are either employed or elected by the members of this community and have accepted or ran for such such positions under the guise to Advocate lead and provide support to school administration teachers staff and most important our children in holding these positions not only are you to be held accountable but you are to lead with transparency and integrity leadership starts from the top that is all of you interim super and the interim superintendent excuse me you are setting the tone and creating the path for

059all of hickley Unified School District this district has failed to communicate timely and it has been perceived as an effort to to distance themselves from having to answer to the parents directly impact Ed by principal reuter being investigated and on leave at Power Ranch Elementary this also includes assistant principal Michelle Koda taking personal leave at a time when Power Ranch Elementary teachers needed her to step up and be their leader and said she was a coward do those of you wearing red even know what you're supporting we don't have any idea as to why he's on leave why he was investigated so the blind support for a staff member within a school district is also of high concern while I can only speak for my husband and myself I am sure there are also other

060parents out there that expect and demand that assistant principal Cota is also investigated for her conduct and her complacency as the right hand of principle reuter The Happenings that have come to be are a direct result of those in power or leadership this includes the interim superintendent board teachers and staff not saying something when they see something and being persistent to advocate for the children they seemingly work so hard for this district has knowingly this District knowing that an individual staff teacher or staff member failed to uh to lead and not being accountable for having Integrity should be fired not given the option to be resigned thank you Miss Lori Wilkerson Wilkerson excuse me you said joter well yeah miss Larry wierson will be up after Miss reuter today I had the opportunity to welcome

06132 Asylum Seekers to the United States of America they were here uh from different countries from Colombia Peru Ecuador Dominican Republic and India and Guatemala they came here to seek a better life for themselves and and their children we gave them food they had showers they got new clothes and flights to their next homes in the United States I'm hoping that their children will have the same opportunities that our children have and I hope they get to go to a school district as awesome as Power Ranch Elementary School this staff is more caring and loving the teachers and the administrators especially my son Christopher reer and I hope that they never get to witness such an ugly and insensitive board and superintendent after Miss W Wilkerson will be Miss Tera Carr I'm presenting a paraphrase

062of a letter that was written by my daughter she didn't feel like she could get through it my grandchildren have attended Power Ranch Elementary since we moved to Arizona almost 6 years ago our oldest had some difficulties the first quarter of each school year from kindergarten through fourth grade in fourth grade in particular things went really badly and my grandson ended up with an in school suspension at that time my daughter went to Mr Chris reuter because she was so heartbroken and discouraged and didn't know where to turn Mr reuter took the time to sit down with her and discuss strategies for my grandson including offering to spend his time in counsel with my grandson if his parents chose that offer my grandson turned the corner and receives nothing but accolades from his teachers but

063his parents remember that point in time clearly where they did not know where to turn and Mr reuter was there for our family we moved to power ranch with the express purpose of living in the same neighborhood as our school we remember during the pandemic being overwhelmed by the fact that the staff at Power Ranch organized a parade around the community so they could drive by houses and encourage all the families that were H up in their home I'm sure Mr reuter LED that charge he has been present and heavily involved in every activity at the school including working as a crossing guard every morning and every afternoon we just wanted to share my family's experience with Mr reuter what an incredible person he is our oldest son will be on his way to sauc

064and after this year but our youngest still has three more years at Power Ranch he deserved the best he deserved Mr reuter after Miss Carr will be Mr Hudson horn um I'm reading a letter from my daughter she's a sophomore in college at University of Utah she says for those of you who don't know me my name is Briel Carr I was a part of the graduating class of 2022 and was a part of the Higley school district from sixth grade on I was very involved with the school and was student body president in elementary middle and high school while this may not seem relevant I am including this to explain that I have always worked with closely with every school's Administration along with the district while attending power ran Sher Richards was the current

065principal of the school however I would argue that Mr reuer as the vice princip was more involved with the students and the school itself seeing as Sher Richards was transitioning to become the principal at Bridges Elementary even after I graduated from Power Ranch Elementary I stayed on close contact with Mr reuer and the administration every year helping with their student council school fundraisers carnivals and more for seven years I saw the impact that Mr reuer put forth and I can confidently say that Mr reuter is the best principal I have seen in my entire life even though I did not get the honor of personally having him as my principal he was the one of the best leadership figures in my life this was not a day that there's not a day that went by

066where Mr Ro did not give his all into that elementary school for example whenever I presented an idea for the school he would help me accomplish it no matter how farfetched she may have seemed at the time this was very different from other Administration I have worked with no other teacher or leader has ever cared that much about my opinion or suggestions but Mr reuer wants his students voices to be heard and will fight for them when no one else will every single year he fights for his sixth grade students to go to science camp while science camp may not seem like a ministerial thing to many people the the administra um to many people and administrations in our district is one of the most memorable events of those kids for those kids many people

067don't see how special something like science camp is to the students but Mr reuer does many people won't advocate for students opinions of goals but Mr reuer will I don't doubt that every principal in this District cares for their students I would be concerned if they didn't however Mr rer takes it one step further he cares for each and every one of his students but he also knows each and every one of his students um I would not be who I am today without Mr roer and it pains me to think of my youngest sister not being able to finish Elementary School without him or all of the students at Power Ranch who thought of Mr reuter as a safe haven not only the elementary students but also the middle and high school students who

068will go back to visit him Mr Mr reuter is the best principal I've ever seen at any school would be honored to have a principal even a quarter of the person that Mr reuter is thank you Mr Hudson horn after Mr Hudson horn will be Miss Aaron horn good evening good evening everyone I'm here tonight to speak in support of Mr reuter my name is Hudson horn and I am the student body president at Power Ranch Elementary Mr reuter makes our school a better place by making it fun happier kind and a safe place to be I'm not sure if you know this but he knows all of the students names that's impressive if you ask me tonight I would like to ask ask you do you truly know Mr reuter and if the answer

069to this question is is know or even if you think you know him let me tell you how I know Mr reuer I know him because of the Legacy he has built at Power Ranch I have had the honor and privilege to have him as my principal since second grade when we first moved here I know him through the students because the students at Power Ranch embody what he has taught us at our school which is compassion bravery perseverance honor creativity kindness wisdom and most importantly Integrity now if Mr reuer can teach all of the students at Power Ranch to embody these foundational characteristics I would like the board tonight to learn a lesson from me a student at Power Ranch in the Higley Unified School District that is to First have integrity when making

070your decision and to remember that we as students cannot teach you Integrity but I can tell you this quoting Zig Ziggler Integrity is the glue that holds life and business together please help us keep our trust trust in the board as we trust Mr reuer after Miss Horn um I just have Jeff as after he wrote that all on his own no help from Mom good evening I am here for Mr Royer he's a beloved figure in our community he's admired obviously by students and tonight when Hudson spoke he speaking for the whole student body at his school as the president tonight unfortunately Mr reuter has been the victim of gossip and slander these rumors have been allowed to circulate without any context or proof and they have caused Mr reuter great pain and suffering

071I believe that the school district has responsibility to protect its employees from this kind of abuse the district should have come forward and defended Mr reuer but instead it has remained silent this silence is deafening and it speaks volumes about the character of our school board I'm deeply disappointed as a parent in the lack of leadership and willingness to allow Mr reuter to be dragged through the mud I'm here tonight to ask the board to take action and make things right I ask you to apologize to Mr reuter to parents to students who love and adore him who look up to him these rumors started with those from the district who have been harbored who have been who have been harboring these rumors and have allowed them to get out of hand and I asked

072the board to take a look at these individuals from the district and take properly disciplinary action our school district needs to do better we need to create a culture of respect and integrity where rumors and gossip are not tolerated this is bullying from the district to our beloved Mr reuter we need to set a higher standard for our students and we need to hold ourselves to that standard as well so tonight I urge you to please keep Mr reuer and his position as mother who has seen my children learn and grow because of this wonderful school and because of our district we can all be better I believe in you please do not take away our Mr reuer the students need him and more importantly the parents need him thank you very much after Mr

073Jeff will be Miss Megan Wicks good evening I'm going to start by asking you to vote to table Mr reuter's resignation if you don't have a firm decision made tonight and instead vote to reinstate Mr reuter as principal at Power Ranch it's very easy these days to speak untruths post them online and watch where it goes I could for example do that about the board member Mrs Van hul about a group that she's a member of right and what they stand for in that group unfortunately when those things happen they get posted online most of what happens is we lose what the truth is as a matter of fact in this instance with it where it was goes into a board memb home with only two of the board members by disgruntled teachers unfortunately that's

074not the way that we should be running our Administration today we're here we're here to speak the truth about Mr reuter I've known Mr reuer for 6 years now since my daughter's been enrolled at Power Ranch not once ever have I heard or seen any sort of interaction or anything unethical immoral or unprofessional out of Mr reuter ever in six years on the contrary repeatedly I've seen examples of traits you want to see in your principal Integrity honesty professionalism and overall doing what's right the boards received countless emails from supporters please don't ignore we're showing a ton of people here tonight supporting Mr reuter please don't ignore us I commend the supporters for being out here tonight it's not easy to do there's a ton more that wanted to be here tonight as well I'm

075going to leave you with a story par Ranch does a yearbook signing every single year last year it was at Peter Piper Pizza longest line of the night is always Mr Reuters it gets reuter cramp at the end of the night because he puts a personal message to every kid out there this is what he wrote to my daughter Ellie fourth grade is over wow thank you for being a leader in Miss tw's class I appreciate you doing the right thing and caring for others have a great summer and see you in fifth grade again I'm asking you to table the vote on his res resignation and reinstate him as principal at par Ranch Miss Richard thank you for wearing red tonight supporting Mr Royer after Miss Wicks we have Mr Chris I'm a parent

076of a past and present power ranch student and this is not our first Elementary this is a second Elementary for us as we moved into Power Ranch two years ago I had a really good principal at our last school but when I came to power ranch I realized what a great principal is and I can tell you by sharing my very first impression with him it was back to school night where we get to come meet our teachers and drop off our school supplies we had to enter through one door at the gymnasium and exit through the back to keep the school secure Mr reuter was at the front door greeting every single family that came in I watched 20 plus families in front of us be greeted every kid a hand slap a knuckle

077how was your summer we got up to the front of the line and he looked at my students both my kids and us and said you're new here how did he know that we were new to that school it's come to find out he knows every single student at that school I was floored I was amazed he asked what my children's names were what grade they were in what teacher they had where we moved from he cared about them and he proved throughout the entire school year again how much he cared about each of his students at the end of the school year the very last day my kids wanted a picture taken with Mr reuter that's what they cared about he is an amazing principal I ask that you do not take his resignation

078and you re Statum thank you isn't public discourse wonderful glad everybody's here tonight and situations like this it's important to speak truth so I'd like to start out gently speaking a little bit of truth that has been borne out out of thousands years thousands of years of recorded human history it's this that we've learned by sad experience that it's the nature and disposition of almost all people as soon as they get a little bit of authority as they suppose they will immediately begin to exercise unjust and unrighteous dominion over the people they suppose to be under their Authority when Authority is unmowed from personal responsibility people in positions of power cease to be leaders and begin to be tyrants as they slip further into false sense of superiority they instigate suffering and chaos and those

079they were supposed to nurture Serve and Protect so here's my opinion based on that truth that abuse of power seems to be on display by members of the board in this District it appears you've used the authority that people have trusted you with to carry out a vendetta against Mr reuter a man by the way who is praised publicly by this District on October 11th as being a perfect or great example of what a principle should be and then sequestered Days Later without any explanation now I've fortunately am in a position where I have the means and time to do an investigation of my own and there seems to be enough abnormal behavior by this board to wen't asking the Arizona attorney general's office to look into violations of the state's open meeting law not

080limited to violations of the serial conversation Clause if you've abuse the trust that the public has put in you if you have torn down a good man out of spite or allegiance to a personal friends and caused pain to the community of children for the sake of Vengeance then I invite you to change your behavior to change your ways forsake it confess it and make right the wrongs you've committed thanks for your [Music] time thank you that is all of our public comments I don't know if everyone heard me at the beginning so I just want to make it clear as a point of clarification the executive session requested regarding power ranch previously was was resolved prior to this meeting with our attorney in executive session um M Madam Pres you and and I apologize

081cuz I understand the the audience wants answers however you really need to proceed with the agenda as it's listed to comply with open meeting law thank [Music] you you just need to proceed with the meeting I'm going to clarify can I clarify give me just one second you can you can respond to criticism again you can only really have discussion on what's on the agenda okay since this is on the agenda and hopefully I'm in with my legal parameters but the the session requested previously is not a matter tonight that matter was previously closed prior to anything investigation it is not a matter I Madam president will be an answer to the par why Madam president you need to just continue with the agenda okay I'm sorry we need to continue with the [Applause] meeting

082thank you and Madam president so the time for public participation and comment already has passed and there are regulations and time limits that have already been abided by and so our time limit for public speak is already passed and I can no longer comment on any of this moving on to our consent agenda I move that we approve consent agenda item 5.1 through 5.14 a second second all those in favor I I motion carries 5 to zero moving on to information item 2024 through 2025 course [Applause] [Music] guides thank you yeah I don't think we took a vote I thought we seconded mov to that [Music] agenda we're going to take a f minute recess e [Music] we will now resume the meeting did I would askr moving on to 6.1 2024 d225 course guides

083did you speak to the officer no did President Schultz members of the board Mr lsen Heiser as soon as we quiet down the room we'll continue we need to return to the meeting we ask that you take your seats or what thanks shaa president Schultz members of the board tonight we're going to go presentation about the course guides this is an information uh session about the course guides that we're proposing for the 2024 2025 school year so for those of you who've never gone through a course guide process I just want to let you know here's what happens and as we go through the course guides represent the courses that we're going to offer at our secondary schools and so this is a process that we start very very early in the year it might

084seem weird but we start in August planning for the next year in terms of what we're going to offer uh final goal with this with the December 13th Action meeting for the course guides is that they get approved so that we can do registration starting in January but a lot of work goes into this and I'm very proud of the team that does the work and follows the process we start with our planning meeting on August 7th and then we get information out to our sites on August 11th on the 31st of August our team met and we review we reviewed the 2023 24 course guide the current one inevitably I find some places where I might have had some typos and things and they uh they really enjoy pointing those out to me but

085we go through the course guide they be able to look and say what do we need to change for next year where do we need to show Improvement sites uh send recommendations to our instructional coaches that's due on September 12th and then we review all of those uh recommendations through our instructional coaches there's an extreme vetting process where the recommendations come in and then as a team we vet them to make sure that their courses that we're able to offer in Higley and what's appropriate on the 19th that's when we reviewed it and then we come together as a whole team on the 12th and the 26th and the result of all of this work is what we're presenting to you today I need to give a shout out nope that's the wrong way there

086we go I need to give a shout out to the people who are involved in this because this is not an isol process here at the district members of this team include Craig Pearson our assistant director of CTE Mary Davis our assistant director of professional development Brian Campbell our student information systems manager I need to give a special comment uh shout out to Brian he brings a very very great perspective in terms of managing data and what we can do to inform our parents and then Dena Morgan our uh assistant director of counseling instructional coaches are vital to this process and the instructional coaches once again help and assist and vet the proposals that come through Maggie boury for English and this time Maggie did double duty as our social studies coach was out so

087she also did social studies so thank you Maggie Rachel leam for math Rebecca Rodriguez for our world language DLI program Janie Ramirez our instructional technology secondary coach and Kim Morton for science they do a lot of the heavy lifting and I can't thank them enough for their leadership and their work in the course guide for site Administration we do the principal the assistant principal in charge of curriculum and the Le lead counselor so you can see Allan Fields Brian banck and Kim Gallagher from Higley High Dan Fox Heather Wallace and Amanda Johnson from williamsfield Mr Dolan and I meet and we go through the Higley Virtual Academy proposals then Chad canell Louisa Schwarz and Colleen Crockett from kolie middle school Bruce Potts Brandon Keeling and Tanya seales from San and then our administrative McKenna pugnetti

088who puts everything together so I'd just like to say and if they're watching at home thank you very much for all of your hard work and dedication into providing opportunities for our students so when you look at the course guide the first thing we need to do is we focus on providing meaningful opportunities for our students to succeed and that is really our goal is what opportunities can we give to our students the course guide we our our second goal is to continue to make our course guide easy to use and provide important information about courses and processes last year we added a planning guide we we've added new uh flowcharts to help parents understand a lot of times in education we know exactly what we're talking about but our parents need a little bit

089more guidance and our goal is to make this an easy to usee document for parents to look at we want to update language to reflect practice and you'll see some changes that um uh we're bringing tonight just because of how we do some different things in terms of prerequisites so we're trying to update the language to reflect what we're currently doing and then our process we force communication between the schools on proposals we want the people involved to have common communication and so part of it is that both schools either the both middle schools or both high schools have to sign off on uh any proposal that comes forward and have those conversations ahead of time so we're all on the same page and we make informed decisions about which proposals we accept and which

090proposals we deny there are four course guides uh in Higley that we look at um here you can see the covers thank you to mcken Le for uh designing our covers for those of you who are not aware uh The District 60 is actually the outline of our district I know some people don't know that and I just want to make sure that you can see that our Higgly Unified District 60 that was for you Tyler our high school special education course guide outlines the um outlines the courses that our special education students use these courses are not available for students to register they're selected through the uh IEP process but once again a shout out to shaa Miller and her team for putting this together so that we have a course guide that we

091can share with those parents to help guide when we make decisions within IEP meetings we have our Middle School course guide our hva course guide and our high school course guide now previous to this all of the courses in the in the course guides have been approved and accepted on a yearly basis and so when we look at this what I do is I highlight and talk to you about the changes that we're making everything else has been previously approved these were now talking about the changes and the recommendations that this team is coming to to provide for you for the course guide for the 2425 school year once again when when approved becomes active when we start registering students using these in January for implementation in July so let's take a look at the

092major changes coming up from a high school course guide honestly for those of you on the board three years ago this presentation was much much longer and we had a lot of different changes that we went through over the past few years we feel like we streamlined the process and we feel like we are really providing awesome opportunities for students with all the different course choices that they have when you talk about providing Limitless Limitless opportunities we really for the size of our schools provide so much already to our kids and so you're not going to see a lot of new courses coming on because we already have a lot for our students to do we have two new courses we're looking to add for the high school first is our digital photography program has

093grown within CT te and we're going to add the internship component to it if you remember a few meetings ago we had the yearbook from Williams fieldcom and one of the students is running his own company for photography coming out of digital photography this would be an opportunity that he could do the internship and earn credit then for what he's learned within his digital photography additionally within CTE we have honors aerospace engineering and I'm going to speak to that and speak to the course that we're removing honors civil engineering and architecture what we get when we get to our fourth year uh engineering courses is really dependent on the specialty of the teacher there's not a lot of engineering teachers out there that can cover a broad spectrum of things our previous teacher at higgle

094High uh was involved and his expertise was in civil engineering and architecture which is why we're able to offer the course we use Project Lead the Way curriculum for it he left we replaced him with someone who has Aerospace expertise and Specialty which is why we're looking to add that once again using the Project Lead the Way curriculum and courses when we look at the removal of courses there were two courses that I came to you a couple years ago we looked to add as science electives astronomy and orography unfortunately the curriculum has not panned out the way that we wanted to and so those courses are not going to be continued and since we're not going to offer them at either campus we're asking that we're going to remove them out of the book

095because they're not going to be offered for the information up dates that's the first about 10 pages um an issue that we had this year was when people transferred in when you come from an online institution we will accept your credits from core core credits if you have a proctored final exam that is the process that we've done now we've made sure we've added that to our course guide so that when parents are looking they have to understand they have to take and come from a school that has a proctored final exam if they come from a school that does not and they want Core Credit they have to challenge test to be able to go through that but this is going to help clarify that you have to come from a school that has

096a final that is a proctored final exam which means it's in person which means that we actually know who's taking the final as opposed to it being at home and we don't know what happens that way our world language program and Rebecca Rodriguez as their instructional coach has asked that we add Pathways in so that they know and really what we're looking for especially is for our DLI students to see this is where you go in elementary school this is what junior high or middle school you would lead into and then these are the courses you would lead to in high school we hope that that helps with the understanding of well if you're in those programs this is where it's going to lead to and these are the opportunities that you're going to have

097when you get into the high school another information update that we've changed is course prerequisites in English and math traditionally in English we had a prere for English 10 of one year of English English 11 of two years of English English 12 of three years of English but in reality what's happening is we need people to get four credits of English within four years so what do we do with kids that fail are we going to stick them back in the Freshman one and then make them how do we catch them up so let me tell you how we catch them up there's a couple ways one is we allow concurrent enrollment then so they would take English n and English 10 at the same time they would have two English classes to help make

098that up or summer school they can go to summer school and make that up or we have our rise lab our rise lab is the uh way that kids can make up credits through a self-paced online program and so those three different things but what we never did is say I'm not going to move you as a sophomore into 10th grade English because you failed nine what we're saying is we'll find a way to boost your nine so you can get that credit but you've got to stay on track and keep moving otherwise you're never getting to 12 and we're never getting those four um years of English in the same goes with math on our core maths and our basic maths we're doing the same so that's the reason why we removed the prerequisite

099because we wanted to make it match the practice that we're doing board member Anderson pres yes for these students that are doing dual or if you would call it it's not dual but they're doing concurrent much better word thank you do they have a mentor do they have somebody to help them because that can if they had struggled the first time and now they're going moving up and then taking it again is there a student Mentor a counselor that's checking on them a teacher that's somebody that's really don't know if we have that program in place I know that the counselors are heavily involved because they know who needs to make up those credits and moving on but in terms of a student Mentor or anything I don't believe that we have those systems in

100place but I'll ask and if I'm wrong I'll let you know okay thank you and finally when we go to the fees we look at the uh dance course fees dance was left at $25 uh where most of our other Performing Arts were up to $50 we'd like to raise it to $50 for those of you who are Dance Moms you know that dance can be very expensive in terms of outfits and different things like that the same goes when you're in a high school dance class and so we need those funds as costs have increased and to help and so we're asking that you increase the uh course fees from $25 to $50 so when we look at the middle school and we look at the updates in the middle school once again you're

101going to see very few new courses and the information that we're putting on we're not removing any courses from middle school but we're taking a look at uh some new courses last year you allowed us to change so that kids in seventh grade could take Robotics and so what that led is a group of kids in seventh grade that really like Robotics and we didn't have a class for them in eth grade and so we're asking that we add an applied technology and robotics class that'll be for eth graders so a kid can be in robotics two years in a row instead of rece repeating the same course now we have a second-year course for them both of the schools looked at this and agreed and thinks it would be wonderful and they know they

102can fill that course secondly we're going to start and try something at Middle School I'm very excited about we have an opportunity because of one of the teachers there that came from a very robust CTE program that we're going to look at pipelining graphic design and photography for the kolie kids at kolie and pipeline them into williamsfield and so we're asking that we include new courses of graphic design A and B we use letters instead of numbers because we don't want to get confused with the high school course and then we look at photography a and photography B and so our goal is that kids get exposure to these in uh junior in the middle schools now they can go to williamsfield and feed right in and truly have a nice feeder into the graphic

103design and photography programs and so I know the schools have already been working together and planning on how they can Pipeline and get those kids excited early to go in and truly uh take advantage of the offerings at williamsfield high school and so we're asking that we add that that would be in lie of two of their current um a marketing class and a technology class and we feel like the new change would add some excitement to what they're doing there and this is going to be a coolly specific pathway we included the Spanish and Mandarin Pathways for the middle schools same idea we want to let people know this is where you're coming from and where you can go when you get to high school prerequisites for honors courses uh we met and we've

104come up with we include in the course guide it says District approval process and so what happens is in order for kids to get into an honors class um they're going to sign up for it we're going to review their testing data where they previously came from and if parents ask for them to be in there and fill from an honors from that perspective we know with the expansion of gate a few years ago that we have kids coming from all of our elementary schools that are ready and prepared for honors now remember we also have elas courses out there and for elas we will continue the same process where kids and parents who want to be in that will sign up they will take a placement test and we can use that to place

105them appropriately I think one of the hardest things that we do and what we have to be very careful for is misplacing students and a a as a high school principal I've seen it at the back end and I see coming from the Middle School a lot of times we accelerate kids early and then they get to high school and we run out of classes or we get to a point where they get stuck and so it's very important as we go through this placement process within Honors that we're looking at all a lot of different factors and trying to make the best decision with the parents and with the site Administration and with the teachers to set them up for success and so that's why when you look and say it says the process

106going through because it'll be the administration and the teachers working and looking at uh the prior performance of the students to see if they're prepared I would ask that any parent who wants their kid in honors to go talk to the principal and then they can go and look and say is this the best decision that's there is this the best decision for your kid and if it is let's make that happen and so that's for the middle schools finally when we look at hva and and if Mr Dolan's listening online I would like to give him huge props for what he does in leading this program you know three years ago we basically have built this uh out of scratch and through this we have learned where do we need to add courses what

107courses do the kids want how can we continue to expand and and the the vibrancy of our program and we're very proud of hva and the role that plays within our district new courses that we're asking to add are ones that we need for electives especially at the uh at the high school level I didn't say for high school in each of those five oh I'm sorry I forgot I'm in charge of clicking I get talking and I get pretty excited so when you take a look at it we have Visual Arts one and visual arts 2 we've done it for the middle schools but actually it's an appropriate level for the high school as well so we want to offer that opportunity for our high school students quantitative reasoning physical science and sociology are

108already courses that we offer in person we just want to be able to offer them online and we have not done that previously so we'd like to add those to the hva peer counseling colge and career Readiness is help help fill that ecap void online so in talking with Mr Dolan what happens is students are not just looking at how to get into college writing their resumés what prepares them for college but it's also career oriented as well and it's a survey course that they take for one semester and in reality it's a lot of Juniors it's a lot of Juniors who are getting ready to go and apply for college and how do I explore applying for college what a college is going to be appropriate for me how do I prepare for that

109and then after college how do I get a career and so it's been a very uh successful it's called peer counseling because that's what Florida virtual uh where we get our curriculum calls it and it's the College and Career Readiness portion for our online students we're asking to remove one course business keyboarding a definite lack of interest and uh we felt like the curriculum was not rigor us for our middle school students I think what we're seeing in general a lot of these courses business keyboarding for example or an introduction to Compu computers as our kids have gone up through Elementary School they are getting exposed to that so much that really in reality we're going to look at the middle schools and it probably won't be included for very much longer uh an important

110thing that we need to know parents need to know right away and so we put it right up front in the course guide is that there's an additional requirement at of hva you have to take inperson finals and State Testing it's required and it's in person and we need parents to know it right at the beginning there are times when you have to come to campus and you have to take your tests and so Mr Dolan offers a large variety they use Labs that are at Power Ranch and they come in and they take those um tests in person and especially taking the finals because then it's a proctored final exam just like what we're asking for for accepting credit from an outof District online school and State Testing is required and so they have

111to come in and take their state test in person there are not ways for them to take those exams online and at home and finally we're asking that we increase the seventh class fee from 160 to 175 at from a funding source we get funded for six periods if a student wants to take an additional class and take the seventh period online we encourage that however we don't get any funding for it and so just like summer school we're asking that they pay the 175 in order to cover the cost of the teacher cost of the curriculum any supplies that is necessary uh for what happens that only happens if it's the seventh class class we do not allow students to take an eighth class stop at 7 now remember we can have kids that

112take four iners and two online that add up to six they're good to go they're not paying for those three and three one and five however they want to do it it's when they get above and beyond and go to that seventh course that's when those fees are added so as you can see we have minimal changes that we're asking to be approved for for the 2425 course guides and um this was our information item I'd like to answer any questions that you guys have regarding the course guides and moving forward and uh we will come back on the 15th uh for approval 13 oh sorry today's the 15th 13th in December yes thank you for um going through all that I appreciate it and I also appreciate you explaining what the Care Counseling is

113because it didn't have a description in there um so I wasn't sure what that meant or I I assumed it was um students counseling students was my initial thought um but I uh also I didn't hear you mention the social media um class that was being offered um and I've lost my place I'm not sure which course guide that was in we have a social media class that's in our online hva school that was approved last year and that's been in our course guide and has been offered and and approved last year and um so my concern with that course is obviously we've held sessions where we we you know try to talk to students about the dangers of social media um and the fact that you know our attorney general along with 33 other

114states are currently suing social media meta because of the fact that it's so addictive um and so I do have a concern um that we're offering this class and I feel like it's kind of promoting the use of social media um just because there's so many negative impacts um you know mental health cyber bullying um and just so much more uh that um impacts these kids so just in the last year since it has been used um I'd love to know how in fact it is being used and what is being taught in the course s and pardon my questions this is the first time I'm seeing the course guide so I do have a lot of questions so are social media course is a curriculum again that's been approved since we opened through Florida

115virtual and so um I know with social media there are definitely ills and negative stero things with social media there are also a lot of jobs and different things that approach social media so if we can teach kids how to use social media appropriately that would be much better so so that's that's what we're doing is teaching them how to appropriately appropriately use it it's not a it's not a course about the dangers of social media it's how to use it appropriately thank you um question I don't have a question per se I just want to say I'm super excited about the pathways for DLI and the and the courses offered to our middle school kids um and there was I I will be happy to share that with Mrs Rodriguez she's worked very very

116hard on that and the credit needs to go to her Rebecca's wonderful yes I love that um Rebecca has been working all all of that and to make sure parents understand the the pathway for that there was another thing I wanted to say was awesome but I I'll go back to that when I look at my notes um one more concern I had was the um the communication skills um for our sped students um I did notice that we are using um the castle uh framework for this course and um and I have mentioned cast Castle before and and I just want to point out that you know my concerns still persist regarding the usage of Castle um and uh I'm just going to read this what I wrote um unfortunately the Seal program um

117that follows Castle um and their deceptive nature using different terms for similar goals complicates parents understanding of what is actually embedded in the curriculum um despite appearing well intentioned the Crux of the issue lies and how imparts competencies through um an equity lens essentially adopting um a CRT theorist viewpoint um and um I mean I we all want children to be able to have um you know the ability to control their emotions and Achieve goals and make responsible decisions um but the way that uh Castle goes about it is um not something I that I like and I don't know if there's anything else out there that could be utilized um but it would be be nice to be able to have some options there yeah and I I understand uh your perspective on that

118we know that this has been a very successful course for us and helpful with our um with our students uh with their communication skills within the SP department and so our recommendation is that we do uh keep it the same and keep moving out there thank you president Schultz can no I was just say additional questions please than regarding the Middle School graphic design and photography first I just want to do a shout out to Devin Adams and um um AIS Scot over at uh williamsfield they're phenomenal my daughter absolutely adores them but um I imagine I don't know the certification requirements for and Miss Johnson if you know you're outstanding to know the certification requirements for all these but for a graphic design Middle School teacher um is is this going to be a

119hard position to fill because I would hope that this would also at some point if it goes well and and produces that excitement and engagement would be also offered at San I would hope um but if so I imagine is it pretty difficult or are you anticipating some difficulty finding somebody qualified or certified to teach that class what with middle schools the qualifications are a little bit different than high school they're not we call it CTE but in reality CTE is starting when we're in ninth grade okay and so the qualifications a little bit less in order for that are we taking advantage of the qualifications of our new instructor at kulie yes we are you know and and Mr lebsock had developed the program at Higley High has now moved over there and he's

120going to be able to pipeline into Devon and Joe and really that communication between them you know and that's what we want right we want our kids sitting in our middle schools excited to go to their high schools and excited exced to see this is the progression of what I'm learning and where I go and you know I'm I'm getting a little chills right now because I feel like Mr Cantrell over there has really stepped up to say how can we everyone know that we're Williams Fields feeder and we go and this is one way that we're helping to support you go to kolie and you get involved you get involved in the DLI you get involved in the graphic design and it transitions you smoothly into williamsfield and so I I look you know

121and I I think when we have two schools it's always hard right I got two they're always compared okay there is never a time when it's like what are you doing at williamsfield what are you doing at Higley right what are you doing at sasman what are you doing at kolie sometimes there is some though some room for some site specific things and some spite specific things to go because I think that also challenges our schools to grow and what's the best that they can do for their kids sure completely understand and I just was just curious ious if it were to be offered in the struggles that would for thank you president Schultz uh I just wanted to express my gratitude to all the staff that took the time to help do that I

122mean having created it it is uh feels NeverEnding and constant but the benefit is what helps keep us in a position to be competitive and I I I think it is so very great to know that as we send our kids throughout our campuses that we are competitive with not only schools in our state but in other schools Across the Nation and we're setting our kids up for success by being able to have access to some of these skills that we are you know helping to teach and Foster here so I just want to say a great thanks to those who helped create it because it definitely puts in a lot of time and hours um and it matters thank you thank you Mrs Wade I I Echo those sentiments and I love that you

123said that about the middle school and keeping kids engaged through High School Mr lots and I because it's very important to keep our middle schoolers engaged yes and know how great our middle schools are anything else thank you very much for the presentation appreciate it moving on to 6.2 proposed citizen committee yes good evening board president Schultz and members of the board uh this presentation kind of stems off the October 11th board meeting where we discussed um our override reports and our bond reports that are mandated by the state so a part of that conversation was you know looking towards the future and what is next um some of the conversations stemmed around you know how you know how tough a decision uh that may be to call for that so um we brought forth

124a recommendation um to help ease the burden of the board as well as uh get some input from our constituents and our community um to help make uh some of these future decisions regarding our school district and and school funding so um with that this presentation regarding the prer citizens committee on a high level what is the citizens committee um it's basically what it is right it's a Citizens advisory committee a group of individuals typically comprised of parents community members Educators and other stakeholders who come together study the needs of a district uh provide input feedback and make an ultimate recommendation to the governing board um the rest specific roles and responsibilities um of such committees can vary if you recall in recent history we've used committees to um establish our strategic plan um where

125we you know gathered input from various stakeholders and I think we you create a more comprehensive um recommendation with that again committee participants can typically include parents community members Business Leaders teachers industry experts and school officials so um what is the goal of this proposed citizens committee regarding school funding so the goal is to seek committee input um again in our ongoing effort to promote transparency and Community engagement um we're proposing the CI citizens committee to seek their expertise and Leadership to assist the district and the governing board with critical school funding issues regarding the continuation of our override which I mentioned is is coming to expire um in the near future 20 in 2025 and in any potential future bond election so um again the goal of this committee would be to have thoughtful

126dialogue um be provided with um uh resources information facts and then make a conclusion and a recommendation to the governing board we established some some guidelines to provide to try to get um uh some consensus around the structure of said citizens committee so um we know each governing board is also a voting member so we wanted governing boards to have representation on the committee and so the thought is having each governing board me nominate one individual member to sit on the committee so you guys do have that representation but then it doesn't um remove your vote when said recommendation is coming back to the board uh for approval in addition there would be looking for 10 additional community members um selected by District administration through application process process so for a total of 15 citizen

127committee members we'd also have various District administrations sit on this so there'd be anywhere from 15 to 20 um individuals a part of this committee now there were some comments I think in in public comment and I think the board got some emails but this is um the committee members when they say must live within the boundaries that's that's one criteria or be a parent of an HD student so if they're a parent of HD student and live outside our boundaries that is still allowable in terms of I apologize it wasn't very clear on here but these are or um categories so or work for HD um I feel that encompasses like the grand um scope of our district as we have over like 1500 students that come into our district from out of our

128boundaries so um that is included uh that those are or not you must be meet all the criteria so um when will the citizens committee meet we've established um some some dates and some recommended uh timelines um we feel we're going to need a number of of meetings to C to provide the facts and the details regarding um school funding um if if the citizens committee um uh needs some education we want to provide them with all the resources uh to make a recommendation to the board so um we've allocated um F some time 5 to 6 we'll probably stretch a little bit beyond that as an hour can go really quick um we've designated the boardroom as a perfect uh venue for this and then um if the board were to approve this um

129we've established December 13th to bring back some bios um to share the citizens committee uh back with the board uh and announce those members and then starting after winter break have a series of five uh citizens committee meetings and then with the April 3D board meeting bring a recommendation and uh the board does have authority in in the board policy so the policy BDF uh does allow the board to appoint said citizens committee and and we've outlined some of the um criteria with that committee to make um a little easier on the board um but if the board were to have any changes to what we've kind kind of recommended tonight we'd be um open to to making those changes uh you just need to make a motion on the action item but since this

130would be a board approved committee um all of the meetings would be open meeting law would follow open meeting law and therefore have an agenda um minutes posted to their website so anybody not selected for the committee could follow along and be involved in the process as well as provide input to the committee um we feel that's important um to to be transparent with that process um and that's why we want the board to um utilize this board policy to make action and uh authorize this committee if you so prove so um that would then again make it uh subject to open meeting law and I think that satisfied some of the concerns Miss vanhook had um when we initially kind of talked about it on the October 11th meeting so with that I'll I'll

131take any questions will they have the option to be able to attend um the meetings online like through a zoom yeah I think we have the accommodation and the technology to make that uh possible um so I know those dates we we try to establish those dates early so people can calendar those but um in this world of you know everybody being busy um and even later this evening right we're doing a virtual meeting so um I don't see how that would be um we can accommodate that I mean it would be great if everybody can be here all together in in one room but it'd be nice just to be able to have that option available for those that can't be in for some reason yeah I certainly think we can accommodate that thank

132you will there president schz will there'll be any parameter set um let's say that I think it might be a very popular um committee I think there might be a lot of people that want to be on this and an unforeseen circumstance occurs and they cannot continue the membership if you will is it possible to replace them like have a backup um or would you would that seat just go empty at that point I think it'll it depend on at what point in the in the timeline that happens because obviously there's going to be a lot of leg work done to to bring um everybody up the suite at the same time and provide the same information so um you know if unfortunately somebody had to leave I I don't know if we would replace

133them um just to just to keep the the ball moving forward so sure and this may sound um impolite but I was just are we going to set a requirement for attendance at all if this is something that people are applying to and somebody may have missed out on that opportunity and then one person can only make two of the so many meetings you know what I mean is we say listen we we really value the input and we would really like for somebody else I don't know if that's language we want to put in there please commit to this if you can commit to this um committee yeah um Miss I understand I appreciate that com yeah I think we can so um again the plan would be to um post this on the

134website uh following if the board approves this citizens committee so we can incude that language because I feel it would be inherently important to be involved um whether virtually or in person in every single one of these meetings um and so uh we can include that I think it would be an expectation upon applying um but we can we can spell it out certainly I'm sorry um you said that they'd be like an hour meeting or I mean they can do have like an idea of approximately how long we've set aside an hour uh we may extend that to an hour and a half but we would want to be respectful to everybody's time so um we we' try to be concise again since these are open meeting law we would have a clear agenda

135um and try to keep these um moving forward obviously some work would happen outside of the meeting in terms of maybe sending comments or trying to get information to committee members um in preparation U much like we do with the board uh the board's provided uh the agenda ahead of the meeting to try to um prepare with any questions Etc um we would follow a similar process uh to keep the meetings um efficient and and moving again forward so wonderful thank you so much anyone else thank you Mr Moore I'm excited for the citizens committee moving on to 6.3 first read IMG animals and school president Schultz members of the board uh tonight we're bringing forward a proposed change to policy IMG G uh we're asking to wave second read and adopt the policy to

136include one minor change uh the word may um we've entered into what's called a 302 resolution with the office for civil rights uh and this is the final step requested from the OCR to better our practices when it comes to service animals uh within the school district adding the word may clarifies that the list of functions for a service animal is not exhaustive but just examples and the office of civil rights uh we'll close the case once this policy is adjusted any questions thank you thank you moving on to action item 7.1 I move that we approve voucher seconded questions comments concerns all those in favor I I all those opposed I I don't oppose I just recuse myself from the vote right motion passes for 401 I think moving on to 7.2 I move

137that we approve the citizen committee second questions comments concerns all those in [Music] favor sorry about that I don't know know that okay thank you all those in favor we did that okay I motion carries 5 Z I move that we wave the second read and approval of policy IMG animals and schools second questions comments concerns all those in favor I I motion carries 5- Z I move that we approve voucher second questions comments concerns all those in favor I I motion carries 5 Z I move that we approve voucher one40 second all those in or questions comments concerns all those in favor sorry oh question good that's like really painful on the ears yeah sorry um in regards to this I just um I'm just glad to know that um parental consent is obtained

138um before it is used with the students that's all all those in favor I I motion carries 5 Z moving on to 7.5 I move that we 7.6 sorry I move the approval of Power Ranch Elementary science camp did you I missed the second okay okay all those in or questions comments concerns excuse me all those in favor I motion carries 5 Z future agenda items uh president Schultz I'd like to ask add policy JK um to the Future agenda and then um are we going to be um bringing the BBA the legal council policy yes board member um Van Hook we can do that I just need to excuse me I think it was January right or December it may be um I can I double check how many things are on December and

139also uh board member Van Hook can you verify I'm sorry that was the wrong policy huh that was the wrong policy um policy bdg um the language that you want to propose is it what you sent before is it um yeah I mean I I would like to be able to um get some help to maybe clean it up a little bit um so maybe if if uh they look at it first and then we decide like we bring what you had and then everybody can say yeah let's do whatever is that okay and in the meantime maybe all worked on on okays getting um the verbiage cleaned up um and then the other one was um policy BBA um at some point I'd like to be able to have that um discussed as well

140and that's the uh board agenda board packet policy be D sorry be DBA ba okay we'll look at that okay sorry and then um for policy JK the only reason I want to bring that up is because it doesn't match statute um AR ars1 15- 843b um the current policy states that the superintendent shall recommend policies but the statute itself says the governing board so I want to ensure that we need it matches the law yeah thank you yeah okay we will now I move that we I move that we move into work study a second for 10.1 superintendent search all those in favor I I motion carries 5 Z we're going to take a few minutes to reset [Music] oh was I supposed to look at it