001[Applause] good evening we'll go ahead and call this meeting to order Dr Foley roll call a president Schultz members of the board please let the record show that all members are present please join us in a moment of silence in the Pledge of Allegiance to the flag of the United States please okay I make a motion that we approve the agenda second okay all those in favor superintendent's report president Schultz members of the board tonight we've got several student and points of Pride celebrations so we're going to start this evening with we're going to start this evening with Bridges and I'm going to invite Mr Bickel and Mr Berg to come on up so that we can celebrate our bridges points of pride and I will help you thank you I will help give I
002will help you thank you thank you Dr Foley president Schultz vice president Anderson and members of the board thank you for this opportunity Dr Foley cabinet thank you as well first up I would like to call up Giuliani Julian is our student point of pride [Applause] Giuliani is a flat out amazing student and human being Giuliani is one of the nicest students I've ever met as he has always wanted to say hello ask how my day is going and give me a fist bump right every day every day I see you anyway Giuliani exemplifies our keys to success at Bridges as he is always safe respectful responsible and a true 21st century learner as one of the hardest workers on our campus he leads by example by demonstrating growth mindset every single day when it
003comes to his peers Giuliani demonstrates kindness and compassion at all times Giuliani has a bright future ahead of him and I can't wait to see what he accomplishes in middle school and Beyond congratulations Giuliani and thank you for being such a tremendous leader on our campus [Applause] you bring today I brought with me my mom and dad [Applause] we got you some cookies buddy next up I'd like to call up Jen Lloyd yeah Jen Lloyd Super Mom PTO president first place winning cheer coach and business owner Jen Lloyd does it all despite wearing many hats Jen pours her heart and talents into everything she does as a school we've been fortunate to have Jen on our campus in numerous capacities as she has helped coach our cheer team to earning first place in the district
004she told me at the beginning of the year it's going to happen and it did and has done a tremendous job running our PTO Jen has taken our PTO to new heights as she is strategic Visionary resourceful and dedicated to ensuring our students staff and families have nothing but the best elementary school experience sadly Jen and her family are moving to California tomorrow talk about timing right but she and her family will always be part of the bridges family you will always have a home here thank you for all that you've done for our campus [Applause] who I brought with me is my husband and my three little girls who I love to call my tiny sorority [Applause] our certified point of Pride winner is Devin Ellsworth [Applause] come on Devin Ellsworth is a master
005teacher who goes above and beyond for Student Center School Miss ellsworth's classroom is built upon a foundation of relationships as she strives to ensure every single student in her classroom is loved and cared for along with the relational foundationship is Devin's ability to deliver a top-notch engaging differentiated instruction day in and day out every student in Ms Ellsworth class grows immensely every single year due to her ability to meet their individual needs as she does so in a manner that Fosters a love for learning around campus Devin has forged lasting friendships and has garnered the respect of her peers personally I can always count on Devin's words of encouragement and positivity Mrs Ellsworth is a stellar teacher and Beyond deserving of this Bridges Elementary School certified point of Pride winner for this year congratulations David
006[Applause] foreign I brought my husband and my little girl my son and my mom and then my team is here so thanks [Laughter] [Applause] and Brooke Travis is our classified Point surprise winner [Applause] even though this is Brooke's first year at Bridges you will have a hard time finding a more knowledgeable Professional School office manager than Brooke Travis Brook continually goes above and beyond for the students and staff and everyone in the bridges community whenever a student staff member or parent comes into the office Brooke is there to greet them with a smile and offer whatever help or support is needed I truly appreciate all your hard work and energy that you put into making sure that every single person she interacts with daily is supported and ensured that their needs are met I personally
007want to thank you Brooke for everything that you do you you keep our school running so thank you who did you bring with um I brought my husband my daughter my son and my mother-in-law and I will give Miss Donna a shout out there because uh she's always with me okay we'll take a picture okay now we get to celebrate our HTA Point surprise so I'm gonna miss the face here come Miss bacon and Miss day good evening governing board cabinet members of the community we are here to celebrate our four points of Pride as well and we're going to start with our student Avery Kaiser [Applause] so Avery we are so very proud of this sixth grade student she began her husd career as a preschool student at the Coulee preschool and has attended
008HTA since kindergarten Avery is led by example every day for as long as she's been in our district she is kind and she's a loving friend I see her outside every morning when she gets dropped off taking care of a first grader and she does such a good job they have such they have great conversations out in front of the school she's a responsible student always has a smile on her face she cares deeply about her school and she has served on her student council and led many initiatives and even conducted research from start to finish and she has seen to fruition the purchase of a new piece of playground equipment just did a PowerPoint we had a board meeting everything it was amazing when I think of our husd portrait of a graduate that's
009this girl right here she is an Innovative learner a responsible Citizen and is certainly a College and Career ready scholar thank you Avery for seven wonderful years at HTA and I'm so excited to see what you're going to do next president of the United States all right [Applause] um I brought my mom my dad and I also brought my amazing sixth grade teachers [Music] [Applause] okay I'll just do so the next point of pride is Miss Kelly Earl come on up Kelly [Applause] she is our parent point of pride in our PTO president um Kelly is amazing and we're so lucky to have her at our school She's a great leader along with her PTO parent board and they've brought so many amazing things to our school this year um in addition to collaborating with
010student council on purchasing our playground equipment she's planned and executed a fall Carnival Child's Play performances a book vending machine for our library supported classroom initiatives hosted a school Community glow dance donuts with grown-ups coffee carts lunches for our staff uniform donations and sales of spirit wear fundraisers parent newsletters and the list goes on and on and on Kelly is an Innovative thinker a great communicator and her partnership has been so valuable to help our school do great things for our students and our Learning Community thank you Kelly [Applause] and today I brought with me my husband and my wonderful daughter Aubry [Applause] okay for our certified staff member for points of Pride we have Miranda McCabe [Applause] Miranda McCabe is one of Higley traditional Academy's outstanding kindergarten teachers she is passionate educator who is
011intentional in her instruction focused on supporting her students in every way possible Mrs McKay builds positive relationships with her students and learns about each individual and what makes them tick these relationships paired with her effective instruction allows each child to shine Mrs McCabe accepts every challenge that comes her way treats each experience as a moment to learn and grow her positive mindset flexibility Forward Thinking and mentorship to her colleagues does not go unnoticed Mrs McCabe shows humility and all that she does strives to grow professionally and personally while always keeping the focus of what is best for her students Miranda we appreciate all that you do with your students and their families your grade level and HTA congratulations [Applause] um I brought with me my husband my daughter Harper and my parents thank you [Applause]
012so next up for our classified staff member we have Miss Irina come on up [Applause] so Mrs Irina is such an important member to our HTA family she began her journey at HTA as a lunch Aid and later became a paraprofessional supporting our students in the classroom and is currently a one-on-one Aid in each of these roles Mrs Irina shows kindness warmth and supports students in being successful she celebrates each milestone for her kiddos that they make Miss Irina has such high expectations of herself she strives to learn each new role seek feedback fulfill each Duty with the mindset to learn and grow she never settles for status quo and she exemplifies the qualities of an outstanding paraprofessional who cares for her students their families and the staff her willingness to support in any way
013possible is greatly appreciated and valued Irina truly is an asset here at Higley traditional [Applause] I have with me my husband Tony and my two daughters Zoe and Harper and I see a lot of HTA family representing thank you guys [Applause] Miss Bacon yes okay we now have some student athletes to celebrate and I'm going to have Mr latzenheiser introduce our leaders to celebrate president Schultz members of the boards with great pleasure tonight first of all wow thank you all for being here coming to celebrate wonderful athletes and accomplishments but I need to let the stars of the show Truly Come forward so with Mr Keeling and Mr Potts would come forward hmm somehow somehow I knew that would happen all right uh District cabinet and governing board thank you so much for having us
014here tonight give us the opportunity to celebrate our amazing students first and foremost I would like to invite up coach Del rosau and Coach Wells and the cheer team [Applause] so just a little bit of backstory coach Wells actually uh used to coach cheer for me as well and is a fantastic math teacher on our campus and Coach Del Rosal has been an amazing dance teacher on campus for several years and so when word got out that um coach Wells was coming back to to coach cheer I was being reached out to by community members and members of um our husd staff that were so excited to have her back and when she told me that she wanted to bring coach Del rosalon as well our amazing dance teacher I knew that this year was
015going to be very very special and they did not disappoint so they set such high expectations for these girls and I was so impressed to watch them come in um every single not every single morning but Monday Tuesday Wednesday mornings yep they overcame injuries they worked hard on their grades to make sure they stayed eligible and they met the high expectations that were set by the coaches and so um not only um did they accomplish great things across the campus and represent Spartan Nation with respect and accountability which is our motto but when they got done competing my phone started blowing up from ads and athletic trainers and the competition that said our girls absolutely killed it and so it was so great to be able to celebrate that night with you guys and unfortunately
016I had to go home after they competed and then I think I got a text like 9 30. we won and a great picture and it was our first ever state championship for SMS cheer and so please give them a big round of applause [Applause] yourself [Applause] slide in there oh hey how's it going it's good to see you March Madness [Applause] all right up next I have the honor of uh recognizing our seventh grade uh boys soccer team so coach Hamilton and boys soccer come on up [Applause] so we're super proud of this team uh coach ham this team was led by coach Hamilton who was a the first year Spartan on our campus uh they had a tremendous season they got into the playoffs uh it's it's always a good day when you
017beat Castille so they beat Castille to head into the championship game uh it worked out really well that our girls basketball team and our soccer team both played at Payne and so we had ability to go over there Mr Keeling and I and some teachers and got a chance to bounce back and forth and be able to support both teams but they they got up early in the game and there was a sequence at the end of towards the end of the first half where it felt like Payne had like 10 shots on goal it was probably like five if you guys remember what I'm talking about when they were like right in front of the goal and they kept well I do and it felt like 10 tries and and but it was probably
018five uh and then they held on you know and as a super exciting game and so uh we're super proud of this team uh we have high hopes for them hopefully they're all coming back next year and we can go back to back championships but congratulations seventh grade soccer [Applause] congratulations boys I do not want Center I'm hidden in the back in some of the high school what I was just curious who like the teens you play we play in the east side conference so it's Chandler and Queen Creek schools okay yeah yeah and then Cooley yeah [Applause] all right and last but certainly not least uh coach Flores and Coach D and the girls basketball team [Applause] laughs so uh this team is coached by uh first year Spartan member Jada Flores and sixth
019year Spartan member coach Lena D and so um just a little backstory on this team um we had a combined basketball team last year that was seventh and eighth grade um I'm sorry no last year we had a seventh grade team that only had six girls on it we were debating whether to scrap the season or not because there's not very many players when there's five on the court but we decided to hold the season and so we had six seventh grade girls go all the way to the finals and lose in the finals and so we were so proud of them this year they were hungry for Redemption and we didn't have enough players to have a seventh grade team and eighth grade team so it says on the trophy right here that they
020won the eighth grade Championship but we also have several seventh graders on this team that beat a team of 8th graders and so we are super excited about what they accomplished and we're super excited to have our seventh graders come back next year and uh and again go the back to back because that would be fantastic I'm gonna be 100 honest I don't think I told you this coach D and I'm sorry so when we were out at the soccer field someone had come out and it was about half time at the soccer field and they said hey the basketball game it's halftime it's 18 to five Payne's winning so I'm walking over and I'm kind of like all right what am I going to tell coach what am I going to tell the girls
021when this is over like hey good job you guys had a great season I'm still proud of you and before I even got to the gym I think you guys had closed like a 10 point gap the team went this is their motto hashtag beast mode right and scored over 30 points in the second half and so they absolutely tore it up we had six free throws made down the stretch to ice the game and put it Out Of Reach and uh so we won two championships at Payne on that day and it was it was a great day and so we are so proud of you guys and what you accomplished and it is our first ever girls basketball championship so [Applause] so that concludes our student and points of Pride Celebration tonight while
022you are welcome to stay if you have other plans this evening you are also welcome to go thank you for coming tonight we're proud of all of you [Applause] foreign [Applause] [Music] board member Schultz uh boy president Schultz members of the board as we wrap up this this evening's superintendent's report this is just the beginning of um it feels like the 90 days of may start earlier and earlier every year so by no means is this an exhaustive list of upcoming events because we would be in multiple Pages here at this point but we have a few highlights in the next couple weeks obviously this is a busy busy time of year as we begin toward the end of our final quarter so that concludes the superintendent's report thank you Dr Foley we will now
023move on to requests to speak we value input from our constituents this time has been set aside for anyone from the audience who wishes to address the board please remember this is not an appropriate venue to evaluate discuss or criticize District Personnel policy Keb provides a process for complaints about Personnel speakers should be aware that false statements about individuals may result in civil liability members of the board may not discuss items that are not specifically identified on the agenda therefore pursuant to ARS 38-4 31.01 H 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 to set and a decision at a later date please limit your remarks to three minutes and our first speaker
024is Marty Bender good evening thanks for the opportunity to speak and address the board and the community my name is Marty Bender I've been watching the district for about 18 months or so and so I wanted to come tonight and give a little feedback as to what I see with the board and with the financial team and with the district overall so first of all with the board I've noticed a lot more interaction and that's great the community likes to see that we like to see the different ideas that you all have and how you all interact with each other I've also seen a lot more interaction between you and the financial team also great obviously you're a go-between for the community and them so we really encourage you to ask a lot of questions
025and make sure you feel really really positive and confident about the decisions that you're making for the community I've heard some issues about making sure we're following state law which I'd never really heard before from the from the board so that's good and I like the fact that there's a lot more discussion and not so much unanimous votes like I say that's an indication that there's different ideas up on the board and that's what we want to see in the community as far as the financial and the district team I can't say I'm as as happy about their progress as I am about the board there's a couple things that have happened here recently that really make me concerned the first in the recent mno budget you gave the board one option for salary increases
026only one in the 18 months that I've been watching that's the only time that's happened almost always you've given them a range of options and I would certainly encourage you to do that in the future and I would encourage you all to ask for that um I think that the lease finance that you I've heard from the people in District they've been very very interested in getting rid of that lease for the whole time we've finally done it but I wonder if we did it at the right time and I wonder what the cost is going to be to us now versus if we had kept the lease in place and finally we have a five million dollar budget increase this year I came to understand from the last meeting and a hundred percent of
027that increase went to the m o budget well we heard a lot about really the main issues that we have are in the capital budget and issues that we have with the buildings so I'm kind of flabbergasted as to why that happened moving into the future um the state seems to be trending towards more funding for schools and that's a great thing we all agree that schools need more funding and I certainly hope that we can take advantage of that and the state does give us more funding our bond and indebtedness right now after this school year should be down to around 72 million and that's because the community turned down the last two Bond proposals that were out there I'm not adding to this new debt if we can avoid it at all it's
028going to help reduce everyone's property taxes and allow the community to make sure that you guys are functioning within your means tension coming up and it's going to be very very important to the district we're going to hear a whole lot about it I said when I was talking about the bonds and I'll say it again that an override if the school district needs more funding and override is a much better way for us to get that versus going out and borrowing paying interest on that debt so I really encourage us to do that if we can thank you very much for the time thank you John Mr John Mason thank you it's a pleasure to be speaking in front of you all again I think that we're start based on the last School Board
029election I think we're starting to see some movements in the right direction and I really like it when I see people thinking independently and challenging the district and asking the right questions I'm grateful for that however I'd like to talk about social and emotional learning and uh indelving that today on March 8th board meeting Dr Dr Christopher treat explained how a portrait of a graduate is integral to the district's strategic plan the district created a portrait of a graduate that lists numerous social emotional learning goals as we saw from the last School Board election social and emotional learning or SEL is a controversial topic thus I do not understand why the district would under would list so many controversial social emotional learning goals do these goals truly represent the broad Community residing in the district's
030Geographic boundaries the district should explain the rationale for the goals how the community participated in creating the goals and how the district plans to measure the achievement of the goals I request that the school board set up at least three open meetings that would allow members of the community to ask questions and make suggestions for improvements about the Strategic plan according to the Strategic anchor of the district's marketing plan the district will quote engage all stakeholders through transparent respectful timely and consistent communication unquote I'm not asking for much I'm only asking that the district follow through with the marketing plan I'm asking the district to take advantage of the wisdom the knowledge and the experience of the community please hold open meetings to enable all stakeholders to ask questions and make suggestions for improvements about
031the Strategic plan thank you very much for your attention tonight [Applause] uh Miss Heather bock good evening board members and cabinets good to see you again last time I was here I mentioned that my son went to State Robotics and while his team did not make it to worlds one of the Higley team did so we're excited about that I'm actually here to talk to you today about um a really exciting theme that you get to do on the board or on the agenda tonight and that's approved classified work agreements our classified staff and our parent professionals and our transportation and our front office staff are so important to our district and providing support to our teachers and our students and I have a little poem that I wanted to read for you all tonight
032it's called Because of You written by Heather price because of you a child will feel loved because of you a child will believe they can reach the stars above because of you a child will feel worthwhile because of you a child will learn to love and not fight because of you a child will want to read every night because of you a child will learn patience when someone is driving them crazy because of you a child will learn the value of work and not to be lazy because of you a child will learn persistence when the going gets tough because of you the child will learn the gift of kind words and love is enough because of you a child will find comfort in loving arms because of you a child will be safe from
033words and hands that harm because of you a child will learn as they play Because of You a child will make a difference along life's way because of you a child's life will be forever touched in ways you may never see because you help them to become the person they were meant to be thank you and I'm so so very thankful for all of our professionals and classified staff thank you yes I agree uh Mr Roy Morales thank you good evening board members members of the board and Dr Foley uh just a few items here tonight I want to uh thank Dr Foley for uh being able to update your clubs and activities on your website both at Higley and Williamsville but especially at Higley spelling out the GSA Club to the gay uh sexual
034Alliance Group on there and I'm happy that you're able to also add a phone number that parents can contact to inquire about such clubs and activities at the schools I only hope they meet perhaps you could take a next step further and as putting in hyperlinks into these clubs where you can actually a parent can drill in and pull up perhaps a a charter of that club defining all of the prerequisites of the clubs and the do's and don'ts and the parameters of the clubs and perhaps the structure so the parents can review that and I only asked also is to see is there an audit mechanism making sure that these clubs are within their their Charter rules um so good movement on that I appreciate that um and it it seems to be an
035in light of the State statues and making sure that the parents have access to the nature and the purpose of the clubs and I appreciate that number two when it comes to finances I only asked everybody to give respect to board members who happen to be scrutinizing the finances probably more than others there was a comment made by a local newspaper guy Bob logic kind of dismissing the behavior that uh Miss Vanna Hoke is questioning the budget line by line and the thing is is that as a constituent I appreciate her questioning um a lot of us don't understand what's going on the budget it's a foreign language to us and we appreciate the hard work and that she's putting in even addressing routine items I think it's important that she does it and I
036just hope that you guys give her the respect to scrutinize the budget because we're going to be heading in some tough times and the budget is going to get large that leads me into the uh line item that I saw on the budget on computer refresh a 1.3 million dollars plus software update of 600 000. that's a large bit of money I know there are school districts and charter schools that do not operate on a one-to-one laptop for their students I don't think it's necessary for the success of students academic career look at the Gen X generation we do not have laptops and we were going to school yet we brought you Microsoft we brought you Dell we bought you all of the electronics convenience of today I don't think students need one-to-one laptop and
037they could save this District a lot of money let's get just back back to basic get back to teaching in the classroom and out of the textbook that would be a discussion I would love to hear you guys have and then on the I'm going to reserve here for the next meeting but thank you so much for your time tonight it is Linda Payne this is one clap this time yes that's Reese I'd just like to make a quick correction GSA is great um gay straight Alliance not gay sexual Alliance so just to clarify we don't have a club that is the gay sexual Alliance it is the gay straight Alliance so I just wanted to clarify that Mrs thank you for catching that I apologize that I did not and our final speaker is
038Miss Linda Payne foreign I got in here late and I don't know what happened but I think some people had some celebrating it done outside so I think that's really cool what was happening that was really cool I just wanted to talk about the bond again a little bit and then a little bit about something that I learned from some professors from ASU um I'm just really concerned about the Bond as I was going through the budget after our last meeting it seems like there's like 200 something dollars that every student in this district is paying for interest and the only interest that I know that they would be paying on would probably be the bond interest and for that reason the more you get more bonds the more interest they're going to be paying
039instead of that going to the students is going to pay for bonds and I think that we just need to learn to live within our budget if we have to cut at the top we have to cut at the top I think it's good you gave raises if we have the money for raises I don't know but another thing I wanted to talk about was the education of our kids I was talking to two friends of mine who are actually in the graduate program they teach at ASU and they told me that last year they tried this the lady especially tried very hard to get lots of scholarships for our kids in the whole area here to be able to go to ASU in the graduate program they could not get anybody that would even
040be interested they couldn't qualify they ended up giving 90 percent of those um of the what are they called where they give money for but for scholarships and stuff ninety percent of it went to foreign students because of the fact that our kids didn't want to uh couldn't qualify and it makes me kind of sad it makes me wonder what's going on in the school districts down here that are they being taught I you know the Common Core was really strong a few years ago I don't know where it stands now but I know it's not a very good education it's kind of a I mean compared to what the education used to be our education of our kids have really gone down they're not reading as good as they can they're not writing they're
041not learning history from the view of the founding fathers who's you know worked really hard to give us the Constitution we had so that our kids could do well and so if you could look into what's going on there that would be great because I think our teachers are really good but we're going to be losing a lot of them if we make them teach some of the things that they're starting to make them teach and so I hope you'll try to do something in our district maybe we can be a lead lead program I know that I was talking to a friend of mine and he said here and I don't know if you're even aware I don't know if um Mrs Follies even aware but we could have prayer in our schools if
042we would take the prayer that is given at this legislature every single day and come and read that same prayer in our schools when prayer was taken out of our schools it started it it started the downfall of the of our kids and they have not learned as much as so you might consider doing that and bringing prayer back thank you foreign if I can try and get some information from you because that the scholarships really interest me um that's very concerning so if I can get your contact number so we can talk about the information and and data you have regarding the scholarships um I have two students at ASU actually one just graduated she was able to graduate ASU in three years she was able to graduate two of my kids graduated from
043Williams Field with their Associate's degrees in science from Chandler Gilbert even before they graduated high school and so I know we have some concerns with scholarships regarding Financial qualifications that a lot of our students don't meet the need scholarships but I've been very passionate about the scholarships regarding um our college students our kids that go to college and everything so if I can get your contact information so we can follow up on that um I don't know if it's a generality of this area or if it's Higley specific so for for undergrads we do have a lot of students who get ASU U of A NAU scholarships so I would be very interested in that to follow up and then we can work with our career counselors to make sure because I know they Hammer
044the these Scholarships in there but I want all of our students to have the best opportunity that want to go to college and I don't want finances to be the reason they don't go if they're eligible for scholarships so that's very near and dear to my heart so if I can get some information so we can try and follow up on that and just regarding your comment about history um my daughter who just graduated from ASU graduated with a minor in history and that's because she had a great Foundation here so I think we are doing a really good job um and I see it in in the kids that are coming out of our schools so it is different than when you went to school when I went to school but I do think
045we're doing a great foundation for when they do go on to high school or go on to college so um I'm sorry well we can we can talk about that so after her yeah if I can get so otherwise we'll go back and forth all night the contact information so we make sure we follow up on the scholarship information perfect thank you all right awesome all right moving on to uh 5.1 through 5.15 I make a motion that we approve the consent agenda items seconded questions comments concerns I have a couple of questions yeah absolutely um for um agenda item 5.3 um and I apologize for not getting these out earlier but it's hopefully just a simple question um I noticed that there were in my count at approximately 400 instances not 400 teachers but
046400 instances in which teachers had to cover a class I mean I know the date range is from 224. nope that's not right from um one three two three tens and that's you know we've got blackout days in there um you know there was a break you know before and and at the end of the tell of that but my point of asking that question is that that's a lot um and also we just approved the last board meeting to increase our our budget for Subs to get more subs I'm just curious are we not getting Subs if we have this many instances and it seems like a long time but it really wasn't especially with blackout days foreign yes um vice president Anderson I can address that we are getting Subs but there are
047times when the sub pool is saturated because we use ESI other organizations other districts are using ESI as well and we may be in a situation where they're just covering one class and they have to do that based on the the we don't have the availability of a sub for just one class we would also save money by using that because then we don't have to pay a sub for a half a day because covering one class we have to pay a half a day so that's that is our dilemma still and other districts throughout the valley are having the same most of them are using ESI so we are basically still competing for the same Subs in our area I I know it's not an item for discussion it's just the um but maybe
048next time we get an update on Subs we can have further discussion on to what are some plans to remedy to us we can't keep putting this on teachers especially during not you know this I'm just saying this out loud I don't want to see this to keep just even one period what I see on here there are teachers that they sub multiple times over other teachers and I just that's tragic to see yeah and I'm sorry um I mean let's we could have that discussion maybe later but the question was maybe they want to they like to have that income or that additional time I don't know but God bless them if they they want to be in class during their prep we could find that out too we just get a spreadsheet in
049the morning be like nope show up to this class you're covering this class so I don't know if it's the same in Higley my second question is for another agenda item it's regarding uh 5.15 they issue damage with the increase that we're paying which is severely unfortunate um we're not losing anything any I wrote it oh gosh my words are words Services provided and um with that increase are we gaining any Services provided are they just literally taking money from public schools just so that we can have a graduation in their facilities Dr Philly president Schultz vice president Anderson they are raising the costs and there's new individuals there that we're working with I know that we have additional information about that as well um Dr Foley I know um Mr Lawson Heiser has been
050working closely to get further explanation maybe if there's any way we oh good you explain what you've been doing I know we've been it's been multiple conversations so we've kept them with the individuals this isn't something anybody's happy about yeah yeah vice president Anderson we started this process you know the the it says ASU damage really we're at the at the arena right and the reason we will like that is uh we don't have to worry about weather and we don't have to worry about space where we limit our families and so in the past the rates have gone up since I've started doing this six years ago it's continued to go up and then this year unfortunately I believe it was two weeks ago we got an email that said hey all of your
051prior points of contact are no longer your points of contact we have an additional point of contact now that has taken over that program and then they raised that estimated rate to us and so that's why we're putting that in there we'd have a meeting on the 13th with the new team from ASU and with our individuals from our high schools and myself so we can understand initially what they've said is their vendor costs security audio visual the custodial all of those different rates have increased and therefore they're putting that onto us and so that is that is why we're looking to expand that when we look at venues that are possible to fit the number of people that we need in order there's not many out there the sons Arena won't do it we
052could drive perhaps if we get a day to the Cardinals stadium but there we don't even know their costs Veterans Memorial Coliseum so really there's only 4 locations within the valley this is the closest one and this is the one that's been servicing our needs president Schultz vice president Anderson if you'll recall we've had these conversations multiple times when we talk about graduation our families like to be able to bring multiple people to there to the Celebration to the graduation and when we've when we host them in our own facilities and known you know football stands we have to limit the number of people who can come plus it's also very very hot so hence the in an indoor place where people can have air conditioning as well as as many individuals in the family
053come as possible has always been desirable however cost continuing to shift and change are in mid-stream are also frustrating and challenging obviously we're hoping not to have to change anything for our families for this year but it may cause us if costs and prices continue to rise as they are for future graduation ceremonies to have real serious conversations about whether or not we can continue to to accommodate the air conditioning and as many individuals as you want at a graduation ceremony because of the fact that the cost is prohibited and that's a reality of no matter where we go um that's just a challenge I I wasn't making a comment about having it there I think it is nice and I'm glad that we're doing it my just I was surprised by the increase so
054were we no of course um and do we not sign a contract when we commit to that space and it can we ask for a contract so that we don't get slapped with these um last year what they do is they give us a quote a general quote and then they updated that quote for us as we were putting in the PO and so that's why we're having this additional meeting to go back it's always negotiable a little bit because of the amount of people that can actually count who goes and so last year our total cost one school was at forty thousand the other schools at forty four thousand dollars last year because one school had more people show up and then they had us they changed their force on that ASU also a
055couple weeks ago because I got assignment they increased tuition so I would assume they sent all those at the same time so all of their costs for everything and I do know talking to my peer districts who also go there there might be one that you're associated with we all got the same letter said here it comes and so uh that's what we're trying to work through oh are all the I think I talked to Mrs Richards about this but that um possibly working with the other schools to see about a discounted rate for this year or something that's a little bit closer to our original proposal or have you heard from the other districts at all yet at this point um we've heard that they're having the same conversations that we're having okay and
056you know unfortunately we don't have a ton of Leverage you know we've we've promoted this our families are going to be there I would hate for a family who's having a large group fly in from out of town and then all of a sudden this switch and I have to say I give you four wristbands and come to the stadium I think that's where we're a little bit stuck on this year definitely what are we going to do next year that's where we have some leverage just if we can all say we're not going to go then you're not going to do it all the schools districts maybe we have some Leverage thank you thank you any other questions comments concerns okay uh second all those in favor uh all those opposed the consent agenda
057all those in favor of the consent agenda okay it passes five to one no worries I just I I didn't hear yes we did a lot of comfort a lot of conversation during it I mean five to zero I'm sorry five to zero excuse me all right moving on oh I'm sorry Mrs Johnson presidential members of the board I'd like to present Mrs Nicole Johnson she will be the new assistant director of human resources and she's brought with her her husband Mr Johnson um I she brings a wealth of Higley information and experience and history I look forward to working with her she also brings a wealth of human resource experience and working with others and relationships so we're so happy and excited she'll be starting with us soon thank you congratulations Mrs Johnson [Applause]
058I just want to take a quick second and say thank you to our donors the Higley instrumental Association for the hipe California trip sixteen thousand dollars for Higley High School thank you for that and again the Higley instrumental Association for the winter guard California trip as well the way oh and Central Christian Church for our Teachers Lounge at Chaparral for that so thank you very much to our donors and our gifts we appreciate that as well moving on to 6.1 information items presentation of benefits for fiscal year 23 24. Ms Johnson I didn't turn that on okay I turned this on all righty so we have a presentation of our benefit update for our employees this coming fiscal year effective July 1. as you know we work through Kairos and their representative Jenna is here
059tonight and so we that is basically a pooling group that represents public entities in benefits strains in numbers reducing our cost and then maintaining our independence so as you can see we have three plans available this year for our employees and what the district has decided to do is to take on the cost of the increase of 6.1 percent in these three plans that is for the employee only that was to based on a survey that we did here at the district we found out that our employees were really suffering from paying too much for their dependents whether it be a spouse a full family and so instead of passing that cost on to our employees the district will absorb the 6.1 increase through the employee only structure and so there will be no increase
060to the employee paying for their spouse children or family there also will be if you notice from last year if you remember last year there was actually Four plans we have reduced it down to three plans this year anyone who dis did select the choice zero PPO plan will still be grandfathered into that plan that will not be available any longer some of the other changes that we're experiencing this year is based on an IRS requirement the choice High deductible plan we must move that up a thousand dollars from fourteen hundred to fifteen hundred dollars and also for the family deductible will go from 2 800 to 3 000 that is not something that the district has a choice in it is something that the IRS requires again the dependent rates will remain flat and
061there will be no changes to any of the other plans as far as uh last year it'll be continuing this year as well so some of the things that have increased one is Delta Dental has increased their price by three percent the employee will have to pay that additional three percent if they choose Delta Dental they also have the option of the total Dental administrator's plan there's no change to that plan and there'll be no change to the vision plan as well or Health Equity and as far as meth life is concerned we will see a decrease actually in the cost to employees for MetLife and the basic life insurance some of the things that came up through the survey as well was could our dependents be covered now on on critical care illness that
062will be free Independence will be covered now other the hospital Indemnity no longer has a pre-existing exclusion or age reduction so that is another benefit to our employees that select that and the accident insurance now covers um includes a 25 benefit increase for organizational Sports And for those who have children we know once in a while if that happens you need that insurance in place so the rates for dental Delta Dental as I said went up by three percent so the employee would now pay this is a monthly cost the plan went up to 42 dollars per month and just so we're clear on the monthly cost that is taken multiplied by 12 and then for any plan it is spread over either 18 pay periods or 22 pay periods and that's how the employee
063pays for that the total Dental administrators that remain the same an employee can still cover themselves for ten dollars a month on a basic plan for dental we have the vision VSP and that remained the same again the employee can cover themselves for 7.19 per month uh MetLife supplemental that plan is based on age and they can buy ver buy insurance based on per thousand and the benefit is available to employees and they can add their dependents if they'd like to and then we have uh MetLife short-term disability this rate did not change either this is available to all employees to be able to purchase short-term uh disability if they believe they will need that I always recommend that it's a good benefit to our employees for a very low cost and of course we
064have accidental insurance again a benefit to absorb some of those it's kind of a financial cushion to absorb some of those expenses deductibles co-pays if if an employee sees maybe that they're going to have a year that something might happen or that they just prefer to have this insurance and Hospital Indemnity that's at a cost as well these are all optional benefits no employee has to take any of these but if they think they will need them they are available at low cost and then we have the critical care as well this is based on the employee's age and other um uh aspects as you can see of how much they would like to purchase and then this is for again financial protection during foreign out of pocket costs for defined based on critical illnesses
065and then of course we still have the guardian cancer plan that's available to all employees they can select that as well and bankers whole life what we're looking at currently is Isabelle and her team will go ahead and head up and open enrollment during April 24th through May 10th we also will have a passive enrollment that means that if an employee is not changing anything this year they do not need to select anything that will just roll from one year to the next uh Kairos has put together some great information and a guidebook and videos and flyers and we're going to put him in every site everywhere that an employee might be so that they know that it's open enrollment time and it's time to register and then of course the great benefits team that
066I had up and that existed before I got here they're going to do one-on-one support with employees that really need that one-on-one contact to maybe walk them through the steps of how to do their benefit selection it may need additional information we will also still have our EAP program that we have had all this time that's the employee assistance program we still have that and we will be adding a wellness program we haven't selected one yet but we will have one for all employees and we're at the end any questions I actually have a question first I appreciate the hard work that goes into this I feel like uh the Health Care system is really Difficult by nature and so understanding that is hard um I ask that you forgive me in my ignorance of
067asking this question because it may sound impossible and quickly get dismissed I think one of the reasons we struggle is because we have such a small group of people to pay into this plan and so the question I have and I recognize that it's handled per District but is there anything in theory legally stopping us from working with other districts to have a larger pool of employees or petitioning the state to have our employees be part of the state benefits like it has never made sense to me in the grand scheme of things why we have to have such a small portion when we all essentially work for the same system at the end of the day I'm gonna let you take that thank you so much for the question actually your question is right
068on par Kairos was actually founded for that purpose and we were founded on a successful history based on the trust which does very similar things for property and liability so the trust itself covers about I believe 99 of the school districts in the state and covers their property and liability insurance for them about six years ago Kairos was funded because those board members said can we do any can we do the same for health insurance so Kairos now is 68 members strong Higley is one of the self-insured groups but you have the leverage buying power of those 68 school districts municipalities and fire districts in the state so we are doing that actually we have about 20 000 members in the pool today and it is a pooled product designed to help create better buying
069power for those school districts is it and again It's probably hard because I I can't conceptualize things that I cannot see my brain does not operate that way if that so we are going or choosing to do it individually which I recognize given things the way they were in the past that that was financially a feasible option what does it look like if we all buy into the same program the reason I'm I'm asking that essentially is because in Maryland where I taught previously it was by counties not districts and so our County had 284 000 employees that paid into that health care and my Healthcare was 117 a month for my full family so I'm just trying to understand essentially how many employees paying from that from those 84 districts if we were all
070to be in one and as far as like a a presentation from from you I guess my question is or from us who is in the position of like who has the the greatest stake in figuring out what that is does that make sense so I feel like if all of us were individual districts and I'm like hey girls we should be together to talk about this because collectively we are better than individually and it benefits each of us in this regard so like what does that Financial breakdown look like if we were to no longer be on our own and join with those 67 other groups or whatever you already are so Kairos is a pool and Higley is one of the 68 members in the pool so there are 67 other entities within
071Kairos but they all join together to create about 20 000 participants purchasing health insurance rather than just tiggly going out and procuring their own okay that's that's why I misunderstood okay and actually because it's uh self-insured I think is what you were thinking so that's why you were thinking that we were on our own instead of uh uh correct me there's 20 000 so Kairos actually has some flexibility in that we have the ability to have a what we call a shared risk pool and it's generally made up of smaller entities that don't have the great risk or if they have one large cancer claim for example their Claims can fluctuate so extremely those increases are really not sustainable especially for a school district or a municipality or fire district so we have the shared
072risk pool but then we also have three self-funded groups Higley Scottsdale and Chandler are self-funded so they take advantage of the leveraged buying power for all of the benefits that you learned about today but they can stand on their own in that they pay their own claims they manage their own risk but they get the the benefit of the um increased buying power but you do have some flexibility to set your own plan designs whereas the shared risk pool chooses among six health insurance plans so you have flexibility but also that that buying power is there any way for us to potentially share risk because that's really where the benefit then comes down right is if we're all paying into that pool and all are financially responsible or is that is that a State issue
073I guess and I'm nowhere near aware of the laws that that require that I just don't understand why we all campaign into the same thing and pay the same risk because when you have a larger pool of funds in theory that's what that's for right currently Kairos is set up in two ways and the shared risk pool members can be brought into the shared risk pool and they're rated based on their demographic information um so age and gender and location is a big part in the state of Arizona but then also their claims history and that happened with Higley as well Higley came into the pool we took a look at all of their demographic information their claims history that came from United direct and just having that contract and rated accordingly and we're able
074to actually forecast that by coming to Kairos last year we forecasted that you could save about a million dollars and while claims are still immature we have been able to hold good on that number so by making the move to Kairos you have realized I hesitant to say you've realized because claims always fluctuate but as it stands today we are on budget with that number and for the next year we're focused excuse me we're planning to budget another million dollars in savings foreign is there any effort at least on your end I don't know who would be the one making the effort or if we have to of including the rest of the districts that are larger you know hitting up Mesa other places to be able to include these types of things tell me
075the time and the date and we will be there right there well I just look at it from our perspective we're we're set up in a way that does not benefit our our employees so I like the idea that at least it's a discussion so I appreciate that thank you yes and if I may just add we are governed by a board of directors as well made up of superintendents CFOs from school districts fire district Chief so we do have good representation and again governed by a board any savings that are realized by the pool go back in to help stabilize those premiums and create long-term hopefully sustainable premiums I welcome you to attend one of our board meetings if that is of Interest that's always available to you I have a question um so
076as a state employees do they have the option to to be insured by the state policies versus that's a little more technical um I know when you retire you qualify as a state employee for asrs and oftentimes we do see people once they have fully retired and they are no longer eligible for benefits as an employee they choose asrs specifically Medicare so that would be 65 plus years old but in terms of if you were just an employee working at Higley could you also get insured by this state I am not aware of that option interesting thank you yeah thank you um I do have another question though um do they have the option for long-term disability employee does pay into long-term disability and that is effective after six months that becomes effective and they
077can apply for that if they've been out of work for six months okay and is that is that it like 60 at 60 percent pain that's um I don't 66 and two-thirds that's yeah 66 and two-thirds of your regular paycheck okay thank you any other questions no thank you Mrs Johnson thank you all right moving on to 6.2 strategic Plan update goal 1.2 this is Richards Mr Walker president Schultz is going to give this presentation this evening he works closely with Miss Morgan and the other counselors across the district so thank you thank you Ms Richards president Schultz governing board members of The Good Fortune tonight to present a brief update on our strategic anchor one teaching and learning Student Success indicator 1.2 providing resources to support social emotional growth of each student in the
078development of positive student Behavior so like the portrait of a graduate presentation a couple weeks back from Dr treat um social emotional growth has taken on many different definitions depending on where you look and I'm here tonight just to explain what our take on it as Higley School District um our updates for this school year so far the way that we approach this indicator is that we've developed what's our Higgly our healthy Higgly Wellness initiative that is involves Partnerships with agencies and Community Resources we've identified themes that include parent information sessions around topics such as resiliency suicide awareness and Drug prevention we've successfully implemented our tiered approach to our staff suicide awareness training and we focus on proactive and preventative ways to overcome obstacles and to develop positive life skills this year the Community Partners
079that we've worked with preparing information sessions Our Community Bridges who presented building resiliency strength over stress to our parents drug Trends and identification for our parents we've brought in the Arizona high intensity drug trafficking area they came and presented about one pill can kill which addresses the dangers of Fentanyl um the Army National Guard has come out and presented on the dangers of Snapchat for both social media misuse the dangers of that as well as the drug trafficking that can occur through that application and then through La Frontera who's provided supporting Teen Mental Health suicide awareness to our families so the biggest takeaway from this year our biggest Focus has been to initiate the suicide awareness using a tiered approach so this was done in conjunction with compliance to the Mitch Warnock act and we've
080done a all some few approach to implementation of suicide awareness so all of our staff members have received more than sad training um what the what the what the law calls for is that we train Any teacher staff member that works with students in grades 6 through 12 once every three years as a school district we've elected to train all of our students annually I mean I'm sorry all of our staff members annually and then for the sum approach we've trained our general Administration team on a more thorough approach to Suicide awareness called safe talk and then for a few our crisis team has received training um it's called assist training it's a more comprehensive training protocol foreign moving forward is to continue on with the theme of resiliency one of the biggest takeaways feedbacks
081from our parent Knights has been how can students be exposed to this information about suicide prevention suicide awareness drug misuse dangers of social media so we'd like to move forward in the future to offer a parent presentation to include students after school hours at both district and school events and continue on some of the sessions are designed specifically for adults and so we want to continue having those as well and then partner with additional Community agencies such as local police and fire departments Arizona 211 that can help provide resources for our families in times of need thank you I just no no I just first want to say that these programs are amazing that we're doing I mean I'm sad that we have to do them but I've attended several of them and the education
082and around it is just wonderful for parents and I'm glad that we're including students moving forward as well thank you Mrs Anderson um I'm glad that we have programs in place I know by state we need to have programs in place and we've trained employees um where I'm sorry and I've been thinking about this all day for a while and it's going to be a little extra transparent when we got my staff got trained at a different school district for the suicide and information and prevention it was um informative but not life-changing I felt like I walked out there and I wasn't any better for the wear and I don't know what um you showed your stuff and and I know the states should be posting I meant to go look what training programs are
083out there because they should be providing them but here's what came it popped into my head and for those those of you that know me suicide is very real in my household um but here here's where I've had some Enlightenment and I don't know if you know this Miss Miller's here she probably knows it suicide rates suicide attempts are higher in special need students students learning disabilities students with physical disabilities and um when we talk about future plans going maybe you can speak on this going through the education field in college and I think I had one maybe two classes on special education walked out I had and I still feel like a failure working with students with special needs in any way and if this is the highest group and of adolescents they are
084higher than their peers if this is the higher group watching a training video is not enough and forgive me I'm not telling you how to do your job I'm just expressing my concerns I can clarify one thing so there was no training videos for our staff it was all live direct training through Sikes and counselors that work at the sites and that's one of the reasons why we elected to go that route and use this this method of of implementation because then the staff is connected directly with the individual to have follow-up as needed as the school year progresses as well it's an interactive presentation too right as far as that's great and that's way better but what I'd like us to see is um let's get our staff trained on better trained on how
085to work with students with disabilities and learning disabilities one of the best professional developments I have received in my nine years of teaching and over 18 years of education in working education is how to read and utilize an IEP changed everything I've been doing it minimally this whole time and to know again that this group is the group with the highest risk we should be educating our staff on how to we're a school district and these are the children that are suffering of course here and this this carries over again through my personal experience and families and to their adulthood so as we see the shifts of suicide rates we could probably follow those those individuals with learning disabilities into life's struggling feeling left out feeling different my God you know just getting through school
086and trying to fit in and understand your differences and knowing that you've worked harder than others and you're still you know barely trying to keep up and then you got to take that into life I'm deviating I I ask that we be mindful as a school district our job to educate every student no matter their abilities be mindful of class sizes be mindful of scheduling um I I've I'm fighting or I'm not fighting that's that's the wrong word I am making it known that as a chemistry teacher I should I feel uncomfortable having a high load of students with special needs in my first period class chemistry like I feel like that's an injustice to those students and then again in my in a seventh hour class like I feel like there needs to be
087more mindfulness and schedule there needs to be mindful mindfulness and and how to help these teachers reach every single need in that classroom and again class sizes is a real quick way to address that so when we talk about future plans and suicide awareness there's there's the warning signs but let's the warning signs are there because of the root of the problem and I just I would love to see us be better at it and really change these lives and as we see these I want to make sure that we are incorporating family just coming in and being a school district and and saying hey we have these practices we're going to talk to you and we're putting things in place they still go home to their blood and their genetic you know roots of
088their life and it goes right back right so what what is that process um I'm talking a lot I just wanted to to put some vice president Anderson uh president Schultz this is timely because Miss Shawna Miller is out here in the audience and we have had discussions about the training that she's putting together to take to the sites he mentioned IEPs okay sometimes teachers haven't had enough training or understanding and so she's already on that in fact she has information and status that aligns to everything you just said so you did a little spoiler which is perfect yes presidential vice president Anderson I appreciate that perspective and one of the things that we can also do is bring back some of the presentations when we're talking about professional development aligned to the work that
089we're doing here for you to have an understanding and to kind of see as well uh because it can't just be a one and done it is it is ongoing and it has got to be very supportive and we're working really hard to also build that infrastructure so that we can continue to build on it so it's not just that annual you know check the box but whether okay this is our understanding now how do we how do we ensure that we're taking this to the next level I will tell you that our team took this our team our entire team took this very seriously in the training this year and and have provided feedback to us along the way so that we can continue to make it better obviously our goal is to not
090just to do it but to do it very well and we're making sure that it's sustainable and continues to be something that we're not only doing for compliance because we have to but because we're doing it to for the very very best of everybody our professional development as well as for our families and our students hence why when we did the work aligned with the Strategic plan it was also creating those resources for families and parents because the feedback we got was their sessions are nice but I not may not be able to go but when I need that information I want to be able to go back and get it and have it there and and connecting with those additional support resources because when you have a crisis you need additional levels of support
091that that that require expertise and so we feel like we've been building our our our I guess your our closet of resources here to be able to customize and provide support something that I'd like to add that I can like email we don't have to discuss it here um something that is beneficial um in the state of Maryland we used it but they've done it in multiple places it's called sources of strength um and the idea behind that is usually when we talk about suicide and suicide prevention we use shock and Trauma more than anything and that's counterintuitive and so really what it does is it helps on campus and so it's a student-led group um and the students are the ones who do these things so like one of the things that we did
092is we had the sources of strength the kids come on campus and it was like leading up to I don't know some sort of thing but they did shock messages all over the board or all over the sidewalk and those types of things but then we also it's like a pie chart and it it creates avenues for kids to know places that you can go to because sometimes a home may not be the place that you can go to to get the assistance that you need or to get somebody to hear what you're feeling and it talks about you know things you can do to help that and so it creates a space for kids to be able to feel more comfortable in talking about these things to seek out some of these options and
093I recognize that like at High School in Middle School well this seems you know easier to accomplish and obviously that would be harder to accomplish at elementary and unfortunately it's also needed at elementary but in something to do that helps the kids kind of take ownership as part of it in a positive fashion is I mean at least it was successful at the high school we had so um to that point I at the same time I don't think that I think that parents need to be notified when there is a situation to where their child is experiencing something um first and foremost parents must be notified and and be included in it and I know even with my own Daughter behavioral issues growing up um it was it was very hard to find psychologists
094that were willing to work that that is the hardest part and and I get that um I can't tell you how many times the doors were slammed in our face without them being able to assist us um so being able to provide when when children come with those needs and contacting their parents and being able to provide resources to their parents to um you know outside of the district to be able to seek that help um I think would be would be great but again like it all for me it and and a lot of people I know like parents have to be involved in in all of that to be clear I wasn't trying to Advocate but legally we have to if we know that a kid is is suicide risk those types of
095things legally that is 100 the process we don't want that kid leave until we've contacted parents and those kinds of things what what the program does is basically suicide and the thought of it the ideation everything doesn't happen in a day right and so it it creates opportunities for kids to at least maybe find safe spaces they can express to it and it was because of this program that a kid's friend went to a teacher to say I think my friend needs this help so it it creates I think ways for kids to look at it in a different way so it's not something that we just don't talk about or we just don't have those things and it also creates opportunities for more people to be aware and then once we are we I
096mean that is the process we go through completely and I think that's important because I mean at the end of the day they do leave here and they are at home and home needs to be aware it's just the idea of identifying it you want as many eyes and as many hearts as you can to care about you know the people in your orbit and that's essentially what what that was for so I I did not want to make it seem as if I was advocating to not inform uh because I agree with you that that matters yeah and and I I know that every the suicide numbers on all their badges correct their student IDs yes and and are they made aware I mean I I'm sure these kids check out their IDs but
097I'm sure there's also kids that never look at their IDs um so are they told that you know there's all this information on their IDs and to take a look at it yes presidential it's board member Van Hook they they do and are also signs and things that we're putting up all over the schools and I think even working with uh Gilbert leadership is also working on something like this as well but to your point I wanted to to to hit on one of the things that you said earlier um and I know that um Mr Walker wants to also tag on but I don't want it to get lost um the comment that you made about those resources for families and for parents out I will I will Echo that what you are saying
098is exactly what we heard from from families when we were in the part of the Strategic plan process is like we want to know about it we want to be aware of it but we need those additional resources outside of the school which was why when we talked about our goal for this year was to build those systemic resources as you saw that slide we've been systemically building the infrastructure of those resources Dina was added last year and she from day one I actually remember it was March 28th of last year it was my birthday and I remember thinking because she started and started providing us resources for community outreach for things that we hadn't had systemically before so this is one of the things that has been a huge priority and that we're sort
099of proud of the work that's been done and that we continue to do but yes awareness for the support on how to get for students to get that is on their IDs as well as all over the school as well as other safety posters like see something say something we've made a real push for helping people reach out for help so and then providing the infrastructure behind the scenes to make sure that we get the help consistently across Mr Walker did you want to add anything and I'm sorry real quick so I've seen the 988 signs that are in the schools um is this how did how did we find out about the organization to is that is like is that a national okay so it's not like we've vetted the organization before um this
100is a National Organization whose information it used to be like 1 800 suicide prevent like something long and they've simplified it so it's easy just like 9-1-1 so that you don't have to memorize or look something up you can help someone in need right away thank you president Schultz members of the board um 988 is is likened to 9-1-1 if recall in the last two years they've made some changes the dialing protocol for area codes and so sometimes use a one sometimes you do 480 or sometimes you do 602 they did all that changes to prepare for the rolled out of a nationwide 988 so it's not one particular entity it's a national crisis hotline and then that's manned by crisis teams uh depending on the jurisdiction similar to how a 911 call center would
101be it's not always that direct police department but it gets routed to the agency they can support So since 988 came out and it's a quick easy to remember a number to dial that's just working in conjunction with the Ade and and Arizona 211 is this a resource that we can put that's a quick uh easy to remember easy to navigate number to call um 911 always trumps that if there's an immediate emergency but 988 place to call for resources and then going back to the other point about parent notification that's another piece of our suicide awareness uh just our foundational statements is that in addition to the knowledge that we're trying to have everybody acquire just by presenting the information through safe talk and through more than sad and through assist we've also made
102sure that we're we're cognizant of what the role is in this whole process and who is best equipped to take over once the school has been made aware of a situation so any and all students any any type of Crisis is taken serious and that is the expectation is that parents are made aware and they're the first person that gets the phone call and then there is a soft handoff between the school and the parent and so that that is the number one priority is to get the student to their parents and the parents can help them get further resources that supersedes what a school can offer and when they call this let's say a child decides to dial 988 um does the do they immediately contact the parent do we know that I think
103what they do is more triage they take into consideration what the call is for they might immediately dispatch uh EMTs to the school but beyond that I don't really know what the next step is I'm assuming there's probably some liabilities in dealing with minors in confidentiality that there is some sort of relationship there I'm assuming that they're obligated to report just as we are and so I'm sure that that would be in the best interest but I can't speak for the the crisis okay thank you presidentials Mysteries thank you I know you've done a lot of work and I know a lot of our conversation up here has been about suicide and suicide prevention and that is just one piece of our social emotional learning it's a very big and important piece there's there's no
104doubt um but you had a slide on there with um our crisis team and and the pyramid and um I know people have a lot of concern about social emotional learning and where we've tried to speak about terms and words it's not a curriculum or social emotional support we had a horrific situation over spring break with one of our students and those kids returning to the classroom without one of their students needed social emotional support they needed a crisis team how to explain to a first grader we don't explain what happened but they wonder where their friend is so there's a lot of social emotional support that has to happen and if a student can't process if they can't figure out why their friend isn't coming back um It's A disruption to the classroom and
105when there's a disruption to the classroom It's A disruption for their learning and it's okay that there's that disruption because we need to help them learn how do we how do we learn from this so how do we how are we okay and and how do we move on so then that learning environment can continue and return and they can continue to flourish if we ignore it if they continue to struggle and they can't process their that delay in returning to that a learning environment will happen and so there's a lot that goes into it that we do have to um provide that support we have to help them identify those emotions and put them to words and then they can also have those conversations when they go home and their parents can also support
106it but we have a lot that happens outside of the classroom that impacts the classroom everyday life there it's unfortunate I mean for people who've been in the district for a long time worked with kids and families for a long time the stuff that you realize and you experience um those kids go through that too and so we need to have those mechanisms we can't just pretend nothing happened and just move on we need to to provide that support and help them and and that's all ages I mean this was a first grade class that had to try and understand um we've dealt with um car accidents with high schoolers and and suicide with high schoolers and middle schoolers and you know you go to a student's funeral a child's funeral and that's not any
107fun and we think about how that impacts us as adults that impacts that learning environment and the old way of handling it is we ignored it and we just moved on okay you know I'm sorry they're not here today get your math books out let's go and that's just not conducive to how kids are going to learn so um putting things like this teaching teaching the suicide awareness but the other social emotional pieces that Dr treat has done that the schools do help these kids learn how to handle things like this and be okay and move on and so that we can continue to grow so I know a lot of the social emotional we've talked about tonight is is the suicide which is it's great and yes it's state mandated we've been working on
108it for for quite a while covet kind of interrupted that but um it's been a passion for several board members for quite some time after having to deal with that and putting the resources and having these parents um presentations sometimes they're not always greatly attended but we keep going and we keep presenting and it's here if they want it when they want it so Mr Walker thank you for the work that you do there's so much to it and it's it really is life-changing so the support that you're in that you've been doing in and all the coaches and everything and Dr treat with professional development so that people get hung up on the social emotional learning but it's very important in these aspects so thank you and to that point I I agree like
109what you know there's when there's instances kids do need that support um my concern is when it's taught as a lesson um and it's across the whole school and we're treating every child like they need that support versus in individually when something occurs or if the child seeks that being able to have that one-on-one with a specific child that's requiring that's that support um for instance in my case it was added to my child's IEP when she was five that she needed you know training on how to you know deal with emotions and and work with other children so my only concern is and it's not just mine you know many parents is that it's being taught to every classroom every student and and we're treating like every child needs mental support um when that's
110not the case so that's the concern parents have when they think of social emotional learning because when you look at all the information on it that's what it talks about there's Data Mining and there's all these social emotional competencies which leads to other things but if we're talking about an incident occurring and kids needing support absolutely like that we should be able to provide that to those kids that need that support because it's traumatic or individually when a child needs it due to you know whether it's medical reasons or you know IEP individualized attention yes but it's the other stuff that comes into play with SEL something that I'd like to uh at least throw out there to consider all persons benefit from being able to identify the emotions that they're feeling from being able
111to express those emotions and I think it's wonderful and excellent when you have students who come from a home in which they have these types of conversations we have to serve all students and there are some students in the classroom who are not given any of these things and these are the types of interventions that decrease drug use it decreases the risk of suicide it overall improves learning environment because we have people who are dealing with Big T and Little T traumas at home and we have no way of understanding that and what those are and when they come in here we're doing the best we can and kids are often dealing with pretty heavy things and I recognize the importance of doing that when specific instances happen but from a teacher perspective every single
112person in that classroom is better off by learning how to communicate to each other and understand it even if the things that we are going through are for a small percentage everybody benefits so the idea that we look at it and I recognize that there are a lot of conversations that are being had and expressions that are being made on things that are in fact not happening but from a teacher perspective every single day you can ask any single grade level and any single teacher you see kids who are overwhelmingly stressed some of it is self-imposed some of it is from things that exist beyond the classrooms and if they have a space in which they can learn how to process what they're feeling take a moment Center yourself so you can get back to
113the task at hand not only is that improve their overall learning they're feeling as if they are connected shows long-term success and so many things but from a teacher perspective a kid who normally might have disrupted my classroom for 15-20 minutes now is not even a disruption or it is a conversation to which they say hey I need to have an opportunity to take a walk today I'm just a little overwhelmed great go to the restroom I'll see you in a minute those types of things are are what we talk about and why these programs benefit all persons in our district both staff and students alike regardless of the specific situations and the idea is it stops the trauma situations from happening and it it literally helps academic achievement because they are capable of processing
114and then going back to because if you are emotionally overwhelmed you aren't learning anything it doesn't matter how hard you try when we are inserting scl and almost every curriculum when do we find time for actual actual academics um we need to be able to concentrate at some point on on the academics on the core subjects that these kids are supposed to be learning and I don't like the idea of turning our schools into mental health facilities yes Provide support to the kids that need it but we need to also concentrate and make sure that these kids are you know learning what they're in school to learn I think there's a misunderstanding on the length of time these things take so for example I taught High School there's a 55-minute class period how's everybody doing
115today to start your day right those types of things because what we also know is grown adults don't have an attention span Beyond 20 minutes so instituting these breaks not only allows them to center it helps us improve because we now can come back you've given them a break and they're ready to learn the next topic like it I recognize that there is conversations that's around that makes it sound alarming and I'm not saying that that that that conversation doesn't exist but what I'm trying to convey is that the length of time you think is happening isn't it is not an overall disruption to have little bits of things that you are providing as a break or an opportunity for these kids and then the larger programs of drug awareness or bullying these types of
116things that impact so much are the ones that we might take a day here and there and those are literally already built into the program teachers are made aware of them hey this day granted we're not given enough time often but we're made aware hey next Tuesday your third period is going to do this and we can work around it to make sure that we're still achieving our curriculum and as a district we've been doing it we've been doing get an education for a while and our schools are performing well we are so the concern that we're losing track in academics and I recognize that we are not where we are that is a national problem not a Higley problem we're doing great BR like uh Bridges was on the the list like I mean
117we're we're not failing our kids academically we're we're failing them as humans by saying they shouldn't be able to be human thank you every it's a very passionate subject and um I appreciate Mr Walker and all of his um everything you're doing for the district and I know Mrs Reese you mentioned that sometimes parents don't come to these things but I attended dangers of Snapchat and one pill can kill and it was a packed packed room so I know that both of those are also I know like we've been talking about suicide but both of those are extremely important subjects um and I know parents learned a lot from it and maybe some even chose to to not let their children do Snapchat um are those available to watch were they recorded at all uh
118some are and some are not the ones that are not recorded are the ones that we don't want to be used against us so some of the stuff would give put it into the wrong hands of how to counteract some of the dangers of um attention Snapchat one teaches people how drug dealing takes place over social media so those are not available through our partnership with the Community Bridges there are presentations and that's part of our plan for next year is to offer both in-person and virtual and then also recorded sessions we've we've debated that because one of the things that comes up is it loses its emphasis if it's just a recording and we want to be still be able to have that personal connection and have families come out and have that conversation
119and then speak to the presenter afterwards or just the recording I I mean it wouldn't hurt to have it but I would be hesitant to have that replace the in-person presentations as well I just I I think people have gotten so used to doing things over Zoom so they preferred to watch from the comfort of their couch versus in person they would be missing out though because of the interaction and the questions that you're able to ask and the feedback and the information that you're able to get by being in the audience it it it's very important I think as a mom of a 12 year old and well soon to be 13 and a 10 year old then that I attended that as far as the Snapchat and Fentanyl scares me more than anything
120um so I think that's important if the community can attend and that will continue to be amazing I mean I think there's like 200 people that watch online I mean it would be amazing if they all showed up here but reality is you know it is comfortable to watch from home so if we could when we do these things to offer an online option um or if we can record so that they can watch later that would be wonderful sure yeah definitely consideration and and we had over almost 250 people attend this past year so that was kind of the calendar to like nobody will come if we do it well let's try it and we did it and we had a good turnout for it so thanks for the input on that and I
121don't know if you saw but the Attorney General today banned Tick Tock from all agency phones so this is Anderson nope go ahead I was just gonna move on but not yet use her there it is um Anna thank you for that question about the recording and interestingly so I've been working at my working with reaching out to my principal trying to get access to that video we watched I would love to watch it again no idea so um next up is district office and then a deep dig into my emails to see if I can find the link but yeah that it's not necessarily it's for the public and for everybody else but also for his staff they'd like to go back and get that information again I mean that's a lot to intake
122at a time and if you're going through things or if you're thinking about things and you're going to miss a part because you have lost on that train of thought then yeah it'd be nice to have that um as as something to access um I don't know if this is right but this is just when I put my ear to the floor because I try to stay off social media a lot in the news is the discomfort with the SEL from what I've seen and heard is that the potential that it can and I'll address this in a second that it really tries to cover a certain group of people over others and I will tell you this in my video in my training that I watched every reenactment they did was for a student
123that was wanting a different gender or not comfortable in the gender they're with or they were gay that was and I don't mean to make this room uncomfortable but I'm wondering if that is someone's not someone a lot of people's concerns is that it's going to address a certain group and not address others and it's or bringing light to groups and not others like I stated with learning disabilities like none of the training I watched had to address individuals in that circumstance and how to overcome in ways to cope in all this so I don't know if that's right again I'm just saying what I see and what I hear um and then I'll just literally turn my mic off Mrs Anderson I I can't speculate on what makes people uncomfortable but um it sounds
124like your District might need to call Mr Walker to go over what we're doing at Higley because I know that Gilbert leadership as Dr Foley mentioned um looked around at what the districts are doing and how far ahead Higley is right now and what we're doing and what Mr Walker and his team and everybody in the district is trying to do to accomplish so maybe you could ask the people in your District to call and we can only control what happens here so I'm not president Schultz I appreciate that comment because I think we can get hung up in semantics and what we've been working on is trying to build systems and what we've done very clearly and is one of the very first things you heard Mr Walker say is let us help you
125we made this as part of our strategic plan we use the words that we heard from the community from our teachers from our children from our families what do you want then we defined just as he outlined for you what is the progress you've identified the goals we want to accomplish here sir is to identify what are the resources what are the systems how are we defining it so what we're doing is providing that update for you I think this is very big and Broad but we're talking about defining very clearly what are the steps and the systems that we are building and making progress on and we are doing an exceptional job and I would say from our peer districts we are we are we are leaps we were behind and we are now
126Leaps and Bounds ahead thank you Dr Foley thank you Mr Rocher for the update we will be moving on to 6.3 amendment to policy gdba staff wage and salary schedules foreign members of the board I bring before you this a policy that is currently in place supports staff wage and salary schedules there is one sentence in this policy that I am recommending to be removed from this policy and the reason being is the board did approve a new salary schedule for fiscal year 2324 and in that salary schedule is an additional dollar for 12 month support staff if an employee would be hired today at the current rate they would not be eligible for an increase on July 1 with the statement still in the policy they would be making less than their colleague who
127starts July 1st and that decrease in salary would continue for their span of time that we they would be employed by Higley School District Johnson they could just essentially quit and be rehired at a different rate so it doesn't make sense I know this policy started I we I had Mrs Richards look for and it was at 2000 in 2001 it's been on our books so it doesn't make any sense to question to um right I know to um uh somebody could get a job right now and get paid a dollar less quit and then get paid a dollar more if they started back in July that is correct thank you questions comments concerned moving on to 6.4 this is our second reading of amendment to policy jlcb immunizations of students Mr Walker president Schultz
128member of the over the board tonight to bring back governing board policy jlcb for a second read we brought this back for a first read in February we had updated our policy request based on some changes to the legislation that asked to include Copa 19 and the immunization of students policy board member van Hoke provided some input to bring back for a second read so we came back to the policy committee uh and called and consulted with our attorneys to ensure the request was compliant we did receive confirmation that Although our first request was compliant the second one is as well with the exception of this one part that was just grammatically incorrect so we bring forward the updated policy for a second read thank you questions comments concerns thank you Mr rocker moving on
129to action item 7.1 a 10 I make a motion to approve a tenant approval of fiscal year 2024 capital outlay budget second questions comments concerns all those in favor will you be able to answer questions about financials uh president Schultz board member Van Hook we have Tyler Moore on the phone and we also have we have him on the phone we also have our assistant director here as well who might be able to help answer questions perfect so my question is on paid I don't have it up but we don't have it up but on um page six of the presentation um um thank you in the capital budget it looks like we have a two million dollar carryover after 2024. um which is down um from the 4 million from previous year my question
130is has the mno carryover um 26 million changed and what is that supposed to be at the end of this school year Tyler your question is about the m MOS Tyler King Tyler here are they able to get Tyler up yep good evening there he is what members can you hear me okay yeah so the carryover for mno as we approved in the tentative Eminem budget we're estimating 26 million um so that has not changed since you've last approved it okay so that won't change after this school year and again that that is an estimate so you know we still have uh three months of or now two months of expenditures and encumbrances to get through the end of the fiscal year but with the state being on current year funding we have to take
131a you know estimates in consideration so it may fluctuate um slightly but we anticipate that um being 26 million going into next fiscal year so okay yeah and maybe a plus or minus but we always come back to the governing board and show the true and actual amounts in October when we reconcile our books and compile the annual financial report for the district okay thank you anybody else have a question on this page before I move on my next question is for page 11. so here are the highlighted items you indicate will be paid out of the capital repaired fund first did that funding come as a result of the refinance of the lease and what was that amount yes it did come as a part of the refinance of the lease if you remember
132James Higley as a part of the lease required the district to pay approximately 175 000 for each School into a maintenance Capital repairs Fund in which they manage because they they own these schools um after the District closed the lease agreement and brought those onto the district via the cops deal um jmf Higley cut a check for the district for about 1.1 million I apologize I don't have that exact amount on the top of my head but um 1.1 million so and how much will the highlighted items cost um as far as after the the capital funds so those three items alone are going to cost anywhere from uh 1.3 to 1.6 million depending on when at what time we procure those and what time we received bids back and would would these expenses be
133the responsibility let's say we didn't do the refinance would they be responsible for these repairs no they choose what they wanted to what we could repair jmf Higley the leaser yeah they would be um we did propose and submit these expenditures to jmf Higley they denied them so we did there was nothing that said that they would be responsible for these no it was up to the discretion of James Higley as they owned the schools and they owned the discretion of the capital reverse fund part of the lease agreement was that they were able to choose what could be what the maintenance and repairs funds were for so we had to pay it but they could choose it so when we submitted it they denied it wow yep um okay because my next question was
134going to be well if they were responsible what what's it going to cost us going forward but that's the role they chose to do [Music] series window replacement cheapest item on the list they chose I I can't remember we asked for all of these and they chose to do they did sossaman's Roofing because it was thank you pretty much yeah failing to the point where we were they had to yes experiencing water leaks yeah and part of the the lease agreement there is we could put we could request these repairs or anything they had it on their own timeline so if just as an example the exterior weatherization and painting if they felt that it didn't need to be done until year 15 they were not going to do it until year 15 even though
135we were saying this needs to be done now so that's why we those funds were held for that reason for those types of things but we had to request it they're the ones who had to approve it because they were the owners of the building so but those that those funds have been since returned to us so that's those are the funds that will be used first for Cooley and Sossaman so we didn't lose those funds um so those funds have since been returned to us and I think Tyler you have here 4.3 million for major maintenance projects is that in addition to that money we got for quillian Sossaman or is that including 4.3 million is the the capital obligation um those three items are so that money is in addition to the 4.3
136okay thank you it's unfortunate that we're going through all this to get these buildings on our name and have these buildings and sadly that the workmanship on it when they were built we're not getting great buildings we're not getting good craftsmanship and yeah I do want to know we are we are continuing to work with the school facilities board um to ensure that you know one submit submit these buildings um and get them recognized under the district so then at that point uh we can submit grants and to see if these projects that we have listed here qualify for State funding um which we feel after several assessments that they will qualify so we anticipate continuing to work with the school facilities board and other grants um to to supplement this funding source and you
137know ideally you know maybe save some Capital funding um as as you've noted member van hope the carryover is decreasing so we're continuing to work through options to try to fund these projects and utilize all our resources Tyler that's great news hopefully um that comes through yeah I'm just my my biggest concern is what large projects are are we're going to be seeing you know going forward where we're not going to have any of those leftover funds that now we're going to be responsible for so I'm just gonna yeah it's scary to think about especially about when you mentioned the workmanship what are we going to see president Schultz board member Ben hook that's been a lot of the work that's happened over the last several years when we did an inventory of where we
138are identify the yearly replacement and maintenance schedules within that budget in order to address what we do the best that we can obviously the one of the things you know you are tentatively approving because we start moving these projects forward because we have we try to get some of these things done in the summer and to get these in the system and organized ahead of time and then again you continue to approve these as we bring them back because some of the costs and things may may shift by the time they finally get finalized but we do earmark and move ahead as we need to with the essential projects that have been identified and then the priorities within the funds that we have okay thank you Dr Foley any other questions yes all those I
139just wanted to figure out what number I was at thank you all those in favor of the tentative approval of the fiscal year 2024 capital outlay budget I need a post motion carries five zero 7.2 I mean I move that we approve the issuance of classified work agreements for the 23-24 school year questions comments concerns all those in favor aye any opposed carries five to zero 7.3 approved policy gdba staff wage and salary schedules and make a motion to approve policy gdba staff wage and salary schedules I'll get it right soon thank you uh questions comments concerns all those in favor aye all right all right motion carries five Sarah 7.4 I move that we approve policy jlcb immunizations of students second reading second thank you questions comments concerns and uh all those in favor
140aye all right motion carries five zero future agenda items so you can see we have a couple things on here is there anything else it is April May so it's going to be busy thank you for the art in the district office for everybody that brought that in it's beautiful I walked in and said oh Michelle ordered art and Michelle got art so it looks great it feels like I wanted go ahead oh I'm sorry um soon on the community presentation attendance and just how those are going I I think I'd ask for several meetings ago you may not have been at that one actually my last one but anyway just if we can just get some numbers how many are showing up to to the community presentations got it absolutely thank you we will
141get that for you I didn't bring my papers away I don't have anything something that Mrs Anderson asked at the last meeting they were saying I don't have a recollection of that yeah just let's play the meeting now we'll all watch that we thought we had everything or put it in status I think so we will I thought we did but we will double we'll have Mrs Zimmerman help us make sure we got it covered usually I have a pending note sometimes those status reports can be substantial and we think we've got it in there for you and um if we've missed it or there's more questions we're always happy to answer that for you really fast I I'm not sure if this is legal uh or it's okay I and when we did the
142consent agenda I was remiss in not thinking Community Education for 5.14 um I was told how much they have gone out of their way their team to look for grants that not only benefit uh them but also our school as a whole um and so um they have gone uh and I'm so sorry president Schultz thank you this is Richards for rescuing me assistant director Kimberly Ohanian yes as Kimberly that charge with that department and really seeking to support our schools for they have needs three grants and our playgrounds and grants and so I know that we so we can update all of our equipment so our kids have an outlet and a release from the school day so that they can have equipment to play on that not only again benefits Community Aid but
143also our schools so um thank you for that and I apologize thank you [Laughter] thing all right uh a move that we adjourn the meeting all those in favor word is there have a good night thank you [Music] all right