001I'd like to make a motion to adjourn to Executive session second all those in favor we will now be an executive session in return shortly good evening I'd like to call this meeting to order and we're going to start with the approval of the settlement agreement and release of claims and Jewel class action litigation like to make a motion to approve the settlement agreement and release of claims in Jewel class action litigation all those in favor aye motion passes four to zero all right Dr Foley roll call president Schultz members of the board please let the record show that four members are present it's time for a moment of silence in the Pledge of Allegiance I pledge allegiance of America and choose the Republic for which it stands foreign foreign sorry uh I make a
002motion to approve the agenda questions comments concerns all those in favor motion passes four to zero Dr Foley superintendent's report president Schultz members of the board tonight we are not doing moments of or our points of Pride but I just have some upcoming events as you can see that our spring break is right around the corner and we have lots of employees who've worked hard and are hoping we hope they enjoy the next two weeks and we have some employees who'll be working hard over spring break to get schools ready for so when students return on March 27th and as you can see we have a few more updates on there but that concludes tonight's superintendent report thank you uh request to speak we value input from our constituents this time is set aside for
003anyone 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 38-431.01 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 decision at a later date please limit your remarks to three minutes and we will start with Mrs June Blaine vice president Anderson board members and cabinet members I just wanted to take a minute to commend the district on
004the process that was used when creating a strategic plan now it was a very open and transparent process the voices of stakeholders were heard they were used and helped create this cohesive plan that the district is able to follow I'm proud of my participation in this the work that was done and I look forward to the district's future success by following this plan thank you thank you next we have Mrs Mindy Brockie brocker again rocker I'm sorry I didn't see the art I apologize thank you so much my name is Mindy brocker I am the mom of three children in the Higley School District I've got one in elementary middle and high school and I wanted to just take some time tonight to thank the school administration and our school staff for the tremendous job
005that they do to keep this District running in today's environment it's quite the political tightrope that they walk and I think we as parents take much of it for granted I also want to specifically praise our Higley teachers have not agreed with every one of them but you know what I still appreciate each and every educator superhero they've made my children think they have challenged them in ways that I never could my kids are amazing but they're not easy I've sat in IEP meetings gifted curriculum presentations I've requested library book exceptions and name change accommodations I've had discussions with teachers about 7th grade Science Education and high school cell phone contracts and throughout all of it every Higley employee has been gracious and kind I have not doubted for a moment that our school leaders
006have our children's best interests at heart maybe tonight I can be a voice for other parents like myself who are just very tired of the constant drive to destroy Public Schools so despite my deep seated dread of public speaking as you guys can here I am humbly requesting that this board not caved political pressure from District Outsiders I hope to give voice to parents who appreciate their kids Educators who trust and appreciate public education who are very tired of attacks on children and teachers in some strange attempt to make a boogeyman out of anything that makes them feel some kind of way so please continue to support my child as a whole human understanding that improved emotional and social learning makes for a better student with better results please continue to teach my child about
007the world around them The Good the Bad and the Ugly I'll continue to do my best my very best to parent them the best way that I know how and with that I think they'll do pretty good so thanks thank you very much Mrs Rebecca Mejia good job with my name often gets butchered so I am Rebecca Mejia I have spoken here before I'm sure I will speak here again my family has been part of husd since 2007. my two oldest are away at College they're well prepared even though they graduated during covid thank you Higley my husband just returned Sunday from El Paso with the Higley High softball team and my baby leaves tomorrow for New York with her Higley High dance team I want to thank Higley for all the opportunities it's been
008amazing there have been times where I've disagreed with the district disagreed with how money was spent maybe disagreed with coven mitigations or lack thereof maybe disagreed with how a wayward teacher was handled but our family has always stayed we've always tried to make this a better place we've always tried to represent the district in a positive way always try to keep the district inclusive competitive I am here because I see people at board meetings who I've never seen around the district before trying to change who we are trying to make us less inclusive less kind and in the end less competitive my husband and I have worked hard to make our children critical thinkers people who stand up for the little guy people who recognize that there are many paths in life that are way
009different than theirs we love when the school reiterates those values to hear people coming in using the Bible and politics to taint the word the work that husd has done is angering to single out one segment of the student population and make them seem less than or bad the lgtbq clubs here are no more about sex than the homecoming dance or the Sadie Hawkins dance they are a club for kids who are living a common experience or for kids who want to learn about an experience different than their own just like the international Club the Key Club the black student loan Union best buddies please know that most parents in this District are not against these clubs we want husd to allow representation of all our kids I see people coming with an agenda that
010is not ours if they follow the pattern I've seen in other districts they'll start with the clubs starts with science camp and then move on to Banning books changing our history curriculum we see it happen in other places please don't let it happen here we need to get back to the problems we actually do have I have two years left in this District I don't want to sit and watch it get corrupted so I'm asking more parents to stand up push back I ask more parents this board and this admin don't let this loud minority population distract you from real issues that will move us forward not backward thank you and Barbara Summers hello first I want to say happy International women's day we appreciate all of you um in our recent board meetings I've
011noticed that we've had an influx of people speaking out against inclusivity diversity and social emotional support focused on the whole child that we have in our community and that allows us to all send well-rounded adults into society comments have been most recently focused on our high school clubs and I've seen even some of our elected members question things that would come from a place of exclusion I have two children who have been in our district my oldest is queer and also twice exceptional and was on an IEP one of the most amazing individuals you'll ever meet throughout their time in our district they were always included and given opportunities by our staff and they were not an easy child we've had individuals that either of us could reach out to for a check-in had staff
012teachers principals and others visit in the hospital and most recently two years after they graduated I received a call from the district wanting to follow up on their success as an adult um my child needed social emotional support while they were in school that is the kind of District I want for my family and for others that is the kind of District we are and why we choose to be here I've heard that the loudest individuals are often the minority I've noticed an uprising in groups advocating for things that are seemingly innocuous like parental rights to use parents as pawns to advance hateful agendas and harass Public Schools we know that these kind of tactics can lead to anti-inclusive violence against individuals I feel like I'm not alone in my beliefs that many of us
013strive to create a truly inclusive District somewhere where all students families and staff are welcome and supported and our students have an equal opportunity to participate in thrive in academic and co-curricular programs the best education occurs in districts and schools that are comprised of students families and staff drawn from diverse socio-economic backgrounds cultures races religions abilities and sexual orientations we need to support and Implement programs practices and co-curriculars that allow Equitable access and enable all of our students to thrive not only academically but athletically emotionally and socially by allowing access to resources opportunities support and interventions that maximize not only their academic success but their social emotional growth and where all forms of diversity are recognized and accepted I appreciate that our district is like that thank you so much thank you and then Mrs
014Carolyn Lambert thank you I'm starting to think I should have written something down I just didn't write anything down just speaking from my heart today um thank you for having me I'm a long time tigley mom um my oldest started in kindergarten here and graduated in 2018 since I've had a 2020 graduate a 21 graduate I'll have a 23 graduate and a 24 graduate and I'm done most recently I was able to I had the privilege of being the chairperson for the kigley yes for Higley schools um pack unfortunately it did not pass I'm here to address that a little bit and thank those of you that supported it a lot of hard work went into that and I want to recognize those in our community and in our board that supported that effort for
015those of you that did not and like my high school teachers would say you know who you are I would like to say that I hope you take this opportunity to really dive in to the needs of the district and the issues that are at hand and why that Bond was so important and coming up in the future whatever the school district does decide that it is recognized the needs and the issues at hand why we are in the position we are in in the demographic that we are in in this region there's a lot to go into it and I hope that those of you that didn't support it take that opportunity to really dive in and and learn because knowledge is power um I would like to thank the efforts of I know
016the previous board isn't here anymore but the board and District to continue the improvements at Higley High despite the um bonds not passing I'm excited to see on the agenda that there is approval for that phase two going through and it is it is desperately needed there's some amazing staff and amazing teachers and amazing kids that attend that school and and it is long overdue the improvements that it is it is getting so I I thank you and thank you for your time tonight [Applause] thank you and uh Mrs Linda Payne hello board I'm my name is Linda Payne I don't know how how to address everybody here so I'm sorry um but I just would like to talk on the passage I know last time they were talking about the teachers races and everything
017and they were saying that well if the if the bond isn't pass the next time they're going to be getting rid of the music programs and so forth and so on I think this District needs to learn to live on what we're given and not keep taxing the people the people have been taxed enough and the majority of the people in this District do not want the bonds we have found that as we have gone door to door and I will fight it just like I did the last time and I hope you will really consider not even putting it on the docket again because we need to live within we're given enough much money in this school district to if we need to take money from the administration and give to the teachers and
018that's what we need to do because the teachers are the ones that deserve to be paid and so do the others but I feel like the administration many people at the top are paid way way more than the teachers are being paid and I know that they're um education level is higher and stuff but at the same time I think we probably could take money from the top and give it to the teachers there's many many ways that we can cut the budget I just feel like we as a I mean I have been here for 35 years I have nine kids in the my nine grandkids in this district and I want them to get a good education because I would prefer them going to somewhere else and they're just about at that point
019and you're going to have a lot of other kids leaving the district if you don't really try to live within the means that we have I've talked to a lot of the legislators and they've told me that they this district is getting plenty of money and um anyway and on the on the extra another thing that I wanted to touch a little bit about was um I don't know as I was watching the film last time because I couldn't be here I when some of the board members were talking I felt that there was a real disdain for specific ones when specific ones by the way that your faces were you need to show respect to the other board members whether you like what they're saying or what they're not saying but I could tell
020as I was watching that some of you definitely would roll your eyes and go shake your head when certain ones would be talking and so I would just like to ask you to be more careful with that because people go back and watch these films I I went back and watched them and I think that each of you are trying to do the best you can but at the same time I really hope you'll understand that we as a district need to live within our means and do not need a bond to make the extra money because it really is a tax you say it's no tax it is a tax test and so that's all I have to say [Applause] thank you all right moving on to consent agenda items I make a motion
021that we approve 6.1 to 6.10 that's it all those in favor oh sorry questions comments concerned sorry I do have a question okay so on six one uh I saw that there are many books purchased from permabound books and I'm curious to know if per ARs 15721 and 15722 which requires books to be posted and for review for 60 days and I'm wondering if that will happen with the following books that were purchased president Schultz board member Ben hook yes at well we have systems in place to ensure that those are posted and kept there for honestly more than 60 days is what we determined so we have systems in place thank you all right perfect uh any other questions uh all those in favor yeah Christina well oh there's a paper oh there's a
022post motion carries four to zero moving on to information items 7.1 maintenance and construction update Mr Moore yeah good evening president Schultz members of the board tonight our maintenance department felt left out with Transportation having all the glory last board meeting so um we have invited them to provide the board with a maintenance and construction update so with that I'll introduce Mr Richard Dobson the director of maintenance construction and Mr Tim McDonald the assistant director so good evening president Schultz members of the board Dr Foley cabinet members uh pleasure to be here this evening to give you an update of the maintenance and construction Department sorry about that just a little bit about us we keep the buildings going servicing 19 sites and over 60 buildings totaling 1.7 million square feet and 300 acres of
023the land takes a lot of people behind the scenes to keep School District running with minimal Interruption to students learning our maintenance crew we have 12 skilled Tradesmen electrical HVAC Plumbing drywall painting and just general maintenance we have 57 custodians with 13 plantformings and 13 grounds crew Keepers along with this we Outsource five of our elementary sites that do the evening cleaning and six of our sites for weekly Landscaping some of the major highlights we're going to now talk to you about is fmx implementation that is the district's maintenance and work order system uh custodial we're going to talk a bit about hiring how many we've hired this year and how many we intend to hopefully hire major maintenance we'll talk about weatherization uh traffic control and the Higley classroom Edition Esser which is the
024elementary and secondary school emergency relief we've purchased some Global controllers chillers walk-in coolers freezers and HVAC see equipment grounds we've purchased some new equipment updated playgrounds and uh and ever never ending weed and pest control and we're going to be talking a little bit about future projects that's going to be going on in the district coming up past and present the fmx implementation we're going to talk about that first maintenance work orders to date since January of 22 of uh to January of 23 we've completed over 2 400 work orders this could be uh just from fixing a leaky leaky faucet to a hole in the wall to Major uh work orders such as changing out air conditioning units and things like that site rentals and site events is also part of the tracking with
025the fmx system uh since uh January 22 to January of 23. we have had 11 160 events uh at the schools and those are non-uh classroom educational events could be Community Ed club sports chess clubs so on and so forth anything that's not part of the typical educational day it's tracked in that and there's been over 11 000 of those 4 200 of those have been the rentals and school events as 6960. that will probably go up in in the when we have a full year tracking the school events uh the 6960 was was only tracked since August of 22 so that has not been a full year since January of 22 we have invoiced for our rentals over 400 000 and to uh to bring some income into the District of the four hundred
026thousand thirty percent of the rental fees goes back to the individual schools uh goes into their budget and they can use for excuse me needed items um that they need at the school uh what rooms are rented uh we rent out the gyms the athletic fields cafeterias classrooms um what uh whatever uh people need if we have it available then we try to rent it to them who rents the rooms sporting teams clubs HOAs churches stuff groups like that this is a what a typical School event calendar looks like this shows the Reynolds School Events sports Fine Arts community events kids clubs at the bottom of uh of each one of the days that smaller number down there that tells the number of events that is happening on that day this is a a district-wide
027calendar it gets it's pretty busy um in their the each individual site has their own they can pull this up should they choose to use it but um this they um this one here is the whole District a couple of things that this tracking system does uh it uh keeps people from double booking so we don't have two events at the in the same room at the same time it also allows everybody at the school sites to know what's happening each day at the sites principles admin and stuff like that this has turned into a a very handy um and useful program you can thank Sherry Richards when I came here a few a couple years ago she had already had this in place and so she's the one that was brought this in and
028then we we took it on to bring it into uh play in The District um just a picture of uh start a little bit on the custodian custodial this is a picture of the uh the gym floor at Coronado Elementary and it was the work was performed by Rodney Mater uh our plant Foreman at um the uh Coronado School District or school and this is just part of 1.7 million square feet uh that our custodians try to maintain on a daily basis um with the with the custodial we've tried to upgrade the equipment by getting them some some workable equipment we've bought new vacuum cleaners burnishers so that floor in the preceding PowerPoint the shiny floors that's done with a burnisher new carpet extractor so we can shampoo our carpets and auto scrubbers so we
029can clean our polished concrete hallways keep them nice clean and shiny hiring we've hired 17 new custodians at our 11 sites we are now fully staffed at the sites except for the five that is outsourced and we are trying to hire we're 15 custodians positions that we're trying to hire when we when we hire those 15 we'll be able to take over and remove or take the the outsourced custodial cleaning crew and be able to have our own people uh which is a good thing uh you better buy in uh we are able to manage it better and clean our cleaner buildings more more Pride we're also trying to standardize some of our things uh our summer cleanings are making sure that we get everything cleaned and stuff like that we're standing right standardizing our
030chemicals so we're all using the same thing and also saving money uh trying to do that as well now we're going to touch into some major maintenance and Tim will be sharing some information on that so um uh Cortina Elementary weatherization new paint old paint Higley High School classroom Edition the new construction build over there as their three funding 1.3 million spent since January 2022 to improve air quality per Ezra 3 guidelines district-wide Global controller upgrade the energy management system equipment HVAC replacement and classroom buildings gyms locker rooms and kitchens Refrigeration replacement for walk-in cooler freezers cooling tower and Chiller replacement and repairs and then on the pictures there we have Santan we have new cooling towers that were put in and then Higley High School it's a new Chiller there we move on to
031the grounds excuse me we do have over 300 acres of um of grounds to maintain as well um along with the 300 ground 300 acres of grounds it's the first impression that uh you know for the students the parents staff and visitors when we come there so we try to keep everything maintained sometimes uh it they the weeds do get away from us but um we we try to maintain them uh weekly we are working on playground improvements we are improving our fall zones by adding wood chips and or the uh the rubber chips we are adding shade structures and like I mentioned uh keeping up with the sand uh sand wood and rubber chips we have purchased some new equipment to help maintain and do things more efficiently we've added a dump truck a
032tractor mowers and blowers are always needed with all of the grass that needs to be done and we do all of the um the athletic field painting for rentals and for our athletic games and so on uh so we've added some new field painting equipment as well um we control we are out there daily and then we are also working on the athletic fields uh the irrigation the field maintenance uh the painting as I mentioned and uh and any equipment maintenance uh that the athletic teams uh need uh we try to do as many of the repairs as possible future projects um one of one of the big ones that we have going we will be replacing all of the flooring at Power Ranch that will be starting uh next week during spring break so
033um and we will have that completed by mid-july we're also doing we do site capacity studies and walks each year we'd do a sidewalk is to be completed at each School this will help us review capacity of each of the rooms for future use and help us determine the needs for schools over the next five to ten years for our Capital plan um a goal to standardize uh once again we're trying to standardize our custodial procedures we are also bringing uh into uh into the district with the help of the fmx that we talked about earlier uh preventive maintenance that is required by the school facility oversight board they are very um very very picky it's probably picky's not a good word they're very enthusiastic about wanting to make sure that preventive maintenance is done
034which is a good thing the better we maintain it the longer it lasts the better the more money we save we're also trying to improve our work order efficiency and working on our landscape rotation in our five-year Capital plan we The Five-Year Capital plan has been created and I have created a cycle of schools for the years more more than that we're modifying and adjusting the uh the uh The Five-Year Plan that we have developed and the major categories for that Five-Year Plan is playgrounds flooring HVAC weatherization which is a new word for we're painting the buildings and Safety and Security Roofing and building additions as needed for student growth and that concludes everything and thank you very much and we'd be happy to try and answer any of your questions should you have any
035thank you very much gentlemen it sounds like you're extremely busy and I love that we're bringing the custodial Services back in-house I know that it was a need during covet but to save money and take in control of our custodial Services questions I just wanted to make a comment um first of all thank you I'm an educator and I know that teachers we can go outside and teach under a tree but it wouldn't be the same experience so you keep us going your team keeps us safe Keeps Us cool absolutely healthy and I I just want to make it known out there and everybody knows this I don't need to say it but I just want to publicly state that your team and everything you do you guys are truly the foundation to our district
036and we really appreciate you and thank you very much those are very kind words and I will relay that to the guys that are actually out there doing the work Tim and I we get to offer suggestions and uh and stuff like that uh there's a wonderful team out there that actually do the work they deserve all the credit but thank you very much thank you Mrs Anderson I agree and thank you gentlemen I appreciate it very much thank you have a wonderful evening [Applause] we are moving on to 7.2 strategic Plan update Mrs Richards yes president Schultz tonight I have the honor of introducing Dr Chris treat he is a key player as you well know in the school district and we've been working very closely for the past couple of years but we're
037not done and there's a great future ahead of us so I'm going to turn it over to Dr treat members of the board it's my pleasure to give you an update on where we are with portion of the Strategic plan uh specifically the portrait of her graduate portion um if you'll recall a few years ago the portrait of a graduate portion of this was was undertaken and approved by the board uh you can see here in this slide it encompassed many of the same types of ideas that we have now but uh honestly it needed it needed updating it needed refinement it needed a little bit of simplification as well which is why over the past two years as many of you are aware we've put a lot of effort in not just working with
038small groups of people but rather involving large representative groups from everyone from students through community members through teachers and other staff members in all departments and this is our current portrait of a graduate you can see it focuses on the ideas of a responsible citizen your College and Career ready Scholars and Innovative Learners and a portrait of graduate is simply a set of goal goals it's a way for a large organization like this to be able to Envision what is it we really want for our students it's a way for everyone to find their role within this process to help students develop these skills and these attributes so that they truly can take on those Limitless possibilities that we hope that they're able to after being in our care and so as we move forward
039a little bit I want to talk a little bit about some of the tangible things that we have been done that we're in the middle of doing to help bring these ideas to life for example with College and Career ready Scholars we're working very hard to bring together our curriculum and to align our instruction to standards I'm going to show you a little bit about some of the details that goes with that for responsible citizens this is really undertaken differently on different campuses and the different types of clubs whether it's best buddies or link crew the way that they connect our Veterans Day connections it really has the opportunity to look different in different campuses but connecting our students with the people around them so that it's not just the school Community but truly the
040Higley town community and Innovative Learners I'm going to show you one of the ways that we're going to approach this is through thoughtful professional development to make certain that our teachers have all the tools and all the learning and not just from our perspective but but from their perspective to make certain that we're incorporating feedback and requests so that when teachers Express needs or administrators Express needs or others who are closely associated the when they observe training gaps that were able to help provide that much needed support for teachers so that they can help our students become those Innovative learners so I want to start off by kind of diving right in here with those District instructional Maps this is something that we're working on uh and have been working on throughout the entire school
041year and the idea is if we're truly wanting our students to be those College and Career ready Scholars we need to make sure that they have the academic preparation the knowledge and the skills and those come from the state standards that's our our our mission that's that's where our our home base with this and so the better our teachers are supported in knowing what those standards are then the better able they're going to be able to provide that direct support to students so throughout this entire year facilitated by our outstanding instructional coaches fantastic teams of teachers have come in and and put hours and hours of work on this in every grade band in every content area they've contributed to these instructional maps to take the standards which are Broad and oftentimes overwhelming but rather
042than to prioritize those standards so that we understand a logical sequence so that we truly understand what are the Knowledge and Skills embedded in a particular standard and when teachers have the power to have a say about how that instruction takes place they're able to truly take ownership and and be the leaders in developing those College and Career ready Scholars and so that work it takes a long time we've been going this entire year we have a Target gather date of June 1st for us to pull together all those maps that we have been putting together in all grade levels and then the idea is to make those available to teachers so that they can as they go through that planning process that collaborative team process they have their ideas in front of them and
043not just the standards prioritize but the relative resources that we have we have adopted outstanding curricular materials and we have great supplementals available but they do you no good if you don't know where they are or how they relate to the standards that you're being asked to teach and so the idea of these Maps is to try to create a simplified form so that teachers can very easily work together to plan the best lessons that they can this is truly something done with teachers for teachers and not done at them or or something to try to enforce or prescribe any type of teaching so we really value those Partnerships and know that these are living documents and that they are always under review and always under consideration you know we always talk about it's important
044to give your best answer give it a shot take good notes and then adjust it as you go from there and that's where we encourage our teachers to do is to say hey maybe we need to resequence this maybe we have better resources available to us and that ongoing dialogue across the campuses helps connect the instructional side of things for for our kids if you think about the instructional cycle it's plan teach measure adjust and this is what teachers do in the classroom well we feel that instructional Maps such as this that are aligned to current standards help them in that process and make it so that they're not having to hunt around and search around and hope that they have something that they can pull out that might work but rather to build on
045the strength of all of their peers who have come together in this process and see their voices there and so it's really important that we relate exactly what it is we want to teach to the materials that we have available so we can best utilize the resources that we have so that's one of the ways that we've been kind of working toward that is to make sure our instruction leads us in that direction of College and Career ready Scholars I've got an example here of a map this is I believe a sixth grade math MAP that you can see so you can see kind of some of the elements that our teachers have been working to make sure are on there so that they understand what the various learning targets are or maybe essential questions
046which drive that instruction along with those prioritized focused standards and the those available resources and the goal is to have those resources which are in our collection of approved supplementals or adopted curriculum when possible to be hyperlinked so that a teacher can go right from this map to the tool and be able to put those resources into play and so these are just kind of a sampling of what it is that our folks are putting together you know an important question and function of an instructional map such as this is it really answers that question how do I know what to teach because you might be an experienced teacher you might have been doing something for a long time but how do I know what I'm doing tomorrow on a Thursday morning how do I
047know what's expected of me and what sequence to what degree using what materials focusing on what key vocabulary an instructional map that's been created by expert peers is a great first step to help make sure that we aren't wondering what it is that we're supposed to teach but we're able to align our instruction to not just the standards but to the best ideas that we can pull together as a community and as I said those ideas grow and grow because these are ongoing it also allows us a flexible mechanism for when changes happen so win standards turn over and change as they did over the last five or six years this type of tool can be updated and refreshed to meet any of those changes or when we have adoptions or new materials come on
048this allows us to put those materials as much as possible at the fingertips of our teachers so that they're not scrambling or like in the old days digging them out of some big box that was over there in the corner so that's kind of the goal of this the idea is when we pull all these ideas together we can help put our teachers in a position to continue to develop those College and Career ready Scholars another part of what we're doing here in advancement sign there we go sorry another part of what we're doing here to try to make certain that we have Innovative Learners is to have supportive professional development and in this District we graciously have these early release Wednesdays and we take it very seriously the responsibility to make sure that we
049use that time to grow as professionals and this is an example of that Elementary professional learning calendar that we put together and I think one of the things that you'll see on here is an intentional balance between giving the site some days for them to work with so that they can address their specific needs and District level needs as well and so that kind of balance along with those professional learning communities and providing time for teachers specifically to meet together to work on that idea of how they can truly meet the needs of their students so what we have here is an example of a way that we try to intentionally balance that time and get everything we can out of it to again allow our teachers to have that on job opportunity to grow
050and further their own skills and so many of the opportunities that really happen with this are the chances to talk to someone from another school who teaches the same grade level or teaches the same content area it's so hard for a classroom teacher to be able to reach across to another campus and learn and grow and support someone else because of the nature of the work it's so so all-consuming but professional development days like this especially when we have the big district-wide PDS provide that opportunity for folks to learn from each other as much as to learn from maybe guests or people who help facilitate learning here's an example of our secondary professional learning calendar you'll see the same types of elements are put into place here where there's a balance between site-based opportunities collaborative
051team professional learning time and District base and the idea is that if we kind of take that multi-vectored approach and allow different groups to have different time to do their work that we can best kind of meet the needs of our instructional staff so that they can learn and grow within the framework of this day and really take advantage of those opportunities the other nice thing is because it's scheduled because you know when it's coming it's very easy for us to help folks prepare and one of the important tools that we do for district-wide professional development is as much as possible make certain that folks know hey what exactly are we going to be doing there what resources am I going to need to bring what's our what's our Target what are we trying to
052accomplish during this time we don't want folks just showing up at a certain time and then wondering what's going to happen but rather we want to build that anticipation we want to help them best understand hey this is what the opportunity is going to be and along with that we also need to pay attention to how it goes and so we always survey our teachers after every session that we have and we dive into that data it's very important for us to understand exactly how it went but also to know what is it that you think we should be doing next because based on the quality of the experience that folks have in a professional learning session they'll often tell you okay this is what our next steps really need to be and we work
053very hard to build those into our future sessions so we're really doing everything we can to build a partnership between the folks that are typically delivering that professional learning experience and the people who are typically attending those in fact one of the things that's really important is making sure that um making sure that that time is utilized so that they can really make those cross-campus connections My Hope Is that uh in these sorts of professional development opportunities folks will maybe meet somebody who is facing the same sorts of challenges and they will now see an ally in other another school we don't want our schools to feel competitive with each other in that regard we want them to be cooperative in sources of information and it's really great to see people working together and I
054know our professional development team of instructional coaches that were really hard to make sure that everyone feels comfortable in those environments so that they can kind of be in that learning posture so that they can get everything that they can out of that but you have to make it clear as to why we're there and so that's why we always have success criteria and Link all of our professional development to ultimately our strategic plans so that we're all moving in that same direction to make certain that we keep in mind what the needs of the Learners are um this next slide here is kind of an example of just some of the promotional materials that we like to put out there as I said we don't want to just send an email which says Hey
055show up on the 10th and you know be here for two hours but rather when possible we'd like to get folks excited about it come and and know that it's going to be a time of uh collegial Fellowship it's going to be a time where you're going to learn something and hopefully have a good time while you're doing it and so this is just two of the four pages of information that went out to our elementary folks for their January PD days because this isn't just uh regular grade level teachers it's also specialist teachers and those are are LED through the outstanding work of of tremendous teacher leaders and I just had a great meeting the other day with Brian Greenlaw one of our fantastic Elementary PE teachers about again appreciating the efforts of those
056teacher leaders who helped them out with the specials but also hey what what more do you need how much can we support you what else can can we do to keep adjusting things so for every month we we put out materials that hopefully not just inform but also excite and and help somebody build some anticipation one of the things I always ask of our instructional coaches and facilitators of professional learning experiences is that they send out a follow-up communication to help pull together all the ideas that were learned a lot of times in a whirlwind of conversation and learning and often a fast-paced agenda you you get a little bit overwhelmed and we want to make sure that those resources live on that the experience has a has a chance to kind of go from
057there and so we always adopt a tell show due tomorrow kind of vision for this we always want there to be a tomorrow aspect to it in fact we use the phrase tomorrow takeaways there has to be a tomorrow takeaway for every lesson that we do in a professional learning experience so that those folks can maybe use something that they learned right away and put it into action and try it out and and to and to continue to grow along those lines so moving kind of into just the portrait of a graduate in general if you'll recall last year we spent a lot of effort in bringing kids here as we said representative groups and kind of trying to get our hands around what this portrait of a gradual could look like and so what
058we thought was important to do was take the next steps with that idea of okay what does a College and Career ready scholar look like and instead of it just being my definition or definition of leadership or other adults we thought all right it's time now to make sure that we widen this kind of concept and widen the conversation so we built this challenge where we're going out to each of the campuses and we've asked each of our administrators to identify a teacher leader on each site and that teacher leader is going to working with their administrative team identify a handful of students to represent their campus kind of a cross-section of of the folks who go to school there and what we've asked them is to just kind of frame a thought around well
059what does portrait of a graduate those College and Career ready Scholars and responsible citizens and Innovative Learners what what are those those look like to you the student and from that student perspective and what is it that it looks like here on your particular campus because even though we're a small District geographically we still have different communities and it's so exciting to walk on each campus and and see how they view themselves within there and the idea is for our students working with fellow students and leaders on their campus to answer this question what does the husd portrait of a graduate mean to them and their school community and right now we're getting a chance to introduce that to the folks at the the campuses Miss Richards and I have been going around meeting with
060people around the the district and kind of setting that idea in motion before break gets started and and I have to tell you it's been an absolute Joy getting to work with the teachers in particular who even though they're on the doorstep of spring break you can see right away the creative juices are starting to flow and just start thinking about hey when we come back from break what are some things that you can help maybe do with the kids and how do we get the kids voices out here as to what does that portrait of a graduate those elements that we have identified previously what does that look like for you on your campus and so they're going to work on that project throughout the month of April and then we're going to head
061back out in May and the students are going to get a chance at each campus to kind of showcase their creative approach to what this portrait of graduate means to them so there's no specific way it's going to look or I mean again we want them to be student creative and have it represent that campus so we're really excited to kind of take that next step so not just a small handful of students but now moving wider and wider and hopefully maybe create some permanent ways that that campus can introduce new students or future students to what their interpretation is what their views are on this portrait of a graduate and how they see themselves as those College and Career ready Scholars and responsible citizens I love that idea I'm excited to see the outcome
062of it um I think I brought this up earlier whenever we were talking about one of our meetings for this portion as they uh invite or seek out students um will they be seeking out not just the model students that love schools those that maybe are struggling don't like school so much just to get their opinion I would love to see what they think a portrait of a graduate looks like and maybe light a little fire in their mind of yeah interact with other students thank you vice president Anderson we specifically have asked and in our conversations with teachers as we start to Envision what this can be to make sure that you have a real broad representation of the population of your school it's not all students of a certain age or grade level
063or of a certain GPA or something like that but rather let's let's really get into the heart and soul of who goes to school here and and and have everybody's voice kind of shine through at least in a in a representative group like that so you're you're right on the money with that similar as the construct that we did when we did the fact finding the first time by going out to the sites and actually widening expanding the student groups that are there the two of them have been going giving the sort of the here's what we're going to be working on here's who we need we want you to identify and then when we return from break literally the three of us are going on a whirlwind tour as we go around and provide
064the information allow students to then digest think and then work to create what that might look like for them and then we'll come back out again for them to show and share so by the end of the second round that we go out to them we'll have some beautiful artifacts that we can bring back in show and share and Dr Foley may I add president Schultz we're going to take Curtis with us in May so we can capture some of the excitement and get it in our story because I think it's been good for us to have our video online because people have watched it and the kids are going to watch it when we go back out in April so I I do want to say something really quickly about Dr treat when you
065guys approved this position I had no idea that he was going to come back to Higley he doesn't always brag on himself now I want to brag because he's not just teaching the coaches the teachers he's teaching us so when we go into net Services meeting there was always a takeaway here's something you can take use with your teams same thing with the principles so we appreciate your support with with this position and what he's done and what he continues to do so thank you [Applause] presidential I have to agree um I can't thank you enough just a really quick background on portrait of a graduate because some people's hair might be tingling because of those words um we sat in this room several years ago in a goal planning session and I believe Mrs
066Kaylor had just returned from a National School Board Association conference and saw the portrait of a graduate and that there was some defining traits and gave some Direction so when we came back and we met for our goal planning um we were talking about it and Dr Foley was in there and she's like well wait a minute do you know what a portrait of a graduate is because there is a curriculum or or a documented piece out there a portrait of a graduate and Mrs kaler is like well I saw parts of this and so Dr Foley educated the board on exactly what that was and we're like no no no no that's not what we want um we want a Higley version we want to higley-ize it which we do a lot of um
067and so Dr Foley wasn't even in the superintendent role at that time and just ran with that we wanted some some goals we wanted to be able to Define what we want kids leaving Higley with we want teachers to be able to have something to look at and where we're consistent um and so this was brand new with our strategic plan and so Dr tree you have taken this to a whole new level than that conversation that happened in here you know though the board at the time and Mr Glover and I know Mrs Anderson very passionate about professional development we had all these early release days and we weren't quite sure what was coming out of it we didn't have structured we had some coaches but there was no one overseeing to really bring
068it all together and and everything so how you've brought the professional development to our teachers and our students and everything here with portrait of a graduate going back we talk about our stakeholders going back to our kids what does this mean just like our strategic plan this is going to be ever changing and evolving and moving because what we look at today is not going to be the same in five years and so I just appreciate where you've taken this idea and have made it into a very impactful um I don't want to call it a program but part of our strategic plan where we're not just saying you need to do this we're providing support and you're driving it what does it mean to you and when you guys defined responsible citizen that took
069a whole team of people and everyone it took everyone to buy into it and I I see it all the time people talk about it and it gives people something to kind of live by so Dr treat I have to thank you for this is yours this is all you and this is yours that you took our idea and you have brought a team in and you have have created what it is so thank you thank you you're too kind of believe me it's not only it is a huge Community but thank you problem so I had an opportunity to meet with Dr Foley and Miss Richards and Mr Dr tree yesterday to get a better understanding of portrait of a graduate and you know I did a lot of research prior to even knowing
070that this was in Higley and I can tell you that you know there's a lot of valid reasons um based on what I've learned in my research and at the last board meeting it was said you know we we've been working on this for two years and parents can go back and watch the last two years of board meetings but a lot of parents didn't pay attention and I know that prior to covid people parents trusted schools and districts and teachers and once kids went to distance learning a lot of parents saw what was being taught in in class and so now parents are paying attention um from my research I'd like to kind of explain the concern um I learned that portrait of a graduate is a national program created by a company called
071battle for kids battle is a applied science and technology company that uses technology to track behaviors the program was incentivized through policies and grants in a 2015 federal education law every student succeeds which replaced No Child Left Behind These policies are an extension of Common Core reforms some of some of battle's strategic partners that direct that direct States adoption of portrait of a graduate or Castle Aurora Institute Excel and Ed and knowledgeworks which is a Bill Gates funded organization each of these companies is working towards a mass data collection of children's values attitudes and behaviors with a company called Data quality campaign this program pushes families out of the picture of their children's future replaces personal education priorities with non-academic social justice vision of correct attitudes and mindsets which are all social emotional learning competencies
072that every child is expected to model and master portrait of a graduate is being used to fundamentally transform the purpose of U.S education shifting curriculum assessments School accountability and data collection away from academics and towards social emotional learning portrait of a graduate tracks children and all sorts of social services including health services and into the workforce in a final scheme of things portrait of a graduate is a backbone for social credit scoring and ESG scoring for children teachers are being shifted into becoming facilitators of social emotional system and over time the entire system would be geared towards social emotional learning there are there's also another organization involved called Panorama education their website shows that they build Behavior surveys and data collection around portrait of a graduate Panorama was founded by U.S attorney general Merrick Garland
073son-in-law which could possibly be the reason why Merrick Garland called parents domestic terrorists with that said I hope you understand why parents would be concerned the data mining children and you know focusing everything on the social emotional learning and Dr Foley assured me that that that's not the district's plan um that this they only took the framework from this program and our um and with the help of teachers parents and students came up with our own version and which isn't anything like the original program that was that I described above I still see a lot of similarities I do have to say um but and I still have a lot of questions so I will continue to come to you guys with my questions um to better understand it um and to be able to
074not only for myself but also for my constituents to assure them that um what I described isn't actually what is being brought into the district and I know this is this came in 2017. um I was able to go back and pull it up in our agendas but to also ensure that our district is paying attention to ensure that the course subjects are the priority for our students and that we're not veering off from that thank you presidential no that is not happening everything you read there and that's when it came up when Dr Foley says do you really know what that is and she educated us on that and we're like no no no that's not what we want we wanted the the concept of the expectation and and someone leaving Higley what that
075should look like whether it's this value this value this value whether they're going to college whether they're going into the career um and so no but you see why parents would be concerned none of that is happening um and won't happen here that is that is why like I said when Dr Foley said there's this whole program do you understand what that is um that using and essentially what you read there excluding children for information and and things like that would not ever be acceptable in this District so no terminology only and I can just encourage people to ask questions and seek information there's a lot of buzzwords out there there's a lot of phrasing like I said portrait of graduates one of them um we talk about social emotional learning there's whole curriculums there's
076different things that's another one of them the restorative justice is another one of them that their Concepts of looking at certain Concepts while there are programs out there that is not what would ever be acceptable in Higley so I I appreciate you doing the research and and looking at that and bringing it up so that our community can understand we are not doing a portrait of a graduate program we have created again we higley-ized it we have created our own expectations of people who graduate Higley what that should look like and that and that's and these conversations are important and to question it is important so um we should be able to to have these conversations without being shut down president Schultz board member Reese earlier yesterday we did have the opportunity to meet with
077board member Van Hook where we shared and showed that over the last three years the board had very specific goals one of them and all of them was Define a road map for a graduate update the Strategic plan as you know the Strategic plan had been it was about to to retire this was at the time and when the district did this back in 2017 you had brought in a company to do this and they brought in a program to run it to get the feedback and the board was very clear we have this document it didn't get implemented till its full potential we don't and and your team came to you and said we have knowledge in how to look at what we have and update it which is what we spent two years
078doing with our stakeholders to take the parts of the the original strategic plan that had been done with communities and stakeholders that had not been actualized to evolve it to to the language and words that came from again people were familiar with this terminology they'd been talking about it since 2017 but opening what does it mean to us as you know the language we used here and we find came from initial foundation of the work that was done in that strategic plan but we created our own and identified those procedures and processes and identified goals as a board you've worked to identify your self-evaluation aligned to those goals and you've also adopted an instrument that you wanted to hold your one employee me accountable for which is a part of my evaluation as well so
079hence the goals that the board has set all along need to be directly connected to the Strategic plan which is the work that we have done over the last two years and is kind of an evolution from the work that started back in in 2017 however this time around had such a huge input from children that had not been a focal point in round one and we feel we have a much better uh a product than we've ever had before and and we We Own It We own all of the data and we own all the feedback which is what we Implement and act from so again as you've heard tonight the continued work is not done um as you know we identified goals this year that we're working toward accomplishing and we'll be coming
080to you in April with additional goals connected to that strategic plan uh in order for everyone to know what we're working on and how we're going to actualize the work that we prioritized in our truly are collective strategic plan importer of a graduate documentation other questions I just want to make the comment um I appreciate everyone's input and questioning and feedback and information um I know I could hear bodies move and chairs move whenever it was brought up it's an uncomfortable conversation and I just want to point out uh portrait of a graduate includes critical thinking and working collaboratively and it's good to see that up here on the dice with the board and with our administrators as we model that so I appreciate questions I appreciate feedback and I don't think that should ever
081be a matter of contention as we as we set up here as professionals thank you thank you I just want to say one of the things when we talked about the Strategic plan and the portrait of a graduate last year my biggest concern was implementing it and how we're going to make sure that it's happening and I'm glad to see that very early on that we're making sure what we're saying we're going to do is what we're doing and asking the most important people on our campuses our children to make sure that that's happening and that we're preparing them for the world ahead so I appreciate that very much that it's not just a document sitting in a shelf somewhere and we look back on it once every year thank you very much for that
082Miss Dr treat the 7.3 second review of the 2023-2024 capital outlay budget good evening president Schultz members of the board tonight I'll present a second review of the f4a24 capital budget this review is is truncated from the first review and just really covers the the change that was made from the first review as I've adopted uh the presentation acronym slide here I'm not going to go over each acronym but again for any Community member or um staff employee watching this and is not familiar with our acronyms that we utilize um and the budget process this is your cheat sheet here we go so as a reminder the fiscal uh 2024 capital budget highlights include um the first one the DEA update that's the district additional assistance which is capital they're used interchangeably is going into
083a second year being fully restored um and again this was fully restored last year from the 2008 2009 recessionary Cuts so the state brought that funding back up to those levels of funding from 2008 2009 as you know we've realized a lot of inflation various adjustments in our economy and so that funding source while we're happy it's fully restored it's still inadequate which you'll see in the next category here they did approve in that K-12 budget last year inflation adjustment over the next three years as they've basically recognized that that funding source is not not enough for districts to sustain their Capital needs and so there is a small inflation adjustment over the next three years that was approved in last year's K-12 budget bill um the emphasis on this budget is in major maintenance
084projects our schools are aging the average age of our schools is now 16 years 20 years if you ask Mr Mr Dobson back there is really the year in which we hit a lot of those major projects in terms of time to um basically tear out and redo so Roofing weatherization those big projects that cost a lot of money typically have that 20-year timeline how we're funding a lot of our major maintenance projects is from the edmono capital transfer which is what the district has historically done due to the fact that we do not have additional Capital funding via a bond and or override so we always are working to supplement funding with the school facilities oversight board that's the state fund in which they provide Capital funding two school districts to me that don't
085meet adequacy guidelines um this funding source is limited and it's supposed to Encompass all the states schools so over 150 public schools with every school submitting projects to that you can see how that limits the amount of projects that get approved but we are we're constantly submitting projects to get funded by that source and that is always our first goal before usualizing our own budget and the third emphasis is is adding the phase security upgrades as I mentioned this was approved or proposed and they bond the 2022 bond that did not pass and so we realized that is still a need for our district a priority to invest in security we have aging security equipment and so we're looking at phasing in that equipment over the next several years and then to the left um
086just a picture of chaparral on the elementary they are proposing this plan to receive a weatherization and exterior painting so which would address this leaking wall hydrants throughout the campus that's causing severe stucco fracturing so I'm not going to go line by line as I as I already presented this but I do want to highlight that the one highlighted here um and then another highlight in the next slide but Safety and Security the one change from the first review to the second review is we increase this by 25 000. and I'll explain why when I go to this slide is we've decreased our capital projects by 25 000. so we did a first review of our capital projects for next fiscal year that encompasses every school principle submitting basically projects that they cannot fund from
087their capital budget these projects are larger in nature so they're not just buying student desks or chairs for a particular classroom it's more or less replacing a whole entire School of furniture or major Renovations that they have prioritized for their campus that they cannot fund so we did a first review the the reoccurring theme was security cameras and so um we are investing um that 25 000 back into security cameras and so that will allow us to do another additional camera to every single campus next year so in that original proposal the 350 000 um that provided five cameras for every single campus now we were able to get an additional camera on every single campus um just putting that money where our schools are asking us to put it I do want to highlight
088at the bottom of this capital budget here the budget formula so the total budget for next fiscal year is proposed at 17.4 million how that is made up is first line under that total expenditures is 6.6 million being transferred from our mnl or maintenance and operations budget to the capital budget and as you know on this previous Slide the building leases the line three you know that's taking up 3.5 million of that transfer the rest is for the major maintenance projects that we are funding the second line on the bottom there the daa budget capacity this is our state derived budget 6.8 million and then the estimated budget amounts carry forward this is what we anticipate carrying forward from this fiscal year into next year four million dollars so that's how we get to that
08917 million 413 743 budget for next fiscal year um I do want to point out uh so we have now reviewed taken a first review of the capital budget on February 8th on February 22nd we reviewed our second review of mno tonight we're asking for tentative approval on later in the agenda for our m o budget and I just presented the second review of our capital budget and if there is no further questions on April 5th I will bring a tentative approval of the fiscal 24 capital budget to allow us to get out and purchase some of those items that require long lead item or long lead item time for next fiscal year and then again you'll see this official capital budget proposed and adopted in June um set when that's statutorily required and those
090official budget forms come out so with that I'll take any questions is the phase two the 2.8 included in that major project of 4.3 NO phase two is going to be recommended from this fiscal year budget so it's above me on that the 4 million this budget is for next fiscal year phase two that's being proposed later in the agenda is being recommended out of this fiscal year fiscal year 2023's budget thank you questions I just want to so everyone heard you to make sure that we're restored to 2008 2009 funding which is 15 years ago and I'm sure all of our budgets have changed in the last 15 years and the cost of items so um difficult to work with that thank you Mr Moore [Music] moving on to 7.4 Higley High School phase
091two good evening president Schultz member of the board again um tonight we're bringing an information item and later a recommendation for approval of phase two for Higley High School um I guess I'll go back first um I just want to point out that this this project initially faced you initially stemmed from the um the bond proposal um and so there was five Community meetings held at Higley High School I know several of you had a chance to attend um and during those meetings we worked with the students the teachers the community to identify priorities for Higley High School um pretty much for the next five years really forward the thinking and try to making that campus um standardize it and make it a campus where students want to attend when the bond proposal failed we
092went back and reviewed phase two and looked at it from a district perspective and what we can do to basically maintain Safety and Security there was already several needs on that campus in terms of addressing Safety and Security like I mentioned and I'll go over some of those tonight um again we have a presentation acronym slide here these are the acronyms used in the presentation um but really uh so what give a little update on phase one and if uh Chase Building team can come up here um Mr Lee and Michael Diaz are here from Chase Building but um just an update on phase one uh on the left is the rendition that the board had seen have seen from uh DLR architectural firm um on the right is a current and actually that's not
093even current because if you've walked over right now um they are well ahead of that schedule um but the building is still on on track to me uh open for next school year um and I guess I'll let um Matt Lee and Mike just give you a little update on on phase one right now yeah thank you Mr Moore uh president Schultz members of the board my name is Matt Lee pre-construction manager with Chase along with Mike Diaz project manager on the job so kind of just a brief overview of everything we've been through um we had some really nasty site work going on with this job we had a lot of existing utilities going through an occupied campus that was a very child a very challenging part of this project unfortunately we were able
094to get through that um to this day we've you know kind of done a lot of the dirty work and you guys have probably walked around and said what are these guys doing all I see is dirt and fence and haven't seen anything cool yet so um we're excited to announce that in the next couple months you're going to see this building really start to pop so on Monday we're actually pouring our our second floor slab and then following that you're going to start to see the roof start to enclose and you're going to start to see those exterior elements all those cool finishes the metal panels all the different colors so that that's kind of where we're at so we're really tracking well we had um quite a few delays with with all the
095rain we've had um this winter so fortunately we've been able to make up quite a few days and we're happy to announce that we are um as of today we're on track to open for for this coming school year so we're super excited so I'm glad you were able to make it up thank you yeah thank you very much so jumping to phase two so this is um what the district is recommending um today so um throughout that Community meetings again we phased back um some of the the items that were not necessarily needs and or wants for that camp or excuse me needs for that campus um and we narrowed it down to these three items here um the total but project budget for this phase two uh the district set 3.5 million from
096the capital budget um gmp3 came in at 2.8 million and that includes the restroom refresh which I have a slide going into the detail on that the campus security lighting traffic flow modifications and I do want to note the traffic Club modifications 400 000 of that 2.8 million uh will be funded from the adjacent ways fund which is a different fund not Capital um and that's a state-derived fund that we can Levy for it can be used for any public right-of-way fire lane school bus lane and so we are utilizing those funds um as again they were kind of freed up from the consent judgment that the district um approved from the Birdwell litigation and then I guess proposed misuse of public funds so um gmp4 I do want to mention that uh that is
097not on this recommendation right now um I mentioned earlier in the capital plan that we are continuing to pursue additional Grant funds and so we do have tentative approval from the sfob school facilities board to fund 82 percent of that exterior weatherization for that campus so while I don't know a number that exterior weatherization would be well over a million dollars so 82 percent is over 800 000 which is a huge lift from our budget now we do get to play the game of waiting for the grant to be approved in the school facilities board to approve that um and which bucket of money whether it be this year or next year's funds that that gets approved from um so that's why again that's not being brought tonight as we wait for that approval from
098the school facilities board to take advantage of that grant funding um the campus I didn't want to know was assessed and I think 99 of the paint industry utilization failed their assessments um so if that's any indication on the um basically the the condition of Higley High School um it's it's well written in that assessment by 99 of the building failing their assessments so let's dive a little bit into this gmp3 so the restroom refresh again this was all covered in the community meetings but every single restroom will be touched we've done some things with Chase Building team to kind of save costs with flooring but a lot of the tile is all from the original build and so this is 20 plus years old much like a home renovation 20 years is a long
099time to not touch something so everything really needs to be yeah taken out redone for basically our students safety as well as just feeling comfortable using the bathroom throughout this community meeting several of the students comment that they don't use the restrooms because they do not feel comfortable going to the bathroom at the school and that's just I think unacceptable from a District's standpoint that we can't have public facilities that students feel comfortable using foreign security and lighting the campus again still has original Lighting in most places any place in which we've had to change or modify we've tried to put LED lighting but again lightening up the interior of the campus for safety concerns when students are on the campus late evenings for sporting events after school activities there's an existing picture of what
100the campus looks like it's very dark and so we want to light that up and make sure it's visible again if students feel safe traveling the campus both in early morning late at night and the last one here traffic Club modifications I think this is a big one as the campus continues to grow the student population with students parking on campus parents drop off continues to increase and uh the town of Gilbert has made us aware of issues on Pecos and has asked us to come up with addressing some issues here and so this is a a loose rendition I do want to point out that the actual traffic flow may take shape differently as we see the first day how things flow but the main points of emphasis on here are moving the Bus
101drop to the back of the campus making that bus lane a one-way Lane and also gating near the north side of the football field and the bottom half by the cafeteria so limiting traffic behind the school again a safety concern we had Parents dropping kids off back there limiting that making it a one-way in a bus only drop-off Lane in addition at the front of the school so we would we utilize that bus queuing or Bus drop off current Bus drop off and connect the front office proctoring lab uh to the existing student lot which increases queuing um three times I believe what we can do just in that front lot so what this does is it gets traffic off of Pecos where we have seen families dropping students off on Pecos students running across
102Pecos we've had accidents unfortunately with families dropping students off on Pico so it gets students parents off of Pecos and onto our campus and queuing on our campus rather than on Pecos the town has worked with us and they're very supportive of this they're also working to address some of the light light concerns so while bringing all that traffic onto the campus and into the student lot some of the concerns were how do we get rid of all of those cars how do we you know move all those cars out and so the town has talked about sinking the light the Higley drive light and the Pecos light so if parents were taking a left onto record to Pecos those two lights would be synced and turned green at the same time so traffic can
103flow and move some of those cars off the campus the last thing would be um this is our only campus in which we are fencing and securing our parking lot and so um this proposal would move the fencing down to the building level and secure the building which would open up um a couple entrances in that student parking lot that are currently being fenced this would also help our security guards in terms of points of entry for that campus and reducing it down to the north west entrance by the by the courtyard and so all right all right um go ahead um going back to the map right there um we're making traffic flow modifications and it looks like there's very limited land and I've received some public feedback regarding parking it's not just for
104students it's just for the the events that occur at the Performing Arts Center is that ever an option for this campus yeah so we priced some parking options we even priced our parking garage and it was just the total budget it was over 3.5 million so it wasn't feasible and so um we are adding some parking in that bus lane so that would be facing you can see it kind of striped a little bit I think we're getting 40 spots 30 to 40 foot don't quote me on that but um we are getting some additional parking um right there but to add additional parking in some Mass capacity that makes budgetary sense it would be we do not have the budget to do that and so so as far as you know this may not
105be the time to talk about it but it hasn't impacted any events from occurring um and the Higley reforming Arts Center because of the parking have you heard any feedback regarding that not that I'm aware of we do utilize both the student not and the district office parking lot when there's a large event and so um and those lights will be super helpful because people will be traveling all the way across campus yeah yeah in those moments okay I just wanted to ask thank you and so a little bit that the construction timeline again we hope to bring GMP floor which would include the weatherization and painting uh back in on April 5th again that's contingent on the school facilities board proving that blessing that and so um it allowed Chase to price that out
106and us to bring a price back um I did I kind of just put a general timeline but summer break is going to be major traffic at Higley High School so um as you saw we're going to be all over that campus not just at the phase one of finishing up that new building but modifying the traffic flow in the interior of the campus across all the campus restrooms and so major construction traffic across Julie high this summer and uh you know again we as of today I don't wanna go you put it on pen and Pen to paper yet but uh because we never know with construction but we will anticipate that new building Edition being open for the first day of school and so as we get closer uh we'll identify a groundbreaking
107or not groundbreaking but grand opening uh date um to share um and that hopefully again be open for the first day of school so with that I'll be happy to take any questions thank you very much um I just have one or I have one question on the fencing when we move the fencing are we repurposing that fencing so we don't have to buy additional fencing yeah that's one point of emphasis you can ask Mike in our owner's meetings that I've probably asked and so if it is uh in good use if there are pieces that we can't use we obviously will not use them but um you know myself and Mr Dobson have looked at some of the fencing a lot of it seems like we can reuse and so we're going to try
108to repurpose that to the basically as much as we can so some you know we just remind our community that this will be classroom space for it or as far as I mean what we're using it for Safari for the project yeah so phase one um stemmed from um the Higley High campus running out of space so their enrollment has grown drastically over the over the last several years and um this year they were utilizing traveling teachers and so that's teachers without a homeroom um and so the campus needed additional classroom space to accommodate the students that are enrolled at the campus and so phase one is is 12 classrooms and so we hope that provides enough room for growth for the next several years not only just this next year so perfect thank you
109question very happy the bathrooms are getting an update too thank you very much thank you thank you moving on to action items 8.1 approval of GMP number three for phase two of Higley High School project Chase Building I make I motion we approve of GMP number three for phase two of Higley High School project Chase Building second questions comments concerns all those in paper hi uh post four to zero uh I'm moving on to 8.2 I make a motion that we for the tentative approval of the fiscal year 2024 maintenance and operations budget questions comments concerns all those in favor aye all those opposed did you did you see I I didn't say I sorry um or did the motion passes four to zero I make a motion that we approve the moving on to
1108.3 I make a motion that we approve the issuance of certified educational professionals administrative contracts and classified work agreements with the increase listed below to the base salary or base hourly rate for the 2023-2024 school year presidential president Shields may I address and board members um I'd like to say first that I'd like to make an announcement if that's okay at this point absolutely oh we have Mrs Angie Walker in the room if you'd please stand up she is our newest Mrs Walker is our newest assistant assistant principal she will be located at Gateway Point Elementary School she is just a fine example of what a Higley Unified School District employee looks like as well as living the values of Higley and so with that I give you Mrs Walker and I think she has
111someone with her this evening if you wanted to introduce him [Music] thank you [Applause] thank you was that the partner you were referring to Mrs Johnson congratulations Mrs Walker and uh questions comments concerns I think three 8.3 yes or second sorry okay good um so my concern here is that I would have liked to have seen more options as far as this the salary increases as we discussed earlier today during um our meeting um we're increasing salaries to ensure that we're being competitive but then our districts around us are also increasing increasing their salaries which then puts us back down um and we're going to be in this constant back and forth of competing with with the districts we're going to raise it they're going to raise it and I don't know if we'll ever
112be able to be on top and the fact that we're hearing that if we don't approve a bond or an override in 2024 that kids are going to be impacted and programs such as music could be cut is a huge concern for me because I don't want the kids to have to be impacted at all these programs are so important to them and you know that shouldn't happen um so I would have liked to be able to see different options maybe you know a little less of of raises so that the kids aren't impacted but that's a huge concern for me so um I I don't know how I feel about the two percent increase that's all I I hear what you're saying I absolutely do not want um programs to be cut we also
113have to have teachers to teach the programs and we're not going to be able to have staff or teachers if we're not paying them there was a seven or seven percent inflation rate correct nine nine seven percent inflation rate and so the two percent doesn't even meet that for them being able to take care of their families for teachers and admin and to be able to have those teachers and so I don't absolutely want any program to be cut but we have to be able to have qualified and amazing staff to be able to make that happen as well so it's kind of a balancing juggling act that we're facing and I think um last year we were given several options but that wasn't an option this year to do I think two percent was
114all we could do and able to do it right now and we did do a six percent last year correct so six percent last year and and an additional two percent this year with the potential of kids being impacted I and again we have one of the highest salaries compared to the districts around us um and knowing that for instance Chandler is working on a raise which then might put us back down again so at what point do we compromise and say okay we need to ensure that that the kids aren't impacted but also be able to do you know somewhat of a raise but ensure they're taking care of here just the options I hear you um we I mean one we can't see the future so we don't know what's going to happen
115we don't want any of our kids impacted I Mrs Anderson was part of the district I think at the time and I was on the board when we were having to talk about doing some cuts and that's not a conversation that you want to get into um because like you said you don't want to impact kids and and all those programs have value in different ways it may not be reading and writing but they provide value for sure the problem is is if we don't like you said and we talked about this last word meeting too is that we it we keep going up and down up and down you know um and the larger districts have more money they get more they're bigger and so they can do a little bit more but we
116know that Chandler is looking at increasing theirs we know that um Mesa the districts around us are they're going to increase theirs and they're going to go above us and we know that but if we do nothing we're that much further behind so it creates a larger Gap um while don't get me wrong there's a little sense of Pride that on our little sheet that at the moment I can be like look it we did it because again we're small and we want to give as much as we can to our staff um and because we don't see us on top with regarding pay we just don't we we don't have it um we're not as big and that's why for me it's very important for all these other things everything Dr treat's doing all
117the professional development the support because we once they their boards approve their increases we're going to be back down again um and so the environment the culture the the support is what I think how we can try and make someone feel a little bit better about making a little bit less than than their counterparts because everyone knows you go to a bigger district and you just kind of get swallowed up and and you're you're lucky if you get the professional development or people who know you know we we get to do all this cross collaboration and and so I think that's where we add value over salaries um us being on top is going to be a moment and I want to take that moment because again it doesn't happen very often but if we
118don't if we don't we're gonna have a larger Gap and then those programs we're not going to have to have the discussion of us trying to figure it out they're going to weed themselves out they're we're gonna we're gonna have classrooms that have a large amount of kids that will over stress our teachers because we won't be able to attract them we'll have some we have our dedicated teachers who are here for that environment and and we will have some it will be so much harder for us to attract new teachers it will be so much harder for us to retain part of our conversations have been um if we're we try and get through you from years three to five people come they gain that experience and once they have experience then they can
119go to another District making a lot more money because obviously at that point they have experience which is no different than any other industry you start an industry you gain that experience you're going to be paid more going somewhere else um so retaining those teachers which is a large group a large number of teachers is is going to be hard we have teacher shortages all over the place so I hear you I we had options last year um like Mr Schultz said um and that was a conversation I had it's not that I didn't want to to do the six percent I we had those conversations and and it was a an internal battle for me um and I supported it and I support our teachers we don't have those options this year we're not
120as fortunate um but everything's going up and we need to try and stay competitive with with salaries unless we do the greater the Gap becomes because they're still going to do it so I understand what you're saying um I I can't make a decision and it's I know Tyler's gonna look at me because I always look to the Future and I always say let's prepare for things that we might not know about let's make sure we're okay with costs that go up what what if this what if that for unanticipated increases but I can't not approve this with the thought of are we going to be able to pass another mno override I mean luckily it has a sunset that it it's over several years and I'm hoping and our community has been fabulous about
121um about supporting that but I ca I can't go with I can't approve this or I hear your concerns so um because we may not have something in two years so um because then like I said if we fall that far behind that's not we're going to be figuring out what to do just to maintain regular classrooms it that wasn't a pretty time in Higley and I don't want to go back to that so I hear your concerns I agree I mean last year we had options um and quite honestly for me like Mrs Schultz said two percent is not hardly anything I mean everyone Social Security got an increase this year they got a large increase it's everything's going up and this doesn't even cover that so um so in my opinion two percent
122is actually fairly low given the circumstances of where we are in our economy right but I I agree options would be nice um but I think that this is minimally what we can do and and I 100 support or teachers all of our staff and and they think I I think that they're just as important right but I don't want to be using this as as a form of pulling the you know parents heartstrings going you know your kid's music's going to be cut if you don't approve a bond or override in 2024 um when we make this decision and and this was part of the reason why I was last year like I wish last year maybe wasn't as as large to where this year could have been a little bit larger um but
123that's just you know that's just how I feel about it like I don't want to tell parents like this is why you you should vote Yes for a bond because otherwise your kids programs are going to be cut so that's all any other questions comments concerns I just want to say that we won't be tugging on heartstrings we will have to have real conversations in 2024 and 2025 I've seen our budget and where we're at so Mrs Schultz can I just clarify that the the bond we don't have a bond that we have an mno over that is funding a lot of those extracurriculars and that that is outlined on our website um on what that is funding and what that was voter approved for but I just I just want to clarify this I'm
124going to override so thank you Mrs Anderson time you cuts um would hope would never they can make Cuts in other areas before they try to make cuts that impact the school district and of course you could say you can make a cut anywhere and it will unpack the students it'll trickle down and it will impact the students but I've been there in the district office where an HR department went from seven to four three seven to three um a grown woman I was a grown woman and I was bawling bawling on my knees watching these people because so never again will I ever want those and that's many moons ago reason why I ran for school board to stand up against a superintendent at the time who was making other decisions that were impacting
125our budget and I'm causing Cuts like this but as a teacher I I did sit down and I I did some quick little math at home and you know how much do we really make an hour you know and and it all depends on how many hours you work and we could all all argue how much we work and I just took that 45 886 the base and said hey we're 190 days in 12 hours is about the average that's put in mind I am a department chair and I do work weekends and I do work evenings um so that base at 190 days 12 hours a quick little calculation was 20 an hour that's not much I said okay well realistically I mean I like to work so I will put in those hours
126so what about an eight-hour day and even my husband was talking about he's like you know well you know do an eight-hour day I said okay and that that did Beef It Up to 30 an hour then I said well let's you know the middle man let's take 10 hours because no teacher that I know nobody in the education Field Works eight hour days um if we took mailman at 10 hours a day and then if you did 10 hours a day that's 24 an hour that's not much um I buy tissues and I've heard the argument well there's other um careers where they buy their own there's tools and things for their job and absolutely and that is expensive and that's unfortunate um but they probably get to take their tools home at the
127end of the day and those are their tools everything I buy for the classroom I don't get back the markers go tissues I can't even keep up with that it's gotten to a point in the household where I had a bag of juices sitting on the counter and my husband's like you're taking more and he wasn't being rude he's like you're taking more and I'm like no no these are ours these are our juices you know like juices at home it's not for the kids and I'm I'm standing I'm taking up your time I just want to say I support um increasing the salary um in in the money for these Educators and and the employees of the school district because um they desperately need it um they need they need to feel valued it
128is a thankless job it is a job filled with a lot of effort and it's never for the paycheck not one second for the paycheck so I just wanted to give my two cents from my experience thank you Mrs Anderson any other questions some comments concerns and I didn't I laughed at your juice is but it's not funny that you have to order to keep juices I'm sorry um okay I lost where we were I apologize I think uh yes 8.3 all those in favor aye all those any opposed I'm gonna have to vote nay okay motion passes three to one 8.4 salary schedule I make a motion that we salary schedule and rate adjustments right I did motion yeah thank you Mrs Henderson questions comments concerns yeah the two percent took us to 8.4
129questions comments concerns all those in favor aye uh all those opposed nay motion passes three to one future agenda items we have some items listed here any future agenda items Mrs Anderson yes we used to have Student Art in the the Board Room do we did we choose to not do that anymore maybe it was a few years ago as that was a decision that was changed so vice president Anderson it was my understanding the art came from um like our Fine Arts festivals and other events and at one I don't remember how many years ago but we started giving it back to the schools to post the art in the schools rather than here because I don't know they don't come over here all the time and say Hey where's my painting so if
130that's my understanding of what took place so when they re when they painted and redid and had to take everything down then they started sending it back to the school so it could be because it is the the art that was in here was from the Fine Arts Festival yes would it not be an option like would they like to share it we have our points of Pride here you know a couple times a month I mean and they get to see their schools displays president Schultz Vice member Anderson if you walk down the hallway you'll see that every month we have a rotating art display that shifts perhaps we could talk with the groups that we use to help do that to see if there's a potential for rotating it in the uh in
131here because it is missing a touch of if you walk down the hallway toward my office there's such warmth when you see children's artwork everywhere it is it is a tad sale at this point sharing is caring doctor pulley so if you wouldn't mind me I am all for sharing I am all for sharing vice president Anderson thank you and I had another um I'm not I'm not sure how to do this but there was policy G CCA which talks about employee leave and I would like to talk about parts of it um obviously not today but it's something that I could put to put forward on them on the agenda yeah vice president Anderson um that has been an ongoing conversation with meet and confirm we're preparing to bring a recommendation to modify that
132Paul so we were already in the works of that so yeah you shall see that in a future portugene item anything else then um I want to let everyone tell everyone to have a safe and relaxing spring break and I hope that our teachers and staff enjoy some time off and I'd like to make a motion to join the meeting all those in favor aye media intern thank you