001good evening I like to call this meeting to order Dr Foley roll call president Schultz members of the board please let the record show that all members are present like to take a moment of silence and then the Pledge of Allegiance thank you yeah okay okay I'd like to move that we approve the agenda second questions comments concerned all those in favor aye all those opposed motion passes five zero Dr Foley superintendent's report president Schultz members of the board we're going to start tonight with our superintendent Report with with one of our favorites our celebration of our students and our importance of Pride tonight we're going to start with Chaparral Elementary and I'm going to invite the administration Mrs Hansen and Mr pepper to come up so that we can celebrate their points of pride
002[Applause] I'll help hold I can help hold yes thank you all right good evening good evening Madam president Schultz members of the board Dr Foley members of cabinet it is my pleasure to be here this evening I'm Christine Hansen proud principal of what we like to call the Shark Tank and we're so excited to be here to celebrate our points of Pride this evening okay and I'm Terry pepper uh thank you guys for all being here we're very excited um and honored to be able to bring these guys up and recognize them for all they do for our campus this is usually where I drop my papers and Dr Foley helps me out all right so let me first start off with our certified staff member Mrs Robin Nelson come on up Robin thank you
003all right Mrs Robin Nelson is a dedicated and caring professional educator who year after year provides a nurturing learning environment for all students she has taught second grade since I've known her her holistic approach to students has allowed her to ensure high levels of growth for all students supporting both academics and social emotional needs she seeks out additional professional development opportunities and implements highly effective practices to meet her ever-changing student needs Mrs Nelson contributes to the overall well-being of our school by Leading our staff shared learning action team during quarter one she facilitated mindfulness Mondays all on her own where she'd hop on the announcements and help us all start off our day on the right foot in addition she facilitated a whole staff professional development in which she shared her personal journey toward maintaining
004a healthy home and life work balance and inspired many staff to pursue self-care to pursue self-care she works well with students staff and families across campus and she certainly leads by example [Applause] yes oh yes who did you bring with you this evening I just brought my husband Greg Nelson [Music] [Applause] all right I have the honor of recognizing our um uh classified uh points of Pride and we have Miss Rachel Whitmer [Applause] so what's whitmer's been in our uh as staff part of our tank for a few years now her enthusiasm and positive positive attitude make her an amazing asset um in our cafeteria as a lunch age she's able to think on her feet and problem solve through any situation she uses her experiences as a mother to four husd students and a
005swim coach to effectively and officially communicate with our large groups of students she demonstrates care through her kind words and warm smile and Miss Whitmer has now transitioned into the classroom as our title one para where she's working with our specialist to provide targeted interventions for students struggling with reading we're very lucky to have her in our campus supporting our students staff and Community thank you Rachel foreign and who did you bring this evening I brought my middle daughter truly [Music] [Applause] all right excuse me okay I'm very excited for this point next points of Pride this is our student who happened to be in Mrs Nelson's second grade class um she's now a third grader in the Shark Tank please come up Miss Adriana Bingham foreign all right come on over sweetheart all right
006Miss Adriana gosh what what can what can't I say about this lovely young lady um she is a positive influence among her peers she is not only a leader in the classroom but around our entire campus Adriana is always willing to lend a helping hand among her classmates she loves to assist students in the library and she does so on her in her spare time she helps them in the computer she gives book recommendations to her peers she also donates her time to our student Lighthouse team which is it's been phenomenal to watch her lead and grow she most recently found her voice which is habit 8 at our Veterans Day breakfast she mentioned to me in passing she said I just feel like I want to say something I feel like I want to
007say thank you to everybody and so I showed her how to work the microphone and sure enough she stood up on that stage with confidence and she made sure she she thanked everyone for coming that morning so I was so proud of her she was so nervous but something inside of her wanted to share She Found the courage she talked herself up and she she knocked it out of the park so very proud of you ma'am she's such a positive role model on our campus and I'm so happy for you to be recognized for all your hard work congrats all right and Miss Adriana who did you bring this evening my mom dad sister grandma and grandpa [Applause] [Music] Perfect all right and last but definitely not least um we have our parent uh points
008of Pride recipient and it's Miss Abby Oates thank you so much oats has been a volunteer in a variety of ways for many years she supports classroom teachers with small groups organizing making resources for them she participated in PTO she's volunteered this year to photograph our super shark steering assemblies and is visible at almost all you know school and Community functions she makes a a good effort to get to know and interact with our Chaparral Administration the front office classroom teachers and her dedication and supporting our student staff and Community is is evident and is very inspirational and much appreciated so thank you Miss Oates who did you bring my daughter Lennon okay come on over here come join us for a photo now we want to celebrate Coronado points of Pride so I'm going
009to invite Mr Armstrong or Mr Griggs to come on up alcohol [Applause] thank you all right president Schultz members of the governing board superintendent Foley in her cabinet thank you for having us we're excited my name is Jeff Armstrong the power principal at Coronado Elementary we're also known as the coyote nation and so we are excited to celebrate a bunch of really good people and this is always the most difficult because we have to only choose one per category and I wish I can grab many more to come on up so we're going to go ahead and get started and we're going to recognize our classified staff member of the for points of Pride and that is Miss Cindy Torres [Applause] so miss Torres serves as our amazing health aide and I will tell you
010that every principal says their health aide is pretty solid but there's no one in this District that is as good as what she does as Miss Torres as we all know the last couple of years have been a little rough and she has led us through so much ensuring that kids are healthy kids are safe parents are taken care of and that she goes ahead and takes care of the staff as well we are so very lucky to have her not only is she a rock star on our campus but when it comes to needing assistance across the district Miss Fulton relies on Cindy to go ahead and go to other schools and train their health aides when they get on board with the district so we're very thankful we're very proud and honored to
011have Miss Taurus thank you [Applause] oh yeah I brought my husband and my two girls Abby and Danny [Applause] love it all right we're gonna go ahead and recognize our certified staff Miss April Hammonds [Applause] [Music] yeah Miss Hammond serves as a first grade teacher she's been with us for two years and I will tell you that when we talk about growth as Educators wanting to learn more try something new no matter what it is myself Griggs our literacy coach can walk into our classroom and say hey can you try this and she is willing to run with it and she's going to try and she's going to tell us if it worked or if it didn't work and what she brings to her classroom in terms of culture in terms of climate is absolutely
012amazing she cares so deep for every single kid for who they are not just academically but socially and emotionally and she will go ahead and be the first one to work with any parent to ensure that their kids are as successful as they could possibly can be we're very honored very proud to have MS Hammonds on our staff so thank you if you want to talk about who you brought if you haven't heard my sweet niece in the front my sister and my awesome boyfriend Daniel continuing on with the awesome people at Coronado I'm going to welcome up Kim Monroe who is our president of our PTL so for volunteer [Applause] so miss Monroe there are many things that I appreciate you uh one of the the main things is that you keep the the
013vision of the pewto as what helps students and what can we do to support those who support the students what do we do to support the teachers what do we do to support the parents and families to make sure that we all work towards that vision of Student Success so very much appreciate that so she's had kids at Coronado for five years in her time as PTO president um one of the highlights I've been able to coordinate a direct donation drive that raised 35 000 which is no small fee and with that again towards that vision of making sure that every single family is able to attend community events and be able to attend it for free and so making sure that no matter who you are you're able to be a part of the
014coyote Nation so I very much appreciate that spends many hours on campus as you can imagine if you've ever done a volunteer role you know especially PTO president so many hours even today I think there's three separate times that you walked through our doors just today so thank you so much for all that you do for our kids and then who did you bring with you I brought my husband Matt and my son Ian and my daughter Reese [Applause] all right and I am so excited to introduce our students here so Bella come on up Bella Medrano [Applause] now Bella knows she already got her gift we didn't make her carry the big thing of candy out here so so she already got that um Bella what I appreciate so much about you is how
015you demonstrate you know when we talk about pause on the announcements so who we are as Coronado coyotes positive perseverance acting respectfully working a potential and staying safe you demonstrate that every single day I love watching on the playground how you invest in others you are quite the leader not only in the official title as student council communication specialist you do that fantastic she makes videos each week to make sure that every single kid knows what's going on on campus so that every single kid can feel a part of who we are as Coronado Nation I love that nice job communicating involving other people but you live it in your day-to-day as well you are someone to involve people on the playground that you wouldn't normally have hung out with you're like this person needs
016to meet this person and we're going to make connections here nice job that is a skill that I am so excited to see in you and I know that's something that you will invest in as you go on to Junior High and high school so proud of you Bella and who did you bring with you I brought my mom dad brother sister and my grandma nice job guys nice job [Applause] all right we'll take a picture thank you points of Pride for being here with us tonight we want you to know that you are more than welcome to stay but we also know you have school tomorrow so if you'd like to leave we are going to transition right now as we bring in the entire football team from Higley High School so feel free
017to leave if you'd like or stay if you should desire okay thank you foreign come on okay all right Mr latzenheiser please help us honor celebrate acknowledge our state football champions all right [Applause] president Schultz members of the board so excited tonight to celebrate a first in the history of Higley High but a well-deserved five-a state championship football team another round of applause [Applause] foreign just a couple highlights for those of you who went to their games you know how exciting they were this year eight and two on the regular season 4-0 in the postseason for an overall record of 12 and 2 but that doesn't tell the whole story I think the stat that jumps out to me the most about this team is they outscored their opponents 614 to 304. so they more
018than doubled the scoring of their opponents for those of you at the playoff games you know that um Desert Edge pretty exciting 45-42 had some of us sweating and I'll be honest the amount of praying that I did when there was a field goal lineup at Desert Mountain I hope that amount helped that ball go through but congratulations what an out signing time and then beating cactus in the finals at ASU uh so right now I'm going to turn it over to not just our own coach Eddie zubi but the 5A conference Coach of the Year Eddie zubi thank you very much uh it was a great season for us it was very exciting it starts from the top right everybody here at the district office the the school board Dr Foley Mr Lawson Heiser
019all the way down to our Administration super supportive of the things that we try to do year in and year out uh my coaching staff was amazing I had a lot of guys that were first year with us we had to indoctrinate them into the Higley way they were got came on board loved these kids up but most importantly is these guys right here day in and day out they showed up they came to work right didn't complain uh worked their tail off studied film did things outside of the football program we talked about love and Brotherhood I think our culture is really really good right now and it's something that happened at the beginning of the Season these guys really love each other they care for each other they play for each other and
020I think that was evident during the season we lost those two games they're very winnable games for us there were learning experiences for us it was something I feel that we needed to go through as a team to learn how to win those type types of games and when we got into the playoffs and got faced with those same types of uh ups and downs and situations we persevered we talk a lot about character we talk a lot about love we talk a lot about caring for each other these guys are the epitome of this they had a lot of Firsts this year we look forward for the seniors set the bar really high we look forward to having another great year next year we really appreciate you having us out this is super awesome
021we love representing our district and our Higley High School so go Knights [Applause] yep well that's a fun way to to begin a school board meeting uh to conclude the superintendent's report I've just put up some of our upcoming events as you know we're really excited that next week we have our performance our Chinese New Year performance at the hcpa a as well as Kindergarten Roundup and some upcoming board meetings by no means is this an exhaustive list of the multiple things we have going on but just a few highlights in the next several weeks so that concludes the superintendent's report thank you Dr Foley uh request to speak we value input from our constituents this time has been set aside for anyone from the audience who wishes to address the board please remember this
022is 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 on the agenda that are not specifically identified on the agenda therefore pursuant to ARS 38-431-01h 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 have Mr John Mason it's a pleasure to see many of you here one or two in particular on I would like to start out I I don't mean to be negative and we
023saw we saw a lot of great wonderful things happening here but we also have to look at some problems that are going on with the district right now so I'm just going to dive in and and start out according to Arizona revised statute 15-511 a person quote shall not use School District or Charter School Personnel equipment materials buildings or other resources for the purposes of influencing the outcomes of Elections here are three examples of how the district broke the law on the district website first the district States quote in order to continue to meet the needs of our students and provide them with every opportunity to succeed husd is seeking approval of a bond unquote this is an opinion and not a fact in addition it is the slap in the face of every parent
024that feels compelled to send a child to a charter school or private school due to the district's failure to adequately meet the needs of their children second the district implied that the bond would result in quote higher property values in the neighborhoods that surround those schools unquote that is an opinion and not a fact there is no and I look for this there is no research that exists to support the idea that very long-term bond to cover relatively short-term needs is a good idea third the district stated that quote Higley Unified School District has a proven record regarding responsible stewardship of bond funds once again that is an opinion and not a fact the district famously entered a fiscally disastrous lease according to the Gilbert Sun News article dated November 21st 2022 quote this has
025been a huge budget item unquote District CFO Tyler Moore stated at a November 16th board member meeting quote it is in every single budget conversation that we've had why didn't the website mention this lease why didn't they mention it that is the question because your job is to become neutral and not to advance a bond in my opinion to rest to rectify the historical problem of fiscal irresponsibility at husd the district should seek out guidance from community members to ensure that the district expenditures reflects the values of the community however however concerned citizens efforts to review such expenditures will fail if the district misleads the public as it did on the website thank you very much thank you moving on to 5.1 I move that we approve the consent agenda uh 5.1 through 5.18 second
026questions comments concerns Mrs Van Hook one eight so it's the entire consent agenda discussion anyone second that motion they don't need to be removed yeah you can discuss them removed if you want to vote on them separately right so you can take the time to ask questions but yeah yeah we can have conversation about it yeah got it okay no you can't no no the consent agendas all of it in one but you can so you can save specifically I have a question about 5.3 whatever it is and we can answer that question or director if not okay so 5.3 I'd like to understand what's happening um with with all this just so I've never seen this report before so I just want to understand what's happening uh president Schultz a board member um Hoke
027van hoek is that how we say it Van Hook and Hope Van Hook okay thank you for asking one of the things that as a governing board that you approve is Personnel action items this is the format that the report is done and this is like what we call the Personnel report for human resources because again as we discussed in the session that you had on The Retreat on Saturday one of the things that the governing board the oversight of the board is to approve the recommendations of the administration so there's the oversight of the board and then the recommendations we follow all of our processes and procedures and our policies for the things that are outlined in any of the consent or the governing board um Personnel items they're just listed as separate things
028um and what we'd like we discussed on Saturday in the consent agenda or otherwise you will see those items and as part of our agreed upon communication protocols you see these items the in the board docs the Friday before a board meeting which allows you to review them ask our Administration questions our process is that we kind of discussed on Saturday is that when you've got questions about any of those items that you bring them to the administration's attention so that we can provide back in writing to all board members any questions answers that you've got because everything in there has been vetted through our process it's just the volume of the business as usual that the board has to approve is substantial and we always want to be accurate and timely and complete so
029these are the reports and those separate items that you approve in a consent agenda that are one things and only things that can be approved for consent go in that agenda item that says typical practice board business that we that we work through that attorneys help govern and guide so the report you're asking about is the Personnel action items which is uh the hiring um or or people have submitted things for uh resigning or retiring those kind of things but it also includes sorry Dr it also includes teacher coverage stipends for coaching and those type of things so it's it's things in our policies and procedures that that they're entitled to and we're improving them foreign my next question is um so the expenses that are listed um is over 250 pages and it took
030a while to look at each item so um my question is is it possible to put this out in an Excel format so that it's easy not only for us to be able to review and be able to filter through but also for the community to be able to look at it in an easier format versus having to flip through over 250 pages um it was just very hard to have to go through each line item and because some pages also skip to the next page it was hard to just understand what was happening regarding 5.5 yes sorry no sorry yeah and remember van hope yeah we can certainly provide that in Excel thank you I appreciate that um and another thing on there that I I noticed is and I mean I I don't
031I don't mean to nitpick but um I noticed that we've we spent over 27 000 on t-shirts and hoodies um and I I think that's like one third of a teacher's salary um so I want to understand like is this just a necessity versus a want or is this for you know like the sports teams okay so uh president Schultz board member Van Hook one of the things that you will you will cherish from all different pots of funds and monies some of which were allocated for those specific things and it's large usually because of the size of the districts we're talking about all programs all activities I know that one of the things that we would be happy to do is that if we know what those questions are ahead of time we can
032sit down with you and show you the funds again as we kind of delved into a little bit on Saturday there's multiple fundus that we're using there's multiple accounts that are used for different purposes through for we have to follow all procurement laws we have to follow all the correct accounts and funds what you're seeing on those reports are the culmination of all of those things so without the story behind each individual line item and where it's coming from and why it's coming from it's hard to answer on the spot but what we can do is show you the vast amount it does look like a lot of a hole but when you look at how it's spread amongst and the multiple funds and where it's coming from it's much more reasonable in the size
033and the scope for the per item or per program versus as a whole but when you're looking at it in the district it's a vast amount because it's the whole it's all culminating Mr Moore can we at one point had on here what fund was what the 526 the 304 all those funds so can we can you put that out there again so that they can see what funds those are coming from because part of it too is that they may have appeal and it all comes in here that it could be a student group and because the money filters through the district like they fundraised for stuff like that or each student had to pay ten dollars for a t-shirt or something that all filters into here and we see it all together as
034a district so sometimes there's it's not that the district is paying that there was money coming in specifically for that and sometimes that's that's hard to see because I agree if you look at going why are we paying 27 000 for t-shirts and hoodies what are we doing um but all the groups come through well in the report we get because we get all the vouchers for this is what we paid so some of it may specifically it's not that the district's paying that funds came in for those from various things so if we have the listing of each fund the the number at the end of there it will tell you where it came from yes and that will you'll see the difference between a student fund between mno between um all the different
03520 some funds something like that so thank you it's a board member Van Hook one of the things to remember is that we have to follow procurement and rules for all funds activities reporting including the reports that we submit to you um and so again the district serves kind of as the Clearinghouse to ensure those processes and procedures are followed at all levels within all organizations okay thank you [Music] um sorry I made a lot of notes and um obviously this is my my first meeting and I'm learning so bear with me please don't don't be sorry questions you're good so as far as 5.8 um I want to understand uh what um is column four um in column four is that the amount that is still owed based upon the budget spending budgeted spending
036and column five will there be a balance at the end of full year 23 yeah so you're referencing um 5.8 the monthly governing board financials um on both you're referencing the District financials not the Student Activities correct yes yeah yeah so call import represents the encumbrances for the district so those are currently encumbered funds that can be anything from um remaining pay periods that we have left to pay individuals that could be open purchase orders that we have for items or supplies that we have not yet um uh purchased yet and so yeah so how that reads is that comes off the budget balance and then that last column there is the remaining balance year to date now that that's not inclusive of our total remaining expenditures for the year as noted on here this
037is unaudited financials um but this is a snapshot of where we were in November for each fund and it looks like we um we'd have 35 million in mno carryover and 9.6 million in capital that's correct as of November thank you the items that have a negative balance what are those and how do they get rectified yeah so how Grant funds work is we also mentioned this in the Border trade on Saturday uh Grant funds are a reimbursable fund um they're administered by the Arizona Department of Education and so the district the process in which we have to get reimbursement the district expenses the um whatever it may be that's approved in the grant so we incur the expense and then we ask the Arizona Department of Revenue for reimbursement for those funds so when
038you see a negative balance those are expenses that we've incurred and we are either in the process of submitting a reimbursement to the Arizona Department education for that expense um or it has not yet hit our account yet and do they typically reimburse every time yes yeah so if you see we have a budget that's allocated by Ade and so that budget they'll reimburse us up to that budget amount so we're always operating within our budget there's just a lag between when you have a third party administrator there's a lag between the time in which we expense the funds in which we get the revenue that is the current model in which Arizona Department of Education operates under and so um we are not alone in not every school district operates in the same fashion
039okay and then the Easter carryover what happens with that so essers again another Grant fund so that is reimbursable um so what how that's how that's showing on this uh is um as a budget balance remaining um and again a lot of that is lagged between um when we actually expense the fund and when we get reimbursed for that fund none of that is carried forward and so all that has to be expensed by 2024. okay and then two more questions um what's the difference between the budget controlled and the cash controlled so again yeah we mentioned this in the Border cheat on Saturday but a budget controlled fund um is is derived from a budget typically formula controlled much like our maintenance and operations budget it's formally controlled by student account and the state
040has a formula that's in statute and so those are we may have differences in cash and and budget but we utilize the budget controlled fund because that's what we're obligated to utilize under the state formula a cash controlled fund those are those are actual dollars received by the district so those are largely if you look down the list Student Activities auxiliary uh rentals you know those are revenues that we've garnered or basically collected from vendors parents Etc um and then on the flip side expenditures are are the same things those are actual hard expenditures from that cash fund so it operates much like your personal bank account what you take in is what you have and what you uh expenses uh what you expense so and then is there a Target carryover for each different
041line item to handle emergencies yeah typically the district has operated with contingencies in some of the larger cash controlled funds specifically uh Food Service Civic Center which is rentals and direct costs um and Medicaid reimbursement we we bring those up annually on our annual financial report we also mentioned those um typically at some point in the budget process as well the rest are typically student direct derived or um specific [Music] like Insurance refunds like that's specific to the that's just an accounting uh fund that we have to use when we have an insurance um reimbursable and so it typically gets expense right out of that but all the 525 526 and 530 accounts are managed at the school site we just serve as the accounting bypass for those funds and we don't touch those student
042funds so there's no there's no specific dollar amount we target for those because those are student funds that the district just manages thank you that's all I have it's been a hook I appreciate you asking questions and Mr Moore I know um and you stated it several times it was a lot of this was covered in our um Retreat on Saturday was it recorded by chance no okay um I know a lot when it's in PowerPoint it's it's teachers know it's just because it's in PowerPoint doesn't mean that everything was in the PowerPoint there are things stated outside the PowerPoint um so don't ever apologize for asking questions I always have questions um and I just thank you for your patience as you reiterate things and I go back to our meetings even after we've
043been in meetings to listen to what everybody says I have to there's no way we can absorb all the information that's given but I appreciate you all sharing again and you'll probably say it 100 times over um and um in regards to the kitchen agenda it's good to ask and sometimes you'll sketch it in advance sometimes you'll catch it in meetings it's like the item and going through each one I mean that's just that's just what you do but I'll go to like item 5.14 I was looking through what we were uh what we purchased for the the new school or the new building and I came across the one that had like an ottoman and it said it was like six dollars and 45 cents and I'm like what I found an error look
044at me right and now it was for a part so it's you just ask questions and but I want a six dollars I know that's I was like writing down the website my God I did I did go to the website but anyway but this is I just wanted to say it's okay and I appreciate everybody's questions and patience throughout we are fine absolutely a board member uh president Schultz board members uh we are always fine with questions and like we said on Saturday it helps if we know what the questions are ahead of time so we can put it in writing always feel free even to ask them on the dice that way we just always are able to get you the specific information because as you pointed out there's volumes of work here
045and hours of hours of multiple staff time and we're always happy to get the information we just may not know it on a spot but we're happy to always provide additional information and see clarification so thank you for for your time and as we discussed on Saturday putting those questions in our minutes so that the public can see the questions that we ask ahead of time and the questions that we get and because they might have the same questions and so a practice of doing that because you often don't see all the behind the scenes stuff that we do to make sure we have all the information when we come out on Wednesday or when we have our monthly meetings any other questions no thank you okay um so uh we had a in a
046second all those in favor hi all those opposed writing a post uh consent agenda passes five to zero and with that Mrs Richards president Schultz members of the board I'm delighted this evening to come with the recommendation we are bringing miss Karen Johnson as a recommended individual for your HR executive director position she comes with the extensive experience in HR and with schools so she worked in Kyrene School District Scottsdale Community College in Arizona Western College so I'm going to make her stand up and wave to us [Applause] and she actually drove here from Yuma today after another board member meeting in the middle of the day so I commend her for making the journey and we're we're excited that she's interested in Higley and we're all very very proud of what God's on here
047so she's heard all about that too so congratulations we're excited to have you Mrs Johnson welcome okay moving on to 6.1 information item the first review of the fiscal year 2024 maintenance and operations budget Mr Moore yeah thank you good evening president Schultz and members of the board uh tonight we present the first review of the fiscal year 2024 maintenance and operations budget this is a practice we've started two years ago in terms of bringing this early to start the conversation and and guide the governing board and our community along as we go through this budget process for next fiscal year as a reminder um this is the the Arizona school budget timeline um I always try to allude to this because Arizona is unique in the fact that we have some different requirements by
048Statute and so I just like to cover this timeline um for so what we're looking at is the 2024 proposed what we're working for is that the 24 proposed budget and so um the schedule outlines the fiscal process in which we have to require the proposed that adopted budget where we look in December at our budget one more time the Arizona Department of Education typically notifies the district if we've exceeded our budget by one percent and if we have like we did this year we didn't bring a budget revision uh in December in may we always have to do a final revision to kind of true up our budget to 100 day ADM and uh we will have another budget revision for this year in May to cheer up those numbers we don't anticipate and
049I'll cover it later in the slide much change from that December revision that we tucked into account um but just know that we will have another revision to our current year budget in May and then finally our fiscal calendar in June this is when we formally have to propose an adopter budget we do walk through this process and we do ask for tentative approval in March but we bring the legal binding budget back in June to advertise it which is the proposed and then adopt it and as a governing board a couple weeks later so with that I'm gonna jump into the fiscal budget highlights this is slim and kind of what we know right now um as you know the aggregate expansion limit I feel like a broken record but um we are still
050uh kind of there hasn't been anything done yet um we have a March 1st deadline for this fiscal year there's been conversation um that both the governor and the legislature are working towards an exemption or some sort of um agreement to exempt districts from this for this fiscal year but that has not taken place yet we're still facing that March 1st deadline um so for fiscal 24 you know is that exemption going to be another one year is it going to be a long-term solution we still don't know and so we're keeping that in our budget highlights um as a footnote because until we have some concrete evidence that that has been solved or a solution has been made um that is always going to be a budget implication for the the district other budget
051implications um we do know the Arizona State Retirement System is increasing their contribution rate by 0.12 percent uh for the governing board and the public the district is a member of the Arizona State Retirement System and so that increase will take effect on both the district and the employee side that increases approximately sixty thousand dollars um and so just know that Eminem to Capital transfer for the Middle School lease as you know we've been working on refinancing I see that term loose leap it's really um looking for a cop steal um and we do have preliminary um kind of numbers on that um financing we do close February 2nd but what we do know is the payments will approximately be 3.6 million dollars about double the savings and when we initially came to the board
052um a couple months ago and so that's about 600 000 savings to our operational budget every year uh which is which is a huge win for this District um we didn't get rid of the lease but we did eliminate a majority of the fees and we did hit the market in a good time and got good rates so um I will have that final payment schedule February 2nd and I'll maybe present the whole slide on that I think it's well deserved on the February 28th board meeting when we review the budget for the second time um we do know uh well we will be proposing uh transferring additional mno to Capital to support our Capital needs um this was our preliminary plan if the bond did not pass and so uh on February 8th we
053will present our first review of our capital budget and at that time um we will propose or at least bring a information item with a recommendation that outlines that transfer amount and what that will serve what purpose that will serve lastly what we do know and what we're assuming in this budget projection is that we'll get a two percent inflation adjustment to the base level support that base level support is the per pupil amount per the formula in our budget um statutorily the the statute Loosely reads that if inflation is over two percent that the legislature has to at a minimum provide two percent inflation adjustment so we are taking that um an assumption that that will take that will be in effect as inflation has been in the neighborhood of seven or eight percent
054lastly um we do know since the increase in State retirement and with limited budgetary funds next year for compensation increases we're currently looking at some employee Insurance enhancements so as the board knows we move to self-insurance this year and we are already realizing um the the fruit of the benefits of that of that transition so um the district has had low claims to date and we are really realizing some Savings in that self-insurance um uh fund so what we're currently researching and working with our benefits manager and we will soon be working with uh Miss Johnson on um kind of surveying our employees and seeing where um they would be interested in terms of enhancing certain programs and then taking that back to Kairos our insurance administrator and working to price some of those out
055and see what we can do realistically next year to enhance our benefits package some more to come on that maybe there we go okay so this is what our fiscal 24 budget projection looks like uh right now uh as you as the Border recalls or for our new members in December December 14th we took a revised budget um revising our budget uh in mno particularly up about 700 000. um to uh revised General budget limit of 119 873 246. um that budget uh does not take into consideration a potential AEL reduction and I have another slide that will go into a little more detail on that but that is where we stand right now so looking into fiscal 24 which is a next year's budget we're estimating in a proposed General budget limit of 122
056878 132. this is taking into consideration a flat a no increase to ADM our current practice inflation at two percent to the base level support which is the per pupil amount in the formula uh we do know we're going to take into consideration that 60 000 increase to asrs this is not take into consideration the the amino to Capital transfer um yet because we do not have a final number on what that total transfer amount will be um the biggest area where we're seeing a continued um increase in not really savings but um increase to the budget is budget balance carry forward so we have that estimated at 26 million right now a large portion that is again towards vacancy savings we are struggling to fill positions particularly in the classified hourly Department our grounds
057our transportation drivers our custodial staff and so um that's continuing to increase that budget balance carry forward which is one-time funding um and we'll look to basically have some recommendations to address that on the February 28th meeting when we do our second pass on the mno budget but you'll see right now um we're estimating an increase of three million dollars again uh this is our first pass at this we'll have um some some more information uh on the second review again I just wanted to footnote the AEL um again I feel like a broken record but it's it's here it's still no solution but the impacted this year's budget would be approximately 22 million we did carry over uh 24 million little bit over 24 million so um if the AO did not get passed
058we would the district would be in a place where we would not um any operations would not be halted we would be able to continue as is it would wipe out all our contingency but we've strategically placed ourselves in a position where we would not put any of our operations at risk right now the impact of fiscal 24 this is kind of uh the same to what we proposed last year there'd be no operational impact again I think we when we get to the bottom of this we will still propose that we carry over if there is no final um or long-term solution to AAL at least the minimum to cover the district um if the AL were to impact sn24 and again so we would have no operational impacts of the budget we would
059utilize that carry forward again we would propose you know hiring fees and a salary freeze just so we wouldn't put any operational risk to the district come on all right well this slide is a kind of a tease um we uh we are I I need to remind the board too we are six months out before our our fiscal uh date starts so we are working we knew no we do know um and with conversations with our insurance um our property insurance uh vendor um as well as utilities we do know there's going to be increases we do not have those renewal rates just yet we hope to have those by our second pass but we are we did didn't want to make the board aware of these areas in which we do project to
060see at least some increases um as we work through the process I do want to note the projected compensation increases we have started negotiations with our meet and confer team we use an interest-based negotiation process we hope to have those wrapped up at our next meeting on February 16th um and a recommendation to the board on February 28th and so more to come here so here's a highlight of our calendar and um the end tool bring over the next couple of months again I mentioned February 8th we'll take a look at our first review of our capital budget we'll continue our practice of having our budget summary and going through a high-level Department overview of each Department's kind of capital budget February 22nd we'll bring a second review of our mno budget at that point
061we'll we'll be able to fill in some more information here and have a clearer picture March 8th we'll bring a third review if necessary or just ask for attended approval of the mno budget so we can issue contracts to our administrators and certified staff at that same meeting we'll also present a second review of our capital budget and then April 5th um we'll continue the same practice for mno budget and ask for attendive approval for a capital budget which allows us to get out and procure some of those long lead items that we may need to start the July 1 fiscal year and then again I put the the June but the dates in there those are our statutorily official dates in which we propose and adopt our budget which is the culmination of everything
062we we're going to talk through for today all the way through June so with that if there's any questions I'll be happy to answer any questions Mr Van Hook I like to ask questions I'm sorry okay um as far as the um enhancements um for insurance so it's not because staff is asking for enhancements it's just something that you're thinking ahead and you're going to go out to them and ask things that they might want yeah we're proactively utilizing the the savings that we've accrued from moving to a self-insurance plan to to put that back into our employees we take every opportunity we can to enhance our employee compensation package whether that mean compensation or benefits all these hit are employees paychecks and so anywhere we can help out it's been um in interest of
063both our meet and confer team and the district to to put that back to the employee miss Mr Mark um last year April I believe when we switched from two years ago sorry two years ago wow um we switched to self-insured and we were able okay I was like wow I know we started the process two years ago because there's a lot of research involved but we actually made the switch a year ago thank you sorry no it all runs together um we switched to independent uh self-insured I'm sorry and so we were able to save um a great deal of money from that and so then we're able to um give back to the employees and hopefully ask them if there are things you know Dental or dependent type things that we're able to
064provide to them rather than take away benefits or increase benefits or costs so save money yes and also that that money can only be used for that we can't we can't move it around thank you Mrs Reese when is sorry when is open enrollment like because I know you're searching for new things so like when do we have to have something decided about here yeah a member remember wait uh I think we're targeting April May we do anticipate um bringing an information item in uh either March it'll probably have to be March uh regarding our benefits um and what we're proposing uh next year at least a summary to kind of summarize maybe our survey summarize the pricing of that and kind of look at what we're renewing for next year so foreign something else
065to to give you an idea because having worked here before um in years past where it wasn't as good as we've changed it to previously um I have teacher friends who either have you know pre-existing conditions like myself or knew they were going to get pregnant Etc and left the district because the cost here just wasn't enough in order to be able to get the care that they needed and it was better in in certain places certain cases different districts where that option for them or they left entirely and so that's why I the idea of changing it is definitely beneficial if we can't you know like if the AL doesn't pass and we are in a situation in which we can increase salaries but if we can decrease your benefits we're still then giving
066you more money to take home and that's you know we we count pennies a lot president shelves board member Wade and that is in direct alignment toward two of our strategic plan focuses which was where we can save money and also put in value for our employees and give them voice where we can and these are some of the the work and areas that we researched to put into that an aligned are examples of alignment to that work so if the AEL doesn't pass what is that 119 million reduced by or two approximately 22.6 million is that reduced by yeah the 119 you take 20 minus 22.6 22.7 million right now and that could change it depends on they would take a snapshot at march on every school district's budget and then calculate the reduction
067it's the total reduction right now is 1.4 billion for all districts and then they'll they would do a percentage off that and so right now it's about 19 of our budget which uh is 22.7 million so and are there any plans as to where the cut would come from if we have to cut there would be no Cuts we've strategically placed the district in a position where we would utilize the carry forward again it's on the slide here president Schultz board member van helke one of the things we we were in a good place compared to some of our other districts because of the fact our carryover was we were intentionally planning for the fact in case it didn't we wouldn't have to furlough or close doors or change districts that didn't have that carry
068forward amount held there last year previously would have been in a place had it not been extended for a year to to cease operating so hence moving forward many districts have done what we did last year in in in in their budgeting and and with the unknown of AEL hold that over for carryover so why that's one of the reasons why trajectory you're seeing many districts hold larger amounts of carryover until that's resolved in other words they're not allocating it for the things until they know that they aren't going to end up losing it so we're not using any of the carry forward for the for the Higley project no uh president Schultz member van Hoke no this is a budgeted carry forward set aside as contingency for um AEL if that were not to
069pass and then we would readdress it next fiscal year as we do not have a long-term solution so and that Capital funding is the only fund that could be used for um construction thank you presidential yes Mrs Reese and along with that because I know that's your first board meeting I can I would strongly suggest to schedule a time to meet with Mr Moore Mr Moore and I have talked at length on contingencies um especially since 2020 and everything that's gone on and I've asked multiple times if this happens then what what if this what if that seen that inflation was going to come we had that conversation um even as much as unemployment tax just changed now we have to pay unemployment on 8 000 versus 7 000 so that's an additional cost um
070for the district and things like that and those are conversations that Mr Moore and I have had and I know that when he's done presentations he's tried to include that because I'm I do too very much so we're there's so many things that are out of our control that would have been what um if this within that and making sure that we're not in a place that we were eight years ago where we were sitting around a table trying to figure out what we're going to do so that I would strongly recommend to meet with with Mr Moore and and ask all those questions and by all means they can share them out as well because I think these are all good questions and I think each of us have different experiences um in our
071knowledge and background and so like I worry about unemployment tax I worry about workers comp I work you know I worry about those things because that's kind of the the part of my life I have to worry about as well so I ask how are we planning for that but the last couple years Mr Moore has heard me over and over again on what are we going to do what are we going to do and um he's like he's sit down and he'll explain it over and over again to me he's like okay so we'll go here and we'll do this and we'll do that and I hear you I'm watching this and so it's definitely made me feel more comfortable that we have contingencies and because of that contingency planning we were in the
072same situation last year if the AEO had not been addressed we would not have had to to furlough people we wouldn't have had to stop our operations we could continue um which for a lot of districts if that had happened last year they would have been in some really bad spots and and kids wouldn't have had some places to go so um I I hear you and I worry about those same things and um but I would strongly recommend that you you meet with Mr Moore and and ask these questions and again you can jot them down we can get them out to everybody and and things like that because what you may think of I'm not thinking of and then I'm like oh that's a good point so what are we doing you know
073things like that and I know a lot of these discussions again both you miss Wade this is your first board meeting there's a lot going on and a lot of these budget discussions have gone on over the past two years and so it's not that we don't necessarily have same questions I think we've we've heard these things over it's been presented Mr Moore's done a fantastic job the report the financial monthly financial report we used to not get anything so I started to worry going what are we earmarking money for and are we spending the same money over and over again and so that concerned me and then we got a little bit of a report when Mr Moore came on we get a much more detailed report so that way as board members we
074can be more informed of our financial situation because the last thing I wanted and Mr Moore okay so this is different money right we're not spending the same money I'm not approving the same pot of money for this you know all these different things because that used to happen so um so Mr Moore has done a great job in trying to position us financially responsible for these things so I appreciate you asking and it's always a good reminder and it's not that we're not asking it's this information's been presented to us year in and year out so that's I appreciate that yes and every you guys have heard it I'm sure for so long but you know and and because of my my background in finance um and I'm not used to looking at numbers
075on a PDF Mouse which is why I'm asking for an Excel format because um it's just so much easier to be able to do math and add add different numbers and be able to filter different ways um to look at things so it'll make much more sense to me that way thank you absolutely um any other questions or anything okay Mr Moore thank you I am very grateful that we do have a contingency plan and when you say we don't have a long-term solution it's because the legislature doesn't have a long-term solution for us I just wanted to clarify not that we don't um and we will move on to 6.2 special education report Mrs Miller foreign president Schultz members of the board I am really excited today to spend some time going over our
076special education programs and reviewing some of the great things that we are doing I want to start first by acknowledging that the success of the special education programs has everything to do with the wonderful staff that we have in husd from the sites to the district office that continually work with our department to support our students with special needs to make them a part of their communities Higley thrives to be an inclusive environment for our special education students and I can say with confidence that that is what we've done and that our special education students are are a part of our community so I wanted to begin by sharing a little bit of the history of our special education numbers um on October 1st we're required to provide to the state account of our special
077education students so there you can see the count as the years have gone um this year our count is a little bit lower than we had anticipated but we know that the district enrollment is also down we also know that we have refined our mtss process so our intervention process so we know that a lot of students that may have been identified prior to October 1st are in that mtss intervention process and had not yet entered into the special education evaluation process as of today I ran a count and today we're at 1864. so a little bit up from that October first count I want you to take note that a lot of things affect these counts so things from District enrollment the opening of charter schools within our area some of our students will
078leave and go to those Charter Schools when we see a new Charter School open we sometimes will see a dip other things most recently that we've been affected by is obviously the refining of our mtss process but also the pandemic so we're we're seeing some different Trends in our numbers but they are slowly inching up as kids have are going through that mtss process and it's been identified that they need some additional supports within our special education department students can qualify to receive special education under 16 different categories students are able to be found eligible in multiple categories more than one the thing that's difficult is these categories are different from state to state so oftentimes students will move into the State of Arizona with a category that is different than what we are able
079to upload to the state as a student with a disability so we spend quite a bit of time with our our new parents to Arizona to explain to them that we're not changing in eligibility we just have to redefine it based on the Arizona categories So within our special education department we have many programs to service kids we have a Continuum of services that range from least restrictive to more restrictive and we use these programs to meet the individualized needs of each student so I wanted to review a little bit of these programs um review a little bit about each of these programs not every program is on every campus due to our size we have to group some programs together to service a group of campuses the first program is our speech and language
080program so that Services students who have articulation language needs pragmatic delays that program is available on all of our campuses we have a phenomenal speech and language team that has been pretty consistent over the years and they work with our students with those delays the next area is our resource and inclusion support so these are students that are struggling within the general education classroom and this support addresses learning social and emotional difficulties these programs again are available on every campus to support our special education students they um we can the resources where we pull a student out of that general education classroom and service them within a classroom just for special education students but we also have that inclusion support where we push a special education teacher into the Gen Ed classroom it's called co-teaching
081and those teachers work together to support the class as a whole which is our gen Ed and our special education students in that inclusive environment the next program we have is our cross-categorical program these are for our students that are a little bit more delayed and require a higher level of service and more support it provides adaptive academic skills and it's aligned to Alternative standards so for our students that are unable to master the standards at their peer level they may need support in our cross categorical classrooms for our elementary schools we cannot have this program on every campus so it is located at Cortina Centennial Chaparral and Coronado and then all of our secondary campuses have a cross-categorical program and there is a feeder system that we utilize to keep those students together to
082ensure that as kids transition from the elementary to the middle school they're not split up between Sossaman and Coulee so they're they're aligned to their feeding schools the next program is our mdssi classroom these are our most fragile students with our most significant delays we are very blessed we've had a teacher in there that has been there for years um Miss Shea Rose and she's done an amazing job with that program because of the significance of the delay and the need of these students we felt that the transition to Middle School may have been a little bit too much to do that two-year transition so the program located at Power Ranch services are K through 7th grade and then at that time they transitioned to Williams Field High School which is our 8th through 12th
083grade our best program is our program for our students with emotional disabilities this is a somewhat new program to the district we wanted to be able to try to keep as many of our students in-house and not have to utilize the services of our surrounding private day schools so we began the best program underneath the support of Greg Keith this program is located at Power Ranch Coulee middle school and Williams Field High School and our final program that I wanted to talk about today is our preschool program that services our youngest Learners they service ages three through five we have a preschool of our team that takes in all of our referrals for that program that has been together for quite some time and working to support that campus it's located in both of our
084Early Childhood Development Centers and if you haven't had the opportunity to visit those programs it's a beautiful Center and miss Patty Gleason has done an amazing job with those programs to kind of align with our preschool program this year is a monitoring year for special education and we were required to look at our data and identify an area that we felt we needed to focus on Ade and special education are on a six-year monitoring cycle and Higley has been assigned the fourth year as their state monitoring so in the fourth year of our monitoring cycle we are in state monitoring that is this year and so we when looking at all of our data to kind of identify what we wanted to focus on is an area that we felt we could improve in we
085identified indicator 6 special education preschool least restrictive environment as an area of focus providing an Inclusive Preschool program is very difficult and our surrounding districts have really struggled with it as well but we know that it's best practice and so we are working diligently to find a way to allocate staff to provide a more Inclusive Preschool environment this is going to take a lot of work and a lot of discussions and a lot of planning but we do feel that it's really what's best for students we are hopeful to roll this out during the 23-24 school year if we can make sure that we have all the resources and are able to do so so something that's really exciting for our special education students at the preschool level all right private day schools private day
086schools are another thing that we utilize to assist us in providing support for our students within the district private day schools go through a very specific application process with the Arizona Department of Education to be identified as a school that can provide private day services to students that are enrolled in a public education School currently we have students placed at six schools that are considered private day and you can see those six schools listed there those are the ones that we currently are using the list is very extensive and has a ton of schools on it but these are the only six that we currently use we provide quarterly updates to the board and you'll hear one tonight after this presentation of where we're at how many students we have placed and the cost that's
087associated with those while we know that the cost of soda associated with those is rather high at times these are our students that receive probably a little bit more funding than some of our other kids but they also have needs that we are unable to meet in the public school so pretty extensive needs that our staff are not capable of meetings so we have to reach out to ask for support from our private day schools we have very good relationships with our private day schools and are able to communicate with them and and our goal is always to bring those students back once they've reached a level where they have the skills needed to be successful in our programs here within the district some additional special education programs that we are excited to talk about
088is the first one is our htap program our Higley transition and access program years ago this was not a program we used we have students in our district that when they've completed their four years of high school they still have some additional needs in the area of post-secondary transition so these are work skills and additional life skills that they would benefit from a little bit more instruction so this program currently is located in our our buildings over by Williams Field Brittany Wittenberg has been the teacher that has helped grow this and she has done a phenomenal job at this we work closely with vocational rehab to provide our students with extra years to get them ready to enter the workforce this program also does a phenomenal job in supporting families and understanding the resources that
089are out in the community and the things that can support them as their students transition out of high school that's a scary time for a lot of our parents on what's next for their students and this program kind of bridges that gap for them um this program has been a true blessing to our to our district and at the end of the year you'll be invited to attend the htap graduation ceremony and if there's any way possible that you can do so it will be the highlight of your year um it's a neat thing Miss Miller before you move on the picture this Boeing picture I believe that one of the students was just hired by Boeing is that he was Boeing has put in place a special needs program for students they go through
090a vocational training program they're certified to do a lot of the circuit work and then they hire those students on so yes one of our students has been hired at Boeing and is working there the next program is our Unified sports program that's located at Higley and williamsfield high school this is a program that encourages our special needs students to participate in AIA Sports through the support of typical peers playing alongside each other um this has become a favorite among our families and students if you haven't had the opportunity to attend a unified game it is is a wonderful opportunity to just see the the relationships that are forged and developed in this program watching the interaction that develops is truly seen not just on the field but you see it on the campus as
091well you know leading back into that inclusive environment you can feel that our special education students are a part of campuses and it's programs like these that have helped develop that um we have a wait list on peers at Higley High School that want to join this program because we cannot have everyone in the program it's a truly true blessing again to our students to really bridge the gap between special ed and gen Ed funny thing with this program is you see just as much growth in the special education students but you see sometimes even more growth in some of our general education students that participate in this program sped in a strategic plan as we worked with cabinet and Dr Foley in the development of the Strategic plan we wanted to make sure that
092special education was a part of that and that we were making decisions that aligned to that strategic plan as a department we select a strategic anchor communication and community relations as our Focus this year and we've worked as a development to make sure that all the decisions we make the supports we offer the communication we put out aligns directly to the Strategic plan but specifically to the Strategic anchor this includes the implementation of our parent our bridging parent nights which you can see the Flyers up there these are meetings for our parents who have preschool special education students moving to kinder or elementary students moving to middle school or middle school moving to high school it's an opportunity for those parents to come and ask those questions that they didn't want to ask at the
093meet the teacher or the the special night that's for those middle school kids it allows our teams on those campuses to kind of present sent what it looks like at Middle School in comparison to elementary school and just have that one-on-one interaction and start to really develop those relationships with those teams on those campuses we know that these transitions are stressful for students and parents and this is an effort for us to put something together that will help ease that stress but also help us better prepare for those students on that first day so that we know who's coming and we're prepared for them as well our first parent meeting will be our preschool to kinder parent meeting which is scheduled for 1 25 January 25th and we actually anticipate quite a few parents attending
094that so we're excited to see what that brings in addition to these parent bridging meetings we've also implemented our special education special education parent University we after covid and everything calmed down we saw a need to connect with our parents and have those conversation about all the things sped um we know it's a difficult process we know it's confusing at times and we wanted to kind of open up the Forum and give parents an opportunity to learn a little bit more our first parents fed University was focusing on the evaluation report I believe at that presentation we had five parents attend so very small our last presentation was on the IEP explained and just helping parents understand the IEP we had over 20 people at that event as well as staff members that came to
095participate so it's been very successful our last presentation of this year will focus on understanding what's next after high school so the legal avenues that parents have to be aware of the develop the DDD Department of Developmental Disabilities that process and how to navigate that as well as vocational rehab so helping with that so we're excited to continue this we've already identified some areas that we need to refine to ensure that this continues and meets the needs of our parents and that's all do you have any questions um first of all phenomenal work um and I can't imagine the difference this is making um we all want to focus on tigley's a great District district and the things we're doing but just really focusing on people's lives because as you're as students are becoming or
096we're becoming more aware of students um and their disabilities and their struggles I can imagine there are probably parents that are probably running to the doctor as well and try finding out about their lives and then learning how to parent just and the fact that you have parent um uh meetings or communication really making a difference but my question and it may feed over into your next presentation but I just want to ask because I've heard um rumors and I hate when rumors are out there um but I I've heard that if a school recommends testing versus parents ask for testing there is a cost one goes to the school or one is school possibly funded and or partially whatever and one is more parent funded is that true and so which led to the
097well you know they didn't act on it or they want to do it because of president Schultz or vice president Anderson that is not the case so whenever the decision is made to move forward with special education testing for student the cost is 100 incurred by the district yeah sweet my question was um because I think it sounds awesome and I'm just interested if it's at both because my kids my daughter went to uh the preschool at Cooley the preschool inclusion is that going to be at both or just are you doing or sasaman for the the Pre-K inclusion classes president Schultz board member Wade the preschool to Elementary parent meeting will be held here at the district office is that what you're no I'm talking about because you talked about you wanted to I
098think it was for next oh the inclusionary okay yeah it won't be at both preschools we will have identical programs at both preschools that's awesome I just wanted to see if that both or not that's cool thank you um I said this when I attended the parent meeting and I'll say it again I think um I wish I had that when I was going through the IEP process with my daughter um it's very informative and so helpful for parents and even the night of the meeting when you suggested that parents should bring their kids to these meetings a lot of parents you know on the way out they're like oh I never even thought to bring my kid with me to IEP meetings and and I think that's really important to get the kids perspective
099involved in the process as well um and so I'm happy to see that that's being done thank you thank you I I just want to say I encourage parents to attend these meetings if they can't attend them then where's the best place to send parents to get information presidential we encourage parents anytime they have a question to reach out we want them to be an active member in their students IEP process the decisions are truly a team decision we will not always agree as a team we will have those difficult conversations but if we don't know there's an issue or a question we're not able to address it and we're not able to understand the perspective of the parent or and and all of the things that are going into the questions that they have
100so anytime a parent has a question and they're unable to attend any of our events they're more than welcome to contact our special education department and we will return their phone call and spend the time that we need to make them feel comfortable with the decisions that are being made within that IEP team so they can just go to our website and special education department and then contact you or the site school for more information exactly thank you any other questions I love all these programs and I appreciate it and personally I appreciate um the programs as well I've seen such a difference so thank you very much Mrs Miller 6.3 special education Day School report fiscal year 23 second quarter thank you president Schultz members of the board as I stated earlier this will
101come to you quarterly you'll receive the same report each quarter it will look identical except the numbers will change as you can see we have a total budget and where we're going to fall as of right now we're under budget and we anticipate to stay there again there are always unforeseen circumstances of special education is a moving Target but this is where we are at after the second quarter presidential one of the reasons that we bring these to you quarterly this is one of the things that our leadership team did in addition to fiscal transparency because some of these are very large ticket items we're talking about different budgets um and this was one of the things that we instituted is bringing quarterly updates so that you could see where we were in the spending
102of those and if things needed to be adjusted that also helped you give a gauge of what we spent one year so when we come with the budget for the next year you saw why we might have allocated different amounts for that based upon the need Dimensions would you mind could you please remind us of what the expenditures include and I think you gave information at our retreat but how much we're receiving per pupil you may not have those numbers with you but if whatever you have um these include this rep president Schultz vice president Anderson these include our tuition for our students that attend the private day school as well as any additional service that they may require for example speech and language support occupational therapy support Physical Therapy support counseling for some of
103our students this also includes transportation for those students when we have to Outsource Transportation due to our difficulty in finding drivers to do that it also includes esy so that's extended school year extended school year in Higley typically occurs in June but for some of our private day schools it goes into July which is why you'll see it on this report for those campuses that had extended school year in July foreign any other questions thank you Mrs Miller move on to 6.4 quarterly ESI report that's Mrs Richardson president president Schultz members of the board you will see expenditures in terms of ESI or our sub budget and I think it's important to remind mind you that we're here in October When Miss Martins brought a recommendation that we increase our sub rates we were having
104a really difficult time getting subs and so the recommendation was a daily rate from 125 to 165 and then a long-term rate from 145 to 185 after 21 days of subbing we also have learned Mondays and Fridays or challenging days so we look at that 185 number um I believe that Tyler can attest to the fact that in meet and confer they're getting positive feedback that we're filling these positions now thanks to this recommendation that that has had an impact on our budget but I think it's well worth worth it Mrs Richards can you just take a moment for our new board members to explain what ESI is and everything okay so we we work with an organization to um for them to approve Subs that can come into our schools they work closely with
105us to make sure that they're qualified they have the appropriate fingerprint background checks and that we put them in the right place in these buildings so it's worked out well for us Mrs Anderson vice president Anderson is well acquainted with how we used to do this correct used to be a spreadsheet and a cell phone yeah so Erica our sub coordinator gets here in the middle of the night and starts working with ESI to make sure our positions are filled so a lot of districts in the state work through ESI now rather than doing it all in-house um so for the remainder of the school year up to may we have the 343. so presidential vice vice president Anderson here's here's here we like let's talk about what that means and what we're going to
106do in order to adjust for that so presidentials members of the board and vice president Anderson yeah so we we will have to uh we're assessing the the year-to-date spend and then gonna probably bring a recommendation um in March or February to increase this budget um again we approved this budget um back in June or July previous predated before we made that increase the sub rate so um we've been operating off this original budget from the 125 daily rate um 125 daily and then 145 long term Subs so um we are right now working to assess what the budgetary needs would be for the remainder of the year uh yeah 344 000 is probably not going to be sufficient so um but we wanted to do our due diligence first and bring a recommendation that
107will cover us for the remainder of the year um rather than bringing several increases so then what happens is then we know what it will cost us for the year so when we bring you the authorization at the beginning of next year it would look like what we know what the cost has been increased to so that we can project accordingly this is one of those things that we continue to do in fiscally address and address as we need to in alignment with our policy one thing I forgot is um do you anticipate a need for to raise the rate again next year so when you bring us the budget that will be accounted for president Schultz member support one of the things we've been discussing and me and confer is applying whatever compensation increase
108we come up to to this sub rate as well to continue to move that needle forward and rather to be reactive as a district be proactive because we know um this is a competitive area we're typically competing against Chandler Queen Creek Mesa and as soon as one District goes up the next District goes up and then all of a sudden our field percentages drop to 60 70 so we're hovering around 80 90 fill rates um and so we want to be proactive and and basically look at one of the conversation topics has been applying a percentage increase equivalent to what we are we would propose for next fiscal year to the sub rate to continue to move that needle forward and be competitive in this area as well as total compensation so that when we
109approve the teacher or the staff increases the sub rates would follow thank you any other questions thank you Mrs Richard moving on to 6.5 amendments to policy ikf graduation requirements still up Sennheiser president Schultz members of the board following our policy updating process bringing you two different policies today the first of them is the graduation requirements due to a change in state statute the driver for this was that we've changed the Civics test used to be a 60 percent to be considered passing starting with the class of 2026 it will now be a 70 percent and so that was the impetus for the change and so when you look at the verbiage and language that's in there you will notice that there's a paragraph identifying that in 2026 they will now have to have a
11070 to pass additionally included when this is what the Arizona Department of Education is going to require from us for reporting and so you'll see those reporting things listed as well within the policy also we had discovered that there was some archaic language in there from an old diploma that we haven't used in many many years so we're going to take this opportunity to clean up that language as well and so this is directly driven by the change in statute and we are looking to to approve it during the action item so that you can look to indicate that we know that our class of 2026 must have a 70 percent or above a question I have just going forward before 2020 because I taught seniors so when it came around that they didn't pass
111before can we over the next couple years just make it a point to like look at how many kids fall between the 60 and 70 percent so like at least that way those at the high school when it comes to make it up we have an idea of a larger quantity of kids that are probably going to need it or is it really a huge impact or not because I was interested in that when I saw it yeah I think that's definitely part of the process that we'll look at in using our data Department with Marcus Berkshire that's going to help drive that and student information because we knew we know that not everyone passes it the first time and that's in eighth grade and then when they get to high school we got to
112make sure that they can we can provide the support so they can pass it then foreign moving on to 6.6 so that's amazing president Schultz members of the board once again this is uh driven by a change in statute and I know there was a question this was directly referring to the save women's sports act and so you will see language in there and I'll summarize it in my own words basically a biological males may not compete in any sport that's considered uh Co or excuse me female but biological females can compete in any sport it doesn't matter what it's labeled at and so if you look at the verbiage there there's a definition now in a section oh it's right up there at the top male female and co-ed designation and this is determined
113by the biological sex of the student and you will notice that as you scroll down it says athletic teams or Sports designated for females women or girls may not be open to students of the male sex and so that is directly coming from statute and following that process additionally this was another one where once we got into it I believe this policy hadn't been updated since 2001 and so there were some things about concussions and concussion protocols that we have already done for many many years but now we're putting them in the policy to make sure that we are complying with what is happening from there for those of you who are parents of athletes you're familiar with brain book and you're familiar with register my athlete and that is where we follow all the
114laws and guidance from the AIA and now it's spelled out in policy and so when you looked and saw a lot of the different things that were added it's just to make sure that we're following and put in policy processes that we are already doing to make sure that our parents are well aware of the implications of concussions and traumatic brain injuries during Athletics thank you any questions this is just updating us for the new laws and we'll move on I'm sorry it was just a comment I just found it you were stating about the concussion and I just found it humorous if you will that when you look at the policy in their 20015 since it was last approved yeah yeah what oh oh I'm sorry I was just making a statement that 2001
115was the last time that the policy had been um happy to get it updated now though so we can move forward I think because if you're doing it all sometimes things get put aside right as far as it goes oh we know the policy we know we're supposed to do so I don't know president Anderson vice president uh president Schultz vice president Anderson thank you um one of the things you've noticed is the theme of processes and procedures that we've been working on is looking through the policy process as a way of documenting it whether it's in an exhibit or whether it's in uh it's more explicit and that's been one of that's been a theme of the work that we've been really working hard on over the last couple years and obviously the volumes
116of what needed to be done from previous years is what we're trying to catch up with as well as anything new and so we have as we kind of talked about what's legal and problematic and proactive and so that's why as you've seen we're lovingly referring to it policy palooza it's going to keep coming and so we will keep bringing those to you and updating them as needed but the documentation of that is really important and that's been one of the themes and focuses so hence you'll continue to see more of these coming to you mine's not a question so much as a point of clarification the idea that the uh save women's sports law is something that we are legally obligated to do and the idea of of an individual who's assigned a gender
117at Birth um and how they progressed through with sports in our district and a deal I just wanted to make sure that that was just clear that's all thank you thank you Mr watsonizer and we'll move on to action items 7.1 I approve or I move that we approve policy ikf graduation requirements seconded comments questions concerns all those in favor hi any opposed motion passes five to zero and 7.2 I move that we approve policy JJ IB inter Scholastic Sports I can't and I think yep all right and uh all those in favor I right any opposed motion passes five zero future agenda items I have a list here of our future agenda items is there something that any board members want to see coming up besides this um this may be more for your
118superintendent report but I think I would like to get information on the community attendance to these not only special special oh my gosh special education programs but drug awareness preschool kindergarten anything I'd love to know how we're doing on each one I agree and they're amazing programs that that you're doing good I attended the Snapchat program yes that was very well attended and it was very terrifying and great information so I encourage the community to look at the different information programs that we're providing because there's a lot of parent program or parent information nights that are going on Beyond special ed that Mrs Miller talked about tonight that are very very helpful as a parent trying to navigate social media and all of the different things out there Beyond School president Schultz vice president the
119other thing sleeping we're updating our website as you know that's one of the other Focus goals we've had where we can have a safe a nice place to store information so if you weren't able to attend that event but want to reference that information at a later time or organizing that in a way that people can go back and reference that information so we will provide those updates for you as well thank you anything else residential yes I just wanted to clarify as well when on our future agenda items we do try and put some time frames on them we used to not and then we'd be like this has been on here for a while when are we going to get to it so um that way you guys know when to expect um
120that we all know when to expect an updater information to come to us so if you ever want to see additional items added then it will be assigned a time sometimes it takes a little longer we've had these things on here but they go in a process and and do take time to get to so um but I just wanted to to mention that so in February we'll be getting an update on our marketing plan and and information so thank you and I was remiss at the beginning of our meeting to welcome our two new board members I apologize it's my first meeting too as president so um I want to welcome Mrs Wade and Mrs Van Hook to our board and I'm looking forward to a great rest of the year as a board
121and doing great things for the district so thank you for serving and being on the board with us and Mrs Anderson and Mrs Reese and this time I moved that we adjourned the meeting [Laughter] all those in favor motion passes five to zero thank you have a good night