J.O. Combs Regular Board Meeting 04/12/2023

001oh cool okay I'm gonna call the meeting to order at five o'clock um should we do it we're going to go ahead and do the pledge and we don't have to do it before or no we're not going to do the pledge this time okay okay that's what I thought okay all right um I need a motion to adopt the agenda I move to adopt the agenda with two um provisos number one that item five board meeting minutes approval be tabled until the next meeting and item nine one the action item be tabled until the next meeting I'll second all in favor all right I'm motion carries five to zero did I throw you guys all for a loop you did I figure I did please warn us next time okay so information oh information

002and discussion items right so so just to give to give you perspective what we're going to shoot to do is um take no more than 45 minutes if it takes a little bit less did you want me to time you on that sure I'm watching I'm watching just all depends on questions I'm just teasing um to go through the budget recommendations these recommendations have been presented uh to leadership and to CCC um and so that that's kind of what drives what we're doing but the idea would be what the if we get to know more than 45 minutes or even less that then we would have a quick YT before the meeting starting at six and at six you'd start the meeting with the pledge and then we just go on to a normal normal

003meeting um you're free to ask questions during this portion or if I say something and and you didn't get your question to ask and you think about it later many of these not all but many of the agenda items that that will fall in the regular meeting are basically coming from this presentation so you'll have another chance to ask if um if uh you don't ask in in the you know during this portion of the meeting so what we're trying to do with the budget especially for those of you that are new these goals are pretty typical for our goals all the time number one is one that maybe not everybody realizes legally we have to have a balanced budget so we're not like the federal government or somewhere like that where you can go

004ahead and just not balance the budget or go ahead and close down shop or anything like that the statute says um balanced we speak with and listen to so leadership and everybody else listens to obviously what staff concerns are you guys hear them at different types of venues so do we we meet formally with CCC which is our our group of uh employees and we go through a process that says what are your priorities for the year we go through the same process with Administration as part of the leadership team and that starts to drive what we're going to do with the recommendations so it's not done in a vacuum it's done through multiple meetings case of leadership we spend a full day uh the Monday of spring break going through the budget understanding the

005budget CCC I think we've had three meetings this year going through some of this stuff can't want to remain competitive with the surrounding areas do hashtag Ford recognize and thank our staff for everything that's going on number six creative Bridge the 24 25 25 26 and 26 District budgets the reason I bring that up is there's some fiscal cliffs that may come up in those years uh prop one two three sunsets right now on the uh end of December 25 if the legislature does not um do something with it kind of like 301 and we stand to lose remember the number Julie three hundred thousand dollars so there's some fiscal cliffs that that shoot forward 24 uh obviously the essers money runs out in September of 24. there's another fiscal cliff we've tried to use

006the essers dollars for one-time expenditures and not operational expenses so it's not as big a fiscal cliff but again it is a cliff that that comes up that we're going to have to address so we tend to be aggressive yet conservative at the same time and I'll try to show you what we're doing with that so prior to the state budget so the state has not approved their budget this is information that we know coming from the state based on statute and what the legislature must do if the legislature gives us additional dollars and although I'm hearing the governor and Leadership down there are starting to have some meetings about the budget they're still a belief that we may not get a full state budget until sometime in June so therefore we would come back

007in July and let's just say they decided to give additional money to teachers well then you'd come back with an agenda item after the state budget and say this is how we're going to spend the money they told us to spend so this is conservative because these are the factors that we know with the Budget prior to the state being moving forward we don't believe it's going to be anything less than this but if there's more we'll come back to you so we will build it on zero percent growth for this year so this year we lost 200 kids so that 4076.817580 am reflects the 200 kid loss that's about a million dollars that's factored into the equation we'll look to maintain a contingency of at least a million dollars we're building the budget on

008the same FTE as this year prior to decision making so you may have less ft when everything's said and done but for right now when we start to build the budget we're saying it's the same ft's this year there may be some recommendations to just FTE in the right when we get the recommendation and the creativity of just trying to maximize our funds so for basic numbers we believe this number is a little lower than I initially anticipated but the two percent inflation the two percent inflation is guaranteed under State Statute there was the lawsuit that was fought years ago that was settled which guarantees that they're going to give us the two percent the the legislature lost that lawsuit because they weren't funding it two percent so they're not going to get in a

009fight with us and not fund it two percent I don't believe which is why we choose that but you look at the RCL for the new board members that's the revenue control limit so what's projected for 23-24 what do we get right now what's different so it's a positive three hundred thousand dollars health insurance premium decrease we'll talk a little bit more about that on down the road but that gives us a savings of 164 000 because it came in less than what we were paying before if we reduce some staff I'll get into that more detail and a little bit we would see a savings of 540 000 a 10 I'm calling a cut to daa what will probably happen is it's more of an additional contingency line item or some things that we're

010not going to spend um gives us 250 000 so we're starting the process what we believe is a working budget of 1.254 million dollars that means there's an additional million out there for contingency okay so we'll get right into the nuts and bolts we recommend a four percent increase to certified staff so when you take a look at the salary schedules when you get to the agenda item in the agenda they reflect that four percent increase okay of that four percent 2.5 will come from m o and 1.5 will come from the classroom site fund classroom site fund is a fund that we're only allowed to give to certified staff uh right now the way they calculated is called base support level so that's basically how much money they give you for every kid you

011have it was 733 dollars this past year we thought it was going to go up to 760. it came in at 758. so we're going to move forward with the projections we had that number had to be released to us at the end of March by Statute and so we know where that's going to come that's going to handle with that we then look to move the starting base salary to fifty two thousand and seventy dollars right now it's fifty thousand seventy it makes us competitive with neighboring districts um we'll talk about it at the end it's getting harder and harder to squeeze the turnip in terms of trying to pull out money but for right now we are competitive but but the additional dollars especially districts to the west of us through overrides is

012making it more difficult to squeeze this Gap we would also recommend a four percent increase Administration seven percent to exempt support staff that's a very small group but they are part of support staff and what we've tried to do in the past years is whatever the rest the support staff get in January we would give them uh and this time of year okay um we would continue your guys's approval of the increase the substitutes with the Loyalty stipend that we talked about at the last board meeting or two board meetings ago because we do extracurricular and co-curricular stipends based on the base so if you're the uh a department chair it's a percentage of the base support so right now it's a percentage of fifty thousand dollars let's just say I don't know what the

013number is but let's pretend it's five percent if we increase the base to 52 then that five percent is off 52 not 50. so there's going to be an increase there and we are anticipating that we're going to see about a 50 Cent increase in the minimum wage um to support staff in January 24th so we're planning for those dollars already saying we'll see some more information over the next few months but right now uh all numbers indicate 50 53 cents which is about 3.5 which is about half of what we did this current year okay so we're trying to build in that safety net uh so it especially um if if this next year is like this year couple things we also want to continue uh and all returning staff uh with a one-time

014two percent retention stipend I put estimated at 250 you'll see two numbers 500 versus 250. the reason I think it's actually closer to 250 500 is if we gave it to everybody we're not based on a number of people leaving us we're not going to have everybody get the retention stipend because if you're not working for us today you're not getting it in September and so what that number could adjust but we have a scheduled to come out of essers three and we have enough dollars to cover it even if it went up to 350. um we're okay in that situation we would pay it out in October of 23 because we're going to make sure that at least the staff that comes back stays with us nine weeks before we give it to you

015if you give it to somebody on the first of August they could turn around and walk and they got the money plus they walk this way at least they stay through the first quarter right there you go um we're also looking at a two percent uh that should be a one-time two percent I apologize for the typo there a stipend wow I typed that one up real bad a girl stipend uh what that means is if the district goes by 200 kids that we would go ahead and use that growth money because we're paying on current year funding as a stipend so it doesn't go into operational expenses it's a one-time payment to staff um out of the new budget capacity because we grew by 200 kids we're hoping to incentivize people to make sure

016we're working to keep kids in the system two years ago we did this and we paid it out this year we did this and we didn't pay it out it's no harm to the overall budget because it's predicated on growth and if the growth doesn't come doesn't hurt us if the growth does come then we're taking out of the growth so it really doesn't affect the numbers I showed you a few minutes ago and so and that's not a whole lot of districts are doing doing that so I think that becomes a selling point we'll continue the 800 performance pay for certified administrative staff the certified staff that 800 comes out of classroom site fund before it used to be a lot higher because but we took most of that money into the base so

017for an overview on raises and then I'll take any questions the certified staff at four percent what what's that got a question no I I'll wait okay sorry um I've only split it out for you because portion of it is through classroom ciphon CSF is classroom I do have a question okay this um performance pay to the certified and administrator is that 301 301 for the for the certified for the administrator remember you guys approved it as an 800 that's that's it's the format's the same but that's not MMO so this this isn't the 301 right here the 800. yes 800 is 301 for the certified staff the funding source is is 301 for certified staff okay for administrative staff it's out of mnl okay so then but did we not did they not have

018it Go mostly into the base salary yes and so what you have is we put last year into the base salary of the four thousand dollars that we're getting 3200 went into the base salary the remaining 800. okay is they're getting it this year and then we'll continue to give it to them next year so a lot of districts reduced it down to a number we kept 800 I didn't know of a district that went down to 100 I know another District did 500. it's just a way to raise the salaries okay so the cost to mno is a little over 443 thousand the 276 is the cost to classroom site fund so I I differentiate that just so you can have an idea um we're spending more time on Amino but I don't want

019to mix the two and then think the cost is higher than it really is the four percent for administration is a hundred thousand the exempt support staff is 50. substitute increase in stipend that was approved a couple meetings ago estimating at seventy thousand if we have more people that stay with us longer uh you know to get to the Loyalty stipend that could go up a little bit if we have an increased fill rate that's built built on a fill rate of 50 50 if we were to move up to 70 fill rate then that number would go up uh anticipated support staff increase in January is 130. extracurricular co-curriculars twenty thousand so you see employee raises are 833 753 and then classroom site is the 276. so remember we started with 1.254 mil and

020all we spent to this point is 833. so the idea is we can aggressive trying to go ahead and move uh dollars close to what our neighbors are doing but conservative that we haven't gone ahead and wiped out all what we believe the money will be coming in just on salaries okay questions yes for the growth that we talk about the 200 students are we going to specify what grades those are for no it's what we did the last two times is we look at the hunter State count in January and it's across the entire District as a plus 200 so you may see a minus in one class so are you talking preschool through 12th grade yeah and we use the the based on the last two years we've done the same thing do

021we get as much money from preschool as we do we don't get no but but because it's a stipend the stipend can support this the I mean excuse me the increased growth can support the stipend we're not going to get 200 kids just solely in preschool uh it's just not gonna happen especially since preschool what you see is a number that's fairly low at the beginning of the year and it just slowly grows over the course of the year as kids hit the right age and so where we would anticipate the K uh 12 kids would really be the factor that would drive us on ADM to get to the number that we need so is it a good idea to base that number on K-12 instead of preschool we can do that yeah yeah

022I mean either way I believe that the funding sources that will come in will cover it if we want to and this would be part of the board and I can make the adjustment Julie can make the adjustment we can modify that to K-12 it's just a factor of taking a look at the ADM at the 100th day and taking out uh the Pre-K kids and looking at the kindergarten and and we're fine we look at it both ways because again either way if we don't hit it nobody's getting it okay other questions okay health insurance just quickly know that we went through health insurance with um both CCC and and the leadership uh the real issue we're with Smith School medical insurance trust our belief was because we were the biggest of that group

023which was a small group and our population was younger and healthier that we are actually carrying that group and we're not seeing the benefits of what our population of employees would be and therefore we had to go out on the market to look based on what we got We believe We were correct on that so what we did was we're going to go with Kairos the recommendations go with Kairos uh representative will be here tonight if there's questions during that agenda item basically we got a six percent decrease which with not necessarily every group but it'll be 95 of all the different groups that we fund employee employee plus spouse employee plus children all those different combos we'll see uh decreasing what their premiums are the district will also see a decrease because we pay

024for the basic plan for everybody that savings is 164 thousand dollars we continue to pay 100 of employee basic the basic life and the 100 of the basic plan excuse me which is what we've always done we say if you're an employee and you're eligible for benefits we will pay for it okay uh we do pay life insurance also that doesn't change with Kairos 1.5 times up to salary up to 50 000 it's up to 150 000 for administrators here's something different that will do in trying to be competitive with other neighboring districts right now your insurance doesn't start until the second month after day to hire so if you start in July you're not going to get your first Insurance until September some people are saying well thank you I'll go some work for

025somewhere else where it can start in August so we will now start on the month after day to hire so if you're hired on the 25th you're going to start your insurance on the first if you're hired on the first you're going to start your insurance on the first of the next month so it'll vary that's what most districts do if employees want to buy up they can still buy up they have the same plans as they have in the past in some cases we did add employee plus children to take advantage of maybe a single parent who has kids the rates are a little bit different than if you just employ plus one or employee plus family and if those individuals I forget the number we have of them they would see significant Savings

026in their premium because of the decrease because kids don't cost as much in insurance so there's a couple different ways with the change to the higher date we'll also be able to spread the premiums across an extra couple paychecks so so our employees should see a savings with these changes to Insurance where these are all the same we had before with the exception of pet theft identity and and legal those are new voluntary plans that people can buy if if they so desire that was done out of a request from employees to look at some additional types of plans and since they're voluntary fine with me and Carol's offered bills okay and but we will be changing from Blue Cross Blue Shield to United Health question setting aside the the cost in terms of the

027medical services that are being provided are they comparable between the two because I wouldn't want to pay less but get less in terms of medical services they're they're the same or and it's it's all over the place same or maybe they offer a couple more things but maybe not a couple things but generally speaking for medical in the big picture it's identical questions yeah I I guess I didn't realize that we were doing um life insurance is that term I believe it is yes and we've been doing it and we're not the only ones all school districts have done it and done it for years um and so that's no different than what we've been doing in the past everybody becomes critical that people don't understand that that is a that is uh uh uh

028a benefit right and how does that work when they leave then they don't get it anymore no okay unless they they want to pay for it but but nobody does I don't think very many people realize we're doing that that's why we're putting that as an idea some Personnel reduction changes oh this one went wonky on me apologize for that okay we're looking you have an agenda item we cannot hire people to do our HVAC electrical and plumbing because we're not competitive the current employees that we have we have two out of five the other three just we've been trying to replace a couple for a while so we went out to bid you'll see an agenda item asking vergie who did our um who did our uh Esco to go ahead and provide the

029services and actually we will see about a fifty thousand dollar savings with what they're paying and with compared to what we're paying for staff we're going to decrease three to five teachers in the district enough people left with no teachers going to lose their job that 195 represents three if we did a couple more then the number would be higher and it is based on student enrollment based on some student enrollment we're we're moving people around and in some cases we're reducing because we didn't have as many kids uh we will not fill the doc's position for some of you been here a while that was a position Deanna crane failed this year we went ahead and gave some additional responsibilities to Liz Zoyo and uh did not fill the position so nobody's going to

030lose the job there because it's an unfilled position that's fifty thousand we had a 0.5 nurse that we did not need this year therefore it went unfailed so we'll eliminate that that's 35 000. we've had a CHS EDP counselor that we have not filled for two years because we've been able to cover it so we will not replace that that's 65 000. uh we have our preschool teacher that we did not fail we don't believe we'll need with the preschool next year there's 65 000 uh parapro position unfilled for about 30. is there one more I can't see with the way it went second Transportation routing position and we've had Bob and I have had experience in much larger districts where they only have one routing dispatcher and so we've always had two given our

031size districts that are three times our size only had one we did not fill position this year so we will not fill it again there's your 540 000. I mean you say that it's we didn't we didn't actually pay some of those though right there built into the budget as a position spot so when you built our budget last year it was allocated to spend that much money and so when we create the new budget this year we're saying no we're going to actually take it out of the budget completely and it's not even going to be allocated this year every one of those positions was allocated in the m o budget does that make sense I have a question I understand not filming positions but I also think we've talked about class sizes and

032isn't there something we could do to not lose those three teachers or five teachers and lower class sizes in the district potentially it depends when you take a look at some of the class sizes we had are significantly lower than even the standards we have and we believe we can still be within the standards we have and meaning the approval that you did a couple I think a month ago um I would say they were significantly lighter of that and so um well you know getting back to those those approvals I view those as you know I don't know maybe it's not the right way to say it a worst case scenario getting to that high level uh kids will learn much better with smaller classes there's no doubt isn't there a way to to

033keep those positions in and to uh somehow I'll give you an option in a second and you tell me but there's a cost to that option so if you wait I'll get a little bit down and I'll explain another piece and then then we'll come back and visit that it could give me a second a couple minutes okay a couple will no cost of budgets we're looking to reorganize CIA uh through uh some reductions and it's a zero cost a few different titles uh we're trying to really work with new teachers because we're turning over so many uh uh staff we have a lot of new teachers coming in so we want to give them additional supports this year we had 4.0 for HR but we only filled the 3.5 we would look to go

034back to 4.0 uh we'll take three certified FTE from CHS and move them over to the middle school that's based on student enrollment projected student enrollment uh CSS ccss the alternative school we're going to increase the administrative assistant in a few hours so there's someone there during the day when they when they need it there was an unfilled position that we were going to put there we'll use the money from there so there's actual overall savings and then food nutrition we're going to move a position to 12 months modify the title and job description we'll come back to that next month with you we need someone in the summer to help with our summer programming and with only one person here in the summer it's hard to go ahead and run the programming for the

035full year so that's what that is that that is supported by their own budget not by the mno budget but I still put it up there so you're aware of the change okay do we do we know which um High School teachers are going to the middle school where it's not anybody going to the Middle School giving the number of people that are leaving us as a position it's a change of a position oh so we're just we're not taking this position but we're adding these positions right we're saying you're leaving us I mean we have 10 people that left us okay we're going to move this this this position that are being advertised and then we will hire those positions and that will be who are the changes what about um the 0.5 position

036at the HR it says unfilled so what was what was that position 2.0 position that the person coming in only work one could work for some reasons related to retirement at a point five and they're interested in only staying at the 0.5 so we'll look to see if we can have a 0.5 that would help out that would fill out the rest of that position in terms of providing more time these are just small ones but I know the board had a concern as has the staff so we are looking at doing a little bit of adding the 0.8 for elementary specials because we're trying to readjust the Elementary schedule for the specials to help less travel create some people on classrooms that could help with teachers that are in the classroom at the elementary

037level to give them some PLC time we're also trying to create consistency consistency of teaching time throughout the district we've had several meetings with principals and I think on at least three meetings with specialist teachers I will tell you up front not all the special teachers agree with the with the concept I would say probably 80 to 90 percent do but there's a couple that are not crazy about it and so we have not made a final decision we had a meeting this afternoon we're going to give some more a couple more proposals and adjustments to what their concerns are I still believe that we might have some that aren't excited with the change and so um that's with everything in life we can't get 100 on everything we're going to do three days at

038the start of school however it's paid out of essers we've done that for the last couple years but we're going to take one of them and protect it for Teacher time in the classroom only okay so it just gives back a little bit more time instead of doing three days of PD so it's not huge things with time we'll continue to look to see if we can do more but that's at least a starting point to to know that we are listening what concerns are that people have raised thank you uh for the daa again to align item contingency we will uh please note that we got an allocation of 2.3 mil if we do the savings we also have annual licensing fees like for Synergy our student database and other ones that add up

039close to eight hundred thousand dollars so in this process we have about 1.2 million a little short of 1.3 million to spend we'll focus on upgrade of furniture at the district office excuse me throughout the district schools uh Reese key some schools and move towards some access points because we have a lot of keys out there we need to start pulling back and we'll upgrade the bus radios to line with the district radio system but there'll be other things that we'll bring to you this is just an initial list so in summary real quickly and moved on me if you look at the two percent increase we said it was three hundred thousand the health premium savings is 164. raises are going to cost us 8.33 position reductions are 540. the budget from the daa

040is 250. so we have a remaining budget of 420 000. that we're not spending based on the amount we'd have so I did this if we gain money that money can be used to add features if we lose excuse me gain money if we gain students the money will be used for for the increase if we lose students then that's a start on what we'll have to cut so to your question Bob could we not cut 195 000 for teachers sure you're 420 just went down to 220. and so that becomes a an issue and it's not either right or wrong but that's what you end up that that's the cost that's associated with that because as we stand right now the 540 gets us to the 1.25 mil and gets us to the savings

041of 420 000. if we want to adjust any of those numbers if you said well we want to give everybody another one percent cool we'll give one percent but you just are getting closer to the 1.25 million therefore there's no wiggle room if we turn around and lose kids next year then somehow we're going to have to cut the the loss so that's the way we're trying to be aggressive yet conservative that's a possible option that we can go back and address no I understand that and when we had our discussion about um substitute pay right and the million dollar carryover and at that point in time I said I'm okay if we don't have a million I'm looking at it from the point of view of our our students test scores and their performance

042not being as aggressive in terms of increases I would like personally would like to see so if it takes more teachers to accommodate that I personally would be willing to say spend the money keep the teachers do something to increase the test scores so I I understand there's that Dynamic with the money but this is something I think that's good to spend money on and I think the issue that's out there and Julie will have to explain this because I'm not sure I even understand it but we have a million in our budget but when you go ahead and if you change the million carryover to a different number that changes all the different numbers and in fact it impacts us not let's just say we're going to cut it to 750. the impact is

043not a savings of 250 it cuts into the budget because now you're not carrying that forward to the next year if I'm doing this right please step up therefore you're going to hit over the the um the way it translates through the rest of the budget to greater than a two percent greater than a 250 000 hit to the budget so in fact by trying to save more and contingency you're going to end up cutting more to the budget than you anticipated because of the way the budget works again Julie may have to come up and explain it in better detail than I am but I was going simplistic oh it's 250 thousand dollars cool it's what two hundred fifty thousand dollars on a line item but that's not the way the budget calculation works

044in the budget no no I I understand that I'm just saying that if our focus is Student Success I'm willing to spend money on Student Success I don't know how everybody else on the panel feels but just giving you my point of view and how I view the cutting of the and if that's what the board would like we can get some direction from the board on that but I'm just telling you that because of the way contingency works it has a bigger hit than we think so so you're you're narrowing that Gap to what you have left to spend and you only have 420 extra so just note that that it does create those problems I would say I wouldn't be opposed to it but for to core classes I'm fine like not to

045electives they are currently core classes that is where those positions are we'll work some numbers and we'll come back we can still move forward with the other stuff in the agenda today but we'll work some more numbers I just want to go through this quickly because sometimes I think we pass through this stuff and we wanted to let people realize when I got here and I'm only using my time here because that's all I can control was the time that I've been here we're running 39 000 when we first got here and we're up to 52 000 for a base salary when you look at the increase again these these numbers are jiggered on on this picture but certified staff has gotten a 24.63 percent increase support staff at 22.02 percent increase Administration a 19

046increase with increased substitutes three different times so 15 you're seeing a calculation that was run off of 35 000 for our coaches it's now run off at 52 000. okay so you're seeing increases there we gave a covid stipend I have two percent but I may have missed it may have been one percent okay I apologize for not fixing that we've done retention stipends for two years three years in a row if you approve it tonight and we've increased from one percent to two percent we've done the growth stipend last year we did this substitute loyalty stipend and remember last year because it was an issue about signing bonuses we called it uh experience adjustments so everybody that was currently in the district got an adjustment between 500 and 2500 based on longevity that was

047built into their base pay so offset if anybody was brand new to Combs they got between 250 and 1250 and that was a signing bonus we just called it welcome to Combs we didn't want anybody to jump somebody that was currently here that's why you see that the experience adjustment for our our employees was double the amount that the welcome was um then we've gotten several different curriculum that we purchased over the last four years we've done a tremendous amount of technology and our one-to-one initiative in terms of what we've done uh to make the assist the the district be able to take a one-to-one for all the kids we put especially the 2021 17 million into the district without going to the the Community for taxes and so we continue to upgrade we'll continue

048to work on on that with sflb as well as other funding sources and so I just point that out because sometimes we do a lot of things and we pass through it we get in the middle of a budget discussion and we forget what we've done any questions on that yes okay I do not understand the contingency discussion so I got a job so I don't I don't understand it maybe and if and if I don't understand after this I'll set a specific time for my own tutoring session one of the things when we fill out the forms it has the revenue control limit we have to add and subtract the various items depending on what we carry forward that's going to impact our bottom line and our budget anytime the revenue control limit which

049is based off of the ADM and what we're getting per student the trickle-down effect is not necessarily oh well if I take 250 here it's 250 here there's so many other factors in regards to the carry forward that it's not necessarily a specific dollar amount it could be impacted by anything else that's on that budget sheet which would be our Energy savings it could be the prop one two three it could be whatever we're receiving for the budget carry forward it could be whatever we're allocating between daa and or capital and our mno so there's a lot of little factors that in some ways you can't say yes it's this and this as long as you take out all these other little factors does that make sense it's just because of all of the line

050items that are on that specific budget sheet that if I take 250 here if everything Remains the Same it's 250. but the likelihood that everything else is going to stay the same is now does that help I'll schedule a tutoring session I'm so sorry it there's just a lot of factors that come in when we get down to what our actual budget number is it's not just one number and in addition the other thing to consider is when we do take into effect that change the state does look at it and say well did you use more of your contingency and is that a yes or no and in some of the audits they look at they'll say yes and some people consider that a ding against us some don't but it's what are you

051using and what are those dollars being used for and what we'll do even after Mr Ray's tutoring session uh when we when we get the budget approved in June and July I'll make sure that Julie shows you that specific page and it shows you how the different impacts the one example is is if you remember on the Esco the the debt Services goes up on the Esco so the debt Services is going to be the same number as it was this year because there's a lease payment on the debt services so the last thing I just want to follow up on what you said because I think it's very important that the 250 if everything else stayed the same the 250 would flow through but whether we spend that 250 or not there's still the

052option of everything else not staying the same so you have all those variables so that those variables do not affect the 250. the 250 is a standalone those variables are going to happen whether you approve another well it's actually 195 was a number for the three the teachers those variables are going to happen and change whether or not you keep or reduce teachers so so so that's that's the issue that everything else is going to happen no matter what so then the last thing that I put up there and we don't have to have a lengthy discussion otherwise uh Miss Hargis will point out that it's five minutes to 5 45 and I'm between you and the food um but I do think at some point you have to we're going to have to have

053a discussion and it may be at the next board agenda is um it's impossible to get and squeeze this budget enough to be competitive with every District to the west of us who's on a 15 mno override now what understand all the conversations all the factors CCC had a conversation about this and concerns about all the factors if we don't go for an override we don't go for an override if we go for an override and someone says no that's fine but understand that that all the celebrations show you all the work we've done to get there but the celebrations are going to get smaller and smaller because we're squeezing every place I think I'm pretty good with a budget I've lived with flat or declining enrollment for my entire career as a superintendent and

054I know a lot of ways to save money and I got to tell you run out of ways to figure that out now problematic with all this just so you can think about it so we can come back if you want May and have a bigger conversation if we're going to go out in 23 then we have to call it no later than June you have to get a pat going and you have a lot of work to do and it's pretty short timeline problematic is there's a lot of people out there that are suggesting that 24 is not the year to go out for anything because if you go with the national election on the president and we put in all the factors that we have at the political level on the national scene

055that the chances of more people coming out than ever before and being upset and and disenfranchised in one force portion of another is probably going to harm stay uh School District budgets excuse me overrides or uh Capital bonds so then your next one is to go out in 25. so that just means and I say this because we're not competitive in Lots areas so you see we've got a projection today to go help with HVAC plumbing and and electrical we did substitutes we're losing bus drivers we're having problems with Administration we're having problems with teachers if those issues raised during the school year and there's no additional dollars we're not going to take contingency to zero so it's going to get harder and harder to address that so we we just have to understand that

056and if if if we try and we lose then that is one issue if we don't try then that's another issue and again I'm not here to Advocate one way or the other but I just want to bring up that that it is that is getting very difficult to remain competitive when we're at a 15 disadvantage with everybody that's probably going to be attracting many of our employees because they might live over in that part of the world anyway so it's less of a drive and so if you want me to bring something back in May so we can have a discussion it's not going to be a big presentation it's really going to be these are the things we're going to do and there's probably more discussion of how do you feel as a

057board relative to this issue and when do we think or not think we should do something and then based on that direction we would move forward or not move forward or do whatever it is we want to do I can give you some ideas but I just need you to to know that I put this question up because I think we've done a great job and I appreciate all the work that the administrators have done over the over my career here to do some stuff but it's getting harder and harder and harder my um suggestion I guess is that make sure that I I think that if I think we have two people for sure that don't unders probably understand what an mno override is and how it goes in all of the ins and

058outs of it so I think that there needs to be some sort of study session or um something that we do before because there's a lot of things going on um for example if we do it with the presidential election we don't have to pay for it to get on to the ballot correct we have to pay for some of it but it's cheaper because of the existing stuff that's taking place then if we don't do it on an election year then that's and it's all the only thing then we're right we're fully we have to pay for that we run the risk in 23 and 25 nothing else being on the ballot right before in 26 we at least there's gubernatorial or presidential election correct so anyway there's just a lot that goes into

059it there's I'm not I'm not saying one way or the other I'm just saying that I think you guys need to be fully educated so on that before you make a decision so based on that would you like me to schedule a special session okay at the end of April or would you like me to bring an hour-long meeting like we did today uh and talk about it before our May meeting I can do either one but you guys tell me which one you need I think we need to have a discussion about it so I think an hour is appropriate I just don't know how everybody else feels I'm okay with any time me too don't matter would you guys is it easier for you to do it okay maybe just an hour before

060okay so we'll plan on May 10th uh board meeting being similar to this board meeting with 45 minutes a little bit longer we'll have food in the 50-minute break and then we'll continue with the rest of the budget okay so then we'll go to break and then come back at at six o'clock did you have other questions Bob no that was it okay but if you have questions or you think about things are part of the conversation as we get to some of the agenda items not all the budget recommendations are in this one there'll be some that show up in May but just know that you can go ahead and ask this question during that portion too okay thanks thank you thank you Greg so it's in the it's in the kitchen picture sandwiches

061chips all sorts of stuff foreign did you get my text no about what oh we still have to wait for one more so it's fine I will I'll put that down on my record sheet recovery which answers oh well that's the whole thing not supposed to I have a book yeah oh I know you have a book I like that I think we just met and I still gave him so much crap that day I think he was like I think he was like I wish [Laughter] okay I'm gonna call the meeting to reconvene at uh so it's not late right it's right convenient that's right that's right 603 um gosh darn it all right let's go ahead and oh we need to approve we already approved the minutes oh the agenda I mean oh

062we don't have okay all right the Pledge of allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all okay so we're we're going to go ahead and um table the meeting minutes correct correct we'll do that next time um so we have the superintendent's report thank you madam president uh again looking at um student enrollment numbers are relatively speaking unchanged we've had a few more leave comparison last month we're still running at a deficit compared to previous years so I'm not going to go through each and every one it is that time of year just so you know two things are happening this time of year first of all State Testing so we do have State

063Testing going on through the end of the month so all of our sites are are working on that um please note that there's a lot of illness out there so we are having a lot of makeups just based on kids missing um due to due to that they have to make up the test they missed before they can go on the other tests so it gets a little bit complicated as as we move forward we also the second thing besides the testing is it's that time of the year for um lots of exciting things happening throughout throughout the district in terms of things that are are taking place in variety of programs for the Middle School prior to spring break thanks to the Gold Canyon Arts Council they had a string Trio come in and

064and work with kids and perform with some of the kids in choir and Orchestra down at the uh down at the middle school and it ended up being a very very positive experience both for those that for the kids but also for the the trio that was making the presentation and the representative from GC the Gold Canyon Arts Council said this Ensemble Express Delight in the manner to the students responded to them and spoke of that school experience during their Friday evening concert so very much a positive for the Middle School keeping in the music theme also for the middle school they also had kids perform at the aboda All-State choir Festival Madden Hastings Mason Dunn Madeline Finney Alexis Rojo and Isabel zerbinos so again our kids are excelling down at the middle school in

065lots of different areas including Fine Arts and I know they've started off the last quarter of this sports program also being very successful same thing happens at the high school the choir received an overall rating of Superior and rating of Excellence on sight reading and Superior performance at the state Coral Festival winter drum line earned second place overall and took home the highest score what's called a caption award for music performance and music effect they'll be looking at this weekend doing the Drumline state championship trap and skeet over spring break participated in the state amateur trap Association students did accept exceptionally well in a slightly different format than they're used to and they start their competitive season this weekend and it will be the first in line or in live skeet and trap shoot before

066it was we would compete in kids at other places would compete and and the scores would be posted online we're going to have I think Mr Hill said three teams four teams three teams present it's over at Casa Grande so that's a positive we have robotics many people will not realize but during robotics the robotics team during spring break competed in the Arizona first eastern regional competition the team named awe 1991 I'm sure there's a reason for that but I don't know what it is they were the highest seated rookie team and just barely missed the playoffs and received some awards for that so again it just speaks to the variety of things that our kids have available to us yearbook was featured by Jostens in their lookbook which selected 479 books out of a

067thousand reviewed and then their book and the areas that they were awarded for will be shared with other schools Across the Nation in Canada to say here's what good yearbooks look like you may want to if you're looking if you if you're not if you're a new sponsor or something you may want to take a look at what some of these different districts do and so this is that's a positive Sports Medicine showcase their skills at HOSA and it's for the first time in history they were recognized as a bronze chapter we have a couple students that play second in that in that area and qualified for Internationals in Dallas ffcla State leadership you remember zohed division is was on the state board for ffcla so she was a student representative I believe it was

068Treasurer or vice president but I could be wrong she's spoken on the stage the crowds of over a thousand people help with newsletters help guide the members Statewide of ffcla everybody's just raved about the job she's done and so uh overall very positive she's also going to compete at Nationals again coming up and I missed a couple so give me two seconds let's see because I know Student Government also received an award um this uh over spring break uh they were for the second consecutive year uh recognized as an exemplary record of leadership service and activities to improve the school in the community um they got the 2023 National Gold Council of Excellence by the national student council which is also associated with a National Association of secondary school principals so again it's just record

069recognition of success prior kids across the board for a variety of different areas that we wanted to just highlight and now we'll go to some employee recognition this is the time each board meeting where we just take a few moments to take a look at those employees based on employed group that are even asked or that are having during this month either a National Day a national week or national month so we're going to call up some people and recognize them no you did not yeah you can start to do these yes you can start to do these okay oops for the first group we want to recognize I'll call them up and then I'll write it but this is the only list of names I have so um the first group we want to

070recognize uh last Wednesday April 5th was Pro appreciation day and so I'll call these people up and then um go ahead and speak a little bit and Shelley can sign real fast while I'm speaking and then we'll make sure we give them their receipt so from Rice pair Pro Erica bejarano do you want us to sign real quick from Ellsworth Annie Peterson [Applause] from Combs Traditional Academy Cheryl Tapia stay just stay just stay right here [Applause] from Combs Middle School Kelly Edens [Applause] from Combs High School Heidi bush if you're not aware what we're saying is we'll say a few things if you're not aware of parapro appreciation day they're the they're the people that work in many cases with the special needs students throughout our district they go above and beyond every single day

071um they're called paraprofessionals as semi-professional Educators and they make the connection with kids in the special education program they make all the difference those kids look for are we missing one I don't have the name so go ahead can someone feed me and Julia O'Dell from Ranch [Applause] and so again if if you're in uh if you're in if your kids are in special education these are the people that make the one-on-one connection with those kids and those kids look forward to seeing these pair Pros every single day and if you've been in some of the programs and you had a chance to walk into some of this classrooms you cannot imagine the light in the eyes of the children when these parapros walk in they're just thrilled to death to see them every single

072day they're there for their teachers but they're also there for the parapros and the job that they do and to watch them work with these kids and to watch them take these kids and move them to places that probably you as a family member or as an educator may have not thought they could get these people do magical work every single day and so because of April 5th but also for everything you do we want to thank you so very much for the job you do with our kids thank you [Applause] okay we have uh it was also the week of the third through the 7th so April's a very busy week we have three people we'd like to call up for assistant principals week which is Michael Griffith Carl Hill [Applause] and April Kaczynski

073thank you and again this is another set of people that that you may not see them every single day if you're not at the high school you won't necessarily see them but they're doing the Yeomans work they're doing all the things that need to be done in behind the scenes they're taken care of how many nights they have to be there for sporting events or they have to be there for uh that's probably where April is they have to be there for plays they have to be there for uh concerts they have to be there for any number of different activities and oh by the way it's not just one day a week it's not just for one month a year it's for the entire year and then in many cases they're there in the

074summer working as we have practices as we start things up and so again there's so many people that make a district run there's so many people that do amazing jobs many of them quietly behind the scenes that don't get a lot of recognition that's why we have this event and so again we want to thank our assistant principals very much for the job they do [Applause] ah the let's see these signs okay on April 4th we have National School librarian day so we're going to call up some people that are librarian or librarian assistants in our district at Combs High School the librarian Ann Matson foreign [Applause] [Music] at Ranch Wendy blackfeather at Harmon Ashley slug at Combs Middle School Shannon snowball [Applause] and again these are I can just speak for my own personal

075experience with one child that the library was their Lifeline the library was a place that they know that they could go that they could go ahead and take their love of reading are we missing another one Cheryl Tapia come on down I don't have one yeah um and so we forget sometimes that of all the kids in our district they all find a place they all find the people that are special in their life this is another set of of individuals that make a difference for our kids that are there that are safe place uh that kids especially those that have a love of reading can go every single day and go ahead and explore their love of reading and explore and grow and they just do it quietly behind the scenes but without the

076Librarians and the librarian assistance we couldn't operate so thank you again for everything you do thank you okay the next group we have are administrative assistants and that is actually their recognition day is the 26th but we have Jill Miller from Combs High School [Applause] Angelique Q Flores from Combs Middle School Josie Carpenter from Ellsworth [Applause] Martha Morrow from Harman [Applause] Debbie Mertens from Ranch Janet Hardy Harvey excuse me from Simonton Shannon scargham from CTA [Applause] okay this special group of people if you ask who runs the school this would be the group that run the school and so they're the ones that many times you as parents will be the first ones to see or hear talk to on the phone uh they're the ones that are taking care of issues when we have

077a individual that's out that's not going to be present that day they really juggle a thousand balls in the air to keep everything going to get the the day running the day moving and the day ending and they do it again behind the scenes you may see them in the office where their office is at but really there's a bunch of principles out there that would not be able to operate without what these individuals do for them because of the job they do it's just an amazing job and once again it's just a group of people that do a job that maybe not everybody notices but is invaluable for everything we do in this District so thank you so very much what you do and we'll be sure to celebrate on the 26th with some

078social media thank you thank you and then I'd be remiss if I didn't say this although no one's here because we had a confusion on on the date but again at the end of the month uh we have a school bus driver day April 25th and so we will recognize those bus drivers too um that's again any of you that have done that kind of job where you're driving every single day I drove for a couple years for UPS back in the 80s it is an interesting job when you're driving there are some days you could probably close your eyes and drive with one finger and then there's other days you can't get two feet without sphere of getting an accident and imagine that as a rolling classroom with anywhere between 30 and 50 kids

079on that bus every single day now I know we all know that our children are angels but on the off chance that someday that they're not Angels just imagine if you were driving that bus when those children were not angels and so they do it and nobody in this town or this area is probably at all ever said anything about the traffic patterns and just how easy it is to get in out of this uh area but imagine you're doing that with a Bus full of kids and looking out for their safety and so they do an amazing job every single day and so we'll be sure to recognize them and thank them for the job they do and that's the end of my report thanks so you want to do school and staff recognition

080first as opposed to student of the month that is oh okay student of the month Madam president board members Dr Wyman and special guests thanks again for allowing me to do this it's my best part of the day and I always say that but I truly mean it if I could have Lorenzo Rodriguez come up from ccs [Applause] Lorenzo has grown so much this year as a student and a young man he's friendly and has a great sense of humor which we've all come to discover he works hard in his classes and his attendance is outstanding Lorenzo demonstrates trustworthiness by his academic integrity and actions in the classroom and on campus we are proud to have Lorenzo represent CCS as our student of the month congratulations Lorenzo [Applause] could I have Kayla Bowen from the

081high school come on up could I have Shaylee Hyman from CMS [Applause] Shaylee represents the best of combs Middle School she lives by a high standards in and outside of school her desire to be trusted can easily be demonstrated by her humble approach to learning she will be the first to admit that she doesn't know every answer nor she is one who will not make excuses for herself she strives to be better in everything she does in the classroom congratulations Shaylee Heyman could I have Carly Mathis come up from CTA all right thank you again look at that she did great job good job all right CTA can always count on Carly to do exactly what it is asked of her she is an excellent she's excellent at standing staying on task and helping others

082around to do the same we feel if we needed anything she would do it she's a wonderful young lady and we love her attitude in class as well around as around school she treats everyone with great respect and we appreciate her at CTA congratulations Carly [Music] could I have Bryant walbeck come up from Ellsworth [Applause] oh Ryan follows our rise code specifically to Integrity by sitting down and getting his workout he trusts we trust that he is able to get from class to class on his own when Bryant is asked to complete tasks we know that he'll get them done Ryan's actions show Integrity because he understands what the expectations are in the classroom Brian also shows integrity by taking control of his learning and always staying focused congratulations Brian thank you could I have

083Haley Rodriguez come up from Harman [Applause] harman's student of the month is our sixth grader Haley Haley's kind polite hard-working and most of all trust a trustworthy young lady she's always willing to help others and comes into class every day with a smile on her face and ready to learn here it is she works consciously and diligently and always strives to do her best she shows and she shows courage to do what is always right and willing to try new things congratulations Haley [Applause] could I have Oliver Wright come up from Ranch [Applause] this is Oliver Oliver is a good friend to everyone in the AM preschool class preschool he takes his job as a peer model seriously he's always lending a helping hand in his kind to everyone he meets when he's absent everyone

084in preschool is sad and wonders where Oliver is he demonstrates trustworthiness by always saying what he knows is wrong to the teacher and by helping everyone play nice in preschool I I congratulations Oliver [Applause] could I have Briella Castillo come up from Simington foreign that concludes this portion parents if you want to take pictures with your students at this time we're going to take a quick minute break and then we'll start with the rest of the agenda thank you now yeah 2014. um experience [Music] those are all my notepad what I'm thinking about too yeah okay you guys ready to move on yes all right any uh public large comments none of this time I think we need to name Jennifer to be the official hander outer of the certificate she does such a wonderful

085job [Applause] okay so um any questions on the consent agenda um do we not have public comments no they said no oh I'm sorry I missed that yeah I apologize it's okay you were you were naming her the official handwriter um okay so any any questions on the consent agenda if not then I will take a motion I moved to approve the consent agenda as presented second all in favor aye aye aye motion carries five two zero so now we are skipping nine one right we're tabling that yes nine two discussion and consideration of approval Community use of the district facilities fee schedule this is an annual report that or an annual requirement that we bring to the board uh so you will see that uh what I provided for you is there's three classes

086of people that or groups that can rent our facilities class one which is generally those associated with the district and kids then class two and it varies on whether educational institutions or for-profits and so we have a dollar a month that goes to it this is exactly the same as what it was last year with one exception um SSC if you remember is uh in charge of ranch the high school and the district office their fees are slightly higher and so for the CPAC and the rental CPAC you will see that the custodial fee see the fees I won't think went up to thirty nine dollars I think there were 30 or 32 before that's the only change and it's just so that we're in compliance contractually that we we the law requires that you

087get the money that it costs you to operate the facility to the best of your ability and that would allow for that but everything else is the same as it's been in the past so I'd recommend approval as presented any questions no all right I'll take a motion hey I moved to approve the community use of District facilities fee schedule for the 2023-24 school year as presented second all in favor aye aye motion carries five to zero um 9.3 discussion and consideration of approval of employee medical insurance plan for 2023-24. let president members of the board Dr Wyman members of the audience that are still here the district has been part of the school medical insurance trust or Smit over the last decade comsta District administration had concerns that even though our employees represented the

088largest of the five district pool we may not be receiving the benefits that were the best for our staff the cost and quality of insurance is a consistent priority for the Combs collaborative committee which is CCC and the leadership each year based on these priorities District administration used the employee demographics for Combs and our claim history to request insurance quotes and determine if favorable rates were available without decreasing we wanted to maintain or increase our level of benefits the district requested quotes from seven different providers that was four trusts and three health insurance a committee composed of Miss Garcia and payroll Mrs almond HR Dr plessis and HR Dr Wyman and myself reviewed the quotes and invited two groups to make presentations Arizona School Board Insurance trust and Kairos were our finalists information from the

089presentations were then shared with CCC and Leadership who then took the information back to their different sites and departments to provide feedback based on the consensus of the committee leadership and CCC this agenda item is to recommend a change in our insurance provider to Kairos the district and our employees will see a premium decrease of approximately six percent or a savings of approximately 164 thousand dollars to the district in the majority of the cases the employees who buy up to a richer plan or pay for dependent coverage will see a decrease in their premiums the district is moving from a three-tier system which we had employee employee plus one or employee plus two were going to a more beneficial system to maximize the benefits for our staff and we will now have employee employee plus

090spouse employee plus children and employee plus family those in the employee plus children category will see a significant savings dental and vision insurance under Kairos will be slightly higher but the district is also looking to make a change in the insurance availability for our staff making it the first of the month after the date of employment currently they have to wait 60 days two months the district will continue to use American Fidelity for our life insurance that the District covers on behalf of the staff we will continue with our short-term disability Critical Care Hospitality Indemnity cancer and additional term in whole life options as benefits for our staff plus we are including pet insurance because we have to take care of the fur babies identity theft Insurance and legal insurance for the staff those three

091items are items that we had received requests from the staff to provide we will also continue the health savings and savings accounts that are currently available if you have any questions we are very fortunate and tonight we have I hope I don't mess this up D ostrichly ostrichi and Jennifer Sherman here with Kairos if you have plan specifics I know that the question did come up earlier are the plans comparable and yes we did look and make sure that we evaluated the plans and they're comparable to what we have do you have any questions about this recommended change yes I do um I'm looking at employee only obvious what that means employees plus spouse would be just the two of them no children correct employee plus children would be the employee of the children and

092no spouse correct okay okay so you have a single family home okay and then employee plus family is the whole thing yes perfect got that um can they open this is just a very quick look and you'll notice that when our current individuals was Employee plus two if it were children if it were spouse or one of each those individuals you'll see are going to see a significant savings there's only um two categories and it's in the Combs primary that there would be a very minimal increase to those individuals but you can see across the board everything in red is a savings and as Dr Wyman mentioned earlier we will be able to um or what we are looking at is dividing that across a few more pay periods so that will also help our

093staff um one other question um I don't recall so you probably talked about this before high deductible health plan we have one of those in effect right now yes sir so this is just a continuation of that time plan perfect um you'll notice that um on the slide it says Alliance silver that is what we currently uh offer as our primary plan the now plan will is the PPO or we're calling it The Combs primary the alliance gold there was not a comparable um but the value gold will now just be called our copay it's equivalent our Classic Gold will become the Combs core and then our high deductible will stay as a high deductible welcome any other questions thank you very much foreign okay if you don't have any other questions I'll take a

094motion I move to approve the employee insurance and benefit plans and rates for the 2023-2024 school year as presented second all in favor aye aye motion carries five to zero so discussion and approval of the asba policy Services agreement for the 2023-24. this is an annual uh item uh that we bring forward I'm bringing it forwarded specifically in this manner this time uh my recommendation is to stay with asba for policy Services other additional Services out there and so I did want to pre-assume uh that the board wanted to remain with asba versus the trust if if you need to know I can tell you why my recommendation would be to remain with asba but it's a it's an annual thing I just want to make sure that I'm not like I said assuming that

095the board wants a specific Direction so I brought it for an eye action item and discussion but I would recommend staying with asba as presented any questions why um what I would say this is policy services and this is what takes where they take the laws and put them in the policies um I was asked to help review some of the policies for the trust there's nothing wrong with the policies of the trust in the sense that they they follow the same laws that asba does how are they trying to slim things down in my estimation and I've shared this with individuals with the trust and I don't believe in the society and the situations we live in today that it is good for us especially as more and more new people come into into

096positions whether you're a board member or administrator to have policies that don't have the depth and some of the additional forms because that's when mistakes are made and when there's a potential issue and I think asbas is far more robust and therefore it gives us the most protection if the individuals that are using it are willing to look it up and utilize it and read it carefully and so that's my record reason why I would have that recommendation do we use I noticed that when like what they offer um do we use all those things this let me see not necessarily there are times where we've used some there are other times where we haven't it just varies okay I think the advantage is uh what you said Greg in terms of the robustness of

097the policy but also the the calendar that they put out to keep us on track at what needs to be approved at what times during the year and that's very beneficial for us as well all right any other questions okay I'll take a motion so I'll move to approve the asba policy service agreement for 2023 2024 as presented second hi I'm Aries um 9.5 discussion and consideration of approval of the 23 24 salary schedules so as part of the budget recommendations uh I've re uh restated what I said in the presentation earlier about what the what the increases would be these new salary schedules uh represent those changes uh in the attached forms you'll note that they say proposed if you approve them then they would they would become um uh adopted what will happen

098with this after your approval in May will bring back the exact increased amount for every single employee so that you'll know what that is we're trying to do that but with Eastern a couple other things we just couldn't we just couldn't get it together fast enough to get that stuff up but so anybody that's already signed a contract would then get the updated four percent and that the difference of what their contract is and what the four percent or the five percent were depending on which the group is you'll get that in May but so this is the first step so I would recommend approval as presented so in terms of the numbers we see here they're reflective of the budget presentation you see early and all your recommendations okay I have a quick question

099so the support staff didn't we just give them a two percent right right and and the supports that I've got a seven percent raise I know but I think I'm probably thinking wrong but just a few months ago when we did um in order to bring the minimum wage that was in January it was a seven percent this uh this um salary schedule just reflects what we did in January there's no there's no change to that one all the rest reflect the increase what will happen is we'll come back in November December once we're finalized what the what the increase will be uh for the new increase because it has to occur every January 1st and so you'll see a change but I just wanted to make sure that we had all the documents approved

100at the same time so that because then it starts getting changed around but but it reflects no increase because we did that in January question any other questions I do I'm looking at the schedule for support staff and you know we've talked about the difficulty with maintaining and attracting bus drivers um I know we're not the only District that has that problem but have we considered raising the rates for bus drivers to track them and keep them yes but here's the issue that we have when I first came into the district what had happened previous to me being here and you're gonna you're gonna hear this at many districts right now is we used to have a salary I don't know what that looked like to be totally honest but what I know happened is

101we had a through z let's just make it simple and we just basically when the recession came and everything else we just started lopping off a and moving A to B and then Lop enough B and moving A and B to C well by the time I got here we had a through F all into one line and G so we compressed the salary schedule so when we brought the uh uh consultant in who worked with school districts from across the East Valley he had a system like most of them do that takes a look at every single job and so when you look at the salary schedule you'll see that there's a number next to the letter 101 102 103. the way they calculated the way he calculated those numbers was based on experience

102based on educational level workload a variety of different factors I don't know them off top my head I can bring it to you and so then it's a national he does studies for or compensation studies across the country and it was based on that that we then rated those people so we can but we're starting to do something that in some ways is no different than lopping off rows in that that now we're elevating different positions not necessarily equal to what the new level is going to be based on some criteria and so I hesitate because very easily we have several that we could rise up that way if we had not gone out on HVAC that one should be probably higher and so which ones do we choose and where do we place them

103and what's the system that we're using to choose those and I get a little concerned that if we're reactionary we blow up the schedule in a different way but you get the same kind of results as when you compress the salary schedule before more than willing to look at other ways to rate but I think you have to be careful because of the fact that you're looking at uh expected level of of knowledge and so a bus driver has a skill set but it's not the same as a mechanic in terms of of uh certification the responsibility for what happens with the bus driver is that more or less than when you're when you're fixing the bus and since there's a system I just am cautious because I don't know how to rate all the

104different positions and we're going to move people out of position and that system that he did for us actually runs all the way up to the superintendent so it goes from 100 to I think 160 so teachers get a rating assistant principles get rating and it's all based on all of those kind of things so that's my only hesitancy and why we have not why we have not jumped into it because we would and we had to adjust what his ratings were anyway because we couldn't afford to do what you want us to pay for it but but that's the hesitancy that I have and I haven't been able to find one that really rates people different than he does they're pretty close so it's a standard it's a standard for the industry and so

105we can do that and if you ask me to I will but that's my hesitancy is that uh again I'm now taking out of what work was done for all the other positions that are support positions well I actually I appreciate that explanation in how the ratings were arrived at probably with experience and knowledge and education all of that but I'm also thinking the impact of the free market supply and demand right and you know so some jobs are going to have a big Supply and little demand and some jobs are going to have a very big demand and a very little Supply so maybe for um on a temporary basis or um we do a sub category for that in that impacts or that takes into consideration supply and demand and the fact that

106we got to get the kids to the school so right I don't know if there's a way to look at that well my only concern would be that I that I would raise is that I would say right now this is supply and demand issues for every single position and support staff and so that's why we're Outsourcing custodial that's why we're Outsourcing HVAC that's why we took a a mechanic position and effectively didn't have it replaced for three months that's why we have so many unfilled pair Pro positions that's why and so so the problematic issue is I can't tell you which one's most important at a certain time of the day every one of them is important if I don't have cooks and I don't have servers at lunch then that's more important than

107the bus driver but if I don't have the bus driver in the beginning of the day that's more important if I don't have the pair Pros that were up here in the classroom especially like a Rise program then that's more important and so so what we're really saying is give everybody a raise which given the budget constraints that we have which is why we're trying to give the 30 cents and the 50 Cent because and that's back to the quite frankly the discussion on an override and why because I we just can't stay up with the people to the west of us without 15 more because we're going to be nickel and diamond and trying to fix this thing and we're going to screw it all up thank you if not I'll take a motion

108where I am I moved to adopt the 2023-24 salary schedule as presented second all in favor aye aye aye motion carries five to zero okay discussion consideration approval retention stipend this is the same retention stipend we give in the last two years you'll see the numbers 500 000 in here and it was 250 on the pro on the on the presentation I debated switching it I just left it at the high end we're not going to be close to 500 000 but those are the numbers of what it represents if we do uh all of our employees obviously we have a number of Employees leaving us we will get you the list in September for who's going to get the raise and how or who's going to get the stipend and how much uh it'll

109be based on anybody who's working with us as of the end of May and who's still working with us as of the end of September not any new employees so it is Esther's dollars and we continue to remind everybody that this retention bonus will be around next year and then the Esser dollars will be gone and the retention bonus unless there's more money through mno will not necessarily be continued in the future and that would not just be for us that would be for districts around the country that are facing the same issue questions okay if there's no questions I will take a motion I'll move to approve a one-time retention stipend for all returning staff for the 2023-2024 school year as presented second favor aye aye motion carries okay um discussion and consideration of

110approval of student growth stipend again another one that we're bringing forward from previous years that would just uh not be paid out until March uh again uh we're looking at closer to the 500 000 only because that's for all employees that last with us but if someone quits in December we're not going to hunt them up and give money but and we'll Pro with anybody that's hired after the beginning of the year like we did two years ago but if we get 200 kids based on uh K-12 uh on the Hunter's day ADM that we would go ahead and pay it out the reason we're paying it out in the end of March for the new board members is the same reason one of the other reasons we pay out the previous agenda item in

111October we have some classified staff that with our support staff that would not otherwise get paycheck because we're on a vacation and this allows them to get some money to offset the fact that they were not getting paid while we were on the spring break break so we'll pay for it after spring break so they don't see a total loss of of money for a two-week spring break again it's no cost to the district we don't get the growth but if it is it's a way to thank the people and hopefully we can start to work on maintaining and keeping our students in the district it's not just about uh growing but it's also about retaining its capture rate but if we capture more kids but we don't retain them then the capture rate is

112irrelevant because we're losing the kids at some point I I guess I have a comment maybe not a question I'm not opposed if we include preschool I just was right I mean if we're basing this on growth money preschool doesn't necessarily bring the same growth money but if we do get additional preschoolers the hope is that they would continue so I mean I'm not opposed that I just wanted to make sure that we had the funds to do that so what I'll do to to compromise that piece is we will as we watch the the growth the hundred day if we get to the point where we're at 300 with or without preschool doesn't matter if we're at 195 without Heist without preschool but 204 with preschool we'll look at the numbers and if we

113feel it's advantageous to us we'll bring it to you but the the key piece that I'll promise you is that we're not going to move forward with this until it is it is unless it's financially advantageous to the district we're not going to put the district in the position where we're paying out more than we should so I would offer that compromise no I mean I think if we get a lot of preschoolers that's potentially going to help us maybe not next school year but right the school year after that right so yeah as long as we have the funds that's all I'm and I will tell you the one issue that we do have with preschool because many of the charter schools in the area do not offer preschool as we get significant numbers

114in preschool but when it comes to kindergarten we lose significant numbers to the two charters who now offer kindergarten but not preschool so our numbers that you see generally on those reports are higher at preschool and then we see a drop off at kindergarten because many of the families then take them to the school that they have other kids at that are not our kids so it is a problem with we get them but we can't retain them because of maybe where their siblings are attending school any other questions okay I'll take a motion I'll move to approve a one-time student growth stipend for all staff as presented second all in favor hi motion carries five to zero okay discussion and consideration approval of additional days for coaches and Specialists for summer 2023 another one

115that we've gone ahead and brought forward previous years and it's just it gives uh our our instructional coaches and content coaches an opportunity to help plan for what we do when they come back again as we said in the presentation of the three days for the essers funded PD we'll only use two days for PD and one day we'll for Teacher time in the classroom but this is just these people are not on on 12-month contracts so it allows us to bring them back that number is a bit floater because some people already have plans and can't make holidays other people can but over the last couple years we've spent about that much and so I would just recommend approval because it's a way for us to plan for not just the PD days with

116hashtag Ford but also new teacher orientation summer camp there's any number of different things that just gives a little bit more time to do some planning do let me see here do we need to make it uh a little bit more specific when we when we say coaches in our motion do you know what I mean I suppose yeah because like correct yeah you can make it as an instructional coach but if you're gonna do that I also say content coaches yeah because we have two sets of coaches and instructional because yeah I think it needs to be a little more specific you got it good idea yeah okay let me yeah make a motion I do you can't you can't change now Bob you gotta I moved to approve additional days for content and

117instructional coaches and Specialists for the summer of 2023 as presented second all in favor aye aye motion carries five zero um let's see item uh nine nine discussion consideration or approval of content and with vergee and uh HVAC electrical and plumbing service yes this is what I explained in the in the presentation uh we just are not competitive with uh maintenance techs we have a team of five we've lost three a couple retirements uh another situation where a person decided to go elsewhere and so we can't replace them uh and so we started talking to a variety of different um individuals to see if they would provide this service we actually Bob looked at I think Bob what about five five or six individuals but we only got two quotes we interviewed both individuals gave

118us a quote uh we choose ver we chose vergee because of the depth and and and how how how many resources they had the other company could not provide the electrical or Plumbing to the same degree that that Barry G could barigi still shows us the savings uh based on the salary we spent you can see that the attachment for a shows you exactly the number of days that they'll be in place for the rest of this year and then we'll sit down with them for the new year and set up a very similar schedule to say this is when we need you in here obviously if there's an emergency they would come out and help us the good news is by having this daily rate or this hourly rate we're not at the mercy

119right now if we have an emergency and we call up a company they're going to give us a three hour minimum they're going to go ahead and do a late or a trip charge they're going to do all those kinds of things that takes a a situation that maybe not that expensive and they're going to run it through the roof by having these hours we've locked it in and we have a much better chance to identify and understand what it's going to cost us to go ahead and make sure our our equipment is up to speed we do not have an electrician or a plumber on board have not had electrician and plumber on board to my knowledge in the last X number of years so we've been basically calling people in emergency status for

120many of those issues that's why we added them to the HVAC piece any questions uh yeah um what recourse do we have for non-performance bivarity well I think with as with any contract we would look to to go ahead and sever the uh sever the agreement there's a piece that allows for the severance of of the agreement if it's if it's not there on any number of different factors and so we believe we have a very strong working relationship with them and so but it doesn't mean it's not going to happen but if just like with any contract if we don't get the services that we're asked for and provided or supposed to be provided then we would go ahead and eliminate it it could be at the end of a contract that we do

121it or it could be in the middle of a contract just depending on the situation uh and and what's taking place but I think we do that with with any of our any agreements that we have with people that we would then say I was looking to see if there was a provision about terminating in the middle and I guess with these short periods of time it's not a big deal but if you have a yearly contract then it becomes more critical because this is just you know two sections through May 24th and then it from the 26th of May to June the 30th right but if you have a full year contract I'd like to see maybe something that talks about non-performance and recourse for that and this well two things there's two lines

122there's there's a short term plus then there's a total agreement price for the term of seven one twenty three to six thirty twenty six right so it is it is we put the uh we put the agreement in for the rest of the year so you could see but but this is a long-term agreement and so um it's not just uh it's not just for those two no it's not just for that that period of time okay okay yeah the agreement may be terminated by either party for any reason upon giving 30 days prior written notice uh specified there's also on I believe it is and there's another one that says if they're oh W the agreement shall be governed by a construct construed in accordance with the laws in the state of Arizona and

123if we have a problem the venue for our arbitration is Maricopa so County Maricopa County so there are Provisions that if we're not getting if we're not satisfied then we will go ahead and and move forward in a different direction okay good thank you okay any other questions okay I'll take a motion I'll move to approve the contract the vergee to provide HVAC electrical and plumbing services for the district beginning April 16 2023 under igpa contract number 22-14 pv-07 as presented is that igp or one GPA one GPA oh one GPA I'm sorry second all in favor aye aye aye motion carries five to zero okay discussion and consideration for approval of five-year IGA between uh Joe Combs Unified School District and the greater Phoenix educational management Council gpmec guppy Mac for short uh guppy

124Mac has been around for for probably 30 plus years they have 60 school districts right now and so they're just a resource that we use uh both from a curricular standpoint as well as from a lobbying standpoint uh um or a political standpoint I've been very satisfied with the relationship that's been going on for two or three years I can't remember which year I brought it in uh but that that agreement was up and so we're now moving into five year for right now the fees are Thirty One hundred dollars a little over thirty one hundred dollars uh a year which is a pretty nominal cost for the services we get obviously in the future it may go up depending on any number of factors but it won't go up significantly and so I would

125recommend we move forward as presented in terms of getting out of the agreement there's a provision in there I think we have to give 90 days notice but then we could go ahead and get out of it so if we think something changes and we're not happy with what we're getting out of them next year this time I can make bring you a recommendation that says we'd like to remove ourselves from it it's a good thing well if you say it's a good thing it must be any other questions all right I'll take a motion yeah right okay I moved to approve the IG between the Joe Combs Unified School District and the greater greater Phoenix educational management Council g p e m c for the 2023-2024 school year through 2027 through 2028 school years

126I'll second we're just mixing it up all in favor aye aye aye Martian carries five to zero okay so now we have some an April report for the student achievement okay I'll be playing the role of Miss Denise Dunwoody this evening unfortunately Miss Dunwoody is ill today and not able to be with you so I'll do my best impersonation that I can and walk you through a little bit of the data that we have so obviously um our commitment to continue to share with you our student performance data we have some information to share from our third quarter data that's going to lead us into our end of the year reports first one here is for our high school quarter three Benchmark data as you can see we've got a little bit of inconsistency in

127performance the concerns here are reflecting what we've been talking about all along this year which is that as we go along in the assessment cycle we increase the depth and complexity of those questions and this has been the consistent performance of our students that they do well or better at the start of the year on those more basic functions and then as we get later in the year the depth and complexity shifts we see those changes so that's a piece that we've been looking to address but we we've intentionally adjusted our assessments in some ways it might sound like we're shooting ourselves in the foot I would have because we're we've made those assessments more complex to better prepare our students for those State assessments that are going to ask them to do those things

128so some of that is a natural reaction to those questions so um more specifically when I show you the math data on the next slide one of the things that's happening and you'll see the algebra one as an example we've done a lot of work on that one to change the types of questions that we're asking students but one of the things that we see on those are multiple answer questions and that's a huge struggle for our students they'll solve the equation or solve the problem to get an answer but oftentimes the question is calling for more than one answer and that's a real struggle for students in terms of their test taking skills and their test taking ability so we've we've taken and done some work with our benchmarks to emulate that so the

129short term is you're seeing some of those drops and scores in some areas the long term is we think it'll better prepare our students for those State assessments as they start to work through those questions types it's it's such a balance of the rigor of trying to grow students but also what's the state assessment saying sometimes questions that are compromising either one of those so do you feel like the rigor of the questions are kind of matching the State Testing yes so that's what we've been working toward and like I said so the short-term reaction is that we see our numbers look down yeah so that's a frustration but we feel like we've got to do a better job preparing our students for those types of questions so that they're ready for that because we

130have a little more control over these kinds of numbers we can adjust things but it's the state test that we don't have I mean the results of the results at that point and the community gets to know those the community is not necessarily gonna you know try and dig into these numbers correctly so um I will say just as a side note because this was discussed earlier in Dr Wyman's presentation and Mr Delana asked um specifically about teachers um I will tell you that the schedule that was created for the high school moving into next year has an emphasis in math in terms of teacher load and so they've they've done some work to create some sections for some remediation work for our students so in terms of your question Mr Delena about providing some

131resources where we need them this is a good example of that and we are doing that at the high school they've made some efforts for that moving into next year so um so when you said that you have um that you you switch you have changed the questions to dive in a little bit more when were those questions like implemented so those have been implemented over the course of this year this year yeah so we've been revising the the benchmark assessments to bring in some more of those question types um so what you're seeing in terms of this year itself that is realistic from test to test where it might look different as if we were to look at more of a longitudinal piece of trying to compare that to last year it'd be a

132bit of an apples to or just comparison but it's helping to highlight some of those areas that we have some concerns about but we know that we have to work toward which is those those more complex questions if you're making those type of aggressive but beneficial changes you can't compare last year the next right it's tough to compare them together and when you say you're addressing them are you are you gonna get to that in this presentation or is that a question I should ask now it's a question you can ask now and I will give you my best Miss Dunwoody answer okay um so what I say addressing them now I mean part of that is in the creation of those assessments and getting kids the opportunity to practice those skills part of that

133is happening now and feeding into next year in terms of the work that's going on um part of what Dr Wyman presented to you that has to do with the CIA team is some of those organizational pieces this piece specifically um it's semantics a little bit but but miss Dunwoody currently or at least in past practice when it was Mr Berkshire supported some of the curriculum instruction pieces a majority of those are now on my plate so that Miss Dunwoody can focus on the assessment and accountability pieces so part of what we're building into our structures for next year are more of those opportunities to have those data talks and to really talk not just about what the numbers say like we do with you but really about what we're doing about that right what

134that looks like and how we can make those adjustments so to Mr beech's point it's it's a short term we're not there and we know the work we have to do it'll take some time to make those shifts um but I feel good about the work that's happening to get us there is a slower moving wheel that any of us would like I wish we could do a you know one hour PD and woo it'd be fixed right that's just not the case so see those are the kind of things where the kids need to have these skills developed and that's where it takes extra work and Remediation and all that kind of stuff which is why before I always go where I was going earlier with let's keep those teachers and have them assist

135in those efforts so okay just another Point yep um so when we see you next month there'll be some updates because we'll be getting through the end of the year testing and some of those assessment pieces as is always the case with the wonderful State Testing I never know exactly when we get that data back a little bit after the fact you know how soon I'll get it yep so we'll we'll see the timing on that piece yeah um and and honestly I think that to the point we just talked about some of those shifts and adjustments we've made we're not going to see in this year's assessment data it's usually about a year to two years removed but what I would expect to see some significant shifts as we move into next year with

136the work that's been done in regards to that and if you have extra follow-up questions I'm sure you can shoot them our way in those those numbers you're talking that you just showed us do they connect to the fast Bridge type of is that fast bridge that you're using there no fast bridge is fast bridge is different because fast bridge is an assessment that really looks at students ability to be successful in the environment so it's sort of like think of it like prerequisite skills the fast Bridge measures more for students ability to learn at red flags where they have gaps in their learning that might make them lack performance on some of those state level assessments because they don't have the foundational skills so it's a different type of assessment fast bridge is more

137used as a screener for us to kind of raise those flags for us so we know what we're dealing with yeah as opposed to the the state assessments are really more of the standards based so standards-based versus skills based really making sure I pause long enough so I don't stop on zombies question stop you do it I'm good with that all right uh from a curriculum lens this feeds in nicely so just a quick update in terms of of some curricular work that's happening we have been in the process of taking on a Core Curriculum adoption in mathematics conveniently time there you can see the lovely display in the back of the room if you want to peruse through a good math book or two you can see what we've been looking at what's presented

138in the back of the room right now are our materials as part of our 60-day public review there are three finalists that we whittled down to you can see them on the screen there Houghton Mifflin Harcourt that program is known as into math McGraw-Hill which is known as reveal math and Savas which is known as Envision the committee had about and I think nine vendors present to us we whittled that down to three we had a fourth one in contention that very bizarrely in the mix refused to get back to us on some questions so they remove themselves from the mix I haven't seen that before that was a new one um but these are the three finalists where we are at in the process which I think I share with you on a future

139slide is that um again we have those up for public review uh week after next the committee comes together for the final time uh the last piece of the equation is the cost we always intentionally leave out the cost until the end because we want them to review them for Quality materials first and foremost and then we bring the cost to the table and say okay is this one worth that much more if we like it or do we like that one just about as much but it's significantly cheaper and we kind of bring that piece to the equate of the equation in so in our main meeting we will bring a recommendation to you for a selection from the committee that could be one of these vendors as a K-12 adoption or it could

140be an elementary secondary split depending on what they decide but we have both options available to us on the table what you see represented in each of those three potential adoptions um I'm really excited to say is is not the most basic version of any of those packages um we are within our budgetary range for all three of these to get maybe not quite the Cadillac version of what they offer but but most of the resources that they have available to us so what you see there are both digital licenses as well as things like practice books or homework journals some of the consumables teacher editions under McGraw-Hill the review with Alex and the arrive math those are both differentiated supplemental support programs and Savas you see the the Blitzer Bakken damana those are Partnerships

141that they have because they don't actually provide the secondary text themselves they're through a different different producer a different vendor so it's good stuff again digital licenses practice workbooks and they're all currently on an eight-year adoption is what they're they're bidding on so we don't use Alex right now do we do we have Alex right now no because I know that we did that's not true actually we have it on a pilot basis so we have I think we have a teacher or two who's using it it's not a district-wide piece but we had it when my oldest son was yeah um in ninth grade Alex has been around for a little while and arrived version that was not good do um all of our Math teachers get an opportunity to review these the curriculum

142for all three companies right so there's a couple of different ways that we go about that the first one is is representative in nature where we have representatives from the various Elementary uh classrooms Middle School classrooms and High School classrooms to serve on the committee um and those folks all got notification just like our community that these are on display there's a QR code back there where they can submit any information they want to us and we have a way to share some of those resources obviously not every piece but some of those resources digitally as well as soon as we send out that notification I would say I've probably talked to four or five community members that had some questions since then it's been very very quiet we just kind of monitoring the form

143so we can go through our process I mean knock on wood it's math it's pretty straightforward um so usually it's just some some questions about how the material is presented and how much longer will the material be on display in the back it'll be on display through our next board meeting in May right right about that same time we'll conclude our 60 days is there a way to make this easier to review for individuals online yeah so we have we have most of the resources they do something they refer to as a padlet which is kind of an abbreviated summarized version of those so we have a padlet version of all three available um some folks who've reached out and asked for that we've been able to send that to them can you send it

144out before they ask for it we could yeah I mean I think it'd be a good idea just to send it out and say click this to see what the new curriculum is so that you can put it on the website is it yep we could do that we can we can link those digital resources right I think that would be a great idea just so that we can you know say hey these are all the things that we did to let everybody know what we were trying to adopt just I think any way that we can make that available would be a really good idea for sure letting more the community know what we're trying to do yeah right get the word out right yeah I agree perfect we will work on that not

145a problem all right so as I mentioned before that's kind of where we're at in the process I won't read it to you but you can see we started back in October so it's a long arduous process when we present the final recommendation to you I will share with you the folks who are on the committee so that we can recognize them for their work as well because it is a commitment to serve I always like to know who's on the command and they've been wonderful about coming in and calling through those materials and like I said we are on the April 2023 so we're on the selection of finalists and acceptance of best and final offers and we'll review those with the committee and and again bring that recommendation to you so that slide's

146supposed to skip but it didn't so ignore me we'll stop on that one any other questions on the adoption yeah I just uh when we when we come with the final I think it'd be a really great idea to see you know as part of that summary you know how this information was presented to the community because we could certainly put it out on Facebook and all that as well and I'd like to know how many views we got just just so that we could have that information I think that'd be a great part of the final information on the uh you know when you come to present that I think it should be really good information through that as part of that final presentation have any more burning questions nope comments concerns no okay

147so I'm gonna make a motion to adjourn second what time at 7 18. all in favor hi hi motion carries five to zero good job Madam Prez thank you again