J.O. Combs Regular Board Meeting 03/01/2023

001what's the latest you've ever started in the game six o'clock I don't think Shelly's ever been late I've got 20 seconds okay I'm gonna call the meeting to order at six o'clock um I'll take a motion to adopt the agenda I move to adopt the agendas presented my second all in favor aye aye motion carries four to zero go ahead and do the pledge okay um do we have uh any questions on the meeting minutes if not I'll take a motion I move to approve the meeting minutes from the previous meeting as presented a second all in favor aye aye aye motion carries four to zero so we have um superintendent report Madam president members of the board a few things tonight A couple that weren't on the uh report that was posted earlier uh

002because it just came up today just a heads up there's a new requirement for our audience for the audit that we do for our district and any school district in Arizona that's got to be approved on a roll call vote by members of the board by March 30th however because we moved up our meeting to March 1st our Auditors don't have our report done so we will have to do a quick meeting it could be a zoom meeting where we just go ahead and present the audit report you've had the preliminary presentation earlier but they went through and looked at a couple a couple different issues and so just know that will probably not worry about it until after spring break so sometime after the the 21st but again it could be just very a

003very quick meeting that could even be a zoom meeting that we just need to make sure we have a quorum and that we have a roll call vote as required under statute so just a reminder on that piece um if you look at uh enrollment we're seeing the same patterns holding steady that we've seen throughout the year so we just continue to monitor that as we we look to next year not going to go into the specific details um let's see foreign instruction we're not having a report uh this month uh do the board meeting being a week earlier and some of our testing results won't won't be available but we did want to let you know that 92 of our eighth graders passed the Civics test a couple different things on that that is

004a requirement under State Statute um and uh there's some exceptions we a student has as many options as many opportunities as possible through their 12th grade year to pass it I don't remember off top of my head but we had the same kind of high passage rates for those kids that have not passed it at the high school level and so uh I also bring that to your attention because it is one of the objectives within our strategic plan and so we are on target to meet or beat the state average on on that a Civics exam and then we had seven percent of our second graders meets The Benchmark for full gifted testing and we only bring that up the gifted testing range at the national level is a six to ten percent so

005we're within the within the realm of what it would be at the at the National level did want to also let you know about a meeting we had today with paper and major Clarity uh papers you know is our tutoring program major Clarity deals with College and Career Readiness paper acquired major Clarity back in December and uh the CEO was uh called me because we were one of the few districts that happened to be both clients of paper and major Clarity and I asked them you know why the purchase and and what was going on and as he described what they were trying to do and why they were doing and I said it's funny you should say that we have a process within modern teacher that talks about learner profiles and how can we

006develop learner profiles from kindergartners all the way up to high school kids and as we talked we realized there there might be something there and so uh they said well why don't we come down and visit with you guys and and see what you're really talking about it's almost like product development today was a brainstorming session one of several that will probably come up um and then based then it was a the coaches and the principals uh and District administration in the room and we spent probably four hours just talking through what we were looking at they're going to come back and and look at some initial product development and then we'll go ahead and take that out to teachers and kids to get an idea of what they think of it one of the

007exciting pieces is is how Dynamic this learner profile can be what we're really trying to do is is come up with a product that does not require additional work for teachers that is owned by kids and owned by families in terms of this is who I am as a child this is how I advocate for myself because these are my strengths my weaknesses this is what my area of interest is as we as they get older they can put their resumes in they can do letters or recommendations and so we're real excited about the notion that we may be able to work with the two companies together and come up with something that's unique to Combs scalable across the country if those companies wanted to to but also is something that will ultimately benefit our

008kids and our families but not provide additional work for teachers so just wanted to let you know we anticipate there'll be some additional meetings coming up and uh I think the positive piece for us is both CEOs were in the room as well as seven other product development people so to bring a team of nine people come down and meet with us I thought was pretty impressive and speaks highly of a good partnership and a good relationship so we're excited about that piece we also have kids doing great things the County Spelling Bee is hosted by us and has been for probably the last three or four years and our the winner out of our district was Logan Friday I talked to you about that last time an 8th grader at CMS and he finished

009first runner-up which basically means if for some reason the winter is not able to represent at the at the state level then then Logan would represent at the state level we also had a cool event on presidents day the dance program CHS Dance Program hosted the azdo High School Dance Festival and what that was was about 300 kids coming to from around the the state coming to our high school for uh a full day of dance so they had an opportunity half the kids would perform in the morning and the other half would go through a bunch of series of workshops with a variety of different dance individuals so whether it was jazz or swing Bollywood Mexican full folkloria hip hop any of those kind of things then in the afternoon they just flipped but

010to see 300 kids and their teachers given up uh President's Day to come in was was really cool the gym was packed with kids that were dancing we had had them in both gyms we had them in the music rooms and then they were performing and to see them supporting each other as it performed we hope that that will be something that we can continue to do in the future they were pleased with everything we did and so thanks to Andrea Carson in particular because she was the one that really put the event together she had help from a lot of other people we had some of her own staff judging obviously the CPAC was being run by our staff so very very positive we are starting I think there's some young ladies and gentlemen

011in the room that will be leaving here real quickly after they perform because we have a lot of spring performances both for the high school as well I think last night the middle school went and we have the Elementary Honor Band going tonight so there's a lot of different things going on drama is preparing for the spring musical Matilda so we have a lot of things going on with Fine Arts our booster club had their first annual car show 30 entries 36 cars and one baby stroller I wasn't there so I did not see the baby stroller but it was a good way we had a lot of our our booster clubs so band trap and skeet FFA and theater were there to sell food so overall it was a very positive fundraising activity for

012the the high school boosters CMS flag football I don't know if they're still in there I don't see this Ridge but they were second they what they are they are they're still in it so they were second division league so they're in the playoffs and the girls of basketball was still moving to groovin okay well they remade the playoffs so that was good news the girl and it was um they were third seed in their division so this was it was you know when you go it's the top team versus so yeah but they made it that far but black football is Saturday and surprise and they are sexing in the whole week so it's a really big deal guys so we'll we'll send us advice uh CTA had a number of uh things happening

013obviously they're part of one of the bands that are going to be at the the elementary band uh uh performance tonight they also did a fundraiser and raised over seven thousand dollars to help with our classrooms and our students and the Scholastic Book Fair raised fourteen hundred dollars and they are part of uh you may have remembered approving a few weeks back or a few months back the the cameras and intercoms and and they're getting those put on along with a lot of our other buildings uh there are a number of events that I have down there I know that there's many people in the room that are looking forward to the next two weeks after this week because we got spring break so that's always good news I'm sure that'll disappoint some students but

014we'll have spring break anyway um and then what we want the last thing I want to do I'm not sure if they're here just because some of the confusion but I still want to read off their names if if they're not here and recognize um this upcoming week is uh School social workers week and I'll read off the names and see if they're here and if they are they can come if not I will uh go ahead and just still read a couple things do we have Kristen menk veld from the high school here Lorraine schindle Decker from the Middle School Aaron Gomez from Ellsworth Tanya Thompson from Harmon Angela Albers from Simonton and we do want to take a moment we'd like to thank people for what they do and our social workers especially

015coming out of covet and some things that are going on in our world today they become critical this year we have the week of uh this week for uh National um uh School social workers week and uh what we see is we need these kids this year it's We rise the theme As We rise and we just want to thank them for rising up and working with our kids I don't know that people understand the full depth and breadth of what we try to do to help families and help kids and this is just one extension last month we talked about counselors and this month it's social workers and the combination of the two do amazing things for your kids and helping your kids and your families if there's issues that are that are coming

016up it is just something that's done very quietly working with families and working with kids without a lot of fanfare but so so critical for our kids and for our families and so as those individuals work with your kids and your families we just want to thank them because we know without them that's one Cog in the wheel that would really be sorely missed so although they couldn't be here with everything going on we do want to take a moment to say thank you for everything you do and next week an opportunity and thank them more for what they do for our families and for our kids so with that I'll turn it back over to you we'll have the school and staff recognition it's Cruise good evening Madam president members of the board Dr

017Wyman and distinguished guest it's a pleasure to be here in front of you tonight and thank you for allowing me to present I would like to recognize first um Miss Laura fryer Miss Laura would you stand up I asked Laura at the very beginning of this school year if she would felt like she would be ready to present her band to the governing board and she said absolutely I can take that task on so here she is tonight and our sixth grade band come on up [Applause] so um these guys have been working on um this this music that they're actually going to be performing tonight over at the CPAC um this is um just music that they've been working on together with all the elementary schools and it's just a great privilege for them

018to be here tonight and so we thank you guys and for this opportunity laughs [Music] welcome [Music] hahaha [Music] [Applause] thank you very much that was great nobody loves us better than Bob though he loves look at him Mrs fryer before you leave could you please come up here Mrs fryer is a person a wonderful lady that I would love to recognize um a little bit more than just what she's done here she is a 0.2 FTE at the ranch campus that is a couple hours a day but I will tell you this lady is here all the time she is so dedicated she stays for staff development on Wednesdays she does after school tutoring with the children who need some extra help or just want to be more in like the advanced band she

019is phenomenal and I am wanting her more on my campus if that is at all possible in the future so I would like to recognize you I would like you to have lunch on me and I would like to give you a blue Apple award [Applause] now have have a wonderful time this evening and students do a fabulous job I know you will congratulations thank you you would never know this is just her second year at Ranch next I would like to recognize Vita manrique Brown if she could come to the front please [Applause] Visa is one of our paraprofessionals in our resource classroom I want you to know that Visa has been in the district for 17 years nice 10 of those at Ranch and we love her to Pieces she is so flexible

020and so willing to do whatever it is that we need her to do we when we have families that need translation she's right there to help us translate she will stay after when we have parent-teacher conferences just about anything that we need she is there for us so Vita thank you for being a professional thank you for doing everything that you can do to make the ranch kids special and to help out wherever is needed thank you thank you I also have a blue Apple award for you please take this put it on your desk and enjoy thank you and last but not least if Debbie Mertens could come up to the front please thank you Debbie is another one of those long-termers Debbie and I started out together at what was The JO Combs

021Elementary School way back when she was my admin assistant I can remember the day of interviewing her and hiring her and then when I chose to become the principal at Ranch Elementary she said I'm coming with you and I said okay that'll be great we'll be quite a team so Debbie has been with us in the district for six seven sixteen years so quite a long time and you know what she knows everybody she she and I start to talk and we say the same thing I mean she knows what I'm thinking and I know what she's thinking and it just works together we are quite a team and I am so thankful to have you on board and thank you for putting up with me for all these years and please have lunch on

022me tomorrow thank you let me put it down there oh thank you Connor and that is Ranch Elementary thank you thank you very much we'll go to student of the month Madam president board members Dr Wyman our colleagues in the audience I say it every month best time of the day is to be here and do the student of the month so can I have Jasmine acampo come up from comb Center for success and it's Yasmine correct Yasmine okay there you go good job Yasmine exemplifies there you go give her yeah that's good Yasmine exemplifies the best attributes of an outstanding scholar a responsible young adult and a truly kind human being funny bright and always helpful Yasmine is a joy to have in her classes she's a student assistant at CTA with The Kindergartners

023and does an amazing job congratulations Yasmine foreign [Applause] High School how about Michaela Tanner from Combs Middle School [Applause] look at that is this man Michaela truly expresses all of the traits of responsibility she's definitely a gem in the classroom setting and we are honored to be able to say that Michaela certainly deserves to receive this award and she's a valued student in the classroom congratulations Michaela that was from Mrs lipditch good job could I have Cora Esquibel from Combs Traditional Academy ready you ready Cora is a very responsible second grader she works very hard as a young lady and puts forth her best effort every day when there is an assignment to complete or a task to be accomplished Cora gets it done in a timely manner with a great attitude if Cora says

024she's going to do something you can count her on her to do it she is not one to make excuses and answers for all of her actions in every situation and Cora takes what she's learned and applies it to life congratulations Cora later could I have Quinn Morales come up from Ellsworth this is Quinn say hi Quinn yeah Quinn follows the rise code by showing respect to others and by using her inside voice she has Integrity Integrity by always following direct directions and she's always picking up and cleaning up for other people she loves learning for engagement and Quinn is a great student in school and she's a wonderful young lady congratulations Quinn [Applause] could I have Max Liston come up from Harman you ready there you go good job good job you guys are

025doing great tonight Max is wonderful and a hard-working student he's very responsible in class and around the club playground sorry he he always has his work on time and if there is trash to pick up he'll do that too he makes sure everything is put away in the right place and is kind to all others he's always helpful to his fellow students he really is just a fantastic student and we are very proud of Max congratulations Max [Applause] yeah could I have Armando caparron come up from Ranch [Applause] you ready good job look at them Armando is a great leader he always shows wonderful responsibility in class every day by always following the directions the first time he can be counted on to give help a helping hand to other students and all of his

026supplies are organized and ready for whatever the Day brings Armando thanks for always being a rock star in the classroom that was from Mrs fleegle congratulations [Applause] and finally could I have Nathan Reyes Gillian come up from Simonton Nathan knows the drill Nathan demonstrates his responsibility by completing his classwork in a timely manner and making sure he turns in quality work he also takes his time to help others and reminds others of tasks that they need to complete in order to be successful in the classroom Nathan also shows his responsibility not only helping in the classroom but also for assisting in the classroom cafeteria by offering to help clean up and making sure others do the right thing when nobody is looking he is a great role model on our campus congratulations Nathan hey good

027work that concludes our students of the month parents if you'd like to take a couple pictures we'll take a couple minute break and then we'll continue with the board meeting thank you foreign thank you [Music] okay we're gonna move along in just a little bit we'll give you one more chance you guys want one more picture okay one more we'll wait you're fine Obama enjoy your dinner okay so we'll go ahead and move on we have governing board updates do you have anything that we'd like to share anything no um so I have one so I know the last like three days I've been making some surprise visits to the principals on their sites um I didn't mean to like get anybody nervous or anything but I know that we have that little thing that

028our little survey that we do on ourselves and um that was one thing that we needed to do better on so I uh I appreciate you guys um talking with me and I learned a lot I I learned a lot of things that we as board members can do better as well so I appreciate you taking the time with me and um I'm sure you'll see me again so okay um any public comments nope not this time all right so we have um our consent agenda does anybody have any questions on our consent agenda nope everything is good all right on a motion if we could for the we have the contract list in there if we could just move the consent agenda and what the contract list if there's a Minor error found here

029there that we that you give HR um the opportunity to fix it we've looked at over a thousand times but inevitably with that many people there may be an error so if you could kind of post that that gives them a a ability if there's a missed person that we could go ahead and get them out of contract that would help out so you're talking 7.12 7.12 so should we just move that out you can do it either way you can do it either way yeah okay we'll just go ahead and move 7.12 out of the consent agenda and uh so I'll need a I'll need a motion on the consent agenda with the exception of 7.12 so I moved to approve the consent agenda consent agenda with the exception of item 7.12 as presented

030one favor aye aye motion carries four to zero so now we'll do um uh seven I'll take a motion on 7.12 Bob do you understand what he's saying I think so um I recommend that we approve item 712 with the Proviso that if there are omissions or Corrections that need to be made HR can do those who can do those as necessary all in favor aye aye that's a motion carries four to zero so now we have um let's see 8.1 discussion and consideration to approve estimate to access a pass capacity for open enrollment acceptance for 23.24. this is an annual thing that we have to do uh that just establishes what our capacity is uh with respect to open enrollment you will notice especially for the new board members we do do this on

031several levels and I'll explain why in a second but we do it based on uh the size of the school that's that's how the sfb determines the size of the school uh grade level ratios and then program ratios like special education English language uh the reason you do on this many levels is you may have situations where you have capacity in a particular school but you may not have capacity in a particular program as an example so even though one of the elementaries may be going ahead and taking kids if they're in like special education the answer may be no because we're at capacity uh likewise even if you're at capacity in second grade but you're not a capacity in fourth grade if a family wanted to come as an open moment we might be

032able to accept them in one grade level and not the other grade level please note that with any of these capacities there for open enrollment out you know out of the district movement if somebody lives in our district they have every right to Tender schools so we may be at capacity in a program and or a school or a grade level and if we had 10 more families move in with a bunch of kids we would say no we don't have capacity we would have to go ahead and accept them so it establishes that we have plenty of capacity so this will not be an issue I don't believe on down the road it may start to as the as our homes come in but again this is just an annual thing and so I

033would recommend approval as presented any questions on that yeah I have a question I just want to be sure I'm getting the wording correct it says for 20 23 24 the recommendation excess capacity so those numbers above the enrollments if we have now or the total for that particular school no that would be the total that that school could accept anything above is excess and therefore we would not be able to accept so those numbers are not excess those are the numbers that's the that's the cap that's the cap the capacity because that's the wording just got me a little bit thrown off there okay any other questions okay I'll take a motion oh just before the motion is okay so in the motion is the term of excess capacity required to be part of

034the motion yes that that is that's the way the language and the law works okay that's what I wanted to know okay so I move to approve at the estimate of excess capacity for open enrollment acceptance for 2023 2024 as presented second all in favor aye aye motion carries four to zero okay 8.2 discussion and consideration approval ongoing maintenance to the cooling tower at CHS I'll go ahead and start and then if you have real detailed questions Mr Anderson can come on down uh basically it is just ongoing maintenance if you're looking at our cooling tower it's almost like there's a filter in the cooling tower and as that filter degrades you have to go in there and and remove it and replace it um there's also some general maintenance that takes place within the

035cooling tower that ensures that it works at the level it needs to work at UH there is I'll just say I'll call it the filter but there's some degradation of the filter in there so in taking a look at that we went out to get multiple quotes uh you can see there's a wide range we very feel very comfortable with the quote that was presented I did note in there that it was not the lowest quote because the lowest quote did not quote labor and there's a significant portion for labor so our recommendation would would be to use cooling tower products to go ahead and make that correction uh with this we'll move as quick as possible so that as the warmer weather comes the tower is is operating in that in a fashion to

036make sure that the high school remains cool had any technical questions Mr Anderson can answer but I can give you the bigger overall picture hey um I do have a question how often is this type of maintenance required Mr Anderson ah okay so that's why I don't remember seeing this before for quite a while okay four to six any other questions I will take a motion um I moved to approve the ongoing maintenance to the cooling tower at Combs High School by cooling tower products for the cost of fifty two thousand six hundred fifteen dollars and fifty cents as presented my second all in favor aye aye motion carries four to zero uh just got 8.3 discussion consideration of approval for bid for replacement of the HVAC units at Ranch Elementary School if you remember

037last fall we had a microburst that came through or hit the high school and and Ranch uh on a Friday night I knocked everything over up on the units up on top of the roof and damaged them we had some same some knockover of units on the high school but did not do the damage that we we saw at Ranch we've been trying to we had the trust which is our insurance company come back and say they would they would give us uh I gotta look at the numbers because I can't remember 141 000 for the replacement of them we've been trying to work with the sfob uh they're not quite end of life and so we were hoping that we could work with the sfob to go ahead and come up with a plan

038that they would replace them and put in brand new ones um and that the SF will be pick up the the Opera the difference unfortunately sometimes with the SFO being with the change of administration um it's not as easy to work with them and especially change Administration they're going through who who's now going to be running that department and so we're not sure we're still going to try to work with them but as we went got an initial bid we ended up being told that there's a 14 to 18 week lead time out there for that equipment and so we're just trying to get ourselves set up that if we don't think the SB is going to do it or they can't move fast enough then we'll use Bond money to go ahead and get

039these things ordered and so we've had some initial uh initial dollars associated with it we'll make that decision over the next month uh we hope with this approval that we might be able to get into the queue for them irrespective of what the funding source is going to be and then we would come back to you in April with the approval of the final dollar amount of everything to make sure that that everything's kosher now if it's the sfob it's a perfunctory thing because it's really their dollar amount and and they would pay for it but if it ends up being that we have to do it out of bond money we would just come back to you and and give you the final cost and the final approval but this allows us we believe

040to proceed in a manner that might get these things in here a little bit quicker you wait until June on the sfob and that means you may not if they go down we believe they can still work and get us through but if they go down we may not get them back up until October and so we're trying to position ourselves to fix them as quick as possible we don't believe it's worth our time or effort just to clean them out and continue to use them because we believe with life of end of life that's going to happen next few years anyway the problem is sfbo sfob waits for true end of life before they replace in many cases so we're just trying to position ourselves we try to work with them and we're still

041trying to work but we have to fish or cut bait here pretty quick great just a clarification you had mentioned Bond money in the write-up it says accessories funds uh that um it could be well we're looking at we'll look at both because there's a future agenda item what's happening with the Esters dollars is is we're not spending as much in some areas as we think and so they're flexible so we're trying to balance out when do we use Bond and when do we use essers and so as we look at it right now that would be when we come back to you with the final dollar amount we'll we'll identify the specific funding source but obviously HVAC as an issue related to covid and Esther's dollars was something very big across the country so

042it meets the criteria for esser's dollars we're just trying to balance what do we use in bond money R we have to finish out a bunch of the bond money because we're at the end of the six year window so we're just trying to look at the two and so as we as we proceed over the next month we will make that final determination and then decide where the 90 uh 95 000 is coming from I think that's what it says 95 164 comes from and so I just want to give you the idea that we're looking at everything and then we will fine tune it move forward with it and bring them back in April with the the dollar amount as well as was the funding source and then in those HVAC units what

043is the normal life for one of those and where are we with the ones that we were hoping to replace that becomes the case and so the SRP would say We'll replace them in three years we think because normally the normally what would happen is the district would put in probably about a 10 percent dollar amount but because we're putting in over half of what it is because of the because of the uh insurance we felt that that would be a real positive way to approach the sfob but again that it's a it is a bureaucracy and so sometimes it just doesn't move fast enough that we think it's in our best interest or they won't do it but but that's why well if you're looking at how it's amortized yeah it's 15 years and

044they're looking so I understand okay so what if um we we pay this up front and then we they decide that they were going they're going to pay for it would they pay us back or would they say oh too bad you already paid for it we're not no they if they were going to pay us they would pay us back and then we would just journal entry and and free up the capacity again um we don't believe they will pay once we make the decision we don't believe they will pay us back and so truthfully the discussion that we're having is much more about um uh kids and adults in classrooms and what's in the best interest of them in terms of cooling uh we can get the units up and running but because

045of the potential damage do they start to trip out and go down and so it may be that our decision is that we just can't wait on the sfob and if they don't pass back that's why we have two funding sources that are legitimate to use and we're looking at that 15-year lifespan there it has been damaged in a storm does that not decrease their lifespan so so logic and the SMB are are not you know consistent and I say that realistically I was in another District where it took me three years to get a 30-year HVAC unit replaced because it still worked and you could get parts and I thought for three years to get it replaced um and so we run into that issue with them and so it does take off lifespan

046but that's not the way they look at there's this formulaic and if it's 15 it's 15. all right um any other questions if not I'll take a motion I move to approve going out to bid for the replacement of the HVAC units at Ranch Elementary School as presented all in favor aye carries four to zero so now we have 8.4 discussion consideration approval of the purchase and replacement of student computers in 200320 and 2000 23 24. so this is just our continuation of our one-to-one initiative uh the good news and this is back where we talked about essers on the previous agenda item uh where we thought we were going to be spending a ton of money for 700 computers because we weren't sure if the um the EFC Grant would give us the money

047for computers it ended up at the end of the day giving us that money so therefore what we approved last year we didn't end up using essers money so also oops we got more money for essers So based on that we're just moving forward with what will be a regular occurrence I can't say a yearly occurrence because it depends on what the budget looks like you will see this same type of agenda come back next year because we'll still have enough Esters dollars to to replace again after we get through next year then we'll just have to see budgeting because the Esser dollars will run out in September of 24. but this way we continue to replace on a regular basis the new seventh grade kids coming up would would get their computers that we

048would hand them to and we would we would maintain computers up to dates and so I would recommend approval because it's necessary to keep the one-to-one initiative so if Esther's money is not spent by September of 2024 then we lose those dollars it will be spent because of that yes you cannot they will not they will not go ahead and extend it beyond that right there was some talk in Congress of extending it but uh it is not gone anywhere and so as of right now uh actually some of it if if we're looking at Esther's it's not essers but I forget what they call it but one and two uh they ran out last year this year for one and two runs out this September and then three is next September so in some

049cases that's why we zeroed out one and two because we can't we can't use use that money so we're we're trying to make sure some people are are given districts grief because they're not spending it but I think districts are trying to to Really push it out over the four years and use it in the judicious manner just like we are so we you don't want to buy um you know 3 000 computers in year one to use all your Esters money because that means the chances of life cycle ends all at the same time and then you got a whole bunch of computers well you're not going to have that kind of money to replace 3000 so we're trying to spread it out but we we will spend all the money by the 24th

050trust by September 24th and then the computers that are being replaced and other Associated equipment what happens to that Mr Redco at or once Google stop supporting them then they go on a disposal list but we'll keep we'll have them in the system thanks any other questions all right I'll take a motion I moved to approve the purchase of 400 student replacement Chromebooks for the 2023-24 school year from esser's funds as presented I second all in favor hi I'm motion carries four to zero 8.5 discussion and possible consideration for pay increase for substitutes based on conversation from the last couple meetings I've brought this back I want to explain what I what I'm trying to do with this I understand that the competition and competitiveness with surrounding districts drives all our decision making and and

051so substitutes are no different quite frankly than any other position we have what I've tried to do is give a proposal that might address the concern about why to go in the short term why I might go provide a sub in a different District than our district and so option number one speaks to loyalty stipend we can do this in future years but for this this current year we believe at about ten thousand dollars give or take depending uh we would incentivize people to go ahead and stay with us and we would provide a stipend at the end of the year stipend is the easiest way to pay for it based on the way our our payroll system works and what we would do is provide approximately a thousand dollar where we would provide a

052thousand dollar stipend if you work more than 75 percent of the days in our district for the semester uh that was just a math calculation of me figuring out what is about 75 percent of the time that gets you I think it's 67.5 days and so if you sub for us for 67 days then come the spring at the end of the year we'll give you a a stipend if you were to do this in the fall it would happen at Christmas time it makes it easy because it's a One-Shot deal to pay for the stipend uh and you're not trying to calculate everybody's different pay rate differently and that's like I say roughly based on what we did in the fall and based on who's sub so far this year uh that will be

053roughly in the ten thousand dollar neighborhood that would account for long-term Subs as well as short-term Subs now the other options that we have there that we can still do is to create the is to increase the substitute base we are arbitrarily saying 15 because that puts us in the same ballpark because other districts quite frankly when you talk about increasing the base it could be five dollars it could be twenty five dollars it's just a dependent on what you want to do the issue that we have with the increase in the base is because we have competition issues across the board and all of our employee groups we would like to be able to maximize the dollars that are available for us within the budget here in the next couple months and bring to

054you a more comprehensive look at what we do to just to give you an example if we were to go ahead and and pay the fifty thousand dollars for the increase at fifteen dollars we're anticipating getting about six hundred fifty thousand dollars from the state based on on the formula that means we have 50 000 less to do what we need to do our teachers as an example right now Queen Creek is up to 53 and Higley just went to 56. I can tell you right now no way in God's green earth we're getting to 53 or 56. if we do get there it's because they threw extra money at teachers and the 53 is going to become 58 the 56 is going to become 61. and so without having an override we are stuck

055trying to take the dollars we have and use them as as wisely as possible we believe the increasing for Monday and Friday is something that's very um doable but we would I would rather have the administrative team and CCC have a chance to look at the entire picture and say this is what we think is best for all of our employee groups irrespective of where they are I don't know what those numbers would fall out but the the less money we have because it's already committed the less options we have when we go to we go to to spread it out um the the ten thousand dollars is a as a one-time uh stipend at the end of the year uh allows for us to try to start to address the concern of the board

056brought about uh getting people to stay with us and work for us because that ends up being about 15 a day to be totally honest um uh for that uh there was a question from Mr Ray about the 500 I gave you two numbers fifty thousand five hundred and twenty five the 525 is what would represent what it cost us next year if we were to raise to 15 per day if and this is critical if we maintain a fill rate of approximately 50 percent if we incentivize this and we have a higher fill rate over the course of a year then that obviously means that our budget for the substitutes is going to go up accordingly so just keep in mind right now we're running about 475 if we add the 50 000 for

057as an increase to the base at fifteen dollars you're going to be about 525 if you move that number up to 20 or 25 and obviously that number goes up if we get more people coming in that's good but there is an impact to the budget because then that means we are going to increase our fill rate which means we're going to increase the cost uh the Monday Friday is another solution again I think it's it's doable but I'd like to put it in a complete package so that we see what we're doing with everybody else but I will also note that the retention stipend we have given the last couple years to our subs I don't believe all of the districts have used their Esser dollars for the retention stipend so the recommendation would

058still be to to make sure that the subs get the retention stipend but again it would be part of a package that says hey this is what we want to do for compensation for all of our employees like we've done the last couple years and this way I tried to come up with a solution that kind of meets your concerns but also gives us max amount of flexibility if you decide that that option two is the best option tonight then we'll make it work that's not an issue you just know that at the end of the day when we come to you in April or May with uh with a complete budget recommendation it will be modified in accordance with how much option two cost if you did fifteen dollars or if you did 20

059or 25 again the the issue that's the elephant in the room that at some point time uh I don't know that any of us are crazy about this option but but us our inability to have an override means that we can squeeze the turn up as much as you want and I think I'm pretty creative of doing that but I cannot Bridge a 15 difference no matter how hard we try and so our com our competitiveness in every single employee group is an issue and so we're just trying to come up with a way to to be as close to competitive as competitively possible without being competitive because we don't have enough money to be competitive and I say that purposely that way because that is the that is the big issue that we have

060right now um I have a number of questions about option one the Loyalty increase um to work 75 of the 90 days of uh semester 67.5 days how many substitutes do we have that actually work that many days okay I mean that's a lot right now right now right now we last semester when I looked at the data we had uh I believe it was eight this semester we have on track to do 10 to 12 depending on that's what I calculated right yeah really not incentivizing anyone to come in except for we only have um when you look at the total number of Subs we have I believe we're only in the uh we have 30 Subs but not everybody works for us so when you look at the subs you're you're going to

061say that that number is probably close to half of the subs we have but if I'm sitting there and I say I'm gonna go take a job at at Queen Creek because I can get 15 an hour more if I know I'm going to get a a bucket of a thousand dollars um at the end of the semester I might go ahead and take the jobs here the other piece that may be is that because I'm looking at incentivizing those that are currently with us in the spring in the in in the recommendation for next year we're looking to get more people here um but it's a it's a two-parter we can go ahead and try and incentivize I don't excuse me we can raise the increase and try to get more people here my

062gut reaction is you're not going to get a bunch of people signing up because we went to the same price as everybody else on uh fourth quarter of this year you might get them over the summer when you talk to them but you're not going to get a ton that come to us all of a sudden because we're paying the same rate as everybody else with an incentive we might keep some no no that I understand that but we've got about eight weeks of the school year left five days a week that's 40 days right so for people to qualify they already have to be working for us a lot so the only way to get substitutes in my way of thinking the last eight weeks of the school year is to get the people

063who don't haven't already committed to us the people who've committed to us they're here they're long term they've made the commitment we've got to get other people from other districts so not that I'm talking against the Loyalty increase but I think we also need to raise the rate to get people to come for the rest of the semester and and we can do that like I say I just caution you because if I take that 50 000 out of the out of the 650 that we have anticipating coming from there will be something we will give up in our in our recommendations and so we may have a lot of Subs but if we are missing in other areas because we can't raise to the same level then we just need to understand that the

064cost of that may be that we don't have as many teachers next year because they decided to take a job elsewhere we've lost several teachers already to QC uh based on their 53 000 so so the more flexibility to be as creative as possible the better but if if the of the if the the board is supportive of what you just said Mr Delana then we'll go ahead and make the adjustment and move forward with it I was just trying to come up with a way that tried to address the situation but also gave us flexibility but we'll do it that's the board's decision and we'll do whatever the board says we need to do and and the other thing just to follow up on that is for the eight years now it's going to

065year nine that I've been on the board we've had what I would consider to be an adequate not a substantial but an adequate carryover of funds in the mno budget and about three percent so what I'm thinking is I'd like to continue to do that but if we get into a pinch where we need to get teachers I'm willing to take and decrease that carryover and use some of that for substitutes so now that's my opinion I don't know how the other board members feel but um that's why I'm thinking I'm I'm leaning toward up to uh vote on both options one and two I don't know how everybody else feels to both of them together is that what you're saying yeah option one would incentivize it no no really that we would we would

066we would be eight or ten or twelve people that have been with us long term and continue to be we'll give them reward for that they'll spread the word around to others but at the same time we need to get teachers in the classroom for the remaining eight weeks of the year so we increase the rate from 125 to 1. so okay so now wait a minute do you are you thinking about just doing this little thing for the rest of the year and then we reevaluate it when we do the budget no well that's an option I was actually suggesting doing this and making it our long-term approach well I don't think that I'm comfortable with doing that knowing that we don't have a clue what's coming up I mean like what our budget's

067going to be like you know what I mean I do but we've we have this carryover that we can dig into I do know that I mean I kind of like the whole Monday Friday thing because I think that those are the ones that we have hard time filling am I tell me principles what do you think like it's Monday Friday hard to fill every day okay never mind but if we're not increasing the pay is how do we get to even giving them a loyalty increase a loyalty stipend if we can't get him here to begin with how do we give them the Loyalty I don't know that if we're going to increase the pay I don't think we need to do the Loyalty though what about doing one and three so then it's

068just Monday Friday the increase but then also the bonus for the loyalty and does it have to go up to exactly what somebody else is doing do we have to do it all the way to 15 right dollars we accepted I just did 15 because it seemed to be midpoint it could be 10 it could be 20 it could be 25 it's whatever your number is we just arbitrarily went to 15 because that seemed to put us in I'll just say the ballpark of Brothers it doesn't make us the highest but it doesn't make us the lowest so that's a arbitrary number today I thought that's where we were at right now highest and then we know we've had over the course of the last both last fall and during the course of this year

069others have increased theirs so what we were two years ago is different than what we are now because others others are doing this uh Higley as an example just went I think last week and and took care of all of employees including substitutes and they I forget what they bumped their substitutes up now this is for next year but so you have different districts moving at different paces and so at one point we were there I would still say we're not we're on the low end but we're above AJ I think we're above um Florence but everybody's adjusting at different times and so it's it's a moving Target even even if you raise this we could turn around and depending on what their what the budget is you could turn around have a bunch of

070districts and Charters that go ahead and increase on top of us and even though we think we're in the middle on March 1st come September 1st we're back down to where we're talking about right now because I don't have control over what they're doing with their own budgets and and those kind of things so this will this will be a constant conversation for all positions to be totally honest okay so so if I'm a potential substitute living within our district and I get the option to work for combs for 125 or to go to Queen Creek or somewhere close relatively close by for 150 something that's an easy decision that's easy but not even a second no but if I'm at 140 to be closer to home then I might think well you know what

071will I give up the 153 and stay closer to home for 140 and not fight all that traffic then I might come to calm so that's why I think it's important to raise our substitute rates now that's again to the fit to and raise it to increase it to 15. increase it by 15 up to 140. and make that our standard going forward now what we could do as we're talking about these different options we can vote on each option separately we don't have to vote on them as a package we could because right I just I just gave the options the the retention option the only thing I would you know that's one that doesn't go until September because we're trying to have you come back so I would I would I just provided

072the retention so that you know we give it in the past we increased it from one percent to two percent using Esther's dollars I would anticipate we would do a retention bonus this next year too so I would look at I would look at a retention bonus for the rest of this year because it doesn't make sense by the nature of what a retention is but the other three that's up to the board but I at this point I just don't I don't know that I would want to do both one and two I think if we do two why do we need to do do two and I don't know that we need to do one I mean if we're gonna do one then I don't think that we should I mean it's already

073there that's already kind of built in do other schools do loyalty increases like this that you're talking about or is this a kind of a creative way you were thinking yeah I think it's creative I'm not aware of people giving loyalty out uh I think that's what we've had to try and do is is be creative and stretch the knowledge but I'm not aware maybe one could you out of state there would this already picked up the idea Idaho and Utah doing it but I'm not aware of and if you didn't do one would that make it increase the substitute rate a little easier comfortable yeah I mean the the reality becomes whichever if if you do all three of them we're in a in the worst case scenario in terms of money that's not

074not available to work with the other employee groups if you do one of the only one of the others then obviously they all have different capacities the option one is about 10 12 000 I think option three is about ten twelve thousand option two is about fifty thousand for the year for the rest of this year it's probably lower but we already know we're committing to next year a fifty thousand dollar increase so that we just have to be prepared for that for next year for this year the actual payout for this year if you do 150 years I I believe maybe less than ten but I'm projecting out to next year because I do not see a saying we're going to pay 140 and then in the budget projections for you guys next year

075we come back and say hey we want to move the 140 back down to 130 that would be stupid and so therefore I'm projecting the 50 for next year because it's going to impact our our budget more more than the other two options which option benefits most people I mean are we talking about just 10 to 12 subs for a loyalty increase are you talking about a greater number of Subs on a daily basis we need that we need to cover well does that make sense yeah yeah and what I would say is that the difficulty is is we have no idea of of whether any of this so let me back up we don't know if option two and three will increase the number of Subs that come to our district where you can

076put the money out there the reality is it may be zero because if I don't have right no I won't be zero because we still have to pay this is based on existing fill rates but we don't know that it'll increase our numbers in the case of option one I believe that you would at least maintain or have the potential to maintain the people that are working for us now staying with us the rest of the semester and and maybe giving up the fifteen dollars that it's it's I get one 140 or 125 versus 140 15 bucks I also dangle yeah but if I sit and take the job for a little less I get someone to hand me a check for a thousand dollars in June and I'm planning on going on vacation in

077June I might go ahead and sit and take the thousand dollars in June or if I'm in the fall I'll take the thousand dollars at Christmas time and for that it ends up being fifteen dollars a day it's just calculated in a different way in a unique way that's a very small population of people because so we're we're you know in that loyalty we're ignoring a great a number of people who may want to still come here but won't go come here for the for the lesson I'm leaning kind of the same way I think okay I'm just gonna throw this out here okay and we you can tell me now but what what if we did option two but it was ten dollars more but then option three is fifteen so you're you're you

078have more people like maybe you can fill those on Mondays and Fridays which I'm thinking are harder days but I could be wrong does that make sense to me do you so if someone calls me up from Combs and says I want you to sub on Thursday I'll say no but I'll come in on Friday right [Laughter] I don't know and I think if you're paying different rates it makes it harder for for payroll to to do that and right we've got a lot of headshots could know it from my experience with that so I think we got to make it consistent if we're going to do anything that's again like [Laughter] um so if I if I had to pick one I guess I I don't think I should go for two I I

079would not I would not do one and two I would just do I would just pick one of them no one of them one of them so it would not pick two I would increase and loyalty I would not like you like more of the increase if I have to pick one yes and would the increase actually create a loyalty if we were able to put it at a more competitive possibly possibly not I mean we've seen for two years even when we are more mid-range before we didn't see it at a vast increase in in substitute so so the issue that runs for us quite frankly and it's the same issue that runs in several districts you were on the Outer Edge people don't drive east they Drive West and so therefore the idea

080that if I lit and the further west I live the less the chance I'm going to drive east and so I don't know that this is going to change the number of the subs we have because you have a pool of Subs in the in the in the district a few may stay so what's the trade-off between loyalty versus this I don't know do we automatically assume that we will get a whole bunch more of that well dang they're paying 15 or more I'm gonna drive uh East to take the job I'm going to say no um and so if you have a pool of someone who's thinking to be a sub in this area that might entice them to be a sub if we have some that that are currently working for us they

081may not drive down the street but again it's very easy to drive West it's not as easy to drive east because everything I need is down into the West if I'm going into QC to get some some groceries or something if I'm dropping my kid off I mean there's lots of reasons why I go in that direction so I don't know traffic's not as bad if you're going against it about three people in my community who had been or and still are Subs here at Combs and out of the three one stop being sub altogether just because she said no matter what you were paying it wasn't worth it another one said I'm going to go wherever they're going to pay me the most and the third one said I'm loyal to Combs because I've

082got a good relationship there and I'm going to keep coming back so it's the one in the two percent of them yeah that we need to we need so we need to entice people to want to come here and I so I think you do that multiple ways not just one way so you're basing this Budget on filling all of our subs sub positions is that what you're doing no this is based on a conservative estimate this is based on if we keep our fill rate at what our fill rate was this year the way I did this was we looked at the numbers uh working with Charmaine we had about 2 300 different positions if we divide that by the seven months then times it by the 10 at a 50 fill rate this

083is what you get so that's I did caution you it's fifty thousand dollars next year if we fill at the same fill rate if our fill rate is greater if we because everybody says oh my God you're getting 15 more and all of a sudden our fill rate goes to 75 percent instead of 50 percent that fifty thousand dollar hit just became a 75 000 hit and so we won't know what that is until we get into the mix of what happens next year but we can just look at this year's data and say this is what we saw and it's a it's a a math calculation that is not tight tight tight that's why I told you guys in here this is a conservative estimate because I have no we saw a much better

084fill rate in January for some reason than we had in the previous months I haven't had a chance to look at February to know what that fill rate was like and so we may have gotten a higher fill rate and then also why are we at a higher fill rate for two months when we weren't in the fall it could be a thousand Reasons could be a couple three people showed up more uh from summer or from where they were vacationing and decided in the winter they wanted to work jobs uh could be we got two or three people that decided they wanted to start subbing and their subs that are we're using a lot there's just a lot of unknowns out there so I guess here's here's some philosophy I guess maybe it's so

085if we have an empty classroom there's no nobody to teach and we need a sub in there if there's no Sub in there that means teachers administrators somebody is filling that position so it would behoove them if we did raise the rate I guess because then at least I would take some pressure off the rest of the staff assuming assuming that somebody comes because the rate went up if they're ready then we didn't pay him anything right right but but I'm just saying if the fill rate stays at 50 for the rest of the year then whether we pay we pay the people that are with us I mean we're going to trade the loyalty bonus to be totally honest if nobody joins us and we pay 15 a day more the amount of money

086they make on the rest of the year is probably about to give or take the same as what they would in the stipend and but it doesn't change the problem for the principals or the school because we haven't attracted anybody else so within this whole mix you may at the end of the day spend the same amount of money the difference is an option two you're committing dollars for next year's budget based on a conservative estimate of of a 50 fill rate um question just for my own experience does do each of the campuses have like utility Subs that are on site their actual employees that can be used as a sub at any time that's needed uh my I'll if I'm wrong campuses do that right we have not gone to where we're going

087to say this Subs there what we have is we have people so for example pair Pros that may have a sub that don't want to teach but have a sub or that have a teaching certificate that can be a sub and so we end up relying on them and using them and putting them in the classrooms do we have someone identity no we don't have someone identified that said hey you're going to go do this campus you're going to do that campus you're going to do that campus Because if there are permanent staff on that campus they can always be used for as parent professionals also as would that save quite a bit of money if that if they're kind of a dual role type of thing it depends on the I'd have to look

088at it we looked at that last year as part of our budget negotiations but when the dollars came down and the discussion became what's more important the salary issue became more important therefore that option was slid off the table as we went ahead and said we're going to go ahead and and try to increase our base salary up to 50 000 to be more competitive and and do the experience indicator and do the the welcome to Combs stipend and therefore that got pushed off it may or may not that's the same as any budget is you tell me what the priorities are they change from year to year depending on how much you have so that that may that could be a possible option this year in raise I don't know if that makes a

089difference or not I think right someone that's in the culture understands the culture and the kids it needs them to come into just about any classroom right and immediately be such a I would say and again the principals may have a different view but I would say just based on my experience what we're seeing relative to absences and Etc um are not decreasing so and the amount that you're having on a given day that will help out minuscule because there's too many other subs or too many other absences that day and then what do we do in that situation especially when you look at a Monday Friday repair Pro would never be in there the parapo would never be doing the parapro position but they'd always be subbing right and we have a little bit

090of that right now we have people as the campus I mean I've just seen where they have the I just think that we have so many different ways yeah so okay so back to where we're at I feel like with number with option two if you were talking about Bob's three people that that lived in his neighborhood um with an option two it's gonna maybe bring back the one that wants more money plus it's gonna also reward the one that's loyal so I kind of like that one even though it's not like a big chunk at the end there's you know it's the same about the same amount right can I make a motion and then we can vote on it and would that be okay do you have do you have any uh I

091could probably talk about all night I know I'm like an option option two I mean the the increase I think that's possibly quickest fix and it kind of takes care of some of the loyalty okay because if we don't increase the pay we're not going to get more subs I agree I think it's that simple I think we need to acknowledge that's going to happen I think well I'm gonna stick my neck out here I move that we accept both options one and two is there a second all right okay I don't know enough about it yet yeah me too you know I I I like the idea so so just from a protocol standpoint uh if there's a second that that means nothing it just means the discussion continues at the end of the

092day when you call for a vote so there may be another 10-minute discussion on whether Bob's if someone seconds it there may be a 10-minute discussion and then based on that you may vote yeah if you don't okay I'll second it I'll second it okay now we can discuss it go ahead book well you do you understand you understand the budget so much better than I do so do you foresee a problem next year if we do this um I think Greg's points are valid that money will be taken away but I also see that we have this carryover and when I'm looking at why do we keep having a carryover if we're not willing to use it in a time of Crisis that I view this as a time of Crisis so yeah I'm

093willing to do that but we also have right now we need subs that's it we do so six years coming but we have something happening right now we have kids that are in classrooms that don't have they're not covered I mean I know we have someone in there but so also just for clarity because we have a full day meeting with the leadership team on Monday when you say the contingencies so are you looking at us to carry a one percent or a two percent contingency we're looking at a half a million are we looking at five hundred thousand are we looking at 250 um and I only ask that because as we move forward this this becomes important right because the conversation has generally been we want to keep a million dollars right so

094if you please as we have this conversation any direction that you can give us will be helpful as we talk about it at at uh at our as we start to build a budget so so if if for example we've been having a million which is what I recall about a million carryover and this is going to hit us let's say 50 000 for one option and another 50 for another so 100 000 then our Target carryover is nine hundred thousand that would be my Approach okay all right well let's let's go ahead and vote on Bob's um motion so all in favor aye all opposed aye so motion carries all right options two options so so that we're very clear though with us going into uh spring break what would occur is that the

095dollar amount will actually take place beginning on the 21st yes of March just just that way we have a chance to do what we need exactly otherwise it'd be crazy trying to implement it tomorrow right yeah okay motion carries three to one okay effective March effective uh March first is that something one of our principles to start telling their subs we we will announce something okay we will get something out getting a word out okay so um then we have uh 8.6 discussion and discussion and consideration of approval IGA between Pinal County and J.O comes Unified School District for a radio communication system this came to me just actually um yesterday um and so our attorneys uh appreciate their turnaround was real quick they reviewed it and they said it's it's fine as it as

096it is what it ends up being is uh Pinal County is gonna um go ahead and set up a radio Communication System across the entire County uh this is an IGA that we would go in with the county and and specifically the education um Lea for the county SCA for the county and they're going to every single District in the county saying hey if we go into this agreement uh we'll go ahead and put Towers on sites in your campuses the small districts it's just going to be one site for the large larger districts our case I think they're looking at putting a tower here on this site and then down at CTA and they will basically have a wide area network that covers the entire County that will take care of the potential issue

097of connectivity in underserved areas that may not have connectivity if you're in your buses obviously for ours where you don't have as long a rides but if some of the other school districts you might have a 40-minute ride on the bus if you're in the county you would have access so you could theoretically do your homework while you're on the bus so that's the concept is to make a wide area network for the entire County that would help underserved families and communities as well as take care of those issues is where someone might be on a longer bus ride and they they were technically there's another grant that we worked on that puts cradles in the buses that allow for the kids to go ahead and access it so it's a combination of the two

098it's really not a whole lot on our end in terms of the counties the ones that are setting up the uh uh the towers however they're working that we just get an agreement that allows them to do it and like I said our attorneys have reviewed it they don't have any problems with it that's not a cost to us that's just no it's it's it's more it's right right it's more of a benefit it's more of a benefit to us hmm looks good all right I'll have take a motion I moved to approve the IGA between Pinal County and the J.L Combs Unified School District for radio communication system as presented oh second what all right all in favor aye aye motion carries four to zero so we do not have any discussion information items

099um so anything would you have anything that you would like to request to be on future agendas yes I do okay um I was looking back over the last couple of agendas uh superintendent reports and all the great things our kids are doing and yet nobody in my community knows anything about him in my name and I don't know that people in our General District know about all the great stuff that our kids are doing whether it be banned competitions in in Statewide or national events whether it be swimming or or um shooting that you were talking about so and I drive by Ala and I see all their banners out front talking about the great programs they have and the great things going on and how do we compete with that and so I'm

100thinking and maybe Kayla if I could give you an assignment how do we get the word out about the great things our kids are doing our teachers are doing our principals are doing get the word out to our community to our district so we can compete with all the signs that people see because they don't drive by and see signs in front of our schools and they don't even know what's going on in our schools and we've got to get more public and more aggressive with our marketing plan to get the word out so I'd like to see something along those lines if you could work on that and present something to us in the future okay any um did you say you had something I had a thought I guess but that comes upwards

101um doctor I've even mentioned something about it was something that was lightening the load for the teachers and I know I brought this up before um and I sometimes feel like uh people that step out of the classroom into administration at times and in the district they forget what it's like to be in a classroom teacher they start all these different initiatives it puts more work on the teachers and as the teachers are feeling the crunch they don't seem to see themselves being recognized they're looking for other places to go would want you to put in the back your mind what are we doing to lighten the load of our teachers just think just what are we doing without saying oh I know what it was like to be a teacher no you don't you're

102not in the classroom we're not in the classroom we don't know don't tell me your mom was a a teacher that you're no you're not there I feel like people forget what it's like to be a teacher they're so passionate what are we doing well I'm a teacher I'm a teacher right now and it is a weight on your shoulders yes and about every other day you're like why am I doing this job it's because I love these kids but something is pulling these teachers away and I know other districts are struggling but what are we doing what are we doing or how how what can we do that something that's got where there's got to be something we've got great people in this room to say what are we doing to help these people

103so often I feel like and this is just part of my thought as I see things happen I feel like there's a bunch of adults trying to impress adults and we really don't do what's good for kids I put the teacher in a situation we have to spend five hours of their weekend time doing lesson plans so what do you want do you want that to be on the agenda I I said my own ideas I get it yeah teacher myself I'm still in the classroom right busting my tail with third graders I'll tell you right now busting my toe with third graders they're fun and as much as I love these kids man yeah I'm feeling that weight so I totally get what you're saying and I I think I even that was one

104of my questions for each of those principles um when I went to talk to them so um I think maybe that's a discussion that we can have with Dr Wyman um like do do you would you rather discuss this like maybe individually or would you like us to have this in a meeting not an agenda item or for our Retreat a retreat can we do that at the retreat okay I do have to put in a plug the paper thing I think is awesome my daughter came to me last night and she's like I'm chatting with someone on paper helping me with my math and I'm like that's great yeah because you know I think more the more they use it I think the more people Yeah the more one person use it maybe another

105one will use it yeah um but no I mean I underst I totally understand where you're coming from Jason and I had those same exact questions and um and I think that there might be I there might be some room I don't know but let's see yeah our teachers aren't necessarily telling the district or their or their supervisors or their principals why they're really leaving oh no I think they are I I don't know if they will I do think they are I don't know but I mean maybe they are but because I mean some administrators are clueless to what these people are leading leaving their schools and and if it's becoming other school I mean Dr Miami you sent out that paper looking at the the hiring shortages in different places like is there

106anything we can do we've got some solid people in this room is there any any ideas we could possibly look at this this is something we could do well I'll I'll I'll bring you celebrations of what we're doing um uh when we start talking about when I got here three years ago and I think we have to be very careful because this is this could go in a lot of different directions and I'll I'll I won't get on my soapbox purposefully about where how we're bashing the hell out of Administrators and teachers and education people in general in this country and that's what's driving this if you sit and smash people for 35 38 years that I've been doing this and you ask them why the hell won't they be in a minister or be

107a teacher an educator an administrator it's because you bash them for the better part of 35 years right 40 years so we have to keep that in mind but our starting salary the year I got here was thirty nine thousand dollars our starting salary right now was fifty thousand dollars we've given stipends we've tried to hire people and so I think that the piece that people understand is is at the end of the day when you take covert with and you take the political environment that's out there right now that's absolutely hammering people it becomes something that we don't have control over when you sit and look at the disrespect and the lack of respect and the fact that on a regular basis educators are called pedophiles they're called groomers they have caught they're called

108all of that and then right and right and so then why would I want to take and keep the job but that doesn't mean we're not working to go ahead and make a difference in light and loads but at the same time we're going to sit here and say let's lighten the load let's do this but tell me what happens if at the end of the day our test scores and I'm not saying the test scores the end-all be-all but we know they are the end-all be-all for lots of people and when our test scores don't come in why didn't the test scores come in so now we're now we're asking for something on both ends of the spectrum and it creates a heck of a problem when we talk on both ends of the

109spectrum on what you're supposed to do no different discussion about the budget is is what there's limited resource and in this community and I'll just say the community I'll be very careful but the community of across the county line from north to south that doesn't want to be competitive relative to an override puts us at a significant disadvantage to go ahead and do stuff and so if I am not getting more money and I'm required to do the same amount of work as down the street can I tell you how many different individuals we lose from every single position we're eight bus drivers short we have food service people we can't fill we have technology people that can go across down the street for eight bucks an hour more we have teachers we have administrators

110we have just about anybody that can go down the street for more but if we're not going to do an override which I'm going back to my days in AJ so that's in 2006 when they failed the last override there we're talking close to 14 20 years that they're not giving overrides well everybody wants to assist not only are they giving overrides of 10 percent of giving overrides of 15 well I don't know so Queen Creek did not pass his his bond right right but how many overrides they got an override they're sitting there sitting on a 15 override I'm talking about a bond I'm talking about an override and I know but when is that one up because I don't know that I mean I'm okay I think that Jason is saying that hey

111we last year we put a lot of new um programs in place not because we wanted to it was almost because we had no choice and and I get that right no not to say because a lot of our um things were coming up they weren't being supported all that kind of stuff so we put a lot like our systems that all of our our everybody across the campus had to to learn and then we have um modern teacher too which I don't think that our I think our teachers are on board but I think that they need some time so if if we can't give them a raise or like they do like in the other districts can we give them a little bit of time like if that's all they're asking for and

112I'm not saying that is but if that's if that would help can we do that like give them some time in their classroom to actually put what they learn like to to use I'm just saying if that's if that's all let's give it well we know that with the PD here on the 20th we're blocking out time for them to go ahead and work to to apply what they're learning right so five minutes right the all afternoon is what I'm understanding 75 minutes yeah I'm just saying from a teacher's standpoint that's I don't know PD that's just more work to me yeah so that's just more I'm just saying like they I think that they I mean what I'm hearing is they absolutely love the PD and they think it's great and but they're just

113I think they're asking for some time to do it in their classrooms and to learn and like figure out how to put it in to put it to work and if they can do that and maybe we can relieve some of that stress a little bit I I say give them it like I don't know how do we how do we get the time I don't know but I mean if that's one way but you can do it I don't know if there's let's let's think outside of the box too on that one like how can we just decrease some of that stuff for like let's bring down the frustration and I'm talking across the board I know that if there's just as much situation in in in in the district office as there is

114at all the sites in in facilities I mean we got all kinds of uh stuff going on with our bus drivers and our um custodians right like they're working hard so I'm just saying like there's frustration everywhere so if we can bring down some of the stress in some places let's do it that's just that's what and this is now we're totally off topic of what future agenda items so is there any more dang agenda items that you want all right so you know what I'm going to um I'm gonna make a motion to adjourn okay at 7 33. I second oh Jason's gonna do it because he's coming in hot right now all right all right all in favor aye aye okay motion carries four to zero what time seven thirty three okay [Music]

115I think you're right I like that do we have stuff to sign okay right here