001my virus protection is out of date i have a little message down it mine hasn't changed okay i'm going to make a motion to i'm going to call this meeting to order psych um i need a motion to adopt the agenda i move to adopt today uh tonight's agenda second all in favor aye aye do we have chad aye straight motion carries five to zero we'll go ahead and do the [Music] one pledge under god indivisible with liberty and justice all right so we need to um any questions on the meeting minutes all right i'll need a motion i move to approve the minutes for the march 2nd 2022 regular board meeting second all in favor aye aye hi motion carries um so then we need the other board in a minute so i'll move
002to approve the board meeting from the sp or the minutes from the special board meeting on march 30th of 2022. a second all in favor aye aye aye she can't explain to you okay she's not really voting we have our other board member online so she's telling me what he's saying um okay uh we have current events so our uh superintendent uh report okay thank you man present a couple different things first and foremost and we'll get something out on this i just wanted to make you aware that congress recently released the what's called the omnibus appropriations bill and it did not include language to expand the pandemic child nutrition waivers for school meals and so what that meant is in the for the past year and a half two years we've had all children
003who who wanted it wasn't based on uh free and reduced lunch counts being less if you're free if you're a student that qualifies for free or reduced you get less so what it means is beginning in july the district will have to go back to the traditional meals and those kids that do not qualify would pay full amount and then the other should pay lesser amounts and we're reviewing the pricing structure of the meals right now it's been a couple years obviously with inflation and some issues related to commodities it may result in a request for higher priced meals we'll be bringing that to you guys in may or june we'll also make sure we get out of communication to the to the families as we get closer probably in june and july as we
004get closer to the start of the year this is an issue that's affecting um school districts across the country it's not unique to us there was something in the arizona republic asking about this concerning and asking if parents had any thoughts or comments on that so uh it is a bit of a change some of what's happened last couple years so we just want to get out in front and let people be aware of that in terms of our student enrollment uh following the same patterns we follow all year long we're still up the numbers have decreased a little bit only because last year at this time coming out of spring break we started to get more and more kids back in person or coming back to the district who may have left the district
005so there's a slight decrease but overall our pattern is is pretty much the way it's been throughout the entire year nothing out of the ordinary there then we have it's that time of year with lots of things that are going on so there's any number of recognitions that i want to make you aware of the rise program at harman was notified this past week that the east valley council for exceptional children's cec had selected the program for the outstanding collaborative team there was a little presentation made to them uh the team the team which is made up of teachers paraprofessionals and related service providers will re receive their formal award uh on april 25th so again just a a good program for a lot of kids and a lot of people working real hard to
006make a difference you may be aware of the 80 teacher thousand dollar mini grants that were announced over um spring break by superintendent hoffman at arizona department of ed and that program was distributing 14 million dollars in funding across the state to teachers that applied for a variety of different uh stuff that they could use for their classrooms in the consent agenda there is a list of all that will receive but just a very high level we had 54 teachers receive grants that totaled forty six thousand nine hundred twenty four dollars and eighty eighty three cents and there's any number of different things there was library uh books there was uh materials for classrooms there was uh some seating uh there was computer there was a printer so just a lot of different things that
007were used uh by teachers that was it was a very popular program and and ad went through the 14 million dollars in in approximately three weeks and that was for again teachers from around the state so our teachers were able to get it i believe every single school received something uh uh very in schools uh got more than others because their individuals put in for uh for the for the stuff um it was a little bit more difficult for some of us just because we were on the two weeks of spring break when it was announced and so it was announced in the middle of the first week so other districts were in school and they may have jumped on a book quicker than we did we also want to recognize four students at simonton
008elementary uh they recently took place in a contest by the daughters of the american revolution and the contest was to create a banner by about the tomb of the unknown soldier and the students michaela bowell alisa garcia nixon heller and liliana mcallister uh they're all in renee ames class and they won uh not only the southwest division but they also took the national level and so we will get some more information out on that we've released uh it already and and we want to get the banner and take a look at the banner i believe they're going to get some recognition in may uh and and we will try to make sure we get pictures there but again our kids competing not only at the local state but also at the national level uh our
009rush dance company up at uh the high school uh had a great deal of success the tail end of march at the inferno dance competition uh their pieces were awarded uh uh overdrive was choreographed by lissa bortano uh they got the platinum award like real people do corey up by ariana mondrick uh platinum award showcase performance and recognition and the workout uh was choreographed by adriana garcia gonzalez platinum ward first place in the category and entered into an online art artistry award contest and recognized for uh artistic merit they've just been doing a super super job this year and i know that that high school is very proud of all the work that they have done and the amount of work they they did to get this recognition this is the second or the third
010time they've been recognized for success in dance competitions uh probably most successful year in quite a while uh we'll let you know we did hold the prom uh this past saturday i see miss dr nelson back there and he is recovered um he's awake so we appreciate that kids did a great job we had i believe it was 374 kids show up so that's always good to see that many uh show up and that's probably an increase of probably about 100 compared to what we normally do so very very successful evening i am not sure if they were going to come and they didn't get the name so they're going to have to do something for me but is the student council here members of student council okay that is fine but we did if
011they were here we're going to have them stand up and introduce themselves because they were recently earned a top national award um from the national student council for exemplary record of leadership service and activities that served to improve the school and the community they were awarded the 2022 national gold council of excellence by national by the national student council program receiving the national gold council excellence award shows the most dedication schools students leaders and staff have made to make their community a better place at nassp ceo ron nozzo the combs high school has gone above and beyond an elevating student voice to ensure that they are establishing a positive climate and culture as well as fostering academic and social group growth for all and dr nelson is there as their advisor and indicated that they
012had set that goal several years back cobit kind of messed that up a little bit and so they had to rework and commit themselves but they've been able to show leadership and go ahead and create an environment that is so positive for our school they would be the ones that helped to run the prom and so again i can't stress enough that our kids are achieving at the local level at the state level and at the national level and getting recognized and it is in in large degree due to our staff like dr nelson and working with the kids to make sure they're excelling we have i'm not going to go through all of the awards because there's several pages but we had the most of our cte programs uh have what's called ctso programs
013where they go ahead and do competitions for the program that they're in and they're in that stage where they go to state and potentially nationals nationals if they qualify generally are held in the summer and so they will go there but ffcla which is involved with teaching we had kaylee kampa earn a gold medal sierra barnum mitz earned a gold medal zohan davis earned a gold medal sierra and zoe had qualified to represent combs at san diego this summer and then even more impressive was zohad was elected as a state fcla officer so she's one of eight that served the state and they represent over three thousand ffc fccla students in the state again it's a leadership skill and it's back to competing at the national level the state level uh and the local level
014so they did great business management fbla they had fourth place in business calculations aiden lewis uh fifth place in business law annabelle chapman fourth place uh giselle lewis in parliamentary procedures um and then uh they had several students that qualify for nationals that will take place in chicago aidan lewis trinity lucas annabelle chapman xavier pelham tristan pelham bradley lanier and diana valdez so again you're taking a half dozen kids that are going to nationals in chicago that will represent us extremely well there at a journalism conference again success quentin kelton kendall earned excellence in sports action photography tony elrod earned honorable mention for news package editing and madison lamb this is impressive uh became the first three-time national award winner in our program's history having already earned awards and sports action in sports feature photography
015madison wanted to compete in photo journalism uh portfolio category which is a more challenging one and sharing an honorable mention for this entry the arizona interscholastic press association i'm not going to read those because i believe i re read them at a previous board meeting but again you're starting to see digital communication do well our ffa program got a silver ranking for for the national chapter of ffa stagecraft i read this a couple weeks ago or a month ago they also are excelling at their at their level and it's just again testimony to it doesn't matter whether it's elementary middle school high school we go ahead and recognize kids and teachers every single month and it's because they're showing success and so uh it is something proud of as a district a couple upcoming events
016i know i know i did not realize this even though i set the calendar i just kept wondering why my friday was so open and that would be because we have spring holiday and there's no school so i have a pretty open friday right now which is nice and then on next the next board meeting is on the 11th of may and that will be where we'll recognize staff excellence and teacher appreciation so there will be and our retirees so there'll be a a fairly large group of recognitions at that board meeting today next week which is why we do the next part which is we're going to recognize a number of different employee groups every month we try to take a look at those employee groups that have been recognized throughout the month either
017previously or the upcoming month with a national day or national week or national month and so we just try to take some representative individuals from the different groups and just take a moment to say thank you um as we bring these groups up and we have several this this uh month again this is just recognition of of the outstanding job that the staff does every single day to make sure that our kids get the best education every single day so want to call up and if you'll come up we'll give you a certificate and and uh speak a little bit but we have some the pair pros on wednesday april 6th was national parapro appreciation day so that's why we're calling them up so from with a high school we had a number that could
018not make it because there's a unified which is a special education basketball game i believe it was and so they are that competition watching and supporting their kids but from the middle school we have deborah lynn duncan who works in our resource and if she's here she can come up i'm not sure who's all here we have jenny ortiz from the middle school who's also in resource if she could come up at cta we have cheryl tapia who works in the sped department at ellsworth we have cheryl campton from leap and the leap program and mckenna carnes from the leap program at harmon we have erica bejarano from the rise program and becky murphy from the rise program that would be the individuals who helped get the award from the east valley group at ranch
019we have vitza brown uh manrique in resource and gender uh jenny swanky at early young coyotes and from simonton we have kathy kelly our resource para before they leave i do want to read something as i said wednesday the 6th of april was parapro pre appreciation day a national day to celebrate our parapros and highlight the contributions of paraprofessionals to their students and schools these individuals work it's not quite sure how this program came about but they think maybe the missouri governor did it but they perform teacher-related tasks and often assist teachers in the groups or individually they may work with students on enrichment activities in small groups or individually they can also help students complete assignments or practice reading they often work students with special needs and a variety of disabilities they can also
020supervise students outside the classroom and help teachers with clerical work the requirements for becoming a para professional very from state to state but needless to say these individuals work with our kids who have highest need every single day and work with them daily and just do an absolutely phenomenal job with them and help our teachers and so we can't thank them enough for everything they do so thank you so very much we also have another group there's only a couple of them here we only have two or three in the district and i know one of them was out sick but if i could have mr sheldon and mr hill come up um the week of the fourth through the eighth which was last week is national assistant principals week and the assistant principals they
021get to do all the work that the principal doesn't want to do it's called delegation it's a skill and so they do do they do they make such a difference for our high school campus they're connected with uh school management or student activities or athletics they're involved in personnel and curricular instruction and so they just do pretty much all of the duties as assigned and they do it very quietly without a whole lot of notice in many cases but i will tell you the one group that notices the system principles as much as anybody and that would be the students because they interface with the students on a daily basis and so the students know who these gentlemen are and they are they end up making a difference in the lives of our students every
022single day so thank you gentlemen for everything you do they're lucky enough to see me all the time too [Laughter] we also have on the on april 4th of each year is national school librarian day i think we only have one here but is wendy blackfeather here that can come up we can give her a reward they spend hours and hours keeping the library organized they provide guidance and exposure are used to not only text print but print media and literature but digital resources and technology very much a different prospect than maybe once some of us were in school and what a traditional library would do they connect with libraries around the world because we can do that through technology their ability to manage the scores of the media and the school full of students
023with numerous projects and schedules again it's just a way for them to make a difference they vary whether you're at the elementary the middle of the high school but when you go in the library it's a hub in the center of most of our schools and they make a tremendous difference so thank you very much for all you do now we get a group of people that although the title does not suggest it we know they run the school so we wanted to take an opportunity because uh uh and on april 27th is national administrative professionals days so we've asked the administrative assistants at our schools to come and and if you've worked in a school system that's who you go to find out anything i know everybody thinks it's a principal but actually you
024start with administrative assistant they tell you exactly what's going on and then they direct it to the principal so if we could have martha mora from harman come on up again i don't know if they're all here debbie mertens from ranch elementary debbie mertens from ranch lisa mcdonald of the district office priscilla amanza from the district office angelique flores from the middle school shauna strago from cta resha evans from the high school kimberly kelly from the high school and jill miller from the high school and again we could go on and i could give read you what's in the in the presentation but truly they are the right hand uh of the administrators and the principles and they do such a an amazing job every single day many of these individuals if your parents you're
025going to run into them every day as you come in and bring your kids to school teachers they know exactly who they need to go to to get the help they need and it's again many times this kind of position is an unsung position but we could not operate our schools without them and whether you come in or you call they're the individuals that you're more likely going to talk to you they do an amazing job so we just want to thank you very much for what you do and then the last group we want to recognize we do not start school every single day without this group of people um uh back in 2009 california recognized april 26 as national school bus driver day versus as opposed to bus driver day so we want
026to take an opportunity to recognize people from transportation we'll do it twice today for a variety of different reasons but if i could get adriana harales to come on up alan bingham jack lolly john quinn walt bradshaw these are our bus drivers we also asked the mechanics peter alexander and jorge arou aravalo to come on up and again just want to take a moment to there the children of our district are entrusted to them every single day twice a day they get on a bus and they drive these kids around and a bus is really just a moving classroom i in a previous life i drove for ups and i can tell you when you get on the road there are some days that are amazing and then there are some days that you just
027hope to survive and to have 50 or 60 kids behind you as you're doing that and to do it safe safely to know the number of kids in america today that ride a bus every single day yet the number of accidents is minuscule and it's because they're trained they're professionals and they do an absolute amazing job and so we just wanted to take a moment to thank them in in advance a national school bus driver day thank you for everything you do and now we're into school recognition that's not really school this month it is our transportation and maintenance department so i'll ask mr anderson to come on up thank you dr wyman madam president members of the board um i would like to recognize um first um mr bill adolf is bill here today
028he didn't show up but i'd like to at least talk about him bill adolf started with the district in 2003 as the lead custodian has worked his way up to maintenance district maintenance technician in the short time that i've had the opportunity to work with bill he's shown the dedication and excellence in providing the best service to our schools this past year has been very difficult with all the vacant positions and absences bill has stepped up to do whatever is necessary to sub for these positions and to provide the necessary support to the sites and i will make sure that he gets his award the second person that i'd like to recognize uh it is my honor and joan could you come up here yeah she didn't know this so good job joan uh joan
029i'm going to slaughter your last name janeagle for outstanding service to our district jonas started with the district in 1995 she was only 12 then as a bus driver and has worked her way up to the transportation supervisor she is well respected not only in our district but the surrounding districts joan is always there to provide whatever support is needed the district is truly blessed to have somebody with her caliber running the transportation department you can tell by your staff that they love to work with her as a leader i am proud to be that she is a part of the support services division and i'd like to present the apple award to you thank you [Applause] joan you're not done you need to present yours [Laughter] so good evening everybody thank you for be
030let me be here and um make this resignation um the resignation is going to go to mr jay galentine um he recipients the cream of the crop in our transportation department his dedication to safety his students and his peers is outstanding he is reliable dependable positive and very professional jay is always willing to help when needed we all know when we had the cdc guidelines we had to spray our buses every morning and every afternoon jay galentine was offering to come way early in the morning before even the buses go out at six o'clock so he was here at four o'clock in the morning to spray down all the buses to make sure that they were ready to go out he helps with the mail run helps in the warehouse takes buses to the missions
031on a yearly basis she goes above and beyond thank you jay yeah missions is not fine coming up here we have student of the month madam president board members online and in person and dr wyman once again thank you for allowing me to be here this evening to do the students of the month my best part of my day every day first i'd like to have anthony maron come up from combs center for success we will celebrate anthony at another date could i have ariel gallon come up from the high school we will celebrate ariel at another date could i have peyton hoover come up from combs middle school all right peyton way to represent there you go there you go there you go there you go peyton is a really sweet and respectful young
032lady she always does her her work quickly and efficiently and she is a a model student that was from mrs baldanagro payton is a type of student a teacher feels more than comfortable asking to help another student i ever listed as a student that the substitute can ask for any clarifying questions if they were in need i know her work ethic both in school and after school activities require her to be hard working and a trustworthy person she's more than deserving of this award and we are proud of her and honored to be her teacher and that was from mr contreras congratulations peyton [Applause] could i have a adelia ochoa come up from chrome's traditional academy there she is [Applause] adelia is a model student and displays many character traits important to be successful she's
033kind and respectful with everyone i've seen her in contact with and maintains a great attitude while learning new things what this teacher loves the most is that she's happy to talk at any time with other students i can count on adelia to always be doing the right thing even if i have my back turned to to other students tending to their needs she's a gentle leader in the classroom and deserves to be cta's student of the month that was by mr winters congratulations adalia could i have london jones come up from ellsworth ready this is london london was nominated by mrs eckoff mrs zekkov said that i feel so blessed to have london as part of our classroom community this year she always has such a positive attitude london is helpful to others in the
034classroom and the teacher can always count on london to help new students find their way around i also can trust her to be honest and helpful when we have a guest teacher or when she when we're in specials london is such a wonderful and responsible young lady i cannot wait to see what she will be like when she moves on to second grade congratulations london [Applause] could i have evangeline garcia come up from harman [Applause] harman's student of the month for the character trait of trustworthiness is miss garcia she exemplifies the trait by constantly demonstrating that she will make the best choices possible in a variety of situations she's consistent in being prepared to learn putting her best foot forward and turning in her work completed and on time additionally she's a good friend to
035others and is always willing to lend a helping hand it has been our pleasure to have her in class this year and we know she will be successful as she continues into middle school and beyond that was from mrs christensen congratulations miss garcia could i have cash newman come up from ranch [Applause] this is cash cash is a trusted friend to all whether his peers need help with their tasks or a friend to play with cash is ready to respond with a i can be their buddy even a year and a half ago when cash attended the program at three years old he already had the sensitivity for special needs children and could be trusted to be their friend and still contr continues to exhibit these qualities today congratulations cash [Applause] could i have sawyer
036minochitch come up from symington sawyer was nominated by mrs lewis katie lewis i've been sawyer's teacher in the eyc preschool program for the past two years and during this time i've watched her grow and work really hard to reach her full potential sawyer has even graduated out of the eyc program to be a peer student in the class she's a role model for all the other students in the classroom daily sawyer is honest kind dependable and considerate to all around her she's patient with others and gently guides her friends to appropriate choices she can advocate for herself and has even demonstrated to her friends how they can regulate their behaviors by teaching them to take deep breaths when they are upset sawyer encourages her friends to be the best and praises them when they do
037when whenever they do great things congratulations to sawyer thank you we're going to go ahead and give you time to take pictures if you want my congratulations all right come with me sure it's very nice yes okay you're stuck up okay we're gonna go ahead and continue all right do i have any um anything from the board members that they would like to share perfect um public comments so we have some today do i have any others than just these three okay so dr wyman and his and being for trying to keep us out of trouble i'm going to read this novel that he wrote so here we go [Laughter] the board invites the point of views of citizens throughout the district and considers the responsible responsible presentations of these viewpoints vital to the to
038the efficient operation of the district the board also recognizes its responsibility for the proper governance of the school and therefore the need to conduct the business in an orderly and efficient manner the board therefore establishes the following procedures to receive input from the citizens of the district the first one you need to complete the form good job you did that so the second one the board the board president shall be responsible for recognizing speakers maintaining proper order and adhering to the three-minute time limit which bob so nicely does uh questions re requiring investigation shall be referred to the superintendent or the district administration for a later report back to the board questions or comments on matters that are currently under legal review will not receive a response we are also unable to comment as a
039board on anything brought to us that is not on our agenda so we will not be giving you a response but rest assured that we are listening and we'll follow up with administration um personal attacks upon board members please don't staff personnel or other persons in attendance are absent by individuals who address the bore or just are discouraged policies k e k e b k e c k e d are provided by the board for uh disposition disposition and legitimate complaints including those involving individuals upon conclusion of all of the open call to public individual members of the board may respond to any criticism made by an individual who has addressed the board the board is aware that there are many issues in our country that are polarized and are highly emotional for people the
040board also recognizes that many of these issues can create a great deal of disagreement the expectation of the governing board in the district is that everyone treats one another with respect and that the speaker pre presents their point of view in a civil manner speakers are expected to adhere to these expectation or the call of public portion of the agenda may be halted okay so our first one is oh dear um is it jackie okay sure all right you can come on up we're gonna go ahead and start your three minutes okay and i'll let you he'll let us know when your three minutes are up okay i'll try to talk fast okay okay children in foster care are disrupted bounced from home to home mostly due to disabilities behaviors and parents not feeling supported
041managing those disabilities and behaviors forty percent of school-aged children in foster care have educational difficulties less than three percent graduate nationwide and only about half of the youth raised in foster care end up finishing high school i am a foster mom soon to be an adoptive mom and my son has both disabilities and behaviors and he has been disrupted and bounced already in the foster system and i am determined not to make my son another statistical disruption in the foster system not only having a child come to my home who has experienced extreme neglect who has yet again moved foster homes with post discharge from a mental hospital i'm very determined to navigate any public system to get my son the supports he needs from the beginning in october 2020 i was notified ranch elementary
042of the child who had just entered my home having been recently discharged from the hospital that he would need evaluations maybe a five a four to start off after much red tape 45 day screeners continual meltdowns on april 24th i reached out to rancho elementary in writing requesting evaluations i was again quickly dismissed by my son's needs after no response nor prior written notices i filed a state complaint it wasn't until then that i was made aware that i as a foster parent did not have educational rights and that my state complaint wouldn't be taken into consideration however out of good faith appearances the school agrees to hold a red meeting where my concerns were quickly dismissed i was told my son's behaviors were an isolated incident and i felt like i was in a
043judge and jury my word and evidence against the panel of educators teachers didn't speak up social worker played neutral documentation was cherry picked william decided case dismissed and who was i to do to disagree i didn't have educational rights the team decided that a 504 would be more appropriate in place with an ot this is when i find out i'm parenting enough of a 504 meeting but not parenting enough for an iep if a foster parent isn't willing isn't going to be considered as having educational rights yet the school needs to fulfill the responsibility of child fine through idea it is the school district's responsibility to make effort attempts to get a hold of that who has educational rights and after failed attempts the school has a responsibility to appoint a surrogate parent and identify
044who has those educational rights this important crucial step was overlooked from my son dragging out the process to support him our current struggles evaluations ies modifications and the pathways to support my son are different than the message i want to leave today which is my son and who knows how many other children was overlooked the steps to identify a surrogate parent didn't happen my son had team decisions held without a person identifying as having educational rights the entire process was drawn out because of these failed attempts and my son is the one who suffers out of all the the vulnerable which are our children we have the vulnerable the vulnerable the children with disabilities and i like to add another level of vulnerable children with disabilities in foster care these are they who need the
045most support for some reason have the least amount of voice okay i'm sorry three minutes are up no oh okay i just would like to see more training done thank you okay our next one is um orianna gazzo so he will start your three minutes okay all right thank you so much my name is orianna gazzo my son is lane johnson right here as you can see on his face he does have a marking this is not the first incident my son has epilepsy my son cannot hit be hit in specific places he goes to ranch elementary he is in mrs flagle's class mrs flagel is an amazing teacher i have nothing bad to say about mrs flagle she's an amazing teacher i can say she does not get the help she deserves there are
046certain students within the class that make life in school unbearable for my son my son has missed a lot of schooling this year because he is afraid to go to school he is afraid of the students in his class specifically one student that has bullied him and hurt him mentally physically i have reached out only disciplinary action i ever hear about is oh they get a couple minutes in the office they get sent to the office nothing's ever done i'm to my wits end with it like i said this mrs flagel miss debbie miss loretta they're always in contact with me they're amazing i can't speak any higher of them but what point is it going to come to that my son is permanently injured what point is it going to come to where they
047hit him in the wrong spot and he has a seizure and something bad happens to him and i don't think it's fair for a kindergartener to cry and beg to not go to school and that's all i have to say on the mirror i would just like ranch elementary to address it more than oh send them to the office for five minutes send them to the office for ten minutes and then send the children back the child who is abusing not only my child but other children back into the classroom it it's not solving anything and i can honestly say i'm very disappointed in what's happened to him and the steps that have been taken to do nothing about the matter thank you thank you okay and then i have a jennifer cochran hi my
048name is jennifer cochran wyatt newby is my son he goes to ranch elementary we've dealt with a bunch of bullying this year um he's in kindergarten too miss legal's class miss legal is an amazing teacher i've been trying to get parents rallied up to try to get back in the classroom to volunteer to help out because they don't seem to be giving the teacher enough help so that's why we came today i would like to see either parents allowed back in to volunteer to help out give her an extra set of hands extra pair of eyes something so that because same thing crying not wanting to go to school he's had his shirt cut up he had his back stomped on he's been called names like in kindergarten i tried to address parents in the
049blooms app which blew up in my face because the bully parents started bullying other parents and just being nasty and mean and then they shut the app down so now we can't even communicate with one another but i would like to see the school do something about bullying i would like a physical hard copy of your bullying plan because what you have on your website is not a bullying plan it's like tips and stuff to look for there's no physical plan and the school district is supposed to have a plan so i would like a hard copy of that sent to me handed to me but i'd also like to see either the teacher get help or to let the parents back in the classrooms i know we don't have much left of the school
050year but i want to do whatever i can to help my child and all the other children in his class succeed so thank you thank you okay all right we're gonna move on does anybody have any um questions about your consent agenda the consent agenda nothing kind of answered no no all right i will take a motion to approve of the consent agenda a second wait a minute we need a motion you want to motion it you can do it as presented if you'd like as presented emotion the contention the consent agenda a second okay let me hold on just a minute i'm getting this down now i confused you it's all right nope all in favor hi hi aye okay motion carries five to zero so we are on to our 8.1 um discussion
051and consideration of approval of the new director of curriculum instruction and assessment um go ahead yes uh with mr cox retiring that he would be the gentleman in the back room with a big smile on his face um we went ahead and uh advertised a position and had a number of qualified candidates that we interviewed for the process there was a committee of individuals uh principals as well as district office personnel that that interviewed individuals we had three finalists uh and then i did a second interview with those three finalists and we are uh pleased to announce that the recommendation for uh the new director of curriculum instruction and assessment is dr tim fountain he started his career in the gilbert school district as a teacher and moved his way up into assistant principal athletic
052director dean of students and assistant principal athletic director also moved into the principal position in washington elementary and in higley and is currently in the scottsdale uh unified school district as director of curriculum instruction professional development uh very eminently qualified for the position uh we're excited that he will be able to join us so i would move to approve dr fountain as the new director of quick construction assessments and if you do so after that he'll be more than happy to stand up and say a few words anybody have any questions comments concerns no okay i'll take a motion i move to approve dr tim fountain as the new director of curriculum instruction and assessment second all in favor aye hi hi okay motion carries five to zero so um dr fountain do you have
053a um we assume that you have like some lengthy like acceptance speech or something i don't know i i gave him something to read that was longer than what you read for call of duty goodness i have to be careful of the acceptance speech but there's nobody that's going to come up and slap me right the oscars well we'll see it's not over yet well i just want to say uh thank you dr wyman madam president members of the board i'm really excited to be joining the district i'm a lifelong educator i'm the child of two educators i'm married to an educator so uh this is my passion and one of the things that was really exciting to me was how much the board has a background in education and really knows the business that
054we do and why it's so important to us so i see that passion you as well i'm really excited to join a district that i see as being very student focused and forward thinking um i think the folks bruce and others have done an amazing job building some foundational pieces and i look forward to being that next chapter for combs so thank you and i look forward to getting to know and work with all of you thank you thank you welcome [Applause] okay now we have um 8.2 a discussion consideration of approval for changes for the 2223 calendar there's just a couple minor changes but since you approved a specific calendar last year we want to bring it to you the two changes are we would add to the calendar the hashtag for professional development
055days which is the three normally uh our uh staff would come back four days early we'll use our esther's funds to bring them back an additional three days early uh to give them training so those are reflected that does push back the the start for our new teachers a couple days before that and then uh the old calendar had open house on friday went thursday and friday and we've moved those to wednesday and thursday because friday's not a great day to do open houses so i just recommend the changes as presented and if it is uh if you approve it then we'll put it up on the uh website tomorrow with the changes i have one question um the high school that is there they're they're doing days off oh i guess that doesn't matter
056never mind forget it answered your own disregard yep all right anybody have any questions no and chad all right so i'll take a motion i move to approve the changes to the 2020 or to the 22 23 district calendar as presented second all in favor aye aye motion carries five to zero okay discussing in consideration of approval of the new curriculum of agriscience yeah i'll go ahead and give us overview and then uh mr scroggins here if you have specific questions but this is just supplemental curriculum for the agri-science program uh it's recommended the recommended curriculum supplemental curriculum is the case curriculum uh it has met the requirements to be posted in the district office for 60 days we did not have anybody that reviewed the uh that came in and reviewed and had any
057concerns the six day period ended on march 31st so uh based on that we would recommend uh approval of the curriculum if there's some specific questions about the curriculum mr chrogam would be more than happy to answer them i have mr scrogham have you um who who uh who actually in the district reviewed this i could have answered from back there i realized you could everybody likes their microphones that's right whatever so we did not put together a committee this is this is a um a supplemental piece to our ad curriculum um it's uh commonly used i think the gilbert school district uses it and a few others it's uh there's different components of the case curriculum we have a an instructor who is currently certified in one of the areas and this would only
058add to her skill set in one of the others so there's an animal science portion of it and there's a plant science portion of it she's certified in one we want to get her certified in the other okay and part of that her getting certified gives her access to the curriculum so it's kind of an all-in-one piece so that this is miss pettit we're talking about correct okay okay you guys have any other questions i came all the way up here for you and you know what i'll throw i'll throw a quick question out i don't want you to waste your energy so will it be wrapped into maybe the curriculum mapping yet as a supplemental piece so it will be added to you exactly and we're very fortunate our current instructor is or did
059revamp the the scope and sequence this last summer which made it a little bit i guess coherent for our students so they were concentrating a specific area each year that they're in the program for the three years so this will allow her really to focus in on some of those rather than uh pulling a lot of different resources to try to meet the the standards this is i know that they don't do a whole lot on the land lab are they is this going to help with that oh yeah and they do um uh if you haven't been out to the land lab lately do so there's been a lot of improvements um i heard there's gonna be chickens there are chickens and there are ducks and there's gonna be but she's got some in
060the incubator or something like that in the classroom right yes so she's got ducks and chickens out and we have duck eggs and chicken eggs if you're ever interested um next year she will have uh we believe she'll have goats um so i have three that she can have i'm just teasing yeah okay anybody but they are out there um on their black block days because that that's the best time for them to go up 32 hours they've been doing a lot of plants and and some raised gardens and things like that so they spent a lot more time out there i like it yep okay good any other questions comments he likes them all of them okay um so then i will take a motion i move to approve the new supplemental case curriculum
061for the ivor science program at the high school as presented i didn't have my microphone on i'm sorry that's okay all right lisa in seconds um all in favor aye aye aye okay motion carries five to zero so now we will move on to 8.4 discussion approval playground equipment for head start at cta yes uh with our changes down at cta during the first year of the covet we used some fencing to provide a head start with a bigger playground area they also had a playground area to the side and working with them over the last couple of years they would like to put playground equipment in so this is approval so you're aware of the equipment that will be coming onto our our property it is 249 200. however that will be picked up
062by head start uh so the approval is more just that because it is our property and it's gonna be installed there's gonna be a playground area a sand pit uh some uh uh curbing uh we wanted to make you aware of it i know we have some guests here if there's any particular questions you you would like to ask but but it's good for the kids it puts them right in front of the classroom instead of having to go out to the side uh and it'll be it's got some shade coverage out there just from the trees and i think it's best for the kids and it'll be better for the experience so i would recommend approval for as president but if you have a specific question they may be able to help you out
063but i just want to clarify we're just approving that they bring it onto our campus we are not purchasing this no we are not purchasing in this side it's out of their budget but i wanted to make sure the board was aware of that it was coming onto a property uh obviously it becomes part even though it's they're purchasing it because we host them uh any liability issues and stuff like that or any equipment as part of the trust becomes uh our responsibility from that standpoint um if an accident occurred then you'd actually get in discussion as much with a head start as that as us but i just want to make sure the board was aware of that uh just because all of some there's going to be a structure there and and people
064may be asking questions and i just one quick question and that was one of the questions i had the other one is i know this sounds odd but if for some reason they no longer were not we're not part of our campus does that equipment stay with us good evening i'm the ceo of pinelhala community child services and thank you m chair and the board and dr wyman um so we are a federally funded program and so what we typically do is we sign a 15-year lease is what they like to see however with you guys we have a five-year lease and so what i could say to you is that we would if you did not sign a longer lease with us then we would have to go to them and we would have
065to say how much it would cost to move it is it worth the cost of moving do we disposition it do we leave it with you um but i could not tell you that yes we would leave it like we have to get permission to disposition it to leave it there but we hope to have a long lasting relationship with you we know that there's a need here in san tan valley a need for even more than we're providing currently and you've been at that site for how long a really long time i want to say 12 15. yeah right so so even when we talk about this has been there for a long long long time uh the law only allows us five year uh agreements and that's why there's a five-year agreement but
066this is an ongoing commitment between our district and head start and so there will be no indication that that commitment is not going to continue thank you well i have a question um is there currently playground equipment in the old location and then what's going to happen to that equipment when we get this new equipment yes and can you go ahead and come up this is our data and planning manager and she will tell you they are going to move the equipment we have specialists that will come in and take our previous equipment we do have equipment there though but we will disposition of it so included with that budget that we gave you it does include demoing that existing playground we the paperwork that i did submit was just requesting to use that as
067additional storage space because there is a shed there with their playground equipment okay okay thanks thank you just show you where the renovation back there with the with the solar and the um uh paving uh have left has left that area you know it was figured into when we did the paving in the parking lot back there so it fits in to have them store stuff there without a problem any other questions chad have anything okay all right i'll take a motion i move to approve the placement of the playground equipment for the head start program at cta as presented motion carries five to zero okay um employee medical insurance plan so this is the beginning of some of the stuff that we'll bring forward to you uh regarding the budget and ms cook apologizes
068she came down ill during the day and so she she was not able to attend as a reminder we remember the school medical insurance trust which is called smith and the vote of that trust was to accept the offer for the medical coverage uh from blue cross blue shield and the increase this year was 9.42 that would be indicative of what's occurring in the industry just based on issues related to covet and other things like that and so we would go ahead and continue to have the same plans that we've had in the past the lion silver the alliance gold the valley gold and the classic gold the district pays 100 percent of the lion silver so that's our base plan and then a foreign employee if an employee wants to buy up they can
069buy up to the other levels likewise if they want to insure their dependents then they would go ahead and pay for the the cost of the insurance this year we will be offering a high deductible health plan it's a 2 800 deductible i have it's been part of schmidt for a number of years but the district has not opted to use it given the increase the high deductible is approximately at the same price and it just gives an option we have a fairly young staff where a high deductible plan is probably beneficial quite frankly to any number of individuals and so that is going to be um uh the new portion um of the plan just to give employees one more option uh we'll continue with basic life uh accidental death dismemberment um uh but
070well there's no rate increase on that and delta that we use delta dental death division short-term disability again no rate increases there so the only rate increase we're seeing is nine point four two percent uh as uh if you remember from our budget discussion a couple weeks ago the anticipated cost of that nine point four two percent based on uh current number of employees enrolled is a little over two hundred thousand we have budgeted four hundred thousand because we fill all the positions that we have had open in the past the total cost of that increase would be the 400 000. if we do not fill positions and obviously that becomes a savings for us we will also be using american fidelity and they will be expanding our benefit portfolio with flex spending accounts critical
071illness cancer and hospital accident coverage the reason for conversations with american fidelity is because of some concerns with the fsa the flex spending account so we looked at other options we were not satisfied the option that submit occurred and so they will go ahead and provide those while it's voluntary coverage but the other piece that we're excited for american fidelity is they will come out to all of our sites and meet with all of our employees and go over all of the options they have available to them within our plan network now they will do some after school if needed or at night because in some cases uh individuals want spouses to be part of the conversation not everybody we're going to try to get to everybody there might be someone that doesn't show up
072but this way we're sure that they're aware of what their options are especially with the high deductible health plan that can get confusing they'll have experts that will explain that to individuals that they're aware so i would recommend that we approve the rates as presented questions no chad all right um i need a motion bob you're gonna stop a good thing you want me to do it again go ahead your turn i moved to wreck i moved to approve the employee insurance benefit plan as for 22 23 as presented a second oh lisa got the one all right all in favor aye aye aye aye all right motion carries five to zero you gotta give me a warning and change direction [Music] [Laughter] okay um approval free schedules for 22 23 kinder testing uh it's
073very simple i'll explain it but if there's more particulars about the screening you can talk to ask mr berkshire you can decide after talking to mr scroggin whether he wants to come up or just answer from back there but we'll wait and see i'm really all this is is you have approved the um uh the course fees uh a couple period uh uh meetings ago and we just realized we missed an early kinder screening this day or the 45 dollars per child for the screening is set uh it happens in june so this approval is actually going to take place this year as well as for next year we missed it last year when we did the course fee approval it covers the cost of the of the screening uh for those kids that may
074qualify for uh the early kindergarten and so that's why we're bringing it forward um uh if there's more specifics again uh mr berkshire then answer them but i would recommend approval as presented so it's really just that one edition and no one changes it everything else is the same questions i'll take a motion all right i move to approve the amendment 22 23 fee schedules for the kinder testing fee for 21 22 and 22 23 unauthorized principles to await the assessment of all are part of the fee assessment if it creates an economic hardship as presented just to show you where madam president that is the law and we're required to read it that way that is why that's why bob didn't do it because he had to read all of it i'll second okay
075all in favor aye aye aye i shouldn't care he's five to zero okay again uh mr rutko can decide whether he wants to come up with any specific questions but in essence what we have and and this is given the dollars that are available out there it's we've been informed by the fcc uh that if you remember earlier this year we bought computers using the emergency connectivity fund and because we had an increase in students uh we now qualify for more computers uh and so our our choice would be to go ahead and move uh forward with the new application window when it opens up here at the end of the month and order some more computers um we're looking to add these computers um in large part because if you remember with our one
076to one initiative we want to get on a cycle where we replace about 500 computers each year rather than buying all the computers and then at the at the end of five years having to play it replace two or three thousand computers this is an opportunity that just came to us recently and so the thought process is we might as well move forward and get these um because it can free up budget capacity in essers or in the uh bond money or the daa and we wouldn't have to spend it uh the cost of the computers is 260 267 403 dollars and 60 cents 66 cents however please understand that the way this is set up is if it is approved then the efc program and the fcc will will pay for the whole thing
077so there's no cost associated to us if they do not approve us for some reason then we just won't purchase the computers so there's a no cost but even though there's no cost we still have to cut a po and has to go through us and we will build directly we just got a letter today that uh the f's fcc or excuse me dell indicated that it's okay for us to to go ahead and build directly to from the fcc program to dell but we still have to open up a po for that to occur and so we will let you know if we're approved but if we are approved then we would go ahead and purchase those computers and again the entire cost would be picked up by this efc and i don't know
078mr rutko if we remember what the amount of money that was the first time the efc how many computers we bought how much we we got out of that so you're going to see that we've been able to purchase 1100 computers from a a a revenue stream that's not normally available to us but because of things going on with covet it was made available to us and so it's a great way to continue our one-to-one initiative without dipping into some of the other budget categories that we have i have a question i see in the information we have the what the application window is after the application window is closed when can we expect decisions to be made take that long stroll up here so what happens you notice that you're like the new kid
079on the block because all of them the cool kids are sitting in the back if we're approved for it then as soon as we're approved in that window then we'll cut the po and we'll send that to dell so it just depends on the lead time for the devices so we should get them fairly quickly okay i guess i didn't ask the question correctly is the approval process an ongoing rotating or does it wait until the window to be closed and then there's like an approval meeting or something like that no i think it's you can you apply within the window we've already sent our information to our nicely consulting and they'll take care of putting that through uh you know the application for us and as soon as it's approved it'll probably be improved
080you have to apply within that window and hopefully i don't know when they'll approve everything hopefully but as soon as they do then we'll be able to buy the devices and then this is a federal program across the country so there's a chance they may close the window and then go through and review all at one time and make the decisions based on uh the dollar amounts that are available because there's a restriction on the total amount of dollars and so they they probably take that into consideration uh prior to providing approvals across the country okay thank you thank you any other questions all right i will take a motion see i move to approve the purchase of 700 chromebooks through the ecf program as presented all second all in favor motion carries five to
081zero okay so we just have um that's the end of our uh motions uh we have dis information and discussion items mr berkshire good evening madam president members of the board dr wyman i'm here today to talk about student achievement data updates um so today we're going to look at our um high school second or actually should that should have said third quarter um benchmark results um just a reminder that we're looking at a comprehensive assessment system and so we're looking at those district standards based benchmarks that that we administer and of high utility to us at the district level but also useful for our teachers proficiency bands just a reminder in order to be proficient they had to score a 75 or higher on the assessment and so for third quarter benchmarks again they
082are end-of-quarter standards-based assessments that are based on our district curriculum maps they are technology enhanced it's an online administration window is from february 14th to march 4th we administered an ela 9th through 11th grades we also we do not do our ap courses or 12th grade um due to the the the items and and aps being a little bit different from everything else math we administered in algebra 1 geometry and algebra 2 again those that's where the standards that uh the items types that we have available are our most predominant so for uh ela and 9th through 11th grade you can see we actually saw an improvement in the percent of students passing significantly in 11th grade that that grade level team has improved every quarter um that we've administered the assessments um and then
083ninth grade we saw a good jump as well average percent correct um just to give you an idea of on those proficiency bands where we're looking at 11th grade it doesn't look like it went up much so what that tells me is we had a lot of students scoring really high but we also had a lot of students scoring really low so while those students that scored high push the percentage passing up those students that scored low pulled the average down so math continues to be a challenge and when you look at our average percent correct pretty much the same students i believe are are being as successful as they have been on the previous uh two quarters in math um so some next steps again where we go back we look at this we
084talk about it we we dive into it um i'll be following up the new principal team to start planning for 2022 and 20 20 2023 our content coaches continue to work with site plc data teams to deconstruct the standards line instruction to assessment again our pl days continue to focus on providing support for staff on standards literacy and transparency for students one of the things that we are now starting to talk about is possible rfp for new math curriculum resources next year our elementary was adopted eight years ago middle school seven years ago and and high school six six years ago so we're at the end of the the life on the high school materials and then finally i need to do a correlation study to to look at how accurate our proficiency scales are
085we we set them pretty high and so once we get our act and act aspire data back then i can do a correlation to see kids that scored that passed a ct based on the the state cut scores where did they come in on on our um benchmarks and then it i will be doing the same thing for aasa for third through eighth grades so this was our first year administering with uh dna and again because they don't have a norm based way for us to to look at their scores we set those proficiency scales and i just want to make sure that we're actually reporting it accurately based on actual student performance on state and national assessments any questions yeah are we providing teachers and content coaches all the resources that they need to
086have their students be successful or are there other things that we can be doing well as i said it the the math resources that we currently have are nearing the end of their useful life elementary was adopted when the new standards came out and we know that there are a ton of gaps in that elementary middle school significantly high school as well and the biggest challenges is i think continuing to work with our teachers and understanding what those standards mean and how do they engage students in understand truly understanding those standards so so moving away from that stand to deliver model especially in math where i do and i expect you to do the algorithm to a much more conceptual basis and at the lower grades some of the intervention resources that we've purchased using
087with title 1 funds i believe that those will have a long-term impact as those kids continue to move up and so in the the near term uh we're still continuing to work with them do we have all the financial resources we need i know you mentioned title one and whatever comes out of our mno do we have the financial resources to make all this happen i'm gonna yes as part of our budget i mean we're taking a look at a couple different things within the budget um and that's part of that conversation so whether what we're trying to do is maximize all the different funding sources we can use so we had talked about the notion of the science curriculum this year which we're in process of doing and next year do we mod do
088we move from social studies curriculum to a math curriculum which should be funded out of essers we also have some replacement of the current uh materials that that we're taking a look at and because we were successful in getting the money for the 100-day in school grant or in-person grant the district uh the information i shared with you on that grant actually had made a error where we're actually over half a million i think it was 542 000 that we got there so we're looking at curricular issues right now to provide more for them and then we have other curricular issues that are part of our daa and bond so we have several uh funding sources available to us and now we're just trying to take a look at how what's the best way to
089maximize the use of of those dollars to get it so yes i believe we'll have plenty of dollars to do it and that'll be coming to you guys over the next couple months as we as we look to move forward the math curriculum adoption however will not be till next year so what we would look to is to make sure that that anything that's outdated in terms of consumable we will get for this next year and then we go through the same process with math that we're doing through science and then we would purchase the whole whole new set that would then actually be implemented a year from from this july for for math so there's one more year that we have to get through and during that year we'll be updating through a math
090curriculum adoption thanks marcus any other question what about tutoring after school i know that i know that we have the paper tutoring thing but how much is that being used for math i know the high school has a tutoring program in the past when they when they had the 21st century grant right when they shared the data what we saw was that kids that were already being successful in math see through an a grade those were the ones that were participating in the tutoring and the kids that were significantly far behind we're not and so the challenge with tutoring is after school it's voluntary yeah well i have i beg to differ there well because i have one that he will go but it is only tuesdays and thursdays and if they coach those days
091are out and so he can go for the 20 quick 20 minutes and get his questions answered and then he's out the door and i know he doesn't want to do the online tutoring because it confuses or whatever and i just think math is harder to do online than it is in person and i just think that we need something for these kids and he is not a see-through a so and i will drive him there and drop him off because i don't know the answers what i would say with the paper product is that that yes they are using the using it for the math right now the the highest usage based on what we've looked at is uh essay writing and review of essay writing but the next highest we don't move into
092uh we move into the math right away um how many are using it and you're right and i've i actually uh uh met with the ceo of paper just this past week and i you know talk to him about it the real issue that's out there is kind of like spell check you got to be a good bad speller and so even with paper you have to understand the concepts enough to to understand what it is you have going to ask the tutor and so so we're still working on that piece in terms of of after-school tutoring again it becomes a case of of the numbers and is it is it feasible do we have people that are willing to to teach and so we continue to work on that we had success this year
093and we'll continue working it but it's there are some limitations i'll just put it that way unfortunately he has a long term sub so that doesn't help either so and that is still an issue within several of our schools uh the inability to fill positions especially in math we haven't had middle schools had it too yeah but as this one i'm saying if like if we have those issues then can we not get them some help after school at some point i don't know but i think it's a bigger issue i think as we start to see moving forward i'm excited about i think there's a lot of things going on okay i have a question so are any of the algebra 1 teachers doing forward or is it do we know that information yes
094all of them are all of them are doing it implement which leads into the high school and so the high school teachers are planning to catch up so we've got to look at some of those is my other question is i don't know if anybody would know this but do we know what our enrollment our numbers are in those algebra one classes how high they are i was just curiou because i know in the past it's it could be pretty high so same thing for ela so i was just curious if that had changed or if we're still having high 30s that would be really great i'd appreciate it but i would concur they're not in the height they're not in the high 30s they're they're in the lower 30s that's great um and then
095just a couple more um when looking at the next steps and looking at what the content coaches are doing working with site plc data teams to deconstruct do the coaches um help facilitate any of the data discussions when especially at the middle school and high school level those data discussions through the plc process or is that just up to department chairs or how what does that look like so currently what we've been doing has been working with our site leadership and instructional coach teams on how to work with their staff on disaggregating data analyzing data because i think it's extremely important that that leadership comes from the site rather than from the district because if it comes from us then it's something that we're doing to them rather than this is an expectation for what
096i expect on my site so we've done a lot of work with the site leadership on how to facilitate those discussions with their plcs and then we've also i know that our content coaches after those meetings have gone out and actually sat down with those teams and done some work as well we started this year with you're talking about substitute long term sub qualified highly qualified certified look at thank you any other questions does chad have any questions oh okay are we are we good yeah all right thank you thank you so um now we're down to request for future agenda items so do we have any requests for future agenda items uh i have two uh one is at the last meeting i had asked for a presentation or information about our performing arts
097center when i was still working on okay if i can request that you not do it at the next meeting because i will be missing the may meeting so if you could at the earliest do it at the june meeting i'd appreciate that wait a minute what is that our short meeting i don't know you knew i was gonna miss it uh and the second thing is has to do with the uh some of the support that we provide for our students i know we've had a presentation on paper and how effective it seems to be i'm curious as to whether footsteps for brilliance is doing what it's supposed to be doing i know we had a presentation i don't remember the gentleman's name who's the head of the of the group came and talked
098to us and right after that as he explained how to log in i actually set up accounts for my two older grandchildren and showed them and they didn't seem very interested to be honest with you it seems like you know they were more concerned with what their friends were doing and what their particular schools were asking them to do than going into this extra program and i know we're spending money for it and i want to be sure our money is being well spent and if we want to even continue with it for another year so i'd like to get a lot more information about the footsteps for brilliance how many students are using it how effective it is and what the cost for continuing it would be and you want that in the june
099meeting as well well i'd like to be here for it okay okay any other those are the two i had thank you perfect do you have anything chad okay all right i will make a motion to adjourn at 7 28. second all in favor aye