Littleton Elementary School District - 14APR2026 Board Meeting

001Barnett. Mr. Sunny Serros. Here. Mrs. Sasinek. Here. Mrs. Stahler. Here. Thank you. Can I have us all arise and pledge of allegiance? I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. As a courtesy for our moment of silence, can I ask you to silence your cell phones? Thank you very much. Uh do we have any board member statements this evening? Amy? Thank you. Um so, since our last board meeting, I was able to attend the district arts festival and I was so excited to see all the different musical groups from around the district performing. I thought it was a great community building event and I loved that we were outdoors and the weather

002was nice to us. Thank you to everyone for the hours upon hours that I know was um spent planning that event before getting students ready, getting all the water, getting all the staging and everything else that had to go into that event. I truly think it was phenomenal. Um I also was able to attend Fine Arts' Falcons Got Talent um show that happened the night before the festival. That was great to see all of our students out performing and showing all the various talents that they have. I was um able to be the board member representative to Country Places National Junior Honor Society induction. Thank you for the invite. It's great to see that we're embracing leadership qualities and high academic achievement. Um and then I wanted to end my board member comments with a

003congratulations to Serenity from Laken Prep. She won one of the bookmark contest run by the city of Avondale's public library and you can if you go to any of the libraries, you can see her artwork on bookmarks in the front desk. Thank you very much. Any others? Marcus? Yeah. Thank you, President Nelson. I'll um I'm on my calling everybody, so let me get my moments prepared, but um good evening everyone. I would first like to begin by acknowledging that this month on April 22nd is um Earth Day. Uh it serves as a reminder of how important and beautiful this place is we true we all call home truly is. I will continue to say this to I am to our administration and my colleagues. Environmental protection and equity are not political. They are issues that

004directly impact our environmental and our students' health. Um so, I look forward to all of the amazing things I know our students do a lot of cool projects on that day and do a lot of learning about amazing things that um play into protecting our environment, so I look forward to those. Um and I've also had the opportunity um to visit nearly um almost all of our schools and walk alongside some of our principals and I want to say how proud I was um of our administrative teams. Um I saw many positive things happening on our campuses that I wasn't previously aware of. Um for example, every school I visited had mental health resource and posters displayed throughout the campuses and it was uh incredibly encouraging to see the level of visibility, especially as supporting

005student mental health has never been more important. I also want to give a shout-out to our amazing social workers who continue to go above and beyond for our students. Um and like uh member Sasinek mentioned, I um also had the opportunity to attend our first ever community arts festival. Um and I want to say thank you to all of our community, to all of our staff and our students who put hours of work into this. Um it was really really amazing. Um and what we seen was when we invest in our students, staff, and community in events like this, we all benefit. Um and I'm really looking forward to not only next year's event, but to more community events that our district continues to put on uh because these traditions really do play in to

006creating a uh positive culture for our public school district, so I really was appreciative to that. Shout-out to all of the staff that went above and beyond into the planning. Um and lastly, I attended the NSBA annual conference this year in San Antonio and I learned a great deal. Um some of the sessions I participated in included immigration in public schools, keeping schools safe for all, healthy schools in action um for district leaders and EPA perspectives um and the clean um EPA clean school bus funding Q&A session. Um one thing that really did stand out to me about the conference that there was a really strong focus on clean energy and healthy schools. Um two of the main sponsors was um Highland of electric fleet which specializes helping school districts transition over to electric vehicles

007and the Go Green initiative which helps uh school districts do a variety of things from gardening programs to grants to help with um curriculum and staffing capacities. So, it was really really really um an impactful um conference. And um during one of the sessions um I actually learned that the EPA clean school bus funding grant um program is actually still available. Um I know a lot of the clean energy programs that the federal government had provided to a lot of school districts had phased out last fiscal year um and that I actually did learn that till the next fiscal year actually the EPA clean school bus funding grant is still available. Um I think it was especially important in the session and as I was learning um on one of the fireside chats, um in

0082024, you know, our board um you know, did reject that funding for a lot of um reasons, so um it was really encouraging to see a lot of other districts um just kind of take advantage of that federal dollars. Um and so, there was a lot of more other things that I really look forward to that I learned. Um I want to also say I was really inspired by the keynote speakers um who really put an emphasis on the importance of school culture. Um and one quote one quote that uh really resonated deeply with me was that if we if the performance gap has less to do with information, no, wait, actually let me rephrase that. What if the performance gap has less to do with information and more to do with experience and culture?

009Um and that made me reflect on a lot of our decisions recently that we've made um moving over um moving away from school uniforms next year and um really putting emphasis in our staff culture um and really just finding more ways to trust our students to be able to make decisions for themselves and to be able to have more community events like we've recently seen and to be able to ensure that our staff and our community have direct voices in the decisions that we make really creates a trusting culture. So, um I was really really um expressed um my gratitude to a lot of the speakers and folks who shared a lot of wisdom um with me at the conference, so I also learned a lot more um and I have a lot of more

010resources and information that I gathered that I'm going to um share with Dr. Lafitte and our e-teams to hopefully see if we can um get some things going and then I'll have some future agenda items as well. So, that's all I have and um thank you all. Thank you so much. Appreciate that. Any others? Linda? Hi. I also attended the arts um festival, the community event, and it was one of the most amazing experiences to see all of the family members out there. Um thank you to everyone who donated all the water and the Gatorade. Um thank you to Dan for I mean, he was everywhere. Everywhere. Every time you look, there was Dan. Like I never saw him sit down. I never saw him stop. Um all the parents that came out there, the

011weather was absolutely gorgeous. Every parent that I talked to was so excited and so happy that we all gathered together as a community and instead of trying to make this child's performance and then this child's performance or doing this, we were all out there together and we could hear everybody. I am so excited to see what next year brings. Um I honestly can't imagine it getting any better except for to remind people to bring chairs. Um yeah, I am just it was it was absolutely amazing. Thank you to everybody in the community and the district. Um I saw you guys out there and all the hard work you guys did. Um I don't envy you for all that hard work because it was a lot. I can only imagine. But yeah, it was amazing. Thank

012you. Any others? I just add my amen to what's been said about that community event. It was a great event. All those who participated enjoyed it and the only negative comment I think I heard is next year they want to wear goggles in their color color whatever it is so they can see where they're going instead of having the powder in their eyes, but other than that, it was great. Thank you. All right. Item number six, uh superintendent's report. Thank you, President Nelson. Good evening, Littleton Governing Board, staff, and community. It's April, so we know what that means. Our students are in the middle of testing. Um AASA is running running full steam ahead right now. I think we've completed most of the English language arts portion. Uh we've completed uh science, so we're going

013to get ready for math coming up. So, I want to take a moment just to thank every student, staff member for their time and effort they've put into it this year. We know that your dedication in learning is already reflected in the growth and success we see in the classrooms each day and are excited to see that same effort put forth in their current state assessments. Since our last board meeting, our students and staff have had many opportunities to show their educational talents in other areas as well. One of those was the district math challenge. Um in which students in three different grade levels, three different grade bands complete competed against their school peers to determine who had the best math skills. In the end, the Cartel Coyotes placed first in third and fourth grade

014level and fifth and sixth grade level, while Estrella Vista Hawks took first place in the seventh and eighth grade level. We're very proud of every student that reached the district competition at is it as it is an honor to be able to represent your school. As we mentioned last month, our human resources department was holding two job fairs in March. We're happy to report that those job fairs resulted in a number of new employees and contracts being offered for the upcoming 26-27 school year. We We have one more job fair coming up at the end of this month. So, if you know anyone looking for a great job in education at the best school district in the West Valley and actually let me change that, the best school district in the state, we invite them

015to join us on Thursday, April 30th from 4:30 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. right here in the Littleton School District uh board room. Another highlight from this past month and all the board members mentioned this was our first Littleton Elementary School District Community Festival. To say it was a success is an understatement. From the performances and artwork to our talented students to the community engagement at the booths and food trucks. Uh with some of the support from our partners with the city of Avondale, they were able to track how many people we actually had at this event. We had over 2,800 people attend our event and we're extremely proud of the staff students that made it such a memorable highlight for our year. We're already starting to make plans for next year and look forward to

016start promoting it as soon as the 26-27 school year begins. This past month, we've had a number of celebrations from across the district. We were informed that Mrs. Amy Rendon was recognized as a finalist for the School Connect Catalyst for Education Award with the winner to be chosen on April 30th. Country Place um NJHS students welcomed 20 new inductees at the end of March, over 20 new inductees. Country Place students also qualified and were invited to the 26 CSI Arizona State Competition that allows them to apply law and science to real-life scenarios against other students from around the state. Congratulations to all of the art students that were recognized at the Community Festival and I think we'll have those students coming up probably um if we can't get them by the end of this year,

017we'll get them at the beginning of next year. And we look forward to being able to recognize even more staff and students in the future. As I close out this month's report, I want to take a moment to thank our governing board for your continued support of our students and staff. We're very grateful for your participation at our festival and are looking forward to everyone working together to close out the last few months of school uh of the school year strong as we continue to build tomorrow together. Thank you, Superintendent. I appreciate that. Moving on to next item, uh District Showcase. Our district highlights, we have We have a couple of awards this evening. We have our Littleton Education Foundation Treasure Hunter of the Month and our Littleton uh Education Foundation Kid at Hope of

018the Month. And what I'd like to do is have Dr. Manahan come on up. And as he comes up, with the support of the Littleton Education Foundation, we are proud to present this month's Littleton Education Foundation Kid at Hope and Treasure Hunter Awards. The Littleton Education Foundation's mission is to expand opportunities and enhance education for Littleton Elementary students and the community in areas of science, technology, engineering, arts, and math. Their mission is carried out through teacher mini grants and enrichment programs that provide multiple pathways to student success. I'd now like to turn it over to Dr. Rob Manahan, president of the Littleton Education Association uh at the podium and board if you could join me over here at the uh background so we can take a picture. Thank you, Dr. Lafitte. I'm going to go

019off script for just a minute here and uh recognize that uh Laken also took second place in the math competition, so we are very proud of that that uh grades [clears throat] uh 5-6 band there. And also uh the Littleton Ed Foundation was able to um sponsor the color run or at least the color in the color run, so we're going to try to get goggles for y'all next year so that they can see where they're going. We have no uh major accidents along the way. All right, thank you very much. I appreciate the opportunity to uh sponsor our Treasure Hunter and Kid at Hope. Our Kid at Hope this uh month is from Laken Prep Academy. So, uh we're excited that we have an award winner and it's unfortunate, but uh circumstances and other

020things uh got in the way, so she's not able to be here. But, I want to read it publicly because it uh she's an amazing student and we're very proud of her here at Laken. Her name is Aleia Keys Valenzuela from Laken Prep Academy. Uh she's the Littleton Education Foundation Kid at Hope. She comes to school each day with a positive attitude even when she is facing challenges outside of the classroom. And that says so much about her strength and character. She is a talented, smart, and capable student and this is reflected in her consistently strong academic performance. Aleia is especially talented in drawing and it's been wonderful to see her creativity shine. She takes pride in her work and approaches learning with both effort and confidence showing that she is more than capable of

021continued success. What stands out most about Aleia is her heart. She's an incredibly empathetic friend who looks out for others and consistently chooses to do the right thing even when it isn't easy. She brings kindness and integrity into our classroom every day and that truly makes a difference. She has big dreams of working in fashion as a CEO and we love how seriously she takes those goals. She shows up ready to learn, puts in the effort, and continues to take steps toward the future she envisions for herself. So, congratulations, Aleia, and I will make sure >> [applause] >> that she receives uh the certificate as well as a gift certificate from LEAF for $25 from Target. And then we have our Treasure Hunter. Could I have Ms. Emily Cruz please uh join me at the

022podium? Hi. Yeah, give her a round of applause. >> [applause] >> Emily is also a recipient of the LEAF Teacher Mini Grant Award where she received I think $900 last year. Yes, isn't that well spent, well done, and that's awesome. We love to see uh our funds go towards creating these mini mini grant uh innovative opportunities for our kids and teachers. So, congratulations for that and for this. Ms. Emily De La Cruz is an amazing educator at Tres Rios Service Academy and truly deserving of the Treasure Hunter of the Month Award. More than just a teacher, she serves as an ACE for her students building the kind of trusting relationships that extend beyond the classroom. Ms. De La Cruz is a fierce advocate who identifies exactly what each student needs to reach their goals, never

023settling for less than their best because she holds them to high expectations, her students learn to believe in themselves just as much as she believes in them. She instills a lifelong passion for education and helps every child see the bright future they are capable of achieving. Congratulations, Ms. De La Cruz. Here you go. >> [applause] >> There you go. You bet. Step over there. And >> Item number eight is called the public. I understand we have no call to public this evening. Those of you who would like to go, if there's a need to go, fine. If you'd like to stay for the rest of the meeting, you're invited to stay. Item number nine, consent agenda. Can I have a motion to approve the items on the consent agenda? I move that we approve the

024items on the consent agenda. I second. Okay, we have a motion by Ms. Amy and Ms. Oceanak. And the second by Ms. Allard. Uh all in favor? I. I. Any opposed? Thank you. Item number 10. Okay, good evening. Mr. President, members of the board. So, um over the past year, I mentioned to the board a lot of the work we were trying to do just to gather information to help us make some informed decisions for the organization. And one of those areas that we really wanted to look in it it it was due to do a demographic study. We'd seen over the across the the state and the country how a lot of school districts are losing students and what is causing that trend. So, what does that look for us over the next few

025years as we begin to make decisions, look towards our bond exploratory and those things to see how we can make better informed decisions. So, I'm going to turn it over to Ms. Peña to introduce our guest. All right. Good evening, President Nelson, members of the board. Tonight, we have Applied Economics. They completed our demographic study. We've been working with uh Rick Braemer and uh Don Graves uh regarding our district enrollment and what we foresee for the future. So, I will turn it over to the gentleman. Thank you very much. President Nielsen, Vice President Siniseros, members of the board, Dr. Lafate. It is our pleasure to be here tonight to present the results of the demographic study. We actually did one for the district as part of work for Tolleson back 22 or 23 or so.

026Things have definitely changed a lot since then. But we'll go on to the next slide. And by way of introduction, Applied Economics has been in business doing this type of work in Arizona since 1995. Um during that time, we have had the privilege of serving over 75 different Arizona school districts. We serve 35 or so per year. Some of them every year depending what they've got going on, but many like you that just need to touch base every few years and kind of figure out where you stand. So, you know, that's what we're trying to do here tonight is is let you know that and you can see from all the logos one of my associates plastered on here. We've these are just some of the districts we've worked for this year, but so we've

027we see districts in all different states. You know, where they're in decline, they're growing, all of those things all at the same time, rural and urban and the whole thing. So, broad range of experiences and obviously very very familiar with the Southwest Valley in general. Next slide. So, the scope of the study obviously looks at enrollment trends. Not only total enrollment, but grade level distribution, geographic distribution down to the neighborhood level. Because you'll see places where it you know, enrollment's going up and it's going down in another neighborhood. You miss all that if you just look at the district totals. And then of course, we're tracking enrollment at alternative providers, both charter schools and now looking at the growth, you know, in ESA participation from students that live within your district. Demographic characteristics, you have

028a pretty sizable population these days, almost 64,000 people. When you get that big, things don't change as fast as they used to. And people start to age in place. And so, you don't get as much bang for the growth in some ways as you did when you were young and it was a big explosion and everybody was moving in was 25 or 30 years old, you know, that doesn't that's not going to happen as much anymore. Don Graves is our residential development expert. He is the one who talks to the planners, the builders, the developers. He knows all of the the builders pretty much on a first name basis. He he can tell you how many models they will build in each line of their product every month. And that's how we build up, you

029know, some of our projections for when things will will come online. Of course, you have to have infrastructure and things first. It's not all about just what the what the developers want to do. Um and then we do two enrollment models basically. One is a macroeconomic top-down. How does your district fit into the Southwest Valley and into Metro Phoenix in terms of mega trends, you know, like the ESAs or birth rates or you know, the employment growth that we've seen out here. you can see at least we're on a we're on an upward trend. Um next slide. Next way we look at it is the enrollment in grade groups. So, the K2 3568. It tells us a lot about whether you're a move up market or a move up or move out market. Uh what

030you know, people do when they get here. As you can see, if you look back far enough, all the cohorts were pretty much the same size. But then again, in about 2014 or so, we saw the proliferation of charter schools particularly in the district and they immediately jump in and take the little ones. And so, to build their future. And so, from that point on, you see a disparity where K2 becomes, you know, permanently the smaller group. Some of that is demographic, people moving, you know, staying here instead of moving out. So, they're they're moving up and growing their families. Um part of it also is that charters continue to have a slightly lower, you know, penetration rate, if you will, in higher grades versus lower grades. So, you are getting kids back out out

031of that system. Um but again, it's something that another factor we have to look at. It's not just total enrollment, it's grade level stuff. Next slide. Talked about the the 107 areas. This little map here just shows you where your students actually live. So, the little number inside of each one of these boxes is the number of Littleton elementary students served by the district in 25 26, at least on the 40th day of 25 26. Um and the color is, you know, obviously it indicates density. This information is obviously very valuable if you want to do planning for the attendance areas and boundaries and things like that. Cuz again, you're not looking at just a district level, we're looking at density. Um the next slide um uses that same information, but like I said, we've

032been had the privilege of serving you for a while, so I can go back and look at the last 5 years at at a sub-district level. So, everywhere you see red on this map, you've had an increase. And of course, the all of the growth along the Broadway road you know, corridor just pops off of the screen. And that's helped, you know, basically offset a lot of the blue that you see. Which is where there've actually been some, you know, in some cases pretty significant enrollment declines over the last 5 years. And again, you know, a lot of that is going to be attributable to to charter schools and and now ESAs, but some of it is also the aging of your population. The people who came in during the really big boom you know,

033back in 2010 or so, they're aging. Their kids are falling out of the system now. And because housing prices and financing is such that it is, people aren't moving. There's no turnover to speak of. And so, it's almost preventing new families from moving into the neighborhood. Next slide. In terms of the demographics of the district, I used to just use a slide that showed about a million numbers and uh nobody wanted to see it. So, now we have a couple of little charts. So, the top chart, the green bar is population, the blue bar is the number of housing units. You can see just a massive uh growth in the in the decade of the 2000s, you know, from 9,000 people to 39,000 people. I mean, that's that was the that was the real explosion,

034not that we haven't had, you know, growth since then. Um and it's and and it's continuing. The little red line on the top, which is keyed to the right-hand axis, is the share of that population that's under 18. And it is in decline. It's fallen from 34% down to about 30%, but we're we have some districts that have fallen from the 30s into the 20s. So, you are still definitely a family area. You're still attracting people with children. Your household size at 3.4 is way above the county average. So, it's still very much a family area and more so than most places that we work. Um one of the things that is happening though, and I alluded to it, was at the bottom of the chart, it shows the number of householders, which are, you

035know, the the the head of household. And whether you're under 55 or over 55. And so, the part of the bar that's green is those of us over 55. And um as of late, it's been, you know, outpacing the growth of the under 55 group. Again, I've seen more extremes than you have, but nonetheless, the share of householders is standing at almost 46% over the age of 55. So, right off the bat, you have problems with a lot of things like passing bonds and so forth because almost half your population, you know, may or may not have a vested interest. And so, it's, you know, something else that unfortunately that you're having to having to work with. And um it's not going to reverse, you know, anytime too soon. Um next slide is is the

036kind of the big think of that population under 18 thing. And this is kind of a a slide I use at the state level, and for those of you who will be at the or plan to attend the Arizona School Boards Association meeting this uh June in Flagstaff, we're going to do a big drill down on this macro stuff so that everybody can understand kind of the mega trends and so forth. So, not district level, but big picture stuff. So, I'd invite you to take that, but this is a piece of it where every since 2010, the population in the state under 18 has not increased by one person. In fact, it's fallen. But total population has gone up by over a million and a half people in the same period of time, and the

037number 18 under 18 is exactly um the same as it was. Next slide. And what we look at is it's all about birth rates. And this is a the green bars are Arizona birth rate, blue bar is the US birth rate, the red line is the quotient. So, you can see going back um to 2006, the Arizona birth rate was over 20% above the national average. It crashed during the Great Recession when we lost so many people because not only of the Great Recession, but because of SB 1070, anti-immigration, you know, legislation that came online, changed the population. But we so we fell to the national average. Okay, that's okay. But what's happened since then is that we've now, you know, continued to decline at a at a rate much higher actually than than the

038US. And the only other state in the union that has a a higher or a larger or decrease, I should say, in their birth rate is Utah. And I find that a bit puzzling. I'm still waiting for someone to explain that to me, but uh it's it's a very interesting predicament, you know, now that we're in. Instead of bigger families than usual, we have smaller families. And the way I like to think about it that's the simplest is in 2006, there were 102,000 babies born in the state of Arizona. In the last 3 years running, there's been 78,000 born. So, you know, it's more than a third down from where it was when the population was significantly smaller. And so, because of all of this, um it most districts are experiencing decline because during the

039same period when the total population has been flat, we've introduced more charters. We've introduced vouchers. And so, we're taking the same number of students and cutting it into smaller pieces. It's like getting a smaller piece of the pumpkin pie at Thanksgiving because an extra family showed up. You know, it's kind of that sort of concept where there's only so much to go around. Next slide is, you know, we we do track charter school enrollment. Um there's about 3,100 or so students um inside they're going they're attending charter schools um inside the district. Um that's up by 1,800 since since 2019-20. And so, you know, that offset a lot of the potential growth, you know, that you would have had from the housing that was occurring during that that period of time. And another 1,300 or

040so students, you know, from charter schools that are very close to the district. And to top it off, you've had a couple of major expansions of those schools, you know, recently. Um I guess one of the interesting thing about charters right now is that overall, their enrollment fell for the first time ever in the state as a total in 2024-25. They are affected almost as much or even more in some cases than districts are by ESAs. Because it's the same group of people, they're the choosers. The ones that are looking for an option to, you know, the status quo. So, um it's been interesting. I and it the the upside of that might be that the market for new charter schools is pretty soft. You know, so you you don't want to see as many

041new ones coming online um as we have in the past. Don's going to talk to us about residential development on the next slide. Okay, we'll start off with a a look at kind of the recent history. And if you look at this chart, the blue parts of the bars are single-family permits. And the orange are are multi-family permits. And if you just think of this uh chart as being divided in half, you can see in 10 years ago, we had, you know, growth was going on, but pretty low level. And then here about 5 years ago, we have as Roosevelt Park and Alamar getting started, so you starting to suddenly have, you know, a big expansion. And then in '21-'22, Verde Trails gets started. So, you have another, you know, bump up in the single-family.

042And since then, we've had, you know, new projects going and subdivisions within projects building out. So, we have this kind of this uneven, you know, up and down stuff going on. And this is been kind of exacerbated by uh Alamar, which had been going very good. And they were late in starting the lot development in phase five. So, you had, you know, kind of a more of a drop-off than than would have been normal. And the other thing we have going on here with the with the development is in the last 5 years, you've picked up, you know, close to 40% or something like that of your new housing units as multi-family. And this has not been it's always been a component, but it's become a major part of the component of your housing stock

043in the last few years. And I probably need to point out because you're looking at, you know, this orange bar and all the units, these aren't all filled up with people yet. Like the project up the street is indicated on this bar, but we look at things by permits. Not we look at the occupancy later. But this is just reflecting the permits. And we can show you where those are on this next slide. Where we have basically a division here. Up along Grand or up along Van Buren, we have most of the multi-family. Up in the uh Avondale Boulevard corridor, we have, you know, all the commercial and the retail, some employment centers, and then you have a lot of multi-family going in up there. The single-family, which you can see a little bit better

044because this is the blue markers down by Broadway Road, and these are the last year's permits and it's all Alamar and and uh Verity Trails. And you have you know, uh the cluster of single family along Broadway and then the multi-family is up in the north and this is kind of how it's it's how it has been and how it's going to be. And if we go on to the next slide, we can see our future potential is not enormous in the district. There's, you know, plenty of room for growth, but it's not enormous. You will see two things going on in on this slide. Again, blue indicates single family. The dark blue part of the bars is higher density single family. So, what we're going to have going forward is the single family housing

045density is going to be going up. A lot of this is because of affordability and simply because of running out of land. You run out of land you make the lots smaller. So, that's one of the things going on and also the future housing stock or the future potential that we have here, about 44% of it is multi-family. Because again, once you start running out of land, you build higher and higher density. It's also includes multi-family and in the case of the district here, you've got that whole area up by I-10. It's a It's a It's a a normal place to be building multi-family anyway. So, that's going to be quite a bit of the stock. So, you're going to have higher density stuff. You can see the location on the map on this next

046slide. And on here, the white, which you'll see all along Broadway Road, or yellow, I guess it is, is single family. And the orange, which doesn't show up quite as well, but that's all clustered up along on the Avondale Boulevard and along Van Buren. Like I said, that's kind of where you're going to have these division. You're going to have the multi-family in the north, the single family in the south. And one of the wild cards that's going to be coming up here for the district is another freeway, Interstate Route 30, which runs along pretty close to Southern Avenue. And construction of that is supposed to start over by the 202 in about 2027. So, they're going to be connecting the 202 and working their way west. So, they're going to be coming across the

047bottom part of the district and hitting the river. That segment is supposed to be finished sometime between 2031 and 33, I believe. So, what this means is it's probably going to mean some popularity for the district because, you know, more more transportation access, but I don't think anybody's going to want to build in the very farthest southern part of the area while this construction is going on. So, some of this is probably going to be delayed because of that. Now, if we go on to the next slide, this is color-coded as for timing, where red indicates a project that's already active. They're already pulling permits and building houses. The dark orange, which you'll see quite a bit of that there in the along Broadway, is something that's coming up in like in the next year

048or so. next variation of orange, you know, next 2 or 3 years. Now, what we're showing here is phase five of Alamar. They have started in. They should be about three subdivisions under construction now. Pulte started their first one on that phase in, I believe it was January. And you've got, you know, two others that were starting in. So, they're going to have in total about 700 lots in this phase. That's working now. They'll be building for the next about next 3 years or so. But besides that, you have Meritage over at Avondale and Toronto. They've been lot development. They should be building houses. I'm expecting around the middle of this year, sometime this summer. Shadow Ridge, which is on the on there just kind of in between Alamar and Toronto. Taylor Morrison's working. That's

049a little over 400 lots. Lot development is going on now and we're expecting houses to be starting up around the end of this year. And over to the west, this Three Rivers Ranch, they have started lot development around the beginning of the year. And I'm estimating around the middle of 2027, they'll be building houses. What this means for you folks is for about the next 5 years, there's going to be a lot of single family houses being built by several different builders that are going to be hitting different price points. So, you've got, you know, different builders hit a different market and you're going to have about a half a dozen builders going on active all at the same time. So, you've got about the next 5 years or so, you're going to have a

050lot of construction going on, a lot of houses being, you know, occupied. But then we're going to start building these out in about 5 years and you're going to be in the last half of the production projection period, it's really going to be Alamar. Cuz that's going to come continue building for, you know, quite a few years now. But you're going to not have, you know, five master plan communities all building at the same time. So, you're in a few years, you know, the housing production is going to drop significantly. And if we go to the next slide, Rick, we'll be able to let you know what that all is going to what that all is going to mean. Next slide. We think. So, on this slide, we see a a time series history of

051how we look at population and housing in the district at the district level. Obviously, population is self-explanatory, housing units. The new number of units that have come online um each year. Um that shows, you know, what Don was talking about in terms of this recent surge in the multi-family, really kind of at at the very moment almost a slowing in the single family while we were waiting for these four new projects to all come online. And then you'll see the additions in under the single family column, you know, skyrocketing up to maybe up to 8 or 900 units a year during the peak cuz they're all building at the same time. And as he said, by the time you get to the end of the projection period, then we're seeing, you know, somewhat slower, but

052um multi-family will continue. We're looking at it, you know, or somewhere around 8400 housing units uh being put online in the next 10 years. Through the occupancy rate, that means about 7600 households. Remember I talked about households, occupied housing units. Some of them under 55 and some of them over 55. Well, on the next slide, and we don't show all the math, but I when I'm looking at how many households there's going to be in the district, in the background I'm modeling the age distribution and whether they're renters or owners. And those two pieces of information lets me model school age population cuz that's what drives it. As the age structure of the households and whether they're owners or renters. And so, the school age population is all persons age 5 to 13 living in

053the district, whether they go to your schools or any school at all. And then you look at the 2015, 2020, 2025 numbers, those are actual census figures. I interpolate in between cuz I need annuals, but um and so, it's showing that the school age population per household is shrinking. We saw that a little bit, you know, the share under 18 shrinking a little bit, but not cratering by any stretch of the imagination. You're still at, you know, 0.56 per household just for uh elementary age students, which is high a a a across the community. So, we compare that to what your K-8 enrollment was, total K-8 enrollment. And look at the ratio that is. So, if I compare total um enrollment to school age population and I go back to 2015, that's 0.733. You following?

054If I go to look at it this year, we're down to 0.574. So, it's it's literally like a 16% uh decline in in that in that in that ratio during that period. We take it another step for people we work with where we know how many of your students came from outside the district. We geocode, we know where all the dots are on the map. So, we can subtract the outside kids from the total enrollment. And then you find out in the second to last column, this is how many students living in the district that you served. And we divide that by the school age population to get what we call a service rate. And I've done a lot of work in public planning and in retail and you always talk about what's your market

055penetration. You know, what share of the customer base are you serving? And so, um in this case, we see, you know, about a 17 or 18, you know, percent decline in that share um since since 2015. Um it's not terribly unusual, I have to tell you. And you're um you know, it's lower than than some places, but certainly not out of the ordinary for what for the environment that we are all working in right now. Um I do think that the rate has been exacerbated over the last 4 years. The the decline because of vouchers. And we're starting to see slowing in the growth of the number of vouchers. Number of vouchers are still going up, but they're not going up nearly as fast. And so, when we're doing our projections, you know, when Don

056does the housing units, I can do school age population. It's that last calculation that is the most, you know, tenuous. If you will. If you look at the next slide, um We look at that relationship, how that's changed. So, the blue bar is the school age population, uh red is being the K8 enrollment, and the green line being the service rate. And so, the service rate has been declining over the last um 5 years at almost 1% per year, {point} minus {point} 0083. It's not a real strong correlation. The R squared is only 7227, but that's what we see. We also see that it hasn't gone down quite as much the last 2 years. So, what we did for the projection, and because we've gone through this period with ESAs coming online, I don't believe

057that your service rate will continue to fall by, you know, 8/10 of a percent per year. So, for your longer term projections, I used half of that rate. I think it's realistic to, you know, expect that you'll have some decline. I just don't think you'll have the kind of decline that, unfortunately, we've experienced um in in just in just the last few years. But, um but if we apply that continued decline um at {point} 4% per year, that would bring the service rate down to about 50% um by the end of the projection period in 2035. It would cause your enrollment to be at about 7100 students, so up about 1100 from where it is today, even though the school age population, total number of kiddos living out there, is going to go up by

058about 2800. And the interesting thing about that is is that it almost gives you something to shoot for. Because I'm being very conservative, I think, in trying to give you honest enrollment numbers and, you know, not get the cart ahead of the horse, but it also means there's opportunity. And to the extent that you can market and persuade, and um I've seen a lot of districts spend a lot of money on marketing, and I'm not sure it's all worth it. But, I do know what what sells is your own people going out and telling the story. And I think the districts that are doing the best right now are getting their people out of the schools and getting them into in front of the community. And an event like you had the other day, that's

059[snorts] priceless. Get people to understand what you're offering and what you're doing. So, um is this all sounding a little bit more gloomy than it should? I mean, at least your enrollment is still going up, and the potential is there for it to go up even more, depending on the product that or how it's perceived, at least. So, if you go to the next slide, we'll do this one real quickly, but we're going to continue to see that same pattern. I'm not going to recite numbers, but we're looking at a probably about a 300 um student increase at the K2 level, and more like four, maybe 500 at the 6-8 level, because we've got that differential now, where the smaller class the lower classes are are smaller. Um We're looking for an increase of maybe

060of 125 or so next year. Um we'll keep our fingers crossed, as we all always do. Uh we've got a slowing that'll cause a dip uh the following year, but then we've got a little spurt in there. You know, where Don's talking about those production rates hitting 800 units a year. Now, that's when the enrollment growth you're going to get is really going to occur. So, about half of the about 2/3 of the growth that you will get over the next 10 years will occur in the next five, whatever it turns out to be. Um when going from the district level down to the schools on the next slide, one of the things that we we know we model enrollment from, you know, from um where kids live. We We showed you those maps. We

061got to I mean, we know where they live. We know how that correlates to demographics. Um you all know that with open enrollment, that doesn't mean they go to school at their designated school. And so, this is just kind of a fun one to look at. It's something that I have to build into my projections for schools, but what this shows you is where kids live versus where they go to school. And these are all your students. This isn't other people. This is just your students. But, if you look at Collier Elementary, they get 406 from their own attendance area. They get 20 from Country Place. They get 48 from Australia. They get 167 from Littleton. Et cetera. They get 26 from outside the district. Gives them total attendance, kids in the seats, 742. If

062I read that column down, I see where the kids who live there actually go to school. And that total is 633. So, in the case of Collier, they gain 109 students net from open enrollment. So, whatever I'm projecting for their attendance area, the school is likely to have some number. It won't be exactly 100, but it'll have more than the attendance area would tell us. And that's just And the most important thing is to realize, especially in your case, um tremendous amount of movement. Only 46% of the students go to their designated school. And that's about the lowest rate that I've seen, and there's nothing wrong with that. You'd much rather have them choosing other schools in your district than leaving. So, I'm not saying it's a bad thing, but it does make it hard

063for planning, and it does make it hard, you know, to do some of the management and you know, staffing kind of things that that you all have to do. Um So, I just wanted it's in the report. Main reason why I wanted to describe it a little bit so is that if you see the report, you'll kind of know what it's talking about. So, um in terms of the next couple of slides, we're just we're just going to show um like where the we expect that enrollment change to be, that increase to be, and decrease. So, just like the earlier maps, parts on this here are blue, where we expect continued enrollment declines, and then red following pretty much where Don's housing projections would would would tell you, you know, down the Broadway corridor, between

064Broadway and Southern, and then a concentration up north, where we've got all the all the multi-family projects coming on. And then the second 5 years, um just uh the next slide. Just um less increase overall, and really concentrated at the area in the, you know, in the far uh southwest corner, the final stages of of of of those projects kind of being built out. So, we add all of that up, and that gives us the the top of the next slide, which is number of students by attendance area. A give again, where they live. That's what we're That's what we're really modeling. And so, um And you can see we've got several years worth of actual data there. Um the bottom half shows then how that translated into schools, cuz again, we know we've had

065half of our students, you know, in movement one way or another. So, that's why the table is set up this way. Uh in both cases, it shows that there was about a 447 student increase over the last 5 years. We're projecting for the next five, and then 322 for the five after that. So, we get up to uh over 1,000 a uh 1,000 student increase. Um as the chart shows, um an awful lot of that um growth um is going to be concentrated in the Australia Vista attendance area. So, it looks like we're the job is going to be figuring out how to manage that population and and integrate it with your other schools, if you can. So, um So, there is So, there is a bright side. You know, there is growth projected, and

066uh that's more than I can say it about 85 or 90% of the districts we work for. Um I'll go on to the conclusions, and then we can certainly do questions, but um you know, enrollment did decline significantly during the pandemic, as it did in a lot of areas. I think your area, because of the nature of it, was actually harder hit than than than some of the places that we look uh that we look at. Um We've got new construction, you know, continuing along Broadway, as as Don was saying. Um the recent increase in multi-family development. One of the interesting things about that is is that we go back and look then after a project apartment project has been open for a couple of years, and we can take your student data and by

067address, and say, "How many kids are we getting out of that apartment complex?" How many, you know, on a per unit basis. And there are exceptions, and certainly exceptions where there's Section 8 or other affordable housing, but by and large, the new multi-family units are not are not attractive to families. They're not affordable to families. $2,500 a month two-bedroom apartments, those those kinds of things. The only thing I'm hopeful of, and we've seen a little bit of it, is that the people who can afford the 2500 might vacate a less expensive unit and allow another family to move in. But, there's no real direct impact of all of that construction. It just really doesn't happen. And I was surprised, too. That applies to I call them the the monopoly houses, the little built-to-rent little cottage-looking

068houses. And I really thought, because of housing prices, that those would be desirable to families. And by and large, we haven't seen them in there, either. So, um it's a little bit more of a puzzle, you know, than it than it might seem. Um we talked about, you know, an increase pretty substantial increase in the school-age population, but by looking at that decline in the service rate, um you know, it it it definitely um cuts in to what that growth might look like, but that's the biggest unknown. Doesn't have to happen that way. And that's important to hold on to, I think. Um and you're positioned well to, you know, for growth over the next 10 years. All the lights are green. Developments are there. They have water. They have infrastructure. They have everything they

069need, you know, to grow and prosper. Um we'll just see how much that that all adds up to for the district. Um so, um if you have any questions, Don and I would be happy So, uh Rick, Don, thank you for your presentation. Uh governing board, what we tried to do over the last few months is just build a picture of who we are as an organization um by showing the demographic study, by showing some of the other studies that we've presented. Uh as mentioned, we have a great opportunity here um where that um that capture rate seems to be declining. We have an opportunity to figure out how do we recapture them. So, the the the activities that we're trying to do are a sign of what we believe we need to do to

070help us continue to grow. Um that's where the the compensation study tied into it when we looked at how do we reorg the the organization so that we're not chasing anything, so that we're ahead of it. Um so that as we look at our strategic plan and the work, how does it align with where we're growing as a community and what does that look like? And so, thank you again for that presentation. Welcome. Yes, thank you very very much. Appreciate that. A lot of numbers, they don't all play or settle in here, but >> I know. I appreciate you've done a good job of explaining how they are. Questions, comments from the board? So, thank you so much for this presentation. Um I was wondering, it was so detailed, so I'm very appreciative of that.

071Um I was wondering, was it taken into account that a lot of families, cuz I I know you mentioned pretty early on the presentation that the birth rate is going down, which is not unusual, that's happening all across the country, but I think that um I just want to know, is it taken into account that a lot of our population, our community, my family included, we came to Arizona, we're not from here, we came from someone else somewhere else, and we came with six children, and we brought six children into the district, and we're not unique in that. I live in Alamar Community Phase 1 when it was really bustling and booming, and when, you know, we were moving in and every even as we're moving in, people are trying to buy our homes, and

072I've seen the decline where we have a lot of houses that are being built that are not um families in that they are, you know, they can afford extended periods of time, but um a lot of people, even on our street, or their children do attend these schools um with our our district, and there are large numbers of children. So, does this account for the fact that maybe the birth rate is going down, but we are still having families that are coming in with five and six children, just putting them into the district? >> Definitely, and that's why we're looking at the demographic structure, and I'm like I keep saying that we you know, we're not seeing the the number per household decline anywhere nearly as fast as we are in other areas. So, that

073supports what you're saying, that there are still people moving in here with families, and even maybe six, you know, significantly sized families. It's just that it's you know, it's it's it's not all the houses, you know, and then we're fighting at the same time the aging of the people who moved in during the boom period. And as I said, they're not turning their houses over. So, you've got one part where the population's going down, while the other one's going up pretty fast. So, it kind of cancels. Others? Linda? I want to thank you for that presentation, also. It was very very very detailed, very very number oriented there. I am one of those boom people that moved in the early 2000s and have not moved out of my home, and have no children living there.

074Um you did say you were going to be up in Flag, right? >> Yes. Okay, cuz I I'm sure I will have questions once I absorb all this. I I will be bringing all of my papers, all of these documents up with me, so that I can ask my questions then, cuz right now this is way too much math for my my brain to absorb right now. >> we do tend to kind of overload people. So, I would say though that we're we want to be responsive. If there's something you really need an answer to, if you would get it to Ms. Peña, um I would be happy to answer questions after tonight, certainly. Oh, for sure. But thank you so much. It was very informative. Okay. Hey, Amy, did you have something? Okay, so

075my question is it's not really that big of a question. I just can't look away from it. What is our projected growth from the Cashin area, cuz it's red on here, and I just don't I guess I've never seen any building happening in the Cashin community. I'm looking in particular for it's 517. I don't know. Yeah, it's been on the books for an awful long time, and I but but who do you you speak to? I can't really say for certain, but I would say that probably, you know, this is an older area of town. Yeah. And I imagine that the houses are turning over probably a little bit more than in some areas, and they're probably a little bit lower price. So, we're building new houses where there's currently houses is what you're thinking?

076Well, I mean, again, I'm just trying to I'm guessing off top of my head, but most of what I'm looking at when I was talking about are new houses. I mean, in Cashin, you know, this would be an older area that they still have a fair number of vacant lots. So, you're you'll have a few houses come in, you know, now and then, but I'm guessing that they're selling some houses when people, you know, move up to maybe a more expensive house. >> Okay. Cuz Cashin's an older area. Right. And I just live near that community, and that's what kept drawing my eye as why I just don't see the houses being built there, but I could be wrong. I'm not I don't >> questioning your expertise. Well, and we're not showing really a whole

077lot of enrollment growth coming from there. We're just He's just acknowledging the fact that the area is not totally built out. Thank you. Marcus, you still there? Oh, yeah, I'm here. Um thank you all. Um this is this is phenomenal. Um the details. Um I serve on the uh Village Planning Committee for the um Estrella Village for the City of Phoenix. So, when it comes to zoning and single-family housing, um this is this is definitely something that I have uh been looking at. I think in terms of long-term growth for the district on my own. So, it's so nice to finally have it um on hand. It's something I can reference to, not just now, but in the future um when we talk about different things that are happening in our district. Um my questions

078um are more or less not for you all. It's more for our um administration. Um I think the biggest thing that I think I took away from this, and I spent I was on a plane traveling, so I was I was um had the opportunity to review this for a long time. Um and I was kind of um taken aback by it. I'm very very concerned for our long-term growth um in the district, more or less of our um long-term service um service rate that we have in the district, right? I think in um recent years, we've obviously the last 10 years, we've seen that go from 70% down now to almost 50%, right? And so, I think that's really really concerning, but we've also seen that we have those two major charter schools, Legacy

079and um um AMS, that have really just been um dominating the marketing. Like you mentioned how marketing is so uh effective. I think in in recent years, um just I could say the recent year, our district has really um taken a better look at that, but I think due to the um I know in past years, um we haven't really done much marketing as a school district or had annual community events, and I think that a lot of that, I think in our own community, that growing up here um as somebody whose family moved here, because this is one of the cheapest places to move to um in the valley um in 2010. So, um I think that we've historically been a lower um been seen as a lower-income families where a lot of families

080can start their um lives here. And I think because of housing prices going up, we've seen way more luxury homes be built um you know, with RV garages um and a lot of high upscale luxury um multi-family housing being built, the Boulevard. Um I think we've seen that in the long-term growth that um we are losing a lot of our um lower-income uh working-class families um the district long-term, because they can no longer afford to live in our district, um which is really really um unfortunate to see. And I think we see a lot of these newer homes that are being built, and a lot of these upscaler um you know, luxury apartments, and they want um options, you know, they're upper middle class, and they're not just going to choose, you know, the local

081public school. They have extra funding to drive their kids to else places. So, I think um you know, and recently, I've, you know, spoke to Dr. Lafitte about this. Our marketing efforts in the next 5 years, like you mentioned how that's a lot of our potential growth is over the next 5 years, um, really really have to become hyper, right? And I think, you know, I give a lot of credit, um, to Dan. He presented an amazing, um, presentation for the communication plan to really see that we're going to put ourselves out there more and more and more. Um, you know, and I'm really really excited to see where that all goes, but, um, we have to do everything we can, right? And I think the, um, charter schools, especially at Legacy and AMS, have

082been super effective, right? At, uh, marketing themselves. So, I think in the future, maybe Dr. Lafitte, you know, the communications plan is amazing. Maybe during the study session, we have a discussion as a board to maybe we can have conversations about a long-term marketing plan, and maybe Dan can present and see, you know, what supports does he need from the board to make sure, um, that he can succeed in his role. Maybe it's more staff, maybe it's more funds towards PR and communications, um, just to really make sure that we can brand ourselves as a district better out in the community. Not just brand ourselves and show ourselves, but actually be, um, a part of the community and become a culture, um, in our neighborhoods. Um, so, I think that is really something that I

083would like to see because we now know that this more or less isn't about a, like, trying to find students, it's more or less now become a competition that we have to compete with charter schools in order to be able to bring back our students, right? And I've seen other districts that have been successful. I think Tolson Union has done a phenomenal job at their marketing. Like, they have phenomenal, amazing. I cannot tell you how many things I see on social media and the news and, um, on the West Valley View, they just market themselves, billboards, they market themselves like crazy. So, I think then the recent years we've we've seen that because of that, they only have, I believe, one or two charter schools within the whole boundaries that they have to compete with.

084And they're still building new schools, um, you know, down in Alum Rock, which they'll benefit from. And and you know, I think that we have to, um, not only brand ourselves and market ourselves much better. And also, um, like Dr. Lafitte mentioned, um, in our compensation, we all have to make this be a place where staff want to work. Um, we have to build a positive culture for all of our, um, employees and our teachers, um, within the district. So, um, these are just my opening, um, thoughts, but I did have just a couple, uh, other questions, but you all did, um, phenomenal. No, thank you. Thank you so much. You're very welcome. Thank you. Thank you, Marcus. I think the the comment, if I got it correctly, is just the idea that the information

085that we send out, you know, outreach and things like that, the best way to do it is to get to the families. And we've started this year with getting 2,800 people in there. And it's something like Marcus is talking about marketing, and we just need to continue doing that in the work that we're doing. So, Yeah. Thank you very much with, uh, for the presentation. Any other comments? If not, appreciate it very very much. Thank you for the opportunity. Next item. Thank you. Next item, we will turn it over to Ms. Garrison, who will, uh, give information on our student our parent student handbook for FY26-27. Thank you, Mr. President, governing board. Tonight, I'm going to share some information about the student parent handbook, including its purpose, the process used to make revisions, and the

086changes that were made for the 26-27 handbook. The parent student handbook has been created as a valuable resource for our families and serves as really our contract with our community. It outlines what we expect from our students as families, as well as what our families can expect from the district. Our goal is to foster strong partnerships rooted in clear communication and shared understanding. It's The handbook is designed to clarify and streamline our processes and procedures so that we can work more ef- ficiently and focus our efforts where they matter most. Of course, that's supporting student success. We've organized it with a table of contents, hopefully make hopefully making it simple to find answers to common questions and guidance on important topics. It sounds really simple, but I assure you, the process is pretty comprehensive. The

087formal timeline for the handbook really officially kicks off in January each year and starts with site leadership being asked to solicit feedback from their leadership team, site councils, PTSAs, student groups, and secretaries. Simultaneously, the rest of the administrative team is asked to read sections and submit feedback based on either legislative action or possibly lessons learned. So, the parent advisory committee and the executive team also weighs in, and this group is asked to submit feedback on recommendations for revisions. The idea is to have many people read it because sometimes those of us who are entrenched in this work and write it year after year, know exactly what we meant. But having different readers helps us clarify. Um, proofreaders are so helpful each year. Each year, uh, go ahead, flip, Jim. A new cover is designed as

088the theme is developed. Uh, huge thanks to Mr. Budzban and his team for the colorful idea. This is the new cover you're seeing here. And for his flexibility as he incorporates suggestions as we keep asking him to make changes, make revisions, make little tweaks. So, really appreciate his team for that. Also want to give a shout-out to Dr. Lafitte, who is our chief architect and helped us construct the building theme. As typical, we look forward to using the theme throughout the year and having a little fun with it. And we're going to stick with the building tomorrow together for next year. The review process includes routine things that get changed each year, uh, for the convenience of our families. Calendars and contract uh, contacts are always updated, and many eyes again help make sure we

089have the current information for things like board meetings, school hours, instructional calendars, things like that. Because it's been vetted for so many years now, there are typically minimal changes, and this year was no different. On the first two pages, the governing board information, including the meetings for next year, was updated. On page five, there were some clarifications added about registering for team sports. This is This has to do with our athletics section, and a link to the portal where parents register. That was a great suggestion we got from, uh, from one of the stakeholders about going putting the link right there for activate because all the athletic stuff is done directly online. On page six, we added e-bike and e-scooters to the list of things that student might ride that students might ride to school.

090Um, this is in addition to, back in our day, it was probably bicycles and skateboards. Then we saw scooters and hoverboards, and now so we added these new modes of transportation. Um, as you are aware, uh, House Bill 2484 requires that all public schools limit the use of cell phones. So, that started this year. And we have to not only limit the use of cell phones during the school day, but also access to social media platforms. So, language was added to clarify the expectations that personal electronic devices are turned off and out of sight during the day. So, we put a little bit more language in there about that. Um, on page seven, you will also see that there was a graphic added. This was our, uh, safety protocols. The And it was a result

091of the work that the safety committee work safety committee is doing, trying to build that common language. So, we put a picture of it in there. Hadn't done it before. I thought it was an awesome suggestion. On page 12, language was added to outline the new restrictions as a result of House Bill 2164. This means that starting when we return next year, we may not serve, sell, or allow ultra-processed foods during the school day. And that starts when we come back. On page 12 and 13, you will find the new detail of the dress code to align with the new governing board policy. It's right there on page 12 and 13. On page health staff reworked the student health pages. They focused on clarifying symptoms when students would be sent home or should stay home,

092and inserted a reminder that medications not picked up at the end of the school year will be disposed of. So, then once all of the recommended revisions were compiled, there was a handbook revision committee that met in March, uh, to work on these changes. And then we immediately began updating the handbook that you see today. I'd like to thank all who read, sent in comments, and attended meetings. And a special thank you to my assistant, Ms. Reina Okita, for all the fresh eyes and questions throughout this process and her formatting and translation that she is still working on. The handbook is a it is available through parent portal, so parents can go on parent view and see it. And it's part of the annual verification process where parents check in and say that they have

093received a copy. It also is available will be available on our website. And it's available in paper copy upon We like to, be able to hand the paper copy to our new enrollments. And or upon request. We keep them around the office, um, so so people know that they can have a paper copy if they want one. So, with that, I'll take any questions or comments that you have about the new parent student handbook. And and just quickly wanted to thank Ms. Garrison and all the stakeholders who engaged. I know she went through this process for months, and there were lots of folks working through it. So, thank you for getting through the handbook and and updating that. Thank you. Any comments or Alinda? So, I want to thank the committee, and I want to

094thank you, Ms. Garrison, because I know that was not easy. Um I have at one time sat on the committee and it's a lot of work that goes in it. Um I'm I looked over the dress code. Um I just had a question about it. Where it says clothing that covers appropriate body parts with non-see-through material. So as a parent, I would assume then that my child could wear a tank top to school because it covers the appropriate body parts. Uh Member Stallard. We were talking on the committee pretty much from neck to an appropriate length on the legs. Um we purposely did not call out such detail cuz the moment we start doing it, then it says show me where that says. So um why tank tops would be okay. Spaghetti straps, no. Okay,

095I might be a little confused cuz if I'm reading this like this and my child wears a spaghetti strap to school and they get called out I'm going to ask where does it show me in the handbook that they cannot wear a spaghetti strap to school or like a regular tank top. Like I have I have a regular tank top on because I have a see-through shirt on. Okay, so I have a tank top underneath. As a parent, I and I say this because I work in a middle school, so I deal with this daily. Um I'm going to say show me in the handbook where it says they cannot wear a spaghetti strap top. And we're going to have to learn and work with our community and make sure that we're educating as we

096go along. Good answer. Thank you. I was just curious because you know, we we know how it goes. Any other comments, questions here? Marcus. Yeah. Um thank you President Nelson. Um I want to second what Linda said. Um yeah, maybe if we can just, you know, add that clarity in there because I think what I can see happening is just, you know, it creates you know, I think this is our first year doing this, so I think there obviously is going to be I think there's going to be a lot to learn. I'll probably going to experience a lot with our new um school year with no um student uniforms. So I think to agree with Linda and I do see where Linda's coming from, so maybe if we could just maybe add a section

097in there that, you know, I know there's a section I think I read I read that lists um no certain things that they can wear, so maybe just add spaghetti straps in there just to make sure that like that also I think helps the teacher out from having to be able to um fight it because I think if I'm a parent, I don't see that in there and then I'm arguing with the teacher you know, so I don't know what your thoughts are, but yeah. It also calls out that we can't you can't show undergarments. Which would imply you have to be thick enough to cover. Yeah. Cuz not little, you know, some girls might not wear at that part where they're wearing undergarments that they might just have a spaghetti strap on and you

098know, they just might not have on any anything under it because they're not at that point. Puberty, I guess. Yeah, we we'll evolve over the next year. Yeah. You will. And then I had a um a couple other questions. Um for the uh governing board section um I think it was it was it says and I went through the I have a couple other questions, but I know it it says like um it's not in order from like president, vice president, member, member, member. I don't know if maybe we can um fix that before I don't know if starting was sent to the printer. Is that like on page one and two in the beginning there about governing board? >> Yeah, in the beginning. What order do we want to do? So uh President Nelson,

099uh Vice President Sinasac, we try to go alphabetical because remember uh in January those roles could change. You don't make it role specific, you make it alphabetical to try to support just that that that um linear kind of organization. Thank you. >> Okay, I mean as as long as that's common practice, you know, that's us uh that that's okay. Thank you. And then um I did have a couple other questions. Um for the campus and student safety um do we have anything in there explaining about the um drug dogs? So that the parents are aware of it. Community. Maybe I could have missed it, but I don't think I saw it. I would have to read and get back. I think there was a reference I'm I'm scanning the page right now, but we can

100definitely put that in an update if I find it. Okay. Yeah, I know I I did look through it and I know it mentioned like a lot of other things for safety, but I just think maybe like it's it's important just to know for families to know that that's a thing and and just have it on there um so that they're aware that's one of the things [snorts] our district does. Thank you. And then for the uh parent involvement, um I don't know if this is new but I definitely did love the new section if it is new. Um if we could maybe distribute that and put it up in offices and maybe have it on handy for staff and to share with parents. Um I really did like that. I don't know if it's

101new, but it it looks it looks very detail-orientated, very straightforward. Um I'm seeing Are you talking about the the words or the graphic on page 17? Yeah, the parent guide solving problems. >> Oh, excellent. Okay, thank you for that feedback. Distribute it more? Is is is that a new thing? Is that has it always been in there? It has been. Mhm. Oh, it has been? Okay, yeah. Um I don't know if maybe we could you know, distribute that, maybe put it up in the offices. I think like or have that on handy for staff cuz I think that's that's a very I didn't even know we had that. So that's like that's actually my first time ever seeing that. So that's actually really good to know that we have it out there. Maybe we can

102just distribute it more, maybe have it on our websites or you know, cuz I know that a lot of families you know, usually um don't know what to do and they have a lot of issues. So I think if we have a little more handy and maybe that's also helps the teacher from having to be able to try to find it on their own if we could have it, you know, just on handy for them to direct the parents. You got that taken care of there. Anything else there? >> oh oh yeah, yeah. Just had one more. One more. Um and then I know for the um student IDs, I think this could have changed, but I couldn't find it. Um for the ID for the lanyards, I know in past practice, maybe maybe I'm

103reading this wrong cuz I know there's two separate sections for IDs. Um there was for the lanyards, are we just all saying all students can use the little tin lanyard, have to use a little tin lanyards or is it still in the I think it's from kinder to fifth grade they use um uh the little tin lanyard and then from sixth through eighth grade I think we had to where they can use any lanyard. If I'm Yeah, that is correct. K-5, uh actually the there's clips for the really youngest students. And then there's lanyards and then breakaway lanyards and then a thicker lanyard, longer one for the older students and students are also allowed to use their own. Um can I just put out there that we make sure that that is being done at

104all of our campuses and that we're providing it to our schools. Like the thicker lanyards or the breakaway because I think sometimes some of our schools run out of these certain lanyards, so then they're telling kids they have to use other lanyards. Like the younger kid lanyards and things like that. Noted. Thank you. Thank you. No, um no, that's really good and I and it is it still the same way for the wearing lanyards for if you're a middle school you can wear any and then if you're K through five you have to wear the lanyard. Member Sinasac, yes, that is correct. Okay. And not any appropriate lanyards for 6-8. Appropriate lanyards. Okay, is there a specific reason? I would I think I've ever I don't know if I've ever asked in the past. Is

105there a specific reason why we do it that way? >> Um the committee years ago wanted to give the middle school kids more choice. Okay. I think maybe in the future could we explore just I think cuz you know, now we're moving to a you know, all dress code where kids can wear everything. Could we explore in the future? Cuz now I think I can see in the school year happening because parents think, you know, their kids can wear any anything that's school appropriate. They just wear like a regular lanyard. If they're in second or if they're in third grade, I think I can see that happening. So maybe I don't know if you guys could, you know, I don't know what the feedback could be from the committee or maybe from staff or parents

106on that just cuz so it creates it easier and then also just maybe saves our families, you know, more money so they don't have to buy the little tin lanyard. They can just bring, you know, any lanyard they have at home as long as like you said it's it's school appropriate. Um, just for the next school year maybe, or if even during this current school year. Um, if that's something we could consider in the future. Got that down as a note there. Appreciate that. Thank you. I think the only comment that I'd like to make is that I want to make sure that in this transition year that those kids that want to wear uniforms because their parents can't buy the other stuff that they need, that that's going to be able to be worn

107and they're not going to be looked down upon, bullied, or whatever it might be just because those are there and they've got them and it's going to be a transition year and maybe we do both of it or all of it, but that we just need to make sure that the kids have got clothing to wear to here whether it's uniform type or new or whatever it might be. Thank you. Appreciate that. All right. Next item. Item 11? 11A. So, um, we wanted to bring an item to you guys. So, last uh, board meeting it was identified that we had an audit finding which we didn't give adequate notice for our um, for our financial reporting. And so, what we wanted to do was bring this just to see if we can get consensus from

108the board to add a board meeting in the next couple of months here. So, what what we'd like to just get is um, consensus on scheduling a special governing board meeting on June 23rd, 2026 for consideration of approval of the 2026-27 budget. The timing of budget adoption is governed by statutory requirements that establish when the governing board may make uh, may take formal action regarding the budget presentation. Scheduling a special meeting will ensure the board is able to consider and approve the budget within the required time frame. And and I'm going to throw this information out and and Ms. Peña, if I mess something up here, please jump in. But, we've been missing the timeline because there's actually a window of time. You have to give a 10-day notice, but you have to approve it

109uh, with by the 20th day. Uh, the time frame between when we have to approve it by, which is July 15th, from the board meeting prior to that is a complete month earlier. It puts us outside of that 20-day window. So, what we need to do is add a meeting in here to correct that. Um, moving forward, we may have to do this and ultimately change our schedule next year to make sure that we have that window established properly, but to help correct this so we don't have this problem for the upcoming year, I just like to get consensus um, that we're able to add a June 23rd meeting. It will be in person because of the hearing portion, but um, those who can't make it can be telephonic. So, if we at least have

110someone will be here physically. So, we'll do our portion. So, I I just need to see if we can get consensus. And and the meeting is only going to be like a 5 or 10-minute meeting, right, to open up About 15. It's two items. It's it's um, the hearing portion and then it's the presentation. Well, the hearing the hearing which is the presentation, then that'll end then it'll go into the adoption. So, it's it's just it's really one one action item for the actual meeting, but prior to that is the hearing which is the presentation. So. Yes. Great. Members? Amy, what do you got? Thank you, Dr. Laffitte, for clarifying about being able to call in cuz I will be on the plane that morning, so I think I would enjoy being able to call

111in. I don't know how rested I will be to be here. But, I can definitely call in. I can be here. You will be there. I will be here. You will not. Rachel? I'll be there. Marcus? Are you able to be there with that? Yeah, I'll be there. And then, um, uh, Dr. Laffitte, um, regarding the uh, governing board member line for the handbook, if you could provide um, a list over the last 5 years of how it's been labeled >> just so we can stick Okay. Go ahead. Just so we can stick to the topic that we're on. If you can we can we can discuss that offline. Um, I want to stick to the the specific topic. Are you talking about adding this to that? We're just talking about whether we're available for

112that meeting on the 23rd right now. Right. Yeah. Yeah, we want to stick to the the agenda to this item. And we can because it's such a short meeting, if if you'd like to, it can't it doesn't have to be at 6:00. It can be at it's a it's a 15-minute meeting. It can take place at at 4:00 if that works. And I'm I'm I'm I'm with Amy. I will not be in town that particular day, so I'll do the tele- commute, whatever it might be. Okay. So, we got three present and two that'll do in by Okay. the magic of telecommunications. Will Ms. Ada send us an invite? Yes. Are we comfortable with moving it up to 4:00 p.m.? Yeah, whatever time works for you. Okay. Thank you. Okay, 4:00 p.m. on June 23rd.

113Thank you. Items number 12, action items. So, next item I would like to hand it off to Mrs. Peña who will discuss compensation for the 2026-27 school year. Okay. Good evening, President Nelson, members of the board. Tonight, we bring to you the recommendation for compensation for the new school year, the 2026-27 uh, year. I would like to highlight a few uh, key areas. Um, we are going to go into our um, budget estimates and so we're going to uh, explain what we know at the moment. As of now, the state legislation and governor's office has not finalized the state budget. We are estimating a 2% inflation adjustment to the base support level for the 2027 uh, school year. We know that this is uh, what will be funded to us at is as it is

114the lowest inflation increase the state is required to make by law. Um, AS ARS 15-901.01 states that the legislature shall increase the base level of other components of the revenue control limit by a minimum growth of either 2% or the change in the GDP uh, price deflator. The inflation increase in the GDP price deflator is more than double the 2% that is currently being proposed for the next school year's base support level. See the language uh, the language is uh, contained in um, the ASRS that I just uh, noted which is the 15-901.01. So, what we know um, today uh, as you heard earlier tonight in the demographic study, there is minimum growth for the um, for for us at the moment. Um, so uh, what we would like to do is to have a

115conservative approach for um, the new school year and we will adopt a budget uh, propose a budget um, that will show current um, enrollment numbers um, for this year. So, that those are our plans for um, our um, current uh, district budget. Um, moving on, we are going to take a look at uh, classroom site fund calculations. We have received those calculations and so for the new uh, new year for the district, we will receive $883 per weighted people. This is an increase of $41 from 2026 level that was at $842. This amount is based on estimates provided by the Joint Legislative Budget Committee, the JLBC, from the education sales tax. Once the state budget has been finalized uh, and we have um, numbers coming out from the state, we will definitely keep the board

116updated and informed uh, and bring this back item back. Arizona State um, Retirement System is another item that uh, affects our budget. And so, our contribution rates that have uh, have been set for the new school year as well. Those new school rates are effective July 1 and those uh, will be decreasing for the employee and employer. The current rate is set at 12% um, for both sides and that will decrease to 11.98. Um, so just uh, 0.02% uh, on each side. The alternative con- contribution rate is also another item that gets set by uh, Arizona State Retirement. And we uh, have those numbers as well. It uh, will be decreasing and so the Arizona contribution rate is paid by the district for retirees who return to work and also draw their pension from ASRS.

117This rate will decrease from 9.75 to 9.45. So, with that, the district is recommending the following for the upcoming school year. We recommend that we allow returning staff to receive a 2% increase for the new school year. Continue retention, longevity, and performance pay stipends. Continue the classroom split loss and adding an amount to be equally divided by all the returning teachers. Those are our recommendations tonight. And so, tonight we ask you for the approval of the compensation package. Any questions? Question. I don't have any questions. You know, I just want to say thank you so much for outlining this. You know, I think it was very clear. It makes perfect sense. And I just I'm in full agreement with it. And the other board members are as well. So, if anybody does have any questions,

118then Amy. I just have one quick question. I'm in agreement with it. I don't have any issues. And thank you for being so clear when explaining. The classroom split loss, is that when we can't find a sub for a classroom, so we split them and then we divide the money we would have spent for a sub amongst the staff that took extra students. I'm going to defer to Ms. Robianne. And she will confirm this. I believe that is, but I don't want to miss any details in how that it gets applied. >> Member Sossaman, yes. So, we have a calculation that we do. It's a pot of money. So, we don't split a daily rate, but we do split the pot of money over the semester first semester and second semester for teachers that either

119lose their prep because a teacher a substitute wasn't found for a special area or they have to split students because a substitute was not there for a general education teacher. I thought so. I just wanted to make sure we're still continuing that. Yes. Linda. Okay. So, is that what this means adding an amount that will be split among the returning teachers? Correct. Okay. Yeah. All right. Thank you. All right. I'm going to try to do something a little bit in line with Mr. Roberts rules here. And see if I can follow this. I will ask for a motion. Then one of you will state, I move that. Another will second that. Then I'm supposed to restate what that motion may be so we all understand it. And then if there's any further discussion, which we've

120already had, and then we'll vote on the motion and go from there. So, can we have a motion on item number 12A? I move the governing board approve a base salary increase of 2% for returning staff for fiscal year 2026 2027 and a one-time compensation increases for retention of staff, performance enhancement, and recognition of additional work performed. Thank you. Is there a second? I'll second. Amy second. All right. And just to restate what Rachel's already did. She's done such a good job of doing that. I'm not going to restate it cuz it's all right there. Can I have a vote on this motion? All in favor? I. I. I. Any opposed? Thank you. The motion passes 5-1. Next item, item 12B. Okay. Next item I'd like to call up Ms. Robianne Musso, who will discuss

121our employee medical, dental, and ancillary benefits for fiscal year 26-27. Mr. President, Dr. Lefeuvre, governing board, thank you for the opportunity to present our employee benefits for the 26-27 school year. Littleton has participated in a self-funded insurance program since 2009. And our district currently offers two healthcare plans through the UnitedHealthcare collaborative through Valley Schools Management. We have a high deductible healthcare plan, which is coupled with a health savings account known as an HSA. And we have a traditional healthcare plan. We have ancillary benefits that um include the ones that are listed on the side. Cancer, major illness coverage, dental, assist an employee assistance program that provides our employees the opportunity to talk to somebody for a variety of things that they might be going through. Could be counseling services that they need. It might be

122legal advice. It could be advice financial advice. There's a variety of things that we do that. We also offer flex spending accounts. They can be both with the traditional and the high deductible plan. There's two different kinds that we offer. There's a short-term disability that is also available for student for employees, sorry. And vision coverage, voluntary life, and then we have a wellness program that includes an app that our staff can go on and they can earn points and they can answer health questions every day. Our benefit enrollment is utilized in an online platform. So, our insurance elections all go into the our employee access portal. And when our employees elect their benefits, they do it electronically. They can then print out form right after they submit it so they know what their cost is

123going to be, what all their benefits they've elected for, and they have it available to them immediately. Instead of doing old paper forms where they have to submit them and then wait for for some type of notification. So, for 26-27, our employee benefit plan rate sheet is attached to the agenda item and outlines the changes in premiums as well as employer and employee contributions for each of the two medical plans. Our high deductible health plan, our employer contribution is $6,909.48. And that includes the $6,609.48 of the premium and a $300 HSA contribution. And there is no cost to the employee for this health plan. There is additional HSA contributions that an employee can make. We have a match as a district if they do that. And they can also earn an additional contribution into their

124HSA for doing different things a wellness exam and hitting a certain platform in our wellness program in our well styles. If they pick the traditional health plan, the employer contributes the same amount of money that we would for the high deductible plan. So, that's $6,909.48. And then the employee has to have an additional cost of $4,625.88. There was an increase to these plans for a percentage of 3.92%, which roughly ends up being $249.48 that the district is absorbing. So, that cost was not passed on to our employees. The ans- We have some additional benefits. We have a dental insurance plan. We have two plans that we offer. The district covers the total cost of the Cigna dental plan for all employees. And if our employees select the Delta dental plan that we offer, the district

125pays the $129.84 towards that plan. And next year, the employee's cost would be $267.72. There's also those additional benefits that are no cost to our employees. The wellness program that we talked about, the employee assistance program. And the district does also give basic life insurance, which is one time the employee's annual salary. We have voluntary ancillary benefits as well. These do have a cost to them. The cost vary on based on the selections that the employee makes. So, we have two vision plans this year, which is new. We have a base plan and a buy-up plan. There is a short-term disability plan, which we've had for a long time. Flexible spending accounts like I talked about. Additional voluntary life insurance that our staff can pick. And then cancer and major illness coverage as well. So,

126tonight the administration is recommending the approval of the medical and ancillary benefits the rate sheet as presented. And I'll answer any questions that you might have. Any questions that you have? I didn't have any questions. I just want to thank the district that even though the rates went up, the district was able to absorb the cost and not pass it on to the staff. I I really appreciate that and I'm sure they do. Thank you. Marcus, any comments? Yeah. Thank you for the presentation. This is, you know, I echo what Linda said. I'm very happy we're able to absorb those costs so that our employees don't have to see any continuing costs. You know, fortunately we live in America. So, healthcare is very expensive. And very unaffordable for most, especially working families. So, I'm very

127happy to see it. Um Could you by chance explain and walk maybe the board and the community through how the health savings accounts work? So, a health savings account, Um, deposits made into those accounts and then you can use that money for your medical expenses that you occur. So, if you go to the doctor and there's a a bill that you receive, you can use your health savings account to pay for those costs. But those costs those costs are pre-tax, right? The HSAs? President Nelson, the uh contributions to a health savings account are pre-tax, correct. Thank you. Mhm. And then, um, all of our employees say receive that like if they enroll in the high deductible, they receive $300. All of our employees, everyone in the district. Member Sincerous, yes, that is correct. All employees

128receive $300. Then if they contribute $200, the district will match an additional 200 for them. And then there's an additional opportunity to earn Hold on, I'm going to pull my sheet out. $300 extra if they reach a level three on the wellness program. And if they submit a wellness exam, they get an additional $100 contribution. So, all together, um, they can get $900 in contributions and that's every employee in the district that selects the high deductible plan. Anything else? Okay. And how does it work with admin? Is it the same way? Member Sincerous, I believe that's the next item on the agenda. This plan would be offered to a uh administrators for 26-27. Okay. Thank you. Mhm. All right, no more questions. Can I call for a motion? Linda? I motion I move the governing

129board approves employee medical, dental, and ancillary benefits as presented for the fiscal year 26-27. Thank you. We have a second to that? I'll second. Amy for a second. Thank you. Um, again, just to restate as Linda's read right there, the that's the motion. Uh to approve the employee my glasses here medical, dental, and ancillary benefits as presented for fiscal year 26-27. I have a vote. All in favor? I. >> I. I. I. Any opposed? Thank you. The motion passes 5-1. Raco. Next item. Okay. Next item, administrative benefit conversion. So, governing board, this aligns with the previously communicated item and I think was probably the question that uh Vice President Sincerous was moving towards. So, over the past few years, what we identified was that, um, administrators received an additional benefit from the district that provided

130either a uh fully funded individual HSA account or a buy-up to the traditional health plan. We were made aware of an IRS change several years ago that the district missed. Because of this, we need to provide um, we need to provide an offering to admin Well, let me see. I have to make sure I check my notes right. Um, to correct this, we have to and to make it whole what we need to do Well, what it what we needed to do to correct it was uh what Ms. Musil presented, which was share one identified um, health benefits offering for all staff. And then we needed to move administrators to that piece. And then there's another piece which is to make all individuals whole. So, to correct that, what our recommendation is is to approve

131a one-time adjustment to assure employees administrative employees are made whole for any loss of benefit not to exceed $4,826.28 per individual based on their most recent benefit selection. This request is a and uh just to ensure that we know that there's no new monies for this. This adjustment will be funded through a reallocation of already budgeted and historically expended funds that would not be required that would not require any additional spending by the district. Any comments, questions on that? Yes. Um, so I I thank you for that insight, Dr. Lafitte. Um, so we're made you know aware of this and I'm thinking more into it and I'm realizing that we might need to table this and speak with our attorney only because I'm not necessarily comfortable or sure that it'll be appropriate to correct something

132that's been going on for years that somehow we missed for so long and that benefited some and and so few and so many others did not benefit. My mindset even as you say that is if there's this one-time allocation, why not take that allocation and give it to those who did not receive it all these years instead of giving it to those who already received it. It's almost like and I know it's no one's intention, but it's almost like double dipping. It's like I go to the grocery store and I paid $200 for groceries, but I get $40 for groceries and that happens over and over again. And then at some point the store catches on and says, "Okay, you've been getting $400 worth of groceries and paying 200. So, to correct this, we're going

133to give you $1,000 worth of groceries one more time." So, I I just think [clears throat] that and and I'm in no way, um, shape or form an expert on this, so I know that this may be speak going over my head. This is not my arena, but maybe we should speak to our attorney just to make sure that we're going about this in a proper way. So, uh President Nelson, member Barnett, as we identified this, our first step was to work with it with our attorney. So, we worked with both Valley Schools who identified that there was indeed an IRS regulation that precluded us from doing this for what is considered a highly compensated management group. And so, we then went to our legal team to discuss this. And they spoke through their agency

134to determine what were the legalities of it, what was the actual um, changes that needed to take place and how could we rectify the situation. Our What we were What we were informed we could do was either decrease the offerings for administrators or increase the offerings for everyone. Well, what it cost us for administrators was about 160,000. If we were to increase for all staff to equalize that, it would cost us over $2 million, which our budget could not handle that impact. And so, for us the decision was easier to say just lower it, everyone gets the same exact benefits package, but so that individuals are made whole, what we would do is provide them that offset amount as a part of their base salary that they could then um, move into which uh President

135Nelson mentioned earlier into their HSA account, which is pre-tax, or they could move it into buy up their traditional plan. President um Nelson, if I may ask a question? Please, go ahead. Okay. Um, thank you for the presentation, Dr. Lafitte. Just so um our community and everybody has aware, what was the um benefit? I know cuz I know we're mentioning it's it's a benefit, but what exactly was the benefit? The benefit was something that wasn't, um, anything that was outside of the norm for administrators. I I had had it in previous districts. In this district, what was offered was either, um, again going back to the statement, was a fully funded health savings account um deposit for an individual, not a family. So, that was about $4,300. And then for um, those uh staff members

136that chose not to take that, they could get the buy-up to the traditional plan. The traditional plan was an additional uh $4,446. And then there were also buy-ups into the vision and dental plan for a total for a total maximum of anyone who took um, the highest levels of offerings was the $4,826.28. And so, the reason it's being made whole by adding that to the base salary is because now by being in the base salary, we're not annually and it's a one-time, you don't continually do it. You put it that one time because now it can continue to pay those other offsets and that's where the term make whole comes in. Because at that point they're not losing any any They're not losing any benefits and that's the part that we had to ensure to

137ensure that, um, we're not creating anything that could be agreeable um, movement towards the district. Okay. And, um, so you know, thank you for that information and just to um you know, provide context. I know you said it's it's you know, common practice in most districts for classified, certified to get about I think 300 and then they like uh Raco and mentioned, they have those other options that you know, certified and classified can pay into and then admin gets that, you know, total 4300. Um, you know, that's good information to know. And then I think my next follow-up question would be, um, you know, when did this IRS change, you know, happen, um, you know, exactly and then could the board maybe have a copy of that, you know, just as evidence to make sure

138that we're you know, if we're going to vote on something, you know, we just have that at our disposal. The exact year of that of that IRS change, I can't give you the exact year. I could I could find the I could pull the the number that's associated with that regulation and provide that information to the board. I believe it was I believe it was at least at least 10 years ago would be my estimation. So, I think I appreciate more Dr. Lafitte's ability to come in and look and see some of these things that haven't been I don't know what to say up kosher up to where they need to be. And I guess he could hide that, but I've learned that he's transparent and he wants us and the community and everything know

139what's going on. So, I really appreciate him and what he's brought forward tonight. I agree and in the spirit of transparency, I definitely think the board should speak with the attorney just because I appreciate that you had the opportunity to, but as the board, I think that we should have the opportunity as well. I'm not in disagreement. My thought on it I just it just doesn't sit right that the way to rectify something that is no fault of yours and I'm grateful that you caught it Dr. Lafitte is to then throw a one-time allocation of funds before we make everything to be kosher again. My mindset is we can take this offset this $4,800 and change and then distribute that amount divided and distribute it to the people who are not receiving it and that

140kind of give makes them whole or they can feel as if they're receiving something and maybe that's not right. So, I would feel best speaking with our attorney as board members just so we can keep that spirit of transparency and move forward. Yeah, I'm going to second with Rachel. Thank you. No, Dr. Lafitte, you know, we talked about this. Thank you for bringing it up now. Right and I think you know, for an estimate of 10 years, this is not your fault. I want to be clear about that. It's not your fault. And I think you have done a great job at bringing this forward, but I think you know, internally, you know, we've had many superintendents in the last year and a half. We had a long-standing superintendent, very long. And so, I think

141recognizing that in the past that there have mistakes have happened, right? That was just almost estimated estimated 10 years. I think now my question would be, you know, what are procedures that we're going to put in place to ensure maybe it's trainings for HR department and benefits to make sure that they can catch things like this. Maybe all of our staff is required to have extra training to make sure that if this has been going on for that long that there are procedures new procedures in place refreshing our memory on policies and the IRS tax code which changes almost every year. It's not fun. But just to make sure that all of our staff, you know, I know you said it's it's common and that we received it, but if there is a tax code

142change, you know, I do get confused at that part, right? Because if it's been going on for that 10 years, I'd like to know other districts, you know, when did other districts move away you know, from from this? Which I think you know, our attorney having that conversation in an executive session just so the board can get a better understanding of that, you know, with the presentation so that then we can have information to make the best informed decision. And that's kind of just where just where I'm at because I think for an almost an estimate of 10 years that if you know, administrators have been getting that 4,300, but all other staff have potentially been getting that 900 if they've contributed that upfront cost, you know, I see that as a huge inequity in

143our health savings account in our district. Well, I think this is the effort I mean we've just had a presentation of what we're going to do forward and I think that takes care of that and this is a one-time fix. So, do I have a motion to Oh, I'm sorry Linda, go ahead. Um first of all, I want to thank you Dr. Lafitte because you have come in here and you have found you know, several things that it's not anyone's fault. I mean things happen, they get overlooked and it um in talking with you and understanding more about what's going on, I understand more now why um when we talked about we need more people, we need to separate some some jobs out so that people aren't overworked and we we do have people that

144can look into the nitty-gritty and make sure that we are following everything that we need to follow so that things like this don't happen. I you know, it's certainly not the administrator's fault that they got this extra money. I mean, it does happen in other districts. Um I I do agree with Marcus and Rachel though. I am a little nervous because I don't want us to get in trouble. Um but I I am going to trust you in the that we're going to be okay and so, I will make a motion and I move the governing board approves a one-time adjustment to ensure employees are made whole for any loss of benefit not to exceed $4,800 26.28 per individual based on their most recent benefit selections. Thank you. Do I have a second? I'll go

145ahead and second that. I have a vote. All in favor? I. I. I. Opposed? I. No. We have three in favor, two opposed. It passes three to two. Next item, please. So, for the next item, these are hopefully some celebrations for some new staff that'll be joining either the administrative ranks or into a new role in the district. So, I'd like to start off by calling Ms. Meza Lab for the recommendation of our principal at Lincoln Prep Academy. President Nielsen, members of the board, Dr. Lafitte, I am happy today to bring to you a recommendation for Mrs. Amanda Herrera to be the next principal at Lincoln Prep Academy. Amanda has been with Littleton since 2016. She started as a teacher at Littleton STEM Academy and moved into an instructional coach role as well as then

146the current assistant principal there. Um in the slide you can see some of her accolades. She helped Littleton STEM Academy be an A-rated school in 2024 and 2025. Littleton STEM Academy also as we celebrated earlier is an A+ school for the school year 2025-2026 and she was part of that as well. When she was a teacher, she was an West Inside Impact Teacher of the Year in 2017. Littleton STEM Academy is also was selected as a model PLC school and she supported with that application. And Littleton STEM Academy was a model schools supported with application and presented at the National Model Schools Conference. So, the first model schools is professional learning communities and the second one is another organization that has also a model school. So, the recommendation tonight is that the board approve Ms.

147Amanda Herrera as the next principal at Lincoln Prep Academy. Thank you. Any comments, thoughts, questions? Um I just I just want to say maybe if she could if she's in the audience, I don't know. I'm not there. So, if she could come up and just kind of, you know, introduce herself to us. I've heard many many amazing things about her and I'm super excited um about this. I'll she make the motion before she here? She's here probably after we approve her for the position before we can Can I make a comment? Do any of that? Question or Just a comment. Please. Um I would just I love that this is kind of we're bringing someone that has shown a commitment to our district and has risen up in leadership. I love that this kind of

148like grow your own. I think someone who already knows our students, someone who knows our culture are coming in and taking um the helm of a campus just it excites me to see. I'm I love other principals that come in as well, but I just really love it when it's someone who we've had for a while. Thank you. >> Yeah, I want to I want to second what Amy said. Um you know, I'm super super excited for her to be going to Lincoln Prep. I've heard she's done many many great things at Littleton, but you know, I I also you know, want to make sure that that she has the support, you know, and I think Dr. Lafitte, we've had this conversation that you know, we have to make sure that you know, she has

149an assistant principal, that she has a team, that she's able to have a fully staffed front office. Um you know, because Lincoln needs a lot of support. It's going to need a lot of support. You know, I think she'll do amazing in the role, but I want to make sure that she's able to have those you know, full staffed. Okay, let's before we get her all up here and all excited, let's have a motion to get here. May I have a motion to entertain the I move the governing board approve Ms. Amanda Herrera for principal at Lake Havasu Academy for the 2026-2027 school year. Thank you. Do I have a second? I second. Thank you. We have that a second. Um are there um Can I Can we have a vote? Please. All in favor.

150I. >> I. Are there any opposed? We'll go 5-1. Okay. >> Congratulations. >> [applause] >> Do you want to come up and say a few things? Would you like to come up and say a couple of things? Hello, governing board. Um I would like to thank you guys for the opportunity to be able to lead um Lake Havasu Academy. I'm super excited to be able to um get over there and be able to support the community and the students as well as the staff um in their journey in moving forward in the district. Thank you. We appreciate you and you taking care of that for us. >> [applause] >> Next item. We'll turn it back over to Ms. Musall. So, President Nielsen, governing board, Dr. Lafitte, it's my um honor to bring to you tonight

151a recommendation for our director of student services. Mr. Richard McCormick has been with Littleton since 2016. Um he has held uh dean of students at multiple campuses. Um some are Collier Business Academy, Fremont Fine Arts Academy, and most recently Littleton STEM Academy. Uh Mr. McCormick comes to us with over 20 years of administrative experience in his previous district. Um he is uh over 20 30 years in education. Um he was part of the Littleton STEM Academy for the A-rated school this year as well as the Littleton STEM Academy school for 2020 2025-2026. Um Mr. McCormick is here tonight. And so, after uh if you have any questions, I can Can you tell me what the student services the director of student services is going to do exactly? So, that is the job description that you

152approved um back in February. He will support um our chief school uh support officer, and he will help with uh the student discipline across the district, our MTSS program for uh discipline and behavior, as well as help our staff uh learn how to help students have uh replacement behaviors in that piece as well. And also work with uh parents that might have parents um concerns. That's kind of what I thought. I just wanted to make sure. I have a few words to say about Mr. McCormick. >> [laughter] >> Uh-oh. So, I have had the pleasure of working with Mr. McCormick when he was our dean of students at Collier Elementary. Um and I'm just going to say that I am another one like Ms. Sosenko who believes in growing your own. Um he has come

153and he has gone and he has come back again um because we love him so much and he loves us so much, and I honestly um cannot think of anyone better suited for this. Um I learned a lot from him um in regards to dealing with um challenging students and stuff when I was at Collier with him. And so, I just want to um say I'm just I think he would be absolutely amazing. Thank you. Any other comments? If not, can I ask for a motion? I do. I do. I got to get back to that page. My computer's not working right. I move the governing board approve Mr. Richard McCormick for director of student services for the 2026-2027 school year. Do I have a second? I'll second. Thank you. Second. All of those in

154favor, say I. I. >> I. Any opposed? 5-1 uh 5-0. Thank you very much. >> [applause] >> Thank you uh governing board president, Dr. Lafitte. Um I'm really really excited about this opportunity. Um this is a position I've I've always had my sight set on for a while. Our district didn't have this position. Um and when I saw the position become available, I was very very excited about applying for it. Um you know, I just keep coming back to Littleton. I retired a year ago, and I just I really didn't like retirement and appreciated the opportunity this year, and um I'm looking forward to several more. So, thank you for this opportunity. Thank you. Appreciate it. >> [applause] >> Item number 13. Any future agenda items? Yes, I have some. I'd like to remind everyone

155that under the Arizona Open Meeting Law, the portion of this agenda is limited to brief suggestion topics for future agenda discussion, debate, or direction to staff of matters not listed on the agenda is not permissible. And stay within these legal boundaries to ensure transparency and compliance with Arizona statutes. Uh thank you, President Nielsen. Um I wanted to um just follow up on the request of the from member Barnett to uh put the Make Your Day program on our um uh board meeting. Um I know she requested it last year, so I just wanted to just maybe bump that up. And then um I did want to request a um study on um social uh social worker pay. Um and I wanted to bring back the placement salary schedule for um for for staff. And I

156won't get in the weeds cuz I know what you said, but I just want to bring back the placement salary schedules to have a conversation about some positions that I think should have names on the um salary placement schedule that currently don't. Um and then I would like to also place the agenda preparation policy on a future agenda item for a meeting. And then I did want to also follow up on the um telecommute policy that I um requested to have on the agenda. And then I wanted to request um something for also for a uh future agenda. If we could have a letter grade improvement plan, I don't know if that's in existence. Um but if that's something that we can um maybe if sorry, draft up or I don't know, but district-wide letter

157grade improvement plan from admin. Um and then I also wanted to uh follow up and request a study session for marketing and just kind of uh strategic planning when it comes to competing um and keeping our students enrolled in our district. Um and that's pretty much it. Thank you. Linda. Go Rachel. Go ahead here. I'm not sure if this would be something we could discuss um or if this is something we need to You can point me maybe towards this card is. Um I was at Lake Havasu earlier today, and this was one of many times it happened. That area that intersection right before is is a safety hazard for our students. Um I observed a pretty significant accident that took place as at right around dismissal, and so many of our students saw it.

158It was very traumatic. So, I don't know if if maybe we go to city council who we could discuss that with, but there's a huge safety concern as it relates to that intersection. A four-way stop or something could happen that might help us, but it's not safe for the kids. Thank you. We appreciate that. Linda. Um I don't know um if this is even something that is like for us, but as much as I love the grow your own, um I am noticing that we have two key people now leaving Littleton. Um and I'm just I want to make sure that I'm concerned about like the support for Littleton that we have people or we're I don't want to say actively looking, but cuz I know, you know, are we actively looking for people that

159can continue to support them because they are just like soaring up in the clouds here, and we have two of their key people leaving and going on to better things. Yes. >> future agenda item. Can't discuss anything other than that, so. Uh President Nielsen, I'm sorry. I have I have just one more. I'm sorry. We we we got a five for one sale tonight. You're going to have to wait. No. Go ahead, please. [laughter] Um uh for the for the study session, um I think it's more or less maybe a two separate study sessions. But um I really just wanted to do another separate study session on um just data on um why our families are choosing other options. Maybe this goes into the competition uh study session, but just a study session on our

160programs and just kind of our offerings in the district. Uh more or less just to do a survey to our families to kind of find out some of the programs that they want to see offerings, what keeps them in our district, what maybe makes them consider leaving our district. Maybe that could be just tied to our PR and a study session on something related to that. And that's all I have. Thank you. I think Ada got all of those down. If nothing else, the next line item, agenda adjournment. Do we have a motion to adjourn? I move that we adjourn. I second. >> Quick. That was quick. All in favor? I. >> I. I. Adjourned until our special meeting on the 20