001Thank you. Our MUSD leaders recently came together for the annual end of the year leadership summit focused on unlocking potential and the keys to success. This time of reflection, collaboration, and planning allowed leadership to celebrate growth while keeping their eyes on continued improvement. A highlight of the summit was a visit to ASU's Helios decision center where we explored new tools to make data more accessible and actionable. As always, the conversation centered on how MUSD can continue to raise the bar for ourselves and for our students. The work ahead is exciting and we remain committed to using every insight, every resource, and every voice to move MUSD forward. Last month, we broke ground on a new chapter in MUSD, a K8 school designed to grow with our community. It is the first K8 model in our
002district and blends strong academics with real world learning to spark career interests and build essential skills from day one. We were joined by Mayor Nancy Smith, Vice Mayor Henry Wade, city manager Benjamin Bidder, council members Vince Manfred, Anamarie Noir, and Eric Gtle, along with state representatives Chris Lopez and Terresa Martinez. This school represents thoughtful planning and shared purpose. Thank you to everyone who continues to support the future of MUSD. Congratulations to Deina Lions, eighth grade ELA teacher and team leader from Desert Wind Middle School, one of only 10 educators nationwide to receive the 2025 teacher leader impact award from Edthena. Through her team resilience initiative, Miss Lions connects curriculum to real world application, empowering students with both knowledge and confidence beyond the classroom. Her rising resilience platform provides valuable tools for educators, parents, and students.
003Miss Lions is an example of how one teacher can inspire a culture of growth, support, and lifelong learning. Congratulations, Miss Lions. Nearly 250 Golden Hawks made history as the first graduating class of Desert Sunrise High School. These seniors help shape the identity of a brand new campus, setting the tone for years to come. Their achievements span academics, athletics, service, and career readiness, reflecting the values of MUSD. These Golden Hawks are ready to take flight, and the sky is the limit. Congratulations to the class of 2025. Maricopa Unified School District recently celebrated speech pathologist, excuse me, speech language pathologist day. Speech language path pathologist and speech language pathologist assistants throughout the district received the MUSD Tumblr as a small thank you for the important role they play in supporting students and staff. Their efforts keep communication
004flowing and help create a positive place to learn and work. And we have a very have a group of very talented athletes with us tonight. These superstars had incredible seasons with countless individual and team distinctions among them. These slides represent the most notable honors. So athletes, if you made it out tonight, please stand when I call your sport from Desert Run Sunrise High School. Baseball. Do we have any baseball? Golden Hawks. How about softball from Desert Sunrise? You're supposed to stand. We want you to stand so we can make a big deal. Uh, and do we have any track and field athletes from Desert Sunrise? Okay. From Maricopa High School, do we have any baseball players here? How about softball, boys? Okay, they're super busy probably getting ready for next year, but we're super glad
005some of you made it out tonight. So, athletes or athlete, thank you for representing your high school and our district so well. So, um coaches, thank you for your dedication and for making the season one to remember. We would love to have a picture with those who made it out tonight. So, please make your way to the front of the room for a group photo with the governing board right up here. Yeah, thank you. Let's hear for our athletes. Thank you, ladies. [Applause] you're invited to stay for the rest of our exciting meeting. Um, but if what we understand if you have to go like you know keep your skills at the top of their the peak of your performance. We know this doesn't happen by chance and Mr. Downey, Mr. President, that's my report.
006Thank you, Dr. Lman. We now move on to item three, governing board members report. Member Rothschild. Good evening everyone. Happy summer. Um just wanted to take a quick moment to thank all of the 2025 graduates, their families, all of the instructors, everyone that made it possible uh for them to walk across that stage whether it's virtual or in person. So um that was it. just had um this is my first year as a board member being able to participate in many of the ceremonies and someone said that is one of their highlights of being a governing board member and I will say lots of tears of joy were shed. So I concur that that is one of the uh highlights privileges of being able to see all of those young people fulfill those uh current
007goals. So that is it for me president. Thank you, member Lopez. Thank you, President Downey. Um, I had the privilege of giving out the awards with Vice Mayor um, Mr. Wade for the Be Awesome Space Camp, fourth grade space camp at MEES right before school got out. And then I've been home recovering, so I haven't haven't been able to um enjoy those end ofear ceremonies, but congratulations to all of the graduates and and hopefully this next year I'll be able to go. Thank you, Vice President Curte. Thank you, President Downey. Um well, as you know, being a board member, we don't really get compensated. We all do this for free. and um the love that we have for our children and our community. But the biggest perk that we have is to celebrate all of
008the celebrations at the end of the school year. And um I was uh blessed enough to be able to attend most of the schools. I didn't make all of them this year, but I attended most of them. Um promotions and graduations, um science fair and class party. So that was kind of fun. Um, and it was really nice that all of our board members were able to attend the groundbreaking uh for our new K through8 school in Sarrento. Um, it's such a fantastic feeling to know that we are making history um for our first K through8 school. Um, I've received a couple of emails and people are already excited to know what are we going to name it? How are we going to do it? Um, so in case you're watching because there's not a
009lot of people here, uh, we do have a policy in naming facilities. Um, and we will put together a committee that will consist of a variety of our stakeholders including community members. Um but I would encourage the board to review that policy before that committee gets put in place so that we make sure that um that is what we want to take place and that they have um complete direction in doing so. So uh stay tuned. It's more is coming and it's really really exciting. So thank you. Thank you. I am just going to speed things up and say ditto for both the graduations and the um groundbreaking graduations were a lot of fun and congratulations to all the students. Um so we now move on to item four work study specifically 4A school construction
010update Mr. Harmon. Great. Good evening, President Downey, members of the governing board, and Dr. Lopeman. Purpose of the presentation is to review the timeline of the four new school construction projects tied to our bond. Here are the four projects of some of the milestones listed. The current timeline for Kate number one, that just broke ground, will be completing in July of 2026. The MHS workforce development project just entered the planning phases and has a completion date of July of 2027. Kate number two and Desert Sunrise High School edition anticipate state grant approval this December, both with a completion date currently of July 2028. New school construction projects that are funded with state grants follow this typical timeline. So for Kate number one, we were recommended for funding by the school facilities oversight board in December
011of 2023. We waited for the legislature to approve a state budget with our project listed. Then we started the planning process in the summer of 24. That timeline completes the the school two and a half years after that December approval by the SFOB. If Kate number two follows the same timeline, we're currently three years away from completion since we anticipate approval by the school facilities oversight board this upcoming December. We want to discuss the benefits of accelerating the timeline and begin our planning now. That will allow us to break ground and complete the project um one year ahead of our current plans. The first benefit of accelerating the plans for Kate number two is providing space for our growing enrollment without leading to overcapacity at our existing schools and creating the need for additional portable
012classroom buildings. Fiscal year 26 with the addition of uh the eighth portable classroom building at Santa Rosa we are prepared for the projected enrollment and that said all of our middle and elementary schools are near capacity fiscal year 27 we're projected to grow by 709 K8 students K8 number one will be completed just in time to capture that growth leaving about 299 remaining capacity at that grade level year 28 we're projected to grow by 701 K8 students which would lead to overcapacity that could would strain our other sites and lead to potentially more class portable classrooms. Fiscal year 29, we would uh again be projected to grow by 437 additional K8 students. That year, we would add K8 number two and we'd be able to capture that growth with about 169 remaining capacity. If we
013accelerate the timeline of K8 number two and successfully open in fiscal year 28, we're able to stay ahead of that projected growth without additional strain on our existing schools or more portable classroom buildings. The second benefit um is budget efficiencies that we gained by building the school one year earlier. Currently, construction escalation is about 5% annually. Um that would lead to savings of about $2.3 million in buying power between our bond and our state grants. That that information leads to our administrative recommendation to accelerate the planning timeline for K8 number two. At the next board meeting, we're prepared to bring action items for contractor, architect, and project manager for K8 number two for your approval. That concludes my presentation. I'm happy to answer any questions that you may have. Mr. Mr. Herman, I just want
014a clarification. I know this that we're going to basically from my world I would call that we're thinking of spending money at risk and I know we don't approve it tonight and we haven't spoken to the exact amount but in general can I ask at this stage what's your feeling on state finances that we're going to get approval at the end of this year and also that swear word what do you think state politics that we're going to get approval at the end of this year to move ahead? Thank you President Downey. It's a it's a great question. Um, last year we submitted a capital plan to the school facilities board with our growth projections. They held us for consideration to be approved this upcoming December. So unless our projections change, which they haven't slowed
015at the K5 level, I think it's a very high likelihood that we're approved. Um, yes, we were taking this this planning at risk. There's still about $2.5 million about of cost in kind of planning and designing for that year. If we're not approved in December, then likely we'd be approved a year later as we'd hit those projections. So that at risk is not a long-term risk. It would be more a short-term risk. That's kind of the the timeline and and any potential risk that exists. But I think that our projections, our growth hasn't haven't slowed enough um to to put us uh behind on that approval, but there still is always an unknown with the school facilities oversight. Mr. Armen, so should that happen, because we don't know with the politics and the makeup of
016what's going on right now, especially state nationwide. Um, if we were to move forward with this next month, what would be would it all would with the budget money come out of all of our bonds in order to move forward with this? That's a great question. the uh having the bonds opens up the flexibility to to accelerate project like this without using district funds. This is still we would be using bond funds that are assigned to this project. Um either way, let's say that we are delayed. We're not approved in December. We would still finish the design and planning of that. So at approval, we could start the project. So even if we're not even if we're not approved in December, this process still saves us a year at the time of approval if it's
017this December or a following December. Would the state perce perceive our action as disrespectful or irresponsible is my next question. Yeah, I've spoken to uh David Shut. He's our representative with new school construction at the state. They're they're this is not a process that they're adverse to. they they explain the at risk and there's some challenges with funding timeline that we're prepared to to handle. Um but this is still I think the best thing to do for our district for the the reasons we listed tonight. If we move forward there is the possibility that we might have to purchase land if there's none available that meets the meets the approval of state facility board. I know we have some pieces that have been donated to us, but um they may not I don't think they've
018been approved by the state facility board yet. Uh we're we're pursuing an application with the state on one of our donation sites. Um pending their approval that will answer that the direction that we need to go. Okay. Um ultimately the um the land would be selected by by you the governing board before we would proceed. Okay. How long does that take for the state to approve a land parcel? The land parcel um with a with a donated parcel, it is a three a three-step process. Um step one and two have been um submitted to the school facilities board. It'll go to their governing board. I think their next governing board meeting is in August. After that, there's a list of studies that need to happen. It's really a three to four month process start to
019finish. But if you finish phase one and two, it's likely that the next phases won't be an issue unless one of the environmental studies, you know, presents some some issue. May I add May I add something? Um, I certainly wanted to remind the board a few years back when we um were planning Desert Sunrise High School, we had a master plan that was still exists and is much larger than what was actually built and what was actually planned in the beginning. And then when the state allocated another $18 million, um, there was no delay because we already had the plan. So this is a similar application of uh the resources that we have and also I think uh you know again reminding um you that the the longer the money sits the because of escalation
020you know it's so it this this is a good this is a good use of our resources and a good use of our forward thinking. So that's why we're making the recom we will be making the recommendation. Um maybe not a question just more so of thought. So time value of money price of things. Now the sooner you make the purchases and begin building the thought would be we would save money because the farther we look into the future we can um estimate or guess that things would cost more. So, uh, with that, um, is that another possible positive of of moving forward, uh, sooner than expected? Yeah, we will save about $2.3 million in potential lost escalation between our bond and the state grant. Since both of those funds at approval, the bond already
021is a stagnant dollar amount. Um, but as soon as that state grant is approved, it it'll immediately start losing buying power. So, this will help um build a school a year sooner. So, about $2.3 million in savings. and not necessarily savings per se, but we would be able to purchase more with our with our money. Correct. Yes. Correct. We don't want to build any more expenses. That's another savings. Okay. Thank you, Mr. Herman. Thank you. Thank you. We now move on to item five and I have cards for call to the publics. Members of the board may not discuss items that are not specifically identified on the agenda. Therefore, pursuant to ARS 38431.01i. Actions taken as a result of public comment will be limited to directing staff to study the matter, responding to any criticism
022or scheduling the matter for future agenda. The board requests that all comments be limited to three minutes or less and the public refrain from use of speech or language that is offensive or inappropriate pursuant to board procedure 3-203. Please state your name for the record. I just want to underline um just your name for the record. You do not need to give your address. Um first up we have um I apologize I'm not good at names um but Rugie Yellow Yeah. Well, whenever you do it up here. Yeah. Yeah. But you're you're called. You can come up. Sorry. It has to be on the card. Our policy says it must be the person on the card. My name is I'm here today to I'm here Can I just read the letter? Can I just read
023it? Yes. Yes, your time. You got three minutes. Just read the letter. Absolutely. Okay. To whom you may concern that Miracle Unified School District Middle School. This letter has a formal complaint regarding what I believe to be a case of constructive discharge for my position at the middle school. Constructive discharge occur when employee is forced to resign because their work conditions have become tolerable that no reasonable person would remain employed under those circumstances. In my case, I believe the conditions and treatments I endured fall under this definition. For over two years, I I was employed with Desert Wind School and dedicated myself fully to my responsibility for one full year from 2023 through to early 2025. I worked in extreme difficult classroom alongside one of the staff member despite the position requiring at least four
024people. It became known throughout the school the school that no one wanted to work in our classroom due to the difficult to the challenges and whenever new staff were placed in the classroom they did not did not return. Regardless I remain committed and supported the students as best I could. One of the occasion due to a short staffing and lack of certified teacher presenting as required a student threw a ball at my eye causing ongoing pain and medical issues. I sought medical care, submitted a doctor notes and was placed on leave by my physician. However, those days of medical excused absences were were used against me. I was not paid for them and they were cited as part of an attendance issue. Despite my despite my submitting leave requests through the system in advance, most
025of which were approved, I had no prior routine warnings or performance issues on record. In fact, I had just been issued a contract for 2025 2026 school year. Despite this, I was abruptly told that if I did not resign, the school would proceed with recommendation for termination based solely on attendance. I was told the board would be called and that I had no option. I consider this not only unfair but discriminatory and retatory, particularly because I had recently reported serious students behavior concern and raised safety issues. The formal incident involved a student who had engaged in multiple inappropriate actions including harassment, damaging my personal belongings and unsafe conduct towards other students. I reported this and was told by the administration that the students would apologize. Instead, he escalated his behavior. Another staff member was present
026and did did nothing to intervene. This same staff member had no CPI certification and had physical handle students multiple times with no consequences. When I stood up for myself and others, I was made to feel like the like the like the problem. These same students had a long history of unsafe. Sorry, I need to limit you to the three minutes. What you can do, however, is submit that letter to the board. Um, it's I think it's probably the email that you sent us, but it it gets it on record that you submitted the letter and it will distributed to all the board members. Okay. Okay. Thank you. Uh, next up we have is it Sheila Sudano. If you're going to speak, you need to come up to the mic, please. And just as I say,
027just officially state your name for the record. And yeah. Hello, my name is Sheila Sudano and I am here representative of Rugatu in regards to her situation. Um, in May of 14, 2025, she was actually extended her job with the Maricopa Unified School District. uh upon having a situation where she sent a complaint in, she was then asked to resign. Um and the the actual offer for the job was not even two weeks prior to her being asked to resign. So once that complaint went in, there was some kind of discrepancy. I don't know what it really was. Then she was asked to resign at her position. So, I'm just here as an advocate for her. Um, uh, because it feels unjustified. Uh, and I know that the district, because I was reading up on
028policies and so on and so forth, you don't really have to have uh, warning depending on what it is that you're being uh, asked to resign for. But in this particular case, the only reason I'm here is because I've seen this. I have an agency here in Maricopa. I'm a uh developmentally disabled foster care agency. So, I've been an advocate for the courts system for 17 years here in Maricopa. So, I just thought that this particular time she may need somebody to speak up also. Thank you. We have no more cards. So, we will move on to item six, consent agenda. Mr. Mr. D. I'd like to make a motion that we accept uh the consent agenda with the exception of 6E. Second. Lisa, we have a motion to second. Shante Rothschild. I. Carol Lopez.
029I. Patty Coutrey. I. Robert Downey. I so moved. We now move on to item seven action item specifically 6E which is a approve the facility rental fees. Mr. Harmon. Thank you. President Downey, members of the board, you have an action item to approve uh the facility rental fees and I'm happy to take any questions you may have. Mr. Harmon, I asked for it to be pulled off because um the importance that the district shares in community partners. Um and I thought that this would be a great opportunity for you to uh share why um at this time because it's been a while since we've increased our rates, but why we're doing so and what the benefits are. Thank you, Member Grey. Our new policy states that we need to approve a fee schedule for our
030rental annually. Um so that uh triggered us to to take a close look at our just facility rentals in general. Um and and our new policies and um as you mentioned we haven't adjusted our facility uh our facility fees since Dr. Lman's been here and I don't know how long before that. Um the last time we really looked at this was around COVID and with the uh events in the world, we decided to kind of hold those rates where they're where they are. Um other parts of the policy state that the the fees should be commiserate with the costs of the district. Um we know that our costs go up every single year in utilities and and just all of our fees from from uh our hourly labor to just maintaining our buildings and supplying
031our our materials. Um, so we, um, and we didn't really just want to come up with arbitrary increases. So, we went, uh, we pulled a couple dozen districts to kind of see where their fee schedules were, and that helped us see maybe where we were high or low or or where the averages were. Um, overall, we're the the rate um, proposal is somewhere in the 10 to 15%, some might be a little higher or a little lower, but they're still they're not, you know, our rates are still really low. uh if you're a renter, the biggest cost will be the custodial rates and not necessarily the the facility rental amount. But we feel that this is in in line with with other districts and um will help us also maintain um the cost of the
032district while also being good partners with our renters. And Mr. Harmon, did we remove some of the other like parts of the school to rent as well? We did clean up some of those items um like the cafeterias and cafeteria. There's some areas that um were not approved in the in our rental agreement. So, we wanted to um make some adjustments with that while we're adjusting our policies agreement. Great. Um the only other I know that we're just introducing it now. Um so, we might be prepared to get some feedback from others, but it's in line with our current policy as far as our classifications because we have four classifications of renters. Um, and then this will be a lot smoother even when we go to our new rental software that we're going to be
033using. Yeah, that that will uh we we feel the whole system will be a better experience for the renter, easier to navigate. Um, the new policies, the definitions are clearer for both us and the renter. Um, we'll also give give all of our renters notice if if approved tonight. We're not going to start those rates immediately. We'll give them some grace period and some communication. We didn't communicate to our renters before it was approved by the board. So, we want to give them some some time to to adjust and be prepared for any changes that are coming. That's awesome. Thank you. Um, vice president um made mention of classifications. So, one, if you could elaborate on that um because my initial question was, are there criterias um or a list of who can uh specifically
034and who cannot use our rental facilities? Yeah, that's a great question. And so in policy 3-202, um item A is the short-term facility use, which is um the specific portion that we're talking about around facility rental. And there are four classifications. Um the first would be someone that's working with our district kids for educational purposes. Those are not charged. Um class two would be nonprofits that are working with district students and they're also not charged. Um the class three and class four are where those fees are and those are what's listed on this uh this fee schedule. Um so that would be the class three would be organizations that are working with students not just district students but but uh you know student aged children that are not only district students and uh class 4
035would be you know commercial kind of uh for-profit activities would be the two the distinguishing between class three and class four charges. So Mr. Har with that. That would be like if we had um a youth sports league that wanted to run our facilities, they would be a class three. That is correct. Yeah. And the principal has the final the administrator has the final say on whether or not Oh, yeah. The we we definitely send those to the principles for approval of what happens on their sites. Thank you. I'd like to make a motion that we approve item 6E. Second. Lisa, we have a motion and a second. Sean Tay Rothschild. Hi. Carolyn Lopez. Hi. Patty Catra. Hi. Robert Downey. I so moved. We now move on to item 7A. Discussion and possible approval of
036the personnel schedule. Mr. Beckett. Thank you, President Downey, members of the governing board and Dr. Lman. You have the personnel schedule in front of you tonight. I'd be happy to take any questions that you have. you have come. She already dang doodle. Um, well, my understanding, do we have to pull another I know that I am going to request that we pull item 18 off of uh the HR agenda. I think it needs to be worked on a little bit um as far as job description and classification. Um, I will say um Mr. Rebecca that I know that the job was posted through our talent ed on May 5th, but this is the first time we're seeing it, which is kind of again leads me to the cart before the horse thing. Um, do you
037want an explanation? Sure. Sure, I'm open. Once again, the the position that we formerly had uh was held by the stage manager, the CTE uh teacher in that classroom who also did this role. Yeah. uh there was a bit of a concern that maybe recruiting for that position somebody would not have the time and energy to put into this. So it was after the fact that we made the decision to split those two roles out. We didn't feel it was fair that stage craft manager teacher would be required to take on this duty. So that's the reason why we're bringing in front of the board for approval. Totally agree. I I totally agree. I think that that job was he we were very fortunate for 14 years to have him in that role. Um so
038I totally agree with that. I just wish that we would have seen this earlier than now. That's all. Um and then the other question I had after a conversation with um Dr. lotman is do we need to pull number 43 off? Yes, we can do that. Okay. Technically, that individual has withdrawn their candidacy for the position not offered a contract. Even if we approve it tonight, the contract will be issued. Okay. So, that's it. Anybody else have any question? Oh, no. I want to wait to make sure everybody if anybody else wants to ask a question. Well, I do want to brag real quickly. You see the number of teachers we have on the new employees. Oh, yeah. Very excited about that. Getting close. I believe we're down to eight openings here. Eight just to
039fill. Correct. Yeah. And an ad. Working on that one, too. Okay. All right. So, I'd like to make a motion that we approve the HR agenda without number 18. D43 as well. And 43. Second. Lisa, we have a motion to second. Shante Rothschild. I Carolyn Lopez. I Patty Coutrey. I Robert Downey. I So moved. Thank you, Mr. Harmon. Mr. Packet, do you got something else? I I believe we have one of our uh directors who's advancing in his role. I think Carter Plant is out the audience tonight. I'd like to recognize him, our new director of technology. [Applause] We now move on to item 7B, discussion of possible approval fiscal year 2025 2026 proposed budget. Mr. Harmon. Thank you, President Downey, members of the governing board, and Dr. Lman. Like to share a presentation to
040review some of the, you know, highlights of the proposed budget for fiscal year 26. Um, as all of our budgets, it aligns with with the goals of the Maropa Unified School District strategic plan. Some of the key highlights. Um, first I'd just like to mention that we do not have an approved state budget. Um, to adhere to our board me schedules and statutory deadlines, we're proposing a budget on what they call preliminary budget forms that were released by the auditor general's office with a number of assumptions using data from preliminary budgets that will likely be approved in the final version, but they are assumptions at this point. One of those being the base level um which is the amount per weighted student increasing by 2% up to $5,11326. The elimination of Prop 123 add-on and
041the elimination of two one-time add-ons that we had in fiscal year 25 for um DAA and for our poverty weight. The M budget is based on current year funding. We're proposing a projected growth in ADM of 375 based on our demographic study. our teacher experience index um which accounts for average teacher experience above the state average. Our our TEI factor is 1.0132 and that increases our budget by almost a million. The classroom site fund increased from $792 to $842 per student. Some further highlights and celebrations. This budget continues investment in sightbased leadership and decision-m through multiple funding sources. It includes budget to maintain current benefits with no cost uh no cost increase for employee medical insurance and also adds an employee wellness program. Provides a 5% salary increase for all staff and some additional compensation
042increases for select classified positions. It increases the teacher base rate from 54,000 to 56,000 and includes $2.6 million of additional staffing. The proposed budget limit for M is $87 million, an increase of about 2.3 million. Um, here's a summary of our available funds and the expenditure plan for operations. The details of these plans were discussed at governing board meetings in January and February. The summary of our capital budget and expenditure plan showing about $1.2 million remaining to roll into some future into our future needs. $840 per pupil for classroom site fund generates $9.6 million. We add any unspent carry forward and earned interest. Our budget limit is 16.5 million. We've got an a total expenditure plan of around $9 million toward teacher salaries. We should end uh next fiscal year with around $7.5 million in
043reserves to carry forward in classroom site fund. This budget includes a $5.6 million levy for adjacent ways to cover the proposed expenditure plan. We have an estimated ending balance of just over 19.1 million and the $5.6 million levy to reach a budget limit of just over $24.8 million. On the expenditure plan, we have Kate number one. The on and off-site um costs are $3.8 million. Planning ahead for any on and off-site needs for Kate number two of $3 million will allow us to levy more next year if needed. Feral road construction estimates of $17.5 million and we have about $500,000 for parking lot projects throughout the district. The summary slide reviews the budget limits for of the funds in our proposed budget. The combined budget limits of these four funds are over $138 million. As
044a reminder for adjacent ways, um it's the mechanism by which school districts constru construct, maintain, or otherwise improve any public way adjacent to any parcel of land owned by the school district. It is used for the construction of sidewalks, sewers, utility lines, roadways, and other related improvements in or along such streets and intersections, and to pay for such improvements by the levy of a special assessment on the taxable property of the district. This assessment is part of the budget adoption. Once the board approves and authorizes the advertisement of this proposed budget, we'll post a truth and taxation truth and taxation notice in the paper and our website about the special assessment levy. And the notice will be for a public hearing taking place on July 9th at 6:30 at our governing board meeting for the
045budget adoption and the truth and taxation. The top table of this slide is a a snip of the cover page of our budget to highlight the changes in the tax rate from last year. The table at the bottom shows some additional detail of those tax rates. These are unofficial numbers since Benol County hasn't calculated these rates yet. Um and the treasur will set the official rate, especially around the bond levy. Um each category here is decreasing. The decreases are due to the changes in our property value in Maricopa. Um, I won't go through each line, but the the main highlights is our total property, our total primary tax rate is decreasing by 74 cents and our total secondary tax rate is decreasing by 7.5 cents. The unofficial tax rate of the bond is a penny
046and a half below our current rate. Um, so overall, the district's tax rates are decreasing by 81 cents, which means next year each homeowner will see a reduction in taxes of about $8181 per $100,000 of taxable value. And again, a penny and a half below our current bond rate shows that we're maintaining our commitment with our with our community around our bond tax rate. Happy to answer any questions you may have. So, Mr. Harmon, I just want to jump in and and reiterate what you said at last, but I do have another question around um we're honoring our commitment as part of the bond of not increasing taxes to the local community. In fact, as you say, it's at the moment it's going down by 1 point something, but we'll not know until the real
047numbers come through. Correct. I'll work with the treasurer. They may have some, you know, delinquencies or surplus cash that that number could change a little bit. So, we'll see. Right. I do have a sort of couple of questions, but they're on the same area. Furough road. Over the last couple of months, I've had some people approach me about Fur Road. Why isn't it fixed? I suppose I will add, why is the school paying for it? I sort of know why, but I want the community to know and when will it be fixed? Because it was a commitment that was made to get done, I think, three years ago as part of the new school going up. So, can you address those for the community? I I know the answers, but I don't I would like
048the community to hear some of those answers. Yeah, thank you, President Downey. Yeah, we we want to build Feral Road. Um we worked with the developer um uh that owns the rest of the property on that road um that we purchased that particular parcel with. Um the commitment is to build our the half street improvement uh the mile of uh Ferrell Road from Hartman to Murphy. Um, so the the agreement with the district was to build the full mile and not just what was adjacent to our district because an adjacent uh half street improvement just in front of our our uh school wouldn't do any good. Um, so we have some agreements to be reimbursed on on the portions that are built for the rest of that uh mile stretch. Um, there's a lot of
049challenges with this project because there's a a canal there with the MSID that's actually owned by the US Department of Reclamation and we've been in a a long process to get engineering approved for the what they call the tiling of that canal or the burying of that canal. Um, we're we're closer than we've ever been. The the design has been approved. So, we're waiting for the USBR to give us the go-ahehead on that project. Once that's approved, we'll um part of this 17.5 million is to tile that canal to bury it. And then there's a property transfer between the USBR and the city. And once that happens, and we can pave our half street improvement, which includes sidewalk, gutter, and uh and a half street improvement. Um but we're we are exhausting all of our
050channels and we'll we're bugging the USBR to see how we can get this done. So the bottom line is delay is not because of us. We've had the funding there. We've had the willingness to do it. In fact, desire to do it because it actually improves access to our school. Um it's been outside agencies that have um not performed as quickly as we thought. That is correct. Like to make a motion that we approve I guess the proposed budget. Second. Lisa, we have a motion to second. Shante Rothchild. I count Lopez. I Patty Catra. Hi. Robert Downey. I so moved. We now move on to 7C discussion and possible approval to award CMR contract Maricopa High School Workforce Development Project. Mr. Harmon. All right. Thank you again, President Downey, members of the board. Um we
051are excited for this particular action item to have approval of our our contractor for um for the project at Miracle Bicycle, the workforce development project. Um we had uh several submitts and our committee um landed on great partners core construction and we are seeking your approval to move forward on this approval. Mr. Harmon, I think it's awesome. Is there any way we can accelerate this project like to start yesterday? Well, we have some work. We are we did start yesterday on the on the on the Yes. On the I love it. Yeah. The planning and design has been going for for a little while. I'm really excited for this. Um we've been waiting for this for a very long time. We've had conversations and comments about this and then I think it'll really benefit our
052students um especially and and fits right into our goals. So any questions? No, I just want to underline the comment and maybe I should highlight it more. This is work for development. It's a facilities. It's not per se classrooms. It's skill training type facilities. And there's a commitment for us as the board and the district to um have students graduate high school with the potential of earning and some of them have already earned pretty significant salaries coming out of high school um with a career path. Yeah, we'll we'll have a lot of fun uh designing what programs will be in this uh building and and how we design the spaces to accommodate those particular um CT or workforce uh um classes. So, yeah, we're excited. We we are we're super eager to work with core
053on this project and the architect that we have on board and couldn't think of a better team. So we hope for your approval. Motion to accept 7C. Second. Lisa, we have a motion and second. Shante Rothschild. Hi, Carolyn Lopez. Hi, Patty Coutrey. Hi, Robert Downey. I so moved. We now move. Thank you, Mr. And yeah, I just want to say we have some representatives from from core that that made the the trip out here and we just wanted to to thank them for coming out and excited. So, we got approval. [Applause] We now move on to item 7D, action regarding renewal of the superintendent's employment and related superintendent's employment agreement and related performance pay plan for Dr. Tracy Lopeman and it will be for the the school year July 1st 2025 through June 30th 2028.
054First off, thank you Dr. Lopeman. really seriously for wanting to do this contract ex um and to stay with us. Um I'm hoping 2028's not the end either, but um this is really a a great thing to have that the consistency and the leadership and her vision going forward, especially when we look at how we're going to accelerate and build school after school after school. um uh just to accommodate the needs of this community and the growth that we're uh experiencing. So I just want to say thank you and I comment. Nope. Going to follow suit um with President Downey and say ditto. All right. I'd like to make a motion that we approve item 7D and accept the contract for Dr. Lopeman from July 1, 2025 to June 30th, 2028. Second. Lisa, we have
055a motion to second. Shante Rothschild I. Carolyn Lopez, I Patty Coutrey, I. Robert Downey, I so moved. I move on to item it adjourn. Motion questions. You have to speak it. Oh, we need a second. Second. Most definitely. Lisa, we have a motion to second. Shante Rothschild. I Carolyn Lopez. Hi. Patty Coutrey. Hi. Robert Downey. I so moved. We are adjourned. Thank you.