001[Music] Hello. Hallelujah. [Music] Oh, hey. Oh, [Music] great. [Music] The Carson City School District Board of Trustees meeting. Today is Tuesday, September 9, 2025. And we are going to call this meeting to order at 6:30 p.m. Agenda item number one, adoption of the agenda as submitted. And this is for possible action. >> So moved. >> Okay. Okay. Motion by Trusty Walker, second by Trusty Walt. Any board discussion? Seeing none, any public comment? Seeing none, all those in favor? I. Any oppose? Motion carries. Agenda item number two, flag salute by uh Trusty Clappet of America to the stands. One nation under God, indivisible andice. >> Thank you, Trusty Clappen. Agenda item number three, superintendent's report, and this is for information only. Superintendent Feling. >> Thank you, President Ramirez. Um, happy to report that every single student
002in the district is still really happy that school started again. So that's that's fantastic. >> I bet I bet their parents >> 100%. Especially the ones in my family. >> I I was going to say I bet their parents are too. >> Um no, I just getting around the schools just a lot of positive spirits and things um really seem to be off to a good start. So knock on wood. Um really really excited for the school year. Uh just a a reminder, we have our uh first community connections event uh formerly Community PLC on September 17th, that is a Wednesday in the Carson High Library from 6:00 to 7:30. I believe we are going to have uh food there. Um so that may actually start a little bit earlier just because of the dinner,
003but we'll get final um information out soon. uh the focus will be on um on on CTE offerings and programming in the uh in the schools. Uh and one note uh due to the uh computer issues that the state is having um there likely will be a delay on the release of our um NSPF star rankings. So normally you have a report um that we give to you on that. It may push into early October hopefully. Um but uh just just a a note for you to be aware of that. Otherwise, uh that is all I have. >> Perfect. Thank you. Agenda item number four, uh board reports, um board member comments, and this is all for information only. Um, if I can invite the Carson High School representative Cooper and also the Carson High
004School silver campus activities Maggie to come up to the podium and um provide us with your report. All right. Good morning members of the boards and those here are not. Uh my name is Maggie and I'm will be sharing Silver Campus's announcements this evening. First, Silver Campus held our back to school night today that ended at 6:30. Students across all four grades came to Silver Campus with their loved ones to meet all the new staff and all the new teachers, great people, and overall had a fun and exciting things for our guests. And overall, it was a very successful night. The Carson High School speech and debate team coached by Jillian Stu Shufeld is getting ready to kick off the season with their up andcoming first tournament this weekend on the 12th and 13th. Um
005and of September at McQueen. Make sure to wish our team a good luck. Our engineer engineering and science teachers Christian Steinra is holding a studentmade carnival during brunch tomorrow at 10:25 through 10:43. The engineering class will show off their creativity and make an exciting addition to tomorrow's early release day. Our gardening club is up and running again, bringing life to the school through fruits, vegetable, flowers, which is also led by Stein Krauss. Students will be getting their chance to explore passion through gardening. This concludes the announcements for Silver Campus. Have a wonderful rest of your night. This is Maggie signing off. >> Thank you, Maggie Cooper. Uh, hi. I'm Cooper Fielding, the uh Carson High School uh main campus uh student body school board representative. Uh, just a few announcements tonight. Um, we're getting into
006uh homecoming currently. Uh, the actual week itself is not until uh September 29th, and it's that week. So, I'll get more announcements as we uh get closer to that. But just this past week, we had our uh royal court nominations. So, uh some stuff has started. Uh tonight at Carson High was the open house which uh let uh parents and students both uh come into the school, meet all their teachers uh and also get to um meet up with friends and then uh learn about clubs and organizations throughout the school. Um la or two uh weeks ago on Friday the 29th uh we had our senior sunrise which was a very big hit just to uh kick off the senior year for everybody. Uh, everybody really enjoyed that. Um, and then tomorrow uh we um
007in the spirit of uh September's uh suicide prevention month uh so tomorrow we're having a suicide prevention day. Uh so students are encouraged to wear uh purple and slash or teal uh just in a way to support that for all students. Uh and then as well as this Friday, uh there will be uh art club is hosting an activity for our seniors to be able to uh chalk their parking spots as a lot of schools around here do like painting, but we just uh were able to do it in this way and that way it's easier to clean up and everyone can still have a great time. There's going to be food trucks and stuff there. Uh, so and it's like I think it's $5 so it's pretty accessible for every any seniors who want
008to do that. And that's all I have. >> Wonderful. That sounds like an exciting time for every for both schools. So thank you so much for your uh reports. We appreciate it. Uh we will continue with Nevada Association of School Board NASBY updates. Uh Trusty Barner. >> Yes. Uh I have a couple. >> Okay. Uh last Friday uh trust uh President Romeris and I were able to attend the joint meeting of the NASBY directors and executive board moderated by Trustee Walker. Thank you. Um some of the highlights from that meeting was the contracts. [Laughter] >> Oh yeah, I wasn't going to leave you out. Um but I wanted to give you credit for uh moderating the meeting. So, you did a very good job. Thank you. >> I did. >> Uh, some of the highlights
009of the meeting was the contracts for our executive director and our business manager were discussed and approved for this coming year. Uh, a couple article seven and article eight of the NASBY bylaws were finally updated and approved with the revisions and those will go in effect. Uh, they're probably effective now, right Mike? They'll actually be um voted on at the conference this >> Okay, that's right. Fall. >> Yes. So, on the December conference, they'll be voted on. And then uh there was a budget presentation and update. Right now, NASBY is in a really good financial position. Uh there was no problems with our finances that were identified. So, that's was good news. And then the proposed 2026 event calendar was discussed and approved and everyone should be getting a copy uh soon. Then uh I
010asked Renee to send out an email to everyone this afternoon and it's um NASBY is looking for volunteers who want to submit a letter of of interest for a committee assignment on a new commission on recruitment and retention. It's a state commission and if you're interested, please send a letter with your relevant experience and why you wish to uh represent NASBY on this committee or this commission. So that's my report for NASBY unless you have anything else to add, Mike. >> Well, I would just like to congratulate Susan Neil because she has replaced me as NASBY's representative on the state board of education. So, I happily pass that baton to her and I think she's going to do a great job representing um elected school boards in the state. >> Yeah. I think you said
011that was your longest one-year assignment that lasted five years or something. >> So, thank you for the service on that. >> Great. Thank you. Yeah, I would agree was a great meeting, very informative. So, thank you. Okay. um announcements, board announcements, and I will start out with um Trusty Peterson. >> Um I just have very brief uh because Cooper covered a lot of what was on my list. Um the only other one I would add is that HOSA has a couple car washes running at the high school right now. Um for $5. If you have a HOSA kid that you can contact, you can get a car wash ticket in advance for $5 or $10 uh the day of the event. And I believe I'm mostly certain it's on Saturday in the U um at
012Carson High by the office. Um they are also selling shirts for breast breast cancer awareness um through Carson Tahoe uh for $20. So if you know a hosta kid, buy one and help them out. Help them support a good cause that they feel great about. And that is all I have. Oh, I will add to Cooper had mentioned on the the chalk um art on Friday night, the chalk parking spot. It is free unless you need chalk. Then they will sell chalk for $5. Oh, good. Thank you for that clarification. Okay, Trusty Roberts. >> Yes, Fremont has their fall festival this Friday. I'm just going to read what Dr. Ward sent. Um, it's Friday, 4:30 to 6:30. They'll have bounce houses and yes, they will be following the implementation of Lizz's law. Um, dunk tank
013with Mr. Herszle and Dr. Ward despite the cooling temperatures. Um, carnival games, community partners available for information and collaboration, Carson City Fire Department and Sheriff's Office support with firet trucks and ambulance tours, pizza, and more. It's going to be $20 um for student wristbands, pizza coupons for adults, and it's their biggest community event, but also the biggest fundraiser for our family and community engagement team. So, all are welcome to come and check it out. And then huge advance thank you to Fremont staff who are giving up a Friday evening to support the event. >> Absolutely. Okay. Wonderful. Thank you. And we have Trustee Barner. >> If I could, I did forget something on my NAS report on Saturday. This last Saturday, myself, uh, Trusty Clappam and President Romeirez did attend the workshop in Las Vegas.
014It was on conflict resolution and leadership and it was also attended by numerous other trustees from throughout the state uh districts and the training I thought was uh was good >> definitely. >> So I did want to mention that we were able to attend that training and then I have a report for Fridge Elementary. Principal Brown would like to invite their Frri families to the AC's game on Sunday September 14th. The first pitch will be at 1 p.m. He also wanted to remind and welcome the parents of their English learner students that they are having anformational breakfast at 9:00 a.m. on September 16th. And that's my report for Frick, but I do have some information for Borook Bray. Also, uh, last time we talked about the houses that they were the house program they were
015instituting and, uh, I did a little research on that because I didn't know what it was about. And then myself and, um, Trusty Clappen were actually able to attend one of their events at Boardwick where they were handing out house assignments basically. And I tell you, the excitement from the students and the teachers were amazing. Everybody was just really pumped up. And it was good good to see that for people who don't know because I didn't know it. I'm going to just read a little bit here. The house assignment, it's called RCA House System, and it's from the Ron Clark Academy. And the house system is a schoolwide structure designed to promote character development, teamwork and leadership, positive behavior and academic effort. In general, the house system is a structure to group a variety of
016students which creates built-in time for human formation in the form of mentoring, leadership, and relationship building. It is a point-based system used to encourage positive behavior and academic achievement among students. Students earn points in the respective house by demonstrating qualities like leadership, kindness, academic excellence, and they have also 55 rules that they follow. And uh they've discussed all them at this point, but then they're going to be concentrating on two or three of the rules uh in further depth each week. And just I'd like to give a shout out if I could to Jessica Dunbar and Shelley Pope. Um Jessica was so enthusiastic and so supportive of this program. It was like I said kind of amazing to watch her. And then I also like I said Shelley Pope I spent quite a bit of
017time talking to her and she really went into a lot of detail about the program and she's very supportive of the program also. So I've taken enough time. So, thank you. But, uh, I think it's going to be a good program. >> That's exciting. Yeah. Thank you. Excellent. And Trusty Klepp. >> Thank you. From Eagle Valley Middle School, Miss Hoppy um, wrote that they will be wrapping up their fall MAP testing and they're excited to see the results. Um, after school clubs that they currently have going is the homework club, which starts on Monday, September 8th. Um that will be Monday through Thursdays from 2:30 to 4. Um and there will be no club on early release days. Um students are able to receive assistance with school work or just have a quiet place to
018complete some homework. They have Lego Robotics Club which started last week Tuesday the 2nd of September. Um and that will be Tuesday, Wednesdays, and Thursdays from 2:30 to 4:30. Um, they're trying to inspire and educate young people in STEM by providing a fun, hands-on team-based program where they design, build, and program Lego robots to solve realworld problems. Um, they also have the bike club which starts Friday, September 12th. Um, and that will be on Fridays from 2:30 to 4:30 as well. Um, student students will learn bike safety, cycling skills, and it promotes being active. And then they have a student support squad which starts Tuesday, September 9th today um from 2:30 to 4. And the student support squad is here to support the school, students, staff, and leadership. And all grade levels are welcome. Then
019she just wanted to make sure that if families have any questions about any clubs that they're more than welcome to call the office for information. And from Miss Robinson who is here, thank you for joining us tonight. Um, she wrote, if I can find it here, um, back to school night is Wednesday, September 17th. Doors will open at 5:00 p. p.m. for families to go to the gym and learn about the school and community resources. At 5:30, the classes will begin. Families will have the opportunity to follow their child's schedule, starting with their advisory class. They'll experience their passing time with music in the halls, meet the child's teachers, and learn about student expectation and learning goals. Um, she hopes to see all the families there. Cross country had their first meet last Friday, and
020girls basketball starts this Thursday with a home game against South Tahoe. Cheer team is practicing and color guard, it will be starting soon. So, there's a lot of good stuff happening at CMS. So, thanks, Miss Robinson. >> That's it. >> Thank you, Trusty Clappam. and Trusty Welker. >> I do not tear back. >> No problem. Trusty Welker. >> So fall time if you work at Seager is pumpkin patch time. A lot of years spent coordinating that event. So mark your calendars and start praying for nice weather on October 11th. So our classrooms at Celiger are seeking donations for class baskets that are going to be used for a silent auction. and they want to remind everybody those funds go directly to the teachers and the classrooms. So, let's support Celiger and the pumpkin patch. They
021also want to thank Carson City Schools Foundation for their generosity. Um they're supporting the Prime store for the PBIS rewards. So, students are going to be shopping with their PR positive pirates on Thursdays and Fridays. And then a little bit of a celebration today. They celebrated fourth and fifth graders who were proficient or advanced on ESBback assessments. And the joy doesn't stop there because on Friday, fifth grade teachers are going to go visit the sixth graders at EVMS who were proficient or um advanced on ESPbacks. And I think that is awesome. Congratulation to those students. And then I would also challenge our schools to find ways to really celebrate the kids who are also advancing on things other than the ESPback and standardized tests because some kids are never able to show exactly what they
022can do on those assessments because of test anxiety or other measures and I think it's one measure of success and so let's celebrate that and the other measures of success. >> Absolutely. I agree. Thank you Trusty Walker. Um, Maggie did a really good job um, giving us an update on the Carson High School Silver campus. Um, I want to echo what U. Trusty Verer said. Um, and Trusty Walker, the the training was exceptional. I think it was it was very interactive. It really gave us the opportunity to get out of our comfort zone and and, you know, uh, work with other trustees from all over the the state. So, I found it very helpful. So, thank you to NASABY and to all everyone who put the um workshop together. All right. Um agenda item number
023five um association reports. And this is for discussion only. Do we have a representative from the association? No reports. Okay. Very good. We'll move on to agenda item number six, public comment. And we do have an inperson public comment. Uh Dr. Dulpy, if you can please come forward. Hi, good evening. Uh, my name is Kyle Dalpy. I am the president of Western Nevada College. Uh, President Ramirez, trustees, Superintendent Fueling, members of the public. I came tonight because I wanted to um say thank you to the district and to the board and to the superintendent's office for helping us with our dual enrollment programs. Um, Western Nevada College works with nine school districts in the state, four, I'm sorry, five charter high schools, um, on dual enrollment programs. We are making an impact on students lives,
024providing access to college programs when, uh, when they're still in high school. We have 2,268 credits awarded to students in the Carson City School District last academic year. 67 students were dual enrollment students, meaning they took classes. 60 students are jumpst start students which means they're pursuing a degree or certificate while in high school. This is last year and about nine nine associate of of science graduates last May and eight um associate of arts um uh awarded last May. And so it is a big part of what we do. It's our mission. It provides access. It gives students the leg up. They can either go on to two plus two programs or they can move into um uh into the workforce right away. So, I just wanted to take a moment um to come before
025you and just say thank you. And if you ever wanted a deeper dive, I'm sure the superintendent's office would reach out to me to to give a more in-depth presentation if you ever wanted to agendaize it. But those are the quick numbers and I do appreciate it. Thank you, >> Dr. Deli. Thank you so much for coming and and um we really appreciate that that program that is offered to all of our students. And I would say I would I would love to see a representative from WNC come and and join our um presenters when we have an update on on the program in the future. I think it's it's just a wonderful collaboration effort that we have going on and so we appreciate you. Anybody else comments uh questions for Dr. Doely? Wonderful. Well,
026thank you so much for coming. We appreciate you. Any additional inerson public comment? See none. And I was informed that we do not have an online um public comment. So I will close public comment and move on to agenda item number sevenformational update on the transformation department in the Carson City School District. And this is for discussion only. and welcome uh Sher Fletcher and Superintendent Feling. Thank you, President Ramirez. uh trustees. This evening I I think we have um maybe for the for the first time since I've been here, I believe, um a presentation um all about our transportation services that we offer for our students. Um this image uh is actually taken directly from the transportation yard. >> Yeah. >> The airport. >> Yeah. Um, so I'll I'll note uh tried to so Sheree
027um who I I don't know have you ever presented in front of the board before? Maybe a long time ago. Maybe maybe we're not sure. >> We're very happy you're here. >> You know what? If you if you provide me all the pertinent information, we will I will make the presentation and and I lied because I had AI make the presentation with some adjustments. So, this is one of the images they came up with talking about school transportation. I have no idea why. It makes no sense. Um, but that's Shere's car driving away there. There in the front. Um, >> yeah. >> Um, >> exactly. >> So, uh, we have Sheree Fletcher here who is our director of transportation. She has been for like nine, 10 years. >> Going on 11 >> 11 years. Jeez.
028right after right after I got here >> and I started in the department almost 28 years ago. >> Okay. And and 28 years in the department. So, um I will uh flip through the presentation here. I'll let you kind of guide it and you can just talk and we'll turn your microphone on for you. >> Good evening. Okay, works. >> Yeah. You want me to talk? You want me to actually talk? >> I I can I can I'm sorry. I I am How about How about this? I will I'll run through the the slides >> and if they have questions >> and if you have questions or if you want to absolutely just kind of jump in if there's something that stands out to you if I say something incorrectly. >> Yeah. >> You can
029point that out and Okay. So, um so the fleet so we have 47 total buses. Um, and that that does not mean though there 47 buses running every day. We have some spares, right, that we that we keep around um just in case one of our buses does go down. Um, but 47 total buses uh in the yard. Um 33 of those buses are over 20 years old. And so that's something that we have to keep in mind um as we budget each year. Uh, one of the the frustrating things and and Shri is a a strong advocate for her department, very very strong advocate for her department. Um, and and this has been a concern of hers over time. And one of the really frustrating things is that in the the years leading up
030to COVID, we kind of had established, look, we we want to replace one or get one new bus every year and just kind of have that as a standard. And then CO happened and with all the supply chain craziness that that was going on, we had um at two different times orders for two new diesel buses, regular transportation buses. Um and the the delivery for well at one point they couldn't guarantee a delivery date. Um and then when they finally did I think it was 18 to 24 months and then at some point we were called and said we're just cancing the order because we can't we just don't know when it's going to happen and we're just done. Um so that was that's been frustrating over the past years. Um however this year we
031have two we ordered well similarly we ordered two new special ed buses last year and they were supposed to be delivered by June and then it was July >> August >> and then it was August >> and then it's supposed to be here this month next week this month. So >> So I'm not going to hold my breath. Are you? >> I'm not I'm not holding my breath. >> Okay. Um >> you better be here. We'll cancel those two. >> Yeah. Yeah. Um so the the our um uh head mechanic, Mike Zbo, as much as we would like more regular um like the is it 84 seat buses? They're what are the bigger the the normal >> um larger buses, conventional buses. >> Conventional buses. >> How many How many seats do those have? >>
03277 seat. Um Mike Zabbo, who's our head mechanic, h has a lot had a lot of concern about our our special education buses. um and really needing to prioritize those. So that ended up changed the order to get two special education buses and so those should be arriving next week >> um Monday. Um one of Shere's uh favorite topics is our electric buses. We have four. Um and those were given we we acquired those through grants. So that was I think three years ago. Um completely free for four four >> I think they were $425,000 a piece um at like we would have purchased them ourselves but we we had a grants to completely cover the costs. Um at this point we have two of them running routes um and two of them are not.
033we've had some some issues with those um and and getting support to even get those issues fixed >> and it's more expensive. So the the two bus the four buses that we acquired through the grant we had to give up four buses with mileage on them. So they were pretty good buses the spare buses we had. So that wasn't a good trade. >> Wasn't a good trade. So, and that that's where we we actually have had um more opportunities to acquire electric buses, but we have not move forward with those opportunities just because of this experience. Um we clearly want to have dependable service for our kids for all of not only school but for all of the activities. And so that that just isn't isn't really helping uh the cause right now for that.
034So, at this point, as as we continue to try to budget to acquire buses, the focus is on getting standard diesel conventional buses going forward. >> Mr. Fueling, what does the diesel bus cost? >> Couple hundred thousand. >> Yeah. I >> What was that? >> Is that was that for the >> Those were the special ed buses. I I think >> I think the the conventional buses are closer to 200. >> Um the special education buses just because there's some different equipment and stuff on there. >> Wheelchair lift. >> Yeah, they tend to be a little bit more expensive, but >> and we did get I don't know if Mike talked to you. We did get a um international which is in Silver um Silver State International in Sparks. They said they couldn't make them
035anymore, our buses. That's why we went, you know, anyway, they um are back in service. They said they can get us buses, so 175,000. >> Oh, >> so way cheaper. So I'm like, okay, if these two special needs buses don't get here next week, >> we'll go to them. >> Yeah. >> Haggling game. >> Um and I'll note, so so then I think it was like 2016, 17, 18, something like that, we had bought one new bus each year. when that first bus we purchased, which was a conventional bus, um I believe the price tag at that time was like $110,000. So, it's gone up quite a bit um over the past past years. Um there's one other thing I was going to say. I'll think of Yeah. Okay. So, this is just a little
036bar chart that kind of shows that age distribution. So between 2000 2005, we purchased a lot of buses. Um, and with the the four mechanics that we have, they've done a great job of keeping these buses up. But again, the concern is that we we really do need to start um having a stable uh plan, a dependable plan to continue replacing these buses. Um, in 20 2010 through 2015, that was a real low point. And that of course is coming out of the recession and um that was a struggle for um every district but um trying to rebound from from that now. >> And just one point um one of the engines in the spare buses that we have because majority of our spare buses are the 20 years old and they put in an
037engine. It cost 25,000 just to replace the engine. So that's what they're doing just replacing when they can buy new. >> Right. Yeah. >> Yeah. >> So, uh we have 17 uh general education routes um for any student that wants that service and they're within the the the required walk zone area. So, they serve about uh 1,558 students across the district. And I'm pretty sure this is data from last school year. I think it was 2014. No, this year. >> This is just August right now. >> Oh, okay. This is just for two weeks in August. >> Okay. >> That we did for this year. >> Okay. >> Back to last year. >> Okay. Um so sorry 25. So is that like 20ish% of our students I I would say ride ride the buses. Um
038we have 10 special education routes providing transportation for 213 students. And those routes run a little bit differently. We just want like because they're actually >> going door to door. >> Yeah, door to door. Yeah, that includes our early childhood um program prek students and they only service prek special needs. They only get transportation, >> right? >> Because of the seat belts. >> All right. >> So, just a question. So, at Mark Twain, the students that used to stay after school are no longer having the need to stay. they they get taken at the at a reasonable time because I remember we went to an event after after school and there were a lot of kids that were still waiting for the bus and we were told that it was because they did not have
039an an an additional bus I guess you know to take them home at the right at the >> Oh, the double back the bus that had to double back. Yeah. I >> that's coming right up. >> Yeah. >> Okay. Okay. >> Yes. I was able to add a bus route this this year um which included I had to create a route. So, it was Carson Middle, which took away the walk zone. Um, those kids were walking up to 2.5 miles. Um, and then Mark Twain, so we don't have to double back that route. >> So, okay. >> That's my route if I have to drive, and I have had to drive a few times this year, >> AJ. Well, and and just as a a side note with with that comment, um COVID wre havoc
040on our transportation department and the the steady steady hand of Sheree got us through some really difficult times. And so, um, as director and and as, you know, just a a great employee trying to do great things for kids, she's out there. She was driving buses almost every day >> to try to keep the wheels on and able to keep kids um, transported. And um, there was much more double and I think even triple back in some cases just because of the lack of drivers. Um, and so we've gotten to a much better place with staffing at this point, which makes a really big difference and and allows Sheree to do more of really what we hired her to do and and manage the work. >> That's right. >> Feeling. >> Yeah. >> And Sheree,
041what is the walking distance that kids go visit? >> It's on the next slide. >> All right. Perfect. Thanks. >> Coming right up. >> Okay. Oh, next. Next slide. Sorry. So this just percentage breakdown of so 88% of the transportation we provide is for um just regular education students and then 12% is for special education >> and it does say data as of August 31st. >> Oh yeah, >> you included that. >> Yeah, >> good job. >> AI included that. >> Okay, include that. >> I I did I did tweak it. I did tweak it but not that part. >> All right, >> there it is. >> So here's the walk zones. Do you want to talk a little bit about that or >> Well, yeah. The elementary schools, um, I mean, there's some schools
042that are under the onem walk zone, but we're not going to have them cross highways for the babies. We don't do that. So, it's one mile walk zone. Um, and then the middle school and high school are 2.5 before, well, it was right after COVID, but we we lost some drivers, so we had to increase the mileage, the walk zone to 2.5. And it yeah, we lost three bus routes during that time. So I was able to bring one back. Um but >> and it was 2.25, right? >> No, it was two. It was two. Yeah. And then some schools are three. Some districts are three, >> two and a half, two and three/4ers, but two and a half. And they're they're hardly any of them are up to 2.5. I think they're right under
043two two to two and a quarter. And then the people that call you and they live right across the street and they want a ride to the high school. It's like, I'm sorry, you have to walk. It's less than a mile. >> Yeah. >> So, when you say um that you were able to bring back one out of the three, >> what would it take for you to bring back the other two? >> More money. They don't even get $20 an hour to start. That's that's our biggest thing. We cannot retain employees. Yeah. We hire somebody, they just they leave to somebody to go to another district. It's under two. It's under $20 to start for a bus driver still. And then our bus our fleet is well, it's embarrassing. It's really old. And a
044lot of our drivers that go on field trips, they see other districts with these brand new buses. So, I know we're the capital. I've told you guys that before. and we have, you know, it's we're in the works to get the buses. But yeah, I think um more starting pay for the drivers. 1963 is their starting pay. That's just not, you know, when they can go to McDonald's or Taco Bell and make 15, 20 bucks an hour. So, but I know the benefits are the big, you know, the key point, but then they want more hours. So, >> I'm so sorry. Go ahead. >> One of the things I always point out when we're talking about W walk zones is something that >> always concerned me as an administrator at Carson Middle School and at
045Fridge Elementary School >> is even though for the younger students, it's a shorter walk >> time, there are still a lot of students who have to cross Highway 50 and in the winter and when the time change comes, it's really hard to see those kids. the streets are dark and so um anything we could do to increase visibility and >> awareness needs to be highlighted because we have little kids crossing that road to get to school and they need to be safe as they're getting there. >> And I was going to mention uh just crossing uh Carson Street, Carson, you know, Carson and Fifth going to Carson Middle. Um, and that is such a busy area during the time that they're walking because people are racing to get to work and that te turning the
046right. It It is. So, I do. Yeah, it is really scary even in the daylight, >> especially during a legislative session when you have all those Clark County drivers in town. Um so staffing so 49 total positions in transportation um and just for a a sense of that within the district that that's about 5% a little more little more than 5% of our entire district staffing for all positions. So it's it's a significant department, a significant not only a significant responsibility in terms of what we're trying to do, but a signific significant responsibility in terms of the number of people that Shri um uh supervises and and has oversight of um of those 16 regular drivers and one vacancy as of as of right now. >> As of right now >> and then another one
047coming October 1st we know of. >> Okay. >> For regular route drivers. Okay. Um and then 10 special needs teams. So you have um every special education bus that we have has a driver but then also has an aid on the bus to assist um in in various ways as it comes up with with some of those students to to meet their needs. anything you wanted to say about? >> Yeah, I I pro probably forgot to mention we do have a a special needs sub aid because I forgot to put that in there, but um yeah, because back what was it a couple years ago, drivers, my CDL holders, they were aiding on buses and then we grabbed CC from the high school. We would borrow aids and paras from the schools when we were
048short staffed. I was like, I we need a sub aid. So Spencer made it happen. I called you and I said, "Yeah, I need an aid. I need a substitute >> aid." >> Yeah. He's He's not paying attention. Wake up, Spencer. But yeah, that helped tremendously. So, she's able to get on a bus when we have and then when we have two aids out, it depends. Um, you know, then I can put in one of my drivers to aid. But that helped out a lot. So, but I only have two subd drivers right now. Next slide. Yeah. >> So, so current staffing 16 regular drivers, 10 special needs drivers, 10 bus attendants, two you have two substitute drivers right now. >> Two drivers. Yeah. Which I need four or five. >> Um and then supporting
049them. One of those is Sheree offering her support there. Um but Sheree also in her um office there's one administrative assistant there who um handles all the the calls and is is at talking with the drivers as routes are going on and communicating and and just does a fabulous fabulous job for the department. >> Been out four days, so I've been doing it all. Jessica and I >> and and Sheree can still do that, too. >> Um we have one uh driver trainer, Jessica. Um, and then for mechanics. So, we we have um a a bus garage and uh there's there used to be three bays for those and we did a little bit of an expansion as a part of a capital project um two years ago to turn um to basically add one
050more bay. So now there's four bays for um the buses that so that our our mechanics can work on those and hopefully not replace engines, but they can replace engines and and otherwise um keep keep our fleet running for us. This picture is from inside the transportation department. >> That's my office. [Music] >> Good job, AI. >> Yeah. Yeah. Um, so and you know, immediate priorities and I I feel like this is always a priority and and even when when I came on over 11 years ago now, just trying to there's always always tends to be at least one position that's open and so trying to keep positions filled and we we've had much more success in the past two years filling positions. So that's been fantastic. A lot of that, you know, more always
051more credit to Mr. Sadler for a lot of what he does to try to um bring people in during some of our job fairs and things like that. Um but it it it's all helpful and necessary to get those positions filled. Um and then we have our two new special education buses that will be coming Monday. >> Monday. >> And um getting those getting those road ready because they they don't fully come road ready. There's a couple things we have to do. >> Not supposed to, but we'll we'll see. Of course, they have to check them out. >> Okay. Sure. Yeah. >> Yeah. >> Um, >> put a fire extinguisher in there, you know, but it has a fire suppression system in it, so I don't know. >> Oh, >> do away with a fire
052extinguisher. >> Fancy. >> We'll see. >> Yeah. And this is I I ran over to take a picture in the in the busy yard yesterday to add something. And that's not AI. >> Okay. >> That's prison. That's prison hill in the background. >> Oh, good job. So with that, I will let you ask Sheree all the questions you'd like. >> Well, thank you for this presentation. It was very informative. Any questions or comments from the board? >> I don't have a a question per se. I already said, but you know, thank you for you what what you do um and the um environment that you create over there as I saw the last day of school. Oh, right. >> Yeah. So, it it um So, I do thank you for your time and I do
053thank you for being, you know, willing to jump in and drive, >> you know, when need need be to get our kids to school. um you know on behalf of the board as well when we talked about absenteeism. I believe it was when Carson Middle School made their presentation and you know um they had talked about their their absenteeism and what we could do to help and it was to possibly um you know reduce the walk zone for all of the schools. And it is something that I think all of us, you know, if we could win the lottery. Well, I don't know. But I mean if there was that it would be but I know this it isn't you know I mean it's the the supply as well is a problem but and operating
054is as well but do know that um I know I could speak on behalf of the entire board that when we look at the budget transportation isn't something that we look and say oh this is where we want to cut or where we're going to cut. We on the other hand are saying this is where we need more funds so we can um decrease the walk zone so we you know can possibly um get it to where students can get to school. And I'm a huge advocate of extracurriculars so you know to make sure that they can get to the extracurricular activities that they need to go to as well. And do keep in mind, please bring this to your drivers. Um, they don't have to do drive those extracurricular activities. We all know that.
055I think it's something that they sign up to do extra. Am I correct? >> Right. >> Please tell them. Thank you. >> Yeah, I will. Thank you. Yeah. >> Mhm. Richard. >> Yeah. I believe last year we had a in part of the pilot program we put cameras on the buses to see about the violations of people asking the buses when they had their lights on and everything. Are we going to continue that or follow up on that? And off the top of your head, do you know how many violations were identified? >> I think that was like 314 15 something like that. >> Yeah. So, so we uh the uh a company called Bus Patrol um at no cost installed cameras on four of our buses. And so with those four cameras that were
056in catching information for about three weeks, I think >> a little more than that. >> A little more that four weeks, there were about 300 violations. And I I think it was averaging for for every bus like three or four per day. Um and and that's actually pretty consistent with Clark County was the other district that signed up to do that. And I think they had them installed on I think it was like 40 or maybe 100 I it was a many more buses. Um but they had like in that same period of time like 18,000 violations. So, um there we actually just talked about this at the last um NAS meeting, the superintendent's uh meeting for the state. Um there's definitely interest and and we definitely have interest in potentially moving forward with it.
057We're still still learning a little bit and and there there are other companies that offer this service and so an um an Seier has uh kind of been the one looking at some of the other options that are out there. Um and my guess at some point we will likely be talking about it, but we're still trying to to gather information on what that would look like. But clearly we have an interest in student safety and that you know anecdotally for years when talking to Sheree or when I'm over in the transportation yard and sitting around and having coffee with some of the drivers. I mean th those conversations come up and I I think it was maybe seven or eight years ago we had a driver and I I forget his name right now.
058We came had him come to a board meeting >> Greg Koger up on Timberland. >> Yeah. He saved a girl's life >> on Kums Canyon. Um, so we we know it's a concern. It's a real concern and and it's a concern in Carson City and outside of Carson City. So in many states it's become much more commonplace for districts um to have those sort of things installed um on their buses. So I I I would assume coming down the road here likely we'll be having that conversation here if we want to go down that path. But but we are still gathering information. >> So AJ just for my own clarity. So then the cameras are um paid for by an department. >> So the different companies do it a little bit differently, but in general
059there's actually no cost to the district. Um the when the infractions happen, the what was and this was passed during the legislative session to now allow this. the video footage can be sent to the sheriff's office. They then can say yes, that's a violation. And then I think I don't know if it's through email or by mail, a ticket gets issued to them. Um the the funds then that are collected there are shared between the company that has installed these cameras for free um and then shared with the school district so that they can use those funds to support their transportation department and safety otherwise. >> Okay. Thank you. >> I think it would be a good pro excuse me. I think it'd be a good program if we did that. If we were able
060to move ahead and start issuing tickets, it may only be a little while once the word got out >> that hopefully people would pay better attention >> because it is dangerous when they're passing those buses like you all know. >> Yeah. >> Great. There are no other questions. Thank you so much for all your work and for coming. We appreciate it. I told AJ I said we haven't had a presentation from the transport from Yeah. from your department. So, we appreciate you coming. >> Well, thank you. Thank you, AJ. >> All right. Agenda item number eight,formational update on the English learner program in the Carson City School District for the 2024 2025 school year. And this is for discussion only. Welcome, Mr. Brandon Bringhurst. Good evening, President Ramirez and members of the board of trustees.
061Um, unfortunately, Dr. Scott isn't able to be here tonight, so we certainly miss her expertise and passion and I will do my best to update you on our English learner program. First, uh, English learners. This is the definition that we get from, um, the federal government as to what qualifies a student as an English learner. And it is a student who speaks any language other than English at in their home. Uh, we identify these students by a survey that their parents fill out. And so identification of these students is um strictly based on how their parents answer those ser that survey um in order for us to identify the students. And it's important to note here as well that this is for any language other than English. So we sometimes uh identify or or consider
062our English language learners to be students who are native Spanish speakers. And while that certainly is true for many of our EEL students, that is not true for all of our EL students. It is quite a diverse group of students. NRS requires that we collect data and report that data to the to NDE and happy to share some of that data here with you guys this evening. Enrollment-wise, just an overview of the number of students that we have who are part of the program. 958 students who are currently in the EL program. Uh approximately 1,500 who are monitored or exited. And I'll talk a little bit more about that, but essentially that those 1500 uh represent some real success. They have to test at a significant level of proficiency in order to be exited from
063the EL program. Uh so that is a success. We we want that number to be as high as possible. Those numbers together comprise about 34% of the Carson City School District student population. Within our English language learners, as I mentioned, it's a diverse group. There are over 20 languages spoken by these students. And uh based on some definitions from NDE, the that group is broken down into some different groups that you see listed there. Immigrant, refugee, newcomer, short-term, and long-term. Uh the key a key distinction here between short-term and long-term is the number of years that the student has been in the school system. Less than six years, they are considered short-term. longer than that obviously moves them to long-term. Our goal would be to get most of or as many of the students as
064we can exited while they're still in that short-term category. Um if we make the kind of progress we want to make and they want to make, we're able to exit many of them before they become long-term. Some things that we do in Carson City School District to train teachers and support students. We do something called HQSI or highquality sheltered instruction as well as ALAC, academic language acquisition through content. Essentially what we're trying to do in these areas is help the students to gain greater fluency with English not just with explicit and separate English instruction but while they are learning their regular content. So while they are learning their math or their history or science or whatever the content area may be, they are learning English and developing their language skills, reading, writing, speaking and listening
065skills alongside learning these regular content area standards at grade level um as they move through their coursework. Additionally, you depending on the level of the student, some students receive pull out or specific coursework where there will be a class with just English learner students um with an EL teacher where they are addressing some of the language content more explicitly and directly. We have a lot of our staff in Carson City that are trained in helping students to to improve their English proficiency. Um, we track that through what's called an ELAD endorsement, English language acquisition and development. We have uh about 206 staff members who currently hold that endorsement. for some of the specific data based on test results for our English language learners. We'll go over some of that. First, we'll look at the access
066assessment, which is really uh quite a rigorous assessment. Uh and it is the test that is used to determine if students are ready to exit the EL program or if they continue in it. Uh last school year, we administered the access test to 956 students. It's not your what you might think of in your typical standardized test where it's u u just sitting down and taking the test written or on the computer. It the this has measures all four of these components speaking listening reading and writing. So the students will have headphones and microphones and they'll be listening to the things they'll also have to speak and and respond to prompts verbally as well as the reading and writing. So, it's a very robust measure of a student's English proficiency. Last year, 8% of all
067of our students who took the access test met the criteria to exit the program. That percentage was higher in the elementary with 12% of our elementary students meeting the exit criteria. I want to give a little bit of context to that score. when you see 8% and 12% that seems pretty low. Um, so I want to give a little bit more context to that. First, it is not expected that a student would exit ELE in their first year in country, their first time taking um the test. It's expected that it takes some number of years in order for them to make enough progress and develop the level of proficiency. So um for a kind of gauge of that when we look at our NSPF measure or how the state measures and ranks us they are
068tracking the percentage of students who are growing on that access test at a rate at which they would exit the program within five years. So again, the expectation isn't that you exit your first year, but that you're tracking to be able to exit within five years of u of starting that test. Also, we can look at that NSPF and see how the so what percentage of kids should be on that track to exit within five years. The percentage is a little bit different at each grade level. I gave middle school here as an example. So on the NSPF, if 36% of a school's students are on track to exit within 5 years, they receive full points in that category. Uh for last year, Carson Middle School was at 33% of their students met that growth
069measure. So they got nine out of the 10 possible points in there. So really showing that's tracking at a pretty high rate as it's normed with what the state expects. Eagle Valley Middle School um was at 19% of students who are making that progress. They got four out of the 10 points in that category. So that gives a little bit greater context to those access scores and what we're looking at there. Another measure that we look at obviously are our ESBAC results. And I have here for you the ESPback results from the last 5 years. And you can see those results have been relatively flat. Uh last year we did see a little bit of a gain in both math and ELA, but for the last five years those results have been somewhere around 10%
070of students they're passing. Couple of things that are important to note here. If students were proficient on the access test, right? So they acquired enough English proficiency to exit EL services. They're not counted in this group. So these are just students who um are still working on their English proficiency. And it's all students. So, for instance, if we have a student tomorrow who enrolls at Carson Middle School, um, and they're coming here from France and they speak little to no English in the spring, they will need to take the ESPback test and that test will be in English, even though they at that point still may not speak it very well. We will test and try and see how good they are at math, but all of the questions will be written in English, right?
071So this obviously creates some real challenges for our students to overcome um in order to show their proficiency on the ESPback results. For a little bit more context and perspective there on the ASPback results, again referring to the NSPF ratings, three of our schools were identified as schools that they that are called TSI or targeted support and improvement schools. That would be uh Carson Middle, Eagle Valley, and Carson High School. And those designations get pretty technical and are identified based on different subgroups. And in the case for the these three schools, it is uh due to low performance for our students who have IEPs or are in the special education program and our students who are EL their academic performance not being quite what it needs to be. Um and these designations are from the
0722324 school year. We don't yet have the 2425 as Mr. Fueling mentioned. We are still in the process of getting all of those um all of that information from the state. So we we have a lot of things that we are proud of and doing well with our English language learners, but there is uh definitely some room for us to grow and where we need to see some significant improvement u for these students. A few things in the program uh to highlight. There are ongoing professional learning opportunities for our teachers and we view and as has been mentioned uh it's not just about test scores be that ESPback or access or any other test there's a lot more to a student and to helping and supporting each of our students and our English learners in
073particular making sure that they um enjoy coming to school that they learn a variety of things not just what is measured on tests and that it is a place uh where they feel they can grow and thrive. So there's a variety of enrichment activities that our e department uh puts together as well as family engagement events uh that we have great attendance for. It is not well there is no area in education that's an easy area and that includes working with our English learners. They bring a lot of great assets and great um variety to our schools. um they also uh have a lot of challenges that we try and help them um overcome and meet. When you're working with students who speak 20 different languages, it can present some real um challenges for our
074educators. So, a huge thank you to our staff uh particularly that work with these students. The campusbased staff are act are clearly the ones on the front line doing that heavy work. Our administrators, teachers, and pair of professionals that work with them. And it's always a partnership, right? and doing that together and partnering with the families um is critical. And we have a multiling multilingual learner vision team that has been uh around for a few years and has really done a lot of work to help support the this group of students. Part of that work they we have a big event coming up on September 30th. We certainly um invite all of you to attend that where we will have Sonia Manzano. Um if you're my age, you will remember Sonia as Maria from Sesame
075Street, right? This is uh I can remember a lot of Yeah. a lot of my childhood watching Maria. Uh so she will be here and it'll be a great event um to participate in and and learn more about her story and learn more about how we can help our multilingual learners. So that's what I have for the presentation and I have any questions that you might have. >> Thank you for this presentation. >> Absolutely >> questions, comments. Um the question I have is can you um kind of explain a little bit more about the short term and the long term? So like is a student able if they came into the school district are all of them long-term and then if so how many years then do they put in to go to short-term? And
076is it like a progressive? >> So it's actually uh the opposite. When they first come into the school system they they are shortterm. So for however long if they if they have been in the system for fewer than six years they are considered short-term. If it has been more than six years then they are considered long-term EL students. So um our goal ideally is to help them exit the EL program before they become long-term. So, for instance, we may have, and I keep saying Carson Middle because we have some of our Carson Middle administrators here, but we have students at Carson Middle or at Carson High School who might be in, you know, 8th, 9th, 10th, 11th grade. They might have been in with Carson School District since kindergarten, but have not yet achieved that
077proficiency level to exit the EL program. So, they're considered long-term because they've been in the program for more than six years. You may also have a student at Carson Middle School who's short-term because they just moved here in seventh grade. Right. >> So then that this is our n our numbers, Carson City School District numbers, 326 long-term students, meaning that 326 students have been in the program more than six years. >> That's correct. >> Okay, >> that is correct. So, and you mentioned that the students are attending regular classes and learning English and then in addition to that there's an an additional class for them to just only learn English. Correct. >> Yes. depending on depending on the level that the students are at. We want to the greatest extent possible want them to be
078immersed and in their regular general education classes um receiving instruction there, right? We can't pause their progression in math while they learn English. Um they need to be learning the math, the science and all of that at the same time. So with our students who might be a level one, two, some of our who who are lower in their language acquisition, they will have a class that is just uh EL students. Typically it is grouped together where it is students who are on a similar English acquisition level >> level. Okay. >> Um and will be taught then by the EL teacher >> and that'll focus a lot more directly on um language acquisition skills. Yes. >> And could I just add in also that >> Sure. >> Um, part of the work Dr. Scott has
079done over the years is she's trained a lot of >> employees on those strategies. And so it doesn't only have to be an EL teacher who provides those services. So we have a lot of teachers with those endorsements. And so in the general ed setting, they are still getting that content and without being pulled out to a special setting. And so I think that's a true benefit to our students that we have so many highly trained staff members that know that content area. >> Yeah, it absolutely is. And uh it just takes some different techniques and uh our teachers have been a lot of our teachers have been trained on those techniques so that you can help that student acquire their language skills and learn science uh at the same time. So that it is
080critical. Um we don't want to have it just all be separated. That's not the most effective approach. >> Richard, uh three schools were identified for targeted support and improvement by the state. >> Correct. >> What does that mean? And what happens if they're targeted for uh support and improvement? uh that mean based on they have to hit a couple of different criteria uh or triggers in order to be uh meet this TSI designation. Um part of what that means is there's some additional funding, not a lot but a little bit of additional funding that is provided from the state to be targeted towards those schools in trying to um remediate or remedy those particular areas that they've identified as areas of growth. Um and so we work towards uh growth in those. If those become
081persistent and continue to have problems in those same areas, then the level of support and intervention from the state uh increases. Um but we are working really hard to make sure that we're seeing some growth and some progress in these in these schools. Does the state do anything other than provide additional money if it continues uh to be a native improvement? There are different levels of designations. Um and I don't have all of the details of those different levels of design designations on the top top of my head, but I can get those levels and get that information to you as far as how that progresses and what the state does um with the with that information. >> Yeah. I guess what I'm curious curious about also is is there any consequence if there is
082an improvement? >> There can be consequences as far as limiting your school's rating, your school's overall rating. Um, and I'll look at some of those additional pieces and and get you some of that information because I don't have more of that off the top of my head. >> All right. Thank you. >> Yeah, >> I just have a comment on that on that end. >> So, this is the state that's um doing the targeting. But is it the state that makes the SBACK only in English? >> Would or would a school district be able to choose to possibly translate the SBA into the language of the student? >> Yeah. The state, right? And and so that's >> so that makes no sense to me. >> Yeah. It's a challenge. >> Uh right. Um so and
083the way it the way the if a as I mentioned like if the example I gave if a student enrolls tomorrow um they would be taking that test the the way the state breaks it down is actually if they're here for at least half of the school year so 90 days. So really it could be a student that enrolls in December um and would be taking the test in May um and taking that test in English. Wish I could learn second language that quick. >> Yeah. Um me too. I wish I could learn a second language >> be able to test that in just a couple of months >> in a in a language and be able to pass a test. Um so um my other question though and I don't know that you know
084the district is set up to to do um this kind of breakdown but I would find it interesting to find out like um for the 326 long-term you know students um how many of them are um chronically absent >> or um you know kind of I guess break it down to see whether or not um because it seems like 34% you know still are in the EL program is is quite a bit and I know this the district I mean I personally know because I taught does so much you know to help the students they really do and the families >> um you know what the families as well but it would be interesting just to kind of see for those long term just to see, you know, how many of them are chronically absent
085or um what other outlying um >> there are certainly some uh other factors that make it with some of our long-term students make it uh challenging. Um be that absenteeism. U we also find uh a significant percentage are also identified as um students who have a learning disability of one uh form or another. So, they may be both receiving EL services and special education services. Um, and uh that the long-term EL students do present some unique challenges to try and help them make the progress that they need to make. For sure. And when it comes to those long-term students, you know, we really put a heavy emphasis in those elementary grades and trying to get those kids exited because the rigor of that test really jumps up in sixth grade. And so, you know, I
086mean, at some point it becomes really hard to assess just the language if you know, like you're talking about not speaking English and trying to pass a math test that has all English word problems. So, it's it's a complex issue, but it's something that we have to focus on because to Trusty Verer's point, they don't always give you money. I don't believe they have given money for those schools. Um they didn't give my money, my school money when I was on that list. And there are laws in place now to punish teachers, principles, school boards, superintendent based on these and other test scores. And so, um, achievement has to be in the forefront of our minds, but we're educating the whole child, and we want to make sure that they not only can pass tests,
087but they can read and speak and communicate and have a successful life in society post school. And so, I think there are those dangers hanging over our head and the threats, but ultimately our job is to educate kids, and that's what we're going to focus on. And I would add to that, I agree with those things that I would add. We want the students to be participating in extracurricular activities and engaged in the school in a variety of ways. Um because we know there's so much to be learned beyond those things that are are measured on those tests. Well, and I just think that it's very defeating, you know, like if you were walked if you were put into a job position that you absolutely have absolutely no idea how to do and how successful
088would you be, you know, and we're asking these kids to go into an ESPback testing, you know, that they they can't read it or, you know, understand it. I mean, it's defeating and it's just not it's not right. So just an observation on the um access score context. Um the Carson Middle School has 33% and the Eagle Valley Middle School has a 19%. Do we know what the contributing factor may be of the difference in percentage? Um I don't know that I have enough details to give you to to speak to that directly. What what the differences are in how those have been um how those different programs are administered or were administered last year. Um it is certainly included in some of the conversations that I'm having with the administration at both of the
089schools. What's working? How can we take what's working? Um I've spent some time visiting some of our e classrooms to get a better sense of um how things are being how our students are being serviced uh in some of the e classrooms and also in visiting regular classrooms and observing the e students in those regular classrooms. So it is on the forefront of my mind to try and gain a better understanding of what what exactly is and isn't working so that we can make some changes and see more growth across the district um at all levels and see the students make more progress. >> Thank you. Yeah, I appreciate that. >> Yeah. >> All right. Any other questions or comments? Michelle, >> I have just a little one and it's not really super big, but
090um on the tennis team right now, there's two foreign exchange students, one from Spain and one from Brazil. Um and so they're only here for this school year. Are would they be identified and and absorbed into this as well? >> I don't believe so, but I don't know. I don't have I don't know for sure the answer to that. I don't know if you do, Mr. Fueling. Okay. Chances are >> chances are if they were, you know, typically if you are learning in another country, you probably have some familiarity with the language and you have a educational background that would give them a leg up over some students who don't come in with those backgrounds, which would be my guess. >> Yeah. And I as I think about this I I don't think they would
091because you know we in the home language survey the home that they're staying in would be speaking English. Um so um and and they definitely like you said also have um some background that helps them to be more successful. Um I the variety that we see in our English language learner students is is pretty vast. Um, I've worked with students who are here to professionals of one form or another and they speak multiple languages and English is the fourth language that they're learning. I've also worked with students who are here from Afghanistan and they not only don't speak very much English, but they haven't had very much formal schooling. So, um, it is a wide group of students that we serve and such an important group for us to help them no matter the really
092challenges that are in the system that we really help them get to a point where they can graduate with a diploma and be college and career ready when they leave us. >> For sure. For sure. Well, thank you for your presentation and and just as a reminder, so I I encourage everyone to help us pass a word on that event that's coming up on the 30th. U we're also um celebrating um National U Hispanic Heritage Month. So definitely help us um promote um that event uh of Sonia Manzano. I think she's going to really inspire the the community. So I know last year we had an amazing turnout of parents and we hope that we have um the same or better turnout this year. So um we definitely want to keep the momentum going of
093having parents attend this kind of kind of events and not only parents the administration from the district all you know attend it too. So it was a beautiful um event and we hope that we have a good turnout this year as well. So thank you so much for your presentation. >> You're welcome. >> Um agenda item number nine discussion and possible action to approve proposed changes to CCSD policy 546 electronic device usage. And this is a second reading for possible action. Uh, Mr. Brandon Bringhurst. >> All right. Um, no changes based on the first reading. Um, so there haven't been any changes since since we did that first reading, but if there are any questions, uh, I'd be happy to answer any questions. >> I believe we all had a chance to review these. Any
094questions or comments from the board? If see none, go ahead. >> I guess you have a comment. >> I don't have an opposition. I just think it sounds or reads a little weird. All secondary schools have tools to help students re reduce the use. I don't know if there's a different word than tools, but tools would work there. So, all secondary schools have resources to resources. I mean it just >> it just sounds a little bit closer to what our policies typically sound like is my >> I can certainly make that change. Yeah, we we wanted to you know we used the yonder pouches. We didn't want to specify a specific tool or resource because those things sometimes change. Um but I agree with you. I think resources um is a better word choice there.
095So with that change, I will entertain a motion since this is an action item. >> I'll move that we accept this policy with the revisions noted. >> I'll second it. >> Okay. So motion by Trustee Walker, second by Trustee Burner. Any board discussion? Seeing none, any public comment? Seeing none, all those in favor? I. Any opposed? Motion carries. >> Okay. Thank you. >> All right. Again, thank you so much for your presentation or for for this um for bringing this forward. And agenda item number 10,formational update on student enrollment in the Carson City School District for 2025 2026 to include the potential budgetary impact for fiscal year 26 2026. And this is for discussion only. Welcome, Mr. Spencer Winward. >> Thank you, Madam President, members of the board. Just want to commend Mr. Bringhurst on
096his two presentations there. Uh, the first one's a little bit longer than the second one. Would you like my presentation to mirror his first one or his second one? >> Let's go with the second. >> Okay. Just wanted to make sure I'm doing what you was like, what's that? Uh, there the numbers are what they are. They're not going to change, but they're they're pretty good. So, this is just a little short three pagers. So, and really kind of this whole process. So you we we look at the budget, the tenative budget, the final budget in May. And then this is kind of update. We're starting to gather our data um to formulate what our December budget will be. And so now that we've had 10 days or so of school under our belts, the
097dust is kind of settled, enrollment's pretty close to what it is. And that's what we want to present tonight. uh because this data will be will you know if we were pre preparing the December budget today we'd be using um this information to to uh budget for our revenue. Uh just to say really quickly the expense portion comes a little bit later that's a little bit more involved and we're we're throwing that together and I'll present to you sometime between now and December. Okay. Uh basically just we want to I'm going to just show a quick comparison of our enrollment this year to last year. I typically use September 10th, but I didn't have tomorrow's data yet. So, I've used September 8th for this year. Uh, just to kind of give a a good year-over-year
098picture. And we'll look at it two tables basically to compare it by grade to grade because, you know, last year's kindergarteners or this year's first graders. So, I like to look at, you know, how those grades, those enrollment numbers changed from year to year and then just start a a comparison by school to see, you know, do we have something happen in one area of the district or anything. Then of course the the meat of that is what what does that look compared to what we budgeted for in May. So this first table just shows um the first column is our enrollment from last year as of September 10th. Uh the column of 2526 is this year's enrollment of September 10th. And you can see there's kind of some fancy color coding coding there. If
099you look at the kindergarten line, column one is green and then column two kind of goes to one. And that's because our 448 kindergartens from last year became our 452 kindergarteners this year. Column three shows the difference there. So that was plus4 for that. And then if you follow that green up to column four again matching with column uh the in the kindergarten line, it's two students different this year compared to last year. If you notice the kindergarten of 2526 is highlighted yellow, as is the 12th grade from last year. And that's just because our last year's 12th graders have graduated. And then of those 59 593 that graduated, we replace them with 450 kindergarteners. So difference of 143 from our outgoing grade to our incoming class. Um overall 130 students less than last year.
100Um any questions about that from grade to grade? do for um prek. Could it be the possibility that we didn't learn, you know, for so long into the summer whether or not the prek program was even going to get the funding? Could that be possibly why it's down? >> So, one note of the prek number, um that that is the number based off of the prek students that we get funding for. And the very rough formula is we get 60% of a full-time student for each prek student that has an IEP. So we have prek students we don't get funding for. Total I believe we have 139 this year. What we get funding for is 50. It is less than last year. Um I haven't dug deep into why why that's so so low because
101it's really kind of new information for us so far. All right. Next slide just shows a difference from school to school. So not any huge changes. Again, the high school's probably one of our larger ones just mostly because we're graduating those bigger classes and have this the smaller classes coming up in the ranks. Uh Empire is down quite a bit as well. Other than that, no no real major changes or anything that that's widely out of the ordinary. So again, we've uh 6,896 students as of uh yesterday afternoon is what we had for enrollment. And then of course, how this translate in translates into dollars um throughout the year. Um we and when I say we, that's mostly Mr. Fueling and I do a lot of uh of uh budget projection or excuse me, enrollment
102projection. we kind of look at that kind of the three or four year to just kind of look and see what's coming down the pipeline, make sure that we're prepared for anything that we're aware of. Um, and of course, when we prepared the May budget, we used u numbers from those projections and and budgeted based off of an enrollment of 6,884 students. So, we're actually 12 students above what we budgeted for. So that's the good news is essentially we we ripped the bad Nate off in May when we budgeted and had that large deficit is that reflected what our enrollment pretty close to currently is. So at our per pupil amount of $10,119 that 12 extra students would result in $121,000 of budget money that we did not anticipate in our May budget. That's really
103such a small amount that you know we're not going to we're not going to go plan to spend that right away. Essentially really what it would do is is if by the end of the year that comes to fruition that would just reduce our our deficit. So any questions regarding enrollment >> questions comments? >> Yeah I do um because I'm looking at your your previous slide say a negative 130 >> and so so what how is how did we get from there to the 12? The negative 130 is the number of students we have different this time last year compared to last year. >> This time this when we approved the budget. >> No, last September last the beginning of last school year. >> Okay. >> We had 7,026 students. So year over year we're
104down 130 students. When we prepared the budget we anticipated being down roughly 130 students. And so there's not a huge difference to what we budgeted based off of where we are in our snapshot as of today. >> Okay. >> So that's where you have the negative 130, but here we're showing the positive 12 because 12 students more than what we budgeted for. >> I guess I do have an official question slide if there are any other questions. >> Short and sweet. Anybody else? >> Well, thank you. Thank you for the >> Since the slides up, I will ask a question. >> Okay. Okay. >> No, I'm just curious with Empire being down 44 students, is that going to affect their classroom sizes at all or any adjustment need to be made in that area? Um,
105so as we're looking, yeah, we'll be taking a look to see if we have class sizes that are way below what our targets are and and be making adjustments for next year to see, you know, depending on how that shakes out. Again, this is the very beginning of this year. There's still going to be a lot of movement throughout the year, but we'll definitely be looking to make sure that are there opportunities for savings by still hitting our our class size goals, but reducing staff, and we would intend to do that through attrition. So, so adjustments meaning in teachers or like if we don't have as many students, are we are we making adjustments or will we need to make adjustments? >> We'll analyze and make adjustments. The difficult thing is we're down 40 what
106was it? 34 students. >> 44. >> Um but that's across kindergarten through fifth grade. So if you're down four or five or even 10 per grade, it's very difficult. you can oh 40 students that should be we can get rid of a teacher and a third realistically it's they're not all going to be in one classroom >> and you know and I just I'll remind the board that we've had this conversation ongoing for a very long time where we have projected into the future that we're going to have a decline in enrollment and so this board and our schools and district administrators will have to face that as it happens But I always want to be care careful because we don't want to cause undue stress on our employees. I mean, like you said, this
107is spread across the district. It's it's not like we're coming into a school and saying, "Oh, too many people." I mean, I just don't want to send that message. It's for an employee, that's stressful. >> Very, very true. Like, again, it's not there's not numbers that are like, "Oh, we need to make an adjustment today." It's the kind of thing we'll analyze and and see how trends go throughout the year, >> you know. On that note, I think it would be interesting to find out too with the additional housing, you know, that is um has come to Carson, you know, um No, but there's also the Okay, but then um but to see, you know, how many families are moving in and then the um what they just approved as well, they just approved a
108um multi-use, I think the the another housing, the planning commission did that would be going forward as well, you know, to kind of see what they forecast of um who, you know, what population that's going to be bringing in >> if I could. Um and and so each year um and we haven't we haven't gotten to this point yet, but we will um take a look at that of of where where our students actually are. And and a part of that really kind of the most important part is when we do have new developments, how many new students are we expecting out of that? And and the the term there's businesses that are professionals that do this kind of um analysis and projections and they call it yield. How many students are we going to
109yield out of this new development? Um out of you go back to 2015 2016 when all you know we're coming out of the recession and all these developments were starting to come online we we were really concerned that we would not have the capacity to hold a lot of these expected students. Um the reality is we have not seen a great number of students come out of these developments. Um the the one example that comes to mind, the um uh I think it's called the Carson Hills apartments behind Fandango. I think it's 391 units. And I know when we looked at this like two years ago because I think those have been up for about three or four years now. I think there were only 19 students that actually came out of those that apartment
110complex. Um and we we would have expected significantly more than that. So I I think just the there are change definitely changing demographics within the city. Um and even looking at rental prices for apartments, they're not cheap. Um let alone housing prices as Trusty Walker pointed out. So um we're definitely not seeing the um the yield as high as we would have would have expected. I >> think that's a conversation statewide. This is an expensive place to live and some of our communities, you know, I think Carson, Douglas, Wo County were expensive places for families to live. And so I think that's why you see people moving towards Lion County or some of those communities just because it's a little bit cheaper to raise a family in those communities, but it's even expensive in those
111communities. So, I think that that's just something we're going to have to face in this state as we move forward. >> Great point. Okay. Well, thank you, uh, Mr. Winward. >> Yes. >> You're very welcome. I will always oblige when you want. >> Ryan always, [Laughter] >> right? Okay. Agenda item number agenda item number 11. Approval of consent agenda and this is for possible action. Trust. Okay. Motion by Trusty Wall then second by Trusty Walker. Um any board discussion? Seeing none. Any public comment? Seeing none. All those in favor? I. Any opposed? Motion carries. Agenda item number 12formational items and this is for discussion only. No action will be taken. Any comments or concerns? I do I just have one addition um that I have mentioned previously and I just wanted to mention it again
112because it is on transportation. Um so there is a group that meets um on behalf of the Carson City Health and Human Services and it's for their um uh their health improvement plan. And so um I'm the lead for the transportation part of this health improvement plan. Um and the meeting is um on Thursday at um RSVP my office at um 1:30. But what we're discussing is is um how to bring transportation um one. Okay. Yes. The Carson City Health and Human Services needs our information, our our data, your data. Um they need everybody's data that provides transportation by whatever means. and to whomever. But then we've taken this a step further um the group has and to try to um figure out I mean to identify the lack of you know is it our
113students are our students getting the medical attention that they need you know after school? Um, and so we would really appreciate having somebody from the schools attend. And so we've reached out to everybody who does transportation, but it's not just um students getting getting the medical needs. I mean um their needs met after school. Is it because of transportation? Could it be that um you know, are they getting um groceries with families that have one household? You know, we're trying to get to see what it is because everybody says transportation is a problem. You know, every community says transportation is a problem for those who don't that that they don't have it. So, we're trying to identify what it is and how is a community, but it is quad county. So, story counties involve Douglas,
114Lion, and Carson. So, please the meeting is I know don't stop 1:30 Thursday. Thank you. Okay. Agenda item number 13, requests for future agenda topics. I'm just thinking, you know, every year we've been having these discussions about the fields at the high school. And I think maybe the board needs to look at putting a policy in place to give the school some direction. and um the district administrator so that we're not always in the middle of that and we could let the schools handle their affairs and let us do the school board business. >> I think that would be a good one. So Renee, is that the item? >> Okay, wonderful. Thank you. And then also anybody else? Yeah, Richard, >> I have one. Um, Superintendent Fueling as it when did we had last have
115our update on MTSS? >> Uh, I believe we had a presentation. I'd have to look. I want to say early spring. >> Early spring. Okay. Uh, maybe sometime in the future. I was able to attend the uh leadership team meeting today. A lot of discussion about MTSS. It seems like they're making very good progress in the implementation of that program. So maybe later on just a update for the board because they are it does seem like they're making good progress. >> So update on the MTSS Yeah. Okay. So, I'm also interested in in um having a presentation of this year's budget, Mr. Spencer, just to see where we are at um with with our current budget if possible. That would be wonderful. Okay. Any additional items? >> We're still going to have one of the
116accounts. Yeah. Workshop. >> That's a once a month. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. >> Okay. >> Agenda item number 14 adjournment. Thank you so much everyone. [Music] Oh, [Music] hey. [Music]