Carson City School Board Meeting 3/11/2025

001[Music] everyone welcome to the Carson City School District Board of Trustees meeting today is Tuesday uh March 11 2025 and we are going to call this meeting to order at 6:30 p.m. and we'll start off with agenda item number one adoption of the agenda as submitted and this is for possible action second okay so motion by trusty Walker second by trusty bner any board discussion see none any public comment see none all those in favor I any opposed motion carries agenda item number two Flex Salute by uh trusty wall flag the United States of stand indice thank you trusty wal and at this moment I am going to ask everyone to join us to join me for a moment of Silent for one of our students who passed away last week um if you can

002please join me for a moment of Silent thank you um we are sending the family our de condolences and um just as a reminder if anyone is in need of emotional support we recommend that you called our um um counseling office um and we will um have the counselors and our staff our team provide on the support necessary okay so agenda item number three uh superintendent report and this is for information only superintendent fing thank you president Ramirez um so we have some guests here this evening uh but I want to start with a quote it's a great quote um a Greek philosopher there's there's several of them um but Aristotle once said what we we are what we repeatedly do Excellence is thus not an act but a habit and the Carson High bowling

003program has a pretty good habit of Excellence um winning the high desert inter Scholastic Championship 18 of the last 22 years I don't know what happened in those other four but we can we can work on it um but tonight we have uh some friends from the the bowling team our rep from uh Carson High School Mr Patrick Tobin is here uh and coaches Ron Pasqual and Danny dumbar Ron and I actually go way back in the Bowling World so he's he's an old friend of mine um but if you guys would want to come up and maybe talk a little bit about what happened just come up here and oh yeah if you can please use a microphone should I sit no whatever you want do stand up okay thank thank you for having

004us we we appreciate the invitation um I just have a couple prepared statements about this bowling team the the young men and the coaches uh through the last four and a half almost five months have shown Superior dedication sportsmanship and community and codery in the team the dedication has been both inside and outside of the classroom the students have worked very hard with their teachers and with their coaches the dedication is shown tonight and so many of the bowlers are competing in a league night which has um I believe scholarship ramifications um they put in at least 98 maybe 100 hours just on the lanes alone this year um for the sportsmanship I got say I I I was a part of a championship football team in high school I've never seen sportsmanship to the

005level as I have this year these young men and women never heard one negative word ever and the other teams we would Bowl against all of whom they beat uh they were very nice high fives right displaying the the type of Pride and attitude we we try to teach at Carson High in the Carson City School District they I'm very proud of all their sportsmanship congratulating other teams congratulating each other and then I mentioned it one day at practice the the the the team work is also very Superior again never a negative word and I'm not exaggerating not one negative word from one team member ever about each other about any of the adults about high school this is one of the greatest teams I've ever been a part of in my life these young

006men and women did a great job this year I'm very proud to have the time with them as is tradition um before and after practice and meets we kind of give it up to anybody that would like to say anything so I would like to offer if any of the coaches would like to add anything but in conclusion this is one of the best teams I've ever seen the sportsmanship again something that's just Superior good evening uh thank you for having us tonight and taking the time to acknowledge our athletes achievements with the Carson High School bowling team and its par participation with the high deserts iner Scholastic bowling program thank you all for coming out tonight um we were very fortunate this year to have a very seasoned and mature team right out the

007gate a very focused and devoted team one that gave itself an identity an identity of keeping its word uh to seeing it through this team stayed humbled and grounded All Season never getting Beyond its initial successes or the current competition at hand our only goal was to always was always what was in front of us for the week nothing more nothing less one competition at a time one divisional playoff at a time and then one Championship approached in the same for each match getting us to the ultimate victory that ultimate victory was an undefeated road to victory for every match every Playoff Challenge ending in a championship that was secured by the second round the road to success with this team goes beyond just the CHS bowling program there are students before athletes with their

008academics this is a collective team that participates in Saturday morning coaching and then Saturday Youth League uh scholarship tournaments throughout Northern Nevada King of the Hill competitions aside from our own high school practices those those practices some good some bad only highlighted the hard work they had to overcome improving their own personal game dialing in their shots and fine-tuning their overall level of consistency proving their dedication to the sport team spirit with the Carson High School team is a must our spirit and camaraderie have no equal to date within the hdbp we are all accountable for holding each other up in the face of bad shots or bad days keeping a positive bond to our team we never give up we always see it through this Mantra is shared uh to others throughout the dedicated

009show of respect to others during competitions uh that being during the hdbp volunteer ERS opponents their coaches and setting a tone of respectful sportsmanship that opposes uh that oppose us win or lose in closing I'd like to say how proud I am of this team and their accomplishments this season and what you have given back to us as your coaches and advisers I'm proud of the coaching staff and support I've been surrounded with and the company I share with them almost daily to the parents and here in attendance I want you to know that your kids are my kids and having the relationships with them throughout the season have been nothing short of Unforgettable culminating in over all Bond equivalent to family thank you for letting us have them each week for this season I'm

010proud of you all I love you all through thick and thin and thank you for keeping your word to each other and giving us all something to hold so high not only for yourselves but your families your school and your community [Applause] thanks congratulations do we have another speaker just real quick so on behalf of the kids that are not here as well um like they had mentioned we have a junior King of the Hill program which is a national qualifier for Green Bay Wisconsin so that's what they're back at the Bing alley doing at the moment right now is they're PR not practicing they are qualifying to go back to Wisconsin over the summer which is a week and a half long event um scholarship money eligible um more so than that there is

011a ton of colleges that are at this event looking at the bowlers to pursue for their Collegiate bowling programs um so there's a ton of money in Bowling for scholarship for kids to advance their education which personally at 5 years old you start learning and bowling to get money to go to school Advance your education there's not much else at that age that you can start doing that so that's huge for these kids um again I personally would like to thank you guys for inviting us to come out here um it means a lot to these kids thank you guys so much coach could the we have the kids introduce themselves and maybe you could give us a a high high game for the year or something like that uh I'm Jack Peterson um I

012think my High game was like 230 something I'm Hannah glissen and my head game was a 182 oh um I'm Emily LZ my High game was a 244 um I am Indiana basketball and I believe my High game was something along the lines of 260 something or a high 250s my name is my name is uh Kaden Kemp and I think my High game was around a wow well a huge round of applause again congratulations for your successful outcome [Applause] board members any comments go ahead Richard uh congratulations how many are seniors or Juniors onei one senior so we should have another strong team next year right great uh congratulations again you guys did a great job and all these wins it's remarkable so um keep up the good work thank you and hopefully this

013will help you with your education in the future with scholarship money pry Peterson uh I just want to make sure to uh say Rich's name out down there on the end to Rich sharp um uh he's been with the program he hasn't had a kid in the league for years but he shows up and he pours his heart into it and he loves these kids Beyond like oh not probably not as much as our parents but pretty dang close and so I just want to make sure you're an inent suspension too that you are very appreciated all of you who sacrifice you take time off of work um to be a part of this team and dedicate so much time to helping these kids have an atmosphere to thrive in and to grow in and

014to build camaraderie and to um support each other and challenge each other and to just shine and so thank you for providing that opportunity for them couldn't do it without you can you please grab the microphone usually don't need need that but uh during the season we had one competition which we won but the kids weren't in it we couldn't figure it out what was going on uh so Danny pulled them all together and said what do we need to improve on as your as a team and as yourself and one of the team members came up with we need to keep our word and he heard it in Ron's little thing uh with that was our Mantra keep our word keep everybody's head up keep the team concept going the whole way and I

015think that's what kept us going through the playoffs that made the difference in the whole thing was kind of cool that one of the team members said hey we we need to keep our word to ourselves that we're what we're doing thank you wonderful go ahead TR Walker you know I just want to thank you for one of the things that I think is so nice in our community is we make sure that all of our students know the various Pathways to get to college and scholarships and other services that are available and bowling is one of the things that you know like for me that was the first time I'm hearing about this and so thank you for making sure that all of our students see that there's more ways to get scholarships than

016Straight A's and uh excelling at sports that are football you know team sports so I just I think that that's great so thank you I the handlebar mustache threw me off I've haven't seen you in a while oh this is all coming off Saturday that was another thing they shaving my head on Saturday well again thank you so much for coming in again congratulations thank you thank [Applause] you okay uh next item we have another special guest this evening if uh Miss Gina hoppy would mind making her way up to the podium or the table Miss hoppy yes was chosen as our next principal for Eagle Valley Middle School and so congratulations thank you thank you Mr feeling and to all of you board members I'm truly honored to accept this position as principal of

017Eagle Valley Middle School um Beyond grateful for this opportunity and all the faith you all have having me to help lead such an amazing school so I'm very excited for this new adventure um it's a little bitter sweet leaving FR because I've been there for the better half of the last two decades and uh I you know consider the FR family as family of my own and uh so it'll be hard leaving the staff and students um but like I said I'm very excited for this next adventure I do want to say a special thank you to Mr Brown who's been my mentor and friend and colleague and took me took me on as his right-and man uh during like one of the most trying times during covid so thank you Mr Brown um I

018truly hope from the bottom of my heart that my replacement knows more movie lines than I do because that way you can have a real conversation with somebody because I don't know those movie lines so hopefully that person does um and then to Mr Dr Conley who's not here tonight but he was a mentor to me in the past and is currently mentoring me as we make this trans transition so I'm very grateful for him too and then just again thank you for the opportunity and the trust and confidence you all have in me so yeah I'm very excited yeah well if I if I make congratulations and a big loss for fridge but a big game for R Valley Middle School so congratulations thank you very much thank you anybody else go ahead Richard

019I think Richard yeah uh like I told you earlier congratulations we'll miss you at Fritz I've always been impressed with what you and Mr Brown have done at that school it's very well run and we will miss miss Mr connley but we're looking forward to you taking over also so thank you thank you Mike well I just have to say congratulations I'm so proud of you and it's kind of funny because I'm seeing ma Brown back there smiling and I'm thinking those nice FR teachers are going to be dealing with the m Browns of the world now seriously though I think you have a great future ahead of you and I'm so proud of you so thank you for what you do thank you there are a lot of people in this room who have

020helped shape me over the years so I appreciate many people in this room and I look forward to working with Greg thatford and again yeah did speak to Lee Conley today and he was picking up his wife at um the airport tonight so he couldn't make it but um yeah again we're just I'm very excited and sad to be leaving Mr Brown and fr but excited for the new opportunities that lay ahead yeah excellent well congratulations again thank you so [Applause] much uh just a couple more things uh yesterday and today we had right here in this building um some really special guests um representing the Herby Hancock Institute of jazz uh five of the top high school jazz musics in the country um one was from Orlando one was Chicago one was Houston one

021was Los Angeles and I forget where the other one was from but I mean truly just just spread out um and honestly so we had on Monday Carson High the the junior class was here um plus all the music any anyone who's participating in music at Carson High and and Pioneer campus um and then also uh then today we had all the eighth graders from Eagle Valley and Carson Middle School and then all kids that participate in music in those buildings and um I honestly I I was a little worried um just in my in my mind simple mind of it being jazz music and I know Jazz isn't a hugely popular music with um kids sometimes and it was fantastic they were there was so much energy the kids were so into it um

022they had also performing with them uh this guy who he's supposed like apparently considered the best saxophonist in the world his name is Antonio Hart he's won 14 Grammy Awards um and just phenomenal there was a a singer um Lisa Henry brought some kid a kid up on stage for both of the events and kind of put them on the spot and Hey sing sing with me um but it it was far beyond anything I expected so I'm just so grateful however we got chosen to be a part of that um and what one thing I would say I really appreciate too they called it an informance where they there was they were performing music but they they walked through the the history of jazz how it's it's an it's an American Music born in

023New Orleans about a 100 years ago um talked about how like jazz music is actually like showed a sheet of music and like here here's kind of how we do it and and not I mean in a in a way that I think was a little engaging as well um but one of the the key pieces is they they tried to talk about how Jazz represented so many of the American values that we hold dear and and one of them was democracy and it it was interesting because they talked about how you know we we value individualism but you have a responsibility to the whole and how jazz music there there's a an underlying Rhythm that's happening and everyone's responsible to that Rhythm but there's so much improvisation around that and how you you never

024really hear the same Jazz tune twice because every time it's always a little bit different so um I'm just very grateful and just seem to be really well received um and our kids were fantastic they were it it was loud screaming kids clapping dancing it was it was just it was great so um and last last thing uh last week was reading week although we have a couple stragglers still still coming through uh one of my favorite times of year going into Elementary classrooms and reading um and I I have to and it's one of my I absolutely love doing that I have so much fun with it but one teacher at Empire um kind of set me up I have to I have to call out Isel monzano on this because she we had

025a little time at the end she said oh why why don't you I have one more book why don't why don't you read this book and I don't know if any of you have ever read it's called the book with no pictures I had never heard of it had no clue what I was getting myself into and I was I was laughing so hard just belly laughs I was crying I was laughing so hard um so thank you to her for um putting making that happen it was great and just had a really good time with the kids so that is all I have for my report awesome thank you yeah I read that book too and I was like what is this and the kids are like oh my gosh they were excited screaming

026and everything was it was a fun the most fun book I have ever written okay very good so we're going to go ahead and move on to agenda item number four and this is board reports board member comments and this is for information only and we will start off with Carson High School representative and do we have Diane angard no High School representative uh trusty Peterson do you have the report when we do have Pioneer but do we do we want to hold up until we get to you yeah let's go ahead and have Pioneer come up here um Caitlyn wi if you could please come up uh could I start off with a personal story as a junior who just went to the jazz concert yesterday okay um so I have this funny anecdote

027for you guys when we were walking to the community center in the morning it was like 9: and being teenagers we slept even less so we were all grouchy we were all quiet and we didn't want to do anything and do you mind if I um am I like under NDA if I sing a little part of the musical number I'm not that good but uh the one of the singers she came up and she was like every day every day I got the blues right um and then uh like I have never seen our Juniors just light up like that because we didn't have phones and we were just caught in the moment and everyone was like singing they were like bouncing around I heard some people saying uh sing it girl and stuff

028like that behind me fun and then when we were walking back it wasn't quiet but guess what I did here there's some kids going every day I got the was great I loved it um anyway thanks for sharing that that's awesome it was great yeah um my name is Caitlin win and I will be presenting Pioneers announcements tonight um Pioneer speech and debate team just went to their final Tournament of the year which is a District tournament on March 6 thanks to their representative efforts we were able to be heard across the state we are incredibly proud of them and we're grateful for their efforts to show up every week in practice and show up to competitions consistently if you would like to support our debate team we are holding another Pioneer Panther Pizza painting

029and punch night at 530 that always gets me f Pioneer Panther Pizza painting and punch say that five times fast I can't at 5:30 p.m. this Thursday all the money that we raise will go towards their efforts to make it to Nationals um this week we're holding a you matter week to promote School unity and we wanted to send the message that you matter regardless of who you are and what demographics you belong to um so yesterday we wore green to to show support for mental health and we made sticker vision boards uh today we wore items representing us and made sensory bottles on Wednesday we're going to carry our school in anything but a backpack another funny story I suggested bringing a microwave but my mom was against the idea she reminded me that

030ours was embedded in the walls so I guess I'll just go with a grocery bag or something um but we will also wear teals to support those with um anxiety or depression and we're going to make dog toys for the Nevada Humane Society with recycled clothing at lunch on Thursday we're going to wear matching clothes with our friends and we're going to take pictures for you mattered collage to decorate the school um on Friday we're going to wear a color that represents our emotions and we had some leftover strings and Beads from the week of kindness on February so we're going to make some more friendship bracelets naturally being a part of leadership I got into the string early and I made one for my mom I know oh how cute that's awesome I'm amazing

031but um that's all thank you this is this is Caitlyn signing off okay yes of course I just love your energy you kudos to you and I'm sure you're going to go far yeah I was going to say same thing U I always enjoy your presentations they're entertaining and uh informational so thank you you do a great job thank you kayn okay so we move on to Nevada Association of school board nasby updates uh trusty Berner yeah I I really don't have much tonight um we had our legislative day and then we had some training on Thursday and I know that uh trusty Walker is going to talk about the legislative day since he's president of nasby but the training class we had on Thursday we had three different speakers and it was really a

032good day overall and I really appreciate everybody who came out uh to attend the training and had a good turnout from uh all districts throughout the state so that's all have great thank you so it was um a great day to collaborate with our colleagues in other school boards and also our legislative leaders and uh in the morning we had an opportunity to get a briefing from the governor's office so it was it was nice to be part of that conversation and one of the nice things was most of us were there I um had a meeting and Molly was kind of hanging out and she was like oh hey I don't have anything to do I saidwell come to this meeting with me and so I think we actually had a really great conversation

033in that meeting so it was a nice environment where we were all collaborating with each other and others around the state and it just kind of reminds you that we're all kind of in doing the same work and it's just kind of It kind of re-energizes you and um the second day I had a meeting at work I couldn't quite get out of but I showed up about lunchtime just in time for uh Spencer's presentation and of course I was sitting right in front of him and he actually knocked it out of the park and I told AJ I actually laughed at a couple of his jokes this time so Spencer actually did a great job so thank you to his leadership and um you know we have with nasby when we have our professional

034development there's some competencies that we ask of our presenters to incorporate and I think he really um did a great job giving us an activity with the budget to really dig deep and gain understanding into kind of those different categories in our budgets and so I think that that helped many school boards across the state so thank you to him I wish he was here to hear it in person if if I could add one thing to the nasby report also wanted to thank Mr Walker because he did uh him and uh the executive director from nasby did a a presentation in front of the legislature to kind of give an overview of what nasby is and who was all involved in it and uh Mike you did a very good job on that presentation

035so thank you thank you perfect okay so moving on to announcements and we'll start off with trusty Peterson all right so I didn't get much back from Carson High uh this week but I was going to also mention as kayin the the mental health week it's themed as you matter week um and with them being together now um it's all the same stuff uh it's kind of themed after inside out um to acknowledge your emotions and to give them space and to respect them and to um not feel um like they don't have a place and uh the timing of course uh is really important on the heels of um the tragic news of the weekend um so so I think it was a good opportunity and it was just kind of accidental that it

036worked out that way but to um to catch the kids right away as they came into the uh school Monday on the heels of bad news um to make sure that they know that each of them does matter and that they um they add value absolutely I think that was really great um I was going to add to AJ um with the Jazz um kayn actually also touched on that too um I was talking to one of the teachers from Pioneer yesterday last night and she was saying she's got Juniors and on the way to the field trip they were all kind of me like jazz jazz but they would not they were so lit up and enthused and they came back she didn't get to attend it they came back and would not stop

037talking about it and how amazing it was and what a great experience and and one of the gals that got to sing up and called up and do the I got the blues um impromptu singing um an absolute highlight for her and as a senior well yeah she is a senior but um just a highlight so again I don't know how how that came to be but I love that people seek out those opportunities to bring that to our students here so kudos to whoever it was that that made that happen um I was also going to add in um on the bowling team um because scholarships got brought around um this team alone earned almost 4 ,000 of scholarships at the end of this High School bowling season through the high school bowling program

038um they didn't have to go and wait for colleges to bring it the the program seeks out a lot of community sponsors and and has a bunch of people who pour into that program so that kids have opportunity and um the JV Bowlers of the year for the entire league of nine schools were both standing side by side in this presentation um and they each won $1,500 scholarship for for um their academics and their performance and their character so um I cannot say enough good things about that bowling program um there's 15 kids on the team obviously they weren't all here um my other school Mark Twain Elementary School um they just finished up reading week as well as um we've been talking about a little bit and they did something I don't think I've

039ever seen and I absolutely loved it so I wanted to give it a shout out um a lot of schools bring in guest readers and have like Dr Seuss themes they did the masked reader um just like the TV show The Mas singer where people are in costume and you have no idea who they are so they had it was five or six staff members that are not classroom dedicated they're schoolwide and so the kids should recognize potentially their voice and they were in the big inflatable blowup costumes um so you could not see them you could only hear them and and they would wander around the school and they were reading stories and books and all week long the kids had to try to guess who who they were and they had their big

040reveal assembly yesterday and it was just a lot of fun and I thought that was such a unique way to celebrate reading and and to get the kids constantly excited and and um interacting and not just sitting and listening so uh kudos to mark twn on a really fun reading week wonderful thank you and trusty Roberts oh I'm so sorry I I trusty Verner forgive me no problem we you already talk no I'm just Kidd we swap seats tonight for some reason um everybody's kind of mentioned the reading week and I had the opportunity to read to a couple classes and um I didn't really get set up but I did read one book and she says well got a little bit of time you want to read another books I grabbed this Dr Seuss

041book a mistake because some of the words in there I could not pronounce and so it was kind of embarrassing in a way because uh but anyway it was a really great time and I like thank Mrs Laker Mrs Edmonson and Miss O'Brien and Miss Barts for letting me read in their class and it was a really great time and I always enjoy it and I've been doing this for way before I got on the school board and um the kids are always so enthused about having somebody else come in to read to them and it's always really just a great time so I really appreciated them let me come in but anyway moving on uh Fritz this week is celebrating their reading reading week and they're going to have some fun activities and their

042families can browse their book fair on Wednesday March 12th from 4: to 6:00 p.m. and they wanted the frit parents to remember the parent conferences are coming up on March 24th through the 27th and Principal Brown says that a parent teacher conference without parents is just a teacher conference which makes sense and then the frit PTA is hosting a night with a night monster and that's night with a K night monster on February March 28th at 7:30 p.m. and they can contact the parents can contact the office if they are interested in joining in that event and that's my report for frit and I have one also for bardwick I just got to find it here okay I got it now their lucky math challenge is taking place tomorrow and they wanted to give a

043huge thank thanks to everyone and all the families who have been working at math facts at home they have seen great growth the bunny challenge will happen right after spring break so they encourage everyone to keep practicing the math facts parent teacher conferences are coming up on March 24th through the 27th they're looking forward to being able to meet with all of their parent families and if uh some parent does not have a conference time yet please reach out to your child's teacher and they'll set up a time for you then esac testing is right around the corner on March 31st through April 11th all third grade through fifth grade students will be testing in math and language arts and then their fifth graders will also take the science test after spring break and finally

044Mr wanted to remind everybody not to forget their tickets to the Reno Aces game on April 25th 5th and you can see the parent Square for the link and keep in mind that uh board work will receive some uh financial gain by people going to that uh game so if you can attend please do so and that ends my report thank you and that was on April 25th okay great thank you uh trusty Peterson no report Roberts Roberts Sorry God Almighty I'm going backwards now forgive me you're totally fine uh so Dr Wards said Fremont had a great turnout for their guest readers um and they met their goal the kids read enough minutes to get uh Dr Ward and Mr herel taped up on the wall so they will be doing that Friday as

045the students come in to lunch so I said I cannot wait to see pictures um I know my kids have been talking about it and I think they did do like a pre picture so the kids knew what was coming cuz they anyway so they're really looking forward to seeing that um and they are looking forward to the opportunity to meet with parents um for parent teacher conferences in a couple weeks and I just have to give a shout out to them for reading week um because uh we didn't just go in and read they had a fifth grade buddy assigned to every um volunteer that came in and they took around um they had the second grade class decorated little goodie bags and filled them with treats and water and and um handed those

046out so it was really really sweet little extra something and um Dr Ward said that a group of fifth graders is working really hard on you know um interactions and communication eye contact and I I was just impressed um completely my little buddy did awesome there was never a dull moment and I don't know that I could have carried on a conversation with an adult like she did in fifth grade so way to go and Way To Go Kids for getting those reading minutes nice very nice uh trusted kapam yeah so I have a update from Mr Conley at Eagle Valley uh registration for classes next year has been completed for the current fifth sixth seventh and eth graders several student groups are visiting UNR and TMCC to provide future interest and options for the

047Young Scholars and gate testing is going to be March 17th and 18th map testing March 18th through the 20th and on Friday March 21st it's going to be $5 hat and Hoodie fundraiser for the Alzheimer's foundation and this has been their focus um this year for their fundraising at Eagle Valley and that's all I have for tonight wonderful thank you uh trusty Walt yes thank you um no I did not um I don't have anything for Empire except the fact that I ran into Miss Hope Sullivan today at lunch and she said that they signed the school district map and have submitted it so we I look forward to hearing when we'll get that fence up awesome thanks and thank you Molly for advocating for that okay trusty Walker so ciger is celebrating the book

048fair this week and anybody who has ever worked or had kids in an elementary school knows that's always a big week and uh they're experiencing some spring fever so they've been really hitting the school expectations hard and trying to turn things around and I have a feeling that the storm that's blowing in tonight tomorrow might actually be a good omen for seiger and um most importantly she wanted to thank president Ramirez and mayor Bagwell for coming and helping celebrate what was was it it was absentismo they appreciated the support so great job there you go oh thank you thank you that was fun Yes actually that's one of the things that I was going to report on too um yeah I I did go with um the mayor and um um Brook um to celebrate

049uh the kids perfect attendance and they were were just amazing they were uh and Mrs Bryant I mean she is just an amazing um teacher so um kudos to her um but part of my report also is to um share that I had a lot of fun also reading at Fremont and Empire and um like the superintendent feeling said that book with no pictures was something else it was so fun and the kids were like can you stay and read it again for us so it was really fun um but also so um as trusty Robert Robert said so the student who took me to the different classrooms at Freemont um I believe her name is ever ever if I have it correctly Everly Everly she was amazing just very um very matur and very

050uh well spoken and just I mean she just did a phenomenal job so my crudos to um those those kids that are excellent in their in their education and um on the 5th on March 5th I also enjoyed the day of the legislature so thank you trusty Walker and trusty Verner for um you know helping with that um event it was a lot of fun and very educational for sure um the Jazz the Jazz concert I attended that yesterday and it was super fun I went home and told my family guess what I just went to New Orleans it was so funny it was what it was such a fun way to start my morning and and you're right I mean those kids are just incredible they're professionals they're and yes our students had a

051blast I think that this this is probably what our students would want to um would want us to offer to them every Monday morning so that they can get inspired and get energize and and have a good attitude about um going to school so but yeah I think that concludes my reports of course yeah uh really quick I just wanted to as you didn't mention about um March 2nd at St Teresa oh yes and um just you know kudos to you thank you for putting that together for um and both of you and for the sheriff's office as well it was so well attended and the line you know to speak to the Mexican counil and her yes and it was um I know those who didn't attend that heard about it were disappointed they

052didn't attend and so it was um but I without the both of you it wouldn't have happened and you know both of you need to um be thanked for that so thank you very much for doing that thank you Molly I appreciate it and thank you for also joining us and for supporting that and trusty Roberts and trusty Verner it was very well received by the community and they were very grateful to the leaders you know like you said the sheriff um and uh superintendent fing and um uh obviously father um Tom for bringing the Mexican counselor to um you know educate him and and to provide resources and they said you know this had never happened before in Carson City and so they were very grateful that that we actually had that opportunity for

053them to um learn about their rights and just again be be familiar with the resources so thank you for mentioning that I appreciate it did you yeah go ahead I I don't mean to beat the Jazz performance to death but it it was that good um but a big thank you I and I I neglected to say this so behind the scenes it was a lot it was a really heavy lift to make this all happen there's a young lady in the corner who made magic happen over there so a big thank you to Renee Cortez um Mrs fusan helped so much with the logistics when we were trying to put this together so thank you Tasha um our principes uh Dr Conley and Amy Robinson um I know I think uh at the high

054school Dan Carson's but um Dean Sherry Lin did all the the work for them organizing it our music teachers um Miss Van Norman uh Bri Valley at Carson Middle School um John BR at the at Eagle Valley um Nick jock and uh Andy Saker at the high school just they all had a part in it so it was a lot to put together behind the scenes so I just I wanted you to know that but I'm I'm glad nobody realized it they just had a good time thank you for mentioning that yeah thank you everyone for helping out with that okay so agenda item number five um Association reports for discussion only do we have anyone from the association it doesn't look like we do all right so then agenda item number six public comment

055and I was informed by uh Renee that we do not have an online public comment do we have inperson public public comment see n then at this moment I will close um public comment and moving on to agenda item number seven discussion and presentation on the instructional material selection process for elementary computer science for the Carson City School District as budgeted and this is for discussion only welcome Randa Wallace and Tasha fusen and Tera bua we actually have quite a team with us so I'm gonna let everybody introduce themselves let I will let you guys introduce yourselves okay all right did you yeah it's on as long all right I'm Ronda Wallace I'm the K12 electives and computer science curriculum assessment coordinator for our district and um this year the elementary computer science team which

056I have here Tia me oh can we go see can you tell I've never been here before that's okay that's completely the time I was here I didn't have to speak that's okay if we can have them introduce themselves okay perfect I guess I'll start I'm trra babula teach K5 computer science at Mark Twain Elementary School okay hi Irene Waltz computer science Rich Elementary Terry Schiffer Fremont Elementary Adrianne Wiggins um computer science Empire Elementary so this year we realized we don't really have um curriculum for our elementary computer science and as you guys know it's super important for all of our subjects whether they're electives or not to have um support for our teachers so we did a materials review and selection headed by Tira babula um oh you said this button okay so so

057first we did A needs assessment which obviously the integration of computer science at the elementary level is essential for preparing our students to thrive in a technology-driven world so a well-designed um computer science curriculum must address accessibility for teachers um it must promote Equity among all the students it needs to align with our um standards given to us by the state and it should evaluate the current state of our computer science instruction for elementary schools and identify any gaps and look for those opportunities to support the successful adoption for a comprehensive curriculum for computer science in elementary so I'll take over oh it's you sorry there you go thank you well first of all I wanted to thank everyone for having us here and board members in our executive cabinet it's really nice to meet

058you all from a distance um I'm the newest member and I am honored in in awe of my uh peers they have just supported me entirely they are truly professionals and exceptional teachers so I just want to say that um I'm doing the sort of the drawbacks right now where we are now um teacher accessibility uh is an issue with our curriculum across sites as um many of our individual teachers that that are part of the team are paying out of pocket ET or using their classroom resources um seeking supplemental funding from either parent teacher organizations or donors choose projects to help support curriculum um secondly Equity across um all School sites for all students is not equivalent or equal some students have limited access while some schools are um a little better in out

059and have stem programs and a little bit more resources inside and outside of the classroom third um point is community engagement we really um don't have a consistent um participation pool from our caregivers our families and we' really like to see that um some of our schools have stem family nights uh save the date Freemont Elementary April 30th everyone's invited and I really would like to see the members there so please join us for our first family steam night April 30th from 5: to7 but we do want to see that we want to see it for all of our students um all of our Carson elementary school children and the last point being high quality instruction that was mentioned by Miss Wallace we are not using research base per se it is meeting our standards

060but um we would like it to be consistent across all Sites as students do transfer in and out of our schools um we find it a little bit of uh of a tricky kind of meeting the learner where they are and what they've been exposed to and then um continuing with their growth at our own School sit so we we all are here for the kids and we want high quality instruction let's see if I can handle this here okay um why is this important because it supports our Carson City School District um strategic plan uh it is important because we want to number one um provide um high quality instruction that aligns with Goal two curriculum that matters providing students with rigorous curriculum that is identified for U meeting differentiated supports not all students

061um are at the same level but we want to promote and help them be successful so again goal two aligns with our intentions secondly goal three engage parents and families actively promoting family and parent involvement for the academic success of our students and building those Partnerships along with our Community Partnerships with all stakeholders and lastly goal five a community and full partnership means connecting students with real world life skills and um that extend be on our cat classrooms and that's um pretty evident in what we've been looking at and where we want them to roll into middle school and high school and beyond that on thank you okay not you while they pass it down Terra babula for the record um I'm going to go ahead and discuss with all of you the material reviews

062and selection process our team used um the Nevada Department of Education has three Elementary approved curriculum materials um we looked at all three one being code HS um the second one being Ellipsis education and the third being skill struck uh the team created a review rubric with criteria that we felt was essential when we um evaluated computer science curriculum materials and with our rubric our three main categories that we considered were teacher accessibility equity and contents for Teacher accessibility um we looked at teacher support so we considered Educators who have a deep understanding of computer science and even have computer science endorsements on their licenses all the way to Educators who may be new to computer science and may not have a strong Foundation of understanding of those standards um with teacher accessibility we also

063looked at supplemental materials um that consider data privacy and ownership with Equity we looked at culture at the community level um we wanted our we felt it's important in computer science for our kids to see their communities represented and themselves represented within those curriculum materials uh for our girls that they can see themselves being in the field of computer science um is important to us and we also looked at um exceptionalities for like our subps of students like our MLS our multilingual Learners our special ed students our gate students Etc uh for Content we looked at both um content for uh computer science content sorry alignment to our state standards and all the work our team has done with our proficiency skills scales we also looked at vertical alignment so what does computer science look

064like for our kindergarten students what does it look like for our first grade students and then rolling up through our grade levels what about when they leave us with that foundational understanding in computer science and go to Middle School what does it look like for them there and what does it look like for them in high school so we considered that um and we also in uh looked at instructional design what kind of higher order thinking um skills are included in the materials what kind of metacognitive engagement do kids have have um the availability to um participate in is there a progress tracker for students are they able to see their progress over time are they able to understand what they know and what they don't know are they able to set goals around that

065understanding and then also a progress tracker for teachers to be able to look at to understand where their kids are in real time with their understanding of those standards um considering a feedback loop for students uh a formative feedback loop a summon of feedback loop and then also for our kids to be able to share and collaborate around computer science and what they create um the last thing we considered was um assessment opportunities again both formative and summative um what do those look like for our students uh what kind of feedback do they get along the way are there opportunities for teachers to create their own formative and summative assessments um and are there things already created created that we can use as well um after all the three curriculum materials were evaluated our team

066um selected uh skill struck to be considered for elementary curriculum material for computer science and Irene is going to talk to you why um skill struck was selected by our team hi Irene Waltz for the record so I get to do the good news the pros of why we chose them um first of all the team came out in person two of the people came and talked to us when they were demonstrating the product and we talked about the need for Community engagement evenings and their willing to do that which none of the other two um had mentioned that pardon me as Tia mentioned there's lots of accessibility features which some may not even know is is an issue for students for example you know uh site might be a problem for some there's so

067many accessibility features that were not in the other products that this is really a a positive for students it's got so many options and you might know some of the things from the testing like when you do maps and those kinds of things some of the choices that are available only they have uh that included in this program there's a lot of student Choice based on what you open what standards are being addressed and what they can choose um within working with those standards um really high engagement for them there's uh lots of gamified if you will and um we know our students really engage with that type of atmosphere where they can create things along the way uh with their learning um for for teachers there's an autog grader which is always very helpful

068so tra mentioned progress tracking but it also uh gives you know students a chance to see pretty quickly how they're doing and to be able to try again if need be um lots of custom hints which is now this is where you know the current AI comes in um seeing what they need and where where they need to go from there a really nice teacher dashboard um as we all know when you know updates are made in just a computer system it's annoying this has a very nice computer dashboard for teachers to use very uh easy to use uh it's very safe and secure so it meets all of the copaa furpa compliant issues uh it's very very well versed in cross-curricular um areas going into things that not only covers computer science but how

069it can be integrated in the other content areas as well um for the teachers who are using this lots of good support and help in fact you know they've got a if you will hotline where we can just call for additional help if needed um which is always very nice um enrichment opportunities called The Playground again very engaging to the students lots of Assessments and rubrics built in which by the way tra didn't mention this but oftentimes we have to also build the rubrics for ourselves for these students um um gleaning different uh rubrics from different uh things we've seen in other areas of curriculum um and lastly it's got uh a learning activity gener generator and that way we can choose activities that are current and um they can choose at their own pace

070all right Adrien Wiggins for the record um and so I'm going to talk about we kind of look to see were their impact reports on these different programs and what did that look like and so this impact report um they looked at a targeted group of students that needed remedial math um intervention and so they had um followed a group of students from seven different Math teachers four different countries excuse me in five different states and when these students started their average score on the maps assessment was a 175 and national average is 185 so they're well below kind of what the national average was after a year of working with this program um their spring average was a 206 and national average was a 2011 so not only did they make the expected growth

071they exceeded that and jumped above what the national average was huge huge gains in that also um esac so there's that projection on esac based on what Maps was and so as they were following this um in the beginning um they were projected I think it was a 492 kind of average level which is a level two on esack and at the end it was a 525 which was a level three and so they looked at like why what is it that this program has that um made such great growth as far as the maths assessment and so part of that is it goes back computer science is very math based there's a lot of connections to math um but the huge do I just push this one all right um the big connection and

072anybody who knows me knows that math is my first love and so um this is something I was excited about which is why I'm speaking about it because it computer science is so closely related to the mathematical practices and so this list just kind of gives you an idea of showing you like we have math practice uh one which is all about solving problems and persevering and in computer science students are learning to debug code I have a thing on my board that says and I tell the kids all the time computer science is 10% writing code and 90% trying to figure out why it doesn't work so it's all about making sense and trying to figure it out because it's not going to work the first time most of the time and you have

073to find out where that bug is and how to fix it reason abstractly and quantitatively and so we talk about algorithms and sequencing algorithms and and that makes connections to ELA as well not just math um construct viable arguments and critiquing reasoning of others we do pair programming within our classroom and this this uh program has out as well where students are working with a partner and they're they're constructing those arguments with each other on what works best and we need to change this and fix this all the way down in kindergarten it's pretty incredible to listen to them argue in kindergarten about no I think actually that's not going to work we need to do this um website building so modeling with mathematics using appropriate tools code blocks solving puzzles attend to Precision so

074syntax and coding solving uh puzzles look for and make use of structure so again website building and making use of structure within there but even just look for and make use of structure within the code itself um and then look for and express regularity and repeated reasoning and so building the efficient algorithms using loops and so we talk to our kids like some kids will just over and over write something down in a code and telling them how do we make that more efficient right how can we clean up our code so all of this does support math I will say like our team's really great and this program has it as well like not just mathematics but there's a lot of support with Ela on the next slide there is a demo lesson and

075we're not going to pull it up and show it because it was open for review but I will tell you one of the things I love about this is we've been trying really hard to pull in Reading within our our classroom um and so this every one of these lessons is set up where there is a textbook where there's reading and we're understanding the concept but it's also built as we read part of it it's like okay now you try it right and so like in this lesson they're reading and they're understanding how HTML works and so they're looking and they're understanding the process and then there's Parts where they okay so when you code this if you put L1 it's going to be a bigger text and if you put L6 it's going to

076be a smaller text so try it out and so they get to play around with that website by changing those things excuse me and so there is just great application throughout the learning with the students where they get to do it and actually see what happens right away um and I'll pass it on but I'm I'm passionate about this because this is my third year doing it and and I absolutely love computer science but it's been a bear to I can't tell you how many hours we all spend trying to find stuff that is good quality for our students and we're all finding different things and our team's wonderful and shares but nothing is vetted it's us finding what we can and trying to create it so looking back at that um you know the

077data that shows the effect that a program like this can have on our students is important Ronda Wallace for the record um next we're going to talk about the public riew comments because as one of the requirements we have to put this out there they had the access to that demo for two weeks it was in the district office set up there were comment cards there for them to make we published it um Dan Davis sent out a notification we published in the newspaper so it was out there um however nobody left any comments for us so I have nothing to report on that there were no public comments for review um but we did do our due diligence on it so moving forward obviously tonight we are presenting to you our wish to have

078um material from skill struck lunchpad be our adopted curriculum for elementary commuter science with that happening we're hoping that the district will approve a PO to order those materials in by the end of June or July in July we are hoping for that um integration between skill struck Launchpad our Infinite Campus and you know the SSO and all of that stuff happening then in August we will get all of our elementary computer science team um have some PL for them to get started so that when school starts they will be ready to integrate it into their curriculum and use it as their main source or resource um and then throughout the year we are going to plan um time in each of the cop meetings for them to have reflection on how it's going and

079any ongoing peel that they feel like they might need Tas if you on for the record so I get to speak about cost so I get the fun part um now the before I get into the cost of this program I I think the team has done a wonderful job talking about the process that they went through also knowing that this will be the very first time that we will have a district um selected Core curriculum for computer science and Elementary again they did a great job explaining that but they've all been creating their own curriculum and their own materials finding their own materials the reason for that is it's not that our district didn't want to support those efforts it's that actually there was no adopted curriculum even at the state level until I

080think it was two three three years ago now three years ago now um so this is it's it's new even for our state so while um while we've we've had them limping along with a few supplementals here and there we really wanted to um honor what they do and what they bring to the table for our students by adopting a Core curriculum for them so again what that looks like is that the state did the initial approval process for all those resources that were approved at the state level we put out a request for information the the companies that returned uh or or got back to us on that request for information then they went through this process and then did the rubric so um what this comes down to now is with skill strk

081I get to go into negot negotiations with them is what that looks like but in essence their typical cost is $7,000 per year per school um so they they give you a group discount of being $330,000 if you have all six schools in there and then if you do a multi-year contract then they say okay well we'll charge you $27,000 a year for doing a mult multi-year contract I'm really looking at the three-year option and the reason why is that the state will be again looking at um instruction materials for computer science 3 years years from now in 2028 we'll be up for review again we also find that in this particular area things change so incredibly fast so where most of our contracts are usually seven to eight years like when we just did

082the K5 mathematics adoption it was an eight-year contract with them um but computer science I'm very hesitant to end or to enter into that long of a contract literally just because technology changes so fast and these tech companies change hands so quickly and we've found with a few of our providers that when they're bought out by a bigger company Etc sometimes customer service lags you those types of things so we're really looking at that threeyear option um just to take us along till the next state adoption so that's currently where we're at this is this is already budgeted for within the ed services budget for this year um as you know we we as a as a district typically spend about I'd say probably half a million dollars per year on um support supporting curriculum

083and instruction efforts within our schools so it's part of that that budget um so it's actually not an action item it's an informational item for us to tell you the process that we did but we are here and happy to answer any questions that you might have of us thank you tasa okay questions from the board can I just add something really quick just because Tasha made a good point she talked about how much stuff changes in here and I will tell you that was one of the things we were most impressed with with this company is they said they sat here with computer science teachers as you know across the country a lot of times it's classroom teachers these are standards teachers have to teach and so it's classroom teachers that don't often have

084that background and so there were things that we were like oh well this would be so much better if it did this and as we were talking to them they were texting their team and they were making those changes and like we saw in real time one of the changes change on our thing and that was one of the things we were most impressed is they're like it's important for us to get that feedback and make those changes that we think are important so I just wanted to make that point interesting okay Molly thank you thank it looks great um just a few questions so if you did the three-year contract uh do you know how often I mean does the content change annually then or is it the same it would be the same

085and this particular one this the curriculum would be the same but as we stated uh yes but they might enhance sometimes they enhance they cannot do with the state of Nevada you cannot do substantial revisions um during the time frame that you're on the adopted list they can only be there might be enhancements there might be something where maybe an error was found somewhere and then they corrected that that kind of thing but they cannot make any substantial changes without having to go through another adoption process at the state so it's not an opened resource which is a an important statement to make because we struggle sometimes with opened resources because they're not regulated by the state and they're not regulated with how often they can change and so you might approve something we see

086this sometimes with like the family life group like we'll approve something and then it get substantially changed a year later so this is a it is a core curricular program that's been approved at the state level so you might see minor updates or things like that but nothing of substance okay so one year three years the content would be the same correct okay thank you um and then how often do the students get a computer science class so we see every single student so kindergarten all the way up to fifth grade and so they come to us once a week for 45 minutes um sometimes twice a week so Wednesdays we have a rotation day so like I'm going to see my Monday classes again tomorrow um so sometimes they'll get the two times 45

087minutes each week okay and that was I'm sorry I'm just going to throw this in because that was the other thing we loved is when we told them like we can they can set up the way the curriculum is paced based on how our classes are and we can take it and kind of re order it based on our progression document so the curriculum's all there but we can kind of just move stuff to best meet our needs and so that was really great too is this the that brings up another question is this 30 thou or 27,000 then um technical support or is that something separate that includes technical support yes I didn't read the top part of it but the top part of it talks about everything that's included within that contract okay

088um and then another question I had just two more questions um they mentioned the events you know would it be one large community event or would they be doing individual school events um so with skill struck what they will do is they'll help um either create and even facilitate a large community event around computer science so it would be one event for our entire District okay great thing and then um one thing that really kind of struck me was when you mentioned the um Equity or inequity do you feel as though this is going to to solve that the equity piece of what we don't have right now well I'll just throw in on a very basic level this is my year six of Computer Science teaching and I have never done the same thing

089more than four years in a row so the fact that I'm still teaching computer science means this is something that is ever changing and interests me and I'm passionate about so I will spend count L hours finding things creating things putting things together uh writing up things on donors choose to get hardware and materials for my classroom and so my kids at Mark Twain may have a lot in my classroom and then at another school in our district maybe not so much and so that alone on a surface level when you talk about Equity is not consistent across our district or fair for all of our students but then if you go deeper into Equity there's more you want to right just wanted to add that equity in terms of accessibility so we have at

090Fremont um mainstreamed special needs extensive needs um students and they're coming in and we are have we have the gamut right we have struggling students with that are non-verbal to very high highly functioning students so I think Equity at that level there's a gap and we need to close that Gap and just make it um a fair you know Level Playing Field for all of them I think skill struck with all the supports really does it um the assist of Technology it's beyond just speech to text and text it's just beyond that what we saw demonstrated and and I think it just struck a chord with all of us as classroom teachers like wow this this will be something that all of our kids can benefit from from you know the struggling to the to

091the high Achievers that's great to hear and thank you for all your work anybody else Richard yeah thank you guys I think this is very important this is a world we live in you know sometimes I think it's unfortunate but it is you know there computers did you mention coding these kids would be learning coding at this age uh and somebody brought up and I'm glad you brought up that coding does not always work the first time right and I've experienced that firsthand we have a seventh grade grandson who is coding and it was so hard that we actually had to get my son who works in it full-time to assist and uh so I mean it took a long time and uh so it was hard so I'm glad they're starting at an earlier

092age kindergarten yeah kindergarten think about that because it's incred like to me it's incredible I didn't have this grown up and so and our parents when they come in and see our kids that are programming in kindergarten they're like oh my gosh what so I may come in sit through a couple kindergarten classes well and I'll add in too I have students who may not excel in their home room class with reading they're not the best reader they're not the best in math but it is crazy to me when they come in and they just like sink into their chair and like nothing around them distracts them and they're just going through that coding and writing these pretty complex at their level algorithms to solve puzzles I'm or do Robotics and I'm just like wow

093wow so they know the math they just haven't found a way for them in the regular classroom to engage in it like they do in my class I would support this and would this come back for approval later on or how does that work nope we're just making sure that you have an opportunity as a board to give us your thoughts before I enter into negotiations with this company and decide whether or not we're going to do one year or three years so okay so we don't have to approve it like we have other curriculum corre yeah well technically you passively approve like if you said Tasha no then I would acques and say okay but it does not take an act of approval from the board so This Is Us informing you and giving

094you the opportunity to you know to tell me hey we don't like it if you don't but okay thank you go ahead Michelle you're having fun over Buton all right so recently quick story that will make sense um I was out of town down in LA with my daughter and she ended up having an emergency um appendectomy and as we were um going back for surgery one of the nurses stopped us and she said your surgeon is a female your anesthesiologist is a female and your scrub nurse is a female do you realize how special that is and as I look at the six of you six women out here um advocating and um investigating endorsing and implement men ing um in a field that has not typically been women strong I am so proud

095of you and I thankful for you and for the passion that you pour to making sure that opportunities that have not always been even across the board are at a ground level very accessible to everybody so thank you for doing what you do if I can just build on that because it is why I'm here is my daughter is a computer science engineer and when she went to the college and toward the college my husband and I looked in every one of those classrooms and we were lucky if we saw one female in the classroom and there was a point at which she was doubting her ability because she didn't we didn't have this when she came through Carson City and Carson City was great for her she didn't have that background and so it

096was something new and she excelled she did awesome um but even when she graduated my husband and I started counting the females that graduated with a computer science degree and we never made it to 10 in her gradu ation and so it's great for everybody right it's great for everybody but it it that's I was a computer science teacher because I learned from her and that's why I'm here and people think it's the other way with her and they're like oh your mom's a computer science that's where you get it and she's like NOP she got it from me so to say well I just want to Echo that statement that that nurse said that do you realize how special this is thank you thank you um I'm going to digress for just a second

097and actually go back to trusty verner's question because it just struck me that the two of you are are new to our board um and the difference between um if we were to do an initial adoption and choose a material that was not already approved at the state level all right that was not on a state adopted list then you as trustees would have to approve our district selection and then it would go to the State Board of Education and they would have to approve it again once it's already on the state approved list then we actually um by state law are only required as a district to believe it or not the only requirement is for us to actually open it up to our community for them to provide comment we though within our

098District's policy on instruction materials then also put the layer of of having the team come in or um typically me and whoever whatever the coordinator is that worked on that process come and inform you of the process that we did within this within the district to select the material if that makes sense so that's why trusty Barner was asking do we have to approve this one or is that no so this one has already been approved and adopted by the State Department of Education um and therefore we're just doing a selection of those first is being the initial adopter M thank you Tesha for that clarification and and just for the record everything Miss fusan just said is exactly right from a legal standpoint and I would just for the record point out that the

099the agenda item is also very clear that it's just a discussion and presentation for discussion only so no action can be taken okay one last question so I'm going back to um Molly's uh question about Equity so even the English Learners are taking these classes okay okay that's really exciting and the kindergartens that's impressive extremely impressed I'm going to have to take some classes from them yeah and it can be translated in there's like a whole bunch of different languages we can translate it into for our students as well that is fabulous thank you very much all right yeah go ahead trusty Roberts I just want to say thank you for your work on this I didn't when we got our packets and I was reading through your presentation didn't realize that you guys are

100coming up with your own curriculum and and doing this and I'm glad to see you're collaborating together and doing what you can to make it um easy transition for the kids who may maybe move schools and things um and this sounds like a great great program um best of all the worlds it sounds like with the things that you guys are looking for and needing and sounds like they are great at supporting you at in your needs um so thank you for all your work and my kids never complain about computer science so thank you um you're doing a great job right now and I'm sure this will make it even better so thank you guys wonderful well thank you so much for the presentation okay moving on to agenda item number 10 excuse me

101108 sorry I'm way off today I just do not know how to count tonight sorry um designation of Silva um sh sharini and Associates LLC as a independent audit firm for fiscal year 2025 in an amount not to exceed 75,500 as budgeted as required by NRS 354 624 for possible action and Mr Spencer uh when word is that here but super and feeling will be presenting thank you president Ramirez um so each year uh by Nevada law uh we are required to designate an auditor each year before the at Le before the end of March um yeah by March 31st um so we have asked uh Silva shirini shirani thank you uh and Associates who's um they've been doing our audit for uh a number of years I think a decade now um they also

102complete the they do the audits for Douglas County School District lion County School District um actually Carson monor as well as well as um some other um entities but uh for other similar size districts so they they have a lot of experience in this area a lot of a lot of experience in Northern Nevada um this year they're increasing their fees uh by 4% taking it up to $72,500 for their services um I just I always like to point out that the the audit firm we had before this one um which I I think the last audit they completed was the TW 2012 2013 audit and and they were kind of what Silva sh shirani sorry and Associates um is now where they took care of a lot of local districts uh at that that

103time the fee that we paid was I I believe it was 8 $89,000 so that's over a decade ago so while it is a 4% increase it's still uh well under what we we paid back then um and I think we've been very satisfied with their um Services uh over over that period of time so just presenting this to you tonight for uh approval so um we can get that notice off to Taxation and um start planning uh as we come to the end of the fiscal year okay questions or comments from the board okay Molly okay um thank you um so with that 4% change did you notice are they going to um be having the same amount of staff or they increasing the staff for the audit um not not that I'm aware

104of um they generally have uh three um well they rotate I guess on the different weeks going to the different districts but they they generally have three three people in our offices at any time doing whatever it is at the work that they have so um I don't I don't know that they're looking to increase their um staff otherwise that are participating in districts I guess I I don't know um they also do work off site so behind the scenes I'm not sure what else is exactly happening behind the scenes at back at their offices but I just know that when when they are on site there's usually two to three people there on any given day okay and then um are there just out of um knowledge wise Are there specific areas that they

105focus on I mean like um like one year they may focus on certain areas and then the next year they change it to focus on different are areas or do they stay consistent I'm focusing on it's it's generally consistent so um every what they have to cover in the audit is actually very strictly defined between um NRS and their requirements of gasby which is the government Accounting Standards Board um what has actually happened over the last um well really since about 2008 uh because the the gby is a national um National Organization so if they say okay now you need to do this then every single District audit that's happening in the country has to make that change and so gby has been um very active uh over the past decade in finding many other

106things to add into audits if you if you look at our audit um back from say 2014 when I got here um I think it was about an 80 page document now it's like 120 page document and it's just because of all these things that they've had to add on over time um I'll say so like in their um testing so there's a part of our audit called the the single audit I don't know why that is the term it's kind of strange I think but it's when they um they're looking at all of our grants and so every every year they'll pick different grants to test uh in in some more specific detail to look at the flows of money and that we're meeting all the obligations and of that um but they haven't

107otherwise um there's not necessarily A change in Focus every year it's just making sure that they cover all those things that they they need to throughout and that's what I was kind of going with is because we do a single audit as well and um there's a when when our organization gets audited it's extremely staff time intensive yeah um sending it all and that's why you know we've always kind of been able to keep our fee down as we will say um you know give us more to where we can then make it to where you know their sta well their their level of work it stays consistent so that's what I my kind of getting to is if their level of work is staying consistent and then and it's increasing the school district's you

108know staff's time what is the reasoning for the increase sure um yeah I I don't know that it I don't know that it is incre inreased um staff time other than making sure with all these additional requirements that have come on that they have that they have to do within um the parameters of the audit um us getting them whatever the information is that they need I I think it has been more on their side it's taking more time and more manpower to complete the audit just because they have to go through all of these extra STS one of the the examples I'll use because it it drives Dave Silva crazy um and me is there's a um a uh I think I'm trying to remember the term State I think it's statement of net

109assets but within that they have to do this analysis of of purs now and they have to show on their books or on our books what our net Li Pur liability is which it doesn't even so they're they're looking at all of our current employees and basically what would it cost if purs went belly up and then we were on the hook for the cost of Pur which which isn't even how it works so it's kind of a silly thing and I I don't expect purs to go belly up but even if they did that cost is not on us um but it it's sign it's I'm trying I think it's it's well over1 million some huge huge number and so then it when that gets thrown thrown in there as this liability it makes

110us look like we we are in a really really bad financial position but it's it's not even real but they have to go through this entire process trying to determine what that number is so that that's just something one of the many things that's been thrown in over time so I think I think if anything it's still ultimately probably represents a little bit of inflation because we we do still see that in the economy um but over time they also have had increases in uh what they have to the work that they have to do to create the the product itself and then one more thing ahead maybe he's like you always say one more thing and then you say another and another and another so I'm saying one more and then we'll just go

111again and again um okay so the Tim line um because when you say that the timeline kind of concerns me as well as well as I think that it would be great you know for them to be able to start July TW of 2025 but that's the end of the fiscal year and you're not even you know closing up your grants until June 30th of 2025 and so is that even reasonable for staff to start getting if they're you know picking and choosing what grants to get that done yeah nor normally um a lot of the single audit work so they they generally come for um a lot of their preliminary work um um I think it's the it's either right at the end of no I think it's in August they'll do like a

112week or two of preliminary work but then they'll come back but they actually don't start really don't start doing the single audit piece until after September 30th because a lot of those federal grants right they they have they run on a different schedule so um but that that too it just it ends up pushing some of these things later and later um and and with the additional requirements that have come on it it I know it has been a a stress on accountants across across the country for school districts um just because of the timelines that are present and how I guess public entities probably in general not just school districts um just because of the additional things that are being required and and we're trying to get it done um I I think it

113gives you a sense of um I I I think like 40 years ago they would basically have the audits WRA wrapped up and complete by like October and and with I mean fed federal grants have grown over time right in that timeline doesn't work and then the audits himself just become so much more complicated there's just no way to have that kind of timeline anymore because they mention it in there that we would possibly be having getting the audit in October but that just I just don't see that that no okay yeah it's kind of it's it's kind of like Columbo turns around one more [Laughter] thing anybody else questions or comments Richard no uh I would support going forward with this um they've always I think in my mind done a very good job

114and if I remember right a couple years when the district was kind of hurting for money they really didn't raise their fee for a few years and gave is that kind of break so um I think they're a good firm okay great go ahead Michelle mine's kind of just a curiosity question um on the paperwork it says that it's not it's buil at the hourly rate but not to exceed that 725 is it often that we don't hit that cap no okay okay so if I don't have any more questions or comments I will entertain emotion nope anybody sorry I'm new to this I'm like it's this thing right anything else Molly okay right it's the okay great okay I moved at the Carson City School District Board of Trustees approve the audit firm of

115Silva how do you say shirani and Associates LLC as the Auditors for fiscal year 2025 for a contract amount not to exceed $72,500 okay so motion by trusty Roberts second by I heard Molly okay trusty Walt any board discussion c n any public comment c n all those in favor I any opposed motion carries thank you so much superintendent feeling okay all right very good moving on to agenda item number nine and this is uh 2025 legislative Nevada legislative update report on items of Interest relating to education and this is for possible or for excuse me for discussion only and superintendent feeling thank you president Ramirez um so the legislative session has begun uh started the first week of February um in the time uh of about actually I don't know if the number is

116up to a thousand yet for the number of bills but it usually will end up around uh 1100 1200 bills and there's still many to be introduced um but of that about 10% impact education one way or another so at this point we're at about uh 115 to 120 bills that um could impact us which really excites me um Everyone likes to have their their piece so and I should clarify too it's not that every bill is specifically about education um some of them just impacted education and mostly it's through some kind of fiscal impact um but there are many specifically related to education so I'm not I I was going to give you like a onepage um summary of all 120 bills I've decided against that because I thought that might take a little

117too much time um but just a couple highlights especially of bills that have already been uh presented um and I'll I'll talk a little bit about those um that I think are interesting or maybe a little more impactful um can talk a little bit about the the governor's budget there was a a presentation um on that and then uh have any any questions that you have uh so first um there is a bill uh Senate Bill 52 um there's actually quite a bit in this bill but one of the things that there if you if you're um aware so we have the the read by Grade Three Laws um where students are um you supposed to um be achieving fairly well in their reading scores before leaving third grade but there are uh many good

118cause exemptions um and so they're look to make some adjustments to that and I think the specific one here is allowing there to be a portfolio of or I think there was already some language around the idea of a portfolio but it's adjusting the language around that some kind of portfolio of student work that shows that they are reading um proficiently um by that grade I think it's not until 2029 where the effect is supposed to be if a student isn't um proficient in third grade that they could um they would be held back a year um and I'm not sure if that won't get changed by that time potentially or or modified in some way but um this continues to be a really popular Topic in legislative circles and uh I I would expect

119in every session until the end of time if that law is still on the books we'll we'll always have bills around that potentially modifi in it or adding different ways I I think one of the the realities is there's I think I think it's widely accepted that how a student does on a test on a day doesn't necessarily Define everything about them and how good they are at anything specifically and so looking at other ways to try to quantify um how they are doing performing is is always going to be uh a part of the discussion um Senate bill or I'm sorry assembly Bill AB 184 um it is pertains to Nia um and they're looking at um potentially prohibiting athlete recruitment um across schools I we clear clearly as a school district we spend

120a lot of money on trying to recruit athletes I'm I'm kidding we we don't we don't do that um but there are schools that do um and so I think in in the effort to make it an even playing field there's some interest in getting away from that um I I don't know that ultimately this will have much of a life but I think it's interesting at least that it's being talked about um Nia is making some um changes around the requirement are there they have proposals internally to change some of the rules around um kids transferring between schools and so I I think that um that may be a part of the discussion as far as what is Nia going to do with that um and and and some more focus on that angle

121rather than um trying to crack down on the recruitment piece I I think as much as I don't like the idea of athletic recruitment I think it's also a really difficult thing to nail down to say that this was actually happening and therefore um you could be in trouble for it um I'll come back to that one um assembly Bill 27 this is actually around um some of the issues that have come up recently around um immigration enforcement um and and the bill is actually um it it's sort of a strange bill because it really just codifies it would cify in Nevada law the things that we are already doing in terms of you know uh protected student information and how um you know if there was enforcement happening how would a school respond to

122that you know we're following the law but what are the steps that we you know to do our due diligence have to follow but the the one thing that is really the only only thing that's unique about it is that it creates a misdemeanor charge if a school or District in that process um makes a makes a mistake in the process somehow um and and so that that's where there's clearly uh laws around this and we expect to follow the laws and make sure again we're doing our due diligence through all of this um but the idea that if there were a mistake an an employee would specifically be would have a misdemeanor charge against them and um that's that's meeting with some resistance in superintendent fueling I think that there's some talk around um

123it starting with the disciplinary like whatever the district policy is and then progressing to the misdemeanor that's we'll see where it falls but I that's some of the conversations I've been involved or heard about okay so yeah and and what I would say too is the you know these have been all the first readings and I know even it's interesting sitting in on the the some of the committee sessions um you know it's it's the first time a bill is being heard yet there's already um I forget what there's a term they use um but it in an amendment um I can't think of it but there there's already been an amend like an agreed upon Amendment to the bill even if it hasn't been officially submitted so it does make it kind of difficult

124because when you're you're going into a Committee hearing to you know there's specifically a bill that you're interested in and and you you see the bill it all that's posted is the bill uh and then you go in and then they're already talking about when they're presenting it that you know we've had discussions with some some um stakeholders that have concern and we've agreed to um some amend ments conceptual amendments to this um and but there's there's like no document to look at to see exactly what that is later on um on the website I I'm trying to think what the legislative website that lists all the bills Nellis thank you yeah um they'll eventually put those amendments up but in the initial readings you don't really get to see a lot of that so

125it's a little frustrating actually but um it does happen fairly often um assembly Bill 24 is actually uh an an interesting one so this revolves around um something called competency Competency Based education um the idea being that um the the the Knowledge and Skills that kids have um shouldn't be like what what matters is that they're gaining knowledge and skill and that knowledge and skill should Define how they progress through their education not the fact that they've had their butts sitting in a seat for a certain number of hours to gain a certain number of credit um toward toward graduation or or promotion so this is something that is becoming um a more popular idea Nationwide some states have actually already have laws on the books like this um there's a district I'm aware of

126in in Washington as a part of this cohort group I I'm with that has done some really creative things with how kids are gaining credit and and how they have to do it and it and it isn't around um what's called The Carnegie unit so uh the way education is now how we think of it where you know you're sting sitting in a class basically for one hour every single day and over that time you if you've sat in that chair enough hours um then you gain a credit it's basically blowing that up and saying it doesn't really matter how many hours you've been sitting there do you know this and can you do this or not that's all that matters and so it's a different way to look at education and I I see

127this as ultimately with the idea of trying to innovate education this is actually a critical part of that it it it's harder to inovate when you're still locked into that Carnegie unit it's called the the Carnegie unit because it as a part of the education reform that was happening back in like the 1910s was part of the Andrew Carnegie and the Carnegie foundation and how they thought of kind of more more of this factory model of of how we get things done and that's really how education then rolled out and we're still suffering it right now even in a in a day and age that um I don't I don't think kids really like the factory model um so this allows for potentially allows for some of that that Innovation to happen um right now

128there are some pilot districts that have been trying this out in various ways it's not without complication to move to this sort of thing and and as I understand the bill even even if we wanted to do this we would have to come to you for your understanding and approval to start making some adjustments like this it it it really would be quite a heavy lift to to make some of these adjustments we've we've been with this kind of model we have now for over a hundred years it's anyone who's alive this is all they know for the most part so I think it's it's exciting it just the idea of having flexibility I think is really exciting um in Practical terms how it rolls out and and how we would um potentially make changes

129over time I think is is yet to be seen but um that is uh definitely one that we're keeping an eye on really really quick what's that it's called competence-based learning Competency compet Based learning yeah uh ab24 the State Board of Education has spent a lot of time talking about this over the past several years I think when you hear about the portrait of a learner programs that not only the state is rolling out but a lot of school districts it's kind of pushing in this direction which is going to re reframe the way we think about education and it's really hard to wrap your head around it and so I think that it's something to keep your eye on because it's something that's moving forward and what it's going to end up looking like

130who knows yeah and I'll say I think there actually is quite a bit of support Statewide to to make this change um and and I think other changes in education as well but um the the whole the whole idea of those restrictions about I mean clearly we have online education and things like that but the traditional model of how much time is a kid sitting in a classroom um it it really can it can be very um a a a barrier in some ways to trying to do some more Innovative things um for kids so we'll we'll see where that where that goes sorry one other question is that K through 12 or is that just like in so I believe it's K through CH I actually I don't know I don't know exactly I'm

131not I think it would be but I don't know trusty Walker if you I think that it's heavily focused on secondary level but it's going to spill down and I'm sure um Tasha's had just as many conversations where I think it'll start whatever it is at the secondary level and eventually our feeder schools will start to be impacted by those changes as well right I think the the goal is we want to have every prease student taking AP Calculus as quickly as possible and this will help us help us do that yeah um one that you may be really interested in uh ab150 6 so um there is another Well actually there's two other ccsds in the state of Nevada there's one that attracts much more attention than than others um and there is a

132bill from uh Assembly women mosca to potentially pay um increase the pay for trustees um and I think it it specifically started with the um looking at the Clark County School District and and clearly they've they've had had some um it's they've had some concerns down there uh over the years and so they're looking at making it so that their pay for those board members would be on par with the Clark County Board of Supervisors so their Board of Supervisors currently um their annual salary is about like 95 96,000 a year so they're looking to make it so that the school board members would have the same pay and I I think the idea is if if you if you look at it as a wage which I I know you all don't necessarily maybe

133think of what you're making in this in this job as as a wage um uh you know the idea that you might you will attract really high quality um people potentially and and maybe that would um make things uh better somehow um it it does and I I think there's some there's more language in this that I think would even apply to other school districts um but I can't recall what nasby has proposed is that it be expanded for all school districts and I mean it's hard for any of us to support a pay like that that's going to come out of the school district's budget um but we're proposing that it they tie it to a substitute wage so that trustees are paid comparable to what a substitute would make um in that year

134so that was our proposal um since then um they've kind of rolled in um last I heard voting for The appointed members of the Clark County School Board so I'm not sure that nasby is going to be able to support the bill but that's kind of the last conversations that I was to wouldn't there some language to that that would make the Clark County Board uh Board of Trustees full-time employees I mean for $96,000 a year for have one or two meetings a month that's I'd do that yeah I I don't know I I I don't know exactly how they function down there um yeah it states here on the fiscal note the fiscal note is just Carson or Clark County School District because the one thing that I would advis then is if if

135it is again another unfunded mandate that for nasby I think we would all then need to take that to a vote on that as well because if it's an unfunded mandate for the school district it's an absolute no that is a big part of the conversation we always have with these kinds of proposals um there's a couple different you know when they're finding different ways for these bills they've talked about a couple different ways but when it's an unfunded mandate um it's really tough for nasby to support it I I will say that um it it seems as though a lot of the major players down in the Las Vegas area um they're um a lot of the different stakeholder organizations around um uh the the cities um uh cities uh like city of Henderson

136city of North Las Vegas um other just education groups as well are very supportive of this change and knowing how the legislature works and where a lot of the influence comes from um I I think there's probably a reasonable chance that there is some kind of change I just don't know exactly what that looks like so um another bill that that is pretty impactful and and um so you you may have heard the stories if you've been to some of the the nasby um uh sessions or the conference you sit by someone from White Pine County and they'll tell you about their schools and how they're really old and they can't replace them they just don't have the tax space to do anything so um there's assembly Bill 224 that I believe is setting is

137asking to set aside a hundred million for um for Rural districts to access to be able to do um Capital improvement work build schools replace schools that sort of thing um there is a lot of support for this um in in in around Nevada um not necessarily I I don't know if there's a lot of interest say in was or Clark County in this um but in a lot of rural Nevada there's definitely a lot of support um I believe White Pine County has been lobbying since 1998 to get more funding for capital projects for their schools um and there was one one bill around that time that um I think set aside $25 million that was used to build I think one school in White Pine one in Lincoln County um but since then

138there has effectively been no money and they just they don't have the tax bace like you they could say oh you we're going to let you raise um your sales tax by 10% and uh well not 10% let's say like you know half a percent 50 cents and uh you won't you know you can increase your property taxes up to you know up another dollar or something like that the tax Bas is so small that would effectively get them like no it's just not enough money to build the school they're looking at they're looking at combining their middle school in high school into one new school because I think one of them's 120 years old and one's 108 years old so they're looking just to combine it more efficient but it's still like a $60

139million project they they can't raise anywhere we we would struggle to raise $60 million so for them it's it's completely impossible uh AB 268 uh you've probably heard about the interest in having Universal um free meals for all students AB 268 is is that bill I actually think there there may be another bill that is similar on the Senate side but I I don't have that number but sometimes that happens and eventually bills um kind of get put together into into one so that likely will be the outcome um I have no idea they they have tagged that at a cost of $43 million a year to make that happen um and that's not covering that's not what it would cost to buy all of those meals it that's what the cost would be to

140offset what the feds reimburse already like whatever the balance is to make sure all the kids are free it's it's getting that balance of kids so about $43 million a year correct correct um there's ab18 which is an outdoor education and Recreation uh Grant there's actually um several bills around outdoor education it seems to be a an interest of several legislators that have um brought forth bills and in general it's the state allocating set setting aside funds to do um grants related to outdoor education outdoor activity um so I I I like that sort of thing so I'm interested to see if that goes anywhere there already is a little bit of um support from the state for outdoor education but it's it's pretty minimal so this would um expand the pot of money that's

141available to do that sort of thing um Senate Bill 90 is setting aside funding to provide for um teachers for their classrooms for supplies and materials for their classrooms setting aside some extra funds during um covid um and I can't remember there was there was money set aside and it was um accessible through donors choose there was a pot of money put into there that that um teachers could go into I think maybe any staff member could go into and apply for funds to help um for pay for things in school that they they wanted um I don't know if this would operate in that same fashion but the idea that there would be a set aside of money specifically to go directly to teachers to help them um pay for things for their classroom

142uh those aren't as interesting uh assembly Bill 165 is also an outdoor education bill um ab150 five um has to do with collective bargaining within collective bargaining um there are mandatory subjects of bargaining um this bill would make um the ratio of um pupils per teacher in the classroom something that would be would be subject to mandatory bargaining so that's a um and a ratio of specialized instructional support Personnel so you may hear about um like for for counselors the optimal ratio IS 250 C uh counselors 250 counselors 250 students to one counselor social workers is 250 students to one social worker um psychologists I think is 750 students to one psychologist per building so I think it's looking at those ratios and then making that something that would be subject as a a mandatory

143subject of of bargaining there is a bill I don't have this in here but there is a bill if you didn't hear to get of daylight savings time and and that actually may have an impact on us because it and I I always forget what which side of daylight savings time is really daylight savings time so I apologize um but there there is a concern about if if it's too dark in the morning having uh especially like Elementary age kids walking to school even even older kids I mean it's still it's just not safe especially during the winter um so that may be something that um does require if that really did occur that may require some changes um from us so it'll be interesting to see where where that one goes um assembly Bill

14449 wow County school district has a bill that would if I understand um for certain States basically if you have a let's say you have a license to teach in Utah instead of having to go through the process of um um reciprocity thank you um it would just be look if you have a a a license from a specific State we would just recognize that um the the one of the problems potentially is that the Licensing Division at the NADA Department of Education is fully funded by the fees they receive from people applying for their licenses and so they wouldn't necessarily receive funding in that that process of recognizing other states so I I appreciate the it's definitely an effort to try to improve the pipeline um of teachers at least the pipeline in the

145sense of trying to suck people from other states um so I I don't know if this one will have legs or not but it at least is a an attempt to try to um improve that um assembly Bill 205 looks at um uh sex ad and currently um sex ad classes are opt in and this would change it to opt out so that's one that will have a lot of interest as we go through the session um yeah so that's that's about about it um and again there's a there's a lot more there's so many um going on but those are some of the ones that have at least been heard and and I think have some interest um just so you know I um representing Nas I I presented um to the Joint assembly

146Ways and Means Senate Finance um K12 subcomittee um back at the end of February um I I gave comments I didn't present sorry um but just about what um what has been presented so far in the the um funding for Education as as we understand it in the in the governor's proposed budget um and it it was uh positive in that after I presented um I was asked to to provide um the details of of what I had been speaking about because I think there was interest but um the the lack of increase in funding so I think as Spencer presented last time they're looking at Statewide it was a $2 increase um per student um and how because that number is so low and the way the whole formula works and it it's a

147little complic it's gotten better over the years with some of the changes but as money is dumped in it kind of flows through they call it the waterfall and there's different tiers of funding that the money goes through um but be because there's not much additional funding going in it's it's kind of it's it's almost like cannibalizing itself it's like it needs more money on this tier of the waterfall so it's taking it from this tier and from this tier so you actually have as an example um there's one of our streams of funding is called atrisk funding and it's supposed to be um directed towards um Personnel or activities to support kids that we think uh are potentially in at risk of not graduating high school and that goes down to kindergarten it they

148have there's like a rating system but it goes all the way down to kindergarten um but that amount of funding is actually being decreased by about 21% from last year and I I don't think from one year to the next that we amazingly don't we have much fewer at risk students it's just that because one tier of the waterfall needs more money to function properly they had to take it from somewhere else so it's like robbing Peter to pay Paul um and so just tried to bring that to to their attention and the the big example was if if you look at the Clark County School District and and when talking to the legislators if there's a good example related to Clark and wasia it's always good to bring that up because many of them

149are from those areas um Clark County School District would actually lose $8.3 million which given their size in needs that just doesn't make any sense to me um so anyway so yeah with such a small increase even with them keeping the supplemental pay increases for teachers and support staff we couldn't keep up with step and column at that rate correct so I mean we could also be looking at decreases because they're people are now used to getting that money every month yeah I I think it's going to course um some there's still a long way to go in the legislative session and that that's I I keep telling people that you know it's still it's so early this is the you know the the first really the first iteration of you know a look at

150what the funding might look like and I don't think anyone is happy with it up at the legislature quite honestly on on either side of the aisle but it just kind of that's this is the starting point so we'll we'll continue to follow that um and we'll see where we end up I don't have any more right now um if there's any specific questions you have or any um other bills you're specifically aware of that um you'd like to know more about I certainly can but we're if if you and you probably don't know this so um the Nevada Association of school superintendents has um a lobbyist um at the session that basically lives up there from about 700 a.m. to midnight every day during the legislative session um this young lady Mary pinski um

151you may be familiar with she is fabulous she she was um superintendent before Rich Stokes here and um just super smart lady that has energy that I cannot comprehend to be able to put up with an entire legislative session and try to stay on top of all of these bills but she she has made incredible relationships with legislators over the year and has just great access to them and so um in terms of having someone who really is able to get inside and have conversations around some of this stuff um I I think we're we're in a good really good place in that regard while County School District and Clark County School District also individually have their own lobbyists and U Mary actually works with them so they're they're kind of a team up there

152advocating for for education so as things come up pretty much every day I get an email about you know I need a response from everyone by 5:00 pm today on this how many counselors do you have in your bu right in your building or something like that um but that's just kind of the nature of it because questions come up and she's trying to be helpful to the legislators which is a good thing and then it also helps continue that relationship because they know that they can depend on her so she she has served us very well and I'm just an amazing lady so I'm so glad that she's helping us out that's all I have she definitely knowledgeable yeah Molly did you have a question um not a question just a bill just one

153more thing um I'm going tell you it's going to drive him insane by the end of the year I'm going to just start poking and poking um but AB 139 and so AB 139 makes Appropriations to the Department of Education for programs of dual credit MH and so I think they're looking at um and the reason is because I guess I have a question on whether or not um the fiscal impact would I think they're asking the the state for the money that would then cover those school districts that offer the Dual credits is my interpretation but I would just be curious on um exactly how that um how that impacts us I can um I can send you what I know I can ask Mary too if there's um any updates on that there

154is a lot of interest in dual credit I I see that over time expanding even even more and it's something clearly the state wants to support um but there's there's a price take associated with that and so if they're going to help help dist help districts help encourage them to try to expand that and give those opportunities to kids I I think part of it is part of it comes from employer demand as well because ultimately there's still a a shortage in the labor force and so they're they want kids that are a little bit more prepared or have the right certifications there's a bill um I can't think of it right now but it it's related to actually this is one where there was an amendment before it was ever even heard so there

155was supposed to be money set aside to fund the certification um tests for CNAs um cosmetology what was it em and EMT um and then so went to the hearing and then as a being presented um like well we've already done an amendment to it and now it's only limited to CNAs but we're we to pay the the fees it's like somewhere between $75 and $300 I think per per test or something like that the certification test um so so I think there there definitely is interest in in trying to do more to get kids ready right out of the door of high school to be able to walk into a workplace and have have something that gives them the ability to to take on some different jobs that otherwise might take two years of

156school or at least one year certification or something like that um but yeah I can I can look into that that one a little bit more and just clarify exactly what's happening something that we learned just one more thing something that we learned on um the nasby yall can use your school district email to track bills so if you go on to Nellis and register you can use your um School District so as he was as um um superintendent fueling was writing them down I was just clicking and you know tracking um so yeah it doesn't take but a few minutes but you can use your school district email address thank you for reminding us about that Molly okay good well thank you so much for that update that's Wonder oh I'm sorry Mike you

157had a question or comment well and I just wanted to say real quick AJ that I'm glad you brought up Mary you know I think one of the things that one of the benefits I have because unfortunately I am in a lot of meetings I see how well represented Carson City really is on these state level boards and committees um very regularly I see you Mary even sukima at um hearings and meetings and I know that even when you're not there in person there's times you pepper me with questions to make sure that the State Board uh discusses so but the point being it it makes me feel comfortable knowing that we have so many eyes on the process that really understands education in this community and this state and so thank you for that

158and um thank you to Mary and Sue as well for their hard work thank you Mike okay Mr superintendent feeling thank you so much and we will move on to agenda item number 10 and this is discussion on the process for nominating Carson City School District staff for the annual Nevada Association of school board nesby Awards and this is for discussion only so I um suggested that we put this agenda item so that we can have an opportunity to review our current process that we have in place to um make to do our nominations for our wonderful fabulous staff that we have um in our district and I thought we would review our existing ex existing process and then I would also make a um couple of recommendations and of course you know open it

159up for the board to um um have a further discussion and see what else we can um add to um our existing um process so uh what we have from what I re collect from last year and please feel free to jump in on what I am missing so the timeline that I have is that um we started the initial conversation for considerations of nominees on May 14 and then we had um on June 25th we had the approval of nominations so all of us had recommendations for individuals to um nominate for the different categories and then we also had volunteers to write the letter the nomination letters which were sent to Renee on the 13th of August and then she sent them to uh Rick Harris at nasby on the 16th of August that's

160that's what I have for my timeline and so I I know that um we always you know are trying to think of individuals that we should be nominating and we have come up with those individuals I thought it would be um nice to um get feedback input actually input from individuals from the district and invite you know invite those um that are um in the um in the schools in the offices um acknowledging you know what their peers or their supervisors or their employees are are doing that are going above and beyond so that we can get input from them so we can include them on this process um if you will um so that we can all you know uh put forward um indiv indviduals that are well so well deserving of the um

161recognition um to the board so that's what I wanted to propose to the to the group and again I I will open it up for uh further discussion or recommendations on what what you guys consider that we should U be doing differently anybody go ahead I did look and wait for um so no I think that's a great idea because I do think that you know we're up here we and we just really don't know you know what's going on in the school so I think that's a great idea um I would like to to um to go that route I think or you know explore it just explore it right now going in that direction um my question would be how you know to make sure that it's Equitable on how we're you know

162getting that information um back to us and working with legal counsel to make sure that we can get that information and how we get that information back to us I think that would be but um you know that is something that I've always kind of struggled with you know appear nominating when we just don't really know and so yes I think it's a great idea thank you and we have what approximately a thousand employees so I think that we definitely need to get more of those individuals recognized so anybody else and then of course we'll reach out for your guidance Ryan and how we should move forward I I would agree with doing that concept that you brought up um it is very hard to pick somebody outse when we don't see them dayto day

163but principls work with their staff and other staff works with their other staff and I think they could give us a really better picture of who's really well-deserving and we can get all the letters and I would anticipate we would through them and make a selection yes that's what I had in mind that that we would um or we could also um um identify individuals from the board um to um serve on a subcommittee if you will and collect those letters and then bring some recommendations forward but again I'm I'm I'm looking at Ryan because I'm seeking for guidance for his guidance I I think for discussion purposes what you guys are talking about is fine you're you're looking to get input from the rest of the employees we can work with staff the ultimate

164decision obviously comes to you for action but we can help you you know gather background information like we would on on any other item and and help you uh put it together and you know so I I think it's a good idea I don't have any objection or reason that you shouldn't do it okay great okay so then um do we put it on on agenda did you Matt did you have anything to add that no okay um so do we how do we want to uh do we want to put it on the agenda for our for our next meeting to look into this further or no yeah we're going to need to if the president wants to make a committee she can certainly do that and we can we can look at putting

165that on on an agenda um and we can also have you know direction to staff to to start pursuing that information for you through a survey or or whatever else but that can definitely be on a future I know that in my previous um um position my U the institution sent out a college-wide um email to um solicit for um nominations and so they would they would um uh assign an individual that they would you know send those nominations to so I'm I'm Invision in something like that you know having um an email sent out districtwide um and start getting getting some interest at least you know getting the conversation going no I mean the the staff could certainly survey the rest or your administrative staff could certainly survey the School District staff on you

166know the potential for nominations just alerting them that the board's going to act on this and if anybody wants to make a recommendation to to you know send it through whoever AJ wants it to be sent through um it won't go to you as a whole until it's an agenda item um but staff can certainly start working on on collecting that information and and that doesn't not require action okay thank you okay so are we good excellent okay thank you all righty um agenda item number 11 approval of consent agenda and this is for possible action so moved second okay uh motion by trusty Walker second by trusty um Barner any board discussion see none any public comments see none all those in favor I any oppose motion carries okay so agenda item number 12

167informational items uh for discussion only no action will be taken and at this moment I am going to um add something that I omitted on my uh report I apologize I forgot to mention that mayor Bagwell also joined us for the March 2nd event at St Teresa and she also um was instrumental in enticing the um or sending a a very strong message to the families to um make sure that they send their kids to school and how important it is for for them to to attend school every day so I wanted to a knowled that I we I appreciate that mayor was also part of that um leadership um Team Molly yes I forgot to um thank superintendent feling for attending this uh this afternoon's luncheon yes thank you thank you thank yes and

168to sukim as well and then I got a call from um do Dr pinski she she bought a ticket she was going to attend but as you said legislature something dropped and so she was unable to attend um but she sent her apologies cuz she meant to um she intended to be there as well be there oh that's ni thank you I mean your support was greatly appreciated this afternoon I Echo that thank you very much yep okay so any questions or comments on the agenda item number 12 I do okay um I notice on the staff information on the for the executive staff that uh unfortunately Miss Tasha fusen has uh officially submitted a resignation I guess or retirement and uh I just wanted to wish you the best of luck I know we'll

169have other conversations uh through the board later on but uh it's going to be a great loss for the district in my opinion and we appreciate I appreciate all the work you've done and uh I've always enjoyed being able to come to you and you always have the answer to whatever question I may have had and uh thank you and it's I don't know if we can resend her retirement or not but anyway uh congratulations of course it's not going to be the same without Tasha for sure Tasha we really appreciate you very very much um if I could Mr Varner so Tas has agreed actually to to um we're trying this experiment out to transfer her knowledge into an AI chat bot so we can query anytime we want I like that idea it's

170all about AI now so maybe we can do that sorry sorry legal council just kidding okay um you know I do want to mention something on the agenda item number 12 um uh let's see letter c activities and events it says preate kindergarten new and returning student updates and registration is open to families parents can visit their child's uh respect of school from 9: to 2 p.m. and provide the following uh required information at the time of registration which is first certificate and immunization records they must be five years of age on or before August 1st 2025 and then improve a residency in Carson City I think that's important to remind the families um to register their their children okay agenda item number 13 request for future uh future agenda topics go ahead Mike so

171two things I mean a few year couple years ago we talked about um going to meetings once a month and we adjusted the meeting time and we were going to revisit it and I think that our agendas kind of show that I think we could consolidate those meetings down to once a month so I'd like to um reopen that conversation and then a second um during orientation for our new trustees conversation came up about devices with District email for trustees to kind of clean that up for all of us and I'd like to have that discussion and maybe get that process moving for everybody perfect thank you okay so agenda any any further um agenda items no okay so then agenda item number 14 adjournment thank you so much everyone oh wait one more time

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