SUSD Governing Board Regular Meeting 2/10/2026

001That that was I don't know. Good evening. I'd like to call the meeting to order at 6:00 p.m. and ask that we stand for the pledge of allegiance. >> Ready? Begin. I pledge algiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> Thank you. Uh let's begin with roll call and uh Miss Warner, I believe you're on uh tele uh system. Let's be sure we can hear you. I'm here. >> Okay. Karen Warner's uh present. All right. >> Matthew Patinsky, >> Amy Carney, >> Mike Shy, >> and Donna Lewis. Uh I'm going to make a motion to approve the agenda with the following adjustments. Uh I'd like to move the consent agenda to after the

002public comments, but before the information discussion. I'd also like to move 10 C to now be 10B and move 10B to now be 10 C. Other adjustments. Go ahead, M. Miss Warner Carney. >> Thank you, President Lewis. I'd like to pull the uh personnel report, please. >> Uh item 9G. Did I get it right? >> G. Yes. >> All right. We'll pull item 9G. Any other adjustments to the agenda as presented? I need a second for the motion with those three adjustments. >> I'll second. >> All those in favor? >> I I >> And I just want to be sure we heard uh Miss Warernner. >> Yes, I said I. >> Thank you. Uh, citizens attending and or participating in Scottsdale Unified School District meetings, either in person, virtually, or telephonically, are required to observe

003the same rules of order and decorum applicable to members of the governing board and staff. Unauthorized remarks or demonstrations from members of the audience, yells, outbursts, and/or other disruptions are not permitted. And we'd like to welcome the many uh members of our community who are also in our overflow room. your uh attendance uh means a lot to us in terms of this beautiful democracy uh role that we get to play together. All right, let's go to student and staff recognitions and celebrations. Dr. Mensel. >> Well, good evening, President Lewis, Vice President Shy, members of the governing board, and all the members of our community who are here this evening. We have many celebrations to share and showcase the excellent shining across Scottsdale Unified School District. Tonight, we'll kick off our celebrations with a team that

004closed out last semester by making history. our Desert Mountain High School football team. Help to help us recognize these SUSD trailblazers. Please join me in welcoming our athletic director, Steven Cervantes. Stephen. Thank you, Dr. Mensel. And good evening, President Lewis, Vice President Shy, governing board members, Dr. Mensel and Miss Wagner. Tonight I have the honor of recognizing extraord extraordinary group of student athletes who made history for Desert Mountain High School and for our entire district. This past football season will long be remembered as the year the Desert Mountain Wolves captured their first ever AIA 5A state championship. Can our football state champions please join us at the podium? Wrap around. Yeah. >> We got more. We got more. All right, everybody. This is a gigantic team and we're honored to have them all here tonight.

005So, if you can't see me, I apologize about that. Um, in December, under the bright lights and with the highest stakes, the Wolves delivered a commanding performance leading defeating Canyon View 21-7. Their victory was not only decisive, but a showcase of the grit, discipline, and resilience that defined their remarkable season. This championship run was fueled by standout efforts across the field, including sophomore running back East Connor, who earned offensive player of the game honors, and defensive back Ryan Mcdana, who is named defensive player of the game. Beyond the individual highlights, it was a team's unity, preparation, and belief in one another that propelled them to the top. Their accomplishments reflect countless hours of hard work, the unwavering support of their families, the passion of their school community, and the steady leadership of coaching staff committed

006to excellence. Wolves, on behalf of the district and our entire athletic community, congratulations on making Desert Mountain history and bringing home the 2025 AIA 5A state championship. Your achievement represents determination, pride, and legacy that will inspire future wolves for years to come. At this time, I would like to invite Coach Hamilton to say a few words. >> Well, thanks for letting me know. I was going to speak tonight, Stephen. Anyway, um proud to be here. Proud to be honored by uh the Scotsson Unified School District board. Um, I've never been to one of these meetings, but it is an honor to be here representing, of course, our community, our school, Desert Mountain High School. Um, and just, you know, a pleasure again to to work here in the Scottsdale Unified School District, of course, and

007it's just an honor for me to wake up every day and do what I love to do. It's Coach Young Men. Um, playing the sport that I love for sure. Um, and again, you know, continue to support our program and our boys and thanks for having us out. Appreciate you. Thank you, coach. Uh, each one of the boys was represented with a challenge coin tonight, which we did beforehand because it would have taken a long time to pass them all out in here. Um, but we want to thank the board and everybody for all their support. Congratulate Desert Mountain on their first state championship. Heat. CONGRATULATIONS, WOLVES. It is always fun to recognize our successful student athletes and when you celebrate the first ever state championship in football that's extra special. Uh next we want

008to celebrate some student success. Uh we have had some incredible spellers here in Scottsdale and I'd like to invite Dr. Tamara Jagadinski and Dr. David Prreniski to come up and recognize our two successful winners. THANK YOU, DR. MENSEL. And good evening, President Lewis, Vice President Chie, governing board members, Dr. Mensel and Mrs. Wagner. I'd like to invite two outstanding middle school students. Adrienne Cortez Ramos, a seventh grader from Tonalia Middle School, and Camden Hernandez, a seventh grader from Desert Canyon Middle School, to join me at the podium along with their principles, Principal Rob Vila and principal Chris Ambry, and SUSD state and federal program, Dr. P, who's already here. Uh in January, both of these exceptional students demonstrated remarkable skill, perseverance, and confidence as they competed and won two of SUSD's most celebrated academic competitions.

009Adrienne Cortez Ramos emerged as the S as the 2026 SUSD Spanish spelling be champion. To share a little bit more about Adrienne's journey, I will turn it over to Dr. P. >> Good evening. We are honored to celebrate Adrien Cortez Ramos, seventh grader from Tonlia Middle School, as our 2026 Spanish spelling bee champ. Give it up for Adrien. We had we had 32 middle school students registered for our B. Adrien faced many, many intense rounds and confidently spelled several challenging words in the competition. Despar esto modific all secured his path to victory. Students were required to spell each word correctly, including accents, and Adrien did not falter. This marks back-to-back championships for Tonlia Middle School, coming out victorious for two years in a row at the Spanish Spelling. This is a testament to the school

010strong Spanish teacher, Mr. Ivan Chong, who I know is up here with us as well, as well as the amazing Tonalia community. Adrien enjoys gymnastics, drawing, studying, and his favorite subject is math. He's also part of our English language development program is on the path and is on the path to becoming fully bilingual. We are so proud of you, Adrian. Also, special thanks to our middle school Spanish teachers, also Wendy Diozi, our world language coordinator, and our EL team for their leadership and support. Uh, please note that this championship is for SUSD only. There is no state level competition. So, we are officially declaring Adrian our state champ here IN >> Thank you, Dr. P. And congratulations again, Adrian. Two days later, the teaching and learning staff and I had the privilege of overseeing the

0112026 SUSD English spelling be where Camden Hernandez claimed the district title after outlasting 23 competitors. Camden secured his win with the word Minestra, earning first place and a spot at the becoming the regional spelling bee champion. Camden's victory reflects countless hours of preparation, a strong love of reading, and a deep understanding of language skills that will serve him well far beyond the spelling bee stage. His achievement also represents the academic excellence we see every day across our schools. Both Adrian and Camden dedicated significant time and effort preparing for these competitions, and we are thrilled to see that hard work recognized and celebrated. Camden was also the most excited spelling be champion I've seen in a long time on the stage and his whole family. We could just not be more proud. CONGRATULATIONS. AGAIN, please accept

012these SUSD challenge coins as a small token of our pride and appreciation. Again, congratulations and thank you. Congratulations. And our celebrations continue. Next, we want to recognize a teacher who makes a positive impact in his students lives every day. An impact that has earned him significant recognition. To share more about this incredible achievement, I'd like to invite Michelle Irvin, our coordinator fine arts, to the podium. Michelle, >> thank you. Dr. Mensel, uh, President Lewis, Vice President Shy, governing board members, and Mrs. Wagner. Could I have Richard Fairchild, President Dan, President Principal Dansky, and the theater students from Arcadia come forward tonight. It's my great honor to recognize Richard Fairchild, Arcadia High School's theater teacher. He has been named the 2026 teacher of the year at the Thesbsian Festival, an especially meaningful honor because he was

013nominated by his own students. Richard has been teaching at Arcadia High School since the early 2000. He inherited a struggling theater program, but through his vision, dedication, and unwavering belief in students, this program just recently earned the Gold Honor Troop Award. But I think it's better to hear from the kids. So, we're going to bring up the students that were able to come today to say a little something about their great teacher. Hello everyone. I'm Chelsea. This is Emily. And this is Francesca. And we are the officers for Arcadia's chapter of the International Thespian Society. And we are here to present Mr. Richard Fairchild. Mr. Fairchild is not only the best theater and technical theater teacher we could ask for, but he is also the sponsor for our thespian troop. As such, he works harder

014than anyone to run our theater program, and we cannot be more grateful. >> We're so proud to be his students, and without further ado, we introduce Mr. Richard Fairchild, our theater teacher of the year. >> Being nominated by students is such an honor and speaks volume about the lasting impact Richard has had on their lives. It reflects the kind of educator he is, one who leads with passion, integrity, and genuine care for every student who walks in the classroom. Richard, on behalf of Scottsdale Unified School District, thank you for your dedication to the arts, to excellence in teaching, and most importantly to your students. Congratulations on being named the 2026 Thesbian Festival Teacher of the Year. We are incredibly proud proud of you. And with that, we'd love to give you a challenge point. Congratulations,

015Mr. Fairchild. >> Thank you. >> And the celebrations continue. Uh so as we look uh to celebrate another group of teachers, we want to turn our attention to those who represent the very highest standards of our profession. Stacy Pascal, our professional learning and innovation coordinator, is here to recognize the teachers taking extra steps to uphold excellence across SUSD. Stacy, good evening again, Dr. Mensel. Good evening, President Lewis, Vice President Chy, governing board members, Dr. Mensel and Mrs. Wagner. Tonight we are here to celebrate the incredible dedication and professionalism of our nationally board certified teachers. These educators have chosen to take on one of the most rigorous and respected certifications in public education all in service of their students. I would like to invite our newly certified national board certified teacher along with their principal to

016join me at the podium, Jennifer Darno from Desert Canyon Middle School. Jennifer pursued national board certification in English language arts, engaging in a deep reflective process that strengthened her instructional practice and sharpened her focus on student centered learning. Her commitment to excellence and continued growth is evident in her classroom every day. Earning a national board certification for the first time can take up to three years of focused work. And Jennifer, you did it. Congratulations. >> Thank you. Thank you. >> We also have the pleasure of recognizing an educator who has successfully maintained their national board certification through the year 2031. Kurt Robinson from Desert Canyon Elementary School. Come on up. Kurt completed the rigorous maintenance process, demonstrating continued professional growth and a sustained positive impact on student learning. Kurt, thank you for your ongoing commitment

017to excellence. When educators When educators pursue national board certification, they place their classroom practice under a microscope measured against the highest professional standards. Is it an it is an exhaustive and voluntary process. Nationally only about 10% of teachers choose to pursue certification and of those approximately 60% successfully complete it. These educators represent the very best of our profession. So congratulations. But we are not quite done yet. We need to take a little more time and more room at the podium. I would like to now invite our SUSD's national board certification program leader, Susan Leonard from Ingleside Middle School, along with our incredible candidate support trainers, Dr. Tammy Diaz from Sorro, Abby Bobbit from Puma Elementary and Wington, and community member Bobby Falner to please join us up here at the podium. National Board Certification is

018the most respected professional certification in American public ed and that's what makes it especially meaningful is that it is entire voluntary. Teachers choose to do this work because they believe deeply in proving their craft for the benefit of students. I am also credibly and proud to share that Scottsdale Unified School District has been named a 2026 district of distinction recognizing us for having the highest number of active national board certified teachers in the state of Arizona. THAT IS that is no small achievement and it speaks volumes about the educators in this district. Congratulations to our National Board Certified Teachers, educators, the support staff, those who lead this opportunity. We are so very grateful for you and honored to celebrate you this evening. Please accept these challenge coins and plaques as a token of our appreciation

019for your hard work and dedication. And again, one more big round of applause. Thank you. >> Thank you all. Congratulations to our our newest certified NBC teacher and uh for Kurt Robinson for the certification maintenance. Uh so uh we still have one more celebration and it's not a short one. Many of you may know that February is Career and Technical Education Month. And across Scotsy Unified School District, we offer many programs. And I would like to invite our director of career and teched, Jamie Fitzpatrick, to come forward and celebrate some of our uh many successful SUSD career educators. >> Good evening. Thank you, Dr. Mensel. And good evening, President Lewis, Vice President Chy, governing board members, and Dr. Mensel and Miss Wagner. Tonight, I'm honored to be here in celebration of current technical education month.

020Earlier this evening, the city of Scottsdale Council and Mayor Barowski proclaimed CTE month in our city, and we are truly honored. This evening, we have selected several CTE teachers here in SUSD to celebrate. In my time here, I've learned what a truly special place this is, and can certainly celebrate all of our CTE teachers. But tonight, we recognize those who demonstrate a strong commitment to student success, to innovation, and to college and career readiness for all of their students. So, I'd like to invite Vicki Pek Pacheco from Sawro to please join me at the podium. With 30 years of healthc care experience, including eight years as a dedicated school nurse for SUSD, nurse Pacheco brings a wealth of expertise and expertise and heart to our district. While her career began in clinical practice, she discovered

021a second calling in mentorship, finding joy in guiding student nurses from Scottsdale Community College toward their own professional success. This year marks nurse Pacheco's first year leading this program, a transition she describes as both challenging and deeply rewarding. She steps into this role following the mentorship of nurse Marcy Cameron whose legacy she honors and continues. For nurse Pacheco, the ultimate reward is witnessing her students light bulb moments. Under her leadership, the program is evolving to meet the demands of modern medicine, integrating advanced technology to provide students with real life simulation scenarios, renewing our collaboration with Honor Health to provide direct clinical experience and potential employment opportunities for graduates, and a firm commitment to providing a foundation for all medical career paths, not just nursing. Nurse Pacheco's passion is rooted in a desire to provide today's

022students with early career opportunities she once dreamed of. We're honored to have her shaping the next generation of healthc care providers and we recognize you with this challenge. We'd now like to call up Tessa Powell. Please join me at the podium. Tessa Powell's journey at Coronado High School is a testament to the power and growth and dedication. So, continuing in the healthc care field, she has expanded her role as head athletic trainer and has now moved to the classroom. Tessa began her teaching career with a single class of just seven students. Today that small spart has blossomed into a robust program that is making a significant impact on the campus. Under Tessa's leadership, her reach has expanded more than tenfold in the amount of students that she touches. She now oversees four distinct classes serving

023over 75 students and it continues to grow. She provides dual enrollment opportunities, professional certifications, all integrated into the curriculum. and her afterchool internship program has grown from a single student to a thriving cohort of 16 aspiring professionals. Tessa's commitment to student success has led to major milestone this year. Um just recently, Coronado's first ever participation in the HOSA regional competition by bridging the gap between clinical expertise and classroom instruction. Tessa provides her students with the unique and practical foundation for their future careers. We celebrate Tessa for her passion, her evolution as an educator, and the tangible difference she continues to make in the lives of our students. Moving on to Arcadia, I'd like to invite Shelley Alfieri Brown to join me at the podium. I don't believe she's present tonight, but I will read this

024for her and if Dr. Dansky can come up to accept the um challenge coin for her. The software and engineering programs at Arcadia are reaching unprecedented milestones. Thanks to Shel's commitment to high standards in real world application. From pioneering new certifications to revitalizing established tracks, these programs are preparing students for the cutting edge of the technology industries. In just its second year, the software and app design development program is already making SUSD history. Several programmers have earned the technology specialist certification in Python programming for the first time ever this school year. Students are mastering Python to bridge the gap between logic and creativity using code to build original games, compose music, and create digital art. She also teaches the engineering program which has seen a similar trajectory of success and expansion. In the spring of

0252025, students achieved an impressive 80% pass rate on the state technical skills assessment. And this year marks the first ever full cohort of engineering three students, allowing upper classmen to dive deep into specialized engineering sectors. Next year, we will see a record of intern students, four intern students in both engineering and software development gaining professional experience on the job before graduation. At Arcadia, they recognize the visionary leadership behind these programs for fostering a culture where students don't just learn about technology, they create it. >> Thank you. Okay, I'd like to invite Mr. Steve Gisinger. Staying with the spirit of engineering and technology, Mr. Geisinger from Chaparel um has joined me at the podium. And tonight, we're going to recognize Steve Geisinger for his exceptional leadership of the engineering and cyber security programs at Chapperel. Steve

026has built a powerhouse of innovation that doesn't just teach students, it launches them into high wage, high demand careers. building a pipeline of talent. Steve's dedication to recruitment and retention has resulted in a robust three-year engineering sequence. This isn't just a classroom experience. It's a professional pathway that provides students with vital internship opportunities, bridging the gap between high school and the workforce. His engagement beyond the classroom this year has been incredibly active in the valley's professional community, representing SUSD at many premier events. These include manufacturing day at ASU, the Barrett Jackson STEM event, the Scottsdale Chambers Rising Young Professionals Collaboration Day at the U of Scottsdale Center, and hosting the future ready conference right on the Chaparel campus, working alongside our dedicated partners from the Scottsdale Rotary. The rigor of Steve's programs is truly impressive.

027of his students is securing their futures by earning college credit through the University of Arizona, participating in the new college board AP cyber security kickstart program, and preparing for elite industry credentials, including CompTIA and Solid Works. Steve, thank you for the tireless energy, the wealth of opportunities you bring to the students at Chaparel High School. You are truly building the architects and defenders of tomorrow. And just next door to Mr. Gislicker is uh Chef Jack Trier. We'd like to invite Jack to the podium. It is my pleasure to recognize Jack Sher Jack Trier for his culinary leadership in the incredible momentum with our culinary arts program. As we look toward the 2627 school year, great things are cooking up under his guidance, and the program has experienced truly tremendous growth. Many industryleading partners have partnerships

028have transformed the classroom into a gateway for the vibrant Scottsdale hospitality industry. By fostering these highle partnerships, he provides students with dual enrollment through Scottsdale Community College, allowing them to earn that credit while still in high school. direct instruction from renowned valley chefs representing elite establishments like the Camelback Marriott and Tarbells and participating in the Arizona CCAP careers through culinary arts program opening doors to career changing career changing scholarships and competitions and did a great job representing at the Phoenician this fall at the Harvest Moon Festival. Districtwide impact and innovation is Chef Trier's vision for the program and expanding beyond the kitchen walls. He's currently developing a school-based enterprise in Beastro, serving both the campus and the wider SUSD community with professionalgrade culinary creations. Perhaps most impress impressively, this program has become a true district-wide

029asset. We're proud to share that his program now serves students from all SUSD high schools, many that we'll be attending um in the fall, ensuring that no matter where a student is enrolled, they'll have access to top tier culinary training. Chef, thank you for your dedication to your craft for preparing our students to lead in the worldclass hospitality industry in Scottsdale and beyond. And lastly, I'd like to invite up Mr. Bernie Fritz from Desert Mountain to the podium. Serving over 150 students annually, Mr. Fritz's graphic design program is a powerhouse of creativity and professional preparation. What sets this program apart is the level of expertise at the helm. Bernie Fritz brings 39 years of real world industry experience to his classroom, ensuring our students aren't just learning theory, they are mastering industry standard software and

030professional workflow. students manage the full design to production life cycle, creating tangible products, which he's representing today, die-cut stickers, promotional posters. His classroom is an exemplar of a CTE learning lab. If you haven't seen the video yet, check it out on the Facebook page. Students have the opportunity to earn college credit, industry certifications, leaving high school with professional portfolios that stand out. The impact of Mr. Fritz's me mentorship is best seen in his alumni. Former students have gone on to high-profile careers, including one who serves as the lead designer at the MIM right here in Scottsdale. With dedicated interns working on real world projects every day, Bernie is truly bridging the gap between the classroom and the creative industry. Join me in celebrating Bernie Fritz for his commitment to excellence and student success. Thank you

031for the honor to share with you all of the S USDCTE successes we celebrated tonight and looking forward to many more celebrations to come. Back to you, Dr. Mensel. >> Congratulations and thank you to all of our CTE teachers. And that just is a a small subset of what we're able to offer here in Scottsdale Unified School District. The last thing in our celebrations tonight is just to give a shout out to all of the participants from Scotsdale Unified who were part of the 72nd annual Paradel Soul. Nearly 30 SUSD entries proudly marched through Oldtown on a beautiful morning showcasing the incredible spirit, creativity, and pride of our students, staff, and schools. The parade provided a wonderful opportunity to highlight the many programs and experiences that make SUSD such a special place to learn and

032grow. We extend our sincere thanks to all our schools, students, families, and staff who participated and helped make this year's Prada del Soul such a success. Your involvement allowed SUSD to connect with our community in a fun and meaningful way and to show firsthand the value of public education in Scottsdale. If you were part of the parade, can we just see your hands? Thank you so much for taking a part of your Saturday to join the Paradel Soul and showing our SUSD pride. And that, Madam President, concludes our celebrations. >> Oh. Uh, thank you. That was really exciting. I know we have next another special presentation from our student advisory board. So, are we able to get our folks in? >> They are here. Like to invite the members of the advisory board. I don't

033know who's going to start. Fiona is the president. And uh then if you can each introduce yourself and and we look forward to hearing your update. Oh. Ah, not me. Got it. All right. Good evening, members of the board. I'm very sorry about my somewhat sore throat. Um, but my name is Tiana Riley. the president of the student advisory board this year. Um, and we're very excited to bring you our second of three uh presentations for this school year. >> Hi everyone, my name is Ashy and uh what we're going to talk about today is we're going to recap our participation in the MLK Junior CCD event. Um we're going to give you subcommittee updates and we're going to talk about teen town hall which are events that we organize. and then we'll also have

034time for questions and comments. Hello, my name is Lindy Richard. As we elected last year, the SAB was able to have Fiona Riley continue her presidency, elect Matthew Lair, and also get senators from Arcadia Chaparel, Coronado, Desert Mount, and Sawarro. that being Kinsey Hunkkins, Olivia Olivia Dorri, myself, uh, Sid Gupta, and Ashini Sai, pardon if I couldn't pronounce that right, uh, as respective. So, one of the events that SAB recently went to was the MLK Jr. event hosted by the community celebrating diversity. Um, our keynote speaker at that event was Dr. Mary Francis Barry who detailed her advocacy journey. Um got to ask some questions. We had a Q&A session and then afterwards um SAB members and other member and other guests alike were able to speak to some governing board members who showed up

035there. Um and also got to speak to city officials like the mayor and city council members. So overall a great experience um that we've been going to for a couple years now. Um next the main part of what SAB does is we have subcommittees and we collaborate with district leadership um and execute our wildly important goals. So the four subcommittees that we have this year are college and career readiness which is led by Miss Fitz Fitzpatrick. Um technology and communications which is led by Miss Harrington um climate and culture which is co-led by Miss Cron and Dr. Jay and then safety, security and facilities which is led by Mr. Freriedman and Mr. Railor. >> Amazing. So, I'll start with college and career readiness. Our wildly important goal for this year was to implement at least

036one career focused inform information session at each school aligned with student identified interests based on survey data. So, what we're trying to do is get professionals from different fields uh come in and talk to students during lunch and talk about what a career in their field looks like for them. Um so far our progress is we've had two lunch and learns at Sarro already. Um they were construction focused, construction management and we've created a career interest survey which is going to get sent out to all the schools. And basically this will um students will fill it out and it'll tell us what what careers they're interested in. That way we can get people professionals in there that specifically align with their interest. And then for ongoing work, uh we're going to send out the surveys

037to high school students. And then we're also looking to dive deeper into partnerships with the city of Scottdale for more inter internship and shadowing opportunities. So next I'm going to speak on our climate and culture committee um which our wildly important goal was to explore a shadowing program at each SUSD high school to allow prospective students a firsthand view of life on our campuses in an effort to bolster enrollment. Um so the progress we've made so far um we actually have a meeting scheduled for this Friday with our principles to share a program overview and present to them which we are very excited to do. Um that's kind of our first step in establishing a program for this year. Um and then ongoing we um are going to be securing support from our um principles

038and school officials um in order to implement this shadowing program which is going to be so important to our enrollment. Um last year's word of the year was 67. I think this one's going to be enrollment for SUSD. Um so uh lastly we're going to ensure smooth logistics for allowing prospective students to view our campuses in this shadowing program. >> All righty. Uh so for the technology and communication subcommittee um our wig was to basically establish some kind of marketing package um for each of the SUSD campuses just kind of to highlight the diversity you know unified not uniform as Dr. Sacos likes to say at our meetings. Um and then we also wanted to film one SUSD source podcast which would be hosted by students interviewing other students each month. So the progress is

039we have filmed one of our SUSD source podcasts. I hosted and I interviewed Ashny and Max. It was riveting. Um and then every month we've continued to have a SAB column in the SUSD source written by a student. Um and then for ongoing work we're going to continue to film more podcasts led by students. Um, for our upcoming ideas, we're thinking of highlighting the Arcadia mentoring podcast to show, you know, continue to show the good parts that students would want to, you know, come to Arcadia and make more friends. Um, helping Max to boost enrollment. Um, and then we also want to highlight CTE for CTE month. Um, and then we're just going to continue sharing our SAB updates uh with the SUSD community through the source. And then we're going to start creating Instagram

040content, which is going to be very fun for some of the main SUSD pages. Our next topic is our safety, security, and facilities. As one of our wildly important goals for this uh SUSD school involvement, specifically our wildly important goal is decreasing the number of reported collisions across the parking lots. Uh and we want to increase the signage from our surveys at our schools to gain feedback which we can feed into insights and further actions. Some of our ongoing work which we are very much working on keeping maintaining is implementing educational programming as to decrease the the fatal crashes which can occur to create signage to improve parking lot safety so that all are aware of what could occur and to create a facilities feedback survey um to create insights that we can act on.

041Um, as SAB, we try to organize teen town halls across the school to further kind of figure out what goals need to get done. For Sarro, we've established March 9th, uh, Arcadia March 10th at Desert Mountain March 11th, and Chapperel and Coronado are to be determined in our future SAB meetings. As we conclude the semester 2, we want to talk about the goals that we as SAB have for course three and four. Some of our work is progressing progressing on existing uh widely important goals as noted by the ongoing work sections. Uh I previously and my fellow members previously prevent presented. We also want to begin planning concise goals for the 2026 to 27 year so that we can work together on what we can do. We also want to complete all teen town hall

042dates and share feedback with site and district admin administration so we can create uh actionable insights um and further enact plans for our SUSD valley. Finally, we want to prepare our final May governing board report and those are our goals. >> Thank you for your time governing board members. Um so if you have any questions at this time we'd love to hear them. Thank you very much. Always love hearing the updates from SAB. Um on the marketing package you're working on for the schools. What where will that go? Have you communicated with anyone in the district, the schools of saying we're creating this and are people wanting waiting for it so they can use it and distribute it? >> Um for Oh my gosh. um for the marketing package. Our thought was that it was

043going to be we've been uh Miss Harrington is the one who leads our subcommittee. Um and we were discussing with her the importance of creating content that can be shared um outside of the schools uh with prospective residents in the area. Um so the while the marketing package would obviously be created at uh each site, it wouldn't necessarily be shared within the district. It would be kind of pushed out on the um on Instagram we were talking about that's going to be part of our content. um what will be included in the new Instagram uh content will be um promotional videos from each site to show kind of we've been playing around with the idea of like you know a student day in the life to kind of show what a prospective student might be

044in for if they were to come to an SCSD school. Um but we have been talking I know personally at Sarro I've been talking with our uh principal Dr. Hirs about it. Um and she's very on board. Miss Harrington has had very positive feedback from when she's heard. I see her smiling, so I'm gonna take that as a good sign. Um, but yes, >> that's great. And there's going to be a lot of good use of that content. So, thanks you guys for putting it together. >> Also, great report. And, um, you're covering a lot of different things, but the focus on enrollment is really appreciated. So, thank you for that. In that spirit, could you just take an extra minute and describe I know you're going to pilot it. I'm sure it'll evolve, but

045how you imagine the shadow day working. >> Yeah. So, um, our sub subcommittee has been working really hard on creating a, um, presentation for our ICU principles. Um, so what this will really look like, um, if you look at other schools like Notre Dame, um, other private schools in the valley. Um, you'll see them holding, um, these programs for hundreds of students. And what this mainly will look like for SUSD and what we're envisioning right now is a um kind of an information session followed by um a small group breakout with individualized tours so students can actually see what's happening in our SUSD high schools. Um we're going to be try we're going to try to not intrude on any of the classroom environments, but we want excuse me, we want um student prospective students

046really to be able to see what SUSD is all about. We have amazing educators, we have amazing students, admin amazing administration. So, um, we're cap trying to capture the spirit of SUSC in probably a short one to two hour time period with these students coming in. >> Great. Thank you, >> member Warner. Just wanted to pause and give you a chance if you have a question for the students or a statement. >> Thank you for a great presentation. >> Beautiful. All right. Anybody else? Uh leadership is something that it just takes an intuitive but daring uh sense of momentum and you guys have just shown even since our last presentation a real synergy of of how you work together. I am just blown away by the magic that you have and the alignment that you

047have and it is not just a bunch of slides on a screen. It it I feel it. So, thank you for choosing leadership and being there to to ambassador this throughout our district. You are true champions. Thank you. >> All right, that brings us to governing board reports and uh Miss Werner, I'll start with you if you're ready to share any governing board reports or comments. Thank you, President Lewis. Um, I have met with a significant number of um, employees in different groups in uh, Scottsdale Unified and it was really amazing to hear their stories and what is happening for them and I'm grateful that they took the time to meet with me. Um I also had the opportunity to go to the cheer and palm team send off Arcadia High School and with massively

048talent and also what was a surprise was to see how amazing the Eagle Hide um prompt team was as well. So I I apologize there's an echo on my >> You sound Oh perfect. Um so it was great. It was really fun to see all the girls and they are absolutely look amazing. There's so much talent in um in Arcadia community. >> That's great. Thank you Dr. Pensky. >> Yes. Thank you. So um like governing board member Warner, I've had the opportunity to meet with a number of uh representatives of the community um many of whom are affected by the decisions we have to make tonight as well as engage in email exchanges. I just want to say thank you to everyone who's emailed the board, who attended those coffees. It's um a big decision

049to make. When you're making a decision around closing a school, you feel it because you're looking at the families who are directly affected. You know how it's going to impact them, their students. That is no less the case when you're making decisions related to staff. You know, it's going to impact them. You know, it's going to impact their school communities where they're beloved. Um and you know, it's going to impact their families as well. So, it's a big set of decisions that we have to make today. Uh, we're never going to be as smart about the district as the people who work every day in the district. Um, that's one of the curses of being a board member is is you're you're never quite inside it as fully. And so, the opportunity to get up

050to speed and really understand the intended and potentially unintended consequences of our decisions. Uh, I just want to say thank you very much. Thank you, Miss Carney. >> Thank you. And I also would like to thank all of the uh staff and community members uh parents uh and even students that have reached out and that I've actually personally met with. Uh these are difficult conversations uh different difficult decisions to be made and I just thank you for your advocacy um and your input is really appreciated. Uh, also since I'm over the Sarro learning community this year, I had nice visits at Sarro and KA this week. Uh, so thank you to interimm principal Hirs and Mr. G as all the kids were constantly saying all day. That was today actually. Um, really cute. So, thank

051you for welcoming me to your schools even though my son is at Sarro. Um, so I know that from that side, but it was uh fun getting to to walk around in a different level. And then I really enjoyed getting to be at Sarro for the spelling bee, the district spelling bee. And I'm just still so proud of all those students who put themselves out there like that. Um that's it just takes a lot of courage. And when I saw him come up here, I started sweating again just like I I'm still stressed for them in front for but it was just such a lovely morning and I was uh and that was one of the perks of getting to be a governing board member and I really enjoyed that. >> Wonderful. Thank you. Um,

052a couple of events. Uh, I went to the first Lego League robotics tournament, state championship out at ASU West. We had, uh, Desert Canyon Elementary had a team. DCMS had two teams. Mojave had a team and actually won a Breakthrough Award at the tournament. So, um, I've got a affinity for the robotics and Lego robotics. So, great to see the teams out there and the kids doing well. Um, the Prada del Soul was a wonderful event. Good to be out on the street uh on the cart uh handing out fans to kids and seeing their excitement. So proud to be part of that. Um the uh I wanted to mention the students who exercised their right to protest the other week. Um I'm proud of them for exercising that right. Uh I taught to security

053and there were no issues and things went well. Um, most of us in this room have rights today because of activism, things like civil rights, the eight-hour workday, women's right to vote. And I'm pr proud to see those students of ours out there exercising that right. And then finally, um, similar to my, uh, co-board members here, met with members of the community over the hard decisions we have to make. Um, feel very similar to my colleagues on that. Um, I enjoy meeting face to face whenever I can. So, thanks for those who reached out and took the time. Um, I really value hearing from you firsthand. So, thank you. >> Thank you, Mr. Shy. I too, since our public hearing and our study session, have had an opportunity to be in schools frequently. I enjoyed

054so much the Lagona uh music uh performance and the Yavapai strings and band winter concert, and I am very familiar with Hot Cross Buns now, so I think I can play it. Uh but I loved hearing it. I also went to the MLK uh community celebration and and and the performance of the students uh at our uh high school. Um I also went to the National Junior Honor Society. I know Mr. Shy was there as well uh where we had the largest number of inductions in our middle school uh that year. So congratulations to all our new inductees. Uh, I enjoyed my Arcadia visit. Uh, and I saw Shelley's engineering class and I just wanted to be in that class. And I thought, that's not fair. That's just for high school kids. That's really good,

055relevant stuff. So, thank you to all our CTE teachers who who have probably one of the most relevant, meaningful curriculums of all. And all of our curriculums are important, but boy, I I love that hands-on, real problem-solving, authentic approach to learning. Um, I too went to the Spanish uh spelling bee and I was clenching one of the mom's arms through the whole thing, you know, and what threw me was remembering that the letters lees are uh like ease and hot and uh a and so when someone would spell for example adios and it was a e os I was like no not e Well, that's I in Spanish, you know, and I'm like, oh, yeah. So, it was so interesting to have my brain shift during the Spanish words that were being spelled and and

056the students were just fantastic and so glad to see our our champion here tonight. Um I too received thoughtful um so many emails we all received from community members about the budget cuts that we are facing and I want to thank everybody for helping us unpack and think through what the impacts or implications will be as this unfortunate um loss of funds is going to impact all of us. So, uh, your grace and and your advocacy is, uh, much appreciated and thank you for for bothering to advocate and write us and talk to us and meet with us. Uh, so, uh, I I feel like we're we're coming to the table pretty well informed. So, thank you for the governing board reports this evening. And I want to also add to the nally board certified

057teachers, in some districts, that's treated almost like receiving a doctorate. So, there sometimes is a a reward system around that. and I'm so grateful that we have the highest number in the state of Arizona. So, thank you for that. All right, that moves us to our superintendent comments. >> Well, thank you to President Lewis, Vice President Shy, members of the governing board, and members of the community who are here this evening. There are a lot of things that I could provide updates on, but I really want to take a moment just to identify something that happened last week, and we have many people in the room today representing this group. So across the country, counselors were celebrated for National Counselor Appreciation Week. So it's not lost on me the juxtaposition of all the celebrations that

058we've had earlier today and some of the difficult conversations that are later on in the agenda. But I think it's really important to take time to acknowledge the people all across our district who invest in the lives of students in every capacity within our organization because everyone is doing something to ensure that our students have the best possibility to be successful. So, can I ask our counselors to please please stand so we can recognize you? >> Thank you. I appreciate that. And that will conclude my comments this evening. >> Thank you. All right. Uh we now have uh public comments. In compliance with open meeting law, the governing board may not discuss or take action tonight on any matters raised during public comments that are not on the agenda. However, the governing board members may

059respond to direct criticism, ask staff to review a matter, or that a matter be placed on a future agenda. Public comments will be conducted in accordance with board policy BEDH. Uh because of the number of speakers that we have this evening uh and to give everyone a chance to be heard and speak, each speaker will have one minute. The screen will indicate the time. Please be prepared to close your comments and relinquish the floor at the conclusion of your time. The board asks that each speaker please introduce yourself by stating your name and whether you live within our school district for clarity on the record. We thank you for your time and attendance here this evening and your cooperation in following and the meeting decorum and protocols. I will read the name of the speaker.

060When you hear your name, could you please come to the podium? I will read the name of the next speaker to be ready and on deck. Uh once you start speaking your time will start and we will begin with Shaun Huffman followed by Lesie O'Shea. Good evening. Uh thank you all for being here and endeavoring to take on these difficult choices that we have to make tonight. The greatness of SUSD is determined by how we treat all of our students. But it comes into clearer focus when when observing our most vulnerable. The proposed cuts include community specialists, social workers, security guards, essential classified staff, increased ratios for guidance counselors, and cutting teacher librarians. All of these programs are vertically integrated and build on what has been taught before. By abolishing these roles, our students suffer

061greatly. We could resolve this by using the DAA funds for one year to see what the budget looks like after more repurposing of campuses. Why keep stuff when we can keep the people who make SUSD great? All of these roles are critical to the success of our students. This is a difficult time and difficult decisions need to be made. But SUSD only has value because of its students. If the cuts we make endanger them and their education, then we must look elsewhere. Not wanting to use funds such as the DAA is not >> Thank you, Sean. Lesie O'Shea followed by Carrie Black. >> Thank you board members for your time and service. I am Leslie Ohea, teacher librarian at Soro High School. Um, and I'm here to advocate for our families our district. The last

062resort for our uh we are the public schools are the proprietor for the last resort and our twin goal for being everyone's first choice which means we have to be more comprehensive and the proposed budget opt options do not support our goal excellence rip off the band-aid close more schools prolonging it puts limbo harms morale schools that are excellent schools will bring people we already have 50% or more in my several of our schools that are coming and 45minute drives to get to our schools. Community forms where people lead and teacher librarians can be instrumental in the change. Downsizing other schools can mean needing jobs for teachers. Teacher librarian positions could be open in every school, including instilling the love. >> Thank you, Leslie. Carrie Black, followed by Dennis Draper. >> Good evening. My name

063is Carrie Black. I'm a parent of two SGSD graduates, a member of the SUSC security team, and the district security officer for Cocoa Middle School. I wanted to address the proposal to reduce the security team from 12 months scheduled to 10 months and five days. I recently read a quote that truly applies. Safety does not take a summer break. While campuses may be quiet during the summer, our work does not stop. During that time, we assess campus campuses for vulnerabilities, update emergency plans, provide security for summer schools, city of Scottsdale, and kids club camps. We deter vandalism, theft, maintain secure gates, clean and test cameras, and these are only a handful of the many items that we complete during the summer. This preparation allows us to focus fully on the safety of our students during

064the school year. Reducing our work year creates risk of increased turnover and instability in a department built on trust and consistency. Our students know us and they know and we know them. Many of us are parents, coaches, and mentors. In emergency, students need to see someone they trust. >> Thank you, Carrie Dennis Draper, followed by Donna Whitworth. Howdy. My name is Dennis Draper. I'm the lead security officer at the Chapra Learning Complex. I'll keep this short. Like Carrie said, please do not reduce this to 12-month employees. Also, please do not reduce the number of security officers at football games. That's a big safety hazard for our spectators and for security. Please do not eliminate the elementary school security officers. I say that on behalf of security officer Stephanie Cono who works the elementarymentaries at the

065Chapperel complex. She wanted to be here tonight to speak to you about this, but she couldn't make it because she's working along with Richard Warsley, Michael Weaver, Ron Stallings, Ryan Uditz, Corey Evans, Jennifer Lancast, Brendan Olsen, Amir Billings, David Lamir, Marissa Martinez, Bill Baldwin, Sarah Harris, Ben Pearson, and Carrie Dematulius. They're not here because they're not at It's not that they're at home spending time with their families. They're all working events. >> Thank you, Dennis. Donna Witworth, followed by Sonia Kim. >> Good evening, board members. My name is Donna Whitw. I'm a 12-year counselor at Sorro High School. Scottsdale Unified School District plays a crucial role in shaping the educational landscape of the Scottsdale community. The school counselors in SUSD are integral to this mission. We provide essential services that support student mental health, guide

066academic planning, and foster personal development. SUSD school counselors partner with students and families. We advocate for SUSD students and families, and we are their voice. The current proposed budget restructuring threatens to cut a significant number of our school counselor positions, putting at risk the well-being and success of thousands of our SUSD students. A petition was started in support of keeping school counselors in SUSD. And that petition now has over 1,100 signatures. Students, parents, and community members took the time to sign the petition and leave personal comments to tell you, the governing board, and SUSD administration that school counselors matter to them and that they need and that they need us. You need us. Thank you, Donna. Sonia Kim followed by Chris Helder. Hi there. My name is Sonia Kim. I'm a counselor at Arcadia High

067School. I've been in the district for 28 years. My husband and I both work at Arcadia. We went to Arcadia and we're graduating our third child from Arcadia. The American School Counselor Association recommends ratios of 250 to1. However, the middle and high schools in SUSD already exceed this number, currently 375 to1. By reducing school counselors in SUSD, these ratios will increase to two 450 to1, which means that only 23 counselors will be available to serve 11,254 middle and high school students. Let that sink in. Only 23 counselors responsible for the academic success and personal well-being of 11,254 middle and high school students at the most critical time in their young lives. These ratio numbers do not include the fifth and eighth grade students and families that we also work with transitioning to middle and high

068schools which adds to established case load numbers. Students are not just a number. There are people with hopes, dreams, struggles and needs. Reducing school counselors in SUSD will further exacerbate this issue leaving students without >> Thank you, Sonia. Chris Helder followed by Katie Gerkin. >> Hello. Uh Chris Helder from Desert Mountain High School is my third year at Scottsdale Unified School District. Um studies show that adequately staffed school counseling programs lead to improved attendance rates, reduce disciplinary actions, and higher academic performance. Students, families, and educators relying on school counselors to help navigate complex personal and educational challenges. Especially during time when mental health issues among youth are increasing yearbyear. The educational community calls upon school counselors during time of personal or scroll schoolwide duress. We respond quickly, calmly, and effectively to issues such such as

069as child abuse, neglect, grief, loss, suicide, violence, teasing, bullying, harassment, assault, drug use, and conflict. We problem solve on behalf of individual students, small groups, or the entire school. We consult with staff and other professionals and make appropriate referrals for students with problems such as depression, eating disorders, and substance abuse. Thank you for your time. >> Katie Gerkin, followed by Lennena Solar. >> Hello, I'm Katie Girkin. I'm a counselor at Sarro High School. I've been there for nine years. I'm the parent of two SUSD grads and a potential SUS SUSD 9th grader. As advocates for individual students and school improvement efforts, SUSD school counselors provide visible school leadership and confront relevant high impact issues. While we promote the well-being of every student, we help design, plan, implement, and assess schoolwide initiatives such as academic improvement,

070social, emotional, and career readiness programs. As specialists in human development, we are in integral parts of school improvement teams that focus on the education of students. We share responsibility with teachers and administrators for helping students meet academic standards and school goals. Ask yourself, is it realistic and fair to the 11,254 middle and high school students and families of SUSD to have only 23 school counselors serve all of their academic, personal, mental health, and college career needs? Will they get the services, commitment, and care they deserve and expect? Thank you. Thank you, Kate. Katie, now we have Lennena Solar followed by Kelly Ender. Governor Board, thank you for your time uh this evening and your service. My name is Len Solar. Uh I have a child at Arcadia High School. I live in the Scottsdale district.

071I came here tonight to please ask to not have budget cuts uh that undermine the comprehensive educational and emotional support our kids need to succeed. By preserving school counselor positions within SUSD, you ensure their kids are not only academically prepared, but also emotionally resilient and ready for their future endeavors. The parents, students, and school counselors in SUSD urge the governing board to find alternative solutions to the budget shortfall without sacrificing essential student services. Let's be different than other districts, charters, and private schools that have very few student support services. Let's be the district that keeps our kids thriving and draws new students and families to it because of the care and attention that they get on top of the worldclass learning. Show all of our SUSD kids and families that you care and support us

072by keeping our counselors in the schools. Thank you. Thank you, Kelly Ender, followed by Janine Welch. >> Good evening. My name is Kelly Ender. Um, this is my 21st year in Arcadia High School. Um, our role as school counselors begin before students even enroll. We are frequently the first voice families hear or the first face they see when they call and walk onto our campus to learn about our programs and resources. This first interaction matters because it shapes how our families feel about their child's future. We help share the why Scottsdale schools are special and why students belong here. In the past 30 days alone, Arcadia has registered 50 new families and we are in the process of wel welcoming another 475 more. We sit with our eighth graders to talk about credits. We work

073with our ninth graders to build four-year plans. We talk to our 10th graders about dual enrollment, ACE and EVIT. With our juniors, we reflect on and prepare for their path after high school. And with our seniors, we walk them through their next phases. Please remember that we don't just have 375 students. We also have 375 families and we work with those parents through their good times and their bad. Each student is unique with unlimited potential. At 375 to1, this responsibility is heavy, but one we carry with pride. Please continue to help our make our work meaningful. Make our work meaningful. >> Thank you, Kelly. Janine Welsh, followed by Megan Mayor. >> Hello, Janine Welch, counselor at Chapperel High School. Another crucial role of school counselors is the social emotional well-being of our students. It is

074impossible to stand up here and share the stories of this group of counselors that have done to save lives. People provide a safe space. Our students provide a positive role model for students. I quote from an ex- studentent, "You made me feel safe and kept me alive." We are trained on how to deescalate a situation, teach coping skills, and to ask that one more crucial qu question. Are you wanting to kill yourself? Are you thinking about killing yourself? Just yesterday at one of our schools, two students were experiencing suicide ideation. Over seven hours were spent with these two students and they are safe because of a school counselor. Mental health concerns are on the rise. The counselors know our students lives matter. It breaks my heart that we may not be have time to recognize

075a student who is struggling. That concerns me ethically, as a parent, and as a human being. Please do what's right for our students. Thank you, Janine. Megan Mayor, followed by Carrie Bour. Hi, I'm Megan Mayor, cha counselor at Chapperel High School. Um, talking about college and career domain of our jobs. First of all, we begin planning early and guide students starting freshman year to set college and career goals. We ensure students select classes that not only meet graduation requirements, but position them competitively for college admissions, career pathways, which also include military and trade school options. We research colleges and universities year round. Counselors stay current on admissions requirements, application timelines, testing policies, financial aid, and we work with our students on how to use the common app. We present this information multiple times a year

076to both students and parents. We write college scholarship and special summer program letters of recommendation. Some years this can be 40 or more individualized letters. We actively support firstgen students, under reppresented populations, and those navigating complex circumstances so that every student has access to postsecary opportunities. >> Thank you. Carrie Bour, followed by Marcy Shamway. Good evening. I'm Carrie Bour. I'm from Chapperel High School. I'm also a Chapperel High School graduate. um been a member of the Scottsdale School District since 1979. The current issue of decreasing enrollment in SUSD has been a significant focus over the last few months. The number of private and charter schools continues to increase and their campuses are expanding. To compete with schools outside of our district, we need to market ourselves by having stronger academic options, athletics, and programs in

077the areas as fine arts as well as staffto student ratios. One of our biggest competitors in the north has six counselors servicing approximately 1,000 students, making their average case load 166 students per counselor. If our case loads increase to 450, our counselors will have almost three times the amount of students as that school does. That is not something to be proud of. The quality of our services will inevitably decrease and the amount of time we're able to spend with students and parents will be limited. That is not something to be Thank you, Carrie. Marcy Shamway, followed by Jonathan Brener. >> Hi, Marcy Shamay. Chapperel counselor. I want to address how the counselor ratios are being addressed um are being discussed. The state average student to counselor ratio is 667 to1. This is calculated by dividing

078the total K through2 students by the total counselors. If we use the same K12 calculation, the current ratio for SUSD is 654 to1. 654 to1 currently. This is very close to the state average. SUSD continues to state that we are 375 to1 because it's using the math that isolates middle school and high school numbers. We can't compare that to the state average if we're not using the same formula. If we do use the same formula with the proposed counselor cuts, the new ratio will be 21006 21,600 divided by 25 counselors, which is 864 to1, not 450 to 1. Before voting, I ask that you check your numbers. Be confident that you have all the correct data, including any numbers you have requested. Not yet. >> Thank you, Marcy. Jonathan Bretchner followed by Vanessa Hancock. >>

079Hi, Jonathan Bretner at Desert Mountain High School Counselor. I'd like to introduce you to Josie. She was trouble, bright, drove me crazy, loved her. I spent a lot of time and she wrote me this letter thanking me after she graduated because um she said I kind of saved her. But I I don't get this letter if we move up to our numbers. um increasing our ratios is really going to impact um student well-being, graduation rates, and definitely enrollment. Our counselors bring in at least 10 to 20 students a year, which pays for our salaries. And if we increase we, you know, back in the day, we had paid assistants who covered our our, you know, unbelievable amount of paperwork. our our college, you know, the college situation has changed a ton and you know, now

080we have one in five students who have me diagnosed mental health disorders. To change that is going to impact our Thank you, Jonathan. Vanessa Hancock, followed by uh Gilbert Rojo. >> Hi, Vanessa Hancock. Chapperel, class of 1995. All five of my teenagers were blessed to be assigned to Sonia Kim as their guidance counselor at Arcadia. Sonia supported my children, my ex-husband and I as we all navigated COVID days, issues related to classes, teachers, friends, coaches, issues associated with their respective and external stressors, neurode divergence, learning disabilities, 504s, IEPs, and mental health diagnoses, course selection and college planning, and just ordinary bad days. All families rely on the humble service, specific expertise, and brilliant triage skills of their child's guidance counselors. Their role is some combination of first responder, account manager, invisible labor, and these superlue,

081providing actual lifesaving and future altering care in our middle schools and high schools. to reduce guidance. Counselor's ability to serve our kids and families should be firmly in the non-negotiable column of this budget problem. >> That's Hilbert Rojo followed by Tessa Dwire Kim. Good evening. My experience with my counselor has been nothing but exceptional. It's hard to imagine where I'd be academically and mentally without my counselor. An experience I wanted to touch on was walking into my counselor's office hungrily. I asked if my counselor had any food to eat. And luckily, she gave me a nut nutritious cheese stick, some gummies, and some crackers. My counselor asked me about school, my family, and why I hadn't eaten. After she found out why I hadn't eaten, we signed up for free and reduced lunch. Because of

082what my counselor did for me, that was all the food I had to eat that day. However, I ended up having lunch to eat the next day. Defunding these workers takes resources away from students that struggle and walk blindly into these environments. To many students just like me, this is all we have. And these cuts don't just affect the admin and faculty, but the students and their success. I am an example of the type of students these counselors work tirelessly for. And just like the rest of my peers, I don't want them gone. Thank you. >> Thank you. Thank you, Hilbert. Uh, Tessa Dwire Kim followed by Kenzie Hunkins. >> My name is Tessa Dwire Kim and I'm a senior at Arcadia High School. I currently hold the office of student body vice president and

083a national merit finalist, a varsity indoor and beach volleyball player. But most importantly, I'm the daughter of an Arcadia guidance counselor, Sonia Kim. All my accomplishments would not have been possible without the help of my mom. Of course, I've had my entire life to receive receive support from her. And even then, I faced obstacles. Now, imagine every other student who hasn't had these benefits. With an increase in the ratios, this support becomes harder and one-on-one meetings become scarcer. I see my mom talking with and emailing students, parents, and even colleges on the weekends. I see her paying students fees when they can't afford it, providing food for those who have a lack of it at home. I see her comforting students who are struggling mentally, giving them support they can't find in friends and family.

084Of all my accomplishments, none have been more important to me than getting to say that my mom is a guidance counselor. Please fight for all of our C counselors so that the ratios stay manageable and students can have the opportunities that my peers and and I have been fortunate enough to receive because someone had the time to listen. Thank you. >> Thank you, Tessa. Kinsey Hunkins, followed by Cynthia Dupra. >> Good evening. My name is Kinsey Hunkins and I am senior class president at Arcadia High School and I've been a student advisory board member for three years. From my conversations at SAB, the goal is to make the cuts furthest from the classroom to avoid ch changes that will directly impact students and their experience at school. As a student with dyslexia, my counselor has

085personally sat through multiple AP exams in order to give me the time I needed in order to perform my best. I am grateful for the time she has spent getting to know me and getting to know going above and beyond to ensure that I was on track to achieve my goals. My experience and relationship with my counselors is possible because they have appropriate ratios to support their students properly. Without one-on-one meetings, students lose a piece of their community, which can be detrimental to a student success. High school is hard, and it can be easy to get lost in a crowd. But because of our counselors, I have felt seen, respected, valued, and supported. The job of our counselors is to be our support system and I fear that without proper resources it will and time

086it will greatly affect students academically but also personally. Thank you. >> Thank you Kenzie Cynthia Dupra followed by Jennifer Church. >> Hi my name is Cynthia Dupra. I am not in the school district with my daughters. I chose open enrollment. I am here today because of our counselor and our community specialist. My daughter would not make it through school without her counselor. When her counselor was out for surgery, she got an out of school suspension because there was no one there to help her. She navigates her day. She has a special pass to go see that counselor when she is stressed, when she is overwhelmed, because she has PTSD, ODD, and ADHD. Miss Himenez does amazing job with all of our students. She works with them through their lunches. She has lunch bunch every day

087with each and every grade. She is consistently there to help these children and I've seen some of them do some really horrific things and she's been able to work with them and help them. Our community specialist Jesse, she has outreach programs. She has the dream bus that comes twice a year to help the kids who don't have things. She gets them shoes, clothes, personal items. And the holidays, she gets gift cards donated that she gives to those families in need to help them get extra stuff. You need to cut that. Thank you. Jennifer Church, followed by Kenneth Murphy. >> Hi there. Uh, I actually started with a threeminut speech, so I know I'm not going to get through that. So, I'm going to focus rather not on the fact that I've been in SUSD for

08816 years or that my children have gone through with IEPs, 504s, mental health issues, curriculum crises, everything. What I want to say is this is the time that our children need counselors. They are the ducks. They are running around solving everyone else's problems and yet they're the calm, welcoming, soft landing for our children as we as parents teach them to self- advocate. In grade school, we're there. We're in the classroom. We we hustle them around. Middle school, they're getting a little bit more independent. high school, they have to learn to do it themselves. They go to their counselors. They are the the parents that teach them how to self- advocate and talk to their teachers, look at their colleges, follow their heart. They are what we need for our children right now. Thank you, >>

089Kenneth Murphy. >> Ken Murphy, you have a play. >> Followed by Mary Alvarez Jackson. Thank you. >> All right. So, there's a group of folks out there actively trying to dismantle the public education system. And unlike the schools, they don't have to have teachers with degrees. After a 100 days and they get paid by the state, they can kick children out of there. And they don't have to accept children with IEPs. My son has an IEP. And I've heard a lot of people in this room talk about things that are the future, capturing hearts, all the spark initiatives. You saw the heart of this community standing up tonight. What happens when you gut that out? Thank you. Mary Alvarez Jackson followed by uh Jacqueline uh Buckley. Mary Alvarez Jackson. I am a Sorro legacy, a

090Sorero Complex parent and a Coronado complex teacher. First at TK8, then at Yavapai K5. I completely support the need for budget adjustments. However, I have some serious, sincere, and pressing concerns with the upcoming cuts. Our school counselors, our community specialists, our ELD pair of professionals. Um, we can't function without them. As a teacher and parent, I'm keenly aware of the inequities between our complexes due to the variances in SCES status of families. I contribute to amazing holiday gifts for my own children's teachers and staff members. I their their PTO helps support extra staff and more through those donations. Well, I can completely ignore that myself and my colleagues are not getting that. I cannot ignore it when my students and their families are experiencing equity. So, I really ask you to please consider that we

091face different challenges than the rest of the district. Thank you, Jacqueline Buckley, followed by Sidhan Gupta. Good evening, esteemed board members. My name is Jacqueline Buckley. I'm a math teacher at Chapperel High School and a parent of a second grader in the district. I come to you tonight as part of the math textbook adoption committee. We've worked for a year and we've reviewed multiple curriculums. We chose the best one for our students. These have high quality content and a ton ton of supports. Uh my personal favorite of the supports is the actual online tutoring that the students get. It's absolutely amazing. Um, I know that the the teaching and learning community will be talking to you about the content and all that later, but I just wanted to let you know that as a committee

092member, I cannot wait to start using this new curriculum. >> Thank you. >> Sith Gupta, followed by Jeff Ret. >> Thank you, President Lewis, Vice President Shark, and governing board members. Um, you guys might have noticed these little pins that a lot of people are wearing. They say students need counselors. Um, I wanted to tell you guys that the Desert Mound robotics team actually handmade each of these pins. We printed out the paper. We applied them. We did everything. I think that pretty much goes to show that the students really do need their counselors. We took out our time and did this. And I'll talk about some personal anecdote because I know a lot of people mention it, but when I'm up I've I've come here and received award from the governing board and a

093lot of that is because of the counselors in the back. They help with inter internships, leadership positions, awards. Right now, it's summer program application season and they're the ones writing all those wreck letters. Um, when students are high achieving, it obviously makes SUSD look good. Um, and that's important for enrollment. So, I know that we're in a big budget deficit and cuts will have to be made, but I urge you guys to exhaust all other options before you even consider reducing the amount of guidance counselors we have. Thank you so much for your time. >> Thank you, SA Jeff Ret followed by Debbie Schumacher. I spent 13 uh years substitute teaching and also seven years as a coach. And I want to make a few comments about this gentleman, Mr. Fritz, that came in older

094earlier. In all my years of teaching, I have never seen a person that had more a greater effect on kids. He runs this graphic arts program at Desert Mountain. It is beyond incredible. He had so such expensive machinery. In fact, he just told me he bought another $60,000. Board members, if you go to a single classroom this year, go to Desert Mountain and see what Dr. Fritz is doing with those kids. He is the gold standard of teaching. >> Thank you, Debbie Schumacher. Followed by Elizabeth Livingston. My name is Debbie Schumacher. I'm a SUSD grandparent. I'm here to tell the board that your constituents want a new superintendent. do not extend, renew, or offer a new contract to Scott Menzel. SUSD is in worse shape than when he arrived almost six years ago. By his

095own public admission, the CFO told him that money was running out three years ago. Yet, he failed to act. During his phase 2 tour, not once did he accept responsibility for falling enrollment or the lack of mitigation. Instead, he told parents that parents are responsible for marketing. Scott spoke of wanting to put more ideas on the table. Yet committee members report that their suggestions are ignored and are forced to select from predetermined outcomes. Tonight's presentations do not reflect community input. Scott, it's time for you to polish up your resume. You have your Michigan pension. You have surpassed five years in the Arizona State Retirement System. You could earn a third pension before retirement. I suggest California. After all, Mickey and Mason will have children soon, and Tammy will want to be there. California. >> Thank

096you. >> Elizabeth Livingston, followed by Vivian Spayer. >> Good evening. My name is Elizabeth Livingston and I am a second grade teacher at Yavapai. I'm here to urge the board to continue to provide funding for community support specialists, counselors, and ELD paras because of the direct impact they have on students and families. These professionals support students facing anxiety, trauma, housing instability, and family challenges, issues that do not stop at the classroom door. They also serve as a bridge between schools and families, connecting them to community resources and support. When these positions are cut, families lose access, students lose trust, and problems often escalate beyond the school into the broader community. We need them, and our students need them. Strong student support systems lead to better attendance, fewer behavior issues, and safer schools. They benefit not

097just individual students, but classrooms, families, neighborhoods, and the district as a whole. Thank you for your time. >> Thank you, Elizabeth. Vivian Spayer, followed by Wade Ben. Hello, my name is Vivian Spire and I'm a junior at Arcadia High School and I participate in student government and am a varsity player on softball. My brother also went to Arcadia High School and we both had the same had the privilege of having the same counselor. Through his experience and my experience so far, I have seen what effect having a close relationship with your counselor can do. Part of the reason my brother was able to attend a top 10 university was because he and our counselor were able to have a relationship where she could write him a personalized recommendation letter. If we cut down on counselors,

098there is no way for the remaining counselors to have enough time to really get to know each student. I think this will trickle down and reflect poorly on SUSD's prestigious college acceptance rates. I am strongly asking that you do not reduce the number of counselors at my school. Thank you. >> Thank you. Wade Ben followed by Jeff King. >> Hi, my name is Wade Ben. My son attends Hook Elementary and I'm here asking for clarity, transparency, and safety for him. Earlier this school year, my son was called a derogatory name for not believing in God, threatened with physical harm, and struck calm struck when he was calmly reaffirmed his belief. That was not a disagreement. It was a religious intimidation followed by physical violence. More recently, just before winter break, after reporting negative comments as

099instructed by staff, my son was repeatedly challenged to fight and he refused each time. Later that day, during dismissal on school grounds, his eyeglasses were taken and he was assaulted while trying to disengage and reach an adult. What has been equally concerning is what happened afterwards. We were told he had shared responsibility for the assault and our request for the investigation findings went unanswered and beyond this handbook's required timeline. We eventually received only his interview without findings or a classification of determination. We are not here asking about punishment. We are asking why findings were not clearly communicated. Why record requests were not timely honored and why the focus should away from my son's reactions rather than the pattern of harassment and escalation he has experienced. Parents have the right to be involved safety concerns be

100free from harassments uh harassment threats and violence especially when new religions involved and counselors. Awesome. >> Thank you Wade Ben Jeff King and then followed by our last speaker who will be Alex Wood. Jeff King. Are you Jeff King? Just thank you for the opportunity to be embarrassed out loud. Sorry. All right, we'll give Jeff King just a few more seconds. All right, we'll go to Alex Wood. Alex, are you ready? Are you here? Just making sure our overflow folks Okay, there. Thank you. >> Hi, longtime listener, first time commenter. Um, good evening, governing board members, Dr. Mensel. My name is Alex Wood. I'm a resident of Scottsdale, an alumni, a previous parent, and now I'm a middle school teacher here in this district. I want to add the teacher perspective of how larger counselor

101case loads affect the classroom. As case loads increase, student student need doesn't go away. It shifts to the classroom, affecting student attendance, increasing behavior intervention needs, reducing time available count uh for counselors to implement preventative measures, reducing student achievement. Teachers are already managing academic instruction behavior and increasing social emotional needs. When counselors have high case loads, teachers become the default crisis uh management. Oops, I lost my place. Sorry about that. Um, so we want to actually go for uh preventative measures instead of >> triage. Yeah. All right. Thank you, Alex. All right. Uh, having had that number of speakers, I wanted to be sure that uh, Miss Karen Warner that you had a chance to respond if you'd like to choose to do so. Anybody else on the board who'd like to indicate a a

102response? >> Thank you to everyone that came forward and shared your thoughts. Um, I am very grateful and have taken all of this into consideration. Thank you. >> All right, Miss Cardi. Uh, thank you. I would just ask uh Dr. Menszel if he could uh update the board on the investigation that Mr. Wade Ben was uh speaking about. Thank you. All right. If I see no other comments, uh thank you everyone for coming and and advocating and being here. Uh we're going to move to the consent agenda item. So we have items A through P minus item G. I'd like to make a motion that we accept the consent agenda item A through P but not G. It's been pulled. I need a second for the motion. >> I'll second the motion. >> All right.

103Thank you, Mr. Shy. All those in favor? >> I Thank you. I heard you, Miss Her. All right. So, it passes unanimously. And now we're ready to go to consent agenda item G. And I think we'll just pause a minute as people transition out. We'll just pause for a minute. Not recess, but pause. Okay, Miss Warner, you pulled action item, personnel action item, and uh Miss I'm sorry. I'm sorry, Miss Carney. Thank you. >> Thank you, President Lewis. Uh, I just asked to to pull the personnel report to pull uh one employee off of um under classified, Mr. Bobbit uh who is under resignation. Um, I know that he has been arrested on a federal level and I'm we have not received enough information for us to accept a resignation and therefore I'm not comfortable

104voting on that. >> Uh, Miss McLullen, would you guide the board? >> Madam President, members of the governing board, Miss Carise voiced her opposition to accepting the resignation. It would be up to the remainder of the board whether you'd want to proceed forward to accept the resignation or initiate termination proceedings. >> Other comments regarding that particular individual or that situation? >> Dr. >> I agree it's difficult to make a a decision on that when we don't actually have the substance of the case >> to accept a resignation >> cor to know which is the better direction for the district absent an understanding of the underlying case. Madam President, members of the governing board, it would be my recommendation that you accept the resignation of the employee in question given that that would end his employment

105immediately with Scottsdale Unified School District. To do otherwise, would require us to move forward with um a proceeding to initiate a recommendation to terminate it would be out into the future. >> He has all all obligations have been met with respect to this matter. >> All obligations have been met. reporting obligations. >> Go ahead, Miss Warner. >> Miss McClennon, I just for clarification, so I know we've had many abrupt resignations in our district this past year, and I know that, you know, through some of those, they are given an opportunity to uh to resign, but it was my understanding somebody gets arrested or or have charges against them that that would warrant termination. And if you could clarify that, that would be fantastic. I I did, Madam President, Miss Warner, members of the board. Um

106the the district by accepting the resignation of an employee who has been arrested or who is under investigation, it concludes the termination of and the employment relationship. Um there are two processes by which you can separate with employees. One is to move forward in terminating them and the other is to accept their resignation. Um, it is not illegal in the state of Arizona to accept the resignation if and when you have made and complied with your reporting obligations to the state board of education and to the local police. The district has done so, has made no promises regarding any future references and I would urge you to end the employment tonight. >> So, you didn't quite answer my question. So for clarification, if someone breaks the law and is arrested, wouldn't that be a cause

107for termination? When would you use termination over a resignation? >> Madame President, Miss Warner, it is dependent on the classification of the employee. For instance, in the state of Arizona, if a certificated employee is arrested and fails to uh report that arrest for certain crimes, they can be immediately terminated is the terminology. So, I can't answer the question specifically. What I can tell you is that any action to accept a resignation does not violate state law. And if we need further advice on this topic, I do think we should go into executive session. That actually may be a very good idea. Um, I'd like to make a motion to go into executive session to get further clarification on this particular law >> policy. >> There's been a motion >> been a motion and a second

108to move into executive session for uh legal advice. Miss McLullen, any comment on that motion and second? >> Madam President, I do not have any comment other than that we would be required to go into the back room where we are not set up currently. Okay. >> So that will take a minute. Can I can I ask >> Yes, Dr. Menzel. >> If we can act on the other personnel action items in 9G so that we allow sufficient time to set up the recording in the other room. That way we can take care of the other personnel action items since I think it was only this one that you were pulling. Correct. >> Well, and I was going to ask my colleagues if we could I actually support going into executive session, but if we

109could do it at the end of the meeting just so that we don't have folks just waiting around here. All right. >> We've got an amendment to move into executive session at the end of the meeting uh to discuss the individual under 9G, but to move forward with all the other individuals under 9G. Is that an acceptable amendment to you? >> Well, I think that we would have to vote on that vote again. I think an amendment can be done before the second or maybe more. >> Madame President, may I suggest a motion? So I would move to accept the uh remainder of the personnel agenda under section G on the consent agenda with the exception of the one individual named and to table that item until after the board is able to meet in

110executive session. >> That works for me. >> Okay. >> All right. So, so moved uh in alignment with what uh uh council just advised. I need a second. >> I'll second. >> All right. All those in favor of moving forward with all all the other personnel action items under 9G except for the individual until we can table it to move into executive session uh say I. >> I. Uh. Is that a I miss Warner? >> Yes. I >> so it passes 5 to zero and we will hold on that subsection of G till we can meet in executive session. >> I would also like to say as we move into a more cheery note uh dear Sorro learning community uh because of the consent that was just passed we would like to welcome Mr. David

111Abrams as our new assistant principal, athletic director to the Saworro High School learning community. Mr. Abrams has 19 years of experience in education. The last 17 years he has been a teacher, coach, dean, and athletic director in the Paradise Valley Unified School District. So, we stole you. and uh he will bring a wealth of knowledge to the athletic department and we are excited for him to join this amazing learning community. Welcome David Abrams. All right, thank you. That uh now brings us to do I go back to information items? Yes. So, let me just Okay, we're on back to item what was item 8A. So 8A is the status update regarding phase one and phase two of repurposing schools. Dr. Mensel. >> So we're going to start with uh Miss Mitchell who will talk about

112the first um two bullet points under the background information updating with respect to the concier services and outreach to Puma and Echo Canyon families as well as enrollment decisions made today. Miss Mitchell. >> Sure. Good evening governing board members. Thank you so much for the opportunity to share the great work that's been happening um up to this point with our concierge services in phase one. Um this is just a brief summary of the information that I shared. Oh, was that that was last week, last Friday. Um so just at this point um for everybody to know, we have 59% of Echo students have already been enrolled in Scottsdale schools for next year. 60% of our puma students have already been enrolled um for the 2627 school year. and we are aiming for an 80% enrollment

113goal by spring break. Um, we are really grateful for all of our welcoming schools who have been taking time to host tours, have individual conversations with families, and really welcomed them to that school community. Last uh this Monday, I believe, another round of those uh information sheets went to our welcoming schools, and I know that they really prioritize that time and are really excited to welcome all of those new families. Um, additionally, just last Friday, all of our school leaders completed their school staffing sheets, which is giving us a really good understanding of where our surplus may be, where we may have um, more room, less room, and that is what really will help us to prioritize Echo and Puma teachers in placement. Um as we make boundary decisions and understand where the majority of

114those students will go, we also want to make sure that those teachers are pri every effort is made to prioritize the placement of them in serving the students that they um have been doing such great work for already. Uh when it comes to some additional concier services, I want to talk a little bit about tomorrow at Puma Elementary School. So this evening there um is a decision before you. Depending on the outcome of that decision, we have a couple of different paths that we will take for tomorrow. Um, should the uh recommendation of boundaries be accepted tomorrow morning um maybe midm morning, we want to make sure the letters are correct. Uh families from Puma will get letters making them aware of what their new boundary location is and also letting them know that should

115they want to enroll in those schools, we will take care of all of the paperwork and make that an automated process without them having to do more steps besides meeting their um new leaders and uh engaging in the welcoming uh events that I know Hookam Yavapai and all of our welcoming schools are up to. Um should you uh consider additional time for the decision? What we'll let families know is that the decision is still pending and that we stand ready to tour, support, and have enrollment conference sessions one-on-one to help guide them further, knowing that many of our Puma families are um waiting to the decision of boundary outcomes to determine their next steps. Um when it comes to Echo Canyon, they've been really doing some incredible stuff serving their children, celebrating all of the

116great work from midy year. Um and beginning next week, individual classroom teachers will start following up with families who haven't yet made the decisions for next year. Um those individual personal touches are often parents know their kids' teachers. And so wanting just to make sure that we have friendly faces um letting families know that we're here for them and that um we will be inviting them to individual enrollment conferences uh at the convenience of each family whether they want it on their the campus they want it virtual um wherever we can meet them to discuss options here all the reasons um that they should stay enrolled in SUSD. Uh and so those will continue um as we keep going with that goal of 80% by spring break and 100% by the end of the year.

117Um I have reported previously about students who have chosen to or families who have chosen to depart SUSD. Um and I will continue to report on those. What I can tell you is in the beginning we heard from I think eight or nine families. Some of those families have changed their decision and ma decided to stay in SUSD. And so I don't ever want to give you false numbers but just know that when families are choosing to leave SUSD, we won't have hard numbers until really we get records requests or don't see those students. And so we'll continue to follow those through, but we do know that families about six weeks out from the decision are still um changing their mind based on those experiences, based on what their friend groups are doing and other

118social networks. And so we're really committed to each family um and meeting their needs despite the unfavorable outcome of their schools being closed. Um, I want to talk just a couple of more minutes about a community concierge team concept that we're looking to launch knowing that as we move forward um with our Echo and Puma families, but also into phase two, recognizing that to give that concierge layer of support, there are members of our community that know our schools the best. And we know that they are excited to offer layers of support. And so we look to build a community concierge team, train them um around the incredible offerings across all of our schools and really put them first in touch with families who are looking um maybe impacted by phase 2, maybe want new

119enrollment, but just want also to hear from another mom or another dad or a retired teacher, people that they also can connect with outside of school officials. Um and so that is work that is happening. Um, in our previous email, I outlined a little bit of the timeline and next steps there. I'll switch a little bit over to phase two, um, and just provide and let everybody know that currently on our committee hub, we are accepting applications for phase 2 committee members. And that is uh all of the families in our Desert Mountain Learning community including Copper Ridge School that we would encourage staff, families, community members, HOA, churches, businesses, whoever would like to meaningfully participate in conversations and help us figure out what are our next steps. Um so those will be open really

120through the end of the month. We want to make sure everybody has ample time and that we're able to promote it. Um, a a really big shout out and thank you to our friends in DC Ranch who are also helping us to communicate and market that at a broader level. Um, from there, oh, that's I'm like, what else are we doing? Sorry about that. Um, but from there, we did do some direct targeted email um, advertisement of that phase 2 to families of impacted students. Our incredible principles and school leaders are following up with families again at their schools. And then at the end of this week, we will do a broad district-wide communication for anyone else who may uh want to raise their hand, whether they have expertise, uh generations of success here in

121leg uh in Scottsdale Unified. Um so we would encourage anyone that would like to apply and then we'll give you ongoing updates as uh we continue through phase one and phase two. Really appreciate the ongoing feedback and should you have any questions um I'm happy to share. >> Dr. Manzel. So just to add with respect to phase two, we've completed the uh family and and staff meetings at all but one school. We've got Tonalia on February 23rd, but all the listed phase 2 schools uh plus Cheyenne have had those meetings. Uh we expect to be able to identify the consultant before the end of the month in order to facilitate the committee that we're recruiting. And then for Coronado, the learning community, we're really looking at a a committee that will be focused on how

122do we grow? How do we capture more students? How do we ensure that Hokum, Yavapai, Tonalia, and Coronado have a vibrant and thriving educational pathway for students in the south part of our district? And so we expect to be able to open that up towards the end of the month. >> Mr. >> Um, thank you, Miss Mitchell, for update. um the community members you're looking to to source from the phase 2 community. What's your anticipation of how many people? >> Um I think we're looking uh initially looking at a committee of 30 to 40 people wanting to make sure there's equitable distribution across each one of the school sites and that we have ample community members. I will tell you I think if as I last checked we have about 55 maybe 60 applications so

123far. Um and we're looking to narrow that to 30 to 40. Um but it depends on how many people apply also. So um that is not currently set in stone. >> If you have more than you need, what is your criteria for accepting or not accepting? >> Right. Um so if we have more than need uh than we need, what we have um via the application process is there's some uh a variety of different questions. Uh we would use a rubric double blind scoring in order to narrow that field. um prioritizing some of the responses that are really around um the longevity of Scottsdale purposes for um engaging in the process also potentially previous experiences expertise that they offer and so in the development of the application we also developed a protocol that we would

124use should we have a significant amount of applicants. >> Thank you >> Dr. Patensky. >> I'd like to push you a little bit. But I understand your point that families may say, "We're leaving the district, change their mind, and the numbers going to change." I think that's equally true of families who say they're going to stay in the district. They can change their mind. The numbers are going to change. So, I would appreciate if you would report the count and percent of affirmations that have currently told us that they are uh intending to leave the district. >> Perfect. I'll continue to do that. Just want to make sure as you see those numbers change. That may be the reason, but happy to continue to do that. Are you able to do that tonight as part

125of your report? >> The the exact numbers right now as part of my report? >> Yeah. >> No, I'm not. I wouldn't be able to do that right at this exact minute. >> Okay. Go ahead. Going forward, please. >> Yes. >> Thank you. >> Miss Carney. >> Okay. Thank you, President Lewis. Could you touch on the selection of a consultant to assist with facilitation? uh will this would the board be approving the cost on this or how how is this working the consultant? >> Um so I can give a high level overview. I would defer a little bit to Dr. Mensel in terms of those things. Um what we are looking at is people who have done this type of work across the nation but also locally knowing that understanding of the local context is

126incredibly important but also having experience in this type of work. Um and so we are looking at multiple so that we have multiple quotes. Um what we have seen so far is a very wide range of costs. Uh we recognize that we're in a structural budget deficit and so it's really important that we mitigate costs but I also will just say sometimes you get what you pay for and we want to make sure that this uh process is really thoughtfully planned, intentionally designed and that the people selected to lead that work do have experience, knowledge um and a triedand-rue record. >> Okay. Is this something we needed to do an RFP on or how how are we selecting this individual? >> So, we don't have to do an RFP. The uh the cost will be

127under $100,000. Uh hopefully significantly under the $100,000. We have resultsbased funding at the district level. Uh that is um you don't get any more RBF funding because that's uh no longer provided at the state level, but we have funds available for that. And so that's where we would take the funds, but we'll have three quotes per our procurement requirement in order to be able to make a decision in terms of how to proceed. >> Thank you, >> Miss Warner. Anything to add? I just to make sure you we pause for you. >> I I'm not going to add anything to this. It's u it's all concerning. Thank you for your personalized relationship building approach to this uh very important task as we keep our families in transition effectively. I appreciate the added workload and important

128uh personal touch. All right, that moves us to 8B, strategic plan midyear update. Leah Mitchell, come on up. Well, now I feel silly that I just didn't come up here first. I'm so sorry. Good evening again. Um I what you'll see me uh doing up here is uh thank you again for the opportunity to talk a little bit about our midyear strategic plan update. Um I typically like to I'm not much of a scripted person, but I also recognize we have a really action-packed agenda still ahead of us. And so in order to try to be succinct, you'll see me doing a little bit of script reading. At any moment, don't hesitate to uh stop stop me, ask questions. Um but I am very appreciative of the opportunity this evening to take a few moments

129to talk about our midyear 2526 to strategic plan and continuous improvement efforts. Uh please, like I mentioned, feel free to stop me at any time. Uh I always think it's really important to ground us in our collective purpose, our district's mission, vision, and values. Each and every day, thousands of staff members show up with their sights set on making this vision a reality for each of our 20,000 students that we have the opportunity to serve. And thanks again for the staff members we heard from this evening. Uh they are mission focused. They are focused on world-class experiences that transform our students into highly competent, confident, and quality adults that are ready to take on the world's challenges and make it an even more incredible place for generations to come. We lean into our values as

130part of this mission and in all we do. These values are the guideposts for each of us and help us find our way through the unknown through turbulence. And they serve as reminders of the actions, behaviors, and dispositions that reflect our collective commitment to all of our students and their families. And what you'll see also on the screen is over the past three years, our why is because kids. Our commitment is elevating excellence and our focus is on their future. A quick reminder on the framing of the strategic plan. It's situated in two wildly important goals and five strategic priorities. First up, let's talk about excellence in mathematics. We measure progress in mathematics in a variety of ways. However, we built a public scoreboard that reflects the number of skills proficient per week in Il.

131We selected this metric as the research around the effectiveness demonstrates optimum performance and growth can be realized through two proficient skills per week. The chart provides information on the engagement of our students in grades 3 through eight in mathematics. You'll note that we've exceeded the goal nearly every week in semester 1 with the exception of the holidays and long breaks where our kids should be playing outside, sleeping in, having lots of fun. We see them doing that. Um and so we're really proud. This is a very different story uh than this time last year where we were still pursuing consistency in those two skills proficient um per week and we really didn't catch our stride almost till third uh end of third quarter last year and so to see this consistently tells uh reflects our

132implementation model and the commitment of our staff who are taking this seriously and using not only to measure progress but also as a system of support for students uh that may need additional help. out outside of our skills proficient per week. Uh we also look at growth of each grade for monthtomonth. The fall to winter target for growth is 40. And you can see that we have half of our grade levels exceeding that target. We have a couple grade levels approaching the target um and a couple that surfaces us needing to dig deeper, problem solve, and apply additional layers of support specifically to those grade levels. >> Miss Mitchell? >> Yep. Before I leave the EXL, um I know one of the benefits is our ability to project and predict. The EXL scores are fairly

133predictive of if a individual student will or will not test proficient at the end of the year. So given that we're halfway through, have we done a look ahead to say whatever the number is based on where we are now, 64% of third graders will be proficient math and that's better than 60% from last year. Like have we done that look ahead to see where we are? >> We absolutely have done that. Spoiler alert, it's coming in a few slides where we'll talk a little bit more about what some of that proficiency looks like. But each one of our school leaders um and our assistant principles, our teacher instructional leaders, they are digging in not only to the growth but also the proficiency. Um individual schools are able to look at their proficiency by school.

134You'll see our proficiency reported up really by grade band and then you can break down u more to individual grade levels. >> Thanks. All right, let's keep talking a little bit about our our wildly important goal around excellence in mathematics. Um, in order to advance this excellence and achieve our wildly important goal of unlocking opportunities in high school by having significantly more students successfully complete algebra in 8th grade, we are intentionally building a coherent instructional model with systems of support for students and for teachers. The action steps that you see here on the screen have either just happened are happening as we speak this evening or on the hor or are on the horizon between now and the end of the school year. Uh I have shared the scoreboards and the actions we're uh that

135we are taking and now I want to tell you just a little bit about the math powers possibilities strategic action team that launched last week. This team is comprised of math enthusiasts whose day-to-day roles range from classroom teacher to parent to school administrator to community leader to university instructor and much much more. We were beyond grateful for the first of many engagement sessions and workshops to come. We received incredible feedback from all of the participants um and even from some of our teachers in the room. And so I just really appreciate everybody giving up a day of instruction with their kids, but they did share with us it was well worth it um to coales around this very meaningful goal. Uh during the workshop, you will find here on this uh slide the different outcomes

136that were achieved during that session. Uh they built a common knowledge base using shared data, research, experiences, and perspectives. From there, they collaborated around Arizona's profile of a graduate and generated a community math map outlining many different entry points that elevate the story of mathematics in SUSD. This team is charged as the guiding coalition helping to implement, measure, and refine our strategy and service to our students. One particular area of progress that this team will focus on is the wildly important goal. It is the enrollment and success of students in advanced mathematics coursework. Remember that it's not our aim to force algebra onto every eighth grader right now. It is to strengthen mathematics skills, to build strong math identities, strong foundational skills in our students, and to use multiple measures to determine the readiness and

137their ultimate success. That leads me a little bit more um to some of our accelerated math coursement placement. Uh this will be the final portion of our math wig update which really centers around increased access to sixth grade advanced math. We are shifting away from the previous practice that was built on a nomination or passage of a single test. We're shifting towards leveraging the body of evidence as the driver for initial inclusion with more powerful subjective measures happening after the body of evidence has first been considered. We embarked on this action as part of our strategy after a dive into our data revealed that there are many more students whose body of evidence, meaning AASA, um our district math benchmarks, many of their um data profiles aligned with those of students that were already in

138advanced math and had that opportunity. Um and so as we dug deeper to understand why maybe students weren't uh enrolled and their data profiles that they could um what we found is through some of those non-omination processes or the single test we were missing kids. And so moving forward into this upcoming year um we are moving a little bit more towards some auto placement and auto invitation. So, beginning this quarter, we'll work with elementary and middle school teachers, leaders, and families to in uh implement an auto invite placement process. We've identified specific metrics, and we'll utilize those to generate lists of students meeting that placement criteria. We'll provide those autogenerated lists to schools so that teachers and families have the opportunity to help us see who we've may have missed and to have meaningful conversations

139about the systems of support available to ensure students successfully transition from fifth to sixth grade math. From there, we'll be spending spring conferences with fifth grade parents talking specifically about their child's math path, what to expect in accelerated math courses, and ways to prepare and strengthen their skills prior to starting the new year. I'm gonna shift. Is that Yep. Go ahead. Ask any questions you have. Yep. Go ahead. >> Um, well, I had the same question that, uh, governing board member Shy had. So, I don't know if you're about to ask. >> No. Something different. >> If we pass that point yet, I don't think you've addressed how we're tracking towards proficiency given the predictive capabilities of EXL. But my first question is if a sixth or seventh grade um student was struggling in math

140um by letter grade, they're getting Fs or D's. What expectation would you have for their math teacher in terms of reaching out to parents requesting, you know, a meeting? I'm just curious how this translates to the relationship. I empathize with how busy teachers are class sizes, but what expectations have you set >> with math teachers >> with students who are not um performing up to grade? >> Yep. I appreciate that question so much. And so a specific stated expectation for me to every teacher isn't something that I've put out there in that same way. But what I would generally expect after, especially after all the mid-year assessments, is any students who are showing risk uh for failing, for not making progress, um or for not promoting to the next grade, that those families are getting

141phone calls um and parent and teacher conferences first to discuss what's going on. Um but I also would expect and know that teachers are working in collaborative teacher teams to build out those systems of support. So, if you're in the elementary, you're likely readjusting your intervention groups, using your intervention time, and shifting around your staff so that your most atrisisk kids are paired with probably the most qualified teachers in the smallest groups. Same thing we would expect to be happening at middle school and high school. It looks a little bit different. Um, but we would expect to see the leveraging of uh advisory and win in the middle schools in semester 2. That that's really reorganized in a way that prioritizes our most struggling students. But it would be an expectation that if there are

142children that are failing significantly far behind um that their parents have the opportunity to have a conversation and for us to dig a little bit deeper with what's going on. >> I don't think we have a formal MTSS system. So would we would we know if that's happening? Do we >> would we know if you know there are 30 students >> at a middle school sixth grades who are getting D's and Fs and whether or not there's been any proactive >> Yes. And we do have a formalized MTSS system. So we have MTSSA and B. There's teacher instructional leaders at each campus who are charged with helping to support the school administration in implementing those systems. And so what you would see depending again on the grade level um there are uh regular either bi-weekly

143or monthly meetings. Those are set by agendas. They would be looking at groups of students problem solving prioritizing those interventions. Um we also then would dig a little bit deeper around what are the right supplemental materials. Is it more time? Is there after school? And so through that MTSSA is what we call them, MTSS academics, um we have flow maps and tiers of support that do sort of give teachers and buildings really that structure of how are we implementing those systems of support. Um we do use synergy and uh who knew it as our data systems where teachers are able on their dashboards to see at their class level um what's a grade dist distribution what's some of the um benchmark assessment distribution um and similarly with >> okay thank you and then I don't

144want to monopolize but you said we were going to get to >> slide 23 >> predictive so if we're not if we're not leaving math great >> uh well I uh in the later portion I did a little highle mid-year diagnostic data from ELA and math for elementary, middle, and high. And that's where you'll see those specific proficiencies listed out. I could jump there if you'd prefer. Now, um up to you guys. >> While we're still on, let's do that just to show. >> Sorry for those watching. Sometimes you can get a little seasick on the or I can that would be me. Um so I'm going to click right into elementary data. Um and so what you can see on this slide, this is a distribution right now of our mid-year diagnostic for mathematics

145in um you can see roughly around uh on the pie chart, that's grades 1 through five. We do not have our kindergarteners using mathematics. Um and so you would see first through fifth grade. Uh the break the overall is that large pie chart that represents is that 68% currently on or above grade level. that 21% below um that 7% far below and 4% of our students during that diagnostic window we were not able to pinpoint. Um as you see further down in that breakdown um what we start to see is first grade uh proficiency, second, third, fourth and fifth. And as we get to the more intermediate grades is where you can start to see that proficiency um slip. And so those areas where you see u maybe in fourth grade um and fifth grade

146what would be the yellows and reds those are giving us some indication of the work that we have uh in front of us before AASA. And so we have I think about six instructional weeks left to make a big difference. And so those would be the groups of students prioritized. If a teacher was looking at this it would be their class in the grid that they would see. they would be able to highlight, for instance, one of those yellow bars and see the names of all the children that score in that range. If a leader was looking at this dashboard, um they would able be able to see at their school level um all of the students from each range. I mean, really to an Excel, you could export and do a lot of groupings,

147um with at the district level, I could see all of the students similarly. >> So, looking at the fifth grade, I mean, it's a hair above 50% just looking at it visually. Um I don't know last year's um proficiency end of year ASA but I'm assuming it's a hair under what we were assuming it is or even at just over 50% it's still something we want to increase. Is there a targeted action plan? Is it up to the individual teachers looking knowing that we can look at these data today? What's the action plan to act on the fifth grade and fourth grade? they're lower we want than we want to be. >> Um so we have some pretty prescribed outline next steps and action plans. Um those kicked off the week before last. Uh again

148we met with every principal, assistant principal, teacher instructional leaders um to really orient them to their data, prioritize it and talk to them about what does this mean? What do we see? schools then that are identified as areas of concern whether it's individual schools or grade levels our teaching and learning department will deploy an additional layer of support. So for instance if you are a school at risk um and you are in elementary our Carrie Chapman who's our math coach may be coming to your school weekly to have conversations uh with teachers model lessons problem solve uh prioritize different standards that may be uh showing as areas needed for growth. And so that additional layer of district coaching um along with those school supports, we also then have our school leadership teams. So through our

149EXL package, each school leader um is able to have individualized data meetings um with our with our EXL team. And so those individual meetings, they're diving deeper into the data. They're adjusting their intervention systems, supporting students. Um and really our expectation is to increase intensity and target instruction for all of the students identified. some of those bubble students that are nearing proficient um and then our students that are far at risk for middle and high. We also um afford through some of our Indian gaming funds intervention teachers for mathematics specifically and so that's some of what you would expect to see whether it's small group small group instruction um again teachers communicating progress really that expectation that they would be having family conversations. No parent should know if uh no parent should not know. That's

150probably not the right way to say it, but how about this? Parents should know. Parents should know if their children are struggling. It shouldn't even be this time mid year that you get a phone call that says your child's struggling. Our parents should know. Our teachers know. Um and I do know many of those conversations are happening. Um also a couple of notes. uh using EXL. It's not our one one-stop shop of everything, but it does personalize um skill plans for our children based on their needs. Um and so I'll hop back into high school in just a little bit, but our high school students take uh ACT Horizon benchmarks. We then load the progress of those benchmarks and pro uh provide individual EXL ACT skill plans that help students practice really specifically areas that

151they've demonstrated um need supports in ACT knowing that that's something we really focus on in our high schools. Um and then we always uh work through additional layers of intervention, tutoring, and intensified support. different campuses do have different programming um available and organized in order to respond to their student needs in that way. >> So, one more question and I just really don't want to lose, you know, the fact that we have information on our students before it's too late and I want to make sure we're acting. You know, looking at this, I like that we have these actions and next steps. >> You know, we see district coaching, I see school leadership, I see teachers, there's multiple people. >> I know everybody's responsible, but who's accountable? Is there a single role that is most

152accountable to say, "Hey, teacher at this class in this school, you're on track to be below where we want you to be. I need to see the plan." I mean, is there an accountability to that level or is it truly everyone? I just want >> Well, I think uh collective responsibility and collective efficacy is definitely what we're leading with, but in terms of layers of accountability, um Dr. Sacos and Dr. Bono follow up with all the schools that are at risk with the leaders with the expectation. and they've had their data meetings. They're checking on who's met with Katie from EXL, who hasn't. That layer of questioning then would go down um at the school level. Which teachers are you thinking about worrying about? Are there any that we need to deploy supports for? We

153would expect to see our principles, and this is where Dr. Sacos and Dr. Bono I know have those conversations in their school visits. If you have classrooms that are struggling as a principal, we would want them in those classrooms more frequently, coaching teachers, modeling lessons, doing all of those um instructional leadership types of moves. Um and should they have any need for support with any of that, we also um as a team are deploying our supports and stand ready to offer um assistance however we may need. >> Thank you very much. >> You're very welcome. >> When we look diagnostically at where the gaps are, are you able to identify the cluster of gaps? For example, in the past, I have found place value at the third grade being a whole that somehow just didn't

154get mastered first and second grade and then it affected almost everything else by by third graders and we would have to go back and retach place value. That's an example. Or uh fractions and decimal confusion seem to go throughout the grade levels. I don't know if you're finding a diagnostic cluster of concerns. >> We certainly are. And so as I stand up here and report some of what our schools are doing around proficiency and growth, um I can speak on behalf of the teaching and learning and ed services. That's actually specifically what they'll look at. They'll look at standards strands specifically. Um also knowing that essential standards are being prioritized in the state of Arizona. So we are able to look down to that level of specific which will also then actually drive some of

155the curriculum development should the um new math curriculum be adopted. That also is where some of that comes into play both with future curriculum pacing and adjustments, but also in real time in the moment. So, for example, if um Dr. Jay and uh Miss Chapman were to identify in second grade um skip counting, that's that just came off the top of my head. Please don't judge. Um but if that was something that they really identified, we would deploy additional remediation lessons um and provide that to teachers. Um maybe model some videos. Uh I've seen Miss Chapman at staff meetings doing some of that coaching. And so as we see those um content strands, specific standards, especially those that are essential um for ASA, those are areas of additional problem solving and tackling for the future,

156but also for right now. Schools and teachers are able to see at the standards level information um as well. Well, and I'm trying to dig in more beyond the conceptual level in terms of the level of frustration that developmentally is really a sticking point for some eight-year-olds or some 12y olds and just curious, you know, always my my whole career been curious about what is it with these sticking points that we can't seem to master or get through or continue to trip us up. And it's it's a it's a lifelong pursuit, isn't it? >> It's a lifelong pursuit. And I think um you'll hear over the next few years some um engagement more engagement in building thinking classrooms using the language of a mathematics where kids are having that mathematics discourse. So I think that's

157one area we really will be prioritizing that helps sort of move from that I'm stuck to I can feel good talking to my friend about are they stuck and and working through that. Um but also you'll see I think a resurgence of procedural skill and fluency focus. Um, knowing that conceptual understanding is one of the legs on the three-legged stool, procedural skill and fluency is also incredibly important as well as abstract thinking. Um, but I think you would probably see a little bit more focus on procedural skill and fluency so that our kids are not having to really labor over some of the smaller um algorithmic uh approaches as they're tackling heavier concepts. >> And in English, what that means? >> Math facts. It means math facts. It means practicing. >> It means practicing. It

158really does mean um practicing math facts, being able to make and break in groups of fives, tens, 20s, hundreds, thousands, depending on your grade. It's really being able to uh think big, think small, and make and break numbers into different models. >> Thank you, Dr. Patensky. I >> I know we need to move on. >> None of this is my script, so I hope I'm doing okay. Sorry about that. >> I know we need to move on. What would help me as a follow-up item? I think what I'm looking for very simply is last year third graders were x% proficient where halfway through the year we predict third graders are y% on track to be y% and that's a difference of plus two points or minus two points. And to be clear, it wouldn't shock

159me if this year we didn't make I I want us to make improvement. I'm not setting low expectations, but it wouldn't shock me if we didn't. It wouldn't even shock me if we took a step backward given all of the change and practice, right? There's a lot going on. So, it's not to say, "Oh my gosh, you know, we're running at the same level. This is failing." It's just more, you know, we have this benefit of real- time information and being able to predict. And I don't quite get from the presentation the answer to that very simple question, X versus Y. Do you mind if I do a quick side step to my fancy notebook? Because I have those numbers. I uh I carry them in my notebook. >> Um >> last year's >> I

160would be happy to get it as a follow-up just knowing >> I'd be happy to send those as followup too. So yeah, I have all of last year's and this year's. I'd be happy to >> I know we have a huge agenda tonight. So I would like to bring a pause to this and thank you very very much, but I want to make sure we allow the final board questions so we can get moving on the rest of the agenda. Go ahead, Miss Carney. >> Thank you, President Lewis. I just have one uh question. I just had asked um for the board to receive the proficiency levels by school site and um I'd like to just make sure that we do receive that. >> Perfect. Yes, I know Dr. Bachna um received that request. Dr.

161Anna is working on it. Looks like it's going to take us a few hours to pull all of that together. Um but we'll send that entire package. >> Awesome. Thank you. >> All right. Thank you very much. I know that we could keep going, but we're going to pause at this juncture. >> Sounds good. >> Thank you so very much. That brings us to information uh item C first. Is there a question? Okay. Uh C uh first read for K1 and upper level math adoption. Dr. J. Is that okay? We just go to Dr. J. >> Yes. Good evening. Uh President Lewis, Vice President Chy, governing board members, Dr. Mendel, Glattis, and guests. We are very excited tonight. The K11 and upper level math curriculum adoption committees are pleased to present our recommendations for new

162math instructional materials. Over the past year, committee members have engaged in extensive collaboration, research, and classroombased evaluation. These recommendations present nearly a year of collaboration, research, again, classroom implementation, thoughtful discussion. We are excited to share with you the outcome of this work and the instructional opportunities these materials will bring to our students. Our committee's work was guided by our SUSD strategic plan. The programs we are bringing forward today reflect these commitments. They are future ready, promote critical and creative thinking, emphasize problem based learning, and include strong supports for different differentiation so all students can grow. These priorities remained at the center of our work from the very beginning of the adoption process. Our math adoption process was guided by Carrie Chapman, our K5 math academic coach, Carly Frereded, our 612 math academic coach, Dee Johnson,

163our instructional material specialist, and Tiffany Sorenson, our admin support coordinator. I would also like to take a moment to acknowledge the work of Dr. Kim Dogs Karen, former director of teaching and learning, and Donna Dempsey, former K5 elementary math coach, for their leadership and groundwork with this committee during the 24-25 school year. Their early designs of structures, timelines, and collaboration routines set the foundation that allowed this year's process to run smoothly and keep a strong focus on instructional qualities for students. Our K11 committee was truly a representative group bringing together teachers, parents, community members, and site and district level staff from across all five learning communities. We're grateful to the many committee members who dedicated long evenings, full day meetings, countless hours reviewing materials, trying them in classrooms, and engaging in thoughtful discussion. The upper

164level math committee included advanced math teachers, parents, community members, and district staff. Their expertise ensured our recommendations reflected both strong pedigogy and alignment to college and career ready pathways. We would like to invite any members of the committee still with us this evening to please stand and be recognized for their hard work. Across both communities, members I'm sorry, across both committees, members spoke highly of the process. In the quotes presented here, you'll see consistent themes and stakeholders reflections. The process was thorough, teacher voice was valued, diverse perspectives were heard, and the structure, rubric, vendor presentations, and real classroom trials supported thoughtful decisions. Even when philosophies differed, the groups collaborated to reach consensus, and members expressed confidence in their final recommendations. I would like to celebrate what an incredible accomplishment it was for these committees to

165explore and decide on math curriculum for SUSD. Our K11 group has been working for 11 months through this process, dedicating evenings, full days to the exploration of highquality instructional materials and diving deep into best math practices. Because kids, our focus was on finding relevant, rigorous, and engaging content that not only aligns to our state math standards, but raises the bar for math instruction districtwide by focusing on critical thinking activities and real world connection. Our upper level team consisted of passionate highle math class teachers, math enthusiast parents who lent their professional field experience to teach to rich conversation and collaboration with math instruction beyond algebra 2. All in all, this has been a tremendously productive experience. This was the first time our district employed a try and apply model as part of the curriculum adoption process.

166Rather than reviewing materials only on paper or through vendor presentations, we created structured opportunities for all educators districtwide to experience the materials in real classroom context. All members of the curriculum review committee participated in try and apply and engaged directly with the materials prior to making a recommendation. Try and apply ran during quarter 2 and included grades K through 11. Two or three programs were available to try at each level. The programs selected to move forward in the try and apply process were based on committee recommendations as a result of rubric results. The purpose of try and apply was to ensure that our recommendation was grounded in authentic classroom experience. Participate participation in try and apply was intentionally designed to be flexible and respectful of teacher professional judgment and needs. All teachers and schools were

167given access to the print materials and given full online access via Clever. Just as a side comment real quickly, materials were delivered to all of our schools. It was such a huge lift from our warehouse, our instructional specialist, all of the coordination of the entire teaching and learning and instructional team. I could not be more proud of their work. Committee members participated in try and apply. The expectation was to use pro each program equally. This allowed their committee members to be consistent and thoughtful with their review of each curriculum. Some teachers chose to fully replace their current curriculum for a period of time while others engaged more selectively reviewing lessons, instructional tasks, or assessments. This design was intentional. Our goal was to lower barriers barriers to encourage participation and invite authentic exploration. Teachers were not

168required to participate. It was fully optional. The level of participation varied by site. Because of this approach, try and apply prioritized access and experience teacher feedback, reflections, and observations. try and apply played a central role role in informing the committee's recommendation. All committee members across elementary, middle, and high school participated directly. Uh we also collected public review feedback from teachers who chose to participate. That of course was all included in our decision for the recommendations that we have for you this evening. The K1 math committee spent several meetings researching highquality instructional material criteria and narrow down to the rubric categories that you see listed here above. curriculum design, teacher resources, student resources, technology assessment, rigor, relevance, family, community resources, and professional development and support. These categories and criteria were then used to craft a rubric

169for each grade band. As always during the adoption process, we use a consensus decision-making in order to get consensus on the recommendations that we are moving forward. Now that we have provided a foundation of process, I would like to turn it over to Carrie Chapman, our K5 academic coach, to walk you through our elementary recommendation. Hi, I'm Carrie. I'm the elementary math coach. Um, so the elementary committee recommends SAVS and Vision. The elementary committee recommends Savis Envision Plus 2027 because it consistently supported deep conceptual understanding through intentional lesson design. Lessons are structured to help students make sense of math, not just completing procedures, and committee members saw that clearly during try and apply. Teachers also appreciate that Envision Plus intentionally embeds instructional practices our district has already been working to implement, such as threeact tasks

170and vertical thinking tasks. Seeing these approaches built directly into daily lessons made the curriculum feel aligned to the work we've already started rather than adding something extra. The program also support stood out on its ongoing varied practice. It has daily differentiation adaptive practice spiral review and meaningful extension options given that give teachers a wide range of access points for all learners. Those needing support, those working below grade level, multilingual learners, students with disabilities and our highest achieving students. Assessment was another key factor. Envision Plus includes multiple checkpoints embedded throughout instruction, giving teachers frequent insight into student learning and allowing them to adjust instruction in real time rather than waiting to uh for the end of unit tests. The committee also felt that the program aligned strongly with our district's algebra 1 wig through its coherence,

171rigor, and emphasis on reasoning. Students regularly engage in realworld context, problem situations, and tasks that elevate student voice and offer meaningful choice, helping them to see themselves as active participants in their learning. In addition, Envision Plus provides robust home to school support. Families can access resources without login in more than 100 languages and through convenient QR codes. This makes it easy for caregivers to understand what students are learning and how to help from home. Finally, teachers valued that the program is sustainable through both classroom use and vendor presentation. They saw a curriculum that incorporates modern best practices, hands-on learning, purposeful play, and effective digital tools while still being manageable to imp uh implement over time. Um, with that overview of our elementary recommendation, I'd like to transition to our secondary coach, Carly. Okay. Um, in

172addition to everything that Carrie just mentioned for elementary, uh, we have some more feedback from our middle school teachers. Our middle school teachers highly approved of the digital platform provided by Savis as well as the extra support for differentiated instruction. They're eager to try the consumable workbooks that follow the curriculum and feel that middle school students will benefit both from physical paper materials and digital resources. The middle school curriculum offered rigor and relevance in ample practice opportunities as well as tasks to increase student engagement and critical thinking. The high school teachers went in a different direction and opted to recommend Sengage algebra 1, geometry, and algebra 2 for adoption. They loved the real world examples and tasks provided by National Geographic experts to tie actual careers and field examples to math in action. They had

173a strong digital platform that will allow teachers to create, edit, and share assessments and assignments between each other, which supports their goal of strengthening collaboration between teachers and schools. They were also highly interested in the lockdown browser feature for assessments, ensuring that we can continue to give our common assessments in a secure manner. The content is rigorous and engaging and offers ample resources for teachers and students alike. So we also wanted to share or our committee members wanted to share their reasoning behind their selection for elementary meal high school curriculum. So uh they consistently highlighted that the program's strong instructional guidance it its ability to raise rigor while supporting diverse learners and the clarity they saw during the vendor presentations. Teachers noted that Envision Plus offers meaningful support for classroom instruction, student engagement through real

174world tasks, and accessible resources for families, including the multilingual supports. Overall, the committee, sorry. Overall, the committee felt that SAVS provided the most comprehensive tools to help teachers deliver highquality math instruction. Algebra, geometry, and algebra 2 teachers appreciated the real world connections made available in Sgage and overwhelmingly appreciated having the opportunity to review several high-quality instructional materials for consideration. We also did an upper level math adoption. The upper level math committee opted to recommend some new curricular resources for some courses, but maintain our current selection for others. The criteria for keeping or updating the curriculum felt ultimately on what would prepare students best for a college-bound and future focused math journey. Alignment to college board requirements and ACT and SAT preparedness were key factors as were updates to technological resources and student resources. This slide

175just highlights some of the core reasons behind the committee's again final recommendations. The materials we are bringing forward all support strong alignment to the Arizona math standards, AP and dual enrollment expectations and the standards for mathematical practice. They also provide teachers with a wide range of strategies to engage students, differentiate instruction, and promote inquiry based learning, helping students make sense of mathematics through exploration and meaningful problem solving across all grade levels. These programs include robust robust print and digital resources, textbooks, interactive simulations, support videos, assessments, and more. Importantly, they come with professional learning options that provide virtual, live, and asynchronous training so teachers can receive the support they need throughout the implementation process. Over the next several slides, you'll see the projected costs associated with these adoptions. This slide outlines the estimated pricing for our

176upper upper level math courses, including AP Calculus, trigonometry, pre-calculus, and algebra 3 with trigonometry. The costs shown include items such as printed textbooks, teacher editions, digital platform access for seven years, test banks, workbooks, and professional development. These figures represent the base materials needed for implementation, and the total cost for these items, excluding shipping and taxes, is included in the not to exceed amount at the end. Slide 20 continues the cost breakdown for our financial math, algebra 2 honors, and the elementary material. This includes consumable student workbooks, printed teacher resources, digital licenses, and professional development. Again, these cost costs reflect the core materials required for successful implementation over the seven-year adoption period. The tools here contribute to the overall cost again that will be summarized. This is the cost breakdown for middle school and vision plus

177as well as sendage materials for algebra 1, geometry, and algebra 2. These costs include printed student editions, workbooks, teacher editions, digital access, and professional learning. Finally, this slide outlines potential future costs for additional student practice workbooks for both elementary and middle school. The amounts shown represent six years of additional consumables based on current enrollment along with shipping and taxes. If needed, these purchases would not exceed just over 1.13 million. We are intentionally recommending a wait and assess approach to avoid unnecessary spending and ensure responsible use of district resources. Tonight's adoption recommendation is the first step and implementation is where the real work begins. Rolling out a new math curriculum for K12 requires thoughtful planning, strong teacher training and ongoing support throughout the year. This summer we will receive materials actually hopefully during the spring. We

178will begin initial training in the spring for current classroom, gifted, and special education teachers with additional learning during pre-week and optional opportunities in the summer. Throughout the year, we will provide support as needed to use district PD days to help teachers deepen their understanding for the curriculum. We will also monitor implementation and student learning through a variety of data sources, including formative assessments, classroom observations, and teacher feedback. Our goal is to respond to evidence throughout the year so that we can ensure a strong, successful first year and beyond of implementation. Uh before we finish this evening, I would like to highlight our plans for public review. Ensuring transparency and community access is an essential part of the adoption process. All materials are currently available for in-person public review at the Mojave District Annex. Materials can

179be reviewed through Tuesday, March 10th from 9:00 a.m. to 3 on SUSD school days. Extended hours or access on non-school days can be arranged with an advanced notice by contacting the teaching and learning department. To broaden access, we are also adding digital versions of the materials to the district websites so families and community members can review them from home. In addition, we will send district-wide communication to all parents through parent square. And we will be working with the Scottsdale parent council to help ensure families across our community are aware of the review window and have opportunities to participate. Our goal is to make this process as open and accessible as possible so every stakeholder has this chance to see and provide feedback on the materials under consideration. With that, I invite you to ask any

180questions or we will hear any comments. >> Mr. Shy, >> um, thank you very much for the presentation. Really good to see the the depth of detail on this. Um, two things. One, with the rubrics, I went to the website. Do we publish and share the results of the rubrics? It'd be nice to see what the competition looked like and how close the choices were. Yeah, the data is listed in our individual presentations for each of the math adoption meetings. The ones that we included in the slide, they can be found on the website. >> Okay. Um, just as a suggestion for all curriculum, it'd be nice to see for us, you know, was this a unanimous I mean, the rubric was great. I was looking through clicking through what was on here to see

181all the different sections. Um, it'd be nice to see, you know, I heard that resources were a big win. So, just for context, I think that's a good summary at least for me to see that. So, thank you. >> Happy to. Um, second thing I noticed the lockdown browser on the high school side. Do have we used lockdown browser before >> we do have uh like school city we use for our assessment platform but it doesn't currently have well it does have a lockdown browser but it's wonky I guess you could say. Um we also have classroom relay. There's a few different things that are available. They seem to be a little bit glitchy. Our teachers have explicitly asked for something embedded within a platform that is flawless and that was kind of a selling

182point for Sengage was that they had a very secure lockdown browser. >> Yeah, we use it at ASU when I know it could cause some issues and you don't want kids to be sort of cheated out of their test time for that. Um I can put you in contact with our people at ASU who support it for the last eight years. So um if you want because I know we don't want that to be an issue, but I'm glad it was called out as a positive. So thank you. >> Thanks, >> Dr. Patensky. Uh, two quick questions. One, can you connect the dots between this and what we just talked about with? So, to what extent was part of the decision-making interoperability or alignment between at one level of MTSS and then the core curriculum

183at a different level of MTSS? And then second, um, do any of these have agentic tutoring capabilities? >> Yes. So, I'll start with the LL question. And EXL is our supplemental resource. So it's really designed for tier 2 and tier three. Um as well as that advisory time, the win time, individualized instruction. Um will have these curriculums embedded, I believe, in skill plans um that we do now. So our current curriculums are also um embedded into EXL. So there skill plans that associate with. So it helps with the pacing and the guides so that they will support those too. Um, regarding your next question, if you could just remind me. >> Agentic tutoring. AI tutoring. >> Oh, AI tutoring. Yes. So, the Sengage has specific uh tutoring that it it's one of the things that

184the high school teachers loved most about the Sengage was the tutoring um in the Envision Plus. You want to talk about that? >> Um the just tutoring. Yeah. >> So, um Envision Plus comes with a full intervention toolkit um already included. it was the only one that we looked at in all 13 programs. Um, so that is included everywhere. So we'll the teachers like LRC teachers, so special ed teachers, intervention teachers, and classroom teachers will have a full intervention tool that box that's totally part of the program. >> And then AI >> there. Oh, there is an AI portion of Envision. I don't remember a lot about it, but I do know it was part of like the selling point that sold the teachers during the um vendor day. And we can follow up. >>

185Thank you. And thank you for all the hard work that went into this. >> Uh could you go back to the slide that showed the financial literacy uh intention? 50, you know, 50 printed textbooks for checkout if desired. Um, right now I'd have to check on what the enrollment is and currently financial math. Majority of the high school teachers that participated in both sides of the committee, the K11 and the 12 really leaned in on the um digital platforms as far as the curriculum more so than the printed textbooks. We're finding that teachers at the high school level are not using the printed textbooks. Um, so we currently have just 50 knowing that the platform is available online. >> Okay. So I'm I'm um concerned that it's only at high school and I really had

186hoped to see financial literacy K12. >> Is that something that you can improve before the second read? >> Um, there is not a financial literacy component. Um, and I see Leah wanting to jump in right now. >> I'm happy to jump in just really quickly. Um what you'll see in our middle school planning guide is the fi uh the financial literacy course in middle school being um offered next year for your consideration. That actually sits in the social studies realm. And so some of where you can see we'll tackle financial literacy even more is the pairing of what that means um through social studies and also how that marries with mathematics. >> And I understand that approach and it feels like an elective. It's an elective. Yes. in it's listed as an elective course. Yes.

187Yeah. >> There are there are financial literacy standards throughout our K12 curriculum. We've identified those through mostly of our our uh social studies standards. >> It's not robust enough for me. >> Thank you. >> From a mathematics perspective. >> Any other comments on a first read? All right. Thank you very much for your time. Thank you for having so many parents and the incredible uh dense amount of work that's gone on. I would like to see a more robust K12 approach with the financial math piece that's not if desired or an elective in social studies. So I'd like to see it aligned with mathematics. >> Thank you. >> All right. We are going to move on now to item. Sorry, Miss Warner. I didn't give you a pause. >> Thank you. I'm good. >> Okay.

188Thank you. Uh we'll move on now to 8D, Echo Canyon Pre8 Repurposing, Community Education and Early Learning. Hello. Good evening. Is everyone awake still and excited to be here? Shall we do our stretch? >> Well, I was going to say I said to Shannon Kron back there, do you think they'd mind if I like had everybody just do a little stretch and a little like nerve reset? Yeah, we've been here for >> I was gonna ask Nick to do a power clap, but I won't. >> But I be here for a power clap, but we'll keep we'll keep it in our back pocket for if we go past one. How about that? >> So, thank you. Thank you, governing board president Dr. Lewis, Vice President, Mr. Shy, governing board members and Dr. Mensel and Miss

189Wagner. Again, I'm Christine Bono, assistant superintendent for elementary, and I'm here tonight to review our proposal to continue and expand our early learning programs at Echo Canyon while also relocating the community education department to the Echo Canyon campus from where it currently is at Oak. I want to direct your attention to the map that you should have of Echo Canyon. I think Glattus might have distributed those to you. And it might help if you're looking at the map this way, just turn it counterclockwise. That might help orient you for this. So you'll see here our community education, our logo. Community education is comprised of our kids club, our early learning, our enrichment. It's a very robust department that's housed at Oak. But our focus also tonight along with moving community ed is also our early

190learning. Echo Canyon's currently the jaguars. So this baby the jaguar is so cute. I thought it was cute. So this proposal would relocate the community ed department from Oak to Echo would continue and expand our early learning programs. Besides the preschool and the prek class we currently have at Echo Canyon, the Tavon prek class, there's one, is the only early learning option for the Arcadia learning Community uh community ed is also self-sufficient. We do not rely on maintenance and operations. All of our programs are self-sufficient through the uh revenue that we generate. Our proposal for Echo is not a full utilization of the campus, but in this proposal, our community education department would utilize the front office. So, if you're holding the map in a portrait, that 600 building that's in your lower right hand

191corner, that's currently the front office of Echo Canyon. >> Dr. B, sorry to interrupt. Um, >> just some context for me. I know following three presentations are other proposals. Are these exclusive proposals? And >> so I was going to talk about that after she presents our proposal. >> Okay. So this is one of >> this is this is what we're bringing forward as um a first step and then we're going to seek some board input in terms of potential cohabitation or alternative uses that would not include this. And those three proposals can be um unpacked in in different ways, but we need to know what the governing board's interest is. So if we step back for a minute, we need to identify. So from a administrative perspective for both repurposing uh proposals tonight, uh we've

192said the the floor of our goal is to ensure that we are not using M dollars to maintain and support operation on those two campuses, right? That we're not subsidizing it with M. So community education at Echko allows us to maintain that asset, provide needed services in the community. um it's not necessarily designed to maximize revenue for that space. So if the board wants us to think about how do you maximize revenue for the Echo Canyon property, that's a different conversation. So what we've started with is the floor. We've had a proposal for an arts magnet. That's not a part of the three that are included here, but it is part of our thinking that if next year we operate and maintain that facility using community ed there, it doesn't preclude an arts magnet down

193the road if in fact the review from the subcommittee of spark, the committee looking at specialty programs determines that an arts magnet is both viable and that's the right location. So that allows us to maintain the the use of space that way. If we were to enter into an lease a lease agreement with one of the other three proposals that were submitted, those are all envisioned to be longerterm lease agreements that likely would preclude the arts magnet idea. So if if the governing board has strong opinions about the merits of one of the other three proposals and and wants us to pursue a long-term lease agreement right now, then that would cause us to shift our thinking. We wanted to have the information discussion to be able to say this is what we believe allows

194us to hit that minimum level of not taking more from M while allowing us to fully vet what the long-term plan is for Echo Canyon and understanding is the board hoping to maximize the the dollar value. Is the board looking to do as best as we can with certain parameters? Do you want to have competitor schools there or not? Is there a way to frame an alternative program like Polaris and say that there's a compatibility program potentially? So, we just don't know. We haven't asked the board. So, that's the purpose of the information discussion tonight. >> And when we look at the uh sports complex, Jones Gordon, Polaris, those may or may not be compatible, overlapping, concurrent with community ed or are they all in place of so no some could. So, for example, in

195talking with Jones Gordon, they'd love to have the preschool program stay. Not sure that community would be able to to fit as well given their model. With Polaris, the the idea is that you could probably do both because of how you could divide the campus. So, you'd have them on the back half of the campus, community ed, and early childhood on the front h half of the campus. I believe on the athletics proposal, the desire would ultimately to have control of the full space, but I don't know that there's an unwillingness to talk about that. We haven't gone into that level of conversation with any of the other uh proposals because we don't know the parameters from the board yet. >> That's great context. Thank you. Sorry for >> not. Thank you. I appreciate the

196context. So again, this proposal is not a full utilization. Community ed would inhabit that 600 building. That would be all the offices, the nine offices for community ed, the health assistant, our front office folks in the very front. Our early learning program would remain where it is now in the 100 building which is just to the left. Currently at Echko we have a preschool class which is for kids who are three turning four and a prek class for kids who are four turning five. In this case we would also like to expand uh and include a toddler class. We do not have an SUSD toddler class on that side of town. And when I talk about our enrollment numbers you'll see the the need for it and the interest in it. This would also allow

197us to have an indoor play space and a room for dining. One of the classrooms would be used for meals. We also would like to utilize the library, the cafeteria, and gym for our kids club summer camp, our fall break, and possibly winter and spring break camp. Those are also ideas to um additionally generate revenue. Our proposal also allows uh our the proposal allows us to maintain and continue the wonderful gardens. If you I think many of you have been on the Echo Canyon campus, those gardens are awardw worthy. Um the the the time and love that have gone on to those gardens with early learning there and our team there, we would be able to maintain them and still make them accessible. um you know going thinking big term big picture if other schools

198want to bring field trips to see the gardens and to do different um programs there I think that would also be an opportunity. So as you know you've heard me say some of the some of you on the board have heard me celebrate our awardwinning early learning programs at Echo Canyon. Right now our preschool and our prek are fivestar rated through quality first outstanding program. This proposes allows us to keep those programs and expand to a toddler. So, back when early learning opened up enrollment last month, we wanted to elicit interest to say, let's open up the door for registration. Parents knew it was contingent on board approval next month on how we move forward, but we wanted to see, let's see what we get. We knew we have the current preschool families who were

199going to roll up, but let's see what else we get. So right now we have six families that are interested in toddlers, eight students for preschool and 15 for prek. And there down below you'll see historically in our preschool which is the PS and prek how many numbers we've had. Our ratio is typically 1 to 12. We would not put that the state says 1 13 but we would not put more than 24 um students in our preschool and prek classes. The toddler ratio is 1 to 16. And financially, financially it in this model right now, we probably because especially with toddlers, it's really expensive to to operate. We would probably community ed would take a little hit. It still would not impact the M budget, but we feel strongly that if we were able

200to maintain these programs and the interest grew, if this is the interest and the plan's not even finalized yet, we feel strongly that if we can get the ball rolling and maintain our amazing preschool prek, bring on toddlers, I really think there's no way to go but up. I mean people in the neighborhood will see many families have reached out to us whose fa whose families go their neighborhoods kids go to comp competitors of private school in the Arcadia neighborhood and they're the ones primarily who have signed up especially for toddlers saying we either can't find this kind of program but you're high quality and your tuition is far less expensive than what they might pay at a private competitor. Can we do a cost? >> Can we do a costbenefit analysis at at what

201enrollment do we need to make it costneutral? Yes. >> So it's not impacting the district or it's a revenue generator. >> Correct. So yes, uh, President Lewis, I can get that. We have the cost analysis of two things of what neighborhood uh, area programs charge, but also it also depends on our staff. So we might have a a program across our town in our district where the the staff is fairly new to us. So we pay them a little less because of how many years they've been in our district. If they're very veteran, it could be more expensive, but we can get that. Yep. And then also we also take into account not only our kids club, so our every single day kids club programs that that money goes into the big pot and our

202enrichment program. Our enrichment program makes a lot of money and we offer high quality afterchool classes. All of that money also goes into the greatest the greater account as well. Does that make sense? >> Well, and I'm just seeing this property as a potential revenue generator. >> Absolutely. >> And I appreciate the service and and beauty of intention uh given the scope of what public schools are funded >> to do, but we want to see this as a community revenue generator. So, as I indicated, our programs are more affordable than what some neighbors might get at the private uh schools around the Arcadia neighborhood. We also know that if we can when we enroll them in our programs, the majority, the vast majority um stay in for kindergarten. They stay in SUSD. So, we feel

203it's imperative to be able to offer additional early learning, especially in the Arcadia complex. Tavon would be it. If if there were no early learning programs at Echko, the one prek class at Tavon would would be it of 24 kids. Just to clarify, you don't need to move um the community ed in order to offer early learning at Echo, right? Those two could also be disconnected. >> Governing board member Dr. Dr. Pinsky, I we would have to look at who would be um who would be an administrator or another director type on campus. If we had just kids and teachers, we would probably need to discuss what that might look like in in terms of additional support. Um right now, it's the principal and administrative staff. Uh if we had no one there, I don't

204know what that might look like, but definitely could explore that possibility. >> Thank you. On that note, our discussion coming up with the budget, we have a close oak line item for 145k. Am I hearing that if we don't do this option and move community to echo, then we can't do the close oak line item. Is that correct? >> That would be if we don't have another home for not only community ed, but also nutrition services. That's the part of closing oak, having other homes for them. uh that that would be savings we would not realize this coming year >> which is 145k line item. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Can I speak to that? What are other options of where community ed could move to because we do have space elsewhere? >> What

205other space? >> Well, I don't know. There's is there open space in the at the warehouse? >> No, there's not. The warehouse is full. >> What about Choya? >> Uh so Choya is not really as Mr. pointed out at a last meeting, it's not really a place where we can move people into without significant investment. So the the uh the it's musical chairs but uh if we move um in in phase one you don't have alternatives in phase two when you reduce our footprint by two more then you have other places to be able to move community ed potentially but you you um I mean you could if you wanted you could find a way to put community up at Copper Ridge with some of the excess capacity they have there. It would not be

206logical in in terms of where we serve people, but you could find a home for them potentially on that campus, but we don't have a lot of other places besides that without moving all of these others. >> Perfect. So again, this just kind of uh summarizes that having the early learning continues to offer that high quality especially for the preschool, pre-K, and the toddlers. and we would move e uh k the oak folks would move to echko and that uh all the camps we were able to offer would additionally generate that revenue. Uh President Lewis, we'll make sure we get that uh costbenefit analysis for you. >> Might even factor in in kind for administrative oversight within that costbenefit analysis. >> Any additional questions you might have before you see me again in a little

207bit? >> Miss Carney, do you have a question? Go ahead. Um, I'd just like to say that yes, on December 2nd, I did ask for the costbenefit analysis um, for this and I think it'd be good to see them for the other options that were presented to us tonight as well. And then I had a question on the facility land use uh, the rubric. Have has that been done on all the options presented tonight? >> I can speak to Oh, go ahead. >> I was going to say Mr. Railers started part of that process. Um, two of the three have been run through the rubric so far. >> Okay. So, the board will receive all the the rubrics on every option. Yes. >> And we have as well. Um, our presentation was kind of with

208those categories, but we will make sure you have a more robust report as it's aligned to the rubric. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Thank you so much. >> Of course. My pleasure. >> Before we leave that, I I we still need we need to hear from you. We we don't know. Um so for example with both Jones uh Gordon and Polaris those are um education service providers and and if the board wants us to consider potential lease agreements with educational service providers that's important for us to know. If the board says no we don't want to bring in potential competition that's important for us to know. If you want us to maximize how much revenue we can get for use of the space that's another factor to consider. We're we're operating in a guessing game

209without some more specific information from the board in terms of parameters. >> Mr. Shy, >> I mean, you know, given my homework of going through this, right, there's zero financial information on all of these options. And so that's no place to make a decision. I mean, I could express opinions. Um, you know, actually, I think it would be better for me to have this discussion after hearing other options. I took away what I took away from reading through their slides on here, but I'd probably get a little more depth by hearing them, which would allow me to say I think this is a good idea or I wouldn't go with this idea. So, I would prefer to hear that and then have a discussion afterwards, but still knowing it's going to be very incomplete with

210no financials. >> So, so I appreciate that. The uh and we can work with them on that. Part of what uh Shannon has been doing is working to get the the market rate that we would need from a lease perspective. And then we can also talk about compatible uses and and whether or not a shared use of the space versus an exclusive lease and the length of those kinds of things are all very important as well. >> Yeah, I think I sort of went where I think Mr. Shy went. I I tried to figure out like which could go together and which are kind of mutually exclusive. So, I personally would not want to be over I understand why you want guidance and so I can certainly say um you know I am open to

211the schools that are listed here. Um and so I wouldn't want to you know I I would understand why you want the guidance to say before we go down that road do all of this work if that's not even a possibility let me know. So I'm open to that. Um, I I put a particular premium on the neighborhood and understanding what the neighborhood wants out of that facility um so that it remains a positive amenity to the neighborhood. Um, so we're not suggesting this, but turning it into the bus depot, you know, would presumably be low amenity, you know, continuing to be a place of youth sports and education, high amenity. Um, you know, but beyond that, because there's so many different ways that these could mix and match, I'd rather not be prescriptive so

212that you have the greatest amount of flexibility to maximize uh, you know, to me after amenity is is is revenue. >> Yeah. >> Do you want a philosophical statement on competitors? >> Well, I think I think that would be helpful. I think we've heard one. I'd like to hear more. >> Go ahead, Mr. Turkey. >> I'll just say that I looking at what I did my homework on with them, I wouldn't consider them direct competitors to us. So, I don't if this was a I don't want to pick a name of a direct competitor charter or something, but I would feel much different. These I don't feel it's a head-to-head competitor. So, that's not as much a factor for me. >> Go ahead, Miss Cardi. >> 100%. If we say because kids, then we need

213to focus on what's best for kids. And if that's one of these options, then absolutely I say we look into that. Uh I do have a question on Jones Gordon. I know like you said we don't have any financials yet, but are they looking to move from their current location? So this would be a new location, not a second location. >> That's my understanding. Yes. >> Okay. >> And and I think part of what we have to um flesh out with some of these proposals are some of the unanswered questions in terms of exclusive use. So, for example, there's a high level of community interest in still being able to utilize the fields on that space. And we need to determine if the go Jones Gordon proposal is one that would be compatible with doing

214both or if it's truly exclusive use. So, I I think knowing that the board, at least from what I've heard so far, is not opposed to entertaining that. We can ask different questions. Now, I just didn't want to spend a whole lot of time going down that road and then finding that it was a non-starter. That's why this was important for me. >> Excellent. I've got a last question on uh Polaris. I know I had talked with you because I know they are leasing in Mesa and we talked about them being possible uh leasing part of Puma. Is that still an option? >> So So they toured both locations and they're here. They toured with Dennis. Uh I think Ekko was the preferred location and and there's some questions about the potential for collocation with

215Level D at Puma that might be um problematic and Leah can talk about that when we get to Puma. >> Okay. Thank you. board satisfied at this point, Miss Warner, any questions or comments? >> Thank you. >> All right. All right. Thank you so much. >> All right. I'm sorry. I sorry. I just do on the DEC decision-making rubric, there is the portion for community input. So, I think it's really important like you had mentioned that we get input from the community around the school as well. >> Thanks. I know that was vague help. >> So, some uh parameters are better than no parameters. So, thank you. >> Did you get a little bit of what you >> No, no. I I actually have a pretty clear sense of what conversations we need to have

216next. Um and we'll probably get a little bit more clarity as we think about puma and and also then thinking about phase two. So, I think all of this is really helpful. It's new new area for all of us to talk about how we think about repurposing district assets in a way that benefits the district, addresses um ongoing revenue concerns, but also doesn't put us in a position uh that that results in losing an asset that could be um more valuable to us over time. >> Are we going to be getting presentations from them or they >> So we we can I didn't want to have presentations tonight without knowing what the parameters were. they're here and if if we want to ask questions I know that they would be willing to answer them except

217for they'd be able to talk about what's in their proposal not about the other questions that we would want to pursue in terms of potential collocation and some of those things >> if you have good direction for next step >> yes needed >> everybody good thank you ally we are ready for information update on Puma elementary school repurposing to a level D special education program Leah Mitchell is that okay We go straight to >> Yeah. >> Good evening. Thank you again for some more time. Um myself and Dr. Brook Williams will be um spending a little bit of time talking about a level D special education proposal for Puma Elementary. Um I'll start just by um providing some highlevel outcomes um about what this proposal is. and I printed mine on too small of words

218and this is the stage of life I'm in. So I am going to wait for them to come up. There we go. Um so the outcomes that we are going to tackle today uh or this evening together is we want to provide an overview of level what a level D program really is. What are those definitions? We want to share some insight to the current programming costs and how we're serving students. We want to discuss the benefits for students, families, and the community. um and will detail some additional efficiencies and cost savings proposed within the relocation of multiple departments. Um also important to note this deck is sort of separated with a slide header. Those slide headers are in reference to the facilities use rubric. So you'll see first we're going to tackle education programming.

219We'll talk uh talk about shared use, cost analysis, condition of the facilities, and we'll end with community input. Um but I am going to turn it over to our resident special education expert, Dr. Brooke Williams and she's going to share um a little bit more about what is level D education programming um and how can we provide um even more excellent services to our current students. Good evening. So what is level D programming? I kind of wanted to go into that just a little bit before we get into the proposal just so everyone has a common understanding. So a level D school in Arizona is a specialized program setting for students whose primary disability um cannot be met at a comprehensive campus. So these are often students with cognitive, behavioral, medical, developmental disabilities that require

220smaller class size settings. Um, typically they feature lower class ratios, um, higher supports for students through BCBAS, um, other behavioral needs, functional behavior analysis, those types of things. Placement decisions into level D schools, they are not choice schools. They are not parentally placed private schools. They are school-based uh, settings where we have students who needs again cannot be met at a comprehensive campus. These decisions are made by an IEP team only and not by a request. >> Yep, I got it. Um, so when we're talking about level D, I just wanted to talk about the other levels of service that we offer in SUSD just for a common understanding. So level A or a code A is students who are in a general education classroom for 80% or more of the day. Uh when we

221use that level B code, it's students that are in a regular classroom 79% less than 79% of the day but more than 40%. Level C is for students that spend the majority of their time um more than more than 80% of their time or sorry not less than 40% of their time in a specialized program. And then those level D students are served in a different campus, usually off of a comprehensive campus or separated in some way from other students in a general population campus. So these are just our current realities around level D programming. We have 38 SUSD students being served in level D program services across the um valley. Really different programs are in different locations. Uh we spend about just uh we spend over $2.7 million. Um that's the cost just for

222this year's tuition costs for students that are in level D programming. About $1.5 million comes from Mies and 1.3 comes from our IDEIDA grant funds. So these are just some of the benefits of reopening Puma as a level D program. So it allows us to maximize our our facility utilization. And so using a campus that we have made the decision to repurpose um and allowing students that actually reside in SUSD, our SUSD students to come back to our campus. Um cost efficiency and sustainability. It would redirect funds that we pay out into tuition back to SUSD employees and SUSD schools. Um an improved access and quality for students. Right now these students are accessing their education outside of SUSD. We have very little control over what that education looks like. While we're part of those

223IEP teams, we are not the staff at those schools and thusly can't optimize opportunities for students ourselves. Um, and it has an enhanced capacity for our district-wide services. So, there's an opportunity to look at relocating special education staff and uh special education materials to Puma where we'd be able to better utilize those resources. Um this is a proposed timeline of events. So we are here kind of in phase one proposing this to you guys um and what a level D might look like. Um we have received input from staff. We've received input from uh small group meetings within the district. Um, and we'd be looking at next creating a transition team that included staff members, parents, um, community members to look at what does this look like as we move forward into phase two. We'd

224start looking at program design, finalizing what grade levels we will serve, uh, what student populations we will bring back to our level D here. Um, we would look at staff pathways. So, how do we attract and retain staff for this type of programming? Um, how do we advertise to those people? Um, and then community engagement. How do we start to have conversations with families that are at level D programming so that we can understand what it is that they're needing or what we can provide better for them in Scottsdale? Phase three would be our transition. This is when we'd start to have meetings with families to determine um what services we need to move a transition for those students from the current level D programming into their new level D programming. Um, we would look

225at community, having conversations with the community, look at kind of some rebranding. What are what is that going to look like? What would we call it? Um, and then we would look at training and readiness for staff. So, as we bring staff in to um teach at a level D, we would need to look at what trainings and what supports do they have or what do they need moving forward. Then phase four would be opening and evaluation. So, opening the school um for the 2627 school year and then continuing to re-evaluate the program, looking at what does it need, what things can we improve, um what other resources can we provide to students, system shared use opportunities. >> Next slide. >> Yep. >> Uh Dr. Williams is going to share a little bit more about

226this slide. Um, but because shared use opportunities is part of the uh facility use rubric, we wanted to talk about the options that this would provide for Puma. But we also wanted to just share what our proportional share obligation is with any private school uh profit or nonprofit that resides in um Scottsdale Unified School District. So no matter what, there is an obligation um from Scottsdale Unified School District for any schools that um reside within our boundaries. And I'll let Dr. Williams talk a little bit more about what that currently looks like. So proportionate share obligation is for our parentally placed private school. So I said that a level D is a cho is not a choice. It's an IEP team decision. Uh parents can also choose to privately place their students into different private

227schools. Um those private schools fall into two categories. So you've got your nonprofit schools and your for-profit schools. There are different rules when it comes to those. So for our nonprofit schools, any nonprofit school that's in the SUSD boundaries, it's our obligation under Childfind uh to evaluate those students um and provide in individual service plans for those students. So not an IEP, but we would provide services for those students that are in those private schools. So any student that's in a school within our boundary, regardless of where the parents live, uh that's our obligation if it is a nonprofit school. for-profit schools, our obligation is only to the students who reside in SUSD. So regardless of where that for-profit school is, if the parents reside in Scottsdale, that proportionate share obligation comes back to us.

228So whether that school is in Scottsdale or in Phoenix or in Tempe, those students would be our responsibility if they reside in our school district. On the right side is just our current reality. Those are the number of private schools we have within our boundary. We have 22. Half of them are nonprofit, half of them are for-profit. Um, and then those are the evaluations that we did last year. So, you can see the number of evaluations we did for students at those private schools. Um, and there's different numbers for the different schools. >> I think I need a excuse me, I think I need a little bit of help following this. So, there's 38 SUSD students who are, you know, attending were attending SUSD went through the IEP process and got placed. >> Correct. In

229you're saying in addition to that there is a population of students >> who you know as you described it either attend a nonprofit school in our district or live in our district and attend a for-profit school anywhere. >> Yep. >> Um and sorry can you complete that? So and if they are deemed needing level D services >> the district is also paying for them or no? No, they they are our obligation when it comes to child fine procedures. So, should the school or a parent determine that the student might need an evaluation for special education services within any of those LRE settings, it's our obligation to evaluate that student and to potentially provide them with what we call an individual service plan, which means we provide whatever services they need. So, >> so the cost

230to the district isn't >> um tuition >> the tuition, it's just the cost of doing evaluation and so >> and doing the services. >> And so then how does that relate to all of this? If Puma has a level D program, >> this is just for shared use of facilities. So we wanted to give this opportunity out there that these are some things that we do besides hosting level D. Just so we know, it impacts our budget. >> Okay. But this is not necessarily untapped market that we could direct. I mean presumably >> these are people that could get a brochure to go to uh to to Puma for level D, >> but beyond that. >> And the reason that we brought this forward um also to Miss Carney's point around colllocating potentially at Puma,

231let's say a level D program if we were to colllocate with another for-profit or nonprofit, we still have financial obligations to the children in those schools regardless of the lease, the the school that's operating. That would be outside. So our purpose of bringing what uh the shared use and the obligations are is because in some of the puma proposals but also with echo any um any private that's for forprofit or not for profofit we also would have financial obligations. So any sort of >> what you're saying is hypothetically if one of the leases of echo came from outside of the current SUSD boundary we need to factor into the cost equation the fact that we are then taking on the responsibility to do evaluations for them but at least >> because they're are in our

232residency >> but they generally all already are in Scottsdale I don't know if that's really relevant but right James uh Jones Gordon is >> so for example, if Jones Gordon were to move or relocate to Echo, we currently in the past year evaluated 27 of those students. Should they expand, we would anticipate being obligated for the continue evaluation of all of those students, um should let's say for example a Polaris move into Echo or colllocate with us at Puma, um regardless of what we were doing with a level D program in our own special education services, we would also be obligated financially to support the evaluation of those. And so that's really when we talk about shared use. It may be my decision to complicate it unfortunately, but we wanted just to offer that as

233um because there we are entertaining options to share or colllocate. We just always have obligations for childf find and special education procedures for children regardless really if they attend our schools. >> And how much more money do we get for doing those evaluations? >> Okay. Just making sure. Yeah. on the proportional share the evaluations we do those students may or may not be level D. Is that true? Could they be level C or B or >> it could be any of the levels? >> Okay. Any level? >> So level D is separate from proportional share as far >> correct. >> Okay. Thank you. >> So I I just want to ask a question. If we became the attractive level D support service center and we collected tuition from neighboring districts at the amount I think

234we're at 71,000 a year per studentsish. >> That is an option right here. >> Yeah, spoiler alert. Um absolutely. And so that potential shared use opportunities would be um that after the establishment of our program, we do know that local school districts across the valley are interested in um partnering together to place students into each other's different programs. right now. Um, and we'll get to cost analysis in a few moments. Each one of the public school districts is experiencing some steep um price increases that are uh sort of we have the volume we might have the volume to handle it >> um quick and so that will come in, but that would be one of the future opportunities. So, for instance, if any of the local if we did a agreement with any of our

235local public schools, they could place their children in our level D programs for a tuition. And so that would be over time another area in which we could generate revenue. >> So just to stay with that, you would not propose doing that for 2026 27. >> Uh we propose starting with just >> we would propose starting with our um 38 students knowing how those 38 students uh sort out over the K12 grade bands and what their different needs are. It may be that we might open to uh K2 level D placements for a specific type of child. I don't I think we would want to be really measured about it because these are some of our most vulnerable children. We would want to make sure that we have the staff. We have really established a

236quality program before also committing to inviting others. >> And we're able to set the tuition for level D. It's more like early learning centers where it's more of a >> we would be able to develop our own rate sheet. We would bring that forward for approval and conversation. But yes, we would be able to um do a tuition rate sheet. some what currently are private placements. We will have a tuition. Um also you could pay for a private care nurse. There's different sort of services that are broken down and yes we would develop our own >> flexibility under state law. >> And we've done some rough mock-ups of those based on um the current tuition charges that we are experiencing right now. >> Jennifer, >> I'm sorry. I just want to throw you in here

237for a minute. >> Pop away. any guidance as you're listening to these uh ideas of >> IGAS with shared districts for >> Madame President members of the governing board this is a an awesome undertaking if you move through it um these are very vulnerable students um with high needs so um I don't have any any legal recommendations regarding this all of this is possible on the campus both I have seen and >> from a business perspective >> authored um document mentation to allow for the intergovernmental agreements between school districts to serve these students. Uh one out is out in Buckeye that operates and does uh receive tuition for those students. Um there's others around the valley. So that is certainly an option um as well as the private leasing and so it's a awesome undertaking.

238>> Can I just ask two quick? >> Absolutely. >> Um to the extent that 1.3 of the 2.8 A comes out of IDEIDA. I forget how flexible IDA is relative to M. Would we have the ability to charge IDA >> tuition so to speak? >> Uh what would happen >> in order to maximize the M >> revenues like if right now we're not fully getting it from >> Yeah. If if I understand your question correctly, and I I may not, our our IDEIDA dollars wouldn't necessarily go towards this. Our our IDA dollars are for above and beyond. Um other people though would be able to use their IDEIDA dollars in order to tuition out students to us. So should another district tuition their student to us, they could use their IDEIDA dollars to do that

239because IDEIDA dollars are for above and beyond service. >> Plus, we would get Bweight money. So, >> so, okay, >> the BWE is the IDA dollars. >> Bweight is federal, not state. >> Would that be a cash? >> Yeah, I'm I guess it's probably >> So, if a school district were to um send a student to our district, that money would not go into it. It would go into a different Yeah. Okay. Um, group B weight is different. And I don't think with an IGA like that, we would be counting those students as part of our um ADM. >> We would be collecting tuition for them. So we wouldn't be able to like double dip. >> Okay. So the source would be coming from the other district. Got it. >> So where would Shannon, where

240would it go on our side? Is it a cash account like community ed? Is it? >> Um it wouldn't be community. I'm sorry. I' I'm going I would have to research the exact where that would go, but it would not be >> it would be like that. Would be a separate cash. >> Yeah, it would be like a separate account to be able to track that. >> Okay. Yeah. The spirit of the idea question is would we in essence be walking away from 1.3 million of funding because we now have an internal >> provider >> and so okay >> no we don't get funded for those students that way we get funded for them being our students >> and then the last question which I think really matters a lot we would be disrupting all

24138 families and redirecting them from current care plans I don't know what the right term is educational plans s to puma and we'd be we have the right to say now that we have a indistrict offering I'm sorry you need to go to that indistrict offering and it'll be great and you should be very happy about that but still to the extent that these are vulnerable >> they are >> kids and families >> in in effect we're not going to ask them we're go in order for this to make financial sense I I understand we are going to be requiring them to leave whatever provider they're getting now and we have the authority to do that. >> So yes, we do. So the pea is the one who determines the location of services. So legally,

242we determine where the student attends level D programming. That being said, they are the most vulnerable students. And in the proposal for a timeline, we would start to have conversations with families. Um I've visited every single one of our level D programming. And while they are great facilities, I think we can offer more when it comes to what a campus looks like. Many of the facilities for level D programming are in a warehouse or in a office building. So having a campus where kids can go, I think would be very attractive to families. Um again, we would start those conversations with families early and often to start to say, what is it that you need here in order to bring your students here? Um and what can we provide? Will every single student come back

243at the same time? Maybe, maybe not. Again, those would be individualized conversations. Uh, but we would mock up different options of what that looks like for financial feasibility. >> Thank you for being patient with all my questions. >> Y, >> this is this is the third time you've called me. >> I know. Well, I'm, you know, got the knee thing going. I'm blaming the knee. >> I'm going to forgive you. I'm going to forgive you, but I'm just calling it out now three times. Okay. I I'll not >> That's why I I said something. >> Um just a question on that. So families will have the choice to if they want to stay in their programming or not. >> It will be an it will be an IEP conversation. And so the in the ultimately

244SUSD has the authority to say this is your offer of FAPE. This is your location of service. Uh but that being said, it would be individualized conversations. I've worked with valley districts across I've worked with directors across the valley as well as our legal council to have conversations about what does this look like when other districts have done it. Um and usually there's a handful of students or families that say please don't disrupt my f my child. Um I've got a 11th grader or a 12th grader who's been in at this school forever, right? We we would have those individual conversations, but the majority of families want to be back in their neighborhood. They don't want their child to travel to Tempe or or different places to go to school. They want them to be

245here. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Uh I think we're good. I just also want to point out that um in addition to tuition based programming for other districts, we also would want to set aside some space at Puma. Um something we know that many of the families in level D programming access regularly is clinical therapy. And so there would be an opportunity for us in Puma to reserve some um what would be like clinical office spaces uh to lease to private clinicians who would be able to provide ABA services or other clinical uh services that we know um our level D students and some of our current special education students and all students. Uh some leave school early to access some of this clinical um support. And so potentially being able to lease office space

246to clinical providers could also elevate services for those families. >> Your your creativity in this whole approach has been outstanding. Thank you very much for coming to us with uh big thinking. >> You're very welcome. >> Oh, I have more. I didn't we're not done with the presentation. >> Oh, are we not? >> No. >> Is there more? >> There's a little bit more. >> I kept saying are we good? >> I'm blaming the knee. >> There's a little bit more. So I'll uh I'll talk just a little bit about other addition additional efficiencies uh related to the relocation. Part of this proposal also includes the relocation of food nutrition services from Oak campus um along with a music instrument and sheet music library. Um those are two really welloiled machines running out of Oak.

247But there are some s superior facilities for both of those programs at Puma. both the turnaround um in the back where catering could run um a much an upgraded kitchen and so that would be an opportunity also to offset some of the costs while also still providing um the gym for kids uh the cafeteria for eating those types of things. Uh like Dr. Williams mentioned, we would relocate staff. Uh we have special education staff throughout the district in different some at the annex, some of MDA. we would really locate everybody centrally together and also be able to maximize um our staff, our resources, and our materials. Um I'm gonna let Dr. Williams talk a little bit about cost analysis. Uh we don't have to spend a lot of time here, but I know that the

248financials are really important and so we wanted just to spend a little bit of time talking about that. So these are our level D tuition costs over the past five years. Um you can see M and IDA the cost kind of breakdown of who covered what. Uh Medicaid also covers some of that. Um you can see over the years that IDEA was just it was unsustainable for IDA to cover the cost of all tuition. When we look back over those five years the number of students that that we had in private or in level D placement has really not changed. We sit typically between 35 and 45 kids and that's been pretty consistent over the past five years. So these increases in tuition are not due to us placing more students. This is truly due

249to the increased costs that the level D programs are charging us. Um we did an analysis over the past couple of years. Some of the um tuition and it's on this next cost in this next slide went up 12%. Um 12% in one year. Sometimes there are related services that went up 100% or 200%. They doubled the cost from one year to the next because they have the ability to do that. So our costs are really unpredictable when it comes to placing kids in level D programming which is one of the benefits of bringing our students back to SUSD. Um we have the ability to kind of control some of those costs. >> Yeah. On the cost side and this might be for Mr. Roller uh as well. Is there a uh investment do we

250have like in the tenant improvement side do we have to do what kind of change do we have to do to make this compatible? What's the cost investment to get us to offer this? >> We did have the opportunity with Mr. to walk the facility and and talk a little bit of that through. So he knew I' he'd be our phone of friend. >> Thanks. >> Good evening. Um the investment I believe would be fairly minimal. The campus is in great shape. Uh the way the uh the classroom building is built u in an H style um could easily be subdivided with minimal cost. So I really don't see uh that there's a huge expense uh doing a TI on that campus. For level D students, do they have any special needs facility-wise that might

251That's I was thinking more of layout like if it was a medical facility, there's a lot of requirements. Are there similar ones here? >> In walking through the facility, it looks like the needs could be met there. There may be a few minimal um we may need to make some smaller spaces out of a larger space for for kids that need a smaller area um for safety or for whatever reason, but they truly would be pretty minimal. Okay. >> And physical separation of if catering is there. I'm trying to think of the couple times I've been to Puma, it works out well that there's a separation of space and safety. >> Yes. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Um well, that is just the condition of the facilities. They really are um in great shape. They

252offer a real campus-like feel. Um when we considered our older kids, uh there's a really cool space out back where we could envision um high school students having some level of freedom um but also in their smaller playground for younger kids. It's a also an enclosed very appropriate playground um that would support students. What we know now is Puma also serves a number of our specialized programs. And so some of that equipment while it will travel um to the new program placements, those classrooms have been outfitted for some of those types of things before. So you think about um swings, relax rooms, those types of things uh already are also in existence at Puma. Um I don't want to miss the opportunity to talk about community input. We heard a lot from the Puma community

253throughout the repurposing. Um and our next steps after this would also be to get back in touch with our Puma community and their families in level D programming. Um I did have the opportunity throughout the Puma repurposing enclosure. uh we received 63 different let's talks that really outlined um conversations around Puma. I was able to synthesize those and there were some prevailing themes that came through from the Puma community about what they wanted. Um the first and foremost it was really to keep it as a school. They want some level of school. Um you'll see that in number one but also in number five a real strong opposition to selling or turning it into um commercial or dense redevelopment. There was also a strong desire to use it use it as a community hub. That's

254where we see the opportunity with food nutrition service there doing a lot of our summer feeding. We partner with the city of Scottsdale around a lot of community services and we would be able to retain that at Puma. There was also some interest in those let's talks from the family about a potential STEM magnet school with proximity to Navajo as a steam school. Um that consideration wasn't further explored. Um, but we did want to make sure we consider the feedback we were able to hear throughout the whole Puma process around what they want in that community. Um, and we're trying to honor that. Our next step would be to take this proposal to some community conversations with the Puma community. Um, because we know that through some of those dialogues, there was also tell us

255more about what is a level D school, what will this really mean? And so having the opportunity to meet with the community and talk about um retaining the school as a school serving Scottdale Unified students um and understanding best way to help the community feel great about that um is a priority for us as well. That's all folks I think. But if you have any questions, please don't hesitate. Go ahead Miss Cardi. >> There you go. Thank you. We're going to work on it. >> Um, thank you. I just have a few questions. Uh, once again, I don't think we've seen the rubric, the the decision making rubric. So, is that has that been done or not on this Puma report? >> Uh, well, I used the criteria of the rubric and the language, but

256I can put together the red, yellow, green. Um through the development of the proposal, uh I used the rubric in order to asssure that each one of the sections maximized the rubric language in the green sections. Um but I'm happy to put that together in a one page um similar to in the style that Mr. is preparing for the other proposals. >> Okay, that'd be great to keep it uniform. That'd be great. Um then I have have did you look at all or consider moving community ed to Puma? Um we did we didn't personally explore moving and relocating community ed to Puma partially because uh relocating special education and potentially support services. Those are very large teams and we did want to hold space aside for potential future leasing to clinicians. Um and so to

257move community ed um and the rest of Oak with food nutrition and special education. um it starts to be a pretty heavy uh staff central point which is a benefit but would also reduce the opportunity to potentially engage in shared use opportunities in the future. >> Okay. So if if special ed and support services moves over to Puma, we would have possible space at MDA for community ed. Uh potentially, I I don't want to misspe, but um with the potential of Main Street, uh there would also be a desire to relocate Main Street staff to the MDA. Um and so I don't know that we fully explored bringing all of Main Street and community ed to the MDA if there's adequate space for that. Um I'm not sure. I think part of uh it's a

258little bit of a domino effect in terms of the amount of seats available at the MDA um for the community ed department. Something we can follow up on. Yeah, I think it'd be good if we could just look at all options to see if there are other options or there's not. >> Um, did other education service providers show interest in uh in puma in leasing just like we saw? >> There were there were other traditional charter schools that would have been true competition unlike the Polaris and Jones Gordon which are kind of niche market. there were there were some other regular charter schools that uh reached out initially and I said I didn't think we were interested in bringing competition that was going to steal um SUSD students so I I did not open the

259door for those. >> Okay. And then um I think last lastly I have I'm a little concerned with the K through 12 on on one campus. Can you explain how that would work and >> be safe? Yeah. So, we in looking at the building at Puma, um the way that the building is set up, we'd be able to have double doors put in so that there would be no um movement from one side to the other. We would have K8 students together and then we would have 912 students in a separate area. >> Okay? >> They wouldn't have shared like recess areas. So, it would kind of be two schools in one building. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Thank you so very much. Well done. Appreciate it. All right, we'll move on to first read

260of governing board policy JLDAB uh re regarding referrals to other agencies. Jennifer McLillen. >> Madam President, members of the governing board, uh tonight before you first read is a new policy to the district, governing board policy JLDAB. This is a policy that is put forward by ASBA if the school district wants to make referrals to other agencies. So, the policy is before you and I'm happy to answer any questions about it. This is work that Dr. Sacos did um to bring this forward to you so that the district would have an option to make these referrals to parents. Parents would have to both opt in to getting the referral and then if the referral was made, the district would not have any follow-up or obligation with respect to the services obtained by the student which

261would also be based on parental consent. However, the district would be responsible for conducting a survey regarding that referral as well as posting a list of the behavioral health services provider who would be available. So, this is basically uh an ability for you to make school-based referrals for behavioral health services for your students. >> Go ahead, Miss Carney. >> Thank you. Um, I just have a question on this. Would this be piled into uh the list of things for parents to check off online uh at the beginning of the school year or would this become in paper form or how would parents be given this? >> So at one of the way Thank you, Miss Carney. One of the ways that it would be uh put out to parents would that they would have to

262opt into it. So that would be a consent for them to opt into receiving a behavioral health referral and that would I would assume be done through the parent square um push outs that you do to obtain consent for other things. Um that's the first but as far as where the listing of the behavioral health referrals would be I think that's open for discussion. So, I would imagine and it is required to be on the school's website, but it could also be made available through um the teams that work with your highnee students such as your 504 teams, your IDEIDA teams or and or your school administrators. >> Okay. I think my concern is just piling another thing on to the to the the beginning of school. I forgot what this is. What's this called?

263The beginning >> when you're doing your your initial registration and you're opting in for all those things. It's a lot of information. >> It's a lot of information. I I would envision I mean while you could have it there and I get that that can be overwhelming. I also can envision a situation where a counselor or social worker or an administrator has a parent saying you know I just don't know where to go and they could have the opt-in form available where we would then if they signed it be able to give them that referral. And so I I think there are ways to do it based on as needs emerge in addition to you know making it available generally. Mr. Shy. >> Um, just for my edification, is this a medical referral the same

264way a general practitioner would refer a patient to a specialist? Is it that same kind of referral? I just want to make sure I understand. >> Madam President, Mr. Shi, so this is based upon something that's was called Jake's Law that was enacted in 2020. There's a pot of money that was set aside to make sure that the behavioral health needs of students were not denied, but it is based upon a school-based referral that they can have access to those funds um is my understanding. So, it certainly is not a medical referral. It is just a process by which a school district can refer and they're in the student would have access to those state funds. >> Thank you. All right. Thank you, uh, Miss McClennon. Uh, uh, now we're moving on to first read,

265revisions to governing board policy, IKF, regarding graduation requirements. >> Thank you, Madam President, members of the governing board. So, the, uh, I've worked with Dr. Jagadinsky and she has worked with your high school planning guide to create a revised policy IKF. Your existing policy is um, out of date. So, what we've done is put in specifically the um and I believe what's pulled up currently is the old policy or your existing policy. Um we have in the background material for this agenda item four items. We have your existing policy, a blacklined version, a new clean version, and ASBA's policy update. Um what I would recommend that we do because the blackline version is difficult to read given that so much of it is being struck out is that for the second read I bring forward

266to you just a clean version of what I would suggest that the governing board adopted with respect to IKF. But um the cleanups include revi you know for instance right up on the screen it talks about the graduation requirements for you know for classes that graduated almost 15 years ago now. So um lot of cleanup changes. Um the important pieces to note from your school district rep uh perspective is that we have specifically um delineated which 22 units need to um be obtained by a student before graduating. We've also spelled out the different literacy uh the different seals that you all opt into at the end of the policy. So, I'm happy to try to find one that has the Yeah, we don't have here we go. This is the blacklined version that would show

267the markedup changes and I'm happy to review them with him. There's al there were also changes um that have been suggested and incorporated relating to your obligations to foster care youth as well as uh making sure that you inform special education students of the projected date of their graduations removal of references. >> So mlenn in your opinion is I appreciate it's just clean up. Is there anything controversial or substantive other than just catchup and cleanup? >> Um, Madame President, Mr. Shy, I do not think there is anything substantive other than catchup and cleanup um with respect to this policy. It's just bringing it into the 21st century. >> Thank you. >> Yeah. And it has gone through your high school planning guide. So, >> any further questions, Miss Warner, or I just pausing for you?

268that. Thank you, Adam. >> You're good. Okay, everybody good? >> With your permission for second read on this particular policy, I'm just going to bring back a clean version so you can just read what your policy would be. >> We're good with that and we have access if we need the old one. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Uh I'm going to call a uh six minute recess and we will resume action items for 10 upon our return. Just a quick recess. >> Thank you. What I wonder is do we need Christine to present that whole slide deck that she did on the I'm going to gavvel in about 15 seconds. Got it. >> All right, we're back. Uh this meeting is called back to into order. Uh we are now on 10 action items

269for board action required. Uh we had an attendance boundary uh session uh before and I know Dr. Bono is now here to help us just revisit the map and maybe give us a brief summary update to get us ready for action because we have a couple items I know that will require a more in-depth discussion. >> Absolutely. Thank you, President Dr. Lewis and governing board. So, what you have in front of you, you should have the paper copies. I know I gave them to you last time, but wanted to cast a wide net in case in case you forgot them this time. So, on the map here, you will see this is the current Puma boundary. At our last meeting, we went through the options uh the process, the board policy that regulates uh this

270for our reboundering. So this is the current Puma boundary and the zones in each of the grids that's correlated to the map based on the option that we are recommending which was 3A that would align the current puma boundary between Hookum and Yabapai and maintain the boundaries within the Coronado learning community. You have in front of you the current what would be the you had the current puma boundary on that first page. This would be the new hookcom boundary and the new Yavapai boundary. Just very briefly, as we reviewed at our public hearing, 3A would reszone 75 currently zoned Puma students to Hokam and 60 to Yavapai while still allowing for growth. Families choosing to enroll outside of the Coronado learning community would still receive who currently attend Puma uh would still receive priority enrollment.

271Currently, there are 73 kids who are zoned for puma who have not yet enrolled and when we get the feedback they are waiting for um the outcome of of this process and then um just our next steps here and then we can get to questions. As Mrs. Mitchell indicated in the concierge update, once the board does approve a recommendation, we will uh families will receive information on next steps and kind of get them tucked in uh where they need to be. What questions might you have? >> I have a question. >> Go ahead, Miss Warner. >> Thank you. Was were there committee members or community member who contributed input um during these committee meetings and was that if if so was it considered? >> Yes. Thank you, Governing Board Warner. Uh during our committee meetings,

272uh just to refresh, we had three members who uh who had signed up for to be who were parents. They didn't sign up to be parents. They were parents who signed up for the committee. and one of our members uh after looking at our options. So just very quickly there were six options that you reviewed at the public hearing um previously there was an option two and an option 2B. Uh as a result of our first committee meeting, we created a new option, option 2C, which took some of that northern boundary and redistributed it to Navajo. And uh through the process of consensus, not everyone was in agreement uh to move forward with 3A. Um but the the majority of folks in our committee were comfortable moving forward with 3A, which is this proposal. That's

273really interesting because all of the families that I spoke with at Puma would have opted for a different choice. But thank you for your answers. Thank you. Yes. in um previous to the public hearing all the feedback we received whether through email or through let's talks what was about maintaining the Cornetal complex after the hearing I think we've received it's probably 6040 um where 60% have asked could we explore um Navajo or families who have said we live in the Puma boundary we go to PBLO um can we explore being reboundered to to PBLO PBLO is a non-boundary school but we did receive feedback in favor of maintaining the Coronado complex Um, if you could provide the board with all the let's talk for that, that would be great. >> Absolutely. Thank you, >> Dr.

274Pesky. >> So, I've thought a lot about this. It's obviously one of the big responsibilities that follows the original decision. Um, and it seems to me there's sort of two two things that are a little bit intension. So on the one hand um if we don't move forward with keeping Puma largely within Coronado I know that we will hear from families who view that as ultimately for lack of a better term the death nail of the Coron Coronado learning community. See we knew it all along. You've been out to get Coronado. if we do have to ultimately close another school in the Coronado learning community, then it was just sort of pre-ordained by the decision to district, you know, puma the way that we did. Um, alternatively, we also know, and I think, you know,

275not just from the let's talk, but from the actual revealed behavior of families at Puma, that generally they are choosing to go into the Sarro. um and that the preferences of the families when you include families who already made the choice to go um is largely in that direction. And so to stay within the Coronado district is basically to say to families some version of sorry what your preferences are. We have district needs and for lack of a better term social engineering that we're trying to accomplish. Now in either case you can always choose either. So the good news is families do ultimately have the choice. Um when you balance those two I feel pretty strongly that we should respect the preferences of parents. Um first more families in Puma live closer ultimately to the

276Sara learning community and options. Second, um they are by and large choosing that. And so if there's an opportunity, even though it comes with a cost, for us to make that revealed preference policy and get a little bit of lemonade out of the lemons, I think there's virtue to that. Um and >> that okay with you? >> While it may seem like we're benefiting the Coronado community to zone that way, it's a little bit of a phantom victory because families are going to choose what they're going to choose. So if we do it then it's almost sort of the worst of both worlds if families then largely go elsewhere right all we've managed to do is just put the cost of transportation on the families. So that's kind of where my head is. So my

277question there is a question um is given that which option do you believe is the one that closely matches a view that we should optimize for uh supporting puma family preference for the Sara learning community. >> Thank you Dr. Batinsky. So very quickly circling back right now we have just about 115 families who live within the Coronado complex who choose to stay in there. So if we were to go with a different option and that the 112 are the families that are in that northern part that we've been referring to kind of the Navajo of it all. Um they would now be impacted. They've choose they've chosen Coronado. They would be impacted that way. I am going to stand by the recommendation of the majority of the committee of the community members. We had a

278couple here that were on the committee who were >> Oh, thank you. um from our uh you know, communities around uh that boundary that I I'm still going to um advise or request. We recommend that. I can absolutely see all sides of it, especially for the families who say, you know, we are parents on our committee. As a matter of fact, the three who live in Puma, all three their kids have gone to Mojave. They were already going to um Mojave with Puma being repurposed. they're going to Navajo. So, I could definitely appreciate that. Uh for the families who say we were going to go there anyway, it would be great for a a bus. We did talk about the cost of the transportation, adding that being a little bit cost prohibitive. Um but I

279I'm still going to stand by the recommendation u to maintain the Coronado boundary. To your point, knowing that like right now there are 50 students who are zoned for puma who are who have chosen Navajo for next year. Um, >> but my question is which is the option if you feel the way I do that matches that preference. >> I don't feel the way you do. So I don't know if I how I can answer that. >> Which is the one that puts most puma kids. >> Oh, the backup option. The backup option option we talked about. Oh, I apologize. The backup option that we discussed at the hearing was option three or 2B. Thank you. >> Which would be taking 12. Let me go back to this >> final leading question. I generally got

280confused with all the 2 A's, B's, 3 A's. >> So right here, 12 A, B, C, and D would be if I and I don't have the map for 2B in front of me. That would be Cindy, am I remembering that 12 A, B, C, and D would now be zoned to Navajo? >> Yeah. >> So option 2B is the one that would largely, if not entirely, put Puma into the Sara Learning Community. >> 100%. Yes. >> Yeah. Out of those four. So if you look right here >> and 3A puts some of Puma into the Sarara Learning Community and most of Puma in Coronado 3A. So 3A the one that we're coming it keeps it all in the Coronado complex. So if you look here at the current split >> Yep. the current Puma

281these four in in the one that was like second place option would now be part of the Sarro complex. That would also require reszoning the whole learning community for Sarro as well. the whole complex. Uh and now you can see here 12 A, B, C, and D are now zoned for Hokam, which is part of those 75 students that would be zoned for hookum. Uh we have currently at last count just about 30 students from the who live in the Puma boundary who have already registered uh for hookcom. I don't know if they live in those 12 zones uh if that would now be their home school. that I have a question or I have a comment. >> Yes. >> So respectfully uh the families that have chosen their school and have enrolled would not

282be affected because we have school choice within our district and they have chosen that school. >> So correct. I am concerned with um the conversation that you're having with us today. Miss Bono >> uh respectfully governing board member uh Warner. Correct. To your point, they have choice. So, if families are choosing I think that's what you said, if they're choosing another option with open enrollment, we have not and we confirmed with Cindy, we have not turned any families away. Um, so the the piece is that transportation of it all where families who have made that choice know perhaps with their zone with their boundary school transportation wouldn't be an option. So, I'm not sure if we're saying different things. Perhaps we're saying the same thing just depending on what side of the coin we're perhaps

283looking at. I'm I'm listening. I'm just know she wanted to respond to that. No, >> I I don't have anything else to add. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Thank you. All right, Miss Carney. >> Thank you. Um I'm 100% uh with governing board member Patensky in my thinking too. Um we've got policy around this. KCA school community relations says to determine how the community feels about the district and what it wishes the district to accomplish many things on that. Um same with policy BA that we are to operate in the best interest of students and families and our staff. And so I feel we owe our families new school boundaries and the transportation that are going to retain and bring us more students. I see transportation as a plus because charters and privates, they don't

284have that, right? That's one thing we have that could actually bring more people to us. And that's what I've heard. I've heard from uh many parents and community members who are frustrated. They they feel like everything has a predetermined outcome and their thoughts and desires don't matter. And I agree, they do matter. And this is a time, like you said, to make lemonade out of lemons. And and >> yes, we would love to see the Coronado community thrive. I mean, but we need to be honest. What is I I can't tell the numbers like 68% to 80% are choosing open enrollment and they are asking us for this. They're asking for transport transportation for their students. And I think that that we should really take that seriously and I I would like to see us

285uh choose the boundaries that are either 2B or 2C. Can I ask do we have any insights on why they're choosing the Sorro community? >> What I've heard is just the perception of the middle schools, okay, >> as you move the two and then that sort of feeds once you build a social life at the middle. >> So I look at this differently >> and the middle school leadership has changed. I want to acknowledge that. So >> um so I look at this differently. Um, I fully believe that if we choose an option that shuttles more students or in sends them to go north, we are choking off the Coronado community. Um, I think that is going to be a disservice to that community. Um, and those are families that we need to think about

286as well. I would look at it this way. I've said before that with the cuts we need to make, this is not staying on the defense. This is going on the offense. in our offense would be what is it about the Sarro community that attracts those pe families and let's build that into the Coronado community. Let's do better there. Let's invest in that to make that a desirable community. I think if we don't do that, I think we are effectively saying we give up on the Coronado community and I'm not going to do that. >> I respectfully disagree only because again families are already choosing not to go there. So it's not and now a new set of families who previously didn't have to make the choice because of the school closure, you know, now

287are being put in that in that position. So I that's why I called it a little bit of a phantom victory because I don't know that at the end of the day the actual number of students who are going to say, "Oh, because that's where I'm zoned. Therefore, even though I have concerns about whether it's, you know, currently reflective of the reality or a lagging reputation, because I have concern about those schools, you know, because I'm districted, I'm going to go there. I think what is more likely to happen is they still go to Sarro, but now what we've just done is shifted closed their school and shifted the cost of transportation for the incremental number of families that are doing it. And I also do agree with governing board uh member Carney that it's

288possible there are families in that community who are out of district right now who once it's zoned within a dish a learning community sorry too many terms within a learning community that they feel more comfortable with would choose to come back into the district with transportation and so on. I don't know that to be true. I haven't looked at the data to see how many open and roll out of puma. I don't know if that's a meaningful population. Um, so I I agree with you. That's why I prefaced the first part to say I know that I'm setting myself up to be accused of, you know, um, uh, uh, making it even tougher for the Coronado learning community to thrive. Where I get comfortable is that at the end of the day, if the families

289aren't going to choose to go there, then I don't know. It's probably on the margins that this is really going to impact the Coronado learning community. >> All right. And it it's fair. I just I feel like it's incumbent upon us to figure out what makes one community more desirable over another and fix that problem on our side. That seems like something we ought to be doing. So that's I look at it as our parents vote and that's good. That's a sign. And so I want to say what could we be doing better to you know have that vote change. I also just want to again just remind there are 125 112 115 kids who currently attend the Cornell complex who live within these four cells if a different decision would be made having to

290impact them. >> Yeah. They wouldn't have transportation to to Hokum or to their school of choice with with a change either. Right. So it's the impact goes both ways when when you draw the boundaries differently. And I think that's part of the challenge when you're contemplating um shrinking the footprint of the Coronado learning community because that's ultimately the fact of what we're doing here. We've we first we made the decision on the buildings and that we're going to be closed because of low enrollment and and then we're talking about are we going to protect the integrity of the boundaries of the learning communities as they exist or are we going to redraw those? If we redraw those, you just pick different groups of people who get transportation or don't because in an open choice environment,

291everybody can can choose if they have the ability to get there. So the rate limiting factor is families who don't have the luxury of being able to transport their own child to a school of choice will go to the boundared school unless there's something that's walkable that might be a competitor of ours. And so that's the question that I think comes into play here, not so much um how many have chosen Navajo because already when we made the decision um to bring forward Puma as as one of the two schools to close, more students choice out of Puma that were inboundary than students who chose Puma inboundary. And so it is a balancing act and and I do worry that if if we redraw the boundaries and shrink the footprint, it makes it really hard

292to fill the other schools full and thriving and and that absolutely does potentially accelerate versus giving an opportunity for growth. Can't guarantee demographically where we'll be. I think that that is an unknown, but we could make a commitment to attempt to what um Vice President Shy said, how do we invest in in those schools to give the the South Scottsdale schools the same kind of opportunity to thrive? Uh and and so ultimately we'll implement what the governing board uh recommends, but I the the real delta here is who gets transportation and who doesn't. And also, if I may, important to note, if those schools were zoned to Navajo, they would be reaching precipitously close to their capacity. It could also, and Dr. Williams brought up a good point at our committee hearing, it could impact

293the specialized programs that we offer at Navajo and potentially displace those families where now we have to move them um from Navajo to accommodate the the additional students that we are transporting as part of the zoning. >> Yeah. And I'm very sympathetic about the notion that we're just shifting transportation costs from one group of families to another. I Yeah, that's very compelling. Um, are the families that choose the Coronado community geographically, you know, closer to the Coronado community such that there's an option to split the Puma uh community in a way that optimizes for maintaining the parental choice and limiting as much as possible new transportation cost. So I I thought that there was an option that the committee looked at that was even narrower. >> So 2B was the not the 2C was the

294most expansive. The 2B and again since this was just being recommended as 3A. I don't have all the maps. I'm happy to go get my computer and look at them. But and you also if you have your maps from the our last meeting. I do actually. Um, so if you look, if you can look at 2B and where it says where now 12 A, 12B, 12 C, and 12D would be zoned for. Uh, I believe there was one option where two of those were going somewhere and the other two were going to Hook and two were going to Navajo. >> Yeah, I it could just be I'm spatially challenged. I I found it difficult like they're all the same color. And >> do you have the may I may I approach to see your maps?

295>> Am I your honor? Yes, you may approach the bench. >> It's late. Everyone could be whoever. >> Um and then related to that was to be developed in part to um were the choices of what went where in part informed by where families are going? Is that kind of the logic north versus >> so you using the software it's where are they currently living uh where are they currently attending if they live and remember this was really about the 135 kids who are currently zoned for puma out of there's 144 that are open enrolled from outside the puma area so looking at 2B thank you Dr. Patinsky in the option 2B 12 C. So if you look I'm going to call call your attention >> the top three on there >> top three boxes.

296>> So 12 C >> the in 2B the top three boxes will go up >> to Hokam. >> Yeah. Uh no go up to Navajo. >> Uh correct. So 12 C, 12D, and 11D would go to Hokam. And I don't Oh, Navajo would then take uh 12 A and 12B and 11B. So the top three would go to Navajo and then these would go to Hokam. That is option 2B. That's not the recommended option. No, I understand. And does that >> does that reflect obviously geographically I see the logic. Does that also reflect where families tend to concentrate that are already choosing to go to Navajo versus choosing to go to Hok ho hok. >> Uh at our governing board member Dr. Pratinsky at our last meeting at the hearing I did go through if

297you know at B the one that I have here at 2B what the enrollment breakdown would be and we have X number of kids who live within 12C where where they they would now be zone 2. Um again I don't as that was not a recommended option tonight. I don't have that right in front of me since we are recommending 3A. Um, happy to get that. >> If you don't mind, I can weigh in just a little bit. What I find, um, and from my recollection is that it's the families that are north of Thomas, south of Osborne in the Puma neighborhood that typically we will see more often going to Navajo, those south of Thomas, um, down Thomas to McDow um, and further all the way to McKelps. Those are the families that you

298will see more likely um, still engaging in the Coronado learning community. What we found in looking at the different map boundary options as we were using the tool is you do start to see more of the movement of family choice really happening around that north of Thomas um corridor. >> Thank you for clarifying that Mrs. Mitchell. My brain >> Well, you know, I live in that area so I really know that. >> But yes, that was that was the dividing line was that north and south of Thomas. Well, I guess I'm going to listen for a motion. Um, the typical motion would be to uh pass option 3A, but I' I'm hearing a morphing of that. Do you want to chime in, Dr. Menzel, and and suggest something? >> So, you've heard the recommendation from

299the committee this evening. What I would recommend if the board would like to move in a different recommendation than the committee that we get some clear parameters and bring it back on March 10th so that you're actually seeing what you're approving versus approving something conceptually without actually seeing it. So if if we're not going to adopt the recommendation, I think we just need directions for what you would like to see brought back on March 10th. >> May I ask Mrs. Mlennon, if we were to do that, would we need another public hearing? >> Madame President, members of the board, Miss Bon, we do not. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Since the public hearing was for the public and this was really our opportunity as a board, I'm a little surprised that it's set up to

300only talk about the recommendation and not be set up to talk about the same set of options that the public was talked about. So, I mean, I don't mean that meanly. I'm just saying I I think I'm within my bounds to be at a point that is still one step prior to the recommendation because this was our opportunity to debate these different directions and we purposely didn't talk about it at the public hearing. >> Oh, Jennifer. >> Yes, >> Miss McLullen Madame President, Dr. Pinsky. So we we unfortunately I think because of the size of our agenda um we are limiting ourselves with respect to discussion. The board's made many um important points tonight. We certainly can go back into the meeting archives from the public hearing and pull up the map so that you

301all can have a full and fair discussion about both 2B, 2C and 3A. So, um, but that is an option tonight or we can do as Dr. Mensel suggested and postpone it until March 10th. So we can >> I can say I'm not prepared to vote for 3A without first exploring whether there's an option whether it's exactly 2B or something else. Um that that for lack of a better term splits the baby and tries to you know um support as many families that are already in the direction of Sarro having that option as well as you know uh doing the same for families who are generally choosing Coronado. I'm sure I know that there will be families on both sides of that divide if it's Thomas or otherwise. So, we could still vote on it,

302but I I'm not ready to vote. I >> So, what what I'm hearing from the board members is that you need a motion to table. >> Yep. >> Yeah. I'll make a motion to table I'll make a motion to table um this item until next meeting so that we can uh further review and discuss option 3A 2B and 2C. >> Do second. >> All right, we have a motion and a second >> on tableabling and furthering our discussion on three of the other three of the options before us instead of one. And if I may quickly just get clarification, happy to do a board memo that would kind of take all of the questions I've heard tonight and summarize it within the context of 3A, 2B, and 2C. >> That would help us, I think.

303>> Absolutely. Thank you. >> All right. All those in favor? >> I All those opposed? >> Nay. >> Okay, it passes four to one. All right. Uh, thank you for your work on that. Uh and thank you to the committee. We are we've re reversed uh the next one. So we're going to start with item uh 10 C which is now the new 10B selection of budget deficit reduction option and authorization for district administration to proceed with next steps to effectuate reductions. Dr. Mensel. >> Dr. Cruz will lead the PowerPoint presentation before we enter into the uh questions and answer period. >> Thank you. >> Good evening board members. I'm sorry to bring such a heavy topic to you so late in the evening. Um we are here to talk about some budget reduction options

304for you this evening. Uh I did want to talk about some of our guiding principles that led us to these options for you. Um, IBN has been working tirelessly on this. Um, and and you can see our guiding principles right right off the bat. We want to protect student safety and well-being, minimize direct classroom and instruction instructional impact, maintain compliance with state and federal requirements. We want to preserve our core, our special education and student support services. We also want to get to prioritizing long-term financial stability for full and thriving schools in Scottsdale. Again, just a word to recognize the IBN process. Our team has been working on this, I would say, really most of the year, but in earnest, specifically on budget options since um December. and Ernest, we've come together multiple times to

305look at different options. After our governing board study session on the 20th, we came together again to create options two and three for your uh review this evening. I just want to say just for a moment for our community, how did we get to this point that brings us to this very super difficult decision? Um we've had over 15 years of declining enrollment in the district that has gone um truly um not unressed but not addressed in a global manner with with a plan for the future. Um we've also looked at smaller amounts of our budget carried forward uh due to that loss of enrollment. We've had to use large amounts of district additional assistance, better known as DA, moved into our maintenance and operations budget. And we've had some declining cash balances because we've

306been using those to fund positions as they were high for a number of years and they have over time been been um used. So just a a word again about the process. We began presenting information to the governing board and other stakeholders last fall. We captured information from many stakeholders uh in staff meetings at the podium here in the governing board session. That's really what drove a lot of of what we did. Um also from staff that came in through email and from community through email and of course from our governing board and we did use utilize the interpace negotiations process to collaboratively identify these reduction strategies. I did just want to summarize the options for the governing board tonight. Option one is no change from what was brought to the board on January 20th.

307We kept that status quo. Option two revises our guidance counselor's projected uh ratios from four from the current at 375 to force 25 students to one counselor. Um, it reflects a reduction in our security part department overall to 250 by 250,000. It reduces middle school uh certified librarians and it also puts a reduction on our instructional teacher leader program by an overall amount of $250,000. Option three maintains the cost reductions as projected in option two. The only change would be that our guidance ratio would move to 400 students to one. We also heard from the governing board on January 20th. You wanted us to go back and really dig deeper at the district level. So, we did do that. We are bringing forth uh five district level positions that will be cut for a total

308savings of $334,731. Um, we are not disclosing exactly what those positions are at this moment because some of those employees do not know about those cuts yet. Once we have delivered that information and have governing board action to support that, I am happy to get a full list of those positions to the governing board. And I'm standing for discussion and questions. Mr. Shy. >> So, one thing I'd like to do is frame the options in term of dollars. I want to make sure we're all it's I think we're trying to solve a math problem here and I want to make sure we're all working at the same one. It may not be if we have different opinions. I'd like to make sure we're all thinking the same thing. Um, if I can share a screen,

309I I kind of put the the numbers in a different format. Um, so looking at the three options and all of the line items that we have. >> I'll rely on it to make that magic happen. >> Got it. So, first thing is going back to what we talked about, this as I understand it is our math problem. with the bottom line being the 3.6 million that we need to come up with. So this is with the salary increase. This is with the transfer from DAA of 5.4. So given that the 3.6 is the target we have to hit. >> 3.7 thank you math. Um so given that here are the three options option one, two and three with all the line items for each one. And on the right, if you total them up,

310you can see that it's a 4.48 million, a 4.33 million, a 4.23 million. Given our targets 3681, we see how much wiggle room there is for each one. So knowing that everything we you know you know we have wiggle room we can get that down further if we want to but that might cause issues for next year but the way I like to frame it to make sure we're all talking the same thing is are we looking at these three options and saying we need to get to 3.681 million in savings and each of them gets us there with a little bit of extra on top. So Dr. Dr. Menzel if you have any comments or anyone from the board. Are we thinking this the same way? I want to make sure we're >> Where

311is this item? I didn't did was this emailed to us or how how are we >> the same numbers you have? I >> just a different way. >> Just different look. It's the exact same numbers. >> Okay. Because I've never seen this. >> It's the exact same numbers on the sheet we were all emailed. >> Okay. I'm a little confused on why it's being presented differently right now. >> To make sure we're all trying to solve the same problem. You guys, I I have no idea what you guys are looking. >> Yeah, I was going to say we have a board member that can't see this. >> Okay, I talk through it. We need to come up with 3.681 million in savings given the options we have, unless there are other options being brought to

312the table. >> Is this something we can email to board member Warner? I I don't know if it's in a PDF form. >> I can do it right now. Sure. >> That would be great. Thank you. Y >> because it's it it is the it's the savings that were identified in the three options in the Excel spreadsheet. So it's just putting it all in in one slide so that you can see the delta between options one, two, and three reflecting some of the feedback that was given by the governing board in the discussion on January 20th. And um >> is governor bar member shy correct that all three overshoot the target to a certain extent >> that that that is correct in the sense of for next year. So if you if you take the

313structural deficit for two years part of the the thinking was these are very difficult painful conversations. Do we want to be back at this again next year having the same difficult conversations? So, I'm happy to start. >> Go ahead. >> Um, so I've said this before, I want to say it again. Um, if this was a board of one person, uh, which would be me in this scenario. Um, I shouldn't say this lightly because it's very serious. Um, I would I believe we should be closing more schools, operating a smaller footprint so that every school we do operate is as fully resourced as possible, has better guidance counselor ratios than we have now, has teacher librarians, has a dedicated AP, has registered nurses. If I think we need to shrink to grow and if we

314want to counterposition to the other options that are available to families in Scottsdale, the way to do that is by playing to our strengths. And the fastest way to continue to decline in enrollments is to do what seems fair and spread pain and spread costs and slowly dilute the quality of the experience, which I think only tips, you know. So, for example, we have underutilized elementary schools and now potentially our high schools. I'm looking at you. I'm not directing this to you. You're just the poor person standing at the podium. Um, you know, we now have underutilized elementary schools. Those families understandably believe that the last option should be to close their school. It's really harsh to say, "I'm sorry." But actually that may not be the right way to think about it because by

315choosing to continue to operate your school now our high schools have an experience that is less than what we could have provided had we made a more difficult decision. So um I I'm just speaking to myself I guess in that sense. I'm only one board member of five. I know we have phase two ahead of us and that's going to be very emotionally challenging but I I want to continue to say that I believe we are not going far enough to reduce the number of sites sufficient to be able to resource the sites we operate at a level that is going to retain let alone attract and grow families. So that's kind of principle one. Um not surprising given that is my view. Um I go pretty quickly to option three and would even go

316further and say because I believe we need to consider a third school on top of the two that are in phase two. While I understand that we're just pushing this down to next year, I would vote to maintain council ratios as they are now, eat into the cushion and I would rather vote to close another school. Again, this sounds incredibly harsh. I don't mean it this way. um you know this is in a lease bad option world but if I was treating this as a business um uh in order to maintain the quality of what we're offering and you know I feel terrible that that still means middle school teacher librarians I feel terrible that that still means security a lot of people are still affected in what I'm proposing um it is not you

317know I have been on the unpopular ular side of the room before it is not just because of what the room said. I really do believe that a defining experience of high school students is that counselor relationship. I believe it's critical to enrollment. I believe it is critical to many of the outcomes that we care about. I can't pretend that 25 student ratio change is going to dramatically change the world. you know, I'm not, you know, in that sense, but as a point of principle, I believe that we should be pushing to find savings elsewhere. Um, as opposed to creating stress at a ratio that I already believe is a competitive disadvantage to us. um when I talk to other families who have made the decision, you know, to go elsewhere and especially and finally

318when we are making cuts in other areas of, for lack of a better term, social services such that it becomes a compounding effect like we're squeezing the balloon in on the counselor and then the air goes in another direction, but we're squeezing that direction too, you know, through some of the support services and social work decisions we're making. So, it makes Yeah. So, for all of those reasons, um, I would support option three and would even go further and support an option three, which defers the council ratio change in pursuit of a third school site closing, you know, or or other considerations. My question then is I know the timing of this is because we're we have to send out contracts, >> correct? So, you know, so, so I don't want to defer this. I

319don't want to not leave tonight having made difficult decisions. I'm trying to think of how to phrase this question. If we were to ultimately just just as a thought experiment, if we ultimately decide that we do need to find that 360,000 and we were to find it in additional cuts to personnel, I should be asking this to you, cuts to personnel elsewhere in the district, we can still make this decision now and make those cuts later. That sending someone a contract now does not preclude us from later deciding, I'm sorry, we've got budget emergencies and we have to make cuts. Does it, >> Dr. Patinsky? No, it does not. Um, our our dependencies are that we would need to >> have clear direction tonight. Would you like me to stop talking? >> No. No. I

320You're right, Dr. Cruz. ARS 15544 would permit the governing board to do a reduction in force after contracts are issued. In my 35 years of practice, I've never had that happen. All reductions in force have always occurred before contracts are issued because you would have a Well, Dr. Cruz is right that you could you would if you issue the contracts and then you cut the position you have the risk of a contract action. >> Got it. Thank you. That's the question I wanted to answer. >> I was going to >> um Okay. >> So trying to not make all the decisions tonight start to preclude the other ways in which we could get to that 360,000 after contracts are issued. Um, but also to governing board member Shy's point, you know, not he didn't make

321this point, but as his illustration demonstrates, there is space to meet next year's fiscal budget and choose not to make that part of option three a reality. For all I know, other board members have a different thing that they're tweaking, but it's just, you know, asking in terms of my own. >> So, I think that part is is accurate. Uh, so you'd be getting closer to you lose margin, but if you didn't do the counselor piece, the 359 still doesn't put you below the 37. >> From a mathematics perspective, I think it's worth having conversations about the other things that have been identified um in last in on the conversation on the 20th, you brought up in particular the community specialists. And so, are we um disadvantaging the kids most in need um by making

322that change, which is a 260 $261,000 delta? I mean, so I think that's the that's the conversation. >> Absolutely. These are all least bad options. Someone else could have a different value. Um every family matters, every service matters. I've written this in my emails. If there wasn't a stakeholder group that was upset about us making a decision, then we've been spending money unwisely. I mean, I I assume we're only doing things that have value and matter. You know, I would get comfortable with the decision because as important as these other roles are, the G guidance counselors have such a multifaceted impact on their high schools, not you know, so but that's that's me. Someone else may come to a a different conclusion. Um, so, uh, where my head is going into the discussion, I genuinely

323want to listen to my peers, is that we, um, we should be considering a third school closure in phase two or after phase two. Um, and we should limit as much as possible the cuts to the quality of the experience that attract families to our district. Um, and keep families in our district. And to me, the counselors are the top of that list. So, but I could be convinced to vote for option three. Um, you know, I can't fall on my sword that 25 a 25 student ratio makes that difference. Um, but I would like to strongly lobby my peers to eat into the cushion and give ourselves more time. >> Miss Carney. >> Thank you, President Lewis. Um, all right. I'm just going to speak my piece. Um, so it's frustrating to me that

324there's a refusal to look at the overspending in the district departments. I can't wrap my head around why we are cutting positions that directly impact our students and our school sites while continuing to spend excess money on marketing companies, consultants. I will say it again. I've been speaking about this before I was even on the board. I see nothing about cutting from the 1.357 million marketing budget. Our last meeting publicly, I asked a couple times for the board to receive a list of all the programs and positions that have been added since 2019 and we didn't receive that. So, you got to ask yourself why. I also want to say that we are really fortunate in this district that our voters approve our overrides. If you go on the Arizona Auditors um website, you can

325see for fiscal year 2025, we got $36 million from our voters. And I don't think our voters are for this. I I just from what I hear and what I see and what I know, I don't see how they could be for this yet. They are investing. They have invested in our district. And I'm really disappointed that we are making these sweeping decisions for every school where full and thriving schools, they need and deserve these positions and I mean in structural sport support specialists like the these you can go down the list and they're vital positions and I don't see how we continue to spend all this money on consultants and and marketing companies yet we're cutting we're willing to cut title positions. I just don't agree with it. I want to ask um a

326question on how let's go to the health assistant. Um let's I'm going to take one school for example. Um, I'm concerned that we're moving uh the success and the K2ABC special education programs to Cherokee Elementary and then we are cutting trying to cut their health assistant who is already really meaningful to that community and they're going to need more support. So, I I'm just disappointed in this. Um, I haven't seen, like I said, I don't know why. I continue to ask for information and it's not brought and nothing nothing has changed. Um, and I know we're to respect the IBM process. I respect that. I respect that there was different options being brought forward, but I just still don't think it's it's good enough. Thank you. Miss Warner, would you like to chime in? Yeah,

327I want to thank the the IBM team that had the burden of putting this together and I want to apologize that you had to because this has been going on for years of misspending and budgets that have come forward that have been recommended that were were bloated with executive credit to see and I feel just like November details and I'm just really sorry that in this position. I apologize to all of the people that we have met with and who are concerned about their jobs because this is not how it should be. >> Mr. Shy, >> Miss Carney, I really appreciate your point. I Is there specifics that you can help bring forward? Because I'm with you. I would much rather cut and not have to touch these positions. Um, I just don't know the

328detail and I looked through the the details that were sent to us and all the programs that were there. Um, I'm just wondering has there been conversation from a more surgical standpoint? Can that 1.3 come down to 1.1 and we could save a line on here? Have you had those conversations? >> Well, did you hear me ask at our last meeting from for the programs and positions that have been added since 2019? >> Did you receive that information? >> I thought there was a B memo with that. We did. >> No, I've been a I've been I've been asking for where I mean I'm grateful that we came forward with some positions. Um but that's not even part of this. So that's on top of this. >> No, it's included in here. >> Oh, on

329your slide maybe, but not >> it was in >> not on the It says on right the the position not Miss Carney. It is not on our on our options spreadsheet. That is correct. >> Right. So, so respectfully, we've shown repeatedly in our budget workshops and all the rest the 25.25 FTE cut from district office, the 1.4 million in savings. We've reduced the communications team by three or three and a half FTE. Uh we have uh when you spend money, you talk about the contracts, the board has voted, not unanimously, but they voted to support Let's Talk and the two-way communication tool that we have. We spend money on parent square so that we can enhance communication with our parents. You've seen the entire expenditure budget for communications and haven't recommended what you think we

330should strike through. But those things that we've spent have been based on how we enhance communication in connection with our community. We've heard time and time again from the puma community, from the echo community, from the phase 2 communities, we should be doing more marketing, not less marketing. We should be doing more. And yet you've said here at the board table, we should be doing less. I don't think it's correct. And I want to challenge the missspending comment that was made because that's not what's been reflected here. We had ESSER money that allowed us to pay for certain contracts. You could see tonight the evidence of the work of our team to have highquality guaranteed curriculum. And yes, we are blessed with a community that has supported Scottsdale Unified School District. But we have a

331state that does not support public education. It does not value the investment in public education. We have elected officials who don't care that the billion dollars have been redirected without transparency. And so we're forced to make these very difficult decisions not because of any mismanagement here. And I will say that it was a governing board, not the IBN team that added a million4 to our expenditures when we had 1% increase given when IBN was recommending one and we added a percent to that. We knew that's a compounding impact. Those decisions impact the kinds of choices we now have to make. The decisions this board makes tonight will impact the decisions we make a year from now. That's the the truth. And so we either do what Dr. Patinsky has suggested and go further in closing

332buildings or we we uh take the hard decisions now. But at the end of the day, you could choose not to give payraises to our people and you would have three million that you could lop off of this. You could protect the positions, but you wouldn't be able to give payraises. There's always a trade-off here in the IBN process, which I am truly grateful. I look at the people who have put their next on the line to say, "How do we make these responsible recommendations?" This is really hard. And if we're not going to be able to get support for those things, I don't know who's going to come to the table to make those decisions. I respect the challenge. I care about the people in the system, but this is not because we have

333ignored those other costs and we continue to pursue those other costs. But everyone wants it to be done to someone else. We still have a lot of angst about the two schools that have been closed already. So I I I need to push back on the false narrative. We've given information. Now going back to every contract and every consultant since 2019 is more than two hours worth of work. I'm denying that request even though it wasn't given in writing pursuant to board BCC. Until the board decides to vote to say we should spend time looking back seven years, I think we need to talk about where we are and where we're going forward. That's a good use of our time. A sixyear, sevenyear retrospective doesn't move us forward as a district. >> U Mr. Shy,

334>> president Lewis, >> I'm going to call Mr. Shy and then I'll do Miss Warner and then >> respond. >> Okay, go ahead. >> I I have a I have a I'm sorry. I have to I rebut on something that Scott just said. Um there was over a million dollars spent on travel and conferences that was tucked into the budget where we're unable to see the the um compound effect of that. There were millions of dollars spent in contracts that board member Carney found and there so yes there was missspending and not one time up until September did we start having a conversation about this. So you're wrong, Scott. >> I think it's important because for exactly the reasons governing board member Carney mentioned, we go to the voters. We ask them to trust us

335to approve the budget. There is a big difference. Something is not a misspending because we don't agree with it. Right? Missspending is we gave you money for software and you went out and you threw a dance party. misspending is not I don't believe that marketing is a good use of our that's a position but we have made the decision and I firmly believe it's the right decision to pro also protect certain spend spending and investments we are in this challenge because of enrollments the worst thing we could do is unilaterally disarm versus all of the other competition and not spend any money on marketing and I think Dr. Dr. Mensel is right in pointing out that that was one of the top areas of feedback we got from the schools is they wish there was

336more marketing support. So I want to be clear. We have been given every single position in the district office. We know exactly every person. We know how much they make and we know what function. I can tell you today that of 293 people, 55 of them are not really district. They're more sightbased. I can tell you how many secretaries there are and I can have an opinion about that as just one person. I can tell you the largest administrative departments are IT, finance and HR. Um so just really important for the community to understand we have been given complete and total transparency of data for every single person that works at the district office. Now there's other district expenses like software and so on. Uh I'm focusing because it tends to be the biggest part

337of our budget uh on people. We also get from the auditor how we compare to other districts of our size. We are not the most efficient to be clear, but we're below median, which in this case is a good thing. Uh so more than half of the districts of our size spend more per pupil on district expenses than we do. And that's even with a mclassification where we're kind of dinging ourselves by classifying some things at the district level that other districts don't. And many of these district expenses started originally as site expenses. The way to which we wanted to save money was to centralize them at the district level. And that's like a story as old as time that people forget that the reason why we centralize something was to save money then point

338at it and say why do we spend so much money on it? So I just think it is does a disservice to the district to describe differences of opinion on what we should spend as misspending. It is that is that that I I really take offense at at at that characterization. Um so all of that being said, I actually do believe there is room more for I I you know that's why I asked the question is you know can we push continue to push harder at the district level? I think some of our HR staffing ratios, some of our f finance staffing ratios, actually our administrative assistant ratios. I do think there are places on the margins that I would push even harder above the five, but this is not a oneanddone process. This is

339an evergoing process. Um, so in just one year on the board, do I know what's been added in the last seven years? No. But what I know is what we're spending right now. and that feels like the most relevant set of data to begin to to work from. So we are in this situation because demographically there are fewer school age kids in our district. We are in this situation and if it upsets us to be in the situation, we should only be voting for state legislators who want to increase per pupil funding and want to create a true level playing field in the competitive marketplace. uh as opposed to having public schools have all the rules and our competitors have no rules. >> Mr. Shy, >> I'll state my piece and you sort of stole

340the thunder with that last comment about it really is the legislature. I saw the last thing that was put on the table last week was a proposal that if a superintendent gets a bonus then everybody in the district must get a bonus as a way to sort of curtail. That's not serious legislating in my mind. That is not serious. That is not someone who cares about public education. >> This is not agenda. I saw >> I was gonna I was about to gavvel. Thank you. But uh as as we channel it back to our budget, >> part of saying my piece about why we're here because I need to justify why we're here. Um the uh I appreciate that when we had our study session um we collectively pushed back on the district um the

341uh 334,000 that's on this list now was not on there. Um and you know that was from the board pushing back and saying that there needs to be skin in the game from the district. And so that to me is a constructive way that the board can give distinct feedback and work with the district to find those reductions. Um so I'm happy that those came to the table. Um uh the short answer to me is very similar to board member Patinsky. I would support option three with uh keeping the counselor ratio as is and striking the um uh increase to 401 ratio. Again, with all due respect to every position here that is important to our families, to our kids, to our staff. Um, you know, I I don't want to cut any of these

342if we don't have to. Um, but I would support option three with keeping the guidance counselor ratio where it is today. >> Go back to marketing real quick. >> Yes. Go ahead. So I I think with two things that the study session no one was willing to address product and culture as possibly being reason for declining enrollment as well and additionally we talked about how the product doesn't match the brand and what that means is we're spending over a million dollars a year marketing but based on result the message is wrong and it's about adjusting the message and producing the product that we are that matches is our brain. >> Any other comments? Go ahead, Miss Carney. >> I want to say and I I've said it before, I hate it. I hate even having

343to say it be because I feel like I'm I'm the one always the one talking about it. Talking about that I'm trying to find a solution of an area that I feel we can cut and that no one seems to to look into it or or care. So that is just me bringing that forward as a solution as I would in my own business, right? Figure out where and that that's it. So if no one else thinks it, then we cut we cut here at the school sites. Uh I'm going to uh attempt to summarize. I want to make sure everybody's had a chance to vent and talk and think. All right. So, uh, I'm going to make a motion that we opt for option three minus the guidance counselor ratio change, which would absorb

344the 549,000 uh, over the amount down by 359,000. So, whatever adjustment that is, that puts us more right at target savings. So that's tighter than I like, but uh respect the uh uh reasons for it. Uh this is also a a necessary decision this evening for contracts and then as we look at a maybe larger footprint next year, a more aggressive footprint for phase two, we can have that conversation in our ongoing budgetary conversations. Uh so I I will make a motion to approve option three minus the uh guidance counselor ratio change. I need a second. I'll second the motion. >> All right, we'll do a roll call vote. Uh, Miss Warner, >> no. >> Dr. Patensky, >> yes. >> Miss Carney, >> I'd like to explain my vote. >> Go ahead. >> Um, I'm

345going to abstain because I did not get the information that I requested on positions and programs from 2019 to current. >> All right, Mr. Patensky, I'm sorry. you. >> Yes, >> Mr. Shark is a yes and Dr. Lewis is a yes. So, it uh passes 311 and thank you what for IBN for all of its painful work to bring that forward to us. appreciate everything that everybody's done and we will continue to keep finessing our understanding and uh development as we look to the continued decline that our demographers uh have projected for us. All right, that brings us now to action 10, what was formerly B and now C. Approve employee contract language and listed benefits for school year 2627. Dr. Cruz. >> Thank you, President Lewis and governing board. Um I thank you for

346moving this item um after the budget saving options. I do want to just call out um one more change that I did not call out in the background. Um the performance pay has also been removed for principles and APS from those contracts because it is on the green section that you just voted yes on. So um we did not want to have this option come before the budget savings vote. If not, I would have been amending my recommendation for this evening for those contract templates. Um, all the other contract templates are um really just form and function, date, change, etc. Um, the other large one that I will call out uh specifically asked for was the removal of performance pay from senior cabinet level contracts. That has also been removed. >> Comments from the board.

347Questions? on the removal of performance pay. Obviously, it's been enacted for this year. >> I'm assuming we would want an option to bring it back. Is there a way to have the wording where it's optional that we don't have to sort of put it in and out of the contracts every year or is that the best practice to do that? I just >> I'll defer to Miss McClennon. >> Thank you, Dr. Cruz. Uh 15502 allows the governing board to set employee benefits for the ensuing school year. Once contracts are issued, it's very difficult to increase those benefits without a gift of public funds argument. So you can't if the employees agreed to do the job for the time space um it's difficult to increase it. >> Thank you. >> That being said, Mr. Sharky, you

348certainly could revisit that for um a subsequent year. >> I'm just thinking of making it easier than we have to change it every time. >> Correct. >> Miss Carney. Yeah, I I um would like to see us readress that because I don't believe that we should be taking the performance pay away from the the principles that that's something they work hard for and and deserve and they already don't get paid enough for that. >> We we can modify the contract language this evening, >> Madame President. That that's undoing your vote. >> Oh, in the in the >> That's correct. >> In the budget. >> It's undoing the vote you just took. >> Okay. Thank you. Dr. Patensky, any comment? >> No. >> Miss Warner? >> No. >> All right. I'll make a motion to approve

349approve the employee contract language and listed benefits for school year 2627 as presented. >> Second the motion. A >> motion and a second. All those in favor? I >> I I. All those opposed. Miss Warner, I I'm unclear on your vote. >> I said I. >> I'm sorry. I didn't hear it. Thank you. That's passes five to zero. >> Thank you, governing board. >> Thank you. Um, Miss Dr. Cruz. Uh, we are now at item 10D, read second read and approval of the middle school planning guide for 2627. We had a discussion about this previously. I think you're you have some feedback from that. Any additions? >> Uh we don't have any additions or changes. Dr. Jagadinski is here to answer any additional questions um should you have any. But we would just uh our

350recommendation stays the same for the second read. >> I make a motion to approve the middle school planning guide for 2627 as presented. I need a second. >> Second. >> All right. Any discussion? All those in favor? >> I >> 50 pass. Approval of supplemental materials for the 2526 school year. Uh Dr. J. Good evening, President Lewis, Vice President Chie, governing board members, Dr. Mensel, Glattus, and guests that are still here. Uh, this evening, I'm bringing forward a recommendation for supplemental materials for the 2526 school year for your consideration and approval. I'm happy to take questions. I'm also happy to move through this presentation. >> I know we saw this earlier, did we not? >> Um, I believe the information was sent to you. It was moved from the January meeting until today. >> Okay.

351How many slides is it? Because it's 11:03. >> Not many. I'm happy to go through it really quickly. >> All right. Why don't you do a abbreviated version, please? And then we'll take you on on if there's more questions. >> Yeah. This year in response to the need really from our administrators and um the community is to revisit the supplemental approval process. Um this was something that traditionally has been done at the end of the school year for the following school year in a large fail swoop. Um that didn't account for any new opportunities that would come up. Um so we convened a committee in the fall. They have um a few recommendations for you this evening. As I said, we do have um committee members from teaching and learning department, gifted services, student services,

352special ed, as well as instructional coaches from EL, ELA, and CTE. Um, we also have parents and a community member as well on the committee. This work is of course guided by state statute and policy. Just a real quick definition of materials so that everybody's on the same page. We have district adopted curriculum that is utilized 80% or more of the time in our classrooms. Supplemental books and novels. Um, supplemental materials which are district approved materials. um financial support district provided coaching used at multiple sites up to 20% and then teachers have the opportunity to utilize ancillary materials with the approval of their site administrators. Um the materials that we're bringing forward this evening are CTE the medical terminology uh mastering the basics as well as the NASM essentials of personal fitness training ebook and

353companion workbook. These support our CTE pathways and align with industry standards. For Desert Canyon Elementary School, the committee is recommending all things EQ academic and learning, I'm sorry, academic and leadership skills, which provides tools to support student leadership and social emotional development. In accordance with state statute, all of these materials were placed on public display beginning November 21st um through today. And we are requesting your approval to move forward with these resources. >> Questions or comments from the board? Hearing none, I make a motion to approve the supplemental materials for 2526. >> Did you mean 2526? >> Yeah, for the remainder of the school year and then for future >> Okay, I got confused on that. Thank you. Uh for 2526. Uh I need a second. >> Second the motion. >> Um all those in

354favor? >> I passes five to zero. >> Thank you. All right. Approval of fourth amendment to intergovernmental agreement IGA between SUSD and the city of Scottsdale city for audit services. Dr. Menel, >> this should be relatively straightforward. It's a one-year extension of the agreement. Uh and then any specific audit that were to be entered into would have another addendum that outlines the uh the terms of that particular audit. Right now, we don't have one in Q because we're already in process with a different audit. uh and considering a different company for uh the next audit. >> I make a motion to approve the fourth amendment IGA between SUSD and the city for audit services. >> Second, any comments or questions? All those in favor? >> I I passes five to zero. We will do future

355agenda items and then we will uh adjourn into executive session and then resume to adjourn our general session. So let me go through future agenda items with board members. Board members, would you like to put on in writing future agenda items? >> What do you mean in writing? Are you >> Well, it's protocol to put in writing what you'd like to see happen so that the the staff >> So you say it here, but follow it up with an email. >> Yeah. formalized request. >> I'd like to talk about, you know, PE programs. >> Yes. I have two topics. Um, we received an email from a uh from a parent about kind of gifted and the general criteria for gifted. It's a topic that I've been interested in as we've addressed in the handbooks. You

356know, do we have it feels like we've shifted from a world where and honors tied to gifted in the upper grades where it was more open enrollment. It's become a lot more selective. Uh, I know at my son's middle school, there are now clubs or electives that require being designated as gifted to be part of the electives. I'm just someone who believes in opening up as many pathways for students to get excited and engaged in curricula and challenge themselves. So, I'd like and I'll tie I'll be tighter on the scope, but I would like us to spend a little bit of time doing a deeper dive into how we approach gifted and honors. Um, and then the second topic is >> with an admissions focus. Is that what I'm hearing? >> Let me let me

357put it in writing more concretely. And then the second topic is picking up right where we left. >> We do have all the data that I described about the district. Um, >> we have not discussed the data. And so I I do both for public confidence and also for opportunities for continued savings. Even if it turns out not to be in this budget cycle once contracts are initiated, I would like to see us at a study session or in a typical board meeting to do a deep dive into the district office, how it's organized, where the heads are distributed, you know, and just bring more general community understanding about our district office expenses. >> Thank you. Other future agenda items? Miss Carney? No. Miss Warner. Mr. Shy? >> No. Okay. >> Thank you. Okay. I'm

358good, too. All right. Uh, we will have our upcoming meeting March 10th at 6 PM will be a regular regular governing board meeting here in Coronado High School. Uh, we will not be adjourning the general session at this time as we will be moving into executive session. We will ask our audience to uh go ahead and dismiss and we'll stay in this room for our executive session. Thank you all for a long and committed evening. Sorry, Madam >> President. May I suggest a motion? >> A mo I need a motion to go into executive session. >> Correct. So the the motion that the governing board needs to make is a motion to adjourn to executive session pursuant to 38431.03A3 03 A3 for the purpose of getting legal advice regarding the I the resignation pulled from

359the consent agenda. So moved. >> I second the motion. >> All those in favor? >> I >> thank you. That passes. I make a motion to a >> reconvene the general governing board meeting. >> Do I need a second? >> I second the motion. >> All those in favor? >> I I >> I think that was a 5. All right. Um, we are continuing the consent agenda item that was pulled on Victor Bobbit to accept the resignation. I make a motion to accept the resignation of Victor Bobbit. Need a second. >> Second motion. >> All right. Any discussion? All right. All those in favor? >> I. All those opposed? No. >> Karen, >> I'd like to explain my vote. Explain my vote. Go ahead. >> Um, >> there are just some times that terminations apply

360and in my opinion, this would be one of them. So, being that that's not an option for us, according to legal counsel, I'm going to um abstain. Motion passes. >> Motion passes 311. I make a motion to adjourn the meeting. >> Second. >> All those in favor? >> I >> Okay. And the motion passes at 11:30