001a story. Do I Okay. Okay. Or a paragraph or whatever. Yeah. Just call the public meeting, right? Okay. Thank you. Uh Dr. Menzel is uh out ill, but he's joining us by telephonic uh teams. Is that what it is? Are you there, Dr. Menzel? I am here. Good evening. Good evening. And uh we'll do all the other roll call later. All right. So, just uh as in now, call the meeting to order. Let's do a roll call of uh who's here. Amy Carney, Mike Shy, and Donna Lewis. Thank you. Uh the presentation on the adoption of the proposed fiscal year for 2526 expenditure budget uh is uh something Shannon's going to share with us at this time. All right. Um, good evening, President Lewis, Vice President Shy, members of the board, uh, Dr. Mensel and
002guests. Tonight we are here to, um, go over the 26 2526 expenditure budget. Um, and so we will go through here. Uh, some of this we've talked about before, budget development. We, um, are using the old forms for the budget. We don't have a budget yet from the state. Hopefully that will happen soon. Um but for now we have the old forms. Because of that um we have increased the uh average membership to accommodate for that change knowing that there should be and the budgets that are out there right now do include the 2% increase to the base. Uh average daily membership we anticipate that being reduced by 380 based off of our historical information. uh student weight account then would be a reduction of about $2.3 million. We've got an increase in our amount
003per student of 2% which kind of levels out the reduction in ADM loss. Reduction in our budget balance car carry forward of 3.1. So we're looking at a reduction in our revenue of our M revenue of 2.7. We have in the budget to move 4.2 million from capital to M. that'll help cover the um increases for staff this next year as well as a payment for medical insurance to help out with premiums for employees. And then the classroom site fund increased from 792 per student to 842 which equates to about $714,000 in additional funds. Um the expenditure budget encompasses lots of different funds. We talk a lot about M and really that's because M is the bulk of the money. That's where most things are paid for. In all, our total budget is just over
004$400 million. Um, as you can see again, most of that is from M 47 just over 40% 47% is in M. Um, but there are the funds like bonds, capital, cash accounts are multiple funds, classroom site fund, we have some IGAs, our self- insurance trust fund is as large as well as our state and federal grants. Um because M is the largest fund for us and where most things are paid for. We focus like I said mainly on that and so we'll take a look at some of more detail on the M budget. Um of what is budgeted 83% of that is salary and benefits as you can see here. Um purchase services I know some have asked before well 9.4 4 million in purchase services. That includes things like um our SRO's, uh phase
005retirement, private tuition, property casualty insurance, contracted custodial, some really large ticket items for us. Um again, the supplies that may feel awfully large, but supplies really covers it supplies, which is a lot, facility supplies. We have a lot budgeted for things to break down, be able to make repairs within facilities, and then fuel. I think we all know fuel is expensive. As we look at our M salaries, this breaks it down by type. So 66% or 79 point almost 80 million of the M salary is for certified uh 23% is classified and then 11% being admin. I want to point out that the admin also includes um principles and assistant principles. So it's not like if you're an admin at the district office, that's what it is. It includes positions that are administrative positions. Uh
006I'm not going to go over all of this. The next couple slides looks at things broken down by expense categories. And I kind of f I I did follow the uh auditor general's report that we get on spending, breaking it down by that function code. The only thing I broke out a little bit more is instructional support. I broke it out by what's on a campus, a school, and what's instructional support at the district office, like special education, curriculum, folks that are at the district office, but are still instructional support. But that gives an idea of what is in each of these areas. Um, as we look at it, and this is the right way it should look is the bulk of the M expenses budgeted are in the classroom. You can see it's 54.73
007directly in the classroom. And that is directly teachers, paras direct in the classroom followed by school support, instructional support. Um I broke out administration a little bit too. So I have school administration versus district administration. And then the other thing I would say in there is you get to 71% over 71% right there with the budget. But like maintenance and security, those folks are also directly on school campuses, but they're coded to maintenance and security. concern they're not included in there. That number if you looked at it would be even higher. It's just how it reports out function wise. But the bulk of the money is directly on the campuses. Um we have had to make some hard decisions this year looking at where we could find savings. Savings unfortunately most times comes from in
008the form of staff. Um we tried really hard to keep that as far away from schools as possible. But when the bulk of your um budget is at the schools, as it should be, that's a little bit harder to do. So, this takes a look at using those same categories, the FTE change. Um I don't have the number there, but I have the percent change. As you can see, um 18.7% of just M positions were reduced um from the district level whereas 14.6 from school level. And again, this is just M. There are positions at the district level that are paid from cash accounts. That's not factored in here. This is just within M. Where did we make cuts? Um, and again, like I said, most of our budget is at the school level. Um
009and so this is looking at how much of that M budget is directly on a campus versus how much is at a department not you know supporting a campus but um you know here at the MDA or um facilities or something like that. And so you can see that 85% of our M budget is directly on a school campus. And then this part, we talked about it a little bit um on the 10th. This is looking at the estimated tax rate. Again, we don't set the tax rate. Mara County Board of Supervisors does that. We have tried to keep that flat moving forward for next year, keeping in mind that um we do have to make up for a cash deficit from the Quasamire lawsuit refunds. Um but we did went down slightly, but it
010is pretty much flat for next year. And then just this last slide takes a look at we don't know what the rates will be for next year. Set rates for Maricopa. That doesn't come out until later, but looking at what the rates were for our peer districts for this last school year that we're about to finish up. Um comparatively, we are far um far lower on tax rates than our other districts. Um, and interestingly, the ones that are highlighted, not all of these districts have a bond, a capital override, and an M override, which we have all three of them. So, even with that, some of them just have um M overrides. So, with that, I'll take questions from the board. Thanks, Shannon. Um, on slide eight, with the uh classroom reduction of 5.14%. How
011does that What's the color there? Is that natural attrition? Is that you know shrinking that we've done? How does that compare to previous years? Just trying to understand the uh whatever that is 60 FTE and kind of where that comes from. Uh that is a great question. Um that is we we we didn't riff anybody. Um we did that through attrition. So we know every year there are folks that are retired and we didn't change class size ratios. So the ratios have been the same for many years. It really looked at based off of enrollment trends and where we believe enrollment will be for next year, projections for next year, what is the right class size and keeping that within the um ratios that we you know try to get to in all of our
012classes. Um so because of that that is we lose students means that we can bring down that FTE some but it is all done through you know folks retiring are leaving and so a staff member might get moved to another grade level or another school but um it's all done through so we have sort of absorbed I mean those 60s something people were doing work yeah and it's just been absorbed by others or through a little bit of reduction in class size of enrollment. Yes, it's bec enrollment going down. Okay. Yeah. And how does that compare to previous years? Do you know? Is that a um last year I believe was a little bit more so we had not really stuck to the ratios because we had ESR dollars which gave a lot more room
013and flexibility as those ESR dollars went away. Then we got to a point where we said we we actually do really need to go with what these ratio guidelines say um because we don't have the funding the additional funding coming through. So I would say last year I think was more so um than this year just because last year was the first time in a few years that we'd had to really look at what those ratios are and projections. Thanks. I just think it's a positive that you know it's not done through riff. It's natural attrition and you know we can absorb that because like we've stated before we don't want to make reduction in the classroom bucket if we don't have to and this is probably the least in uh kind of uh way
014to do it without affecting. Thanks. Amy, any questions? No. All right, just kind of hang with us there. Shann, you don't need to stay at the at the podium, but uh Arizona stat as we move to uh 2D. Arizona statute 15905D states that on request of any person, the governing board shall explain the budget and any resident or taxpayer of the school district may protest the inclusion of any item. Public hearings must comply with the provisions of open meeting law related to the rules of public comment as stated in 38431.01i. Uh accordingly the board will implement reasonable time place and manner restrictions as it's practiced and limited each speaker to two minutes. So at this juncture we invite the public to ask questions or come up and speak. Seeing none hearing none I will adjourn
015the uh budget hearing. And now uh we will open the meeting, the general meeting for the uh study session. We'll call the order and I'd ask everybody to stand for the pledge, please. Can we just skip that? I'm teasing. I'm teasing. I was just eager to say the pledge. Bear with me. All right. Since I blew that, Mike, would you like to make the motion? Sure. I'd like to make a motion that we adopt the proposed fiscal year 2025 2026 expenditure budget as presented in the agenda. A second. All those in favor I I I passes unanimously. Three three to zero. Now I would like to adjourn and start the uh the open the open meeting for uh our study session. So we please stand for the pledge. I pledge allegiance to the flag of
016the 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. And we'll do roll call again. Amy Carney, Mike Shy, and Donna Lewis. Uh, all right. Uh we'd like to make a motion to approve the agenda as presented. There will be an amendment uh to action item 8A, but we can wait until 8A for that. So, um I need a second. I make a motion to approve the agenda. I need a second then. I'll second Amy. All those in favor? I I I passes three zero. Dr. Menzel, superintendent comments. Well, good evening, uh, President Lewis and Vice President Shy and board member Carney. I'm sorry that I can't be there this evening, and I will keep my report brief since
017I do not know how the audio sounds in the room. Uh, but the first thing that I would like to do is to acknowledge some of our retiring administrators, some who are in the room tonight and some who are not. Uh but first I want to begin with Assistant Superintendent Margaret Cerna who after 25 years of commendable service is retiring from the district. And I'd like to ask you to join me in giving her a round of applause. [Applause] If we went through all of the things that Margaret has accomplished in her career, our meeting would be very long indeed. But uh her contributions to Scottdale Unified and her legacy will be felt long after she retires and I've been promised by her that she'll be available to provide support in the coming years ahead
018as well. So thank you Margaret. I also want to acknowledge general counsel Nick Bison who is uh moving on to take another position. I want to thank him for his service to the district. And then there are a number of others. Uh I'm not sure if they're in the room this evening, but I want to uh to also thank them for their service. Uh Michelle Watt, our chief systems officer, Dr. Kim Dods Karen, director of teaching and learning, Nancy Norman, communications manager, Amy DS, our director of college and career readiness, and Nathan Slater, longtime district athletic director. All of these people have made significant contributions in their own way to Scottsdale Unified School District. and we wish them well on their next endeavors and we welcome those who are coming in their place. So I
019just wanted to take a moment to acknowledge their service on the final meeting of this school year. The the last thing that I want to note this evening is that uh as is our practice in Scottsdale and has been for some time. We will be closed next week. Our offices uh there may be some people working u but uh the offices themselves will be closed and then we'll reopen for normal business to the public the following week. And with that, I'll conclude my report this evening. Thank you. And thank you to all who served Scottsdale so beautifully well. We are better for it because of you. Thank you. Uh we have no information discussion items and as we move into our study session, uh we'll move straight into action items 8A. Uh I'm going to
020make a motion that we approve 8A personnel action item. But uh board members, we have a memo with updates. As you know, HR works up until the 11th hour of the 11th minute of the 11th day uh to keep things sharp for us. So, the two adjustments are uh one under uh salary for Luke Strowmire, this the salary should read $89,913 and then we need to remove Michelle Parker from the report. So, as amended, I make a motion to approve the personnel action items. I'll second the motion. Any discussion? All those in favor? I I It passes 30. Under 8B, we have the approval of the umbrella general leave buyout plan for the SUSD employees. I make a motion to p What you want to you want to say something about that first? Uh Dr.
021Cruz, totally up to you, President Lewis. We certainly can provide any clarification. Why don't you stand ready for questions and we'll just go ahead and see if there are any before I make a motion. You have information just like to hear from Sure. So, President Lewis, uh, Mr. Shy, and Miss Carney this evening, um, I'm I'm very proud to bring this forward. We had a subset of our IBN negotiation team, um, members from each one of our four employee associations that worked together. Really, I would say probably about half of the year to put this leave plan together. Um, in years past, up until this moment in time, all four of our employee association groups have been treated a bit differently with their leave buyouts. And what this does is brings everybody into alignment. It
022doesn't matter your role in the district, etc. It brings everybody into alignment. So, um, we will be able to grandfather folks that are in under the old system, but as folks enter our new system or if they feel that this plan is more beneficial to them when they leave our system, they can choose this plan for themselves. So, we are very happy to do that. also to be able to capture it in a regulation in our policy manual so that it lives um in a place where everybody can find it um in an expedient manner and not just in an agreement um for for folks to try to find. So we're happy to stand for any questions. I've got General Counsel uh Busan who also helped and reviewed this with us. Um on the um
023agenda it says there's an estimated savings of 26k which I know is minimal. Um with the change or combining did any of the four association groups kind of get shorted or what was the sort of difference for any of them going to the existing plans to the current combined umbrella? Uh Mr. Shy, excellent question. So I would say nobody was shorted but what um I would say that everybody had a win-win right? So maybe some people had unlimited time that they would get paid for, but now it kind of caps that time for folks. Um, but it caps it at a higher percentage of payout and a payout for their daily rate rather than the substitute rate. So for so we feel that most are winners in in this and um all four employee association
024groups are on board with this and um we're happy to move forward with it. Great. Yeah. The fact that all four groups are happy and it's essentially revenue neutral is a probably a great outcome. So, thank you. And Mr. Shery, I do want to just call attention to the the savings that is based on last year's data. So, every year it might be a bit different depending upon who exits our system, but that was that was the best data we had right now. We just needed to run some tests on it and so the test proved worthy for us. Great. Thank you. I make a motion that we approve the umbrella general leave buyout plan as presented. I second. All those in favor? I. It passes 30. Thank you very much. Okay. Thank you. We'll
025move to item 8 C, approval of the 2526 association agreements. I'm happy to stand for any questions. I did capture for the governing board in an email um based on Miss Carney's input to just capture the changes from last meeting. So, I'm happy to to review those if you haven't had a chance to review your email. Hearing no questions. Oh, I see. Thank you. Please go ahead. Okay. Thank you, President I just had a a couple questions on the classified uh agreement. Why are we including the classified employee work schedule along with the posi 2425 classified position classifications and salary range? Uh member Carney, I believe that was taken out, but if not, we please need to take that out. I believe that was taken out. I'm looking at it right here. So, it we
026do have duplicative, I think, and I just didn't know if there was a reason why we No, but it it really doesn't need to be in there. Um, we have those in other places. So, if we can remove the 202425 classified employee work schedule as well as the position classifications and salary range and just keep the versions. That would be um I think that's that would be correct. Thank you for that. And then I just have a qu I'm just wondering why is the classified agreement 74 pages while the certified looks to be around 45 and then the administrators are around 31 32 what's the discrepancy in Excellent question Miss Carney so um these have really evolved over time and it encompasses a lot of um some of it's duplicative information some of it is
027spelling out policy that really doesn't need to be spelled out. So, that is one of the things on our list this year is to really clean up some of these and make them a little more streamlined and when it refers to policy, put a link in and refer to our policy manual. So, we always have the most up-to-date policy in our agreements. Um, and and we in HR are not owners of of the agreements, right? The associations own them. So we are working with them to make these updates and they they work really tirelessly to do this but as you can see it's quite a heavy lift. So uh that that is on our list for this year. So thank you. We hope to have more discussion around that. Perfect. Because I know it was
028hard as a board member. I mean the classified one is 103 pages for us, right? And and so I just streamlining it for everyone would uh would be ideal. So I look forward to seeing that streamlined before next year. Thank you. Uh last question on the classified. Well, I think this actually is throughout each agreement. On appendix G, the legal notice in the second paragraph, it says the vocational education program areas included in the program of studies for school year 2017 and 2018 are is that is that the correct language we want in the legal notice with the year 2017 2018 or is that something that needs to be brought up to current? I I will say this, Miss Carney, that not everything in the agreement is reviewed every year. So, we will earmark that
029for review this year. Thank you. Unfortunately, I'm a proofreader editor by by trade. We appreciate that. We need to get you on our front end, Miss Carney. Well, I catch a lot of it by email, but anyway, I just wanted to bring those to attention so we can get those into compliance. Appreciate that very much. And uh lastly on the certified agreement, last meeting I brought up the concern with adding um on page 44 I'm talking about on the certified agreement the pre-approved course topic of the culturally responsive instruction. And I had asked that we remove that and not um be focusing on um identity of students. And I see that you did add as defined by the Danielson framework. Could you please um describe what that means? What what do you mean by defined
030by the Danielson framework? The Danielson framework is our current um evaluation instrument and culturally responsive instruction is called out in one of our components that that we look for and and evaluate for in our classrooms and that teachers work towards. So that that is part of a framework that the board approved I want to say maybe two years ago. Um this was our very first year of implementation. Uh so it it's aligned. Yes. Okay. Yeah. You're um so I just want to be clear that you're saying that the board approved culturally responsive instruction when we approved the Danielson group teacher evaluation tool on June 6 of 2023. Even though there was no me there's been never been mention of it. It it is it is one line in a component in one of the indicators
031of the evaluation instrument and it is just part of that component. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. All right. And then maybe we can get those editorial comments to you ahead of time so we can have that next time. I'll just play with timing on that. Certainly. I will I will say that I did see right before our meeting started that Miss Carney requested a copy of the Danielson framework for the governing board and I'm happy to provide that um this week. Yeah, I said at your convenience. It had not it really didn't apply to tonight so that we have it for future. Okay, perfect. Thank you. All right. I make a motion to approve the association agreements as presented and knowing that we're going to work on some of the tweaks that were mentioned. Did
032you make the motion or ask? I made the motion. I second the motion. All those in favor? I I All those opposed? No. Okay. All right. It passes two to one. Um we're on eight. It passes two to one. 8 D. Approval of amendment two to the IGA between SUSD and Maropa County Head Start preschool program. Dr. Menzel, is there anything you want us to hear about that? I don't. Unless there are questions, I believe council is prepared to respond to any questions, but we recommend approval. All right. Would you like to make a motion, Mr. Shy? Uh, I make a motion to approve amendment two to the IGA between SUSD and Maropa County Head Start Preschool Program. I second the motion. Any further discussion? All right. Hearing none, seeing none, I will call for
033the vote. All those in favor? I I I. And it passes three to zero. 8E. Approval of the first amendment to the July 1st, 2022 IGA by and between East Valley Institute of EVIT of of Technology, also known as EVIT number 401 and Scottsdale Unified School District number 48. If there's no report, I'll I'll allow Mr. Bazan, you want to share anything or just available for questions? Just uh one thing to share. Okay. the EVIT uh board and superintendent have offered a one-month extension of the current IGA. This is the satellite program IGA and I'm asking this uh board to approve up to six months. uh we're still in negotiations and rather than try and meet over July uh to get another extension if we're not able to come to a full agreement by the
034end of July then I would ask um for this board to just extend it. Hopefully there will be a satellite program IGA uh in front of you in the beginning of August at your first meeting. Questions? Uh Mr. What's the risk of negotiations don't go well when there's no agreement? What is the impact? Is that get rid of programs, impact learners? Um, well, the satellite programs are already set to go forward this year and I know that we have the funding. I believe we have the funding for it to go forward this year. Um, so I don't think that uh the programs would still go forward this year. Um, but we're working as hard as we can to get an agreement. Thanks. Any other questions or comments? All right. I I vote that we move
035to approve the uh IGA between SUSD and EVIT. Second. Motion. All those in favor? I I It passes three to zero. All right. Thank you, Mr. Busan. uh approval of amendment uh 1A1 to intergovernment agreement IGA with the city of Scottsdale for school resource officers our SRO's for our SUSD schools did I skip F thank you I thought I just did Evit oh I did there's two sorry about that on Thank you guys 8F approval of the intergovernment agreement between SUSD and EVIT regarding the participation of students with disabilities in EIT central campus. Anybody have questions? I'll make a motion to approve 8F as written. I'll second the motion. All those in favor? I. It passes three to zero. Thank you for that. 8G, approval of amendment A1 to the intergovernment agreement with the city
036of Scottsdale for our school resource officers or SRO's for SUSD schools. Questions, comments? Miss U Carney. Thank you, President Lewis. I do have a question. Should I direct that to Mr. Freriedman? Probably. Come on up. In um number four under four 36 in amendment number one to the IGA it now says SRO's may provide law related education LRE on mutually agreed upon topics based on the needs of the district instead of school. So my question is what um what LRE did SRO's provide on our campuses this past school year? Thank you for the question. Um we've uh the SRO provide various topics such as when we had the ebikes uh they taught about ebikes, they've taught about school safety in general, they've talked about walking home, stranger danger, um things like that. uh we have
037been asked to uh provide for certain campuses topics such as uh dating awareness and that's why the agreement has changed a little bit to allow us to uh make sure that those topics come before the uh district for approval prior to those as well as um it's may because if we're under the grant funding we're required to we're required to do the LE but most of our SRO's are uh funded through the district So they're not required to do L re and occasionally it's more interruptive to classes than it's not. So it's uh it's a way to uh not have it mandatory when we don't need it. So is that is it currently decided at each school site what that school resource officer will provide or who decides? Yeah, it's uh between uh myself, the
038SRO sergeant, and the SRO's and the school site administration. Oftentimes, a teacher may ask an SRO to come in and just do a one-off at a at a classroom of something they're dealing with at that point in time. Other times, it's a topic we've do um uh we do follow some of the national curriculum as well for for different schools. It just depends on the age group and what's going on in the society. today when we had the threats earlier in the year. There was a lot of um LE related to that. Okay. And then lastly, how many SRO's do we currently um employ full-time? We we employ uh one sergeant for Scottsdale and nine nine officers for Scottsdale and two officers out of Phoenix. Okay. So, it's still the same 11, correct? We we
039will be getting additional ones this coming school year as well as the SSO program. Perfect. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Anything else? Okay. You want to make the motion? I'll make a motion to approve amendment one of the IG for SRO at SUSD. Second. All those in favor? I. It passes unanimously. Three to zero. Right. All right, we are on 8H. Second read and approval of governing board policy GB regarding staff conduct. We just need a motion if there's no questions. I'll make a motion uh to approve policy GB and second. All those in favor? I I it passes 30. 8 I second read and approval for governing board policy GBB regarding staff contact with students. Give us a motion. Mr. I'll make a motion to adopt policy GBB. Any questions or followup? I second
040the motion. All those in favor? I I passes 30. Second read and approval for governing board policy GBP, prohibitive personnel practices. I'll make a motion to approve policy GBP. I second the motion. All those in favor? I I passes 30. Uh K 8K is second read and approval of governing board policy JLF, the reporting of child abuse and child protection. I'll make a motion to approve policy JLF. A second. All those in favor? I I it passes 30 8 L. The second read and approval of governing board policy JR regarding student records. I'll make a motion to approve policy JR. I second the motion. All those in favor? I. And it passes three to zero. At this point, I need a motion to adjurnn. I'll make a motion to adjourn this meeting on June 24th.
041I'll second the motion. Okay. All those in favor? I I adjourned at 5:36 p.m.