001h go e e e he's ready good evening I'd like to call the order this regular meeting of the Scottsdale Unified School District number 48 governing board today is September 10th and the time is 601 board member Carney would you please lead us in the Pledge of Allegiance may I please have a roll call starting from my far right Karen Warner Amy Carney Julie sinowski liby Hart Wells and I'm Zach Lindsay we have three governing board members present and two in the cloud and we have a quorum moving on to item 2D approval of the agenda I've received requests to pull 6 n and 6 p as in Paul do I have any additional requests hearing none I move to approve the agenda as amended do I have a second second board member Warner second
002all those in favor please say I I I I I motion passes 5 moving on to 2E meeting deorum citizens attending Andor participating in in the Scottsdale unified school district meetings either in person virtually or telephonically are required to observe the same Rules of Order in De Quorum applicable to members of the governing board and staff unauthorized remarks or demonstrations for members of the audience yells outbursts and or other disruptions are not permitted with that we move on to student and staff recognitions and celebrations Dr Mensel good evening vice president Lindsay and members of the governing board we are pleased to introduce you tonight to some Elementary School Heroes a budding geographer extraordinaire one of our award-winning elementary schools and as strong of an susd employee team that you will ever find our first celebration
003arises from a recent Scottsdale Police Department recognition received by a pair of fifth grade students from the Department's Community Education Community engagement unit we want to welcome public information officer Aon Bolan and from Redfield Elementary School Aiden darling Jet versas and their principal Dr Mand Durand I got to push the button now we someone did it for me got it thank you uh my name is Aaron Bolan I'm one of our public information officers this last August we got to recognize two outstanding young people for calling 911 when they found a man yelling for help and an obvious need of medical attention they were nominated by one of the officers that also responded on this call officer alexic for a good citizen award on a warm June afternoon 10-year-olds at the time Aiden darling and
004Jet Verso were riding their bikes through the green belt near the honor hshe campus after fishing together when they heard a man yelling for help near one of the tunnels they were riding through they located the man about 25 yards from the bike path up one of the embankments of the green belt near a hospital building previously the man had been resting on about a three- foot wall when he lost his balance fell backward onto his back onto some River Rocks that were there that then sent his cell phone he was holding flying and now he was immobile and didn't have his own means to call 911 for help when the boys rode by and heard his calls for help they decided to do what we hope anyone would do they stopped found the man
005and called 911 to summon First Responders to assist him they stayed until First Responders showed up and spoke with officers alexic and Martinez about what happened they even asked if they could hang out to make sure the man was okay hospital security had been looking for the man for about 15 minutes prior to Aiden and Jet locating him Scott still fire ended up transporting the man for evaluation of his injuries and his high level of intoxication thankfully though his injuries ended up being minor Aiden and Jet show compassion for the injured Man by coming to his Aid and handled the situation with outstanding composure and maturity while summoning help and again we already awarded them with a good citizen award back in our award ceremony and I think their principal and assistant principal have something
006for them now but Aiden and Jet thanks [Music] [Applause] guys so Aiden and jet on behalf of Redfield and Scottdale Unified School District we are presenting you with our challenge coins so both of you can have these on top of your amazing Awards congratulations little Heroes [Applause] congratulations Aiden and Jet very proud of you another summer story uh took another summer story took AA Elementary School student to Europe here to tell us about it is ssd's director of gifted and accelerated learning Sarah tó Sarah thank you Dr Mensel good good evening vice president hartwell's and or sorry vice president Lindsay and governing board members we have another wonderful summer uh story to share with you I'd like to invite Kea Elementary fifth grader miles bear to join me up at the podium along with his
007former teacher Dean Baldwin and his principal Mr Matt gromack all right so miles is a motivated curious outof the-box thinker he's actually a self-published author with books on Amazon I learned can't wait to check one out um it's one of his passions but he also participates in the comprehensive gifted program now we learned about miles um as a youngster he had an aptitude for and a passion for geography and as young as four was lining up outlines of the world right countries in alphabetical order up and down the hallways of his home but Mrs Baldwin recognized this passion and she encouraged him to explore an outlet for it and Miles took a test to qualify for the national geography B and for the past two years has represented CUA and susd proudly at the national
008bees I think Washington DC in Orlando and this past year qualified for I got to I got to read it the international geography be World Champ championships and in July miles and his mother journeyed to the be competition in Vienna Austria it's pretty awesome he was one of only three Arizona students to take part in the B one of only 39 Elementary grade students from around the world and one of just 222 students from around the globe there were individual events team competitions buzzer beater takeoffs of the TV's Jeopardy and Family Feud events and Miles finished as high as 7 in the individual competitions and fourth in the team competitions but there's no way to measure what that entire 8 day experience was for you right are you going to go back in Paris next
009year maybe it it was it was pretty fun but it's a lot of effort to put in so all right well good for you and congratulations please accept this susd challenge coin and recognition of your summer adventures and accomplishments and I've got one from Mrs bwind as well thank you well done miles way to represent ke Elementary and we're very proud of you and we'll look forward to seeing future successes our celebrations continue now with Elementary education executive director Margaret Serna at the helm Margaret can you come and help celebrate one of our elementary schools thank you Dr Manzel excuse me it's good to be here with you again president hartw and governing board members as we Elevate excellent excellence in susd tonight I'm very very proud that Excellence comes to us in the form
010of Navajo Elementary Elementary School principal patof please lead your teachers and staff to the podium in June Navajo was named the Valley's best public school in the Community Choice Awards of course we were two weeks into summer vacation by then in August the school was and continues to be kneed deep in applying to become an A plus School of Excellence which brings us to tonight the best in the desert Community Choice Awards recognize the best organization and businesses in the Valley of the Sun in 220 categories including kids and education the nomination process began way back in December the online voting took place in February and in June Navajo was informed at a Gaya event that it had won we also want to acknowledge that Saro high school was a finalist in the competition but
011it is our buffalos who are being honored this year congratulation principal patoff to you and your outstand outstanding team for being the exceptional representative of susd that you are would you like to share a few words sure uh thank you president Hart Wells vice president Lindsay and members of the governing board for acknowledging us this evening Dr menel and gladus um just very proud to be a part of the Buffalo community so thank you for giving us the time for this uh every single day I get to witness firstand navoo students staff uh District leadership um and of course our community and parents working together and I have to say I'm in awe of it every single day when everyone comes together for a collective purpose help children reach the full potential and I get
012to see it every day feel very privileged to be a part of that so I'd like to thank navoo staff and families and students for being here tonight so everyone give him a round of applause thank you thank you okay principal Poff I'd like to present you with a challenge coin thank you for all your hard work and to the staff I just want to tell you that every time I walk in to your office the evidence of all the love and caring that you have for children is evidence so congratulations on your [Applause] honor congratulations buffalos we are proud of all the work you do and celebrate alongside you with respect to winning the best of the desert award our final formal celebration this evening is like our first one tonight the story of
013a rescue mission if you will but this time it's about two of our school campuses in a local public park and here to tell us about it is our director of Building Services raer Dennis the floor is yours two meetings in a row that I get to honor some of my folks it's uh it's it truly is a great honor um vice president Lindsay members of the board Dr menel uh thank you for having us tonight uh we had a pretty slim I would say pretty slim uh monsoon season this year uh but the storms that we did get boy they they sure impact Ed us uh I'll start with the one that happened at cois uh we ended up losing 25 trees at cois and these were not Twigs these were giant mature trees
014um that we lost uh the equivalent of about 76,000 lbs of trees were hauled off to the landfill once we were done so um the storm happened early evening uh we got word that there was a tree down um it was dark and we didn't realize until we got there first thing in the morning that it was a lot of trees that were down uh the team that uh arrived on campus and pulled it all together Greg Skelton Joe ekka Zack Ross Robert Beck Jeff Fuller Rick Parsons Francisco Morales Eric camps Andrew Bart Harry gabrielson John Henson Lance Barney and Robert Fuller they spent about 7 days working on that property trying to get it ready to go but the most important day was the day that they got there uh trees blocking the driveway
015trees blocking the sidewalks they get it all cleared and ready for the school day so for that we are very appreciative um I have a little story to go along with that one it's not often that our people are spending a lot of time with the kids and um I talked to Sheila and thought you know it'd be nice if if we got the guys in front of the kids and it's hard to pull together a a full school assembly right at the beginning of the school year so um Miss hanlin's class um made a nice little uh book of letters from the kids and last Friday we were there at the campus on the on the uh in the media center and the AP had had bought some pastries for the guys and the
016uh the the thing that was most compelling was four of the students from the class reading their letters to The Grounds Guys and you know we talk about because kids because kids um I've been doing this for 29 years and I've always said to my guys if you're not here for the kids you're here for the wrong reason everybody's here for a paycheck but if you're not here for the kids you're here for the wrong reason and uh the the group of guys that we have in our grounds Department the orange shirts um as everybody knows them um they are here for the kids they are truly here for the kids to get up at 5: in the morning and start cutting at 110° humid as all get out um didn't stop didn't didn't even
017hesitate just continued working um it was that little presentation um from the kids that I think made the biggest impact for those guys um to see the kids take the time and acknowledge them so absolutely a group of people that are because kids um then we had the Middle School sports festival that typically hosts a couple thousand kids uh this year's baseball and um volleyball uh program was in Jeopardy uh Friday morning the the event was to start on Saturday and Friday morning uh Mr Skelton was surveying the the uh fields for baseball uh not our property but at chapparel Park and noticed that they were covered in water uh can't play baseball too well in water um then they went over to Saro and sar's JV field was equally underwater so Greg Jump In
018Action as he always does um gathered his group of guys uh Keat nois Chris e Jim jiren Lance Barney Robert Fuller Don Henson Lucas bitzer and to their credit Whi those fields into shape and Middle School sports festival went off without a hitch so I would like to thank them and congratulate them for a job well done as usual uh Greg told me in the back of the room well that's just our job um not everybody always sees it that way and and I know that that this team uh when the chips are down can absolutely move mountains so thank you [Applause] fellas there's no shortage of work on a regular day so when you throw in the monsoon damage and the need to get schools open again this group does amazing work and I'm
019truly grateful for all that you've done it matters for our kids thank you two more quick items under celebrations uh one is that on Saturday Yavapai Elementary received a check for 5,000 from the Sprout store at Miller and Camelback uh the funds will help the school establish a pollinator Garden that it hopes will become a monarch butterfly migration Way Station and the the last thing is the semi-finalist in the 2025 National Merit Scholarship program will be announced tomorrow and while the names are still embargoed I can tell you that 22 SD seniors will be invited to submit app appliations for this award and that concludes the celebrations this evening we move on to superintendent comments Dr Mel four uh relatively quick comments this evening the first is tomorrow is September 11th I'm sure we can
020all remember where we were when we heard the news of the terrorist attacks on that fateful day in compliance with Arizona law our schools will be providing age appropriate lessons for our students to remember the lives that were lost as well as the impact of those events to sure they will not be forgotten secondly September is suicide prevention awareness month at SSD our goal is to ensure that our students families and staff have access to the resources they need to discuss how to prevent suicides and where and how to seek help when it is needed next Thursday September 19th our Support Services Department is partnering with the semicolon Society to provide a virtual presentation for susd parents and Guardians to help them learn to identify the warning signs of suicide how to start conversation about
021suicide and how to access helpful Community Resources and on the following Thursday September 26th SD is sponsoring a viewing of the award-winning documentary my Ascension at the Museum of the West in Oldtown followed by a panel discussion with families our support services staff and representatives of our local organizations we will be sending information out to our families via Peach jar for those who are interested thirdly last night at the EV governing board meeting they gave the green light for the next steps in establishing a fire science satellite campus here at Coronado that will begin in the 25 26 school year uh we are really excited to partner with evit and our students here at Coronado to provide this exciting learning opportunity we're also excited that the Scottdale fire department the charos and many others are
022ready to partner with us to ensure that it's a full and robust program and finally on Saturday we'll be hosting our third annual College and Career Fair uh this year will be at Scottdale Stadium Fieldhouse from 11: to 2 and you are invited to stop by and see the vast array of colleges and universities along with local businesses and partners who will be meeting and greeting students throughout the duration of the event moving on to public comments the guidelines for public comment have been shared during the meeting to Quorum statement and are outlined in board policy BH tonight we have five speakers when your name is called please approach the podium and state your first and last name in your association with the district after that you will have two minutes to address the board
023first up is Jeff R followed by Angela lero for the past 28 months I have requested to be placed on the agenda and have made 16 appearances at school board meetings last month board member sinowski noted the Swindle with was justified because I signed a volunteer contract this is what actually happened for 7 years I was a paid coach in the district my brother and I were rehired by principal Mr only to coach flag football at cocopa he was doing the eighth grade and I was the seventh grade both positions are listed in the governing board's Personnel policies and procedures manual as paid with all duties and responsibilities listed during the first week of practice Mr O was notified by Dr Manzel's office that I would no longer be a paid coach but my brother
024would be I guess they thought an old disabled veteran would be an easy Mark the next part is the key they told Mr O that I could only continue coaching these 32 families if I signed a volunteer contract was part of their plan it is settled law that a forced contract signed under coercion duress or intimidation is invalid the document that sinowski has been waving around the past two years is worthless but she and Menzel have brought you four board members to the jail house door their next move was to approach a close personal friend of sinosis they're both former presidents of the Scottsdale Education Association and told this lady that if she hung around my practice and games for the next 11 weeks they would be paid my $1800 coaching stien and they would
025provide a fraudulent contract in the finance office and that's what happened as a reward they're giving Dr Manel a two-year contract extension and Hefty performance bonus and yet they refused to authorize their lawyer to negotiate a settlement offer with me not a single penny for the victim of this scame as we speak the State Board of Education is conducting an investigation into Menzel's actions they are issuing subpoenas and interviewing people but they only go after people's licenses they told me there is sufficient evidence to file a complaint with the Attorney General's office they will go after the money and they will be bringing handcuffs Dr Hartwell I want to remind you that this Gus Rosen next up is Angela lero followed by Walter Masterson Angel Lucero and I am the parent of two susd students
026as well as a longtime employee of the district I am here to inquire about the co-curricular and extracurricular supplemental salary schedule I participate in clubs on campus and would like to present questions I have about the document on the SSD website as it pertains to the salary schedule my intentions tonight are not to downplay other positions but to understand how decisions were made in amounts as compared to the job duties and how experience levels impact pay was the salary schedule presented to the governing board prior for approval as it is written now was this salary schedule brought through IBN and was data and input provided before decisions were made why does a middle school club adviser make half of what a high school club adviser does they put in the same amount of time for
027things like events performances and practices the middle school students typically require more guidance and supervision than that of a high school student who may have more experience and is more independent an elementary teacher on assignment is also listed on there and wondering how or why an additional stien is needed for that role is the Middle School gifted coordinator position the same as a gifted specialist that serves on campuses in my experience they are given an additional planning period to cover their paperwork and case load in reading this document it seems as though they receive an additional stien of 3,000 plus dollars with very little if any outside of the day expectations they are paid more than most coaches and Club advisers who spend hours outside of the school day the new higher placement is confusing
028the document was amended in June of this year as a veteran teacher seems as though a new hire could potentially make more than veterans if they were new to SSD why are we all not being honored for our years of service and experience new hire or not additionally it is not specific or clear on if it has to be Club related experience teaching experience or experience in the district some of us have been issued and signed these contracts but there seems to be inconsistencies with them will there be another audit to ensure accuracy I ask you to review this document and others carefully to ensure there is fairness and justifiable distribution that aligns with the job expectations I am grateful for the ipens that are given to those who take on important roles to support
029students passions which will Elevate excellence in susd thank you Walter Masterson followed by Tiffany Benson thank you after last week's tragic school shooting I wanted to help our school to protect our children by making a list of books we should ban because if my child is going to barricade himself in the library I want to make sure the book he is using his body armor isn't a law school textbook on CR critical race Theory who here loves school choice I love school choice it is a fantastic way to divert money funding this school district and give it to parents who already send their children to private school uh with school choice our children our students you know can dream of going to an elite private school and it will stay a dream because once we
030subsidize private schools they will have to raise tuition that's how the free market works and I can't think of a better way to raise our children than to subject them to the free market at an early age so uh lastly I just want to thank the board uh Karine Warner for bringing in the Tuttle twins books into our school library it's been fantastic I was actually reading one of these to my child the other night there was a passage on how the dinosaur bones were planted by the Rothchilds and you know slaves were happy to have jobs fantastic book here um this is just an example of all of the things our children could be learning if it wasn't for all these you know Rules by the board of education so you know what in
031closing you know what I just let's stop giving our children a free education you know let's free our education by making it more expensive and worse thank you Tiffany Benson followed by Mike bingert yes uh Tiffany Benson I am the founder of restore parental rights and education and I am here by requests from a constituent of susd um maybe it helps to have an outside voice to talk about the darkness that has settled over this District over the last few years and my comments are directed towards the the radical majority of this school board and the administration that Darkness looks like half the families of K through 12 students who are paying taxes while educating their children outside the district that Darkness looks like half the students who are enrolled that will graduate without Proficiency
032in math and English that Darkness looks like a curriculum that lies to students about gender that Darkness looks like a library full of nasty books about rape incest sodomy molestation and child prostitution and these are books that the superintendent and the district lawyer are supposed to be removing parents should know that the Department of Education said at least 5 to six million public school students will be sexually abused by the time they graduate this is bound to happen in susd if there's not change so I do hope on November nber 5th that you parents that you constituents are paying attention to the changes that need to be made Dr Manzel we need that darkness that dark cloud to go and you have to go with it Mike bengert my name is Mike bengert the therapeutic
033educ model is failing students nowhere is this more evident than at SSD school-based mental health programs based on social emotional learning theories that trickle down into every facet of curriculum and school policies are not effective at improving academic outcomes or improving student wellness at scale despite claims otherwise since 2002 US schools Nationwide have increased spending on these programs by over 52% yet Nationwide math performance for 13-year-olds is at the lowest level since 1990 in Reading it's 20 four in Arizona average District spending on counselors social workers and other ancillary student Support Services has doubled since 2001 to over 1100 per pupil the average District instructional spend percentage is at a 20-year low at 53.4% the average math proficiency rate in Arizona is 33% Ela 40% and science 24% Menzel says us susd is much better
034than the state average in 2023 of all susd students 57% were were proficient in math 61% in ela and 40% in science but let's put those numbers in perspective in 2023 SD had 8,000 students not proficient in ela 9,000 students not proficient in math and over 12,000 students not proficient in science yeah we're doing great parents was your child one of the thousands of students in susd who were not proficient in the core academic subjects and students everywhere beli to be more anxious more depressed and more than before clearly the experts are failing students truly educational reform requires us to weed out root and stem all these psychotherapeutic theories of Education parents remember you have rights when it comes to your child's education you can opt your kid out of any lesson you think is
035inappropriate of course that requires you to get involved and see what your child is being taught remember Manzel failed to achieve any of his academic performance goals yet got a Bonus let's stop protecting Menzel and take action this concludes public comment do any board members wish to respond I would board member snowski thank you vice president Lindsay um I would like to respond and make a correction of comment to the words shared by that Mr R today um to be clear I have not and do not engage in HR meetings or decisions relating to Human Resources who who is hired and who is working on our campuses as volunteers um he continues to to create and fabricate facts related to his volunteering and I'm I'm really not sure what's going to stop this conversation um
036from happening but I I'm making the correction of his comments are false um and then um I would like to make a a additional comment about the last speaker who stated that Dr Menzel had not met any of his performance objectives that true is inaccurate false and I believe that our community has access to see what his performance objectives were and can see um where he has met and why he received compensation thank you vice president Lindsay and with that we will oh board member Carney uh thank you I would just uh like to make a correction to Mr Ma I think Masterson's comments about uh board member approving books for a library that is not something that comes in front of the board and one board member has no authority to bring books into
037a library so that would be false information if that was those books went into the library and the board were to do do that it would be by a 5 vote not one board member is allowed to do that thank you and with that we will move to the consent agenda I move to approve the consent agenda as amended do I have a second second board member Carney seconds the motion all those in favor please say I I I I I that motion passes 5 moving on to information discussion items I was going to do this as action moving on to information discussion items 7A presentation of the audit plan Dr menel uh tonight we have the chair of the audit committee uh Sarah Regan to uh answer any questions that you have the board
038received uh the report from Sarah as well as the proposed audit plan as you know this is probably the first time that we've actually had this presentation but really grateful that you're here to be able to uh answer any questions that the governing board has Sarah all right good evening everybody thank you so much for having me uh my name is Sarah Regan I am the chair of the audit Committee of served on the committee since its Inception and I was very pleased to present the board with a summary of the work that the committee has done uh in addition to that summary the the committee has met numerous times to prepare an audit plan for the board's approval for this fiscal year uh that's also in the memo that we as a committee prepared
039uh in Section 8 uh the committee uh undertook a significant amount of due diligence and met and and spoke with the district a uh the district um employees as well as the city of Scottsdale auditor uh to come up with this plan we approved it uh unanimously in our committee meeting and we are respectfully requesting that the governing board also approved the 2425 fiscal year audit plan happy to answer any questions anyone might have about either the memo or the plan any board member questions or comments I have one Dr hewells thank you vice president Lindsay thank you Miss Regan for being here this evening and and chairing the audit committee and I want to thank the entire committee for their hard work uh on behalf of the district our students and staff and our
040community broadly I just want to underscore something you commented in your opening remarks there you you said the plan was put for that is put forward this evening to the governing board was approved unanimously so just putting that differently conversely there were no objections by any member of the audit committee to what's been put forward today in terms of the content and the priority ranking yes that's correct we uh engaged in a robust discussion and we went through all of the areas of risk and and and jointly by consensus prioritize them so there were no objections um either to the plan itself or to the content of the memo that you received thank you very much again thanks so much to the committee any other board member questions or comments board member Carney thank you
041thank you so much for this I just have some questions on the p uh procurement purchasing I see that you have that listed as uh number four um in there and I just have some concern because on July 31st I had emailed uh Dr menel asking for an an agenda item according to policy bedba for the to be put on our next board meeting agenda about uh discussion to pursue a governing board contract audit for payments and contracts in fiscal year 20 2324 and I would like to know um if that was of any discussion to the audit committee or not so I'm trying to remember when we met to pull this together um we didn't discuss specifically a contract for an outside audit although we certainly wouldn't you know I mean I can't speak
042for the entire committee because we haven't talked about it but that wasn't that did not come up as a part of our discussion but I don't know I I hesitate to give you inaccurate information I'm trying to remember the date where we met and and discussed all of the potential areas of audit and I'm just not sure if it was before or after that I apologize okay no no it's no problem I had just um asked for that to be on the August um actually Dr menel had told me that he was working on getting it on the August 20th uh board meeting agenda so that the board could discuss whether we wanted to hire a contract auditor to audit payments and contracts that were authorized um by the superintendent but not approved by the
043board or spend spending millions of dollars spending beyond the limit set by the board um and so on August 16th I I found out I saw that it was not on the August 20th agenda so I asked for to be on this uh this agenda and I was told that we could discuss it during um during your presentation and that's why I'm bringing this up because I've been trying to get it on the agenda I've not been able to and I would like uh the board to discuss getting a contracted auditor to look into the the purchasing and procurement issues uh specifically with special education um so I don't know like you said if you guys discuss that can I can I offer something so we did you know if you look on page five
044of the memo you'll see that we did a heat m a risk heat map of all of the areas right and purchasing and procurement or actually uh I think we uh called it all under purchasing it's sort of in the uh upper right hand side so we definitely talked about it we talked about the risks attendant with purchasing and procurement um and it you know it made our top five rank if you will but it was ranked four out of five and unfortunately the committee is of limited budget um so I doubt I I mean you know I do hope the the board approves an audit plan but I doubt we'll get to purchasing and procurement this year with the budget we have um but it was a conversation that we had just in general
045we didn't specifically discuss your requests but we did um rank it in terms of likely likelihood and impact and we talked about where we wanted to put it in terms of the risks you know associated with the district okay well since it is um low on the the list here I would like to uh put that on the next board agenda for discussion for the governing board uh if possible I I have a question a clarification there go ahead if you're requesting an audit pardon me just saying go ahead uh thank you um thank you vice president Lindsay if if your the request is to request an audit how is that not within scope of the audit committee's um perview thank you Dr Hartwell I you were um on both emails of my request of
046this uh agenda item so you saw this is according to policy diie where we can uh the board can get a hire a contract auditor this is outside of the audit committee scope because I think that we we need an independent thirdparty auditor to review uh the materials and the board would be able to direct the staff to identify a qualified person uh and then the board can choose from among the candidates and shall not be limited just by a staff recommendation so this was the um item that I had been trying to get on the agenda since July 31st thank you Miss Carney for that um yes you have asked for this the reason it hasn't shown up independent is because the audit committee was coming forward with its recommendation which it had that
047topic in the recommendations in order to not put our finger on the audit committee's independent work although Miss Warner does sit on that committee so presumably she was part of these discussions their work product being brought forward to the board they clearly considered some risk assessment at some level on this topic so it doesn't seem like it's outside the scope of the audit committee responsibilities so what you're asking is for a separate budget to be set aside for a topic that the audit committee has already considered and ranked in its fourth slot of five is that the just um what I've been asking for is a discussion a board discussion on this item if we think this is something that is worthy of us looking further into um and like I said when this is
048the audit committee it is low on on their list and so I think this is something that we should discuss um you know the millions I've brought this several times uh to you all there millions of dollars spent without approval um and I think it's something that needs to be looked into and like I said that's only what I found in my small purview so I think it's very important that's one of our U main duty you know fiduciary responsibility of the district and I think this is something that we need to discuss as a board that is what the item was is a discussion Miss Carney I my question you is is your request what you want is an action As I understood it to hire an auditor on to review certain procurement actions
049that was considered by the audit committee so my question to you is what daylight are you identifying that the audit committee didn't already consider I I'm sorry I'm not understanding what you're saying what what they didn't consider I didn't hear that they considered this at all we nested it under the procurement and purchasing uh category because that's exactly what it was you've made false accusations towards me this evening board member Carney with respect to authorizations of non-approved items which is not true we've explained to the governing board what happened when it happened how it happened and how it was corrected if the board chooses to conduct an independent audit and spend the money on that rather than on something else to benefit students that's certainly within your purview and this is contemplated within policy diie
050that special audits may be amending the audit plan but the audit plan is the result of the me five members of the audit committee having a very thorough conversation and and you can listen to the entire and watch it on teams the entire thing is recorded and you will see that conversation so I don't I don't um think that anything has been done that has disregarded your request it's appropriate to consider the recommendation of the audit committee for the audit plan and the board could consider an amendment but that would be the the specific item you're talking about something that would be considered under number four okay thank you with all due respect I did not make any false accusations um that's why I'm trying to have a discussion with the board it's It seems
051impossible to actually get an item on to discuss things a as a board I'm not asking as one board member to push something through I just want to have a discussion with the information that I have to share with everyone and I've been unable to do that so thank you very much with that we will move on to well thank you thank you with that we'll move on to 7B first read governing board policy DJ regarding bidding purchasing procedures Mr buzan thank you vice president Lindsay members of the board Dr Melle and Miss Wagner make sure I can get that up there so somewhat related um DJ does refer to procurement practices of the board um and I think uh the the discussion of the audit needs to be had at a at a separate
052time but um we will provide more information on on the audit um component and all the different uh different types of audits that susd conducts um either through the audit committee or otherwise but in uh discussing DJ I do not I'm not here to belabor it I I just wanted this is the first read of a policy Amendment um the suggestion is to provide clear guidance to the administration um board member Carney and and um miss kroer Mr Thomasson and and also Dr Manzel and I have been uh discussing this issue at length for the last several months um I know that at a previous board meeting I uh shared with the board that Miss kroer had spoken to a procurement expert um who had assisted Us in helping to find a policy that um
053could provide more clear guidance to the administration for procurement practices um and this is uh this suggestion here is a result of all of that work that we did together which I think is um something that we should all be proud of today that we we did this together um it's still work in progress uh now is a chance for you to ask any questions of me uh I don't intend obviously we're not going to be adopting it tonight so if you have any question by email or you want to pick up the phone and give me a call happy to do more work on this um and make sure that it's right that the board gets it right at the second read um one thing that I just wanted to point out is that
054uh this gives so what you have in in this update is something that has already been uh District practice the uh with the exception of raise from 100,000 to 150,000 so what I mean by that is the district had been seeking governing board approval for procurements purchases over $100,000 um but it was never in policy so there was a practice of it and as people move as as uh employees turn over board members turn over the practices um get lost and people say where is that so um specifically having a section in here where it's says the governing board shall approve tells the administration clearly what it must bring to the governing board for approval um for the Public's awareness I know the board knows this um there is a distinction between procurement under Arizona
055law and purchases made under co-ops so co-ops is something that the the district still has to do its due diligence on and follow procurement practices um but a separate enti does the actual procurement themselves and so that's one of the distinctions in uh what the board offense sees in in um the co-op purchases is that those are not procured directly by the district we have the due diligence requirement um but Mr Thomasson and am I saying Thomson correctly Thon Thompson um is here to give us more information on that and he's really the expert on this not me um but one indication that is already up there that I'd like to change is um and I I'll put this in the for the second read on the second bullet point it says and the way
056this is supposed to read is the governing board shall approve item one the governing board shall approve item two Cooperative purchasing public Pro procurement units so I asked him that's a really wonky uh way to describe what is a public procurement entity and so instead of unit UNS it'd be my Amendment my suggestion to take out units and make it entity so that's one change that I intend to do and and provide to the governing board before the second read second piece is that the district has to do business we've talked about this at a prior board meeting it has to provide special education services first and foremost and occasionally uh with board meetings happening once a month there are times where those purchases will exceed an estimated amount um in between board meetings the
057district needs a process in order for the administration to approve that purchase and then bring it to the board for ratification so that would be that that second underlying portion I've already spoken more than I intended to do you have any questions and um if not now I'm happy to uh meet with you or or receive questions by email thank you any board member questions board member sinowski or Dr Hart Wells no yes oh Dr Hart Wells thank you um thank you Mr vzon for the presentation and for improving upon this policy so that it is uh tracking with processes um two questions and a suggestion uh first question uh you highlighted that current practice is $100,000 and what's in the policy is $150,000 could you comment on the reason for that difference in number
058well there's uh it's no secret and I and I don't mean to be uh glib or rude at all uh but there's no secret that the cost of everything has gone up Dr hartw Wells and I and I believe I uh talked with Miss kroer about that that um we can as a district as as a household I know talking to my own wife about this that uh we can spend money very quickly and that that $100,000 limit really is Not Practical um as a uh marker but I would ask Doc miss kroer to speak to that uh thank you Mr bz uh President hartwell's we did look at um other board policies that are out there within procurement um there's a wide range of what you see out there and what we really found
059is that $100,000 has been there for quite some time and and like Mr bazan was stating is a small purchase really can equal more than 100,000 in this day and age and so it was really looking at what is um what is a a right amount um you know we proposed 150,000 if that's not what the board is comfortable with you know we can always that can always be changed when looking at the second rate but it was really looking at what do what are we seeing at other districts what is in their policies as well as knowing that um $100,000 10 years ago is nowhere near $100,000 of how quickly you can spend that that now with how things have changed thank you I appreciate that uh context in reasoning and assumed there certainly
060was a thoughtful basis for it but but wanted to hear your in your own words the second question is in the proposed language um for the kind of in term between board meetings language it refers to estimated amounts there's been a lot of discussion previously with this board with the difference and the Merit of using estimated amounts in contracts procurement contracts particularly versus um capped up to a cap so which can also be in the same I guess uh Edge case that you identified uh I don't know how you know if they're older contracts that do have that kind of up to a certain capped amount where we might find ourselves in a position where we have to comply with laws um but then the policy of having to bring it to the board uh
061you know there's eight days before the next be meeting and the we're in a little bit of a pinch so my question is is that estimated amount literally contracts that have estimated amount in them or is it just a reference to a scenario uh thank you Dr har well um we really looked at you know we've noticed a lot of districts were using the the term estimated and we can go either way um in looking at it there are things and I know I sent a an email even just um on Friday to the governing board where situation came up with um throughout you know the last couple months with chillers and that we realized that what we needed to do last year was Far different than what we're having to spend this year because
062unfortunately chillers and HBC units are are going down left and right and so we wanted to be able to have an a way to deal with what what happens when those circumstances come up where for safety or um to meet IEPs or just to keep the school district functioning and running how do we address that and and still be in compliance with the board and the and the desires and and and what the board wants us to do with the policy so was really looking at how do we address times where we've got to we've got to issue a purchase order um but we may we may be above what the governing board has already stated as the amount that we want to spend and so trying to figure out how to work through that
063process is what we were really trying to identify with that knowing that we would of course come back to the governing board and and make them aware of the situation that we have had to go over that amount um but there are C unfortunately sometimes we run into circumstances where just to keep functioning we might have to do something does that answer understood understood and I have no objection to that policy my question really is about the intent and the wording are they going to align the wording reads authorized to proceed above the estimated amount provided my question is are we the intent and it sounds like the intent is yes the answer to this question is yes the intent is to not be locked into that language estimated amount literally that's expressly written in
064a procurement contract but rather the spirit of a procurement contract that has a ceiling in in whatever way some kind of a quantitative amount and that quantitative amount needs to be exceeded regardless of the language estimated amount or up to a cap of uh yes to answer that question um we felt like if we if we use the word not to exceed we felt that that is that you cannot go above that regardless um which is you know part of what brought forth the situation we're in um the intent of the estimated is that if the governing board has approved a contract with a commodity for $200,000 and we're going to be spending $25 or $210,000 that we would come back to the governing board and say we're going above the amount that we have
065stated was the estimated amount and we need to seek additional approval because it's beyond what the board had had authorized so the int the intent is absolutely that um if if we're over we come back to the board and let the board know that we need to inre increase it because of X Y and Z I understand an additional component Dr hartw Wells is and I'm certain you've already looked at this but in the preceding paragraph under governing board approval this policy Amendment would uh require the district which would be the administration to provide estimated amounts above 100,00 150,000 to the governing board by commodity um so that that estimated amount then would be part of a district requirement and and that was one of the issues with um what was determined in in May
066when we first started talking about this was which is that the district's practice was not part of policy it was part of a practice I I understand and I have no opposition to this change at all um nor the spirit of it but I think just the fact that I'm that there is even this potential uh inadvertent narrowing of the construction in the scope I think it just suggests that maybe I'll just propose some ex ex actual language to capture what I want to make sure if the edge case comes up that the in the policy is construed in alignment with the intent which is to allow the district to keep moving forward if we're in between board meetings so I I appreciate that the belts and suspenders are are in this draft um I
067will send you some language so that I can uh maybe just articulate exactly what it is I I fear may be unintended with the language in the second full paragraph thank you any other board member questions or comments hearing none we will move on to thanks Mr buzan we'll move on to action items and start with the consent agenda items pulled uh we'll start with six in Personnel action items board member Carney thank you vice president Lindsay I just uh needed to pull this item tonight so we could understand on July 31st no I'm sorry on Friday I had emailed um Dr menel and Miss Cruz asking why um the financials were removed from the public facing Personnel report um and then she she uh Miss Cruz responded to the board uh with with many
068reasons why and then I got the public agenda and the the amounts the financials are all back on there and I'm just wanting to know what happened between that email and the change being put back on the board because I didn't receive anything saying that this had been done Dr menel so uh we had uh based on the considered experience of Dr Cruz we had looked at a way of processing this that would protect the individual privacy rights of of Staff members while this information is subject to public records request putting people's financial information out there does expose them to some risk whether it's um stolen identity or people who have other malicious agendas and so we we had recommended a strategy that could allow the governing board to have the information it needed and
069and allow the public to see what was available but rather than put it all out there uh in this format if someone had an interest or need to know they could submit a public records request we decided uh based on um concerns that were expressed by a couple of board members with respect to that change that that we would continue with the past practice and let the next governing board decide whether or not they want to make a change to how it's presented publicly okay I just was con concerned because I didn't hear anything and then I saw it back on there so it would be good to have the communication ahead of time if something is going to be added back on to the agenda so that we're aware of that thank you I
070I have a question just a clarification if I may Dr Wells thank you um the information was always available to the board is that correct Dr Mensel it was just what was going to be immediately available uh without a public record request to the public is that right that that is correct and the public posting of the board agenda happens 24 hours before the board meeting and so there would have been no um impact on what the public was used to seeing because we made a change before the uh agenda was posted for public review thank you thank you for the clarification okay so I I move to approve consent item in do I have a second second board member Carney second all those in favor say I I I I I motion passes 5
071we will move on to 6p approval of the 2024 2025 supplemental schedules board member sinowski yes thank you vice president Lindsay I asked if we could pull this just to wanted to make a comment and actually um my request came before public comment and I appreciated Miss lucero's comments um regarding the um supplementary salary schedules um in the past I had asked that we examine and revise this compensation schedule um and uh you you know create minimal assignment expectations to qualify for compensation and I was told this was being revised through the IBN process and prioritized work um accordingly and um uh question is has this been done for all categories listed in today's proposed supplemental salary schedule this evening has that revision of the the expectations to qualify for compensation been completed for all
072of these listed Dr Cruz yes uh president Dr hartwell's Vice President Lindsay and member sinowski we we are bringing this forward it it did go through the IBN process last year we are happy to take a look at it again through the IBN process the the compelling reasons that we are bringing this forward for approval to the governing board this evening are listed on the memo we had some of our supplementals that were omitted when it was brought before the board the prior time and there were also some pieces um there is a technical error that we are correcting with regards to employee placement and movement on the supplemental salary list um while it used to say on if you'll look at page two on the attachment it used to say new higher placement schedule
073so what through an internal audit what we found was that people were being placed appropriately upon their hire into the district but they never moved on this placement schedule which was not not intended to be we want to recognize our employees for all of their years of experience and that all the experience they bring to the table so we are correcting that error and we will be going back to July 1st and placing our current susd employees appropriately on the placement schedule according to their years of experience um based on their supplemental um through the chair thank you Dr Cruz um I appreciate that information I appreciate that we're going to do right by our employees um a couple issues in regards to the supplemental salary schedule aside from the um understanding of what is
074required in order to earn this compensation so so we continue to get beat down with this this commentary of an individual being hired um and then becoming a a volunteer so the specific concern brought forth regarding those roles of the advisors the coaches and managing volunteers has that been clearly defined in these expectations that we're considering tonight member sinowski I I cannot speak to what was prior practice but practice moving forward we have a very clear practice in place um how to identify and uh clear our volunteer coaches as well as our paid coaches uh we also have an upcoming training plan for all of our athletic directors and our coaches so that we can be sure that they also are aligned with this practice and they they understand what current practice is moving [Music]
075forward through chair Lindsay thank you Dr Cruz um I appreciate learning that we're going to continue to improve our processes um I I noticed there was a specific um pay for performance stipend for Middle School robotics that I think paid about a little over like $1,400 but the same type of um assignment at the high school level was about $3600 roughly and as I understand the work and please correct me if I'm wrong you know um the Middle School sponsors or coaches for robotics have to go through similar um expectations of performance and and time and planning and working with students as the high school yet there's a compensation discrepancy that's quite uh large there and um I do not think that that is appropriate I agree with Miss Lucero when she was talking about
076the challenges that Middle School sponsors and coaches face though their assignments are not always exact for time spent with students I understand that but you know I think some of those roles that the Middle School offer greater challenges yet they're not compensated it's almost like we're not placing same value you on the work of our Middle School coaches and advisers where this is really the time period to engage students actively in those extracurricular and those special opportunities so they continue that as like kind of a feeder into the high school programs I find Great Value in that and I always think that our our financial budgets and allocations should support our priorities so if we want kids to be involved in EXT curricular activities I think there should be uh similar compensation um and no
077levels of disparity as is evident by the robotics code so I really would like for us to reconsider this um overall salary schedule but I want to ask Dr menel um what would happen if we did not pass this particular item this evening how would that impact our employees the technical Corrections for the people who were included in that would not be paid so for your counselor who's a national board certified that person would not get their stien uh it would put a pause on any of the things that were correcting here the salary differential is something that's existed for some time and it's so that's not new uh we can look into that and and seek to understand more about it but the Practical implication is that the uh cleanup would not be able
078to be processed until the board approves it um through the chair thank you Dr menel um I appreciate that uh well and and let's be clear they they may not get it right away right they it's not like it would be taking away from them forever if we make the correction and uh uh Rectify these salary differentials through board work so we have an improved process going forward and practice going forward I I would submit that they're two separate issues so what's being proposed tonight is uh the correction for these things that were admitted on the prior approved supplemental salary schedule the board approved the one that is there what what it sounds like you're asking is to make additional modifications to what was previously approved that wasn't what was uh posted here and I
079I I would argue that the board should act on this recommendation so that employees don't have a delay in processing compensation the next meetings not until October 1st what what the board chooses to do or not do would impact um the payment of these other individuals and and so I I would recommend that we proceed on this and if we want to revisit the question of the differential stiens between Middle School and High School uh we need to internally do an investigation about the Genesis of that because I don't have that information through the chair thank you Dr menel I I do appreciate that information and and of course I do not want to take compensation away from our employees that was not my intent my intent of bringing this forward tonight was to rectify
080a problem that's been going on as long as I've been on the board and that's these disparities by a you know grade level that do not seem to be um fair for our employees and so um I I would like to just share that if we do go forward to approve this this evening that it becomes a priority to rectify the the differences and disparities and then potenti if it impacts our employees that oversee these Student Activities that we um give them their due diligence and not wait another year of overseeing Student Activities and that we pay them the amount that the board eventually agrees to if that's something that we choose to do any other board member questions or comments hearing none I move to approve the 2020 4 2025 supplemental salary schedules do
081I have a second second Dr Hartwell seconds all those in favor please say I I I I all those opposed say nay motion passes five zero we will move on to 8A approval of kpis and wildly important goals wigs for the 2024 2025 school year so at the last meeting we had a conversation around a larger table at the MDA with respect to the proposed wildly important goals and key performance indicators for the 2425 school year that time we had uh conversation and suggestions about some of the specific items we invited governing board members to share any additional feedback questions or observations we had a few of those uh before the meeting this evening uh what you have in front of you reflects um revisions that were in response to those questions and comments and
082it's the recomendation of the uh of the administrative team that these would be approved this evening any board member questions or comments uh yes Dr Harwell thank you vice president Lindsay I I just I would like to thank again Dr Benson and the entire team for their efforts at arriving at the wildly important goals and the key performance indicators uh and I look forward to the discussion and up dates as the administration moves into their actionable implementation plans thank you I yield back any other board member questions or comments yes uh board member snowski thank you vice president Lindsay um I wanted to just comment and say that I appreciated the revisions which were which resulted from the feedback um and then um I I look forward to our work not just being this what's
083provided here with our um kpis and these uh wildly important goals but that we consider the unique needs of all of our students and um our priorities and appreciate the feedback that I've been given in my input too thank you that's it any other board member questions or comments board member Carney thank you I just like to briefly say um I think I'm a little disappointed um with not enough focus on the academic Excellence uh one one thing of note that I am a little disappointed in is that we you know we went down in ela the third grade ELA uh we we went down to 60% and then our goal is only 63% I know it says or greater but I would think we would want our goal to be what we had in
08465% the past 2 years at least as a minimum I just um feel sorry that we just keep doing a 3% no matter you know where where we stand I think it should should have been at least a 65% uh minimum and we should look at you know trying to at least achieve achieve that any other questions or comments may I comment again please thank you very much vice president Lindsay I I wanted to actually add some context um Miss Carney you you may have recalled before you were on the board when these key kpis were originally um developed there was educational literature that was cited to underpin those numbers uh that you were I think suggesting were arbitrary so I I would caution just throwing out numbers uh the numbers were originally rooted in
085National educational policy research so just wanted to make sure the community remembered that could I respond to that so you're saying the 3% we can't we should not shoot for higher than that is that what you're saying no you no I'm giving you the basis for why the 3% was where it was derived from National educational policy literature as opposed to just you know randomly suggesting a certain number actually did have some educational basis to it okay thank you thank you any other questions or comments I have one oh Dr menel so I I think it's important to point out here that there is a significant shift so if you look at the kpi from last year we focus specifically on third grade which is the first year of testing for students and so whatever
086number we pick we still have no idea because we have no prior indicator with respect to that cohort of students so consistent with what Dr Hartwell said the focus is on that cohort movement from third to fourth fourth to 5ifth fifth to six the 3% or greater is based on what the research indicated was an appropriate standard over time as you see those cohorts growth so we we absolutely are doing what we can through Core Curriculum delivery through supplemental cuml and other strategies to accelerate learning for our students but that third grade first year tested cohort that's a you know shooting at you know uh at a dartboard with with a blindfold simply because it's the first year they're tested so we we want that to be as high as it can be we're working
087with our students to do so but we focused on the cohort data because we know what last year's third graders uh performed at and our goal is 3% or greater for that cohort and will continue to do that uh for all of these tested areas any other questions or comments seeing none I will move to approve the kpis and wildely important goals wigs for the 2024 2025 school year do I have a second second is that Dr Hartwell seconds all those in favor say i i i i i i m passes 5 to Z we'll move on to item 8B approval of the audit plan Dr menel I would recommend that we approve the audit plan as um presented by the audit committee I appreciate the work of the committee to identify what they thought
088were the priority areas for Focus uh we'd like to begin quickly with the transportation audit and upon approval we have a meeting on Friday where we'll begin those conversations any other board member questions or comments see I'd like to make oh go ahead board member snowski thank you vice president Lindsay I'd like to make a motion to approve the audit plan board member snowski makes a motion do I have a second second Dr Hartwell seconds all those in favor say I I I motion passes 5 we will move on to 8 C approval of performance-based pay for specified administrators Dr menel as mentioned at the last board meeting uh assuming the the board moved forward with the kpis and wildely important goals we would have the cabinet individuals listed U prepare performance pay targets with
089specific waiting tied to the Strategic plan so you have been provided a copy of each of the proposed performance goals for individual employees uh we're happy to answer any questions that you have with respect to the specifics uh you can see that there is a priority emphasis on the wildly important goals particular for the individuals who have direct um ability and and responsibility for the academic side of the house uh there is a connection for the people on the operational side Building Services um Chief Financial Officer where the waiting is a little bit different because they're not directly responsible for what's happening in the classroom but their support is no less important so you'll see some variations there but happy to answer any questions that you have and the team members are here to answer
090their specific um proposed goals any board member questions or comments board member Carney thank you vice president Lindsay I I just have a question um on um Shannon kroer and Christine Harrington I noticed that uh there were added academic Excellence goals this year uh that weren't there last year and I'd just like to understand what like the Chief Financial Officer how is academic Excellence under your purview and how did you decide to add that to to your goals this year yes uh thank you board member Carney um in cabinet we had a a robust discussion about what our widely important goals are and our kpis um and through that discussion we talked about the fact that if the district's goal is to improve academic um excellence and that is a wildly important goal for the
091district that should be that should be an important goal for all of us and whereas um you know I'm I'm not in the class room teaching um there are ways that we do have that you know indirect connection so um you know if teachers have the supplies that they need and the curriculum that they need and the tools that they need to meet those that does come through us when we're paying bills and making sure that things are taken care of that they um you know have the purchase orders and the and the resources needed through it so we did I did put that as a lower weight for myself but understanding that as a district we're um one team and so whereas I may not be in the classroom directly um I'm here to
092support our schools and to make sure that our schools have the resources that they need okay then so did you you um everyone got to decide their own weight and their own goals yes yes so as a district we did that I think there's a couple I believe um Dr Cruz also has hers and the similar where we looked at um how do we make sure that we're supporting each of those areas and and again whereas we may not be in the classroom um they are they're important for the district they're important for all of us okay and then uh same with Miss Harrington with marketing how does that apply to academic Excellence I think Miss kocher summed it up pretty well um I sit in a similar situation where uh marketing and Communications isn't
093necessarily in the classroom and yet I get routine updates from my daughter's math teacher about ISL test scores and those kinds of things so it's not lost on me that parents square and other tools are very important to continue to empower parents to know additionally how to support at home and what's happening in the classroom so I too take ownership of of this wildly important goal as it relates to all of our students in our district as a whole um but it is not weighted nearly as heavily as growing enrollment and of those other things that absolutely have marketing campaigns um associated with it right okay thank you any other board member questions or comments I do oh board member sinowski thank you and I I appreciated um board member carne's commentary because I think
094regardless of the position and um the administration their responses um regardless of their position they serve in the district ultimately the success of the students should be behind everything that we do but when I look at some of these goals I feel like um they're not directly linked to the work within the position so for example with Dr Cruz's um like I'm wondering with HR having such a direct impact to the employees in this District how come there's not a link to culture and climate it for example that lived experience when they have an issue and they go to HR how is that um handled that could be part of it like so what is their their experience through the system of the human resources department I'm just going to throw that example out there
095and I have a few more if I may uh vice president Lindsay go ahead okay so like for Mr Freeman you know there's a there's a heavy weight of carrying out a full scale active shooter exercise in partnership with our Public Safety teams we do that we've done that yet I see that as a very detrimental um experience that employees um have to go through each year and I see it not as a positive thing to creating a healthy culture and climate it but quite the contrary I feel like it's very distressing so maybe there could be a a shift of you know getting that um you know there was something about get 80% compliance of Inus classroom doors being locked during the school day instead of saying you know and facilitating random monthly inspections
096maybe his goal could include through additional staff development training and facilitating random monthly inspections so it's not just you know these got you doing something wrong or caught you doing something right but it is an explanation of why this is important to make sure these classroom doors are locked during the school day um you know we have added to our um policy in the past that we have um an optin for gun safety awareness maybe between communication and um Mr Freeman's position there could be a very clear communication of why these things are important while why we are offering this opt in um you know gun safety awareness education through susd so making the the direct link and and Miss Harrington's role is vital in creating those effective methods of communicating these strategies that we're
097implementing throughout susd um and then to go on to um uh our instructional leaders and I've shared these um with Dr menel as well and and granted you know I admit I shared these really late so I did not expect any of this to be implemented so we're having a discussion on this and I feel like this is an appropriate time to have this input if it's viewed differently you know please someone let me know and I can share these more specific ones um at a different time but um let's just look at the talented and qualified professionals under Dr saos why is this directing at mentoring principles and AP when our Focus really needs to be on providing in my opinion on providing support to those who provide direct instruction support to our students
098how will these meetings and by the way I tried checking that link and it didn't seem to be a live link um to show the meeting dates and and and uh times but how will these meetings with principales directly support Student Success I want to see I would really like to see that bridge between if we're going to have this as part of their um pay for performance for Dr sackos and and Miss Cerna then let's make sure we're including how this is going to directly impact our Student Success and and I think you know the mentoring of our teachers especially that those newly onboarded and our staff members overall throughout our district would better benefit than having you know principles have a meeting with their super visor and then that counts as their supervisors
099pay for performance objective that to me I feel like we can do better there um I really liked um in Margaret cera's the uh the agendas the signin sheets and enrollment data um will progress monitored and um shared with site administrators on a weekly basis but again let's make that direct connection on how these plans to address you know how these plans will be utilized to address Recruitment and Retention um not just of our staff but also going into the student level and communication with parent level through any focused initiatives that are identified there um I think it needs to be focused on targeting instruction and teaching and learning and not so much on um you know I I do believe I'm mentoring all levels of our employees but I feel like our greatest need
100um for support is with our teachers and um that's is kind of looking through what you know the information there and those objectives that was kind of my list thank you for listening to this and I hope that this helps to provide um better smart goals for our pay for performance plan for administrators that's it thank you any other board member questions or comments hearing none I move to approve the performance-based pay for specified administrators do I have a second second Dr Hartwell seconds all those in favor please say I I I I all those oppos say nay nay motion passes 4 to one moving on to governing board reports do any governing board members have reports they'd like to share board memb SAS here Dr Hartwell um just a note that uh last Thursday
101and Friday I had the opportunity to spend the entire day with the Arizona School Board Association in their law conference and uh found it um again to be very worthwhile um and learning about uh many factors that influence our students and our the success of our campuses specifically the use of artificial intelligence and the direction that's going I felt like there was a there were a lot of opportunities for us to um make note and it was great to see um so many people in attendance especially our HR department from Scottdale because there's a lot that could be directed to improving an HR so um that's really it thank you yes Dr Vice President Lind thank you vice president Lindsay I I thought I would share uh with the community a few important matters that
102are't getting much attention but I think that because they impact our students both in the short and long term it would be important to put some sunshine on them the first one is recently the board received an outof State political organizations's request along with a super minority of other like-minded folks that submitted a demand to ban certain books from our school libraries I just like to encourage the super majority of our community members and taxpayers who are opposed to book bands to request additional information from your neighborhood school and District administrations about these efforts secondly also recently I along with the entire board was provided the amount of lunch debt that our neighborhood SCH schools carried the entire last school year and it's an amount that's equal to between 7,000 and 10,000 meals that's a
103pretty sobering fact and I share this with you to underscore another fact and that is serving on the school board is serious and the business conducted at these meetings is serious business it's literally a Lifeline for some of the children in our community and I want you all to remind yourselves of that fact often and give the board service and meetings the respect the kids deserve I yell back by vice president Lindsay any other board member reports seeing none we will move to Future agenda items do any board members want any future agenda items board member Carney thank you vice president Lindsay I have uh one that I would like to to add uh changes were presented to to the board on the 20242 code of conduct um but has not been brought to the
104board for approval and I know Dr uh menel said that we're just go going to continue with the 2324 code of conduct uh this year but I'm not understanding why we need a code of conduct uh brought to the board to be approved for 20242 at the next board meeting any other future agenda item requests yes I I have one vice president Lindsay Dr har thank you I would like to request an information item directed to the family educational rights and Privacy Act otherwise known as furpa at the next special meeting on October 22nd this request is for professional development for each of our board members as well as members of the community and another words I would like the presentation to start from the assumption that there is no base knowledge on this topic
105thank you any other requests yes oh board member snowski thank you vice president Lindsay um I would like to um for future consideration for us to discuss and revise our policy KB which is complaints against employees um to make sure that it includes that it's not based off heay that an individual who is bringing forth a KB complaint actually has firsthand experience with the particular employee that they're complaining about seeing no other requests we'll move on to dates of upcoming meetings the next meeting is Tuesday October 1st 2024 6: p.m. regular governing board meeting cornado high school and then Tuesday October 22nd 2024 6 p.m special governing board meeting at the MDA and with that I will make a motion to adjourn this regular meeting of the Scottsdale Unified School District number 48 governing board
106do I have a second second board member Carney second all those in favor please say i i i i motion passes 5 this meeting is adjourned