SUSD Governing Board Regular Meeting 4/18/23

001foreign I called to order this regular meeting of the Scottsdale Unified School District number 48 governing board today is Tuesday April 18th uh vice president Werner can you please lead us in the Pledge of Allegiance and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all thank you we'll start with a roll call from my far right please thank Lindsay Libby hartwells Karen Warner and I'm Julie sunowski all board members are present we do have a quorum this evening I'm going to remind our audience of our meeting decorum I'm sorry no we're going to approve the agenda first um I'd like to make a motion to approve the agenda is there a second second all in favor say aye aye aye um no I'm sorry I need

002to pull something off those in opposition say nay nay board member Carney um I want to pull an item off consent please I'm also going to add one to pull off excuse me can you repeat that sorry I haven't said it I'm I'm that happened a little faster than I was ready for I would like to pull off consent I know a-n the approval renewal IGA with the greater Phoenix educational management Council and does she have eyes are you talking about eight I oh is it eight eyes I was right the first time eight eye eight eyes I'm I'm pulling I so it's iron n so let's have some order sorry go ahead yeah I'd like to pull item eight in from the consent agenda and approve the renewal of intergovernmental agreement IGA with greater

003Phoenix educational management Council GP EMC and AZ educational management council is that correct yes thank you okay thank you noted that board member Kearney has requested further discussion and pulling the consent agenda 8N 8 I and Vice President Warner eight I website what would you like done with ADI I'd like it pulled please discussion okay thank you board member Warner would like to further discuss the recommended approval of revised job description and position for web content strategy manager that is 8i on our agenda anything else seeing that there are no other requests is there a motion to approve the agenda as amended a motion to approve the agenda as amended board member Werner made the motion to approve his air second second and board member Carney made the second on that all in favor to

004approve as amended say aye aye any opposed nay that motion to pass the agenda as amended passes five zero okay now at this time we'll get to our decorum statement citizens attending and or participating in the Scottsdale unified school district meetings either in person virtually or telephonically are required to observe the same rules of order into Quorum applicable to the members of the governing board and staff unauthorized remarks or demonstrations from members of the audience yells outbursts and or disruptions are not permitted members of the public are not allowed to approach the diocese at any time while the governing board meeting is in session without express permission from the governing board president all right moving on to three Dr Menzel please introduce our student staff recognitions and celebrations well good evening president sunowski vice president

005Werner members of the governing board from academics to Fine Arts to the Scottsdale community at large to Athletics we have some wonderful celebrations to share with you this evening first I would like to invite Margaret Serna executive director of Elementary education to the podium to get us started Miss Cerna well I would like to invite Coronado High School student Kara Armstrong and her principal Amy palatucci to join me at the podium foreign okay uh for 35 years sister cities International has encouraged uh youth worldwide to express its Mission through the original artwork and literature winners from local competitions such as the one sponsored by the Scottsdale sisters City organization Advanced to an international competition the theme of this year's Young Artists and authors contest was food Security in my community with citizens of our own

006Community across Arizona and globally impacted by food production challenges out of their control food security is growing and a worldwide reality here at Coronado High School entering the written portion of the sister cities competition became a classroom assignment for Dr Joe marquette's dual enrollment College English classes we are pleased to report that her students entries ran the table so to speak picking up all five monetary Awards and two honorable mentions representing her classmates and I don't think she's here tonight is she here yet okay uh senior Cara Armstrong whose essay climate changes Community took fourth place I have a coin that I would like for you to pass on I will make sure she gets to Cara thank you okay um don't move principal palatuchi and I especially like making this some announcement um the

007week before spring break provided an exciting opportunity for other group of Coronado High School students with the Coronado Orchestra and susd Fine Arts coordinator Michelle Irwin please join us now come on New Yorkers the Coronado Orchestra was invited to perform in the National Orchestra Cup in New York City in March the orchestra cup is an invitation only competition extended to outstanding High School orchestra ensembles from around the nation each year with the finance financial support of the susd foundation and the Scottsdale Charles and under the direction of long time susd conductor Mrs Irwin where is she our students were able to travel to the Big Apple and perform in Alice Tooley Hall at the Lincoln Center this was a once in a lifetime opportunity for our students to perform on a world-class stage in front

008of world renowned music music just adjudicators as if that was not exciting enough for some of these students it was their first time leaving Arizona and their first time on an airplane the students opened their performance with a high energy piece called afterburner followed by a beautiful piece featuring Diego Sanchez on guitar Diego then a lyrical selection called lullaby and close with the famous Offenbach piece that had the audience dancing in their seats were told we are so happy you were able to have such a great experience in New York attend a concert at the world famous Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra and visit some of the sites such as the Rockefeller Center and the Statue of Liberty and what about the Nintendo star yeah I heard that was pretty good congratulations on your achievement and please

009accept these susd challenge recognition coins to commemorate your hard work and your team you make us susd proud thank you okay thank you the final celebration I present to you tonight is no less stirring I invite Saguaro High School senior Eva Tayo principal uh Ann archlinker and principal Daniel Milligan to the podium let me tell you about this member of the Saguaro class of 2023. Eva will graduate from the Scottsdale Math and Science Academy next month which requires advanced level coursework in math science and English also participation in the STEM related community service and math and science competitions are required Eva is currently receiving her certified nursing assistance license through her CTE case coursework at Saguaro and is the president of the saguaro's Health occupation students of America or h-o-s-a chapter and will compete in

010the dental dental terminology division of this year's 2003 State HOSA competition and she is a member of the National Honor Society and plays both singles and doubles on the saber cats Varsity tennis team whoa her coach calls her one of the most dedicated and committed players on the team and reports that Eva never quit mentally even though she's had some really tough matches this season season in which she has compiled a 12-1 record in singles play and 11-2 in doubles she has held down a part-time job at a local grocery store during high school years as involved as ever is she has maintained a GPA above a 4.0 for most of her high school years she is ambitious well spoken well spoken and a thoughtful leader her near future includes includes studying Global Health at

011Arizona State University and I'm happy to share with you that she will be supported in that Journey as the recipient of the Doran scholarship a need-based award designed specifically for first generation Arizona college students to study at an in-state Public University through through its scholarship the doors foundation for Education aims to instill college going traditions and future generations of Arizona families provide provide Financial access and academic support for recipients and enhance College persistence through unique enrichment experiences the total Dorn scholarship is valued at more than a hundred thousand dollars over the course of four years of study it includes international travel opportunities and Innovation experience and cultural enrichment events designed to help round out the college experience this summer Eva will take part in a special orientation program as well as a Summer Bridge experience

012that will help her prepare for her College academics somehow I don't think those are going to be an issue for her Eva please accept this sus2 susd challenge coin and our sincere congratulations for this amazing accomplishment we know it cannot be bestowed to anyone better ASU look out here comes your class of 2027 and you're welcome we did a good job thank you everyone thank you Mrs cernan congratulations to all of this evening's honorees they are shining examples of what it means to be Scottsdale Unified School District students who embrace the many opportunities we offer for them to extend their learning and to grow I also want to give a word of appreciation to all of the community members who contributed funds to help ensure that our Coronado Orchestra could make that trip to New

013York I'm going to take the last two celebrations myself this evening so last month the first Scottsdale family Arts Fest was held at ASU Sky song facility the result of many months of collaboration between Scottsdale Unified School District the city of Scottsdale Scottsdale Arts Scottsdale Community Partners and Arizona State University the event was a tremendous success and we are already looking forward to next year's Art Fest but we want to take a moment to step back and formally recognize some of the people who are behind the events creation and presentation the following people please come to the podium susd Fine Arts coordinator Michelle Irvin susd Auditorium technician Todd Stover Scottsdale Arts learning and Innovation director Natalie Marsh and Don couvian from ASU skysong and University Realty through the combined skills and creative thinking of These

014Fine people in their organizations the Scottsdale family Arts Fest was born resulting in the celebration of susd Fine Arts students the city's Fine Arts community and Community Partners and our hometown University that you saw on March 24th and 25th in skysong in South Scottsdale was truly a wonderful event and you all know this um I could not stop smiling from the student choral performances the orchestral or theatrical groups on the two different stages that were there walking through the Student Art Galleries and even looking at which empty bowl to invest in to see our students demonstrations of the world-class future focused education they receive in susd classrooms every day and their teacher leader support was a moment of great pride and I hope that those of you who are able to attend the Arts Fest

015felt the same way there is no recognition coin that is big enough to convey The Pride respect and appreciation that is due but instead we will recognize the work of this quartet of community-minded student-driven leaders and present each of you with an official susd recognition coin and our gratitude and I'll be right there to give you the coins [Applause] thank you [Applause] I just want to quickly say that you need other people to make a partnership happen we can have a dream but I can tell you these people were fantastic Todd with all the stage stuff Natalie holding all the minis together and Don you're amazing and finding it all so I thank you guys so much next year same thing thank you and and finally to wrap things up although that he is not

016able to be here with us this evening because he's on the job overseeing athletic events want to pass along our congratulations to District athletic director Nathan Slater who was elected by the 5A conference in the Arizona interscholastic Association or AIA to serve on the AIA executive board this happened yesterday the AIA executive board is essentially the governing body of AIA which oversees High School athletics in the state when Nathan's three-year term starts this summer he will be it will be the first time that an susd representative has served in this Elite High School athletics leadership capacity this honor is well earned and recognizes not only Nathan's 29 years of service to our district but also his 15 years as an AIA region chair and the past three years during which he has served as 5A

017conference president he was also the 2010 4A conference athletic director of the year so at this time of the school year you will often find Mr Slater setting up timing devices for Middle School track meet or pacing the sidelines of a high school baseball or softball football game so the next time you see him please take a moment to congratulate him on his election to the AIA board I received a very nice email from the executive director of AIA David Hines with the announcement and next time I see him I'll present him with an susd recognition coin and our appreciation and with that President sunowski we'll conclude the celebrations this evening at this time we are I would like to open up the floor to our governing board members for their reports I would like

018to go first Dr hartwells here Mike okay here we go all right well welcome everyone um I also want to extend my congratulations to each of the outstanding students and staff that were celebrated this evening and I also want to extend a belated note of appreciation to each of the district's assistant principals last week was AP appreciation week and so please accept my grateful thanks to your dedication for your craft and more importantly to all of your students successes I telegraphed at the last board meeting and Dr Menzel just shared I was planning and I did attend the Scottsdale Arts Fest and it was outstanding did not disappoint and if you were like me then you were probably awed by the exceptional talent that was on display and I want to wish a heartfelt congratulations

019to each of the student artists both Visual and Performing artists who shared a bit of yourself through your art with us and in particular I want to thank the art teachers whose hard work and love for teaching was evident in every piece that your students displayed and one person I was actually celebrated this evening all of the folks that were behind the scenes that made that happen to no cost to the district by the way and that was the one person who continues and consistently moves Heaven and Earth for our support of our fine arts program across the district and that's Michelle Irvin and I cannot say enough yeah that program and a lot of our educational programs through the Arts would not happen in this District if it weren't for Michelle so thank you

020I also enjoyed a visit along that same lines to the Desert Mountain Library to view the IB art exhibits which like all the previous years that I've viewed before did not disappoint either and offered a rich display of the deep Talent of our students and the seniors it was the seniors curatorial exhibits if you've not seen these they're under unbelievable um and like all of our students at the art fest who are in the IB Art Exhibit through their art whether it was a drawing a woodwork a short story a web page design a garment a script for a new ending to a play or a diary they speak so much truth through their art truth about not just themselves but also about us as a community today is Holocaust Remembrance Day and I can't

021help but reflect on how I really learned about the Holocaust yes I learned in the academic sense about the murder of millions rooted in a group Supremacy psyche and the Allied countries Collective defeat of that evil but I'm talking about learning in a way that connects and humanizes the realities of group Supremacy learning in a way that makes you feel the lesson it was Through The Eyes of a 16 year old who was hiding in an attic along with her family Anne Frank was just a young adolescent given a diary into which she spoke her truth and at around the same age that Anne Frank wrote her truth I read it and I liked Anne Frank I felt like she was a lot like me just an adolescent going through adolescence in all the phases

022of development that that means I could identify with her what I couldn't understand is why within a few years of her writing her thoughts in the diary that she would be murdered and I came to understand much later the why was rooted in a toxic mix of labels fear intimidation hate and harm all wrapped up tightly in a craven need for absolute power but we don't have that in the United States because we remember and I am grateful for the school library that enabled me to be introduced to Anne Frank and I'm better for it I'm glad that both of my children have read Anne Frank's diary they are better for it and I am resolved that your students have the opportunity to meet Anne Frank they will be better for it because they too

023will remember and with that I will close by wishing our Librarians a grateful thanks on librarian day and thank you for enabling all of us to be better people to be better Neighbors and to be better citizens thank you Dr hartwell's Vice President Werner has a request for her to share her report we're good all right so on March 22nd I met with superintendent Manziel for a monthly meeting well things have been a bit of a roller coaster since January 1st I thought it was a really good idea to sit down and have a heart-toed heart conversation about unifying our board in our district we had a very productive conversation and we both had great suggestions on how to move forward later that week I met with Walt Chandler and his assistant principal at Cherokee

024I toured the newly rebelled Cherokee Elementary School and it looks very different from when my kids were there we had great conversations about our kids schools and effective leadership I am honored to serve in such a great district and I am 100 supportive of our principals staff and administration I visited with our director of facilities Dennis and he gave me a full rundown on what's happening in his department and I love his transparency and now anyone can go on the website and see where all the monies go when it comes to facility spending I've met with many parents and a few teachers and community members and listened to their praises of our schools and concerns and I find that as people we all want to be heard and it's a great starting point for for

025positivity and where we need some work the board was invited to attend the student Advisory board meeting and it was an honor to attend both myself and president sinowski answered questions by the students and it was really great to see what their interests are in their leadership in action last year I served on the ELD task force led by our new executive director of Elementary education Margaret Suriname so it was really great to catch up with her to hear about all the greatness that has come out of the task force and our math scores for the kids are in the program are up 12 percent and that is really something to celebrate thank you thank you vice president Werner any other requests for sharing board reports okay then I'll share mine to start off with

026I try to look through the agenda and notice the gifts that have been given to our district from our partners and organizations that help support our district public schools and I offer gratitude on behalf of our susd governing board for the numerous Financial gifts bestowed upon us these include gifts from the American online funds Anasazi PTO Arcadia High School National Honor Society the Charles foundation for their ongoing support throughout all of our campuses chaps Charities dmhs PTO Coronado foundation for the future Saguaro yearbook also great appreciation to our numerous volunteers who continue to show up to support instruction and um the extracurricular the co-curricular activities on our campuses this past month I've had the opportunity to attend many meetings in our community including supporting our Scottsdale parent Council the susd student Advisory Board as vice

027president Werner alluded to the national board certified teacher recognition Awards dinner and event I've had the opportunity to Relish in the success of our students by attending Mountainside Middle Schools rendition of Schoolhouse Rock Junior the score transition Symposium the susd Fine Arts as mentioned earlier it was phenomenal and the IB Arts exhibit which also has been mentioned this evening Chaparral teen Town Hall at the Desert Mountain teen Town Hall today as well as getting a glimpse of our State top seed women's softball team at Desert Mountain high school I along with a board member Dr Hart Wells again supported the efforts of the Scottsdale branch of the American Association of University women also known as the AAUW book drive collecting over 400 books for school age children and delivered them to the Yavapai Elementary School

028for each child to select a book that spoke to them and bring it home for their keeps um each year the AAUW selects a different school to focus on in this past year was Yavapai um shout out to former governing board member Patty Beckman for her continued service to our susd she and a collection of community volunteers many of them are here this evening continue to host what we call Project prom that is collecting and organizing in an immense display of formal wear for students free of charge and that's open to all of our students in our school district I was told that this was going to be the site of the permanent House of project prom on this campus yay thank you principalitucci for offering that that's awesome thank you again to our many

029employees who signed and returned their contracts it is Our intention to continue to support you and show our appreciation for your endless work that you do on behalf of our students and with that we will move on to public comment part five of our agenda this evening I would like to remind that all the public that open meeting law permits individual board members to do as follows at the conclusion of the call to public also known as public comment respond to criticism made by those who have addressed the public body ask staff to review a matter or ask that a matter be put on a future agenda the board cannot begin discussing something that was raised in the call to the public unless it is on our agenda um if a member of the public

030Levy's criticism on a board member and not the district the board member May respond to that criticism if a member of the public States something that is untruthful but not critical I can make the recommendation for for future action on that particular item and if you haven't been here before and and this is your first time speaking during public comment I will call your name and then you can approach the podium at that time I would like for you to State your first and last name and your association with their Scottsdale Unified School District and then the time will begin okay ensuring that everyone has a voice in our district we have 16 requests to address the board normally we give two minutes we have 30 minute time period but we'll give two minutes to

031each person um first up is Jeffrey Stefan followed by Lucy wheat Jeff stuff and I have two babies and Cherokee and cocoa paw uh one of my favorite scriptures is Rejoice always pray without seizing in everything give thanks for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus our family rejoices that Amy and Corrine are now sitting in front of me they are Spirit-filled with beauty wisdom knowledge and a calling to educate not indoctrinate ANC are the answer to prayer from my God who is near not far off the God who does wonders a gracious and compassionate God the creator of all things created and the god that formed you in your mother's womb I thank all of the board members and Dr Menzel for serving Scottsdale Jesus Christ said it was it is more

032blessed to give than to receive all of you have many talents and you choose to give of yourself here at susd which is a Act of it's an expression of Love towards us Dr Menzel you must use fundamental academic principles for teaching the kids in susd not materials produced by Marxist Predators we don't want wokeness social justice or CRT snuck in a back door wokeness is a religion of anger wokeness is demonic wokeness Stokes the fire of hate for instance BLM and antifa have started 570 violent riots which have killed 25 people and caused 2 billion in property damage the majority of these domestic terrorists are white Democrats with college degrees America is in trouble now when the average college student graduates they come out as irresponsible lazy without self-control they hate America and they

033hate what is good and they want communism I'll conclude with this there's only two genders one way to heaven and zero climate change thank you thank you Lucy weed is up followed by Jerry Herron hello my name is uh Lucy Reyna wheat and I'm here as a mother and an Arizona taxpayer as I said my name is Lucy Rayner weed and I'm here to speak against the endorsement of school clubs pushing gender ideology I am the first vice chair of the Yavapai County GOP but I am here specifically as a mother speaking for all parents we used to teach ABC's now we teach LBG tqa plus the plus meaning minor Attractive people code for pedophiles I am a Conservative Republican but I am not anti-gay in fact I work very closely with a political non-profit

034group LGB Patriots who have rejected the Q and T and all the other ridiculous rainbow Pride acronyms like many lesbians gay men and bisexuals they have come to realize that gay civil rights have been usurped by sexual fetishes heterosexual Auto kind of files excuse me and youth who believe it is hip to be homo LGB civil rights have also been exploited by well-meaning so-called LGBT allies who are in fact exploiting lesbian gay men and bisexuals for their own social credit scores sex is binary no one is born in the wrong body you cannot choose your gender and sex the so-called gender affirming health care that is being pushed by the current Administration and the for-profit motivation by the big Pharma and Big Medicine result in no health and the need for permanent care too late

035underage youth have been transitioned without parents knowledge without the parents knowledge to become lifelong medical patients with no ability to enjoy sexual intimacy no ability to Bear children and a life of constant pain and medical complications this is a Dr Franken science not real science effectively we are castrating boys and sterilizing girls for social fat and fashion these gender School clubs are a gateway drug to permanent harm but there is good news there is good news Jerry haran followed by Yvonne Cahill foreign Jerry Herron I'm an ex-teacher and I'm speaking on behalf of LGB Patriots my name is Jerry Herron and I'm here to speak against the endorsement of gender fantasy School clubs I have 12 years experience teaching both as adjunct and full-time at Drexel University Philadelphia University and the now defunct Phoenix Art

036Institute I'm also the founder of the non-political non-profit LGB Patriots our pride colors are red white and blue not rainbow we are not we are same sex attracted people lesbians gay men and bisexuals we are not same gender attracted people I scan through Dr Menzel's statement December 2021 about school clubs and adherence to protected classes race is fact color is fact disability is fact national origin is fact sex and sexual orientation is fact transgender idea identity is fabrication we used to teach facts not fiction we used to teach Math Science Biology not emotion ten years ago most of us knew nothing about transgender and transsexuals five years ago most of us knew nothing about gender dysphoria one year ago most of us knew nothing about order gonophilia a hundred years Empirical research recorded gender dysphoria

037at 0.001 affecting mostly boys by 2019 rapid onset gender dysphoria skyrocketed into the four and five thousand percentile affecting mostly girls why because we are teaching it we are endorsing it and we are encouraging it all in the name of your key values inclusion in the name of gays LGB did not and do not give you permission to use our sexuality to indoctrinate other people's children into a sec Yvonne Cahill followed by Patricia pellet Yvonne Cahill thank you my name is Yvonne Cahill and I'm a Scottsdale taxpayer I've lived in the Scottsdale school district for about 25 years I came to a meeting on my last when I was here I was really shocked when somebody from the audience accused Amy Carney of contacting a news Outlet Fox News and ruining the reputation of the

038Scottsdale Unified School District so I thought well I'll just go on Google my friend and I'll see what what's out there on Scottsdale Unified School District so let me share some of it with you because it's not an Amy Carney issue this is a leadership problem and so let me share some of these headlines ex-sc Scottsdale teacher gets 10 years in prison for sexual conduct with a student former teacher of the year was also the Chaparral High School girls track coach that was in the Republic Scottsdale United teachers viewing lewd sexual images in views of students not a fireable offense that was March 5th 2023 Scottsdale unites her education in the Arizona independent Network March 5th susd is now fighting parents to retain a PE teacher who was caught looking at what some consider pornography

039in full view of children under Menzel's leadership Scott still unified teachers get the green light to watch porn at school that was an ADI staff reporter on 3 12 2023 former teacher sentenced for molesting kids that was in the East Valley News October 21 2011 a former Elementary School teacher in the Scottsdale Unified School District was sentenced to Friday to 46 years in prison for molesting a fourth grade student here's another headline Chaparral High School employee accused of sexually abusing a special needs child this is about Nicholas Kloss and this was a friend of mine's child I have pages and pages of headlines this is something you need to [Music] Patricia pellet followed by Georgia safeli yeah hello governing board members on 3 28 my boy Isaac's School driver with susd's third party transportation reached

040out to me frantically to inform me she had just returned from a one month vacation from driving my boy she was shocked to see he was still riding home with another special needs girl who had been slapping him and punching him in the face for months while he just sits there shocked and tear she along with other drivers have reported it to their company this company notified susd's transportation department back in February as always the response from susd to us parents is this is the first time we've heard of this shame on susd for this gross neglect of our kids kudos to this driver who is a hero for reaching out to me the same neglect is just repeated over and over again and the response is always we had no idea as it swept

041under the rug go to scottsdaleunites.com and learn how to document all of these cases against susd thank you [Applause] followed by Tiffany Benson hi board members I'm a taxpayer and a local resident and I have uh something I just like to read for my phone over the past month or so you have been promoting the students teachers parents and community members to take the Hanover climate survey in the meantime you requested that they've done this survey for the past few years you also said that the survey was to gather the perception about the district in our school with which we inform your path forward the survey had no control measures and reportedly cost fifty thousand dollars the data received from this online survey will not be accurate there's no way to have a reliable sample

042from a survey whose link was posted over social media and that anyone could take whether you've been involved in the district or not they don't even have to live within our state to even have taken the survey and you could take it as many times as you want I request the board to look into the money that has been spent on the Hanover research and not used the bogus results in any path forward for the district doing so would be harmful to our students staff parents and community and likely lead to further decline in our enrollment with nearly a hundred and fifty thousand dollars spent in the last few years please discontinue the use of this Hanover climate and Hanover products thank you [Applause] Tiffany Benson followed by Van larby I'm Tiffany Benson and I'm

043an Arizona taxpayer so susd community members first I'll address Christians and conservatives namely those who put Werner and Kearney in office and then disappeared it's easy to have strong Anonymous opinions it's safe behind a keyboard but it takes guts and a spine to stand before people who mock your faith constantly taking minimal risks or no risk at all is unacceptable during wartime it's honorable it's dishonorable sorry to conserve oneself while fellow soldiers are being ambushed so we need more people to show up and speak up Thomas Jefferson's letter to the Danbury Baptist Association is the only historical document containing the phrase separation of church and state it never existed in our founding documents that lie was successfully deployed by immoral people so we need teachers and administrators to shake off the false pretense of Tolerance

044openly pray and invite God into this District or you can be polite and morally moderate while Lawless radicals turn your District into socialist genderless concentration camps it's up to you now I'll address the culture of bullying and intimidation coming from this Administration and certain board members once upon a time I too was a wounded controlling manipulative bully who burned Bridges walked on people and raised hell to get my way but I got saved and I got over myself I encourage president sinowski member hartwells and Dr Menzel to do the same you're not nearly as important as you think you are yeah Ben Larrabee followed by Susan Windber howdy all my name is Ben I'm a Christian an Arizona and a Community member in that order I wish to speak tonight about the district's policy regarding

045gender dysphoric students currently policy allows students to transition at any time adopt any pronouns they wish use any bathroom of their choosing all without the knowledge or consent of their loving parents some would argue that not only do these policies protect students there have been no incidents from these policies anywhere around the country this is false multiple girls in Loudoun County Virginia were assaulted by a male student who is allowed to use the female restroom in eponymous County a student was trafficked because guidance counselors withheld her transition from her parents instead they referred her to so-called gender affirming sites where she met her predator in a chat room now some of you would still dismiss this claiming this is just a few incidents and this is the best policy to have a safe and healthy

046experience for students like schools know this after transitioning suicide side rates go up depression gets worse self-harm becomes more life-threatening why for the same reason we don't tell someone with anorexia that they can be healthy in any way you don't affirm that someone with dysphoria can identify as any gender affirming something that is not true does it bring that person suffering any peace now some of you may still dismiss this evidence claiming I'm making too big of a deal about this after all why is it so hard just to use someone's pronouns why is it so hard just to affirm somebody's identity well I submit to you that if I stood up and identified myself as a black lesbian and asked you to affirm that identity none of you would do so why because it's

047so absurdly untrue it's offensive just as it's offensive to tell women that their private spaces and their femininity must be shared with men and that any who object are bigots thank you very much [Applause] winderson by Rose Smith uh yes I'm Susan Winder I'm a grandparent of two students in susd and an Arizona taxpayer good evening Dr Menzel and board members this weekend I had the privilege and the frustration of working with my grandson on a practice test for the azmerit test his math teacher gave him for extra credit before I continue I want to share with you that I have what we call an ABD a PhD minus the dissertation those classes were in curriculum instruction I only share this so that you know I know what I'm talking about the privilege of this

048task I'm talking to was related to work with my grandson in an area of my passion the frustration was that he had only been taught about 50 percent of the content of that practice test the frustration was in his words I know how to do this but I've never been given problems with this level of difficulty if you know anything about curriculum instruction you know you test what you teach and you teach what you test at a meeting of the officers of the ptas in the district Dr Menzel said I quote the a azmerit test is only one measure of assessment one could say that about the act the law boards or tests to become a certified counselor those words are used because susd AZ Merit scores are abysmal as well as the act and

049SAT scores you've heard parents talk about that previously here not aligning your curriculum with the outcomes is unfair to your students and to your parents Dr hartwell's at the last meeting said we shouldn't jump to a conclusion as to why 50 percent of the students are open enrolled I think I'm going to take that leap Scottsdale is one of the top 10 researchers richest ZIP codes in Arizona that means parents have a lot of money and choose to send their students to private schools or charter schools and their enrollment is not down in the district does not agree with State Standards then work with Tom Horn's office to change them so you like them this board and its superintendent are not making the best decisions for our students by doing so let me leave you

050with a question you have two students one from here one from Massachusetts same equal score but who do you think Rose Smith followed by Kim Miller foreign [Applause] thank you my name is Rose Smith I'm an uh susd alumni I have two grandchildren in the district board members should be first in line to deny the allegations that susd enrollment losses are because of a migration to Charters that is not true our decline in enrollment has never been because of the quality of susd schools or Dr Menzel per the Ade Charter School enrollment in the Scottsdale area has declined at a rate three to five times greater than our district schools local charter schools are not gaining enrollment over susd it is instead because of the shrinking demographic of school-aged children caused by a lack of

051affordable family housing it's your job to set the record straight city data reveals that 5400 short-term rentals have replaced single-family homes and the families who used to live there the Scottsdale housing market reports cites that in January 2023 the median price of a Scottsdale home was over eight hundred thousand dollars Scottsdale has the highest rental rates in the valley and the luxury multi-unit complexes approve by city council will not attract families with school-aged children reports of constant negativity micromanagement Discord and distrust is not flattering to this board or our community the constant banging of the drum of conflict and misinformation does nothing to grow our schools enhance our community or attract and retain the most talented Educators and administrators in Arizona please direct that energy into helping promote and expand our brand as an excelling

052district with Innovative programming thank you Kim Miller followed by April Buffet hello I'm Kim Miller and I'm a parent who lives in the Scottsdale Unified School District I'm here on behalf of a majority of Scottsdale parents who want our school board to be honest with us about what our children are being taught in school we had a supplemental materials committee since 2021 before Dr Menzel eliminated it with no notice or explanation that committee was for parents and School Board to have a way to review and communicate on materials that concern parents and students erasing this committee is erasing the voice of parents it only furthers the distrust that parents have for the majority of this board and for the superintendent the only reason I can imagine for this is that you don't want parents stopping

053curricula that promotes activism over academics with so many students falling below academic standards we parents demand that you start prioritizing the basics so that our kids can function successfully and happily in life bring back the supplemental Review Committee and parents will start to trust you again thank you [Applause] good evening my name is April bobuff I'm the parent of a child currently attending Elementary School here in susd I want you to know my son is thriving in susd I have seen nothing but an age-appropriate curriculum for a first grader with a heavy focus on academics so much so I'm the one complaining about all the tests and the homework and all the things he's being asked to do on a regular basis but as a parent I will tell you I am concerned by a

054number of recent statements and frankly the negative narrative from a number of folks in this room and elsewhere correlating our low quote-unquote and or poor quote unquote test scores with dipping enrollment in the district saying that and again I quote families are leaving susd and droves that might be a great media sound bite but it isn't actually borne out by the facts if you look at the decline in susd enrollment for 2022-2023 the number that I have seen is 1.7 percent that's minus 1.7 percent that's not a lot the year prior to that was 0.6 of a percent given the Aging population in Scottsdale given the lack of affordable housing the picture could frankly be much worse the negative narrative I feel personally detracts from all of the good work that's happening in our district

055all of the hard work that's put in by our teachers by our staff by our administrators all of the things that are happening on the ground in our schools that's all being wiped Away by the negative talk and narrative that is constantly being perpetuated here much of it based on misinformation it does an injustice to our children to our teachers and again to our staff I urge everyone to think carefully about what is being said whether on social media or to the media about our district about our staff and about our schools our children and their parents are actively watching and listening Mike Benford followed by Kim McClure my name is Mike bengert I'm a grandparent of two kids in the district Dr Menzel when are you going to start being honest with the susd

056community you don't believe in the susd values of honesty transparency reliability accountability openness and authenticity this is just virtue signaling looks great on the website not actual values you live by you made this clear by your refusal to provide information to two board members in the hiring of principal for Chaparral your violation of the policies put the board members in the untenable position of having to make it critical important decision without having the required information this is unacceptable what are you hiding I call on you now to release all the information including the anonymous staff reviews since the comments are Anonymous you can't continue to withhold the information claiming you are protecting the staff so much for honesty transparency and openness we shouldn't have to rely on submitting a records request and hope we get

057a complete response to find out what is going on in the district that's not how it is supposed to work why is it that apparently only two board members didn't receive the required information despite multiple requests did the other three board members get the information or are they okay with abdicating their responsibilities I want VP Warner and member Carney to know that many of us appreciate your standing up for the policies in the process you are to be commended for pushing back against the power grab by Menzel please continue to do so Dr Menzel I want to remind you that VP Warner and member Carney were elected by this community the disrespect and utter contempt towards them show them to you demonstrates your disrespect and contempt for those of us who elected them and despite

058what some have said we are real stakeholders in the district you are accountable to the duly elected board who in turn is accountable for the community that's how the process was set up to work the board is not in place to be a rubber stamp for everything you want to do the susd values include accountability Dr Menzel many of us in the community are going to start holding you and the board accountable thank you Malone hi my name is Kim McClure I have two children in the district and I'm your constituent good evening board president sunowski vice president Werner board members Dr Menzel and Miss Wagner I'm speaking to you tonight as president of Scottsdale parent Council and I'm here to invite you and members of cabinet to attend monthly SPC meetings as I've said

059before SPC offers an opportunity to connect with parents and SVC meetings are also a great way for parents to connect with and learn about the district at our March meeting we heard from a panel of school resource officers we learned about restorative justice through the Scottsdale Police Department this program is unique to SPD and serves as a model around the country the restorative justice program gives kids a chance to learn from their mistakes and has a very high success rate in the susd schools within Scottsdale Police Department's jurisdiction we also learned about Scottsdale Police Department's crisis canine program the first of its kind in the nation the dogs have made it easier for sros to connect with and form relationships with more students we met rocket and copper and heard stories of the canines helping

060students through tough times so they can get back to being kids and learning this program is funded by the susd foundation and we also learned about the ways the foundation supports our students thank you president sinowski for attending the March SVC meeting we hope to see some of you there again soon tomorrow April 19th at 6 PM we'll hear from Dr Michelle watt about the role it plays in school safety and student learning spc's final general meeting will be Wednesday May 9th at 9am and will be celebrating successes from each of our schools Gail Malone followed by Shane najafi good evening my name is Gail Malone and I'm a Community member whose son attended Desert Mountain and uh Mountainside many many years ago uh I was good evening members of the governing board other guests

061and Dr Menzel I was always an active parent who signed up stood up and spoke out for all teachers staff and administrators who like all of you up there have worked so hard on behalf of our kids I hadn't been to a school board meeting for many years but attended last month's meeting out of concern over some of the things that were circulating around my old folks home I am here tonight because I think it's important for you all to know what you look like to someone like me who just comes in off the street and is a member of the community that that you're representing my main point is that unfortunately I saw and heard partisan Politics on full display coming from both parents and school board members it was clear to see and

062it is tonight holy heck to see the division that exists because of political ideology and party lines this clearly affects your work conservative values are def were definitely under attack with two board members being repeatedly called out by name complete with eye rolling and facial grimaces we have to remember it's the kids that who are in the middle of all this and they're only asking to receive what they've always received caring adults as teachers to lay the foundation for an uncertain future our country is in the process of undergoing fundamental radical head spending changes to an old person like me while moving away sometimes from common sense and decency please don't ever forget that your primary obligation is to the children and we must always discuss important issues calmly and respectfully regardless of party affiliation

063or any Shayna Jaffe hi I'm Shayna Jaffe I have two children at Pueblo Elementary and to foreign exchange students at Saguaro good to see so many people here who have no children and still have the time and dedication to come to our school board meeting as well as so many other school board meetings throughout the valley great to see you at so many of them first a shout out to all of our wonderful Librarians we see and appreciate you as well as our lgbtq community two young adult novels and one a young man drunk and grief chicken over the death of his friend Robs a store and is shot dead by the police and another a 12 year old boy playing with a toy gun in his yard is shot dead by a remorseful police

064officer why would governing board member Carney request the removal of one of the books but not the other one of the novels is about a poor white white teen and it's called The Outsiders this book has been read by our students for decades her own children have been requested to read this and I cannot find any evidence that she ever objected to the grizzly and tragic events of this novel The Novel that board member Carney finds inappropriate is about a young black boy whose only crime was playing in his yard this highly claimed novel is Ghost boys I quote board member Carney in her letter to the district when she writes how will our students of color feel reading this I'd like to pose a question why does Amy Carney is a white woman from

065Scottsdale believe she can determine what a black student might feel uncomfortable with in light of the recent shooting of a 16 year old black boy for ringing the wrong doorbell perhaps a black student would find solace in a book such as ghost boys in addition board member warni Werner has requested Banning the studies of rap rap as poetry or anything pertaining to abolitionist Francis Ellen Watkins it appears these two ladies are dead set on erasing a culture that is not their own this is not Scottsdale not the Scottsdale I want to live in and not discuss the children of color would want to live in that concludes our public comment portion of the meeting this evening and we will move on oh wait a second are there any governing board members who would like to

066make responses to public comment I see uh board member Carney's request to speak is on go ahead match oh yes go ahead you just had it there you go I just want to as Council remind the board that the only comments that can be made in response to public comment is a direct response to criticism a referral to the superintendent to review an issue or ask that it be put on this future agenda thank you thank you go ahead board member all right thank you president snowski I'd like to respond to the last speaker um talking about a book that I had asked to be reviewed when I was only a parent in 2021 in the middle of 2021 because I believe that the literature that we assign to our students at school is a

067great opportunity to provide them with something better and more meaningful than what they're getting on social media and in pop culture in the media today so you need to know that uh that I turned that book in and another for review um because it's very concerning to me um what we're giving to our students to read in the classroom and it's very it's even more concerning to me that a parent filling out an online review request review of instructional materials can be outed to another parent doing a public records request on them I also asked for ghost boys to be reviewed and I spoke about it at a board meeting even at the request of parents who were too afraid to put their name on it because of possible retaliation on their students in the

068classroom so I thank you for your comment but I will continue to encourage parents to ask for any learning material including books to be reviewed that they feel aren't age-appropriate or up to the standards of the world-class education that we promote board member Warner please stop [Applause] for real so I have two things I'd like to have a discussion about the Hanover survey at some point to ensure that that's a Integris survey that we're using to further our district and two I actually had three things that I submitted on behalf of three parents because they were also too scared to come forward and regarding the rap poetry the actual poem from the Poetry assignment is really really good but the um the children were given multiple rap songs that they had to choose from to

069complete the assignment and this is a special ed student that did this and it was Role Models by J Cole you can Google the lyrics real quick and you'll see why it was a problem so thank you for bringing that forward the other one by the way was paid for sex in high school and you look into that as well thank you are there any other comments I would just like to address one of the comments that was made about two of the governing board members not receiving adequate information or appropriate time to review the information that I need to correct that information publicly because all of the governing board members receive all access to information and we receive appropriate input and time to further understand the process leading to recommendations for personnel requests that

070come to the governing board so just to clarify governing board members are all sent the same information and have the same opportunities to ask questions of the administration throughout our district so just to clarify that and seeing that there are no other requests to address public comment I'm going to move on to agenda item six the superintendent comments Dr Menzel well good evening again president zanowski vice president Warner members of the governing board I want to start by acknowledging that earlier today the Scottsdale Unified School District Foundation held its uh fundraising golf outing I know a few board members stopped by for the lunch before the golfers hit the course and and I just want to express my appreciation for all of the partners and sponsors who help likely bring in more than fifty thousand

071dollars to support our world-class future focused learning opportunities in Scottsdale without the foundation we wouldn't have had things like the crisis canines and many of the other things that we celebrate so today was a good day and temperature wasn't too hot a slight cloud cover I'm not a golfer but I certainly do appreciate the greens and the people who came out today uh secondly I just would like to also acknowledge what president sinowski mentioned and that is earlier this afternoon the Desert Mountain team Town Hall was held and and we had a good representation a panel of Administrators both district office and Desert Mountain high school administrators more than 100 students showed up to participate so by far it's the largest in terms of student participation and while food is provided at all of these

072for some reason Desert Mountain students respond to Chick-fil-A after school and and I think every sandwich was accounted for and then some so so but what was better was the the kind of questions that they asked they were this year they didn't talk about nutrition services they had they had other questions that were on their mind but I'm always impressed by the the thoughtful approach that students have some practical problems that we can address and some that are larger systems issues that will take more time but always grateful to have the opportunity to listen and think about how we can improve the student experience uh speaking of Desert Mountain I just like to remind people who are here and those who are watching that we have our Desert Mountain Town Hall on April 26th from

073six to seven it's open to the community for a q a period of time so we'll encourage people to show up for that we are still taking applications for the Scottsdale Unified School District in Focus program those who don't know this is an opportunity for interested community members both parents Business Leaders non-profit leaders to learn more about the workings of Scottsdale Unified School District from business and finance to curriculum and instruction to Transportation food service Safety you Cover the Waterfront school districts are complex organizations and this is an opportunity for people to spend two hours a month diving more deeply into how the school district operates I think it's important at this time to also acknowledge Margaret Cerna for being designated as a kindness Star Award for excellence in education recipient by the be kind

074people project Margaret will be recognized next Friday with this award for her positive attitude and her tireless energy encouraging students to work hard and succeed as a part of the be kind people projects event at the end of the month so we're very proud of you Margaret I also want to um to point out that on Friday the Charles education banquet the 36th annual will be taking place where we have a teacher of the year from each of our buildings along with student scholarship recipients and this year for the first time recognition of one of our classified staff by the Charles and so we're looking forward to that signature event and celebrating our teachers and our our students who receive scholarships with the partners that we have in the Charles and finally some of these

075were mentioned already but there are a number of upcoming celebrations this week and next April 16th through 22nd is National volunteer week and April 17th through 21st I'm not sure how this happened but Public School volunteer week so let's just say we're recognizing and celebrating volunteers we have more than 2 000 parents that that are signed up to volunteer in our 29 schools we have even more volunteers if you think about the Community Partners that spend time effort and energy in supporting our school district so a shout out to all of the volunteers who support our kids in their success next week is Administrative Professionals week and on the April 26th it's Administrative Professionals Day so I want to give a shout out to the Administrative Professionals that I know are in the room including

076Gladys since it's next week but thank you for all you do we couldn't do what we do without you next week we'll also be celebrating National Library week and April 25th is National Library workers day and I appreciate those who've already given a shout out to our library staff they do important work for our students reading is fundamental and I think that the work of our Librarians to give kids access to diverse literature is important and then finally April 24th through 30th is national student leadership week and one of the things that I've noticed in my time working with the student Advisory Board and engaging with students across our campuses is that we have amazing student leaders they will be the leaders of the Next Generation and I'm really proud of the work that they

077do to make our community a better place with that I'll conclude my remarks thank you so much Dr Menzel we're going to move on to the information discussion items this evening up first is learning Early Learning update from Dr Christine Bono all right no I have you moody have you muted there you go yeah I'm a real Whisperer Dr Benzel I've been accused of being very soft-spoken in my years good evening board members president zinowski vice president Warner board members Dr Menzel and Ms Wagner I am so excited tonight to be sharing about our early learning programs a quick overview of our programs and to share all the great things going on in our programs I wanted to just give a quick shout out to all the members of our team so our our department

078is early learning and Community Education tonight we'll be talking about just Early Learning but every member on our team does everything for all of our programs no one in our department works in isolation and I'm so fortunate to work with some of the most hardest working people I've ever had the privilege of working with so we're going to talk a little bit about this year's programs and then our programs next year our enrollment numbers give you an opportunity to ask questions so you'll see here this is this year's preschool oftentimes especially if people are unfamiliar with our programs you'll find that people use preschool and Pre-K interchangeably we don't they're very two very distinct programs our preschool is for students who are going to be three by August 31st and you'll see here where we

079offer preschool currently Cherokee Desert Canyon Echo Canyon Laguna Navajo and Pueblo all of our programs are licensed through the department of health services through DHS and they have a very they have very strict guidelines for licensing especially as it relates to ratio their ratio for preschool is 1 to 13. ours is one to twelve so we'll you'll never have more than 24 students in a class with a certified teacher I want to point that out because a lot of programs in our state don't utilize the certified teachers I'm very proud that we use certified teachers in our early learning programs for preschool and Pre-K and a full-time assistant we also have a part-time assistant that comes in and provides prep for the teacher lunch breaks for the teacher and for the assistant so it's a

080real team effort you'll see here currently this these are the current enrollment numbers uh for our preschool you'll see the wait list the waitlist is a little bit could be a little misleading maybe not so much in preschool when we get to pre-k it could be a little more misleading because we do have families who say well I really want to be um at Navajo but I'll go to Pueblo so some of these kids could be captured in other programs but they do stay on the wait list until a spot opens up Navajo is a little different because uh it's it's paid for out of a different fund it's not tuition based so you have to live in the boundary but that's where we find for preschool our biggest need and along with Desert Canyon

081preschool so this is our current pre-k this year we are very fortunate that we offer Pre-K at each of our schools with the exception of Hopi and Sequoia my understanding is that when Hopi was rebuilt they didn't perhaps plan accordingly with space so they're busting at the seams didn't have enough the capacity for Pre-K and Sequoia has a Private Preschool that vendors with susd to provide a great learning opportunity for their little ones so you'll see here our current numbers again with Pre-K the ratio is 1 to 12 by the state that's our ratio also they'll never be more than 24 kids in a class with that full-time certified teacher and the assistant if you see here you'll see some of our schools were fortunate enough to have two classes so Cherokee has two Pre-K

082classes Cochise this is our I believe our second year second or third year of having two classes there uh Kiva we added a second class this year when we talk about program expansion I'll talk a little more about that Pima has two classes Pueblo has two Pre-K classes and Yavapai we we added another class so when Yavapai opened up their new campus today or this year or the reopened their campus they also have two classes so again because we offer so many more Pre-K opportunities for students who are turning four that year the wait lists are a little bit inaccurate only because for example I use Cheyenne as an example Cheyenne's always going to be an overwhelmingly popular program it's a phenomenal program they only have one class they have room for one class it

083fills up quite quickly we'll talk about that registration process but many people on the wait list have enrolled at neighboring schools whether it be Anasazi Desert Canyon Copper Ridge Redfield Laguna so they stay on the wait list we have a really neat system that the minute someone withdraws we are able to accommodate the family we're also really proud and I'll talk about points of points of pride in our programs but I want to be I would be remiss if I didn't mention that we're also able to accommodate our families who have been who are eligible under the mckinney-vento act so these are family who are finding themselves in crisis and predominantly this year it's been a lot of our families at Yavapai in in through the social services there we've had room we make room

084for those families we still stay within our ratio but we're very lucky again when we talk about our teamwork working with Melissa and had been working with our social workers to get those students and those families those wraparound Services they need as it relates to our early learning programs so this this is our enrollment for next year and I want to just take a minute to talk about kind of our registration and enrollment process because we change things up a little bit so uh what we've done historically was when registration started we would have a Mad Dash if any of your children have been in the early learning programs in the olden days prior to covid parents would come here on a cold January morning and line up at 3 A.M this is not an

085exaggeration so I'm sure some people in the room could probably back me up they would line up and it would be first come first serve and and our department we worked tirelessly to accommodate those families and it went great we wanted to change things up a little bit because we learned so much from covid because we did so much online so we did the best of both so starting in last November we started communicating our process everything was updated on the website it was very easy to find information we hosted I think three parent night Town Halls via teams where parents could visit we had great turnout to these meetings online parents could ask questions learn about our programs and more we learn about our registration process because it is a little different than that

086K-12 process couple extra steps this year we also um implemented the high priority enrollment groups historically that if it was first come first serve so we really wanted to honor those families who live within the boundary who have siblings at the school to give them priority and we got great feedback on on using that it's a lot of extra work but it is much it's it's worth it to honor those families who have a history with their kids you know they have three siblings out of school to be able we didn't get to do it a hundred percent but we really were able to really make that a priority and then we came and after we had that registration process online we notified parents if they secured a spot we made our wait lists and

087then in January I think it was January 18th whatever that Saturday was we had a great event at the MDA and it was definitely a team effort we had registrators from across the district all of our community ed and early learning team we had teachers who were there helping enroll students we had um counselors you name it it was great and it different than in the past so prior to coven when people were getting there at 3 A.M now it was by appointment so it was really slick it looked like a DMV and the best compliment I think some of you have heard me say that a parent gave us that day said that it was more slick than a Chick-fil-A drive-through which if you if you know you know right like it was great

088and we weren't able to register a ton of families that day who had already processed they processed their enrollment they finalized and now if you look on our website in real time you see those enrollment numbers so for example the numbers you see here are as of April 11th this morning I gave a group tour at Kiva and three families rushed right over to our office to register so we're able to use those high priority groups in the beginning well now we're first come first served so families rushed over today we were able to get more kids plugged in at Kiva and get them registered so again these wait lists I think I might have already said some many of those kids I had a mom call today to say where am I on the

089Cheyenne wait list she's I think one or one or two on the wait list but her child's already registered at Anasazi if a spot opens up for her we're able to move her in open someone to Anasazi and then the dominoes kind of fall that way so I touched on this a little bit we have lots of points of Pride I talked about our program expansion so not only did we open another class at Kiva this year that now is full almost I think we have two spots left we opened up the class at Yavapai historically tonalia had one class so we moved that class over and then opened another class we are real Navajo next year we are expanding to another Pre-K so Navajo has a preschool and then we're using some results-based funds

090to open up another Pre-K to support our families in that neighborhood we are also I know you've talked you've heard about our program we are so excited about our toddler program so for many of you that have some of that institutional memory we used to be able to serve our our littlest kids our little two-year-olds we're bringing them back the program will be at Laguna we still have plenty of space but I'm very confident we can build the program and that will be for students who turn to by August 31st we talked about the registration process I'm going to go back to Quality first in one second but we're also looking at a comprehensive curriculum our teachers do amazing things with Hands-On experiential play-based learning opportunities for our kids as a line to the state

091standards in early learning a lot of people don't realize that Arizona has rigorous standards for our littlest kids that require a lot of that Hands-On play based we have ckla which is that core knowledge language arts but we never had anything comprehensive that addressed early numeracy and science and social studies so we're looking at implementing a program next year through that RFP process right now and it's still going to be able to offer that Hands-On play base but to provide some framework for a brand new baby teacher who comes in who might need a little more structure and a little more guidance on how do I form my day to the veteran teacher who can say yep I see it I'm able to implement it and run with it and developmentally appropriate for our little

092ones um so going back to Quality first I stood here probably a year ago and talked about quality first and praised Echo Canyon for being a five-star program historically they were our only quality first participant because quality first first things first had a waiting list they received some extra cares fund money so they were able to open up the application process last summer so last July while sitting near a beach in San Diego I applied for all of our schools to participate and we were fortunate enough to get we we got that award for all of our programs and it is a heavy lift some will say it's a full-time job which I will definitely agree we could not do it without the help and commitment of Shelley Pappas who was our teacher on assignment

093our early learning coach and other people in our office like Laura Valenzuela who helps with all of our ordering and Julia in the fiscal office and Larry with uh our or our licensing and Elisa and Julia and Liz all of those people have their hands in in this so the quality first process is not a one and done it's very ongoing it's comprehensive it starts with getting contacted every school has a coach we're really fortunate I've heard some districts where you might have 10 schools and 10 different coaches we're really lucky we have two coaches and they're very Geographic and they provide ongoing coaching prior to that is the accreditation process our accreditation process started before our teachers had the benefit of some rigorous professional development even about what quality first was um you know

094that really provided some baseline data this was our Baseline year it was aligned to our kpi of increasing the number of sites of participating in quality first so every school went through that accreditation process it's ongoing coaching we have some incentive funds we received a lot of incentive funds this year to buy new furniture and new toys and new materials offer some PD we're going to be able to pay our teachers and our assistants this summer to come to some really fun Hands-On professional development in June so the I look forward to sharing more about quality first but it's really been exciting and actually we just found out that Oak where our office is I call it Oak Island but it's really Oak campus we just got awarded quality first there so they're going to

095come out this summer and accredit our our summer camp program so I'm really looking forward to that so again talking about that alignment to the Strategic plan that goal 1.5 providing high quality District Early Childhood opportunities we talked about that kpi of quality first we have met it and we're going to exceed it but when we talk about that percentage of preschool students who demonstrate Readiness for kindergarten we don't have empirical data to really demonstrate that yet and I say that yet because next year we will as part of our comprehensive curriculum we're looking for a tool that has an assessment not only for an assessment to measure kids Readiness but to be able to share with the kindergarten teachers to exist within our data dashboard to show how do kids who participate in our

096early learning programs how are they better off or prepared for kindergarten perhaps compared against kids who didn't have the benefit of our programs so really helps teachers know to demonstrate what these kids no one are able to do so I'm really excited for that and I also would be remiss if I didn't point out our collaboration with every Department not only within the district but especially within ed services we work really closely with seratorion and her gifted folks we have three cluster gifted cluster classes at in our early learning Tavon Kiva and Redfield they house the K-5 comprehensive gifted program and our cluster class kind of feeds into that and really provides students who have been identified gifted with really differentiated learning experiences from teachers who are either credentialed and gifted instruction or have professional

097development to really understand the learning needs of a gifted kids similarly our kids who have been identified as needing some specialized instruction based on perhaps a speech impediment or a learning disability through our Panda program we have some kids that participate in half day Panda and then come to our program as well so it's definitely a lot of collaboration it's not been anything that exists in isolation no Silo so that is I'm really really proud of that ongoing improving our systems to help support all of our kids in all of our departments and with that oh I will tell you before we get to questions if you ever want to have a great day come hang out with the three and four-year-olds so email me call me I'd love to come show you the classrooms

098but you definitely you can't not be happy when you just look at those faces so with that I'd love to entertain any of your questions governing board members do any of you have questions or comments for Dr Bono on this topic Dr hartwell's report presidents thank you Dr Bono for this presentation very exciting progress over the last year and as you know I've been a big supporter of quality first ratings so I'm very happy to hear this is this is really good progress um do you have an idea of what the kind of what timeline for accreditation across the district that yeah it's pretty quick so the first the first process is um so we got we found out in July that we had we had gotten the award we had gotten chosen if you

099will and school started I think the first week of August by the third week of August our coaches were calling saying hey we want to come next week to um to assess your class and that can be a little bit and I know many of our teachers my early learning staff is watching and they're going to agree that that was a little it could be off-putting but it wasn't meant to judge because they really the the quality first folks wanted to come in and get that Baseline data they didn't want to kind of give you time to learn all about these tools the first tool that they assess you on is called the eckers the ECC RS3 that's the first tool that looks at your environment and that's a three hour if not more observation

100based on your score you could move on to the class assessment c-l-a-s-s that looks at your academics your different um different developmental Learning Centers and and whatnot based on that then you find out if you move on to class if you after the eckers if you move on to class you don't get your results of those scores until after the whole process and then your coach we get the scores and we get what your rating is and then your coach works with you to look at the High Point points look at some of those areas that need refinement and that document's called their quality improvement plan similar to what we have with our continuous Improvement plan and the coach in our in our professional development for their whole year whether it be on early release

101Wednesdays or our professional development in June will be a lot around how do we align so for example if some of the feedback was you needed um and I'll be honest it's very specific you need 14 blocks in your block Center are they hollow blocks do they have access to all kinds of material for Hands-On for all different types of Learners so you know music you have so many musical instruments so we went with the fine tooth comb and I and I cautioned the teachers don't get bogged down necessarily on what all needs to be fixed look at the positives keep refining those and then let's pick a few and and build those up was that the impetus for the comprehensive curriculum as well not so much because I'll be real honest there not that

102I haven't been real honest for this whole presentation but some of the curriculum we're looking at is going to be hitting some more academics still Hands-On experiential but quality first definitely has their opinion so we're looking at a happy medium everything we do is not going to necessarily be all about quality first we're going to do what's best for kids we're going to look at those naeyc the National Association of the Early Learning of young children their standards what they say is best practice what we know is best practice so the impetus for that was really because we had teachers at 29 classrooms doing 29 different things and they're all great things the teachers are working tirelessly to create these comprehensive lessons and their own assessments and their own progress ports and I thought we

103can work a little smarter and become unified and consistent and it was really from the teacher saying you know we shouldn't have to reinvent the wheel there are some great programs out there that other districts use that uh other around the state that are that are allotted for being great high quality programs that was really the impetus and then also looking at that kpi of how are we measuring we really needed something empirical and something consistent to measure the kids Readiness for kindergarten and what overall is the net capacity increase from last year to next or from the current year to next year in terms of enrollment yes it's higher mainly because of our expansion so for example what was that so Kiva 24 24 kids at Kiva Yavapai didn't have any if you if

104you think of tanalea had one class last year we added another class so that was 24. we were definitely higher and I can look at I could probably if I look at those slides compared this year to next we are definitely higher next year but last year I think because we've refined some of our enrollment strategies and practices with having more information on the website I think we've been able to cast a little bit wider net to our families to make sure they know that a that we exist and what we can offer their child I think as a I appreciate that and I didn't mean to put you on the spot no no I'm curious because um I'm wondering you mentioned need right if where are the needs and so perhaps in August once

105the new school year begins we can have an analytics breakdown of kind of what the expansion looked like for next year how many on the wait list didn't get in how much shuffling had to take place just kind of geographically where the needs are in the district to be responsive to the families there we really and I and I am committed to looking at especially in that preschool level in our title you know we had some shifts in our title funding and we worked really closely I would be again remiss I mentioned gifted and special ed work very closely with Margaret Serna and Sean Crozier and our federal grants folks to look at how can we get the most bang out of the buck our our title landscape changed a little bit so we got

106creative with results-based funding but really looking especially for preschool because what we often find geographically we might have families who call us in July and they wake up and they go to get my kid in school and unfortunately eight times out of ten they're out of luck so how can we be strategic maybe hold some spots for those families a little bit later and also maybe expand our preschool and especially in our in our southern part of Scottsdale wonderful um last question from from me at least for now um are there any other is there any other District school in Arizona that has all of their Pre-K preschool Early Learning programs rated by quality first I think so I believe Higley okay I I believe there are many districts that got in when Echo Canyon

107did years ago they got all their schools in and I think more so now with my colleagues throughout Community Education around the state and early learning in the state a lot of them joined this year the the one there's a little bit of a difference so when you were like Echo Canyons program we're able to offer scholarships with this new cares act funds it does it um Quality first and first things first doesn't allow for additional scholarships there's talks in the future of of opening that scholarship piece up and I'll be honest I was one of the main impetuses for us joining was hoping to get some more scholarships if you will um but I think there are many many districts and Child Care Centers they're they're I believe there's probably more and I have

108to fact check myself on this but just talking to coaches there are more child care centers that participate in quality first than probably seed in schools okay great well this is really great progress congratulations to you and the entire team across the board thank you board member Kearney thank you thanks for the presentation I just have one question on uh do you have any more of the parent Town Halls scheduled do you have any upcoming for early learning no but we absolutely could if parents have so once our registration stops or or the the bulk of it so it's still ongoing like I said I think we registered up to I think three kids for Kiva and a few other places around today when that bulk stops it kind of shifts to the schools they

109still register with us but we told even families today that I gave a tour to around June when all the schools start sending out their back to school information they become um there so for example the Kiva families will start getting information from principal gromac and their PTO and and we kind of take a step back from that because now they belong to the school if you will but always happy to um you know entertain anyone who would like more information I will say that we were again working with our colleagues our folks in it worked so hard to create some Universal email boxes so early learning at susd Community Education at susd summer school at susd and we have we meticulously check those so parents have that responsiveness and so if there's a need

110happy to have another town hall to answer any questions people have okay thank you Dr Bono can you talk about uh the wait lists because it looked it appeared like sections could be opened what is keeping that from happening space so so are you speaking particularly like particularly around like Cheyenne yeah so mostly space it's the classroom space so you know we're licensed so if a school had room if they had capacity would absolutely entertain that um the caution is if we open and this is not necessarily empirical but I will say by looking at our dinner oh God it's gracious sorry about that looking at our demographic areas if we were to like for example we opened a classroom at Kiva last year and we opened a classroom at Navajo this year pima's enrollment

111or Pueblo's enrollment is feeling that so you have to be pretty strategic if we open let's say Hopi all of a sudden grew a new building today I would feel fairly certain that it would negatively impact Echo Canyon's enrollment not saying it's good or bad it's just something to be cautious of and aware of um you know and I think as I think we as we do a really good job of advertising our programs and getting that word out um and trying to get people tucked into those different schools um but really when you know it's not like in kindergarten a section pops because they live across the street since we're all open enrolled if you will that I think that's where it's really in capacity my concern is that when some I don't think

112anyone likes to be wait listed and they'll find Alternatives right away so the wait list if the section is open and maybe we need to be looking at our facility use a little bit different maybe the the old Cochise the what used to be Cheyenne before they moved down on Via Linda and like Frank Lloyd Wright area I know that is one of our facilities there's like maybe we need to be thinking about what's close where we have space and redirect that traffic um just an idea because I know the wait lists people do go elsewhere and they say well I really wanted to get in but I couldn't and I think it were really smart to be capturing the preschool families because then they become our susd families and just to note you know

113susd chooses to budget preschool and all-day kindergarten that is not funded by the state correct me if I'm wrong it's not funded ish so our programs are tuition based so with the exception of our title and even then it's expanded because our title landscape has changed we're using some creative results-based funds to cover some of those classes that were covered by title so our families don't have in in our title and schools don't have to pay tuition our families pay tuition we had to raise tuition this year even I know we spoke about that previous meetings that's commensurate with our areas around town here but no our state does not cover like other states does not pay for no you know free of charge so I bring that up intentionally because there is a thing

114called the Educators budget and it's proposals of best practices and how do we fund those best practices across our entire State again susd chooses to find whether it's through payments from families or scholarships but we choose to support that early learning education because we know the benefits for kids learning later on however the Educators budget includes 25 million for comprehensive funding free accessible preschool and 280 million dollars Statewide for all-day kindergarten which again the state does not pay for that rsusd budget includes all-day kindergarten but again that is something we choose to invest in it would be great to have the preschools The Early Childhood learning and all-day kindergarten funded through our state budget yes it would be making that no yeah okay I really appreciate it's been fun to watch the growth of this

115and again kudos to you and the team thank you um keep up the good work thank you thank you up next will be uh information discussion item 7B the auditor general School District spending analysis for fiscal year 2021-22 Shannon Crozier thank you good evening board president zinowski vice president Warner members of the board Dr manzon guest um tonight we are taking a look at the auditor general School spending report for fiscal year 22. so this is looking at how did we use our funds last school year and looking at how that compared to the state and um other districts um this is a requirement that is required out of state statute um it's been done and I'm looking at this going it was 20 20 it was 2000 through uh the 20 2000 2001 school

116year I see a typo there is when this actually started so it's happened for a number of years that we've received this report as long as well as every other District in the state of Arizona the the report is issued on March 1st and is now required to be on the district website which um our report is on our district website and was put up the the day of the report the first part of this kind of takes a look at how did we um what are the different categories so the state puts uh basically two categories and they're broken down into subcategories within that so the first one being classroom spending that first category is going to include instructions so Direct in the classroom that's going to be teachers paraprofessionals anything that is directly

117in the classroom second one would be student support so that's going to be like attendance clerks social workers guidance counselors otpc Physical Therapy those things Health Services and then the third part of that is instructional support and so that's going to be professional development your library media centers really what goes into developing and helping teachers to be better at their craft that all encompasses so each one of them gets a percentage the three combined becomes the classroom spending the next one would be non-classroom spending so that's going to be your Administration principles assistant principles District administration HR Finance purchasing all of those those areas as well as elections and Technology Plant Services is pretty pretty self-explanatory it's going to be your facilities maintenance security utilities those types of items Food Services and the transportation again

118very self-explanatory so this first part looks at how did we do compared to the state and within instruction the whole category of classroom spending were slightly above the state average we're a little bit lower in instruction a little bit higher in student support and pretty even when it comes to instructional support the other part of that being the non-classroom spending so um Administration lower than State average again plant operations is up and part of that has to do with how we do things so there's things that we decide as a district or the board decides as a district that do play into this one of those things being we have smaller neighborhood schools that's a choice that our community has made that's a choice that our district does and so when you have those types

119of things there's higher utility cost and so that those are things that will help drive up things like plant plant spending um the other thing that affects that it's one of the things we're trying to address for this next school year is we've the last couple of years offered summer programming at virtually every site within the district has some kind of program happening during the summer and it's great to have those at those those sites but it doesn't allow us to kind of close the school up for the summer and save those utility costs and during the summer we know it's hot here and so when you're running that air you know air and electricity continually um that plays into it it's not a bad thing necessarily but it's one of the choices that we've

120made as a district that can affect what our Plant Services looks like again Food Services Transportation we're actually lower than the state average although we are also always trying to keep those down as well so when we look at what happened between fiscal year 21 and 22 we had a change within instructional spending that is abnormal for us and it did it decreased by 2.6 which um I'll be honest my first reaction I saw that was oh my gosh what happened and so we started doing a dive into why why did that go down because we gave raises to teachers um and to to all employees so what would have caused that to really to go down and so we started looking into that and there are some things that by just looking at the

121report you can naturally deduct okay that makes sense um there's some things that we had to dive into a little bit more to say what happened the first thing is that we had an increase of teachers in their first three years so as are more veteran teachers have chosen to retire from teaching and they've been replaced with teachers who are in their first three years of teaching there's a reduction in cost there it just having more teachers in the first three years of their of their career within teaching is naturally going to reduce the cost or the amount of money that's going into the classroom it's not that we're not paying our teachers more it's literally because they're in a lower um first three years of that that education and that actually increased by four

122percent from the previous year so that's a pretty significant increase in the number of teachers that are in their first three years the second thing that happened is we actually reduced certified teaching staff and there's a couple of parts that played into that in fiscal year 21 we were coming out of covet and so we were getting back into the classroom where a lot of districts were actually closed to make that happen we had to have spacing and that was a requirement to be able to even come back into the classroom was that you had to you needed to have three uh three feet of space between the students so to be able to accommodate that as well as to accommodate we had a significant increase in the number of students who chose to go

123to Scottsdale online learning um we had increased we we brought in more teachers we brought in more teaching staff when those requirements are not into play anymore it's not that we got rid of seizures we just didn't need you know through attrition we just didn't fill as many spots we reduced the FTE um and then secondly we do know that unfortunately ADM has decreased and as ADM decreases that also plays a part in um how many students or how many teachers you're going to have in the classroom so that's part of what played into that reduction um and you can even see that when you look at the AG report it shows that in 21 our ratio for student to teachers was 15.7 and then prior and then for 22 it was 17. so you

124can tell we I mean it increased although 17 to 1 is not a horrible ratio that's a good ratio actually for teachers um and I was looking at some more to look at what was it even before covid and before covet happened it actually was 17.2 to 18.3 was the ratio we had so um where would you reduce that FTE some of that I think is putting it more back in line with where we had been pre-covered so that also played a significant impact in why that number would decrease um a third thing that it happened is that during covid we had changed when performance pay was paid to teachers so the classroom um performance pay based off of the 301 Monies had been based where you had to do part of it with was

125based off of valuations part of it was based off of State Testing because of that it was paid in the fiscal year after you earned it so you get the money in 22 you're working towards your performance goal in fiscal year 22 but because evaluations don't come out until school is done and the testing didn't even come out until our scores didn't even come out until closer to November that payment after covid wasn't made until fiscal year 23. so what happened is in 21 we paid all of it in June because there was no test scores then we get into fiscal year 22 which is what this report is based off of and we didn't pay any of it because it was all paid in fiscal year 23. and I will tell you in 21

126that amount was 4 million for fiscal year 22 which was paid out in 23 was over 6 million dollars had we paid that like we had been paying in the past you would have seen a huge that would have played a huge impact into um the dollars in the classroom then the other thing that happened is we didn't do a textbook adoption in 22 for some reason I think partially because there's a lot going on um and so when we've been doing textbook adoptions every single year and those adoptions are several million dollars and then you don't that's a that's a loss of um so we looked at it it was over it was close to two million dollars that you know we had been spending in the classroom with textbook adoption and then we

127just stopped um and so because that wasn't there that again also reduced how much was in the classroom and that and what we are spending and then the last one is a small dollar amount but what I found in looking at this is things add up and so during covid the state was paying out unemployment and they were paying it out to anybody and everybody whether it was accurate or not and unfortunately there were a lot of fraudulent claims there were a lot of a lot of fraudulent claims for people who literally I mean I can tell you almost everybody in my office I think because our names are online supposedly turned in a um unemployment and the guidance from the state and what we're based and what we were told is you've got to

128pay this and then fight it so unfortunately we had to pay it which impacted fiscal year 21. and now we've received so many credits we didn't pay it at all we played no unemployment insurance last year because we have so many credits from the state from over being overcharged during the covid years again when you're paying several hundred thousand dollars for something or more and then don't it makes an impact on on that spending um so I think part of that to take into consideration is that we are dollars we are focusing our money on the classroom that's our number one priority is our teachers and educating students that's what we do however sometimes things that are within our control and some things that aren't within our control can impact how much we spend and

129that changes how this report looks so one of the things I would say is every year you're going to see changes within the different categories that's just going to be the nature because of where Things fall this is a little bit higher than I would have wanted to see of a loss but again there's there's some pretty significant um financial reasons that played into that that I don't think will be an issue this year I know I think every other week Kim gets a call from me saying are you sure we're doing this the science textbook is this gonna is this gonna happen this year so that we have that money and we're we're spending the same we're back to our normal practice within the 301 performance pay for teachers um so hopefully this is

130corrected for the fiscal year 23. looking at some of the other changes our student support increased by 1.2 percent that really came into um the state gave grants to be able to use for social workers and so because of that and the additional funds that went into the area of social workers that increased by 1.2 percent instructional change or instructional support really no change um stayed the same Administration did increase slightly by 0.04 or 0.4 percent um we we had several staff members who again retired from the district and is or left the district and as a part of that package depending on how many years you've been here or their classification there's payouts for vacation and sick and um you know we had a principal that had been here for a considerable amount of

131years we had an assistant principal who had spent I think both of them had spent their entire you know careers here so they had accumulated quite a bit of vacation and leave we had several cabinet members who again left to become superintendents at other districts or do other things and so that played a part into the administration of change plant operations really no change and then Food Services increased by 0.6 and I think this one if you've gone to the store you understand why this one has gone up um unfortunately food just cost a whole lot more than it used to and so that played part into it and then um we have you know students are back from covid and they're eating and that's great but those things all play into it and so

132that was part of the increase there and then Transportation increased and a lot of that has to do with the bus the bus driver shortage which seems kind of okay you are short drivers how come that would make your cost increase but because we're short drivers we are Contracting out way more services than we ever did um Athletics is almost constantly buying um uh the charter buses for athletics those are expensive field trips we're not able to get bus drivers for field trips a lot of the field trips now are having to get chartered buses which can they cost way more than what our own transportation could be we're having to contract out um driving services for our special needs students because we just don't have enough drivers to even feel um are we don't

133have enough drivers to fill the spots that we have and the rods that we have so our staff is constantly out like even the office staff is constantly out driving that also means that the staff we do have are racking up a lot of overtime hours as well because they're taking any I mean anything we can get them to drive extra they're doing and so we actually have drivers who are facing that you've driven too many hours this week you literally cannot take um any more routes um so because of that over time the charges uh the charter buses and the contract Services unfortunately also increased our transportation costs um so kind of looking at the next steps um we know the performance pay for certified is going to be it is in this fiscal

134year 23 so I think that's going to be a big reflection we know we're looking at a textbook adoption um there was significant races that went out um for this year so I think that'll play a factor our teacher experience index has increased so that's an indication that the experience of our teachers has increased some um so I think that'll play a part into it and again we we try to monitor this stuff all the time constantly look at what's happening and where are things going to land some of it is hard to tell until we get to the end of the fiscal year but we do still monitor to see where we are I think next year I think the report that'll come out showing for fiscal year 23 will show um more favorable

135numbers for us I think there's a couple things that unfortunately happened in fiscal year 22 that just didn't um didn't work out the way that we would like it to show for classroom spending but I think if you look at instructional spending was down overall the classroom dollars for our district um were doing better than the state average on that and so we want to continue to work on that and put in a business on that but um that's kind of what happened for 22. so with that I'll take any questions thank you so much Shannon for this comprehensive report I wanted there to be a clear explanation not just to this governing board but also to the public how these fine details can make a big difference with our budget and I know our

136priority is on classroom spending and supporting what's going on in the classroom so I do appreciate you going through and identifying what those changes have been thank you Dr hartwell's I think I got it thank you board president snowski thank you Shannon for the presentation I know I asked for this at the last board meeting and I very much appreciate you going through the underpinnings of these numbers because just a first glance at the numbers one may come to a cursory conclusion that isn't necessarily supported by the information that's underneath it so I appreciate you sharing it it was important um and just to confirm some of these factors that contributed to the decrease in instructional spending this is using the calculation again of the Arizona auditor general which is a little bit different than

137some of the other reports that come out you don't see those being influential for the fiscal year 2023 Dutch I was no we don't I mean obviously the performance pay was has been is back in there we fully anticipate there being a textbook adoption that we know will be a couple million dollars hopefully will take place this year um obviously it's going to it's going to I ask a lot is that happening um so chemistry books are coming right um so I think those are two factors that definitely will play a role into it um you know if unfortunately if as are more experience teachers hit those retirement years and are retiring they're brought in that's not a bad thing to have younger teachers that are have new ideas and um and um you know

138that's not bad but that does make an impact that's a little bit harder to control because we're going to hire who's the best teacher for it that position but that's a little bit harder to control but I think as our teacher experience for index did go up slightly but did go up that's an indication at least that um you know we have teachers with more a little bit more experience at least above the average in the state of Arizona okay so I appreciate that thank you um and I realize that you can't commit to certain events that you can't control um and I don't think anyone blames uh folks after the turbulence of the pandemic that you might want to be able to be done for a little bit so I get that um there

139are a couple of um components of the changes that impacted the instructional support though that do seem to be things that could be reviewed by the administration in particular the lead payouts and those kinds of components don't have to be structured the way that they're structured if anything for this reason if those are the kinds of of substantial hits that the budget's going to take um you know I think it's appropriate to review that thank you board member Warner well we're good hi so thank you for your report and I have two questions one is regarding nutrition services are all of our spots filled or do we have vacancies at any of our schools or facilities for nutrition services oh we have lots of vacancies within nutritional services okay yeah and how are we operating

140um all hands on deck is really how they're operating um so I can tell you at any given day the office staff within the nutritional Services is out managing schools the staff that we have at our schools they are phenomenal they call them Cinemas Team Awesome and man they earn that title because I mean you can go into a school and there's two workers and they're serving and they're collecting or you know doing if they need to charge or tracking how many so you essentially have one person serving and one person um scanning students through and I that's I don't know how they do it those those um those employees have to be pretty exhausted by the end of the day but yeah they are stretched thin and they are like I said all hands

141on deck and are the funds allocated for in the budget the ones that are not working that we don't have the non-existent ones great question so actually what this report looks at more than just mno dollars it looks at almost all of our funds so impacts more than just our mno budget for Food Services they're entirely self-sufficient so and they actually contribute about a million dollars back to the district um through indirect costs but um so they but they have the budget for those um those spots they would love to get people in those spots um they've talked about some different plans on and ideas to test out to see what we could do to get people in those those positions um I think raising the minimum or the our lowest staff members earlier this

142year made a difference because for a long time you could go to Chick-fil-A and get a better salary than what you could with us or McDonald's or so um I think that's made a difference but yeah she's got that budgeted it's just it's just not being spent and one more so Transportation um off top of your head or if you can look it up what is our hourly pay for transportation it's in the 19 range per hour for a bus driver um we have done studies to see are we comparable to other districts and we are um we actually last year tried bonuses so if you uh well one they get so we give a longevity stipend to our drivers anyways to retain them but um they actually we actually tried a kind of a

143if you get somebody you know if you refer somebody or or if you're new comes assigning bonus type thing to try to get folks in and had very little success with it we are going to try again because we are very nervous about next year we've we've got several people retiring this year um so we're gonna try sign and drive events again the issue is driving a bus is hard it's really hard and there's requirements that you have to have above just I mean it's not it's a CDL license but special endorsements on top of that and driving a you know big old bus with 60 kids on it through our streets is hard so those are we're trying but those busted positions are really have really been difficult it's not just us it's that's

144a nationwide issue that we're facing thank you I appreciate it yeah um and I do want to follow up on that because we we did decide as a board in the past to um put some uh mileage incentives for our food service workers like we're open to trying whatever it's going to take um I do like the big signs that are on the campuses I noticed those driving through the neighborhoods hiring nutrition food service workers or Transportation or whatever like I I understand our Communications Department and our HR they're they're working hard to do this but you're absolutely right Shannon that these work shortages are a national issue and a lot of the contracted Services has become uh standard mode of operation for many school districts throughout the nation it is and unfortunately it's not

145the best of what we can you know we we want to offer more and better sure it's harder to control the quality when you're Outsourcing your services absolutely yeah okay so if anyone knows anyone who's looking exactly we're always hiring right how to put those plugs in um again thank you Shannon um seeing that there are no other comments or questions we will move on to 7c which is a first read of governing board policy bedf regarding voting method and Jennifer McLennan is going to support this discussion I had asked that this be brought forward I feel it's really important for us to continue to clarify our roles as elected school board members and and check that we are continuing to fulfill our fiduciary responsibilities as was stated here earlier in in this evening you

146know we are elected and that means making decisions and they're not always easy decisions to make so I really do support um the you know the comments of appreciation we don't do this work for appreciation we do this to move our district forward so voting is one of those things so um collectively we are charged with making decisions through votes and um Jennifer do you have you have it up there thank you good so the red is the recommended additions to this particular um policy so at this time I'd like to open it up you can you guys can all read to see what the suggested additional um languages board member Kearney there you go let me try that hang on just no just wait yeah I'll get it here we go okay it's we're

147gonna blame you okay thank you president snowski so I'm just curious on what is the emphasis to change this policy well as you can see it really identifies what a vote is I know in the past I've asked for clarification um for the term abstention of a vote and an abstention is not a vote and um in looking through City practices City governance practices and other school boards I think it's important for us to Define what a vote is and the the purpose of that so as it says votes on all motions and resolutions should shall be an i or an a board members may also abstain from voting it says that okay and then you go down to the bottom it's the addition would be when a quorum is present a majority vote of

148the votes cast ignoring abstentions is sufficient for an adoption of any motion whether it's a approval or a deny so to clearly identify what our roles are and what the votes mean okay um so I feel like this is directed as board members who have um abstain from some votes and um there have been inter you know there's been instances where I'm not sure if I'm a yes or no because I haven't had the proper information so therefore I abstain from a vote because I don't have the information to make an informed vote so with this change in policy are you trying to take away that the privilege of neutrality from board members no it states on here you can also abstain from voting however there's something that that I've thought of in looking at

149this that when we bring this to the second read I'd like for us to consider that the addition at the end of where it says on that first paragraph voting and then there's a cross-out or abstention so it would read an abstention is not a vote and should only be used when an actual conflict of interest pursuant to governing board policy and or Arizona State Statute exists I'd like that to be added for consideration I thought it was very appropriate in the past to abstain from voting if you weren't part of like there was something in the past where was that happened the previous board to me that makes sense that you'd abstain from that not necessarily a conflict of interest but you really weren't part of that initial decision making but to clarify the

150an abstention is not I'm not ready to vote and abstention is um there's a conflict of interest because uh you know if you're if you're thinking you're not you don't have the information then and if you don't want a motion to move forward that would be a Novo as I see it if you don't want something to move forward okay so board members that have come before us have had the opportunity to abstain and have have used that practice and didn't have policy changed on them so I'm just wondering why we're trying to do this now can you get an example yes go ahead so I appreciate the question and so um it's not only our district that's seen this happen there was a district on the west side of the valley where there was

151a question about whether or not a motion carried they had a quorum of the board president I think there were four um and so under this policy the question about what doesn't abstention mean in Robert's Rules and in some other um environments and abstention goes with the majority of the vote so it would theoretically carry the recommendation here isn't that but a 202 vote let's say four members are present under this policy would pass because the two abstentions aren't counted as votes for the total so majority of those casting ballots would would mean it was approved current policy is is unclear about that which is why there's the clarity here a 2-2 vote doesn't pass because that's it doesn't have a majority of of those voting so that's that's really when you look at the

152the impetus behind the change is that it's not so much about um the abstention and denying the opportunity to do it it's just what's the impact on caring or not caring uh a matter of business in front of the governing board is that fair Jennifer Madam president Dr Menzel yes that's correct so the language at the bottom of the policy that you see is taken from Robert's Rules of Order the governing board has Authority under 15 321 to adopt its own rules of order this board has not adopted Robert's Rules but this would clarify your governing board policy to make it clear that abstentions would fall if a majority of those present carry the motion then the abstentions would not prevent the passing of the motion Dr Hart Wells thank you board president sinowski I

153actually was going to ask for a specific example because I think it's just easier to apply the policy as as you're proposing here but as I understand this and to be responsive to board member Carney's question there's no prohibition from abstaining in this policy proposal Miss McLennan as as drafted correct I understand Ms sunowski is proposing language that would state that an abstention could only be initiated if you have an actual conflict of interest I have seen that in other city codes including for instance Fountain Hills has language like that where the this board could con state that you cannot abstain unless you have a conflict of interest that currently isn't in this version I understand that Miss sinowski would like that added but as this policy stands now any board member May abstain for

154any reason for any reason okay but the the clarification that's being that's in red right now that the community can see is that the abstention is really just you're taking yourself out of the decision making entirely with an abstention and therefore of the voting members that's what counts and towards pass or no pass that's exactly correct okay so it makes the abstention neutral as opposed to a Novo which is what we experienced a couple of months ago okay thank you for the clarification miss the clinic uh board uh vice president Werner so I actually bought Robert's Rules as president for a lot of the the um the ways that we vote though we don't we don't have specifically this adopted and so there is president for abstaining due to not enough information historically that is

155something that's happened in our district for years and years and years and um according to Barbara's rules we do have a right to any board member does have the right to abstain particularly when there's not enough information to make a decision on a yes or a no so with the language on here I just wanted to point out by um that the votes cast ignoring abstentions you're essentially casting aside the vote um and taking that away from somebody who may not have the all the the information by ignoring it and you're also ignoring the voters the people that elected us to be here and I will use an example um I did abstain at the I think it was the last board meeting we were voting to give you um instruction to act on the

156behalf of the district and maybe a recuse a little bit better because I was I was involved in what what was the lawsuit and I just didn't think of it at the time at the time which was maybe probably would have been better than abstaining but again I'll just reiterate um this is silly and this has nothing to do with our children and again casting aside board members votes is not right so thank you um I think this does have everything to do with our kids because we are tasked elected by the general public to make decisions for the best interest of our district at large so everything that we do here should be focused on our kids so when we make votes we are focusing on decisions to move our district in a direction

157we see benefits our students Dr hartwell's go ahead do it again appearance okay that's okay just click on yours and I'll turn yours on why is it flashing here we go okay you have to transfer it over yep okay very good thank you okay so I want to respond um because I think there's some that was a misunderstanding as I'm understanding this language is proposed abstentions are not being treat ignored necessarily You by abstaining are not voting yay or nay so an abstention is you taking yourself out for whatever reason you wish taking yourself out of the voting and so if you sideline yourself again there's legitimate reasons to do so then the folks who are voting that's what should count this isn't a comment or assigning a motivation to anyone I don't at least

158the language that we're looking at here um it's just literally defining what the impact of an abstention would have on a vote and the impact of an abstention if you really don't want to weigh in yay or nay should be nothing that's the neutrality position that you asserted so I don't this has nothing to do with silencing people you're choosing to not participate in the vote I don't mean you personally you person abstaining are choosing to not participate in the vote that's your choice okay but it's not everybody else's fault that you're doing that that's your choice so it shouldn't stop people from getting paid and it I absolutely believe that this is I'm not a fundamental issue we do need to tackle because I think there was some confusion when this happened because it

159hadn't had well it hadn't happened we're on the board so I appreciate the effort to try to clarify efficiencies impact Effectiveness and effectiveness of the governance of this District impacts our kids so thank you so so I would add that there is a mechanism already in policy to address the issue if a board member's feel there's inadequate information to make a decision and it's a motion to table and we have exercise that many times in the past when the information was inadequate or there were more questions that needed to be researched and so we have tabled agenda items so there's a difference between tabling an agenda item and how you count votes or not votes and and I think that's why this is important the abstention is is actually a decision not to vote and

160so this just clarifies that that's a non-vote and that something in when we're having a meeting and if there were five people like tonight and we had two yeses and three abstentions it would not carry I mean they think just about the mathematical consequence a majority of those voting uh well actually would it carry if he might say that say that again yeah no no I'm thinking about it enjoy those voting if you have three abstentions that means you have three notebooks so one one wouldn't carry but a 2-0 would correct so so in that environment we have a mechanism for something to be tabled if if the governing board needs more information and time to consider a recommendation that's properly before the board but this this clarifies when you have an abstention and the

161situation like we did before on a 202 that the matter would move forward president Werner Werner there we go the challenge has been that there's been a lack of information that's the end of well four months that I've been a board member that has been quite the issue and you're right no one should ever be affected or have their pay start affected by this and it when that vote happened that was actually um not because of an abstention so um anyways I've spoken my piece ignoring an abstention is just it's silencing and ignoring about or a board member and um that's all I have to say thanks please read that it does say board members may also abstain from voting so it's not silencing anyone it's clarifying and abstentions don't count for or against an

162an item or an issue or emotion to clarify that Dr hartwell's okay thank you word present saski I want to make it very clear again that is a misunderstanding the plain reading of the language is if you are abstaining with this modification this amendment to policy bedf that's being proposed as is not with the additional language that word president sinowski had indicated means you by abstaining abstainer whoever that is is silencing yourself it is not the rest of the board or the policies silencing you there are legitimate reasons to abstain and I have myself but it is not a means of anyone victimizing you and I want to make that very clear thank you I also I'm just going to add because this keeps coming up the last vote where the payroll wasn't approved because

163we had two abstentions and two yes votes and we it was determined that it didn't pass that window of the day that that vote was taken and the day how many five or six business days later where that vote was taken again there wasn't one crumb of new information that came from the administration on the merits so I want to be clear to the community about that I see other microphones on I this okay this is um a discussion and this is not something we're going to vote on tonight so if you feel like you need to give additional information to council um we can we're not going to vote on this tonight anyway so are you guys okay with just moving on them okay we'll do that okay we're going to move on to

164our consent agenda and items are requested to be removed so I'm going to make a motion to approve the consent agenda as amended is there a second on that motion oh hang on I need to hang on I need to make a couple clarifications beyond the polled items um there's a clarification of the one of the out-of-state trips if you guys can it's in your personnel packet it's eight oh um it was for the calculus Camp prep the AP test prep experience Arcadia had a missed date on there it was published wrong it should have been 4 14 through the 16th that's the corrected date just letting you guys know that instead of to the 29th yeah that would have been a very long calculus Camp yeah that would yeah so that was a mistake

165in the date and I also wanted to bring to your attention 8e which was um our Personnel report and to remove there there were some duplicate entries for coach's last name Philip Bostrom lapetis slovis and mamina mamina that was a clerical error and employees will only be paid once for the work that they provided to our district that they were receiving stipends for and um so not only is there some clarification on items that you received with because they were typos but um making a motion to approve the consent agenda as amended is there a second second Dr Hartwell seconds that motion all in favor to approve the consent agenda as amended say aye aye and I believe I heard five affirmative so that motion to approve the consent agenda as amended passes 5-0 and

166now we will move on to the polled items and the first one polled was by board member Kearney and that was 8N approve the renewal of intergovernmental agreement IGA with greater Phoenix educational management Council and Arizona educational management Council board member Kearney okay great I've just got some questions on this so would that be Shannon who will be answering it'll be it'll be you okay okay documents I've got um three questions um that I'd like to ask so first I want to confirm I'm a little confused I I think this that I have this right so tonight we're being asked to approve a five-year agreement at a minimum cost of over fifty thousand dollars so the the membership fee um is 10 094 at the present time uh and so that number does get reviewed

167every year by the by The Guppy Mech executive committee those numbers haven't changed a lot over time so I can't guarantee that they won't change at all but that would over the five-year life of the agreement it would be ten thousand and some change per year yes so approving this tonight is approving uh a five-year agreement because it's concerning to me because we've never done this in the past it looks like we've never approved anything beyond a one-year agreement beginning in 2019. Jennifer might be able to speak to the original IGA uh Dr Mansell Miss Carney I believe that the multi-year agreements but I I have them right here okay I don't I have not researched that question but I know that typically the agreement for the greater Phoenix education management council is a multi-year

168agreement um well the board has only approved in they approved a one year only same 2020 they approved a one year only I could find no information on the past two years so I'm not sure Dr Menzel could you tell us how it was approved the past two years we can review that issue but I don't know the answer to that question so I know that we had the paralegal Louise Quezada pull up data as to when it was first approved and that was in 2019. right okay so in 2019 it was approved for one year only 2020 was approved for one year only and tonight we're being asked to approve it for five years so I'm just concerned about that and I just wanted to bring that to our attention um and then I

169want to know are there any additional funds on top of this amount that the district pays for superintendents or others throughout the year to attend workshops or other meetings or are there additional funds that the district has to pay for this organization for this Council not that I'm aware of so outside of the travel cost to where the meetings might rotate and and even then I don't put reimbursement for mine I don't know about the other members there are three three divisions there's a superintendent's division there's a business officials Division and a curriculum and instruction division so these are the membership costs the other things that are associated with that professional learning don't require additional expenditure by the district okay because for example I saw that there was like a fee for the fall superintendent's

170Workshop so I just would like to see what additional fees are for on top of you know what we're bringing out you know what we'd have to go back and look at that to see so there there are some workshops where they they may have rental fees associated with the the venue and they're providing food so they may have a de minimis charge so I'd have to go back and look at that okay so I feel like we need a table on this item because we there's a lot of information I think that people don't have and we need to have the correct information so I'd like to make a motion to table this item emotion has been made one second and vice president Werner seconds it all in favor to table can I just

171ask a clarifying question what impact will this have if we table this right now so so I actually think it's a good idea to table um we don't have to have it done tonight we need to get it done by the end of the fiscal year and and I want to ask Jennifer if we can and when we're reviewing the IGA look at the exit Provisions so to board member Carney's uh Point uh five year IGA doesn't give me heartburn but I would like to be able to exit for any reason at the end of each year so you're you're signaling an agreement for a period of time but you have an off ramp at the end of each year if you find that it's not providing the value I don't know that that's clear

172in this current IGA the way it's crafted so I would like to review that right so I I can I just say because if we approve this tonight for the five-year con agreement even if we did one year whatever it is it doesn't have to come back to the board than every year I mean if we were to prove this it doesn't have to come in front of the board again to prove for the following years so we just that's correct we need to just I think get correct information on what's been going on since uh 2019 okay so to my question was that we don't have to get this the answer to the question is we don't have to get this till the end of June so we have time without it having any

173negative ramifications on our district Madam president that's correct okay and just quick research shows that the 2020 IGA was a three-year IGA and that the uh District can cancel with 90 days notice so but we why don't if with your permission I'll do a little memo on what the history has been of the organization what the extra costs are and what the termination provision is okay thank you to so to address the motion and the second all in favor to table this item at this point say I I the motion to table passes five zero thank you and we're going to move on to eight I recommend approval for revised job description and position for web content strategy manager Ms Warner yes um this is Christine okay uh is am I on yeah okay one

174second let me pull up mine is this position currently failed am I going to talk oh there you are hello Madam president governing board members Dr Menzel and Gladys so back story is that we currently have a digital content manager who has been doing the duties outlined in the job description before you tonight okay now the digital content manager job description reads much more like video because when that position was brought on board the idea was that the website was set it and leave it and essentially our schools and our departments would be able to make any necessary changes that has not been the case and in fact we've found the digital content manager to be very supportive of our schools in in meeting their needs as it relates to the website we've had many

175asks for videos um and it looks like we have a videographer and so it has been a challenge to try to meet the needs of the web and then do any video and so given that what we'd like to do is actually have the digital content manager do the video as outlined in their job description and then have a essentially a webmaster who is going to do the web work another item to mention is we will be rolling out an intranet and that will be an additional duty that will land you know either on this person if you approve tonight and or on the digital content manager which just means even less likely that we would get ever any video the intranet is coming about because what we have right now which is basically files

176that are shared internally that is going away that technology is aging out and so it's a good a good opportunity to roll out an internet but that is something that we have not ever had to manage so that'll be entirely new and again another Duty so this is a new position a new person it is yeah so um so a lot of people think wait we already have this person but the person we have is doing a job that is part of their job description but not their whole job description and so um this would be essentially a realignment for the current employee and then an opportunity for a new employee that would manage the web and um and future Intranet okay and the 96 000 that this pay for this new person which is

177mno funds um is is that the market rate it just seems really really high when you know we really have to take care of our teachers in our classrooms first so that's not just salary I like HR perfect to talk about that I think I may have to pinch it to Shannon if I mess this up it is a mid range of the salary and it also includes the benefits which calculate uh at 20 percent give or take or give a little bit more on top of that so so it would include mid-range salary if that is where a person were to be placed plus the benefits that are associated with the salary okay thank you okay thank you thank you are there any other questions um board member Kearney thank you president sinowski um

178we've heard it a couple times tonight that our number one priority is classrooms spending and so I'm not sure this is a where we should be spending our funds right now I want to know though I see that um the communications budget has doubled in salary expenditure from fiscal year 22 to fiscal year 23. is is this position included in the 444 350 or is it or would this be on top of added on to top of that president sinowski board member Carney if I may a few of those positions were vacant and so while there appears to be a doubling of the amount of money that was budgeted it is due in large part to one two three four positions some were hired mid-year some were not filled and so the budget was allocated

179but the position may not have been filled so when I did the math on it the actual net change from between the vacancies and the mid-year hires for those positions is again I'm not the math specialist in the room but a net change really overall of approximately 85 000 so if I may give you an example uh the director of community Communications my colleague to my right here was a mid-year hire so half of a salary was indicated in fiscal 22. now she's been here for the full fiscal 23 to date with a full salary so double of what it was in the previous fiscal year so that's an additional give or take fifty thousand dollars uh social media specialist was vacant for almost the entire year of fiscal 22 that position is now filled

180so there's an increase of another fifty thousand and then there is another position um well we had we did have an upgrade from one position so that increased a salary a bit and then we the governing board approved the coordinator of strategic partnership so that was an additional 74 000 and some change so if you add up those differences between the vacancies the approval of the new position uh and a re-re classification um that's actually the net difference okay thank you um I'm just concerned about spending more money um in this way in Communications when we're having to cut positions in the cloud that are in the class you know in the schools right now so what can you clarify that we're not cutting positions in the schools okay well I'm sorry not social workers

181weren't offer contracts there's positions I'm saying I I maybe worded that wrong people in our schools that don't have weren't offered renewed contracts so I'm just saying I'm not sure if this is where um our money should be spent if our number one priority is the classroom and student learning um thank you I would like to just re comment on that um we hear from the community that communication is important over and over again whether you're a parent you live within the boundaries of susd whatever so this is a way to meet those goals and objectives is to have a Communications Department because a few years ago we did not have a well-established Communications Department so I really appreciate the work that has been done that is very obvious to me knowing where we've come

182from and where we are now just want to make that clear 100 I absolutely agree with that I mean the communication team has been doing amazing work that is not what I said it at all I'm just saying I'm not sure if this is proper use of our funds right now any other comments um Dr hartwells thank you board president zinowski Dr Menzel I'd like to ask your thoughts so to build on what Christine has already shared um in in the 21st century video media is the number one platform for being able to get your message out as much as I prefer text this next Generation looks for video all the time the the notion that you can manage both the video content and the the web with the internet interface in one person is

183an unrealistic job expectation and so as we looked at it we've been Outsourcing some of the video work but that is really expensive if you do that on an ongoing basis with a third-party entity so we've been able to do some of it we've actually seen some you saw the Coronado Learning Community video for example that's high quality really compelling there are a lot of important stories to tell but if you don't separate these two functions something suffers in the process so what what Christine said is that we would focus on the on the web management and and the internet because that's the that's the core those that's the gut it's not the glossy it's not going to help us tell our story externally but it's going to keep things functioning so that's what we

184would default to and we would not be able to do some of the things in terms of video and if you look at other school districts in the valley there are some that have much more robust video departments not just one person in order to be able to do that so we're trying to do it as as thinly as we can in terms of a lean staff but it is fundamentally different job to strip descriptions which is why we've we move forward with this recommendation because combining it into one we've learned over the last couple of years that one one part of the job description suffers while you focus on the other and that's ultimately been video um vice president Werner and I've we've actually exchanged communication regarding video and marketing and I'm I love

185marketing my concern is and I'm not opposed to this so about my concern is so with the mno dollars and this is obviously a new hire I know that their teachers are looking for AIDS and there's we're short AIDS in some of the classrooms and um I just want to make sure that we are spending our money wisely and putting it all in the right places and we have negotiators here that negotiate pay for our staff and we want to just be you know really really good stewards of the money making sure that we are putting it where it belongs in the classroom so um and we cannot out Market a parent's experience so there's a lot going into it again I'm not posted but I wanted to make sure that we're definitely on board

186and maybe we make some Cuts in other places that's not m o dollars and that's not affecting our our staff so we can have this thank you um and vice president Werner you since you pulled this would you like to make a motion on this item um yes one more comment I I do want to have a discussion about some items that we can cut that I've been reviewing the budget and I think that that is something that I'm going to condition this approval on is that we have another discussion about some items moving forward that we can cut back on or at least I'm going on record as saying that I'm going to go ahead and prove this or you know support this today but we have to cut back in other areas so

187that um our staff is taken care of so with that I make a motion to approve um board member Lindsay has this microphone request thank you I just wanted to add that even with this Dr Menzel and I've had conversations that the district is looking to provide some more support to some of our schools I don't know if you want to touch on that at all or oh thank you so so there are um and I would be happy if I if I may uh president sinowski so there are through the IBN process there are other um interests that have surfaced uh and and one of those commitments we've made over time is to look at our staffing ratio and structure to make sure that we're um providing the kind of support at the building

188level that we need and and as we move forward with the AP recommendation to move 11 month to 12 month one of the interests that surface related was related to support for our middle schools that are large and we've got four that are approach to approaching a thousand kids and nka right so thinking Cheyenne and then our three larger middle schools so it's going to take some time to finalize the sapping structure and that's so that's always been discussed as something that we bring forward for implementation in 24.25 but what I've said in some of the conversations I've started with staff already is we need to identify by what we can do this coming year in those large middle schools and the large K-8 to provide support and that's going to require conversation with those

189building principles to say what what's the best support is it additional clerical support is it another registrar what's the individual support in those buildings to address that concern we want to get the Staffing ratio and structure right and so that's going to take a little bit more time that shouldn't stop us from being able to address the immediate need next year thank you all right motion to approve um item 8e oh I hate I yeah um motion to approve uh consent agenda item 8i and I will second that motion all in favor to approve eight I recommend approval of revised job description and position for web content strategy manager say aye aye aye those opposed say nay nay that motion passes four one we have moved through our consent agenda we're moving on to our

190action items 9A tentative approval of capital budget for the 2023-2024 school year Shannon Crozier great all right uh board president zinowski vice president Warner members of the board Dr Menzel and guess tonight we are bringing forth the um proposed capital or tentative Capital approval for for the district to move forward as we start setting up for next year and getting things ready to go so schools can start entering requisitions and get getting what they need in now so that they're here by uh July 1st I'm a little excited about this one because this is different we've done this agenda item for the past several years but this year we took a much different approach to how we move forward with it and so I'm kind of excited to share how that's worked because that's been

191um that's been a over a year-long process of looking at what our Capital needs are and identifying how we can better spend our Capital dollars so with that couple of things to keep in mind with the capital budget um this is a little bit easier to protect and predict because unlike mno the state allocation for capital is actually based on the prior year ADM so we know what our ADM is for this year it makes it a whole lot easier to predict what our capital budget will be for next year um so it is based on prior year which for next year means it's based on this year's ADM the voter the capital override is based on the voter approved pamphlet so it's very clear on how we have to spend those dollars and um

192how much we have to spend for that and then we we kind of did a mixture of things with the budget this year so within the capital budget the past practice has been just allocated out to everything based on the ADM of our school and just just give them the same amount every year based on how many students they have and we wanted to get away from that and really look at um some things yeah need to be allocated by ADM but some things need to be looked at what is the school needs where are the needs some schools have more needs than other schools we have schools that have been completely redone so their needs aren't as high they still have needs but they're not as high as some of the other schools that

193haven't been addressed and so we really wanted to focus on kind of a mixture using some things will be allocated by ADM so that being like we do a allocation for athletics we do a little a small allocation for PE equipment so the schools can get the equipment they need for for PE program we do the same for Fine Arts and library but with the additional dollars we also allocated out based on what is the needs of schools and we went through a whole process to identify that and then the carry forward projections that we have are um pretty close to the estimates we had last year it's a little hard to tell at this stage where we're going to finalize that out especially because like we haven't finalized a textbook adoption depending on what

194that could be you know a million or two so depending on where things land could change that carry forward so the carry forward that we have projected for next year is pretty much in line with what we've done in the past knowing that how things fall throughout the rest of this year unfortunately Capital items are sometimes a longer lead time to get them so the things that we could order as early as February and we may not get them until July which means it rolls in into the next fiscal year so this is the carry forward is a little bit harder to predict but this is where we are based on what we've we've had in the past um so with that we are projecting the state allocation to be 10.4 million dollars with a

195carry forward of four million dollars in the state allocation and then for the override the override that passed was for 14 and a half million or 10 percent of the RCL so because of that it's capped at 14.2 million or approximately 14.2 million for next year with an additional 2 million dollars in carry forward putting us at basically 30.7 million dollars which is a lot of money I will tell you when we went through the process of our Capital planning and what are the needs for next year we had over 10 million dollars Above This budget that we had to go back to people and say okay we gotta we got to figure out some more things that could be put to the 24 25 school year or what what is a definite need that

196has to happen now or in some cases and I'll talk about this a little bit more we did uh okay we only have six hundred thousand dollars for furniture we know that schools ask for more than six hundred thousand dollars in Furniture needs and frankly it's ten thousand plus to be able to do one classroom six hundred thousand dollars isn't going to get us that far so we've said okay we're going to put aside this much money and then start to look at what are the highest needs but definitely figuring out how to cut 10 million dollars is is not a fun task um so with that we started a capital planning committee and we actually started this back in October of 21. and the idea being is that the district has not had in

197a number of years a capital plan nor have they had Capital standards which is not a good way to function and so through that we said we need to bring together a group of our stakeholders of our employees our schools are we have community members on it to say okay what are the needs of the schools and quit this you know stop just allocating money to the schools and saying you all get the same amount and start looking at what do we need to be to give the schools what they need with the highest priorities so that's really where this kind of stemmed from and then working from that even Beyond it is developing what is our standard what is a standard classroom that you can expect to see and Dennis is actually working with

198our purchasing director Roger Spivey to to develop a basically a catalog that this is what a standard classroom should look like and these are the options for that so that when you go into a room you know this is what it should have the hard part is going to be we're not going to be able to change all of our classrooms to that standard in one year's time that's going to be a long process especially when you look at High School classrooms that have like the old school desk that's one piece that doesn't fit every student so it's going to take a little bit of time to do that but we started the process which is the first step of saying what are the needs of our schools what what softwares are we using and

199are they the right software um what's what's needed out there Beyond just playground facilities and shade structures and sound equipment to make sure that our schools have what they need to be successful so we started that we had meetings in October November January March and then we kind of stopped and there was two parts to that one once you hit March we started a very heavy budget season but we also know at that point that we were talking about an override and I wanted to make sure that there was no um feeling out there that could be that this committee was there to to decide or to sway people for the override and so we we stopped that committee at that point to make sure that there was no confusion or even perceived thought that

200that could be something that was to sway the override once that was done we brought those meetings back in December and from December through now we were meeting quite frequently to really wrap this up and to say what are we going to do what are we going to do with the funds that we have for next year um so like I mentioned we had Finance leadership we had Department leads we had principals from different schools we had four Community Representatives unfortunately we didn't always have um rep the community Representatives couldn't always be there but it was always opened up to them um to hear their input as well so what we did is we went to all of our sites and said in departments and said what do you need what are the needs of

201your schools and what are your needs over the next several years the next five years and tell us um when do you think those needs are going to hit so maybe I don't need something this year but I'm going to need I'm going to need you know new technology in my classroom in three years so we asked them to really go back and say that and and I'll be honest we shared with them give us your would have to have would like to have and boy that would be really great to have because there are things that we could do that are even above and beyond that we'd like to get to so we asked them to do that and then we asked them to go and rank those things and tell us one how

202much are they going to cost or anticipate costing and then two what are the really like I really have to have that versus that would be really great to have on my campus and from there we started narrowing it down and working with the different departments there's a lot of conversations between our finance team and you know facilities and curriculum to say are we doing this already is this alignment with what we're doing um is this a duplicate of something you're already doing and start to narrow that down and then prioritize and then I'm going through and determining this is what was approved by the by the voters of our community for our override and so how does that align with what we need to do and with those requests so this is just kind

203of a highlight of what we have going on for the technology we have the student and staff device refresh refreshment interactive flat panels firewall refresh classroom audio upgrades um and there's multiple phases to this because we can't get to all of it in one year as well as software shade structures came up as a huge item when we said what do schools need and um and what do we need for our parents who are and our kids that are waiting for their parents to pick them up so shade structures came up a lot so we're addressing that playground equipment furniture for the classroom um you know our schools that were redone beautiful classrooms but there's a lot when we we redid the high schools they didn't give them an allocation to redo the furniture so

204some of that furniture and there's from like again I said the 90s where it's that one piece desk that does not work for collaboration it does not work for all students um facility improvements we know that need to take place textbook adoptions instructional resources Library materials and furniture that was another need that came up within Athletics there's always equipment that they're replacing but above above the equipment replacement that needs to happen the sound systems and the gyms and stadiums really need to be addressed scoreboards need to be addressed um upgrades to those auditoriums within Fine Arts there's sheet music there's visual arts equipment Kilns and um instruments uniforms within the Fine Arts and Athletics transportation we have some service vehicle Replacements and then this kind of crosses between transportation and security but we found earlier

205this year when we did the drill at cocoa paw that are our buses can't communicate on the radios that our security or schools have so if there's an incident they can't even communicate through the radio system so one of the bigger issues where the bigger things that we're targeting within transportation and security is a radio system that is universal that will work one if you're out you know if you're driving outside of Scottsdale the radio system doesn't work so great but two that works universally within our schools and the bus system to be able to communicate better um security again had that radio system update that's a huge ticket item High School's Access Control Systems additional cameras and then um emergency Stadium lighting Stadium lighting just to break down that a little bit more um

206within the override we have these areas of curriculum classroom and classroom technology or technology Fine Arts Athletics and libraries so this kind of broke it down a little bit more from the requests that we have and the what things were asked for what we identified as um override dollars so as you can see 2.4 million dollars going into curriculum the bulk of that being a textbook adoption however a lot of instructional software as well in instructional materials within the classrooms or technology 5.2 million for the classroom so that's things directly in the classroom that student devices that sells flat panel screens in the classrooms 1.8 million for it equipment some of that is like Network upgrades that have to happen on the campuses and then um 956 956 000 for software and that's classroom software

207not District software within Fine Arts um the biggest chunk is really going to instruments but then auditoriums needing some upgrades and that area and then some small amounts for like equipment sheet music and uniforms Athletics one of the things we did with that is the schools are used to getting an allocation that they need for their PE equipment or I'm sorry for their athletic equipment so we kept that allocation we've always had 250 set aside that got allocated out to the schools based on the number of students they have we kept that for them so they still have that portion of it but we said okay there's 551 000 is basically the amount for athletics the difference we put into what needs to happen at the schools um so from a majority of the schools

208that came up as the need to be equipped or sound equipment in the gyms and auditoriums I know there was a discussion about desert mountain and a scoreboard being a higher priority and so we've changed that so one thing I would say is there's flexibility within this until the dollars are spent nothing I mean it's it's move or we can move things around but we wanted the schools within that money to be able to say this is what I need more and if that's a scoreboard it's a scoreboard if it's Auditorium equipment it's Auditorium equipment but we want it to be what does the school need Beyond just what was allocated for equipment at their school um Library material is the same type of thing allocated the portions like we normally have to the schools

209for their materials but then we set aside dollars there was quite a few asks for Library Furniture tables that can be used to collaborate those types of things and so we put money aside for that and I'll explain a little bit how that's going to work with Furniture in a minute Furniture fixtures equipment we did a small the schools have always got a small portion we limited that quite a bit down to 250 so they have money if there's something small they need to do each school is getting a few thousand dollars so they're not going to be able to buy and it's not going to pay for a classroom furniture and that's not the intent of it it's really like I need some math manipulatives which are actually considered Capital I'll use these funds

210to pay for that and then furniture for classroom standards so one of the projects like I mentioned that we have worked on this year is developing what is going to be our classroom standards and we hope to have we will have that here in the next couple of next month or so of what is the classroom standard from that this money will go into an allocation that is held in facilities so Dennis railers team and they will look at it and say okay we know these classrooms are the most egregious when it comes to getting to our classroom standard of what we want for furniture and so they'll be allocating that 600 000 based off these are the classrooms that we know need need the most help to get them a little bit closer to

211our standard so we put that aside for that and then playgrounds we put um 320 000 for shade structures again every school wants shade structures and it depends on what you're getting those can range from over fifty thousand dollars and up I mean fifty thousand is the cheapest and and that goes up from there so again the same thing we said let's put the money aside for shade structures and let Dennis's team go back and say okay these are we can hit so many these are what we can hit for schools and these are the schools that need it that have like the the most dire need right now for some shade out there and so we'll start targeting those schools based off of that um then we get into the state allocation and the

212textbooks we know cost especially the ones that we know are coming up are going to be more than a few million dollars so we had to kind of split that out between the override as well as the state allocation facilities we always know there's repairs the facilities repair line of 1.1 million that's in line with what we've had in the past for them so we really did keep that in line with what we've had um so that they have what they need to to make those repairs and then there was all kinds of school requests that came in um for various things you know it could be as simple as I need a sink or other things are we you know I need this restructured in the office and move this around so there's various

213repairs there so we put 680 000 aside for that District um had a couple of requests I met with a department who said um the chair that I use has two rollers do you think I could get some money for a new chair and I thought yeah we really if you only have two rollers on your chair and no armrests we really we can get you a new chair so we did put some money aside to be able to take care of some of those those little requests at the district and then again security was huge those radios as you can see were 750 000. um part of that will take place there's some that starting now within Transportation so we have them on the bus come July 1st when school you know when school

214starts but huge amount for those radios so that we're in alignment cameras the access control project is a huge dollar amount so so working on that and then just equipment that they need within security and then information I.T again classroom expect classroom technology 1.6 million I.T equipment a lot of that is like networking um things that are above what I understand within it but our equipment that they need to make our schools function and then software the 3.7 there that's more going to be like District software we start talking about our financial software our HR software those types of things and then 330 000 for transportation so they I think have the smallest of all of those budgets um this just kind of shares who all we had um the team has moved a little

215bit on our planning team so we had some members last year that were here they're no longer staff members that are here so we've replaced them with new new folks but um these guys put a lot of time into meeting at different times and then a lot of time outside going okay what is that price that they put look like it's the right price is that a scope that we can even do is that that's really no that's really a bond project that we'll have to think about for a future Bond so um just wanted to acknowledge them because they put a lot of time and effort into into looking at these things and requests and figuring out what we could do now and what could unfortunately have to wait until the 24-25 year so

216with that I'll take any questions governing board members do any of you have questions for Shannon Dr Hurt Wells thank you board president sunowski thank you Shannon I just want you to confirm that the relative percents of the total the overrides you were showing are aligned with the percents that were voter approved right that's how those breakdowns have been right you've arrived at those breakdowns in alignment with the voter approved ratios yes that's six dollars that's a great question the Chartwells um we literally took the pamphlet and the dollar amount and the pamphlet and said okay that it was you know this percentage for each category and said okay that percentage we have 14.2 million what does that equate so that it is an absolute alignment with what we said in the voter pamphlet thank

217you any other questions or comments at this time okay seeing none I'd like to make a motion to support the tentative approval of the capital budget for the 2023-24 school years or second on that motion second secondated by Dr Hart walls all in favor say aye aye aye that motion passes five zero thank you moving on to nine B approval of Northern Arizona University NAU memorandum of understanding mou Arizona teaching residency aztr I believe Alexis is reading and leaving leading that discussion and Dr Dodd's Karen is supporting it okay good evening president sonowski governing board members and Dr Menzel in alignment with our strategic plan goal area 3.1 3.2 and 3.3 commitments we are so excited to bring this recommendation to you this evening uh I'm not sure who's more excited between the two of

218us that's we won't duke it out here but I want to let you know just a few highlights about this mou and this great opportunity for our support staff employee support staff employees that have a bachelor's degree will through an application process if selected earn a master's degree with a teacher certification at no charge in addition They will receive compensation so that they can go to school to earn their master's degree get paid so they can continue to pay bills additionally they get some child care support if needed and in the second year additional support regarding health benefits not only that in alignment with the goal area as outlined this is a pathway for our current staff to move forward and become Educators in Scottsdale Unified School District when we submitted the board agenda item

219we had a meeting invited all of our classified staff to come to learn about this wonderful opportunity we had um we didn't know how many were going to have so I had some approximation in there we currently have six employees that have applied we don't know yet who may receive that these are they all submitted for the employee I mean sorry Elementary uh certificate and if I may you have the mou in front of you but I I want to highlight a story um that that I hope helps everyone understand why this is so important and why we're both so excited this is just one story uh we have a current employee at Tavon Elementary she's been we know her my colleague Dr Susan Lugo knows her from her previous district and she now works

220here with us at Tavon she's had over 21 years of service to the children in those school districts including ours as a volunteer a paraprofessional ell support she put her own children first to support their college sorry to support their College and Career aspirations because she could not financially do all for them and for herself and I'm crying because she was crying um when we had this meeting and she was there literally tears pouring from her I'm not going to name her name because we didn't tell her we wanted to talk about her tonight she is so excited to have this possible opportunity to pursue a master's degree Dr Lugo has assured me that she should have been and could have been a teacher a long time ago because she's excellent and she's serving our

221students today at Tavon and I think this opportunity is is remarkable for so many reasons but that is a story that that exists right now in this school district so I don't know if Dr Dodd's Karen wants to say anything but we're we are very excited and I'll stop crying now board president zanowski vice president Werner Dr Menzel Gladys and the rest of the board um the partnership that we are hoping that you would approve for us to pursue with for Arizona teacher residency with NAU and the K-12 Center as Alexis mentioned is an opportunity for our employees who have a bachelor's degree to pursue a master's degree the process for this program is in year one the candidate would be a student teacher in one of our Title One schools at the same time

222they will be going to school to earn their master's degree so Monday through Thursday they will be in our schools student teaching Fridays they would be in class sometimes on Tuesdays they have synchronous or asynchronous learning as well year two of this partnership we would interview the candidate on a preliminary teaching credential they would be hired in susd as an employee on a preliminary credential in year two they are also finishing their master's degree year three four and five they are making a commitment to susd to stay in our schools this is important because as Alexis mentioned the master's degree is of no cost should the candidate choose to leave susd in those years their tuition becomes a loan what's also important to know as Alexis mentioned they would earn income in year one when

223going to school they would earn twenty one thousand dollars as part of the grant we did some math I believe you would have to sub 144 days to earn twenty one thousand dollars Alexis also mentioned that there is a stipend for health care and there's also a stipend for child care so if someone needs child care there would be funds available through the Grant in addition there's a rainy day fund so say you blow a tire and you now suddenly need to get all four replaced they would have a rainy day fund where a candidate could apply for rainy day funds we are thrilled at this opportunity but we are also thrilled to know that residency programs show a retention rate that is much higher than a typical teacher preparation program so when we can

224invest in our own the people who are already serving in our schools we have a on the confidence in the research for residency as well as the commitment that the people have already shown to our district that indeed there will be a great return to susd we are thrilled beyond measure that we do have these candidates Dr Lugo and I did have the opportunity to do the screening of the paper applications and the process just so you know through the K-12 Center and NAU is the candidates then go for an in-person interview and performance task so they are interviewed they have to do a demonstration a teaching simulation they have to analyze data and do a writing sample so we will know in the next few weeks upon your approval if we can pursue this

225and then of course our next steps would be to work with our Title One elementary schools to see which campuses would want to be part of this partnership as Alexis also shared with a candidate currently at Tavon we do know that Julie Ballard is very interested in this for us but we do see this as not only a support for our strategic plan but more importantly for future teachers any questions for us um Dr hartwells thank you board president sunowski um I don't have a question other than where has this been all of our life right now fantastic thank you for bringing the opportunity to the district thank you to Northern Arizona University and their College of Education for providing an opportunity like this so this is really good stuff thank you and this creativity

226is great yes we need more programs like this to support our employees because they are making a commitment commitment to our own Community into the profession so this is a win-win for susd I do have a question about there was an expectation of the district I think it was responsibility number five for there is to be like a coordinator role will that be wrapped into an already existing position yes for president sonowski so pending board approval we have had conversations about some roles that we already have with our mentorship the as you read in the mou based on the number of candidates that as a district we may have they have recommendations if it's one to three they would love for someone to be like a liaison if it is four to seven I think

227they want someone part-time and if it's more than seven they want a greater commitment um so we will we would identify someone within our teaching and learning team to take on that responsibility perfect thank you board member Kearney okay thank you for that I've got a few questions so I have an under better understanding um is who is on The Advisory board that they're talking about are any of our people is there an Advisory Board it said oh within the mou So within the mou I'm not aware that we serve on the Advisory Board it would be through Arizona teacher residency K-12 Center and NAU okay so no one from susds involved in on okay on the board um can you help me understand sorry um what do we what have we budgeted budgeted right

228now for this program coordinator that will we wouldn't add any additional cost we would include it in with a mentor position okay and this is funded by all funded by the grant the majority of this is funded by the grant the candidates there is a requirement for us with the candidates that we would contribute five thousand dollars per candidate each year so ten thousand dollars per candidate we have identified Indian gaming funds that we can use to support this okay um and where it says initially the this position for next school year will be partially funded by NAU um do we know how much they're contributing and then right so if the board approves um this then we would work with them so right now folding this into a mentor position depending on the number

229of candidates that we have will be kind of a graduating scale of what our responsibility would be for working with them so let's pretend it's ten thousand dollars we can build them twice once for five thousand once for another five thousand okay and then would it come before the board again next year for approval to continue the program or not I would imagine because it would be new cohorts if we started a new cohort we could bring you the update of the success rate the attrition of anyone who maybe drops out of the program we could certainly bring that to you as an annual we're saying we would be agreeing to a one-year initial cohort well I should say one year an initial cohort which would be two years of teaching preparation and then the

230remaining years to fulfill their five-year commitment okay great um do you know any other what other school districts are using this program great question Cartwright School District will be joining next year Osborne School District Roosevelt Tempe Elementary and us and I can also add anecdotally Tempe Elementary School District this year has nine teacher candidates at the end of year one during the teacher transfer process which is a process that all school districts have the candidates had the opportunity to interview alongside teacher candidates seven of the nine candidates were placed into positions before existing teachers the other two got their second pick of a school so all nine were immediately swooped up and the principal said they hadn't seen more qualified candidates nice and so my last question for you I think is um so we're

231look we're not looking at going above six six for this school year now for this school year no okay that's how we had um that that's how many applied we don't know that all six would be accepted so that would be our Max and what about for next year we would have to put it out there and see how many people would be interested okay thank you if I may just to clarify that cost is for two years so we pay the five thousand first year and then the other five thousand is so hard okay thank you I do not see any more requests at this time I hope one just came in Dr hartwell's not a request I'd like to make a motion to approve super I will second that motion and that is

232for approval of 9B all in favor say aye aye aye that motion passes five zero thank you moving on to 9C the second read in approval governing board policy CE regarding administrative councils cabinets and committees Dr hartwells thank you board president zanowski this is the second read you've seen the language I think it speaks for itself we've had a lot of discussion about it and I'd like to make a motion to approve I will second that motion thank you before we vote I'd like to ask Dr Menzel his thoughts please on the on the amendment so so thank you um Dr hartwell's from my perspective the clarifying language in the agreement helps differentiate between our board policy that talks about board committees in the B section of our policy versus superintendent council's committees and advisory

233groups under CE and and delineates the difference between the two and so from my perspective it's clarifying language that helps ensure the difference between a board established committee that operates at the direction of the board pursuant to policy and a superintendent Council that was contemplated long before I got here as a part of how we operate the district thank you and I'll wait for the vote I know thank you I'm Dr board member go ahead Vice President Warner thank you so um are you familiar with the um legal letter that we all received back on March 27th regarding committees Madam president uh Ms Warner I you believe that you're speaking of the items submitted to the governing board from Mr Evans is that correct yes do you have an opinion Madam president members of the

234governing board I don't provide legal advice in a public meeting if you want to call for an executive session we can go into exact to give legal advice but I'm not going to opine in in a public meeting we have it as you are aware there are other matters that are at issue with the district that are on the same subject matter so okay so on April 6th we received a b memo with an updated report for um according to policy CE with the update from the superintendent on superintendent committees this was a committee then I understand this was personal to some other board members however I've been on this committee since before I was over a candidate and the reason that I find it important that some board that board members are people who

235have an interest in subject be on committees one would be parents do want to be heard and in this particular committee that we were talking about the supplemental curriculum Review Committee which was the the committee that was causing the issue and ultimately led to this um anyway so I was on that committee I did not vote as a board member and the voting actually did not go in the favor of the parents but I wanted to take this opportunity to really share what some of the things that we discussed in the committee that is important to our community and um can we get a ruling on being an open meeting law please thank you Miss McLennan um I Madam president members of the governing board I'm not sure what you're trying to share Miss Warner

236but the item that is before the board is the language of governing board policy CE and not your involvement on any prior committee so if what you were going to share is about your involvement regarding a prior committee that would be outside the scope of this agenda item okay so at a previous board meeting actually both board members um sitting next to me both made it very personal that it was about me and so I did bring some examples today however we do vote on things that come before the committee that have been that have been reviewed by committees and um I don't support the language in there if a board member wants to be on a committee they definitely should be able to do that and I'll leave it at that and oh board

237member Carney thank you president sunowski so I'm glad we were able to get the report on the superintendent committees so we could learn more about what's going on on the administrative council's cabinets and committees I do have concerns on how many superintendent committees and councils and whatnots that we have and so I'm unsure if they're all necessary and we might want to talk future about moving some of these to be board committees but I was disappointed to see on this report that Dr Menzel had discontinued the supplemental material Review Committee and I'd like to know why Madam president boy that was Miss Kearney again I think we're off topic with respect to this item which is whether board members can serve on superintendent committees and whether this governing board wants to amend policy I understand

238that both what you and Ms Carney have brought up may be background information to the reasons as to why this change might have been proposed by one of your board members but today all you can talk about is this policy okay then I am then I just I don't agree with changing this policy as policy BCA our board ethics already States the governing board members shall not use their position as as governing board members to unduly influence uh District or site level committees so there's no need to be redundant so I don't know why we're repeating this when we already have policy stating what I just read so I am not in favor of changing this policy you'll be able to express that through your vote um board member or Dr hartwells did you want

239to call for a vote Yes it was your initial motion I would like to call for a vote I'd like to call for approving uh 9C the second read and approval of governing board policy CE regarding administrative councils cabinets and committees as proposed all in favor all in favor say aye aye all in Nays nay nope that motion passes three two at this time governing board members can make requests for a future agenda items or topics for future consideration board member Kearney oh okay board member Werner yes I'd like to propose a full presentation of the ELD task force the results of the great work that a committee of roughly 20 people worked on last year I would have presentation yes with the presentation to the board and our public the second item as I'd

240like a presentation of our HR audit that was completed by light clef over at the city of Scottsdale and I'd like that presented to the board into our public and lastly I would like to have a discussion regarding Marcus Turner's request for reimbursement or expenditures to be covered Dr Hurt Wells thank you and just to clarify the last request you want a discussion on Miss cerna's expenditures to be covered there was an email that came out today with a letter from Miss Cerna yes could you tell the public what that letter said please yes it um she requested Madam president I think all we can ask for is agenda items thank you so Dr Hartwell did you have a request for future items I have a request to take one of those requests off of

241a future item but no I do not thank you I clarified with the okay seeing that there are no others upcoming meetings next uh next meeting is Tuesday May 2nd at 6 00 pm and that is a special governing board meeting which will be held at the MDA and then May 16th we will be back here at 6 PM for a regular governing board meeting um I make a motion to adjourn this regular meeting of the Scottsdale Unified School District number 48 governing board is there a second second seconded by Dr hartwell's all in favor to adjourn this meeting say aye aye aye that motion is past 5-0 the time is 9 29 pm