SUSD Governing Board Regular Meeting 2/21/23

001I called to order this regular meeting of our Scottsdale Unified School District number 48 governing board tonight is Tuesday February 21st the time is 602 pm before I ask that board member Werner lead us in the Pledge of Allegiance I'd like to ask that you please remain standing after we have completed the Pledge of Allegiance as we recognize the great loss of our former teacher administrator and superintendent John creekart board member Werner to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all thank you I'd like to note that Dr creekard's contributions to our Scottsdale Unified School District are immeasurable and our thoughts and best wishes are with his family during this very challenging time at this time

002we will begin with a roll call for my far right [Music] Amy Carney Zach Lindsay Libby hartwells Karen Warner and I'm Julie sunowski all members are present and we do have a quorum I'd like to make a motion to approve our agenda this evening are there any requests to alter our agenda board member heart Wells I'd like to pull from the consent agenda which is item eight I as in iodine and K is in potassium I note that Dr hartwell's has asked to pull the 8i the recommended approval position and job description for Emergency Management program supervisor and K approval of advancement via individual determination Avid expansion plans is that correct thank you yes so I would like to pull eight J and I also had eight I on my list and note that board

003member Werner has asked to pull the recommended approval a revised job description for general counsel is that correct correct okay thank you all right I'd like to make a motion to approve this agenda as amended is there a second second seconded by Dr hartwell's all in favor say aye aye that motion passes five zero we are going to start off this meeting with some great celebrations to honor art and recognize our students and our staff members Dr Menzel good evening president sunowski vice president Werner and members of the governing board as you know and the audience may have noted from your comments earlier we lost former susd superintendent John creekgard yesterday I will address that sad news more fully in my comments while our hearts are heavy Dr creekard loves celebrating susd its students and

004its teachers and we feel sure he would have especially liked this evening's recognitions we're going to kick things off with something that began back in 2018 during his first few months as superintendent something that he strongly supported four and a half years later it has come to fruition please welcome our executive director of Elementary education Margaret Cerna to the podium Margaret shooting good evening president zanowski vice president Werner Dr Mansell and Gladys it is my extreme honor to get tonight's celebration underway with something that has been a massive undertaking for quite some time as you indicated Dr Menzel I would like to invite Anasazi principal Jennifer Waldron and her wonderful staff to the stage [Applause] foreign [Applause] all around all around all around us come on it was the summer of 2018 when Anasazi under

005principal Waldron's newly established leadership under to undertook the process of transforming itself into an international Baccalaureate primary years program school that journey is now complete with the certification late last month of Anasazi as an official IB pyp World School foreign certified by an organization respected worldwide for providing a rigorous framework for students from preschool to high school to actively engage in their own learning and transforming the way teaching is delivered today it's my pride to wear Anastasia Blue and I would like to introduce principal Waldron please share with us what that undertaking involved gen Jen good evening president Julie sunowski vice president Werner governing board members Dr Menzel and Miss Wagner I am Jennifer Waldron the super proud principal of Anasazi Elementary School this IB pyp authorization has been over four years in the making

006and we couldn't be happier to celebrate this evening together with you all thinking back so much has occurred during our journey through this authorization process in late spring of 2018 Dr creekart had his first day back in susd serving as our Acting Superintendent his first day and first calendar event happened to be my final interview round a one-on-one with the superintendent to become anasazi's principal I remember it like it was yesterday later in early July of that same year Dr creekhart and my direct supervisor Dr hagigat started asking me what my plans were for Anasazi as there was much turnover and change prior to my arrival I remember being a tad nervous and quiet which I know is hard to believe for many of you in this room but I answered with respectfully I don't

007even really know how to get to the staff Lounge yet but I'm sure we'll have a plan we had a good laugh but in that conversation I asked the question has anyone ever thought about continuing IB to the elementary years from that moment on the ball was rolling and it hasn't stopped since almost immediately teachers in our community fully supported this direction and a new adventure and initiative was in full swing so tonight we recognize and celebrate not only the commitment of our Anasazi Community the amazing staff the students the families and Community Partners over the years but that of our Desert Mountain learning complex principles a special shout out to Mr Luke at Mountainside and Dr Hirsch at DM and their IB coordinators District leaders yes we can clap for them District leadership from

008all coaches directors assistant superintendents superintendents and the governing board from 2018 to today it is easy for initiatives to be pushed aside especially when there is leadership change at the top but my first question to Dr Menzel and the team when he joined susd was about the continued support of IB and he has been one of our biggest advocates foreign even those who have left or who have since left susd continue to Champion around Anasazi in looking at my last text from Dr creekhart yesterday it was him sharing how proud he was of all of us at Anasazi and the upcoming IB verification visit wishing us congratulations and good luck a message we will all hold forever dear in our hearts our journey was fast-tracked even when a global pandemic tried to get in our

009way the team did not lose direction and when given an easy out or a need to press pause on a huge initiative while shifting to Virtual learning they continued to focus on doing what was best for students while uprooting the way they facilitated instruction in the summer of 2020 our amazing IB coordinator Marianne mcmuran who had come out of retirement to help us with IB chose to retire again I can't say my say I blame her many chose during that time and so we needed to find a new person to be our IB coordinator this person had big shoes to fill in a specialty such as IB which is very rare finding someone knowledgeable of IB especially in the summer of 2020 seemed impossible but enter Sarah Armstrong the lady next to me in the

010midst of virtual meetings and schooling Sarah join Anasazi she is a seasoned IB educator and accreditation coordinator although originally from Michigan she lived in Sweden for 14 years during that time she worked in as an IB accredited International School where she taught in the pyp and the nyp learning support she also served as the school's Council of international schools accreditation coordinator she made her way back to the U.S into Arizona and somehow during a pandemic she magically made it to 14 24th Street in Via Linda virtually at least this authorization could not have been done in the timeliness or the level of Excellence if it was not for her dedication to IB and to Anasazi so at this time I would like her to say a few words foreign we say that becoming an authorized

011Ivy World School is a journey rather than an achievement or destination alone during our four-year IB pyp Journey Anasazi has worked diligently to learn the framework of the ibp and implement the 116 pyp standards and practices our teachers have completed IB workshops and additional professional development they have reflected on their teaching and grown as educators Anasazi classrooms promote inquiry and student agency classrooms Foster a love of learning during this journey our teachers have collaborated for over 100 hours while leaving the Arizona State Standards and susd curriculum into the IB framework our pyp programs inquiry includes 34 new transdisciplinary units with hundreds of meaningful learning experiences as a whole school Community we have updated our mission and vision to create a culture that supports inclusivity and International mindedness our students see themselves as important members of

012their local communities and responsible Global Citizens on our final authorization report Anasazi received 22 commendations that reflect areas where we have exceeded beyond what is required for authorization the IB verification team commended Anasazi for the caring and respectful climate in our school the learning opportunities Anasazi has provided that connects students to their communities and the world and the clear commitment of all stakeholders to the IB philosophy and program the process of becoming an IB School is rigorous and challenging and Anasazi completed all of this while navigating teaching through a global pandemic never once did our team waver and its resolve to become an IB pyp School Anasazi has a remarkable community of Educators staff students and parents all of these achievements though would not have been possible without our principal Miss Waldron whose Clear Vision

013insight and Leadership guided Anasazi to becoming its very best it is a proud time to be an Anasazi scorpion these I know I'm gonna cry up here but these people behind me and in the audience our assistant principal Andrea Martin are classified and certified staff our parents cheering Assad in the auditorium or virtually and most importantly our students these people in the words of the great Legend Tina Turner Turner are Simply the Best each of the IBS programs from the pyp at Anasazi to the nyp and DP at Mountainside and desert mountain is committed to the development of students according to the IB learner profile the international Baccalaureate learner profile describes a broad range of human capacities and responsibilities that go above academic success these characteristics provide a long-term vision of Education it is a

014set of ideals that inspires motivates and focuses the work we do at Anasazi uniting us in a common purpose simply put we are inquirers knowledgeable and thinkers we are communicators and the susd communications team may think we're long-winded communicators at this point but you gave me a live mic and we have a lot to celebrate in regards to students in our community we are principled open-minded and caring we are Risk Takers balanced and reflective we are Anasazi and we are susd proud and we will continue to engage students in our community in a world-class future focused learning experience thank you again for your commitment to IB and for recognizing and celebrating celebrating Anasazi elementary school tonight we couldn't be more proud to be the eighth pyp school in the state and for susd to now

015be able to offer an IB Continuum from kindergarten to graduation one of the very few in the state of Arizona it is an honor and a privilege to serve students in susd alongside this group and those of you in the audience thank you to this team and congratulations [Applause] I would like to note that Anasazi as Jen mentioned is just one of eight ibpyp elementary schools in all of Arizona with Anasazi certification Scottsdale Unified School District now offers complete IB curriculum from kindergarten to high school nearby Mountainside Middle School and Desert Mountain high school have offered IB Middle years program six through ten grade grade students since 2020 and duritzer Mountain has provided ib's diploma program to 11th and 12th grade students since 1999. congratulations principal Waldron and congratulations to the teachers and staff for

016seeing this through you are truly making a difference for your students and now I would like to start by presenting principal Waldron assistant principal Martin with Scottsdale coins to congratulate you for your work and then Steph I've got a basket full of God so on the way out please stop and I'm so proud of all of you so there they go [Applause] thank you principal Waldron and the entire Anasazi team we are so proud of all that you've accomplished and we know that it's a reflection of tremendous work and dedication because you put your students first so thank you for being here this evening up next I'd like to invite Dr Karen Benson and our director of teaching and learning Dr Kim Dodd's Karen to celebrate a special group of susd educators thank you Dr

017Menzel and good evening president sinowski vice president Werner governing board members I'm Mrs Wagner Dr Dodd's Karen and I are pleased to be able to share a very special celebration with you this evening that of our new and recently renewed national board certified teachers eight of them in fact with the following teachers and their principals if they are accompanying their teachers this evening please join us on the stage Laura Mitchell from Hopi Elementary Brandy Wilson from Navajo Elementary Nancy Kavanaugh Redfield Elementary Brianna Maxwell hohokum Elementary Heather Robinson Desert Canyon Middle School Paddy Malley Cochise Elementary Susan Leonard from Ingleside Middle School and Tammy Diaz from Saguaro High School at this time I'm going to invite Tammy Andreas from Cochise Elementary to join us on stage as well because I believe you're going to share in

018some of the comments this evening but that's Karen national board certification is a voluntary process that some Educators choose to undertake here in susd our teachers have the support of not only the district as they pursue certification but also strong community support from the susd foundation the Charles and the K-12 Center these teachers are dedicated to their profession and want to be even better teachers for their students it is a process that can take up to three years to complete then must be undertaken again after several years susd is proud to be home to more than 80 nationally board certified teachers [Applause] to tell us a little bit more of one of our longtime national board certified teachers Tammy Andreas from Cochise Elementary school is going to share some of the thinking Tammy [Applause] good

019evening president sanoski Dr Menzel board members in Gladys thank you for the opportunity to celebrate susd's newest national board teachers and our newly renewed nbcts national board certification was designed to develop retain and recognize accomplished teachers and to generate ongoing Improvement in schools it's the highest certification a teacher can achieve and it is available in 25 certificate areas from pre-k through 12th grade each of these areas have an extensive set of Standards which Define what teachers should know and be able to do candidates must demonstrate a deep understanding of their students content knowledge best practice use of data and assessment we analyze and reflect on our decisions and how those decisions impact student learning we provide evidence of this through technical writing videos and student work samples all students benefit from rigor in the classroom

020through academically intellectually and personally challenging experiences teachers pursuing certification experience the same regular rigorous challenges once achieved board certification serves as a platform for teachers to continue to grow professionally and become leaders renewing one certificate every five years is a challenge in itself as we document analyze and reflect on our professional growth and its impact on students since our initial certification SP has a multi-layered support system I would like to thank the district Dr Menzel Dr Dodd Dr Pasquale Dr Benson the Scottsdale Foundation the Scottsdale Charles my fellow csps and the recently retired Michelle carskadon for working together to create generations of nbcts in susd Any teacher who has attempted board certification will tell you it is the most meaningful and rigorous professional development they have ever undertaken core to every decision we make is

021the question we ask ourselves daily why am I doing this for these students at this time and in this place what better question than this to ensure that our impact on our students is always first and foremost in everything we do foreign we are so pleased to congratulate our national board certified certified teachers whether you have just successfully maintained your certification by renewing as Nancy Brianna Heather Patty Susan and Tammy have done or whether you are certified for the first time as Laura and Brandy now are we are pleased to protect present to you these special plaques to celebrate your status as Scottsdale Unified School District nationally board certified teachers congratulations thank you come on over and we'll shake hands and that way we're not ready congratulations to our national board certified teachers we know

022this is a reflection of your deep commitment to our students and to the profession and we are honored that you're here with us this evening and glad that you have chosen susd as the place to share your talents with the world and while we're handing out the rest of the the plaques I'm going to invite Dr sackos to make her way towards the podium for our next set of recognitions this evening congratulations NBC teachers thank you Dr Menzel and good evening president sanowski vice president Werner governing board members Miss Wagner and our guests here this evening I am so excited to bring these celebrations of susd students and staff to you tonight each year the Flynn Foundation recognizes outstanding High School seniors from around Arizona for their outstanding achievements in the classroom and the leadership

023roles they have taken on at their schools and in their Community the application process began way back in September with more than a thousand applicants in January this was whittled down to about 80 and earlier this month down to 39. two of those 39 are members of the susd class of 2023 and their faces will be familiar to you please welcome saguaros Bara Abdul gutni I practiced that a lot I'm sorry if I messed it up and Desert Mountain Zach Oaken and their principles along with their principals and guidance counselors to the stage please I could go on for days about each of these students and their accomplishments but I'm told that I can't suffice to say that they are the best of the best regardless of whether they end up receiving the Flynn scholarship

024in April they represent what susd is all about barah was born in Syria and with his family immigrated to the United States as a refugee six years ago his career ambition and much of his work he has done at Saguaro in the community arriving here is inspired by the shooting of his brother during Syrian Civil War barah wants to become a surgeon the life-saving work of the doctors and surgeons for his brother has led brah to enroll in saguaro's CTE health care assistant program from which he will graduate in May with a certified nursing assistant certification and to be the vice president of the school's HOSA which is the Health occupation students of America Club and that's just the tip of the iceberg bra also is the president of the district's Math and Science Academy

025based at Saguaro is the senior class representative of the school's National Honor Society is the president and founder of saguaro's Amnesty International Club he helps build leadership skills among younger students as a mentor at the good tree Institute while expanding his own through his highly competitive leadership Enterprise for a diverse America program or Lita he has helped lead a school fundraising campaign for Leukemia and Lymphoma Society he will graduate with honors from the Math and Science Academy eighth in his class with a 4.812 GPA he has never received a grade lower than an A and has taken an impressive 18 honors or AP classes he it's I'm not done um and I'm getting winded bra his only non-honors class has been in the subject in which an honors selection could not be offered well we'll

026have completed 32 hours worth of classes for college credit from the Scottsdale Community College all in all bra is a credit to Saguaro and susd he has taken on the challenges of adapting in a completely different kind of of life here and having to learn a new language while his family struggled financially yet embracing opportunities to lead his peers with the wisdom and resilience not usually found in someone at any age let alone 18. congratulations bro and my very special assistant Miss Cerna right behind me is going to extend to you an susd challenge coin in recognition of your many accomplishments to date and the many more we for sure will see in the future congratulations thank you moving on to a very familiar face Zach Oaken you know him from his years president at

027student Advisory board but let me share a little bit more about Zach Zach is an outstanding student who has made most of his preschool through High School susd career taking IB honors and AP classes since his freshman year while maintaining his high academics Zach is let's say Mr involvement at Desert Mountain high school and within the Desert Mountain Community as a student Advisory Board president and last year was this the president-elect for susd he enjoys advocating for all students best interests he is the student body Treasurer and a leader of Desert Mountain Student Government he is the team president for the robotics team he leads his team to victories while encouraging others to find their passions in stem Zach is the president of the science National Honor Society president of the AP Student Association president

028of the investment Club treasurer of the ambassadors club and a member of deca and the National Honor Society outside of school he started stem educate a non-profit organization promoting stem education on a global scale he has completed 45 college credits while in high school despite all of these accomplishments Zach's favorite part of high school is being the MCAT assemblies and getting everybody involved and infused with school spirit he will be one of Desert Mountain high schools 2023 valedictorians on graduation day in May and wants to study manufacturing Engineering in college and he hopes will lead to receive a master's degree in systems and Robotics Engineering in the future Zach on behalf of the Scottsdale Unified School District please accept this challenge coin for all of your accomplishments and best wishes best wishes [Applause] okay both

029bra and Zach have Flynn scholarship hurdles yet to overcome with final interviews next month we wish them both the best of luck and if there's anyone in the audience from the Flynn Foundation or maybe watching us on YouTube tonight you can't go wrong with choosing our students for your all expense paid a hundred and thirty thousand dollars of scholarships to one of Arizona's three Public University honors colleges foreign on the subject of Science and stem I'd like to invite the Desert Canyon Middle School D.C volts robotics team to the stage along with their coach Mr Larry Bloom and their principal Mr Robert akbari [Applause] as they make their way to the stage just so you know if you don't know this already about susd we are way robotics here from elementary school through High School

030robotics programs are the perfect blend of science math critical thinking and working collaboratively to design build and operate robots of varying sized and abilities the fun part uh the fun part comes when the school teams make their robots and take them to the regional and state competitions if you've never been to a robotics tournament it is intense loud and fun this year Desert Canyon Middle School DC volts robotics team put together an impressive series of accomplishments culminating and taking part in the state first Lego League state championship at ASU last month along with 40 or so other elementary and middle school teams from around Arizona at the conclusion the DC volts comprised of Haley a Hart Eric burchard John David Cannon Dax Jansen Jude Larson Isaiah marescal Braden Nelson and Griffin stallser there they all

031are smile this team was recognized with the first place trophy for being the team that best exemplified first first core values and philosophies of gracious professionalism and cooperation that that's oh I'm sorry Co-op petition co-optician okay that's uh cooperation and Company and competition combined Mr Bloom um he shares with us that these students and this team display extraordinary enthusiasm and spirit they recognize that they can't that they can accomplish more together than they can individually and show respect for each other and other teams at all times that's impressive of course that Spirit has much to do with who is leading it and that's Mr Bloom who is was honored with the state first League robotics tournaments coach Mentor award for inspiring the volts to succeed both as a team and as individuals leadership and and

032guidance at its finest Mr Bloom congratulations DC volts and Mr Bloom please accept these susd challenge coins to mark all of your complicated accomplishments and let's hold those uh trophies high so everyone can see there we go [Applause] congratulations we now tune to the uh turn to the world of Performing Arts to recognize two excelling High School musicians who you heard before tonight's meeting got started I'm going to call our district Fine Arts coordinator Mrs Michelle Irvin uh to help me with that thank you so much Dr sakos Dr Menzel president sinowski and board members it is my great honor to talk about these two gentlemen as you heard them performing before the performance wasn't that amazing but for the thank you thank you I'd like to talk a little bit about that because these

033two gentlemen are from two different schools Marco from Chaparral and Jake from Saguaro they had never played together until tonight I put the music on the stand for them they read it just chord changes and follow along together and I think that's one of the amazing accomplishments with jazz these two are the top in the entire State of Arizona they went through two rounds of competition one was recorded to make it to a second round and then they sat there all day at Desert Mountain on January 14th and competed against all the second round entries to be selected into the top two Jazz ensembles in the state it is really says something about when we talk about depth of knowledge these students basically apply to everything that they learned at that moment instantaneously and work

034together and performed I can say I'm so honored that we had two participants from you know susd in the state Jazz ensembles absolutely amazing and thank you to their amazing directors Jennifer Moreau and Dylan root it's really quite fabulous and I'd now like to pass the mic to Dr sakos Who has something to give to the two of you foreign congratulations Jake and Markle and thank you for providing such a wonderful musical transition in tonight's meeting we hope you continue to hit high notes every pun intended with your music and with that Ms Cerner will help me provide you with a challenge coin for your accomplishments next up I'd like to invite Saguaro students arorhi garpute CG Ballard and Ezekiel filicino and their principal Anne oxinger to the stage while they're walking up I can

035tell you that Saguaro High School is proud each January to host an event connected with the city of Scottsdale's Martin Luther King Jr celebration the MLK youth voices event this guest speaker the guest speaker at this year's 23rd annual event was Dr Benjamin Chavez a longtime leader in the nation's Civil Rights Movement the event also features student speakers from the Saguaro student body and this year's speakers arohi CJ and Ezekiel spoke from the heart about their experiences with cultural and insensitivity feeling marginalized and not knowing where they fit in it takes a special kind of courage to take any stage to share those kind of personal painful experiences especially with your own classmates by celebrating these students tonight we want to recognize them for their bravery on their resilience and let them know we support

036them at this time you will be receiving challenge coins [Applause] thank you students we are so grateful for your willingness to share your stories and to be leaders on your campuses we're so proud of you thank you the outstanding students just recognized are what Scottsdale unified is known for ambitious curious and dedicated Learners who embrace the many opportunities we are able to provide and are inspired by outstanding teachers to excel in whatever Fields interest them I am so proud that all of you had the opportunity to meet them although briefly this evening we're not done because we have a few more celebrations and Dr Sacco's still at the helm I'll turn it back to you all right one major celebration um Scottsdale Unified School District makes a conscious decision to have qualified certified trained nursing

037professionals on each of our school campuses we've always known that that is a good idea and over the past month we have experienced two incidents where our staff had had a huge impact on two lives one a student one a parent first I'd like to invite Kiva School fifth grade teacher Alexandra Holly school nurse Kelly eckhauser and principal Matt gromac to the stage and our amazing nurse from Anasazi who's a school nurse and our lead nurse Miss Renee tosto Alexandria was in the middle of a lesson one day last month when a student began choking on a piece of candy and ran up to her desk she immediately sprang into action directing her students to get another teacher as she began the Heimlich maneuver on the choking child she was able to dislodge the candy

038after a few thrusts nurse Kelly quickly responded as well checking to be sure the student's breathing was unobstructive and heart rate was normal Matt would you like to add anything he says that the whole Kiva Community is proud of him and thankful we are so grateful for Alexandria and Kelly's quick thinking and the ability to stay calm in the stressful situation we want to commendment for their actions with these susd challenge coins thank you [Applause] and staying on the topic of our health saving measures our final celebration I would like to invite Cherokee I'm already getting choked up nurse Will Graham health assistant Bobby Treadwell third grade teachers John aviantos and Amber Lindsey and principal Walt chantler to come up and if you would like I would like to invite Cherokee parents Alicia and Dr

039Mike fixler to the stage as well [Applause] February is National heart month well heart health is important year-round particular attention is placed on it during the month of February while it is a coincidence I want to share with you that susd recently completed the installation of at least one AED short for automated external defibrillator on each campus I'd like to turn the yep that's awesome I'd like to turn the microphone over to Mr Chandler to share with us thank you Dr sakos president snowski vice president Werner members of the board Dr Menzel and Miss Wagner thank you for the opportunity this evening to celebrate members of my staff I'm here today to share a share a really neat story with you that happened on the campus just a couple of weeks ago we were conducting

040a parent-teacher conference John avenattos over here if you can raise your hand and Amber Lindsay we're sitting with a couple of parents talking about the child before school had even started that day at one point in the conversation one of the parents had a cardiac emergency became unresponsive and went down to the ground quickly Amber and John dialed 9-1-1 they helped to clear the room and the events from that point forward are a complete blur but everything happened perfectly with the end result being the parents life was saved the 911 call was made from the classroom and what's really important to note here is that if you do have a medical emergency on one of our campuses dial from the school phone because what happens is then you get a notification on the screen telling

041where the emergency occurred so that was the first thing that happened correctly the next thing that happened was our nurses happened to be there early that day they saw the message up on the screen and they knew to right away where the medical emergency was they had the right mindset to know to grab the AED before running to the emergency and they literally sprinted across the campus the staff then helped by keeping the children away from the medical emergency they helped to direct the traffic they helped by texting the community on the events that were unfolding that morning and it was something else because everyone did their jobs perfectly they kept cool calm and collected and because of that we saved a life I'm so proud of how my staff reacted this emergency but I

042am most proud of my medical team who are the true heroes in this situation nurses Bobby Treadwell and Will Graham they grabbed the AED that susd paid for and they had to actually shock the parent three times and then provide CPR for several minutes before the emergency responders could arrive please help me to congratulate the two of them and I want to thank susd for providing each school with an RN and aeds money well spent and you can't put a price tag on the life that was saved that morning I'd also like to introduce you to Dr Michael fixler who's here with me he's the husband of Alicia fixler who's the parent that was saved that day and she's in the crowd here with us this evening Dr fixler has asked to say a few

043words at the mic hi everyone yes and again my name is Dr Mike fixler my son Max is a sixth grader at cocopa and he's a graduate of Cherokee my son Sammy is a third grader at Cherokee and over the years we've grown to love Cherokee for the education that it's provided our children but what happened the other day farex seeds what anyone could expect from their kids school um I'm so happy that there are so many people here today for whatever one reason or another um but I'm just so glad that there's so many people here to hear this story because it's something that should be heard um on the morning of February 6 while we were just sitting down for a run-of-the-mill parent teacher conference with our son um my wife Alicia um

044she fell off her seat and her heart stopped um and uh as I began CPR the staff at Cherokee did exactly what needed to be done in a crisis such as this Lindsay Mr a and Walt Chandler called 9-1-1 and simultaneously called the two angels that came in to say malicious life and that was Will Graham and Bobby Treadwell and I'd like a round of applause for them thank you and and it just so happens that that both of the nurses at Cherokee will and Bobby are certified EMTs um and I think that that that bears repeating um they're certified EMTs which is absolutely unbelievable um that they that we have anything like that at our school um you'll never appreciate the value of that until you need it um will and Bobby went right

045to work and used the school's AED to bring her back um and there she is and thank God for them and thank God that the school had that device and uh Walt and your amazing staff at Cherokee um you saved not just my wife you saved our family um in will and Bobby's honor we will be donating an AED to a school that doesn't have one um and maybe one day it too will save a life thank you I'd also like to mention that will and Bobby had a CPR class offered for my staff just a couple of weeks before this incident occurred and now we've got a second one occurring and we're going to also offer it for our community at large so thank you both for caring so much and thank you for

046saving a life as I shared Renee tosto is not only the Anasazi school nurse but she's also our school lead nurse I'm going to let Renee tosto say a few words but what I want to say about Renee as the lead nurse she has been very insistent and persistent around making sure that our health centers are top-notch for our for our staff for our students and as evidenced for our families when they're in need Miss tosto hello um I think a lot of what I was going to say Mr Chandler um mentioned but I'm here representing the nurses and just really want to express appreciation um for Will and Bobby and their life-saving skills that they they used at um at Cherokee and the fact that their staff was so prepared and able to respond

047and everyone everything just fell into place and then I want to express on behalf of the nurses the fact that susd has always had a nurse in each school and the value is seen every single day the stories that I hear from all the campuses there there's great value in it and you're and you're seeing it right here so um CPR training if you're not CPR training now's your time you know there's aeds everywhere and it's good to know how to use it so um kudos to the Cherokee staff this is truly a harrowing and heroic tale thank you will Bobby Lindsay and John from the bottom of our hearts for being at the right place at the right time and so we're happy to share with you and we are so happy miss fixler

048that you are here with us tonight and that you are doing well the challenge coins that these individuals on stage are receiving this evening actually have a heart on them a very special challenge coin for again saving a life thank you okay thank you to our Cherokee team and to Mrs and Dr fixler for joining us this evening we're so grateful that our Cherokee staff were able to help make this night possible and happy to be able to make your acquaintance uh on this occasion and we're wishing you um the best for continued recovery Mrs fixler and thank you all for being here this evening so I know our celebrations have been long this evening but we do have one more much at the resistance of the team that I'm going to ask to come

049to the stage but I get to do the final one and that is to recognize our amazing Scottsdale Unified School District's communication Department so so I've known since joining susd that our Communications professionals now led by Christine Harrington are among the finest K-12 education communicators in the state I challenge them on a regular basis to find new and creative ways to share with the community at large the accomplishments of our students teachers staff and schools and the district's initiatives that deliver future focused world-class learning to susd students and they always come through apparently I'm not the only one who thinks highly of the communications team earlier this month the Arizona School of Public Relations Association aspra recognized our Communications Department for its development and execution of our ongoing Legacy of success campaign that you see

050on District social media that highlights the many many successful susd graduates who are making a difference in our community and world if you've seen those Legacy of success Facebook or Twitter post you know that that's the result of the dedicated work of our team they were also recognized for the design of last year's strategic plan publication and the creation of our monthly susd Source blog and three photography awards so I'd like to ask you to join me in congratulating our Communications Department our director Victor Bobbitt digital content manager Lainey Triplett social media specialist Samantha snows communication manager Nancy Norman and their fearless leader Christine Harrington [Applause] that's okay all right thank you and that concludes our celebrations thank you Dr Menthol and congratulations to all recipients this evening for their Awards and accomplishments at this

051time in our meeting we usually have um governing board reports we will have that but I would like to read the meeting the Quorum statement I know it was posted earlier but I'm going to read that to you so please keep this in mind in the next couple sections of this meeting 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 and decorum 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 stage at any time while the governing board meeting is in session without express permission from the governing board president

052all of you that requested to speak did so electronically in our entryway before this meeting began and that was officially at six o'clock because we want to hear everyone's voice many of you came for a specific reason and we really appreciate our community involvement in our school district we're going to alter Monitor and adjust our time period allotted for public comment and allow each speaker up to one minute to speak and share their thoughts with the governing board I do note that the governing board cannot communicate back to you directly during this portion of the meeting so if it seems weird that we're just sitting here it's what we're supposed to do um according to State Statute we cannot reply so we are going to go with governing board reports first colleagues reports please board

053member Dr Hartwell board president's announced past month I've pleasure of attending the District spelling bee and this poor speller which is a heartfelt congratulations to all of our school's academic competitors on a job very well done I also was able to join several several of our students teachers and administrators in the Parada Del Sol and it was a lovely day great weather and lots of support shown by our community for our district I've had several meetings with Community leaders over the last month and to me those meetings often serve as a heartwarming reminder of the strong support that our district our families our students and staff received from our community and we're grateful I was also able to take in the first of one of the tournament games for the Desert Mountain wolves who handily

054beat Mesa and has continued in their state championship Journey with an impressive game last Friday night so we'll wish the Wolves much much success I also want to personally think that Navajo Elementary School students who took the time to handwrite and in some cases include original artwork and their kind notes to the board to celebrate National School Board month last June and the January uh finally I'd like to congratulate the Chaparral film club their fall project movie titled lovesick was an official selection of the 2023 Arizona student film festival this is an annual competition that celebrates the next generation of Arizona filmmakers and it seems like we have some Firebirds who are in that class so congratulations to all of you and just what a rich celebration section of the meeting I'm glad all of

055you were here to celebrate with us and want to congratulate everyone who achieved what the achieve is really impressive I'm very very proud of all of you who really makes me proud to be a part of this District thank you thank you Dr hartwell's you'd like to go next vice president Werner so Milo my learning community that I've assigned to was or is the Coronado learning community and I have been able to visit every campus so ho com Yavapai tonalia Pima and Coronado and it's really been an extraordinary experience to walk through the classrooms and see the students and what they're working on and meet the teachers and get to know the principles a bit each campus offers something unique and interesting and it really is just amazing is the word that I always come

056back to from these experiences when I attend the schools why was that Coronado I attended the ESP Awards and it was extraordinary to see these incredible students be able to get the opportunity to be recognized and receive an award and I really have to acknowledge Mrs palatucci for creating the program and creating an environment in the school that where every student can succeed and be recognized and acknowledged and honestly the best part so far and this my six weeks of being on the board is seeing the children's faces walking through the schools and all I see is Endless Possibilities looking back at me last week I was a guest at the Scottsdale parent Council along with Julie sunowski and it was great Mrs McClure did a great job moderating and I was really grateful to

057have the opportunity to answer the audience's questions and the question that Mrs McCord gave and truly this is just an honor to serve our students our staff our parents and our entire Scottsdale unified community board member Carney okay I'm gonna make this short and sweet but I was recently able to go tour um hohokum and Arcadia with the principals and it was like he said it was really it's really great learning about their successes and their ideas for improving their school culture and campuses and then I also was invited to Mountainside Middle School for the eighth grade assembly for sold out foundation so that was really great to see what what that was all about and get to be with those kids at Mountainside so thank you thank you um I will go next uh

058a lot has happened in our community in this past month and I note that much of this has been the result of activities sparked by an excerpt of complex interview which took place between Dr Menzel that he gave over four years ago I note that as of noon today I have received approximately 445 emails pertaining specifically to the opinion of value of our superintendent Dr Menzel I also note that about 15 of those claims were dis of dissatisfaction were based on referencing the media reports five of those came five additional reports came from outside of Arizona and about 380 clearly expressed satisfaction and confidence by The Proven work of Dr Menzel thank you all for your Communications I have read each and every one of your messages and I apologize if you did not receive

059a personal response to your message I'll share my thoughts on this current event throughout this report as governing board members we represent our entire community and our words and our actions must be focused on supporting our education Community generally and ultimately in susd our our representation should be directed at improving not dismantling undermining or belittling the efforts of our school district I understand that at times we don't do not fully understand or appreciate the intentions of the words or interests of others and that's okay I do ask that our community members direct their energy of our school district and focus to support our susd we can be all of you can be valuable pieces of our success the aspects which Merit our focused attention include the educational and extracurricular experiences and success of our students

060as witnessed by many of the celebrations here tonight recently I did have the privilege to engage in our community Through many assorted ways I enjoy this this opportunity these include watching our students participate in two different spelling bees The District spelling bee and the regional spelling bee which took place here last Friday I was proud p-r-o-u-d proud of the conduct displayed by our students they're multifaceted support systems their families their teachers their principals from their schools were even in the audience quietly cheering them on and I recognize and appreciate the district faculty who organized and implemented these contests I attended a very thought-provoking play at Desert Mountain recently the same thought-provoking play performed by our Saguaro theater troupe over a year ago it was evident that the story told through this play holds great significance

061to many of our students I supported two of our high school students being interviewed by them for one of their Advanced um course assignments and I had the honor to address the 37th class of the Scottsdale leadership at their education day and that was a room full of adult leaders from our community and the focus of the day of course was education and all the good stuff Happening Here in Scottsdale schools I also had an opportunity to um refresh my French language acquisition I observed a French three Class A formative assessment performed in solely in French language by our students and their teacher a great example of excellent teaching and learning that takes place um last week I also had the privilege to have the opportunity to meet with many of our national board certified

062teachers at a panel discussion that they had in preparing them to be successful throughout this process as Vice President Warner had mentioned I was able to share information at the Scottsdale parent Council Gathering and as usual I have enjoyed meeting with many of our valuable Community Partners throughout the last month as a governing board member I am a fiduciary of our entire District our role as parents can help support our work but the expanse of our district composition must guide our work my role is not to judge whether I approve of the art a person creates or enjoys what our families should look like whether their chosen books pass my judgment as Worthy literature or to determine whether another person's perspective of the world matches my own as a governing board we must be focused

063on students and driven by facts and understand the rationale decisions that these rational rational decisions actually take time and thoughtful consideration choosing to function based on fear and anger will lead us to conflict controversy and crisis I recognize we cannot we cannot eliminate fear and anger from the human psyche but we can commit to govern ourselves as communities as peoples as families in ways which we which are not shaped by fear and anger we need to be motivated by hope and possibility and guided by facts our Student Success is dependent on our decisions it is clear to me that the employees and general communities support Dr Menzel I support the success of Dr Menzel our systemic achievement is dependent on the success of our superintendent I recognize that we are in a fishbowl here in

064Scottsdale let's commit to focusing all our efforts on supporting the values of Excellence empathy Integrity inclusion trust and unity anything other than this is counter-intuitive to the well-being of our community we will not discriminate against our families our students are the focus of our work and facts must continue to drive that work at this point we will move into the public comments section of our business meeting names will be placed three at a time will be placed up on the screen behind us here and we will each of you will be given one minute usually we only have this for 30 minutes this portion of our business meeting as I stated earlier but we have almost 60 individuals that have requested to address us this evening so up first will be Jim Lane followed by

065Nick Sethi and Laura Wiesel as a reminder each speaker will have one minute and the microphone will be turned off at the one minute mark go ahead thank you president sunowski and the governing board for having us here today and uh able to comment and of course the comments are directed toward Dr Menzel as you've just have spoken toward you know I think that we're all on the same page philosophically when it involves children and young adults having equal opportunity and access to the best possible education and one that gives them the best opportunity for success in life it's not the equities conceptual ideas uh fostered by Dr Menzel to help young people overcome Life Energy in injuries in their ability to learn it's the process and Dr Menzel has said many of the things

066that you're looking to try to avoid in his interview for some time and it is disruptive dismantling and reconstructive as he repeatedly refers to on the basis of a survey that's based upon discriminating and we do up next is Nick Sethi followed by Laura weissoff and zoa daily [Applause] good evening I am Nick Sethi a junior at Saguaro High School my words are not encouraged by anyone other than myself not often are students able to build positive change at a school district level but the student Advisory board has given has been given this opportunity by Dr Mensel and Dr sakos it is within the student Advisory board that Dr Menzel has opened the table for productive discussions of the situations that our schools face a key subject that we have discussed is making sure that

067all students have access to the opportunity to explore post-secondary education options while attending susd schools in this instance in various others Dr Menzel has listened to our input and has shown his genuine dedication to improving the susd experience for all students the reflection on Dr Menzel's long past remarks have opened opportunities for harmful rhetoric and economy productive cross-examination to continue to do this would be just that harmful and counterproductive it is most important to focus on our many current successes in this district and continue to thank you Laura you guys can see did you hear governing board as an susd parent I support our teachers Dr Menzel and our schools and here's why over 50 percent of susd elementary schools scored in the top 10 percent of all public and charter schools in Arizona last

068year over 30 percent of our schools outperformed great Hearts our choice Scottsdale and over 50 percent of our schools outperformed great heart Cicero even though we have larger special education and higher needs populations our schools emphasize the whole child while providing a strong well-rounded education for students with a diverse set of needs our schools hire only credentialed teachers the vast majority of whom have their masters and many are nationally board certified our class sizes are smaller our experienced teachers differentiate their lessons and our schools have multiple academic tracks our students learn how to think not what to think and our students are cared for they have fun and they shine board members I urge you to see and support all of our students our talented teachers are outstanding superintendent and our beloved schools next is

069Zoe feeling followed by Sam Campana thank you and the student Advisory board with Dr Menzel's help we've had ongoing and productive discussions about making changes for the students of susd this school district works so hard for the success of every student creating an equitable environment where everyone is respected treated with dignity and has a sense of belonging inclusion connecting across communities to advance educational opportunities for all Unity inclusion and unity are two of susd's six values but values are empty without action and any part of our society where exclusivity and Division and inequality should live unchecked the members in a such a society should be uncomfortable as a community leader Dr Menzel has formulated his words to be unpalatable but so many people avoid this topic because it is unpalatable I admire that and our

070students need that thank you Sam Campana followed by Lady Langer the next speaker could be ready to go that would be greatly appreciated up now is Sam Campana Sam had to leave okay Laney is up followed by Danielle and then Lori Ryan my name is Lainey langner I'm a seventh grade social studies teacher and GSA teacher sponsor at cocoopah Middle School in 2021 Dr Menzel presented several pillars for susd tonight I'm speaking to his message of inclusion private and charter schools are deliberately exclusionary in multiple ways financially academically and in personal expression by making inclusion a tenant in susd Dr Menzel has welcomed All Families students and teachers bringing us together to protect us regardless of race financial situation or personal differences there's strength in being included Dr Menzel recognizes and respects that it's no

071secret that there's a teacher shortage in this state in this district and I'm sure the board considers teacher retention in their discussions but if the board is seriously considering sacking the captain you may find his loyal crew jumping ship at the next port and truly what is this District without her Educators the teachers of susd stand with and support Dr Scott Menzel [Applause] followed by Laurie Ryan previous Mayor Sam Campana had to leave so she's asked me to read this members of the board Dr Menzel has distinguished himself being attentive thoughtful and a careful listener plus he's a man of action I've known every superintendent in Scottsdale for over 50 years so I know we are so fortunate to have Dr Menzel I made an appointment to meet with our new superintendent Menzel early on

072I just wanted five minutes to say thank you when he willingly stepped up and and spent his new political Capital to resolve a particular thorny issue when it wasn't even asked or required of him it was just the right thing to do that kind of Courage is rare I'm here as a grandmother to Pueblo boys Connor Evan a certified susd volunteer frequent donor and former mayor former mayor who has also felt the Winds of whipped up controversy please feel the genuine and heartfelt support from our Greater Community Dr Menzel thousands of Scottsdale moms and dads and grandparents are home tonight with their kids confident that their children's most precious right the right to Daniel gasparino Lori Ryan Don heninger we moved to Arizona during the height of kovid we had a lot of pushback from

073people because Arizona schools weren't as good as Connecticut due to lack of funding but we had done our research and knew that susd had great schools as part of my research I reached out directly to miss Waldron our School's principal to inquire about the enrollment process she was responsive kind and helpful in informing me about Anasazi and susd my interactions with her along with the IB Program were the reasons we chose Anasazi and susd our children have thrived one of my boys was put on an IEP for speech in a prompt informed and caring manner I've seen their reading math as well as social and emotional abilities soar and it's largely due to staff teachers and administration at Anasazi the success of our school district determines the city's perception as well as economic success including

074home values which would plummet with a less successful school district superintendent Menzel has done an outstanding job in his leadership as well as navigating in all obstacles and keeping our children at the foremost spot of the district where they should be Lori Ryan followed by Don heninger hello my name is Lori Ryan I'm a parent and a physician here in the community I'm coming here as a community member because of uh notice of a letter that was recently written to the board on behalf of some of my elected officials which included a quote from Dr Martin Luther King giving the impression that Martin Luther King was colorblind I found this offensive uh from the fact that we're cherry picking quotes from leaders that we were all meant to learn from and I'm I'm not familiar

075with this community I'm really pretty jumpy about this I'm so sorry but Dr Menzel I guess my point is is that for my children and my grandchildren to grow in a community I'm looking for leaders that understand the Nuance of economic racial cultural differences that will inform their growth and their development as World members and I would expect nothing less and I just felt this needed to be said Thank you Don Henninger noriel apps Molly Brown president cineski members of the governing board my name is Don Henninger I'm a 27-year resident of Scottsdale my wife is a graduate of Arcadia High School not going to tell you what year I'm also director of Scott the Scottsdale Coalition of today and tomorrow we're a network of about 75 participants that represent community and Business Leaders non-profit

076Educators and elected officials from across the city of Scottsdale we've had the occasion to track Dr Menzel's progress over the couple of years that he's been here we've also had the chance to have him present to us so he can share his values and his strategies with us and I'm here to tell you tonight that Dr the susd is in good hands with Dr Menzel we support him here and we certainly hope that encourage the governing board to do the same no real apps Molly pump Brown [Applause] okay hello I'm noriel apps I'm a student and Senior at Saguaro High School I'm here today supporting Dr Menzel who shows immense support for the students of our district and I want to reciprocate the support I am very involved student I'm involved with Saguaro Math and

077Science Academy the Dual language immersion program Student Government NHS mentoring International Club president Scottsdale sister cities Junior board choir Fine Arts and Athletics as you can see I'm in a lot and I've seen Dr manzella every single one of my events he helps students and families feel supported and safe we are lucky to have a leader who cares so much for everyone in our community I am also thrilled to see my elementary school and others being updated and rebuilt stronger than before thank you Dr Menzel Molly pot Brown and Emma Curley greetings and thank you for having me I've been an susd parent since 2008 and a teacher at Hopi Elementary School since 2015. I am here to take a stand against the effort to drag our district into the culture wars through political maneuvering

078divisive rhetoric and a smear campaign against our capable and compassionate superintendent regardless of our political preferences our feelings about covid policies of the past or our other affiliations I hope we can all agree that it is not culture wars but susd's culture that will positively impact our students the susd culture I know from our mission and vision and that I witness and practice daily on our campuses is a culture that promotes trust inclusion Unity empathy integrity and Excellence it is a culture that focuses on teaching and learning and prioritizes a sense of belonging for every student let's reject culture wars for our district and instead promote susd culture our kids are watching thank you Emma curly followed by Katie Conway hello my name is Emma Curley I am a junior at Chaparral High School and

079a member of the susd student Advisory Board I have had the opportunity to get to know Dr Menzel in our monthly meetings and I'm here tonight to offer my support to him and his leadership Dr Menzel attends these meetings to listen to our perspectives and has acted quickly to implement our ideas for improvement I also had the opportunity to sit with Dr Menzel at the Martin Luther King celebration dinner he not only remembered my name but our conversation made me feel like he was genuinely interested in me as a person in that setting he could have easily focused on the adults in the room I thank you Dr Menzel for your leadership and all you do to make susd a better place am I Curly followed by Katie Conway that was this demo wasn't it

080yeah so we're on to Katie Katie Conway that's all right I'm Kate Conway my daughter's a DM senior and I'm a former susd teacher during the two years that I taught in sudsc my students included refugees from various countries students with same-sex parents students from five of the seven continents students who identify now as by non-binary and students who identify as every racial subtype Dr Menzel's comments indicating nuanced understanding of our racial history show that he's exactly the type of superintendent that we need at susd a review of dozens of studies in diversity conducted by the century Foundation found that having different and Divergent perspectives can create positive learning outcomes the outcomes can have a benefit that reflect well beyond students graduations and can impact their lives going forward diversity improves cognitive thinking skills and

081critical thinking as noted by an article in Scientific American exposure to diversity Alters the way individuals think by promoting creativity and Innovation as well as decision making and problem solving skills exposure to diversity helps students enter adulthood 96 percent of major employers according to the [Music] okay thank you we are up to uh Missy Fogle followed by Jennifer Flory and then Eric curland hi my name is Missy Fogle and I'm a parent of four kids in susd schools I'm here to ask you tonight to create a social media policy Banning hate speech on all susd social media accounts that allow public comment as usd's Facebook page currently calls for civility only and we receive racism and anti-Semitism instead what message is susd sending to our students to our community by permitting hate speech do we

082really want to model that it's easier to allow hate speech than to speak out against it while meta does a terrible job with enforcement they do an excellent job defining hate speech in their transparency Center many of our neighboring public many of our neighboring public school districts already have policies like this in place world-class and future focused is our message to the world however as long as racist and anti-semitic public comments are allowed on susd social media posts my non-white Jewish children their peers and our community as a whole are receiving Missy Fogle Jennifer Flory hope Jennifer Flory Eric curland and then Teresa Ann Harrison all right tonight I should be helping my son get ready for his cross-country meet or watching my daughter practice for a performance on Friday or planning the fifth grade

083Mama's in Middle School event I'm hosting but I'm said I'm here I'm here because Miss affirmation techniques were used to dupe some of our community members into calling for the resonation of our amazing superintendent Dr Scott Menzel this is not okay we are better than the Scottsdale over the past 10 years I've worked closely with 14 different superintendents I've seen a broad range of leadership styles Dr Menzel's good he's really really really good we cannot lose him he brings great energy intellectual curiosity collaboration Partnerships dedication and willingness to discuss I read the interview and I read the legislator's response calling for his resignation is ridiculous Scottsdale we need to do better Eric Kerlin Teresa and Harrison Kevin Maxwell and yeah I support Dr Manziel um but I want everybody to kind of take a look

084at the Arizona Republic over the last few days uh I started on Sunday reading an opinion piece by John Gabriel who I'd say is right of me probably right of Center and he uh created some alarm in me that I agreed with him that kids are having a really tough time right now and then today I saw the data from the CBC about students who are thinking about suicide who are actually trying to commit suicide and I look at all of us as parents and I want you to be cautious of your words be careful when we start talking about social emotional learning and people demonizing it we have to reach these kids people are going to complain that we're not getting test scores high enough but I implore you you have to go through

085the head you have to go through the heart to get to the head and dead children do not learn very well so please be mindful of yourself and read those two things in the Republic Teresa Ann Harrison Kevin Maxwell Samantha Oliver the American College of Physicians has long held that hate crimes Prejudice discrimination harassment and violence against any person based on race ethnicity religion gender gender identity sex sexual orientation or country of origin is a public health issue in a world where there is ample research showcasing how extremely bigotry impacts marginalized youth there has yet to be any supportive measures put in place for them schools a legal requirement that adolescents do not get much of a say in school is supposed to be a safe space for Learning and growth for many marginalized children

086however this is not the case our students do not feel safe at school due to the bigotry they face and the lack of support systems for them how can we expect them to grow into fully functional adults if we are not giving them the support or space to do so everyone deserves the freedom to learn and giving marginalized children undivided support is the only way to achieve that thank you Kevin Maxwell Samantha Oliver charity Rec Club three terms Scottsdale city council member and a long time Community Advocate Linda milhaven could not be here tonight so she asked me to read these comments on her behalf from Linda milhaven Scott Menzel is the exactly the kind of man we need as superintendent of Scottsdale Unified School District he challenges us to lean into the discomfort of

087change and not just accept change as face value he describes a process of change as dismantle disrupt and then create something that's socially just and more Equitable Dr Menzel acknowledges the role of community in defining the values that help to shape change in short communities that decide what kind of schools they want he cautions that if you dismantle the whole thing you won't if you expand the whole thing don't want unintended consequence or harm children in the processes so we need to be thoughtful and clear about what the path is these are the words of a thoughtful and purposeful leader one of my favorite quotes is when we do bet when we know better we do better if we heed Dr Menzel's advice lean into our discomfort to learn understand and create meaningful your time

088is up [Applause] Samantha Oliver charity Reckless Stephen Jackson good evening my name is Samantha Oliver as the mother of a deaf child I fought to keep our schools open during the worst of the pandemic I was new to the district then and my son was just starting kindergarten he could not learn via a computer screen Dr Menzel did everything in his power to keep our schools open and support the needs of every student he listened to all sides analyzed data and put careful thought behind every recommendation and decision he made he led susd with steady hands and focus actions speak louder than slogans memes and quotes from interviews from years ago I support Dr Menzel because he truly supports our students and schools thank you [Applause] [Music] [Applause] charity Reckless Stephen Jackson Kim McClure good

089evening I'm a proud parent of an Echo Canyon student I'm also a proud art teacher at Ingleside Middle School since 2015. I'm also the Middle School content lead for visual arts I wanted to bring with you with me today some of my student artwork 8th grade artwork that they did they did a weaving project and I wanted to share this with you because after learning about weaving and basket making from Native American tribes across Arizona my students were really excited about this project and the reason why they can do these things these kinds of projects is because we have a very rich community in Fine Arts and we're in thank you susd and Dr Menzel for Paving away for a rich fine arts program across our district and that leads to a world-class education so

090thank you so much Stephen Jackson Kim leflore Teresa Ann Harrison good evening my daughter's best friend killed herself between eighth grade and freshman year three weeks ago another person from a previous School hung himself after he was bullied at school she recently attended unit town and called it one of the most positive and effective experiences in her lifetime what Dr Menzel has been saying and and the amount of inclusivity and empathy that his words indicate is a positive influence on our society and in our community and for people like my daughter who don't want to see their friends being hurt it helps her but for her friends it helps to show them that their Community actually cares inclusion matters and that's why I support Dr Menzel Kim McClure Teresa Ann Harriston good evening board president

091sinowski vice president Werner governing board Dr Menzel Miss Wagner I'm addressing you tonight in my role as president of Scottsdale parent Council SPC brings parents from all five learning communities together with susd Administration to Foster collaboration that benefits all students attending susd there is much discussion in the news the community and on the diocese about parents and the importance of their role in their child's education this is just one of the reasons why on behalf of svc's executive board we would like to invite you members of the governing board as well as cabinet members to attend the SPC meetings that happen each month at the Mojave District Annex we also hope you will attend because not only are these meetings another opportunity for you to experience firsthand some of the amazing things happening in in

092this District they are a chance for you to connect directly with parents the next meeting is on Wednesday March 22nd at 9 A.M we will learn about the SRO program and the role of susd's Crisis canines in supporting safety and student learning thank you for your time up next is Mike Norton followed by Susan Winder and then Patricia thank you for the opportunity to speak I had a speech written that was 60 seconds long I listened to former mayor Lane speak I threw it away five years ago last month mayor Lane stood before the city and told the city in his state of the city address that the single greatest superintendent who had ever served this District was Angela Denise Birdwell those were his words he said that while he was standing next to Pam

093Kirby who helped two of our board members get elected the next week we met with John creaker and convinced him to come back to this district and help save it we had a plan when the week of February 14 2018 a thousand of us stood out here on the street and demanded that Angela Denise Birdwell be removed from office that was good reason to remove a superintendent and we had a plan for the future today I read an email in which you were all right moving on to Susan Winder followed by Patricia and then Rizal longbecker I'm a grandparent in the district a retired teacher counselor and administrator at the last school board meeting Dr Mengele you made this statement referring to the feedback being sent to the board members in their email it was

094an attempt to dismantle and disrupt the direction susd School District was heading this was a defensive comment to acknowledge and put down the opinions of the taxpayers and parents in the district those who pay your salary and elect the school board some of who believe in your woke ideology you have stated that white people need to feel really really uncomfortable because they perpetuate A system that ignores the realities in front of them and live in a mythological reality you have alluded that those who have money are the problem by creating the confidential susd gender support plan you have violated Bill i-601 entitled parents rights protected in i-602 entitled parents Bill of Rights the taxpayers and parents have sent you a clear message with the last results of the election for school board it is time

095to step down or look for a job in a system that once you're woke ideology I would say that as well for the board members who allowed to this ideology Patricia followed by Rizal and then Sherry [Applause] good evening governing board the governor's twin sister who heads the Scottsdale Education Association and a big Law Firm have pressure teachers staff and a few parents here who support doctors Menzel's controversial social equity and Justice agenda through using mass mail he's desperate and trying to cling to power with these planted seeds if any of you know history then you recognize Dr Menzel's predictable Playbook don't worry as we all know it's next play he shifts blames to the accusers while making himself the victim watch his associates do it today I wonder if the susd attorney is aware

096of his top employees sending snail mail intimidating letters to descenders to silence them as he did me the letter called me a liar and uses misogynistic language against me why snail mail so it's not on record it takes three school board members to free our students from his iron Rizal longbecker followed by Sherry sapir [Applause] okay hello good afternoon I'm coming to talk about the ACs course a so because in last in the last meeting one of the teachers said that she didn't agree with the scores being down so what I did it was I look for the asymmetry test and SM M2 but the data wasn't completely available so I went for the test they are the perfect test to see if our high schoolers are ready to go for college I I check

097every single one inside here okay I I did my homework so our score for the acat is 1159 with only 13 of our students proficient our score for the SAT is only 18.4 over 36 so that's not even 50 percent so if you are telling me that our student Shirley sapir followed by Mike bengert and then and then Mary gadio uh Sherry Superior is supposed to be up sorry thank you so much so there's a lot of talk about inclusion today but some of us parents at susd don't feel very included when we find out about a confidential susd Jitter support plan that is circulating between teachers the purpose of this document is to create shared understanding about the ways in which the student's authentic gender will be accounted for the parent Guardian involvement though

098says Guardian aware of students gender status yes or no and the level of support to me it seems that susd is trying to hide something from parents and I would really like to see some investigation from this board and letting us speak letting us parents know how many children do we have in the support plan right now who wrote it who approved it where is it being distributed this is the kind of things that we're coming against it's not about Menzel being a nice person an intellect we know that this is all good the problem is that when you're talking about inclusiveness we the parents need to be part of everything that happening in this school Mike bengert followed by Mary gaudio and then Allison cotinia Dr Menzel in your interview published in the 20

099in 2019 you said the hardest place to do this work referring to dismantling and disrupting the system is in a high performing affluent districts I will be very careful how I frame something dependent on the audience given your statement how can we trust and rely on what you say young children are highly impressionable and susceptible to manipulation coercion and exploitation by trusted adults you are actively implementing a plan to spend gender and sexual identity misinformation all purposefully done without parental notification inclusion or consent you can identify however you want but I don't have to participate in your delusion and don't teach it to our children at the last board meeting you characterize people who disagreed with your views and seeking as seeking to tear apart our school Community it's time for you and the board

100to start living up to the district values to demonstrate honesty transparency and reliability where everyone is respected Mary gaudio Allison klotinia and then Janet Larkin good evening governing board members my name is Mary gaudio I stand before you as a proud susd Community member 28 of our 30 schools have earned an A or B letter grade we have five a plus Schools of Excellence and two high schools ranked in the top ten in the state our students outperform their peers across the county and the state in academics Athletics Fine Arts and more under Dr Menzel's leadership our district administrators teachers and staff have performed at the highest level and supported significant student achievements as we've heard here tonight and yet we're witnessing an effort to oust him what company would fire a CEO with this

101record of achievement none this isn't about performance it's about politics targeting teachers and District leadership based on ideology is harmful to our students and community at large I ask that you focus on I'm providing the Allison protein Janet Larkin Kim Miller good evening sus company board and Dr Menzel I'd like to read a quick note from an interview he did recently and it's our history books don't teach history in a way that causes us to look honestly at what really happened it is and pardon the pun whitewashed history that makes white people look good all the time no child should be made to feel less than of another due to the color of their skin Dr Menzel's statements are offensive to me the indoctrination and radical rhetoric is offensive and unproductive the job of susd

102is to educate the entire community not disrupt dismantle or reconstruct Dr Menzel sets the tone for the district educational Excellence should be the priority I respectfully ask that Dr Menzel stop his political and personal ideologies and take them out of the district's curriculum thank you Janet Larkin Kim Miller Jill dunachan my name is Janet Larkin I've been in Scottsdale for 51 years I taught in the school district during Dr creekhart Sarah respected him and all that was going on while I was there um I support you Dr Menzel I support the board for coming together being inclusive I loved what uh the presidency andowski had to say and many many of the young people here I can't talk as quickly as all of them I'm and I am wearily fading at this time of night

103thank you Kim Miller Jill Donegan rich hofecker hi I'm Kim Miller I'm a mother of five and I live in the district I think that the purpose of tonight really is the the uh definition of public education uh is it academics I kind of thought it was is it success and setting kids up for their future uh the interview that came out recently um well a few years ago by Dr Menzel really focuses on his values he States out his his philosophy and his stated purpose and most of it focuses on Race being a central aspect to someone's identity and it sets people up as victims the district spokeswoman actually said that his words were taken out of context and that they don't reflect his beliefs but that is hard to understand when I know

104of a mom who he recently called into his office and lectured her about her racism and gave her a book of white fragility so clearly Dr Menzel sees his job as political and social Division and creating a victimhood mentality I love these stickers of freedom to learn but victimhood is is not freedom to look Jill donaghan Rich hafiker Elijah Watson [Applause] Dr Menzel's supporters Cry Freedom to learn but children are not learning when five-year-olds are being taught that they can choose their gender children are not free when their ability to achieve or be problematic is predetermined by Dr Menzel's based on the child's skin color there is no freedom for parents when susd secretly allows teenage boys who claim they are girls to sleep in their daughter's overnight camp cabin children do not learn when

105radical sex theories from debunked sources are secretly taught without parent consent families are not free when teachers send pronoun surveys that ask students if they should hide the pronouns from parents Scott Menzel's supporters will supporters will tell you none of this is happening but we parents have the receipts as a parent I'm here to say enough it's time for our governing board to address these concerns that Scott Menzel has ignored we must return Focus to academic excellence we're trafficker Elijah Watson [Applause] meritocracy is a lie those are Scott Menzel's words now consider susd's value of Excellence which states we nurtured the growth-minded culture of high expectations persistence and self-discipline how can we how can uh how can the district achieve excellence in the in the how can the how can the district achieve Excellence if

106the leader uh if the leader believes that meritocracy is a lie how can we ask children to put on the hard work to achieve academic Excellence if it does not matter anyway what a sad message of disempowerment I've heard from some that the comments were taken out of context but I'm not sure how those statements could be taken out of context and further I've not heard any clarification members of the board we must work to empower our students at susd and this starts with removing Scott Menzel major Watson Ben labari my name is Elijah Watson I am a public education Advocate and unlike series appear and those against equity in our Public Schools I am here in support of Dr Menzel though I am not a member of the Scottsdale unified family it is very

107clear that these attacks against Dr Menzel for his previous comments have been advocated against mainly by the people who have time and time again attempted to alienate our students in schools against their communities from disgusting bathroom bands to supporting funding limitations Senator Kavanaugh among others do not have the best interests of Scottsdale's public schools in mind when crafting bills down at the legislature and when when representing this District especially when these officials are calling for Dr Menzel's immediate resignation Dr Menzel on behalf of a majority of the people in this Auditorium you should not feel any pressure to resign the community is evidently behind you thank you Katrina Pennsylvania van larabee Ted Torres [Applause] children who attend Anasazi Elementary School my son is enrolled in third grade his teacher Mrs albrisi is incredibly intelligent inclusive

108and principled my daughter is enrolled in first grade with the most patient empathetic and kind teacher Mrs Dineen both of my children have attended Anasazi since the beginning of their primary education I am so grateful to each teacher they have had while attending Anasazi my children feel safe secure supported inspired and loved at Anasazi it's all thanks to the entire staff and administration that they truly put their students first our staff and administrators are unmatched in their dedication to the students and Community supporting and encouraging our teachers staff Administration and school district is directly correlated to the success of our children and the culture of our community as a whole one more thing some people use the word woke as an insult but it's mostly because they don't understand and can't pronounce empathetic educated and

109enlightened Ben Larrabee Ted Torres Don shim [Applause] howdy y'all Dr Menzel if you had said black people should feel uncomfortable for what they've done that would be labeled racist if you had said Asians should feel uncomfortable for what they've done that would be labeled racists if you had said Hispanics should feel uncomfortable for the actions they've taken that would be labeled racist yet for some reason when you say why people should feel uncomfortable for their actions based on the color of their skin that's not racist to some people that's social justice consider your words because while you're fixated on Race real problems are getting worse for students after years of abuse from lockdowns social distancing and insane masking policies in this District they are in desperate need of help suicide depression obesity abuse are all

110going up as the adults in this room it's your job regardless of our differences to strengthen students and not denigrate them and divide them by race this is what I ask of you tonight Ted Torres Don shim Hayden Nguyen good evening Governor governing board of the Scottsdale Unified School District and Dr Menzel my wife and I are 42-year residents of Scottsdale we would like to request the immediate termination and removal of Dr Menzel from his superintendent duties based on the public information provided in recent months and the commentary for many of those that have assembled this evening the individual is devices and racist and based on the prior commentary again the statement regarding the book White fragility and comments made a disrupt dismantle and reconstruct our educational system based on Equity as opposed to equality

111is completely unacceptable there is a main difference between equity versus equality equality is a great thing for everybody Equity is not meritocracy we saw so many wonderful students here this evening being awarded excellent awards for their own individual efforts they didn't do it because of the color of their skin they did it because of how great they are and how hard they work their asses off next speaker please I believe it's Ted Taurus [Applause] Don shim followed by Hayden went good evening my name is Don shim I am 17 and I'm a junior in the Chandler region I am an advocate for minority and queer youth in the East Valley with the student groups all called support equality Arizona schools I was asked to attend this meeting in support sorry my phone just logged out

112in support of policies people and boards that affirm inclusive and accepting policies although I am not a student of this District what I have heard from this community especially today only emphasizes Dr Menzel's role as an invaluable educator he encompasses a thoughtfulness judgment and transparency an Educators should have we have all heard about his passion for education and each and every student in this District these unreasonable calls against Dr Menzel reflect a concerning turn in our school boards across the state as a student in Arizona the policies in school board ought to go beyond the petty and often violent rhetoric expressed in our government School Board should be the intermediary that keeps kids especially the most vulnerable minority and lgbtq youth safe what we should be discussing is how we keep these foreign wind followed

113by Alice stombaugh hi my name is Hayden Nguyen I'm 17 and I'm a senior in the Gilbert area even as a student outside of this District Dr Manziel's commitment into inclusive and comprehensive education Echoes with the support of this community I wanted to say it to Dr Menzel that he has the full backing of the parents the students and the teachers who actually know what's going on within our schools we know that there is a mental health crisis within our schools and the root of this issues especially when it comes to lgbtq students is with inclusivity we know that one in five trans youth attempts to attempted suicide last year we know that the majority of lgbtq kids have suicidal thoughts and have attempted suicide this is a huge poem for in our students it's

114a problem with all of our kids not lgbtq and lgbtq it's a problem with all of every kid within a certain minority group or who have been who have faced racism who have faced bigotry and I want to say on behalf of all those students on behalf of the students of this district and students across Arizona that Dr Manziel has their full support for his include Alice Samba followed by Valerie Ramos [Applause] good evening I would like to like to say that I wholeheartedly support Dr Menzel and I'm going to talk about a different topic it's an overlapping issue that I fear may rise again and that is out of banning books book Banning or Banning topics related to diversity is a dangerous form of manipulation typically seen in autocratic and thug-based societies that operate

115out of fear again being youth centered we all understand that no one group can be so enlightened that they know all about what others should be reading books bring readers a diverse world of ideas people and places that exist in the real world and our children will meet them and bump up against them so covering our ears and going la la is not the answer to feelings of discomfort we all want to send up our kids for Success set up our kids for success and people learn to live in Peace by confronting their discomforts by becoming curious about others and trusting that they can do that and still be who they are books offer a perfect entry point for such Discovery so I hope that we don't have diversity censorship in our schools thank you

116Valerie Ramos Wally Graham Michael layer [Applause] is Valerie here Ramos okay we will go on to Wally Graham followed by Michael layer good evening my name is Wally Graham I'm a member of the Arcadia Community Education complex I'm a Community member in Arcadia but I'm also a susd bond oversight Committee Member I'm sad to be here tonight because of the passing of Dr creekart and an outstanding leader who has helped stabilize who helped stabilize our school district when the district was in the midst of board turmoil and administrative uh lacking administrative leadership Dr creegard will be missed however Dr Menzel Has Come Aboard and kept our district stable he keeps moving it positively ahead I support Dr Menzel I hope you all will support him too thank you Michael Air Ben Acker Jay Lassen good

117evening um I'm a parent of three susd students uh second to eighth grade and frankly I'm exhausted and not because my kids are exhausting but because of this political outrage that has consumed our society that we're in a zero-sum society where it's one or the other that's not how we're supposed to be working it's not right it's not good for our students I understand that not everybody has the same viewpoints as Dr Menzel but if we just take a second and step back from our outrage driven by fake and utter ridiculous journalism that does not even get to the facts we can actually maybe think about whether or not he has a good point or not I support you Dr Menzel [Applause] recently a young trans girl named Brianna gay was murdered in the UK

118she was 16. she was also shy from her home after realizing she was a woman ultimately found a community with others like herself queer outcasts running from the culture War being waged on her the lack of education and integration of queer living into the school system is what allows and encourages actions such as the heinous murder of Brianna to be carried out if you wish to defend children then you defend all of them permit them to live and love as they must do not cage them in the visibly decaying order built upon Prejudice and exploitation there is blood on your binary you need not wash your hands if no more blood is spilled if you wish for us to be safe let us live and let us love let us move Beyond shame and into

119the fertile Fields of Joy blossoming and standing strong hate is nothing but an auroborus and a plunge into self-destruction Dr Mellows I highly support your efforts and I thank you for giving us the opportunity to discuss this [Applause] Jay Lassen then Ann Raul Justin Owen hi good evening that's Jill Lassen um I'm just here because I just want to say that I appreciate the direction that our district is heading and all of Dr Menzel's hard work and then in addition I wanted to sing the Praises of the experience that my child and our family has had for the past five years at Anasazi under the amazing leadership of principal Waldron and all the devoted teachers and staff that genuinely love my child they are a large part of why my child has become the incredible

120human that they are and we're so proud of everyone at Anasazi and our community for receiving the illustrious IB certification and lastly I just want to say let's not forget about the landmark anti-discrimination ordinance which was passed in Scottsdale in 2021. thank you thank you Jill and Raul Justin Owen Kristen Parish hello thank you to the board for listening to your community our family friends and extended Community appreciates and supports Dr Menzel and we ask you the board to please unite and focus your valuable time on improving the learning and emotional environment for all our children our school libraries are incredible teachers and School staff please make 2023 the year we focus not on political differences but make a real difference for our kids we support you Dr Menzel and the board thank you Justin

121Owen Kristen Parrish [Applause] good evening I am the director of the McDowell Sonoran Conservancy a scottsdale-based education non-profit that has partnered with susd for over 30 years and tonight I'm here to talk about outcomes as the past couple of years have transformed specifically our partnership because of Dr Menzel at Dr Menzel's direction are place-based and in classroom education programs are teaching Elementary School students about the desert that they live in not just the tablet that they live on our teach the teacher program is training Middle School teachers how to teach local place-based science curriculum to their students outside in the natural desert and our new high school program is giving hundreds of high school students the opportunity to conduct scientific research on campus removing many of the barriers that they currently face in total the

122Conservancy is serving thousands of susd students and that is only possible because of Dr Menzel thank you for your work in partnering with us Dr Manziel I'm the last one thank you so um my name is Kristen Parish my kids are students at Saguaro High School and Pueblo Elementary School I myself am a professor in the ira Fulton schools of engineering at ASU I'm thrilled that Dr Menzel is our superintendent but that's probably beside the point I encourage the board to think seriously about the negative impacts of allowing themselves to be swayed by our elected officials who all know have yet to do their sworn Duty and approve the aggregate expenditure limit this type of turmoil and unrest will make the susd superintendent position less attractive than it has been before the board should seriously

123consider that if they terminate Dr Menzel we may not attract a high quality candidate who would want to come here and know that as our state legislators change their jobs may also be in jeopardy I'll close by saying that as a scholar of diversity equity and inclusion who has published more than 10 papers on this topic the scholarship supports Dr Menzel's positions Equity by the way is allowing people to have equal outcomes equality is giving them the same resources thank you okay that concludes our public comment portion of our business meeting tonight and we will move on to superintendent comments Dr Menzel thank you president sonowski members of the governing board and for the members of the audience who are here I want to start by thanking everyone who took time to participate in our

124celebrations took time to speak during call to the public who came time to express your opinion whether it was for or against or somewhere in between it's a reflection of the importance of our work in providing world-class future focused learning for our students so thank you for being here this evening I just have a few comments to move through and then I do want to say a few words about uh former superintendent Dr creakard next week is officially public school week Across the Nation and I think you know that I am Unapologetic Champion for public education we will continue to celebrate the amazing work at our 29 campuses in Scottsdale online not only during this week but especially during this week with the hashtag here for the kids so please watch for the social media

125and please like and retweet um earlier Dr hartwell's mentioned the Parada Del Sol I just want to note that the combined Chaparral and Coco Palm marching bands were named the parada's best band and Laguna received the award for parade entry with the most Spirits so congratulations to the Chaparral cocopal marching bands and Laguna for those recognitions also High School athletics winter sports are winding down and I'm happy to report that susd student athletes are still in the mix for some State trophies when this was written Saguaro was playing but now I'm happy to report that Saguaro will be in the championship game because they won tonight 4-1 on the Coronado field so if your schedule permits they're playing seven o'clock on Friday night at Glendale High School for the state championship tomorrow afternoon right here

126at Coronado High School the number two Chaparral girls soccer team will be playing number six Catalina Foothills the 5A state championship game will be on Saturday at 11 30 at Dobson High School in Mesa and we do wish our lady Firebirds good luck in tomorrow's competition in basketball the Saguaro girls team is on the road tonight to play number two Mesquite I have not received any updates on that and in the open state championship play the number 13 Desert Mountain boys basketball team is in the semifinals Friday night at Highland against number one Perry so to all of our student teams that are still participating let's go susd and I also want to note that there's good news from the state wrestling tournament that ended on Saturday two Desert Mountain wrestlers sophomore R.J Robinson and

127Senior Trenton wickel walked away with state titles in their respective weight classes so we want to congratulate them on their state championships as well Dr King Martin Luther King Jr said the ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience but where he stands at times of Challenge and controversy and I think that characterizes Dr creekard and his deep commitment over a career of service to students not only in Scottsdale unified but particularly in Scottsdale Unified and the opportunity to have lunch with Dr creekhart on January 31st from the time of my selection as superintendent until just a few weeks ago Dr creekard served as a mentor colleague and friend as many of you know he spent the vast majority of his professional career right here in Scottsdale

128first as an assistant principal at Chaparral beginning in 1979 and then in a variety of roles including assistant superintendent Mountainside Middle School principal where he opened that building 30 years ago Chaparral principle before he left to go to PV serving one year's assistant superintendent there and then a number as superintendent before his first retirement following the termination of Denise Birdwell Dr creekgard came out of retirement again after other stints of coming out of retirement to serve as interim superintendent and then he agreed to stay on for another year to help stabilize this District he did it not because he had to he did it because he cared deeply about the students the staff and the community that is Scottsdale his deep love of this District his knowledge of the staff and Community his commitment to

129students provided the recipe needed to steady the waters as such after such a tumultuous period of time his Steady Hand from 2018 through June 30 2020 were absolutely essential his clear and consistent communication with me during the transition period from March to June and his availability after I started meant the world to me my heart goes out to Janie and the entire Creek Guard Family during this time of loss but I know for certain that his legacy will live on through the countless lives that he impacted through a distinguished career beautiful we are going to take a very brief break at this time and we will come back here and in five minutes the time is 8 23 and we Recon being our regular governing board meeting we are moving into the information and discussion

130item of our meeting and we will begin with 7A Career and Technical Education Month CTE update so we're going to invite Amy Downs who's our director of College and Career to the podium and while she's coming up I do want to express our appreciation to the principal of Coronado High School and all the staff here who pivoted to allow us to be able to hold this meeting in the auditorium as you saw it was very full earlier this evening and and they did make adjustments to the schedule for students who are preparing for a dance performance I think coming up tomorrow so thank you to everyone at Coronado who helped make this possible and with that I'm going to turn it over to Amy to give us an update on the amazing work we're doing

131in Career and Technical education ski vice president Werner Dr Manziel members of the board and Gladys and everybody who stayed for such a lovely presentation you get to see thank you for staying um February is Career and Technical Education Month and I would like to start with this very short video clip if it can be played on that first slide the title slide back one back one more I'm not gonna go uh while they're getting that ready it's basically related to rebranding Career and Technical education in our community so that people understand that CTE is for everyone and just how cool CT is so if we get to play it great if not it's in it's the link in the notes later so for us really ncte we want to know how to get more

132students ready for their career and so we think Career and Technical education is the ideal way but it starts earlier than High School planning a career is a journey that requires an early start Arizona is committed to helping school districts meet the needs of students by providing Arizona's K-8 career literacy standards in the elementary years students need to become aware of careers and make connections to the real world of work by the beginning of a child's sixth grade year students need to begin to explore what careers are in general and have the opportunity to investigate the broader scope of work in the United States There are 16 major career clusters during the middle school year students need exposure to all 16 career clusters in order to know how jobs are related to broader fields of

133study susd's middle school students have the opportunity to explore all career clusters and get Hands-On project-based learning experiences in trending Industries in a course titled design my future Mountainside Middle School has been offering this program for three years under the title of Designing my future which we help to create as a part of their middle years program for IB students both of these Middle School titles are offered at susd with CT funded support from our Perkins grant for career exploration the course will help any student figure out what might be of interest to pursue in high school and beyond for a career pathway also known as a CTE program of study in high school so this is the flyer on the class in high school students need time to take Career and Technical education programs

134it is a graduation requirement in Arizona to have one credit in either CTE or Fine Arts Arizona CT programs are designed to be two credits in length and some programs are offered on a one-year block schedule to finish both credits in one year CTE programs focus on Technical and professional skills that prepare students for post-secondary education in the workforce and I don't know if we can click to go to the website can we click on that link or is it not going to be doable you can see our program names there thank you forward slash CTE that's us and if you click on um the word programs all these are hyperlinked to Flyers so that you can read about each program what the titles of the courses are what the ctso that's aligned with it

135for the student leadership organization and then if there's an industry credential or a portfolio item Associated we list that there as well some of our courses also offer college credit and many do offer an industry certificate or a credential in the Fine Arts CT courses students are eligible to apply for the Seal of arts for their diploma and can build a portfolio of work as an artist students have the opportunity to earn industry recognized certificates and dual enrollment credits to a majority of RCT pathways pairing robust academics with technical skills is what gives students a competitive advantage in a post-secondary environment and the world of Industry CT students have leave high school with the skills necessary to be successful in the world of work and be better prepared for further education and certifications college going

136or not all students need to consider a career that suits their strengths and interests CT provides students with the opportunity to discover talents and opportunities best of all CT students have stronger grasp of what they might want to do in the near future not all decisions are forever and over the course of a lifetime most people will have many different jobs and Fields that may be unrelated CT students are more likely to graduate which is the first hurdle to the success they will gain professional and technical skills to be successful in any path that they choose won't go into detail on this but it is a part of our kpi tracking our industry credentials and um on on this I just wanted to point out you can see how many more programs have a credential

137now than when we first started trying to fund it so in 2018-19 there were only three programs that had a credential and now we're up to many more so that number will continue to grow as we get more kids in CTE more kids staying the second year to be ready and more certifications that get approved by the Ade I think my last slide is um just a little taste about uh internships and work based learning we're going to be back in April with our goal for to talk about that so I just wanted to put the most basic information up that we're starting with the application process right now for next year and it will require students to be a senior and they have to have at least one or more credits already completed they

138can run concurrent work for the first year getting it off the ground there will be some students finishing while they're doing their internship we just want the seniors to miss out in our first year of doing it they have to be on track to graduate and they need to be on track to test for their industry certification and that's all because we'll be vetting them and trying to set them up in these internships so we are putting our susd name on that when we send the students out so we are starting with these parameters first and hopefully it can grow from there governing board members are there any questions for Amy Downs board member Dr hartwells thank you more president sunowski thank you Miss Downs for the presentation I have a question about the industry

139certification the credential programs so do I I understand it correctly that the limiting factor here is the ade's approval of the program for an industry certification okay yeah they started in 2018 to want to expand the list and for a while we had three years where um under a program that Governor Ducey started more credentials would be reimbursed with a state fund sadly that particular incentive fund uh he was not able to get it renewed that last six months he was in office so the the legislature took that out for the next go round so we're we're paying out a bit out of our regular Grant um but we've seen so much success from the big push that started it when they offered the incentive fund that made more people look at what credentials aligned

140so it's a good thing that it happened even though we only had three years of special money set aside by the state for it it's it's made more Industries speak up about the different credentials they wish to see our high school students have so that list has been growing every year thank you so I understand is the funding that the state supported these programs is no longer flowing right that it's no longer this is our last year that we get that particular incentive Grant but we did get it for three years in a row and that money is was used to specifically get them ready for credentialing so this year will be our last bit of money that we have right now unless something changes and people put a new house bill in to reauthorize

141it which would be great um is there what is the outcome tracking for students who have received I realize that there may not have been a critical mass to start doing that until maybe now but jobs after graduation with the certifications particularly in the areas in which they have an industry certification do we have a means to monitor that or just collect that data not monitor it um are you do you mean placement like seeing where they ended up yeah okay yeah placement is one of the hardest things because we have we have to wait six months to ask those questions um according to our grant we have to wait till they've been gone from us six months to consider them placed but if they go off to college that does count as a placement

142ideally in the same thing they took from us but it's not always an exact match of course and some go Undeclared so we use that data and then we do try to follow up six months later the best that we can to ask them where they ended up we use data that we can get readily ourselves but we are relying pretty much on some self-reporting and our teachers tracking them down to find out where they went so it's not an exact science but we do pretty well most of the time we meet that measurement and usually do better than the state on that we do have a lot of kids that qualify for placement thank you Amy are you finding that um are you finding that our tracking or the the types of uh credential

143programs that we're offering are in conjunction with the Workforce needs it is directly tied to that we um it does change the list changes every year based on what industry tells the Ade so how is that communicated from industry I'm just curious like who who's in charge of doing that so the Ade gathers a Advisory Board just like we have our own Scottsdale CTE Advisory Board they have a larger scale Advisory Board of Industry that tells them what they wish to see students doing and then they also look at the employment data so they use that all the Department of Labor and we do have several links on our College and Career Readiness page and our CT page linked to those Labor Statistics so people can see what Arizona has the most openings in but

144we also pick um our alignment at the Ade based on what's high paying not just High need not just because there's a vacancy but they try to put more incentive money towards things that would be a higher wage job as well um yeah my concerns are looking at nursing and bioscience as being there's a decline in the certifications offered um the credential certifications earned by the program so I I feel like those are um current needs in the workplace too I didn't hear the very last party I don't know if there was a question there more of a statement of the um bioscience and nursing having a deep decrease in the numbers from 2018 as reported here whereas I and even engineering and knowing that the some of the job challenges for employment is in

145those fields so it's a concern yeah and the numbers that we what I most see from the industry chart that one is what you're referring to right um we've got the time where we were mostly remote learning was the hardest for our kids to prepare for these industry certifications so we did have a dip in there but now and we did have a change of instructor for uh two of those three programs and now they've built those programs back up the enrollment's up higher again so that naturally will bring up the number of kids that will be able to certify the engineering certification is right now tied to SolidWorks they get a free high school seat exam for the SolidWorks associate based on our licensing of that product and they can take it multiple times

146so we do expect that number to go back up have and we've added on that Tech theater one we've kind of done it every other year on that and that's the OSHA 10 construction for safety we teach them the materials but we wait until we have enough students to do a exam for that so that one will jump to next year because this may when we test them we'll have a number in there again for that and then I have one last question on this particular information discussion item how are we communicating these opportunities to our families specifically at the middle school to kind of gear them in and get them thinking of taking some of these courses when they enter High School so that has been a really big concern personally for me when

147my kids were going through Middle School right I wanted my kids to be aware of everything and have a chance and so this year especially the person who is RCT coordinator now the job that I held last year he visited every middle school and did pretty much a lunch and learn learn about CT to try and do personal recruitment into our programs we also push into classrooms that will let us do guest speaking on careers in CTE I personally do that myself as well either on teams or in person to try and make sure students are aware of all the things out there for them another way that we're promoting CTE in general is by getting more utilization of our career awareness portal right now that's Naviance and we always have a portal like that

148of some kind throughout the years because it's a part of our ecap plan for the educational plan but we want to really focus on getting our Middle School Partners to spend a substantial amount of time on that and sixth seventh and eighth grade so that kids get to do the career exploration younger instead of ninth grade when they're in their first CTE class so those are some of the things we're doing we also have done direct mailers to home and then we go back and try solicit kids that are already taking stem things like that but yeah in general we want all middle school students to take part in either the design my future class or let us push into an existing classes popular on campus at STEM related so hopefully through those efforts we'll

149see our enrollment grow thank you Amy governing board members any questions or comments for Amy seeing them yes go ahead so I'm a I'm a big fan of the CTE one of my children participated actually in the sports med program and it really is about peaking their interests or inspiring interest in the students and I would love to see more of that being done because it's truly affected my child's life where he took Sports Med and then decided to become an athletic trainer aide with Nikki May at Saguaro which sparked an interest to become a certified EMT which now he's in his first year of college and he's doing honors biomed and wanted diseases so it's like his part you introduced them it Sparks an interest and it really flows to something that they can

150take into into Life as a career so I think it's an amazing program and we'd love to see uh being promoted more and get being able to get into the students so they can spark an interest in something right thank you Amy we are going to Dr Menzel do you have anything yet nope okay we're going to move on to the first read of um governing board policy BCC and this is a request of board member Kearney thank you president sunowski so tonight I am recommending that the governing board approved the update of policy BCC board member request for information to the language as was approved by the board on December 6th in 2022. that's not the language though it's the two paragraph policy that was a was adopted by the board um I recall

151there was a clerical error in omitting that second paragraph and clerical error and it's my opinion that it does not supersede the action of the board is that correct Council Madam president members of the governing board that's my opinion as well Ms Carney has asked that this be brought back so what if I understand correctly what she would like to see is the second paragraph removed so this would be a first read to remove the paragraph that starts if an individual board member requests information Dr Hurt Wells may I ask why because what was approved was not was not what was shown on the board I think that was addressed though what happened so just so I understand you want to delete paragraph two that's shown on the screen even no as was I just

152want to be clear on what I were here so I just wanted to go back to what the former board approved on December 6 and I understand that there's a supposed clerical error but the board went through two reads of that with two paragraphs and it was approved and I also presented um information on when when the language was moved from policy bbaa language was uh added that the second line and the superintendent is permitted to intercede prior to the staff member responding to the board member that was never originally in bbaa but slipped in to BCC without any acknowledgment so that's a concern I recall that we did have acknowledgment of that in previous meetings bird member Warner so at our last meeting I was entered an understanding that this was table to Art

153it was being brought back as a first read and with all of the documentation and I was expecting to see it with the way that board member Carney I uh that it was that the way that it was approved on the sixth that that verbiage would be also on our deck here today so I was expecting to see that as well Madam president members of the governing board that information is within the um backup to the agenda item so if you can scroll to the agenda item and pull up governing board policy BCC supporting documentation we have the current policy we have what was submitted to the governing board from the January 25th 2022 board meeting what was submitted to the governing board on the February 8th 2022 board meeting and then the items submitted

154on both the November 15th governing board meeting and the December 6th governing board meeting so all of that information was sent to you as part of the backup it's not available as I understand it with respect to our current screen up here but it is available on that so is the last if you scroll down to the very bottom of the supporting documents is that the one that you were that was approved on December 6 Boardman McCartney with that word verbiage yes the two paragraph policy is what was approved by the board December 6 2022 and that's this is the third time I've brought this uh up to the board and I I actually was not the board member who asked for it to be tabled and come back as a first read so um

155I just one one of the two paragraph policy that was approved by the board to you who brought some first read my Werner thank you so where we're at today with this is a first read is this something that requires a second read or is this something that we can take action on today Madam president members of the governing board Vice President Warner this under your governing board policy you have a first read and then a second read when we were at the board meeting last time I asked if you wanted to act at tonight's meeting or if you wanted to reads and the direction I received was that you wanted two reads so this matter will need to come back for a second read at the March 7th governing board meeting and at that

156board meeting the board could take action to change governing board policy BCC okay so what thank you I'll just finish my thought so what I'd like to see is that we move forward with this last page on our supporting documents and move that to the second read so that we can approve it um on the next board meeting talk to her Wells go ahead thank you so the proposal is to remove the concept that the superintendent um can intercede if the board member is taking an extraordinary amount of staff time with requests that's the proposal to remove that concept from the policy Miss Kearney no no what's supposed to be shown up up on the screen and is the policy the two paragraph policy that was approved by the board December 6 2022 and if

157you all wanted to add something to that this is this discussion we're having I would like to propose that we um add what was clerically omitted and that is the second paragraph saying an individual board member directly requests information of a staff the board members shall copy the superintendent on such requests and the superintendent is permitted to intercede prior to the staff member responding to the board member that's what I would like to see added uh Dr her Wells I want to make the point what's confusing as you keep asserting that the board approved on December 6th a two paragraph policy BCC which has been disputed so maybe we that's keeps confusing me um what we approved on December 6 2022 is shown on the screen but you approved on December 6th was changes to

158that third paragraph to add the to add this the language that at the board members written request if you see that in the middle of the third paragraph so that's the that's the language that was approved on December 6th Miss Kearney is correct that the backup information on both November 15th and November 6th incorrectly did not include the second paragraph that is shown on your screen it is my opinion that the board could not remove that graph without acting to do so and it was never shown in strikeout language such as is typical so in my opinion the policy that's currently shown up on the screen here is the current policy of the board you all have a first read tonight you can suggest changes to be considered for March 7th Miss Carney is suggesting

159that that second paragraph be removed and Ms sunowski is suggesting that it remain thank you for repeating the fact pattern no problem again though I just want to point out to the community the statement that what was approved on December 6 2022 did not have this second paragraph that is shown on the screen is disputed that's correct thank you board member Kearney or Werner sorry oh thank you uh so I believe we talked about last time as well there was a video that of that the board meeting on December 6 and that is where it was shown everything that's in dispute right now and I'd actually asked for us to watch it I have not gone back to watch it but maybe if we can get a clip of that and just so that everybody

160feels that they're heard in this particular situation with this policy I feel that's a waste of time we've already hashed through this we've approved it it was a 5-0 vote there's a mechanism clearly in place for obtaining the governing board approval for these requests of work on our staff we are not in these positions to micromanage our employees and our asks of them I think it's really important since our only employees our superintendent it's really important that our superintendent is aware of the the workload we're imposing upon our employees um I do not feel like it's appropriate for us to be to have a front and center request making of our employees they have jobs to do and that's why they're hired to work in this District I don't think it's appropriate for governing board

161members to have a direct line to request any employee to do an inordinate amount of work that's why this policy BCC with all three paragraphs and the last sentence was approved by the last governing board with a 5-0 vote well I I proposed presidents and asking can I um then I propose we move forward with um policy BCC uh as was approved by the board the two paragraph policy and then um if you'd like to add back in if an individual board member directly requests information of a staff member the board member May copy the superintendent on such requests that was in the prior bbaa policy but the the line after that was never acknowledged and was never you're talking about the second paragraph Yes this it was it this has been made clear publicly

162that that second paragraph Omission was a clerical error and it was not the intent of the board Madam president I think Miss Carney is talking about the last sentence on the second paragraph is that correct correct okay so I think I think Miss Carney's point is that she would like to see that last sentence and the superintendent is permitted to intercede prior to the staff member responding to the board member removed yes what would you like done with that well I would like the the two paragraph policy that was supposed to be shown if you if we want to add back in the if an individual board member directly request information of a staff member the board members shall copy the superintendent on such requests [Music] that's that was taken from policy bbaa moved over

163the line and the superintendent is permitted to intercede prior to the staff member responding to the board member was never originally in bbaa and it was moved into the policy without any acknowledgment so that's my my proposed first read Dr hartwell's and I just want to make it clear to the community that some statements are being made that are in dispute and that are not necessarily accurate so just want to keep to what we have in front of us what the action you want to you're requesting so that we can kind of you know stop the you know characterizations what we have in front of us on the screen that the community also has in front of it is the policy that Council has advised was approved from December 6 2022. okay thank you go

164ahead so I think that in an effort to be team players and showing that we can work well together it is reasonable to we're here for a breed for the first read we're able to make changes and in the world of being reasonable I think that we should all come together and be able to work together and make some compromises that would be my suggestion but this policy has already been approved as we're seeing it here Madam president members of the governing board what I would suggest is that we bring back governing board policy BCC for a second read with the um with the removal of the second sentence of paragraph two as requested by Ms Carney in her attempt to meet a meeting of the minds with respect to the five board members and

165consider that as the second read for March 7th would that be permissible I'm sorry paragraph two has no two sentences I'm you're correct thank you Dr hartwell's it would be the last Clause of the run-on sentence in paragraph two so the Clause so the paragraph would end with the word requests if an individual board member directly requests information of a staff member the board member shall copy the superintendent on such requests period is that correct Miss Carney correct so that's what I would suggest that we bring back as the second read the board can make additional changes on March 7th and can keep the existing policy can adopt the version suggested by Ms Carney or can adopt the version without that paragraph in its entirety it would be up to the will of the board

166seeing that there are no other requests for a comment we will move on to 7c the first three to governing board policy d j e I believe regarding bidding purchasing procedures so Shannon Crozier will begin the conversation but I'd like to invite um Dennis and Roger to come to the microphone to be able to answer any questions that might surface related to the the underlying reason for this policy change request Madam president if the tech could go scroll up so that the change can be seen it's lower down in the policy keep going please foreign go back up please sorry [Music] bottom of page two thank you can you scroll down to the bottom of page two there we go just above online bidding right oh the the number amount okay um so this is

167a request that was brought to me by both Dennis our facilities director and Roger Spivey our purchasing director the Arizona Department of administration recently changed their threshold for job order Contracting otherwise known as jock increasing it from one million dollars to two million dollars when needing governing board approval um or to be able to it would still come to the governing board but for being able to use that as a as a jock and so um both of them immediately jumped on that email and said can we please address this um as something that we could take note of the board as a policy and so we're bringing it forth tonight as a recommended change in our board policy which would change the amount for job order Contracting Services up from one million dollars to

168two million dollars of course any purchase over a hundred thousand dollars would always come to the governing board for approval thank you Shannon governing board members do you have any questions on this Dr Hurt Wells go ahead thank you board president thank you Ms Carter um could you give us an example of where this would be very efficient to have had please yes uh president sinowski members of board Dr Menzel Dr hartwell's the most recent most specific item that we've had over at Navajo Elementary School we had brought our sfb liaison to the campus to inspect the roof he had mentioned to us that that would be a perfect candidate for a Joc project and so we moved quickly got with Progressive Roofing very simple roof replacement really no need for architectural design or structural

169design and so we got that quote and we were at 1.4 million dollars and so because we did not have our Joc limit above a million dollars we were not able to do that so now we are backpedaling a little bit we've lost that opportunity to get an immediate approval from the sfb and we are now working with the Architects to put a design together therefore put us back together and then go through the bid process so at minimum it's going to cost us a little more than 100K for Design Services and then at maximum because of the construction industry the way it is we may see an increase of eight to ten percent on that as we wait for the design and the bid process thank you plus the plus the time time is

170money thank you Mr Wheeler no other questions it looks like oh sorry thank you is there any downside when it comes to transparency and accountability to our community by approving this today one of the one of the biggest things about alternative delivery project methods is that we have to do a determination there are seven questions that that they have identified that we have to bring to you when we go for board approval and make a determination why we're using those methods Joc is one of them construction manager at risk is another so we need to make a determination Roger and I would work together make that determination and identify what that process was in which we received bids sometimes we go directly to the contractor that we know will do the best job other times

171we'll put contractors against each other to get a better number but just based on our history we know the contractors that are going to give us a good number and a good job and those that will give us a good number but not necessarily a good job so Joc helps us through that process to expedite the work the effort and assure us a good price Dennis does this change have anything to do with State Statute changes yeah so the most recent change actually came from azdoa statute always allowed for them to go above a million it just had to be approved by whatever their governing body is and then I think it was November October November they finally issued a new solicitation and did approve full use of two million dollars going forward but also

172keep in mind that's two million per project right so we um individual projects that would exceed that we would still have to go through a bid process and keep in mind this hasn't been updated I think since 2008 and construction costs have gone up probably 300 percent since 2008 so a one million dollar project today is nowhere near what it was back then so it's price index shows us it's it's necessary right now thank you for that input any more questions or comments okay seeing that there are none we are going to move along and at this point I'm going to ask for a motion to approve the consent agenda as amended so moved is there a second there's a second by Kearney sorry all in favor to approve the agenda as amended say aye

173aye that motion passes five zero Okay so we've had I I was pulled first we'll discuss that one first that's a recommend approval of position and job description for Emergency Management program supervisor Dr hartwell's thank you um I was hoping that Dr Menzel could comment on the need to add an administrative staff member sure so as you know security is a top priority for us safety and well-being of our students and staff is a Paramount importance to the Educational Learning environment and we've we have grown the number of security staff and we are much closer to being fully staffed than we've ever been before part because the board previously approved a moving nine-month positions to 12-month positions and so we've been able to maintain what's closer to full Staffing what's becoming increasingly clear is that

174the day-to-day management of our security staff coupled with the overall security requirements you know real-time emergency response and all the rest is very time consuming so managing the current people plus all of the other components of ensuring that we're prepared for a critical response to emergent issues necessitated having an additional position and so what we've done is worked on identifying something that would be another 12 month employee that helps balance the workload in the security team what we with Josh and I do appreciate I know he's here somewhere he and his team work tirelessly and and they're working not only during the school day but they're working evenings during events they're working weekend events for school things to make sure our campuses are safe and so to be able to manage all of that to

175have another supervisory position balances that workload so that we don't burn anyone out so as part of our attracting and retaining Talent this was to as we discussed at a cabinet seen as something that was pretty important foreign thank you I also want to point out the salary here could you do the crop comparison please sure so the salary that's proposed in the board agenda is the all-in cost of the position uh you know compensation for a 12-month employee Plus benefits that includes the ARs retirement so you put all of those costs together and that is the mid-range of of what we would have for a position at this level we're not likely to hire someone with nine years of experience but that's sort of where it's placed so we anticipate the cost to be

176less but Shannon budgets conservatively so you're seeing a larger number for that reason when you compare that with say a third year teacher the per diem rate for a third year teacher this year would be just under 265 dollars per day for this position at the nine-year experience level would be 255 dollars as a daily rate the difference in the the salary amount is really tied to 1 positions nine and a half months and another is is 12 months so that that kind of explains the the price differential but it is not an 85 000 a year position as a salary and I believe there was a range yes included with this right okay depending on the candidate and their experience right okay thank you Dr Menzel sorry Dr hurtless board member Werner um we're

177we're I have a few questions where is this funding coming from where is it being taken from well this is coming out of indirect funding so not maintenance and operation we have indirect funding that's been generated over time and so we're using that as a source of resources you might remember that we've talked about min max before and so this is one of those areas where we have some Revenue that is available to be used and doesn't jeopardize our maintenance and operating fund and allows us to be able to enhance the security team okay so being that we're so close to our budget conversations I would really like to table this and put it along with our budget conversations because this is a um this is a lot of money and it is budget related

178and this is something that we should not be prioritizing right now and and the other thing is that I'd like to have some conversations with um with uh Josh and and see where where really is it where are we locking with our security and then our sros and is this really needed at this time and could the money be spent other places so um that set the discretion of the governing board any board member can make a motion to table and if it passes it can be tabled I would say that from A administrative perspective and I don't know if Josh is close to the microphone but um because he's would be willing to answer questions uh one of the reasons why we brought it forward now instead of as something that would start in

179July 1st is that the summer months are really important as we work to ensure that we're reviewing all of our campuses looking for vulnerabilities improving access and support for those buildings so absent this position it puts us behind as we get those productive summer months where we don't have as many students on campus but I do see Josh has made its way to the microphone thank you Dr Menzel uh president sonowski members of the government board Vice President Warner uh that's exactly the reason we're bringing it forward now is that we the opening going through this and then opening the position and then moving it Forward we're ready behind the eight ball the security staff has uh done a lot over the course of this semester or this year and we are getting ready to

180do a presentation to the board of where we're at I believe it's coming March beginning of March but the problem is is and it's not really a problem it's just the uh quicker approval of this and opening and hiring and moving forward would really allow this currently the there's one Security Supervisor who oversees all 35 security guards across all 29 campuses and he's running ragged so this would really help with creating that uh equality to keep him around board member Kearney yeah I think I would really like to see that discussion in that presentation first before approving a position I think that would really be helpful to understand the need a little better so I think I motioned to table oh I would second because you already did it I would second the motion to

181table this until we can see the discussion in the presentation on this there's been emotion made in a seconded motion by Miss Kearney all in favor to table this item say aye hi opposed to tabling hey that motion is denied to table at this time I would like to make a motion to recommend the approval of the physician and job description for Emergency Management program supervisor is there second second there's been a motion made and seconded by Dr Hart Wells all in favor say aye aye opposed I'm abstain okay we have three um eyes to recommend the approval a two abstention the motion passes three two moving on to 8K approval of advancement via individual determination Avid expansion plans back to Heart Wells yes thank you I would ask that Dr Benson just comment if

182you could a little bit on how we're going to monitor outcomes for the programs that are not just in place but also the expansion if you could speak just a little bit to that kind of framework you know appreciated thank you I appreciate the question good evening again board members we've received a handful of follow-up questions since the informational discussion item on February 7th about our plans to expand Avid programming one of those questions including what are our plans to evaluate the success or the metrics we use to measure our success and our progress and we we have a host of those in alignment with our kpis but specifically a student's performance measures on State Testing as we do report out in other areas including azella tests students results on our benchmarks attendance and behavioral

183data gpas at the middle and high school levels for the schools that we are expanding to at the secondary level progress towards the professional development goals identified by our plans evidence of campus-wide adoption of specific strategies included specific to Avid and then ratings of the CCI the coaching and certification instrument that comes with an adoption of avid programming there were additional measures but those are the main that we've highlighted that we've identified previously we'll use currently and moving forward as metrics to monitor our progress thank you I appreciate that um given the presentation that we received and Dr dansky's depth of experience in this program I would just encourage you and I'm sure you are doing not that you aren't busy enough but if her um if Dr dansky's experience could be drawn on as

184a mentor across the district to elevate our Avid programs I I sense there's there's an opportunity there and if she'd be willing to to help with that leadership I think that would benefit the district across the board board member Kern yeah I agree with what uh board member Hart Wells is saying exactly yeah we have an opportunity with Dr dinsky in the district and I think that we um we know that we've had the program in the past and it you know we know it's not been as successful at certain campuses as we'd like to so um I think it seems like you know a program that really would be helpful for for our students if we're making sure that we're getting you know each site exact what they need and if we're all diligent

185in helping in that and staying you know on top of uh the numbers and you know and just being a little more aware I think this go around I know you know with with coven everything that happened it was it's kind of hard to to you know go back to those years and see uh good data with that so I think that you know if we can use you know the experience that we now have in the district we could probably really strengthen have it on our other campuses so we would agree appreciate the highlight and the acknowledgment of Dr Nancy who's still with us yet this evening as a champion of avid programming board member Warner so the the principles that I've spoken to that have this uh that have the AVID program they

186absolutely Rave about it and seems like it's working really really well in the schools and we definitely want to continue to support that but I will just also add that I would like to see some results to make sure that it really is is effective and that we're maximizing the program and really supporting our students and our teachers in that program um board member Dr Hartwell since you pulled this would you like to make a motion to approve it I would like to make a motion to approve the approval of the advancement via individual determination expansion plan and I would like to second that thank you all in favor say aye aye that motion passes 5-0 thank you and last but not least of these is um 8j recommend approval of revised job description for

187general counsel board member Warner okay I have a couple questions on this and it also falls in line with our project conversations coming up so this is a position that actually um superintendent Menzel and I had a conversation about and I had made this request and uh the of the looks like um legal counsel bird was paid 140 000 based on a previous contract and then this position is now going up to 205 000 and again we're going into budget talks this is something that would be better served um closer to the budget talks and the second one that we can address it together is there's a lot of lack of transparency in in with the general counsel reporting to the superintendent I'd like to see a change for their reporting to the board just

188so that we can have more transparency in what is happening in our district particularly with anything that is legal so those are my two questions so I can address the the first part with respect to the cost so This falls under a cabinet contract compensation so there's a range so like the prior conversation around the security position Shannon identifies a point on the Range a midpoint generally so the 205 is inclusive of the benefits associated with the position so if you take what would have been 140 plus the 30 plus whatever the calculation is and that was probably raised a little bit just to allow for some flexibility from a budgeting perspective the other part with respect to this is if we post the position it doesn't obligate us to hire someone it allows us

189to get started see what the potential interest is and then make a decision before we bring it back to the governing board time is of the essence you know if we are almost in March for all practical and intents and purposes if you if you post for two to three weeks depending on how long we think is advisable then you schedule first round and second round interviews you're bringing back a recommendation to the governing board in in April or early May and then if a person is currently employed they have a period of time for transition so we're still only bringing them on either at the end of June or beginning of July oftentimes in transition like this having some level of overlap is useful so that's why we want to post but I think

190it's it's reasonable to say before we fill let's make sure from a budget perspective that this is the best value for the dollar it was why we took it off when when Lori left the position and decided to work with Jennifer McLennan it was very intentional that way to say can we do this more cost effectively using the the the prepaid legal that we have with the trust and so that's what we've been doing for this year but open to whatever the board wants to however you want to move forward with respect to this position Dr Menzel can you address the concern about how legal counsel reports so we've now this is not a new conversation for Scottsdale Unified School District there's been a time in the past where the legal counsel has reported to

191the board reported jointly to the board and the superintendent the board made a change to the policy to have general counsel report to me it was somewhere in the 2021 school year I think pretty early in my tenure because there was at least from what I understand and nobody here is on the board that made that decision but we could go back and talk to people who were it was just one of those things where the board didn't oversee the work of The General Counsel on a daily basis so it made the evaluation process a little awkward because the superintendent was the person overseeing the the daily work of of general counsel so foreign hmm I also lost internet so I'm not able to pull it up but there would be an ability to go

192back and see how it was structured previously I just don't remember if it's bdg or not okay so I mean I'm supportive of the physician I'm the one who brought it forward but um I I would like to have a conversation around that the how the council reports and how we can get some more transparency around that um what can I ask for clarification with the word transparency what would you like that to look like um I would like to have an idea what is happening within our district from the council's perspective and when they were just reporting to the superintendent that cuts the board really out with reports and um I'd like to see that open up so so if I'm understanding that um in the in the past there were reports that were

193provided by general counsel to the governing board to kind of give a status of work that's being done um lawsuits in terms of their status and other things that it might address part of the concern you're talking about those were more regular with the way that the relationship has been structured here we've been focusing on just addressing the most pressing issues but that would certainly be something that could be incorporated and was historically incorporated as part of General counsel's role with the district okay Dr Hurt Wells question but with respect to council we'd have to be careful about we're using these words transparency here because counsel gives legal advice as attorney client privileged so you have to be careful to not blow that privilege it would put the district at risk so there's only so

194much transparency into a conversation with counsel that could be afforded without gutting the whole concept of counsel so I just wanted to point that out but my second my question actually so that was my con my question is um I I'm aware that there have been some changes historically in the more recent history of the board uh the council reporting the board Council uh in in-house Council um working on behalf of the board working or reporting the superintendent so my question is just from a practical standpoint that would mean the board would have to hire the council correct in my understanding well the board hires all positions the question is about the the functional reporting um so so you you approve any higher um it's about you know or functionally what's the the line of

195supervision and accountability does the council reports to the board right unless you change policy that would be true bdg did come up and it specifically States the superintendent shall evaluate the performance of The General Counsel annually after receiving input from the governing board and general counsel so what was modified it used to be the board evaluated the performance of general counsel that got to be frustrating because they didn't observe directly and so it's like what's this exercise for this still gave the board the ability to respond so another example is by according to this policy any board member can talk with general counsel that's hired by the the district along with the superintendent but only the board president superintendent can reach it to outside counsel so there's some bumpers that are put on how we

196access legal counsel and that's done to both manage risk and ensure that we have clear lines of communication but you have more ability with with someone who's employed directly by the district to have those conversations are you finished Dr Hartwell and yes so I guess yes but then my a follow-up question then maybe this is to um to the board and or board member Warner why what value do you see in making that change absolutely so I actually liked what uh superintendent superintendent Menzel just said actually and um if the council there's a report to the board so I hope that everybody on here understands attorney-client privilege in which we all abide by so transparency with the board only obviously since it's attorney privilege but I just think that it would be great if we

197implemented that the council would do reports to the board quarterly and so on and I'd actually like to make a motion to approve this with the added verbiage of the council will report to the board um regularly so so provide regular updates to the governing board yes that's what you mean okay and I would second that there's been a motion made and a second all in favor say aye aye aye that motion passes five zero all right we are going to move on to our one and only action item for this evening the second reading approval of governing board policy ba regarding School Board operational goals board member Kearney thank you president sinowski so I just recommend to the governing board that we approve policy ba as shown on the screen and as discussed at

198the first read Dr hartwell's thank you for president sinowski so my remarks are really for the students the staff our district caregivers families community members at large because I want you to know why I'm going to vote the way I am the last two meetings of our newly constituted governing board I have asked questions about the proposed language before us tonight old language being plopped into newer language newer language that charts an operational Focus for our district that aligns with the very purpose of this education community students my questions have been rooted in a sincere effort to understand the why go back at all and the answers just weren't there there were rationalizations but not reasons so I'm left to ask myself why what is it about this language that requires distorting the operational Focus

199that's currently recited in policy a b a and I quote in part to act in good faith in the best interests of the district as a whole with the Paramount concern being the best interests of student learning achievement and well-being and you may be apathetic about this and just ask yourself who cares it was there before well apathy deserves no seat at the table of governance folding back in old language is not cosmetic there are consequences and they're not benign policy development is serious work in the context of every word of a policy matters it matters because the policy has consequences while I am not apathetic and I don't believe you are either so let's just take a look a little closer look at this old language and specifically three words in particular own opinions

200required recall that this policy ba is about governance it's about how the board members will execute their duties operationally own the context requires us to construe that word as owners opinions not facts not evidence not even reality are required for governance yeah that is an old philosophy one that's much older than eight years and one whose progenitor is not asba the placement of old language in the new is anything but benign over the last two years three of us have served together on this board together with your predecessors and all their community and we have achieved and accomplished some good things by keeping our Paramount concern focused on the best interest of students and their learning achievement and well-being and with the newly constituted board I sincerely hope to continue that good progress I do

201but what's before us tonight isn't going to get us there and that's why I'm urging my board colleagues to join me in voting no to this action item Dr Hart Wells I have a a question without the words own and replacing require with employee actually without that phrase who own and those three words and then replacing require with employee so it would read as representatives of the people and who support the schools the board accepts the responsibility to identify Community attitudes and opinions which we do through our public comment and our communication with the community at large throughout our our work and District needs and to employ short and long-term strategies that are responsive within the budgetary limitations of the district as I read that how does that sit with you to declare why you're

202asking if the amend the posted amended language were further amended correct to remove own and correct and to require to amend to to employ correctly infinitive what are my thoughts on that change yes well I think it certainly improves the language the word to require was not in the original susd policy anyway um I want to point out the danger in requiring us to react to opinions facts evidence and reality is my life it is a reality that when we sit up here on this board that we absolutely are part of our communities and we hear folks as opinions and we hear folks as attitudes and input frankly input and it does influence how we work up here and regardless of what this language says we're going to all continue to do that I'm concerned

203about the danger of this paragraph has not aged well that's my reaction without having no idea I'm absorbing it it's settling in right now any other comments requested here I appreciate board member Warner thank you I appreciate your suggestions and would support them Bobby McCartney it looks like you're wanting to request to speak president sneski as well would make those changes to the policy and that is why what I was looking for from the board is because I know there were concerns last time is to bring changes that do work better for all of us so it would read as representatives of the people who support the schools the board accepts the responsibility to identify Community attitudes and opinions and the district needs and to employ short and long range strategies that are responsive within

204the budgetary limitations of the district I make a motion to approve policy ba with the changes that President sinowski just made motion's been made is there a second a second all in favor to approve the amended version as stated say aye aye opposed no that motion passes four to one great we're going to move on to Part 10 of our agenda which is asking for future items I have some I've asked for a security update that may be something we discuss an executive session as I understand um I also ask that we have a detailed discussion on Athletics and extracurricular offerings Finance including stipends for such work and changes that have taken place since last year um I'd also like to request that we have this does not have to become part of a board

205meeting but Dr Menzel if we can have some future discussion and proposals for consideration of nature-based outdoor education possibly in Partnerships with the McDowell Conservancy helpful schools Coalition of Arizona with input from our science and physical education Specialists to be added to Future offerings of courses either through Club basis or direct course instruction and then consideration for course creation maybe even through a wheel type of scenario I know some of our middle schools use the wheel um there's been constant conversation that I've had with other people in our community about the needs for students learning some basic life skills so you know personal finance banking budgeting savings investing Independent Living cooking cleaning fixing things employment search skills Internet safety personal safety Etc that we somehow work this into our curriculum as requested and the interest

206of our community I think there was one more but I'll let someone else offer if they have some Zach go ahead board member Lindsay um would like to see Michelle Urban and Nathan Slater's supplemental presentation on the stipends and the pay as compared with the other districts I think that would kind of go along with part of that conversation right yep board member Hart Wells thank you I'd like to request a report out on the status of incorporating computer science in particular artificial intelligence and machine learning into the curriculum related of some summary of opportunities if there had been some diligence on what's available to students and staff to learn more about Ai and ml because these systems are not our future they are present would like to request the board learn more about how

207the teaching and learning has been adapted to reflect that thank you super board member Werner I had requested and exchanged some emails with superintendent manzall regarding parents back on campus this is very school to school right now and there's not a whole lot of consistencies and it really shows up in our Southern schools and so I'll be working with him on making some adjustments with possible adjustments to our policy Ki so that we can have a better access for all of our families that want or our parents and Guardians that want to volunteer in the classroom or have lunch with their students might I suggest to we receive an update on the number of volunteers that have been vetted through our district for Safety and Security reasons and possibly maybe working with the principals to

208find out how many schools are taking advantage of volunteers to see if that is a need go ahead remember Werner nope anything else all right time I'd like to make a motion to adjourn this lengthy meeting it's 9 40 pm nope sure okay our next board meeting up sorry dates for upcoming meetings um March 7th at the MDA there will be a special governing board meeting beginning at 6 PM Tuesday March 21st we will be back in our boardroom um at 6 PM for regular governing board meeting with that I'd like to make a motion to adjourn this meeting is there a second second all in favor say aye aye aye that motion passes 5-0 this meeting is adjourned it's 9 40 pm