SUSD Governing Board Special Meeting and Executive Session. 2/7/23

001but pull up the coffee times I call to order this special meeting of the Scottsdale Unified School District number 48 governing board the time is 501 pm at this time I would like uh to ask for vice president Werner to lead us in the Pledge of Allegiance of the United States and starting with a roll call vote for my far right please Amy Kearney Libby hartwells Karen Warner and I'm Julie sinowski four of our five governing board members are present we do have a quorum at this time I'd like to ask for to see if any of our governing board members have any changes they'd like to make to our agenda that's posted right now [Music] none seeing that there are none I would like to make a motion to approve the agenda as presented

002is there a second second all in favor say aye aye that motion passes four zero and at this time it is 502 PM the governing board May recess into executive session pursuant to ARS section 38-431.0383 for the purpose of obtaining legal advice from the attorney for the public body regarding the constitution of committees pursuant to governing board policy CE and governing board policy IGA is there a motion to move into executive session so moved is there a second second moved by heart Dr Hart Wells seconded by Werner all in favor say aye aye aye that motion passes 4-0 we will move into executive session and we are going to go to 105. motion to adjourn our executive session is there a second seconded by Werner all in favor to adjourn the executive session say aye

003aye that motion passes 5-0 and we will reconvene our special meeting the time is 6 pm and it is Tuesday February 7 2023. we will start this portion of the meeting with our superintendent's comments Dr Menzel well good evening president sunowski vice president Werner and members of the governing board this past Saturday susd was well represented in the 69th annual Parada Del Sol based on the information that I have in front of me we had at least 12 floats in the parade and 10 marching bands the susd groups were enthusi enthusiastically represented and the word on the street is that it was the largest crowd ever I'm not sure that's true but it might be and I hear that everybody had a great time and I'm truly grateful for all the staff students and families

004who participated in this signature event for our city uh the second item on my update this evening is on Monday we hosted a standard response protocol protocol standard reunification method training at Coronado High School with attendees from across the valley this was at the request of the public Consulting Group which is the organization we're working with on our digitized threat assessment protocol they were hosting the event in the valley and I I think as best I can tell their initial location wasn't going to be able to accommodate them so they contacted us and thanks to the work of Josh Friedman and our partners at Coronado High School especially principal palatucci they work to make the auditorium available and so we're truly grateful to be able to provide that opportunity for training in the area of

005school security and standard reunification methods February is designated as both Career and Technical Education Month in black history month and throughout the month we'll be highlighting areas and programs opportunities for Career and Technical education you may recall this is called out specifically in our strategic plan as an area of importance for us and Black History Month although we believe black history is American history and is embedded throughout our curriculum and throughout the year this is a time where we can actually focus our attention on celebrating the contributions of black Americans throughout our history also we will shortly be launching our Wellness committee and we've uh I've been asked to give a plug for anyone who's interested in serving on the wellness committee to take a look at our committee Hub I think by tomorrow that

006will be up so anyone who wants to be a part of that should submit an application online and within the next month or so we should be able to reconvene that group so we encourage anyone who has an interest to submit an application I also want to point out a bit of good news you've heard me talk about the aggregate expenditure limit and while I wish that today I was saying that it was overridden by both the House and Senate I can only say that half of the battle has been won today the house voted 46 to 14 to override the aggregate expenditure limit which is very good news [Applause] and and as I understand it yesterday and today the only reason the Senate didn't vote is that they were one member short and they

007want to have full participation so they're still hoping to get to it this week it never hurts to contact your Senator and uh encourage them to take action quickly so that we can put this behind us and focus on completing the year as strong as we can and then build the budget for next year finally I want to thank everyone who came out this evening and those who have emailed the governing board over the past week we continue to focus our attention on providing world-class future focused learning for each one of our 21 600 students we are living into our values of Excellence empathy trust inclusion integrity and unity we value each and every one of our students and staff and we will not be distracted by those who would seek to tear apart our

008school Community we are Scottsdale unified and together we will continue to accelerate opportunities for all of our students thank you Dr Manzel and we are going to begin part seven of our agenda which is information and discussion items first up is our s-a-a-s-e-a-n-s-s-p-a updates some very important work is done by these organizations our employees in our district and I've said before we don't exist without for the best interest of our students without without our employees so um Miss stromberg's leaper Williams and Bleaker are here tonight short and strong again good evening president sunowski vice president Werner members of the governing board and Dr Menzel my name is Carrie Blaker currently serving as the elected president of the Scottsdale support professionals Association the sspa is the representative body for the Scottsdale Unified School District's education support

009professionals otherwise known as classified Staff first and foremost we think the governing board our superint and our superintendent for re-establishing the importance of a professional relationship between our so our association as the sole bargaining unit for the classified and the governing board and all District employees when you think of our classified esps this one's a big one so please bear with me when you think of our classified esps we hope that you see in value what is happening on the front line our esps are keeping the susd vision engaging all students in a world-class future future focused learning even even out of the classroom by working by work being done by over 1300 workers as nutritional Services School Aids Transportation Community Education Athletics grounds facility Workers Health assistants registrars administrative assistants Library Specialists para Educators

010material handlers I.T support Community Specialists security trade skilled workers Human Resources benefits payroll instructional support Specialists transition Specialists seamar Auditorium technicians Communications print shop Finance risk management federal and state grants translation services and purchasing I hope that I've captured all of our esps and then I did not leave anyone out welcome to the new governing and welcome new governing board members in the spirit of movie titles this is not Mission Impossible your mission should you choose to accept it is to continue to inspire motivate and empower all to think critically act collaboratively and embrace diversity for a life a life of intellectual exploration Community engagement and personal growth we want to take this time to share how much we appreciate being part of the bigger discussions that have been happening under Dr Menzel's leadership through

011this collaboration we are once again restoring the trust that was once lost your classified staff have a voice now and has been brought to many tables where decisions are made that directly impact the sites or the employee groups our associations have been added to Extended cabinet meetings where we now have a voice to share what happens at the front line when new policies or procedures are implemented we sit on professional development committees strategic action plan committees interview committees reclassification IBN meet and confer technology committees benefit committees calendar committees and more coming we appreciate the time carved out of these meetings to allow us the opportunity to give you the give you the governing board our updates as well we are as we all are in our IBN teams it is our interest to continue to

012make susd the destination District when it comes to salary benefits and working conditions sspa continues to deal with the compression issues when it comes to salaries for our classified staff as we will be making our recommendation proposals very soon as this was the first year our susd esps are making above minimum wage a special thanks to last year's IBN team for making that happen keeping with the core values of this District Excellence Integrity empathy trust inclusion and unity sspa would like for this governing board to continue to build Relationships by getting to know your classified staff and highlight the work we all do thank you all for your service to public education and believing that we are still Better Together thank you Miss Blaker and please thank the over 1300 employees from those of our

013family members right thank you foreign owski members of the governing board and Miss Wagner I'm Becky Williams currently serving as the elected president of the Scottsdale Education Association we are the representative body of four certified staff in susd which includes and I probably will forget a few classroom teachers guidance counselors special education related service providers nurses social workers psychologists Librarians teachers on assignment academic coaches and sports coaches and anyone else I left off I apologize as we continue the meet and prefer meet and confer process we are looking forward to finalizing a compensation package later this week and bringing forth a recommendation to the sport we believe our proposal makes a substantial commitment to competitive and sustainable salary increases that value the work talents and experience of our certified staff while maintaining fiscal responsibility our

014certified team values the collaborative work we are able to engage in with the district leadership team to bring our shared interest to fruition including completing a certified employment agreement we know that compensation is a very important piece of the attract and retained formula but it isn't the only thing that matters to educators as a bargaining team it is our responsibility to listen to our certified colleagues and advocate for the supports and resources needed to ensure excellent learning environments for our students in the current hiring climate amidst the national teacher retention crisis we can't afford to get this wrong I want to share with you what we hear loudly and clearly as we listen to our colleagues as professionals we expect this board to uphold stated policy to create and sustain a progressive professional climate and

015operational procedures that call for and use the full creative capacities of all employees in the attainment of educational goals every day on the job we strive as Educators to create spaces where all of our students are included accepted cared for and respected and can learn we expect our elected leaders to provide the resources needed to make this happen and to focus on solutions to the real issues that create obstacles to teaching and learning instead we are confronted with accusations the moment a lesson hints at diversity or a student's emotional needs are considered we are bombarded with manufactured outrage that teachers are indoctrinating students with the racially divisive agenda or grooming them into a gender identity crisis I assure you these things are not happening in our buildings nor is there a secret plan to do

016so we simply want to teach our students but focusing on these non-issues and fueling the Relentless attacks will be the last straw that finally makes the burden of this difficult job too much for many to bear and good valued and experienced educators will continue to walk away from susd and from this profession to the detriment of our students as professionals who believe that all children should have the freedom to an education that prepares them for the future we the sca voice our support for our superintendent from the onset of his tenure in Scottsdale Dr Menzel has kept his focus on student learning educator support and parent Community involvement he has brought more stability to The District in the last three years than most Educators students and families have experienced in Scottsdale in the last decade

017in susd he has been transparent in laying out his vision for a district that leads through its values of diversity equity and inclusion Educators in Scottsdale applaud Dr Menzel's leadership and share a common goal to make this a place where students of every race culture identity background and zip code have the freedom to learn and pursue their goals and dreams on behalf of our certified staff in susd I make this request of you as governing board members you have the responsibility to uphold your sworn duty to act in the best interest of the district it is not in the best interest of any District stakeholders especially our students to allow the disruption caused by all of these baseless accusations to continue as our elected leaders you must take a stand against these attacks and you

018must support our district Personnel so that our Focus remains on teaching and learning We Are All Better Together nsusd simply cannot lose more talented and qualified professionals our students deserve more thank you very much Miss Williams the sweeper go ahead [Applause] good evening president snowski vice president Warner members of the governing board Dr Menzel and Gladys I'm Veronica Lieber currently serving as the elected co-president with Grace Tom Bryce of Scottsdale administrators Association the SAA is a representative body for principals and assistant principals in susd the Scottsdale Unified School District governing board recognizes and sets policy to our employees associations by adopting governing board policies that establish a professional relationship between the governing board and District employees governing board policy calls for common understanding mutual respect and confidence between employees and the governing board to create

019and sustain a progressive professional climate and operational procedures that call for and use the full creative capacities of all employees in the attainment of educational goals we work together to prioritize Improvement for our schools so that students are supported with highly qualified passionate and talented professionals governing board policy provides a collaborative process between the governing board and employees to address salary benefits leadership opportunities working conditions and employment agreements through superintendent Dr Menzel's leadership and in alignment with his vision susd uses the process of interest-based negotiations which is a problem-solving approach using informed collaboration to understand needs and interests between the district and employees last year saa's represented employees realized corrections to our salary schedules for principals and assistant principals the reinstatement of stipends for High School athletic directors who are required to accommodate athletic athletic

020calendars with extended work days and added days and to reinstate and edit an employee agreement this year SAA has presented interests that are aligned to our district strategic plan and create opportunities to attract and retain highly qualified passionate and talented professionals because our students deserve the best interest-based negotiations eliminates the conflict of taking positions but rather considers the priorities of our district and within our strategic plan to work together in improving our schools and the educational experiences for all of our students respectfully asking what are your interests because there is no room for the interference of politics or for the condemnations that have dominated The Narrative about our school leaders our teachers our parents and our community our students in susd deserve your commitment to them and to their education and their schools to each

021member of the government governing board your service on this board must be with the same interests of our district and the Strategic plan for the benefit of the students attending Scottsdale Unified School District Schools please defend the right of each of our students to a world-class future focused education thank you leaders at this time Jeopardy board members do you have any questions or comments for these leaders I would just like to thank you all for your work and and to all of your um the voices that you represent I know you're here for the best interest of our students so thank you again for your work and we will move onward president go ahead I'm sorry it's okay um I just wanted to thank all of you and all of you for being here tonight

022in support of our school district everything you do uh despite strong headwinds and in large part synthetic headwinds so thank you thank you Dr hartwells at this time we will move on to information discussion item 7B advancement via individual individual determination Avid update Dr Menzel well thank you president sunowski tonight I'd like to ask Margaret Serna to come and introduce our presenters this evening as many of you know we've had Avid in the district for some time and we have a proposal in front of you for initial review and discussion Margaret good evening everybody I'm president zinowski board members Dr Menzel and Mrs Wagner thank you for the opportunity to speak with you tonight presently Scottsdale Unified School District has four designated advancement via individual determination Avid schools we have tonalia Middle School Copper Ridge

023K-8 school Hohokam Elementary School and Yavapai Elementary School tonight we are bringing forward information in support of the possibility of bringing additional Avid programs to other interested schools uh at this time I would like to introduce the fabulous AVID coordinator Brianna Johnson and The Incredible Arcadia principal Dr Janelle dansky that are here to give you more information on bringing Avid to our district thank you everybody lady good evening Madam president The Trusted board and Dr Menzel thank you for allowing us the opportunity to present to you all we are seeking to expand the reach of avid in our district from four schools to eight um in the in the upcoming 2023-2024 school year the schools we are Desiring to bring on our Arcadia High School Echo Canyon Tavon Elementary School and Pueblo elementary school as

024well presenting with me this evening is Dr dansky principal principal of Arcadia High School she is experienced with Avid and is a wealth of knowledge so at this time I would like us to turn our attention to her as she explains the school-wide implementation of avid and the elective as well good evening thank you for having us tonight so Avid is a program that's supported by over 30 years of research and encompasses two parts Avid school-wide and the Avid elective at the secondary level used as a school reform model Avid school-wide is a framework that utilizes best teaching practices that benefits all students and is shown to increase student achievement and preparedness for college and post-secondary training research shows that Avid increases school performance this includes State testing scores graduation rates attendance students gpas and

025an increase in the number of students taking advanced placement into enrollment courses and also the number of students attending college after graduation so the second part of this is the Avid elective and this is for students in grades 6 through 12. it's targeted towards first generation college students and they take the Avid elective each year in a cohorted model with the same teacher who serves both as an instructor and an advisor students selected are in the academic middle and the structure of the elective supports them to take on more rigorous coursework additionally students receive the support in exploring and applying for college and scholarships and the research shows that the longer a student is involved in Avid the more prepared they are for rigorous coursework and for college I also want to say that the

026AVID program ties directly to our strategic plan namely goal number one academic achievement by utilizing the Avid framework we can focus on rigorous academic learning while supporting students with best practices in education that allow them to achieve at high levels to thrive in high school and Beyond we will also address strategic goal number two culture and climate later in this presentation on the screens here you will see this is the Avid framework the College and Career Readiness framework that Avid uses so what you will see is that the work that Avid does with districts and schools is rooted in in this model which represents avid's theory of action I love that it has a triangle and as we know the triangle is the strongest shape and so it holds its shape when pressure is applied

027because of the even distribution of um of the pressure that that is put upon the sides so um with that within this model we see that we have student agency which we know we need students to buy into what is whatever it is that we are teaching we need them to have a stake in their education and Avid seeks to do that for students we also see that the rigorous academic preparedness as well as the opportunity knowledge hold up the sides that allow students to to again be involved in what it is that they're learning and Avid provides the strategies for teachers to teach in such a way that um that really allows students to latch on to their education Educators take action together in alignment across four cores four core domains um right along

028the sides which is probably hard to see there but instruction systems leadership and culture are the four domains that Avid is focused upon we see here that what educators are expected to do has a direct relationship to what students need and so Avid just again provides support for educators as well as students and giving them the strategies which as I thought about it in preparing for this also aligns perfectly with our goal three which is talented and qualified professionals Avid helps to provide support for educators to have more strategies more things in their toolboxes to pull out of in order to connect with students and to teach students effectively um a part of the Avid framework is these wicker strategies this is the the foundation of the strategies that are taught uh we all know

029writing and reading to learn is important I love that Avid focuses on allowing students to express their thoughts and their ways of processing through writing not just writing essays but even in reflecting in their day-to-day lives inquiry-based learning is a large part of wicker as well where students are taught how to use Costas levels and think and process deeper in their way of thinking uh collaboration is one that we all know well and we all know is a skill that students need in order to be successful in whatever Avenue they choose to go and then organization is another foundational piece which um I personally love because it's not just organization of their tools meaning their their notebooks and their binders whether it's online their calendars but it's organization in all areas of life we all

030know or have heard the um the statement that if you fail to plan you're inadvertently planning to fail and so we want to make sure that our students are prepared in all areas whether that's organizing their physical notebooks their lives their calendars or if it's organizing themselves to for their jobs and for the things they need to accomplish their schedules and all of that culture is another main part which goal two speaks about for our strategic plan uh culture is one of the one of the core domains and that just seeks for students to be future focused in College and Career we know that not all students will choose to pursue College After High School but we want to make sure that the reasons that they choose not to is truly because it is their

031choice whether they choose to go into the military or choose to go into other vocational trades um culture that's built on our campuses should be barrier breaking opportunities and exposures for students Global inclusion and interaction and Community growth and refinement so as much as we focus on our academic side we also try to make sure that I'm not try there is no try in this case but we make sure that the culture that is felt on our campus is impacting for our students to allow them the opportunities to even think beyond what what high school is Avid is a K-12 program at the elementary school it is a focus on school-wide strategies the Wicker framework is incorporated at developmentally appropriate levels K5 and there's also vertical articulation between the strategies K-12 so students exposed to

032that in kindergarten are using similar strategies developmentally more advanced in the 12th grade at the elementary level future focused learning is celebrated and the prospect of college bullying is introduced foreign so at this time we would like to open it up for questions and comments from the board I think we missed a couple slides that's yeah 6 12 they'll slide oh I I spoke yeah it was earlier and so I um was hoping to shift this flight up when I spoke about it so covered it you heard it do any of the governing board members have questions or comments for presenters at this time board member Carney um thank you so much for the presentation I'm excited about this as I talked with Ms dansky about it last week I just want to know how

033did we decide on which schools we were going to try and launch this in um I I started advocating for Abbott Arcadia High School on because it's a good fit and you know we we have to recognize that the AVID program is very specific four students in the middle and I think when we look at the demographics and the student population in Arcadia High School and also our school performance is that there's room to grow in the Avid framework is going to provide us with the trading that we need for staff and the best teaching practices and supports that we need for students whether those students are in special education or gifted these strategies work for all groups of students okay thank you because I know like Ingleside feeds into you so is that another

034school that we'll be looking at I want to speak for future absolutely yes we are um hoping that Ingleside next year as they are just preparing and doing more research and because we know that Avid works best when it's done with Fidelity and so we want all schools to be set up for success and so they have opted to take some extra time to just prepare so okay thank you Dr hartwells thank you board president sunowski um thank you for your presentation and Dr dansky I knew you bring quite a bit of experience to the district with Avid in the high school setting is that correct yeah that's correct they worked in an avid side of Distinction for eight years in Oregon and my dissertation is an avid excellent I have specifically about the academic

035outcomes a question you had referenced research shows that these kind of framework does lead to trajectory increasing trajectory which is is outstanding do we here at susd for four schools that do have Avid do we track the kind of correlations in if so um you know what do we have a sense of that are we tracking with what the national research and what the pedagogical Research indicates typically that data is collected at the high school level and currently the schools that we have are elementary and middle school so we're hoping that as we expand and expand to potentially the high school we'll really be able to track it more closely at this point at um chanelia six through eight once they leave Avid at that point the data stops tracking because Avid doesn't exist at

036the secondary high school level okay as get one one particular area that you can see an impact in and one area that I studied is in growth mindset and also the organizational strategies for students and one of my favorite interviews that I did with the third grader he said that I am not afraid to be popsicle sticked anymore because I know where to find the answer and what they had focused on at the elementary was growth mindset Cornell notes in an organized binder and that's all he needed to feel safe and comfortable in school and that is the benefit of having Avid in K5 and so we can measure it in those affective domains and and so I would say yes if we went and did some specific surveys and interviews we would be able

037to see that those soft skills were transferable certainly excellent and then the other questions is with respect to Staffing so you indicated there would be a Avid you know Mentor I guess the same instructor some consistency are we situated to be able to staff for new schools appropriately to execute with fidelity I I can speak to Staffing in Arcadia High School because it it's something that I'm hoping to roll out for next school year so um if approved turbo out next school year I would form an elective level at the 9th and 10th grades with approximately 25 students per section that is a representative of 0.4 FTE so one section per and we would pull that from RBF funding in years two and three so this rolls up into 11th grade and then 12th grade

038I am estimating that we could potentially be FTE neutral because students have six choices for courses and they would be using one elective opportunity and so 25 students is one section so it could be pulling from other electives that I would not have to run as many of there are other costs associated the stipend for a site coordinator at the high school level we have College Tutors who come and work with students and run a tutorial experience it's very powerful and so there is you know you need to pay them 15 an hour to come work for a few hours twice a week in year one that cost would be approximately thirty four hundred dollars five thousand the second year and then around seven thousand yen year three okay and we we feel as a

039district maybe Dr Benson gets peaked I'm confident Dr dansky has thought through arcade at high school how to make this happen what about our other three schools we're in good shape test you're on yeah yes um it's an interesting uh program if you will um that multiple funding sources would support we always have to be thoughtful about supplanting but District results-based dollars are intended to replicate programs that we know to be effective and so we have situated and protected dollars to get this up and running from the district results-based dollars but Esser funding pays for Avid and recommends that to decide dollars would also be able to pay for something like this too so again we were thoughtful about supplanting issues and at this time we have secured the dollars in District results based okay

040very good thank you very much thank you for those great questions and Dr dansky and Miss Johnson thank you for this presentation I think this is eye-opening to many people and I I really appreciate both your expertise on this subject because again it only benefits our students to be providing especially I know those organizational challenges that students face when they're not given those soft skills it continues to follow them they don't just wake up someday with with the skills in place it's got to be consistent so thank you for all that you do to help our students seeing that there are no more questions or comments we will move on to the first read of governing board policy ba regarding School Board operational goals Ms Smith Clinic Madam president members of the governing board board

041member Carney has asked for a first read of government board policy ba School Board operational goals Dr Menzel and I met with Miss Kearney and she has suggested the following changes that the paragraph that is listed in read and underlined to be added to governing board policy ba and that the language that would then be duplicative at the bottom be stricken and so I can ask Ms Carney if you'd like to add anything but this is available for your information and discussion as a first read I think it's Kearney thank you word president sinowski uh and Miss McLennan yes the the red line there the second paragraph is was our former language this isn't new language this is what our policy was before um it was changed and so I just asked that we inserted

042that paragraph back into the policy thank you board member Hart Wells thank you president sunowski I have a few questions that I don't know if Miss McLennan you're in the position to answer them or perhaps board member Carney since you proposed the language from eight years ago to be Revisited and and specifically this was a concern expressed to me by by a parent and that is the use of the word own um so the question to me was does the word own suggest that taxpayers without kids in the district have met as many rights as parents who have enrolled students over their teaching and learning I'll just put that question to you because I have my own opinion of it but that doesn't really matter I'm not the one proposing the language maybe Miss Kearney

043you could you answer that question please well to me that means everyone that pays into our district and is a taxpayer or a parent um employee you know anyone that is in our district that's but what what legally does that language mean Madam president miss Dr hartwell's Miss Carney um the school district is a political subdivision of the State of Arizona so the act the owner as a corporate entity that's a political subdivision which is also a public entity um considered to be um basically a a subordinate of the stair state government so I'm not quite sure what that language modifies if you look at the start of it it says as representatives of the people who own and support schools the board accepts the responsibility so ultimately Ms Carney's addition reflects what the board

044is supposed to do except responsibility to identify Community attitudes and opinions and District needs who owns who owns the school as envisioned and contemplated by this language I can't answer that question I can state that by definition the school districts of political subdivision of the State of Arizona and I would just like to make a comment you mentioned the word we miss Kearney and as individual board members we all represent our own voices and then collectively we vote so just to clarify that we was I okay okay thank you I thank you thank you okay um I'm still uncertain as to what the verb own means um but I'm going to move on that was a question that came in from a parent so I'm just sharing that this question is from me um the

045language then goes on to state to identify Community attitudes and opinions and I have to ask whose opinions is that directed to board member Kearney um I'm I'm guessing maybe Miss McLennan can take a stab legally at what that's supposed to mean since this is direction of how the board is to operate I'd like some clarity on Whose opinions I'm supposed to be listening to if this language is adopted and if Miss McLennan would wishes our you know board member Kearney I'd be happy to hear your understanding of it Madam president Dr hartwell's the the language that's proposed is asba's standard language within its copyrighted governing board policy ba my uh having a long affiliation with asba my assumption would be that ASB is about local control and that they're asking the governing board to

046look at its community and assert its local control over the attitudes and opinions and I think that you all would look to the Strategic plan you've developed to um understand what your what your goals are in serving that community okay so um board member Kearney is that what you understood the language to mean yeah I mean um and as I said in the last meeting when we had the discussion um this is the asthma policy that most districts are using today um and so that's what I feel is best for us as well to be like everyone else I would disagree with that I'm unclear as to what opinions that we're supposed to be taking our Direction from um and then there was a change in the verb from employ to require that was not

047in the original language to require short and long-term range strategies was that intentional and if so can I understand that's a requirement as opposed to it's a tool in the toolbox to be used operationally when appropriate so could I get clarity on the change there in that infinitive Madam president Dr hartwell's I will go back and look but I believe that I cut and pasted from your existing policy in 2014 I may have it may have been a change that was made by asba and not picked up by Scottsdale unified in the ensuing years but I can double check that when it's presented for second read okay I'm just going to point out that language that is struck at the bottom of the policy uses the verb employ I and okay I understand the language

048that Miss Kearney has asked to be added was in the 2014 policy I don't know about the deaf the language that uh that Miss Kearney is recommending be struck um I don't know why that chose to use the word employ rather than require but that I believe would be an susd change that was made when the district revised the policy in February 2022. to use the word employ instead of require correct okay good okay well uh it it there was a reason that this language was struck from the policy last year when we've Revisited this policy twice and now a third time in 12 months so I remain still a bit but you know befuddled as to why we're revisiting this from eight years ago thank you I have no other questions any other feedback

049from board members on this discussion item that they'd like to make at this time all right seeing none we are going to move on to 7D discussion of independent audit of special education in 504. uh this agenda item was requested by vice president Werner and I thought it would be helpful if we had a brief conversation about what you were thinking and looking for and we did ask um Dr Williams and Shannon cron Dr Williams oversees special education Shannon cron oversees 504 to be present to answer any questions a lot of work has been done in the past few years around special education so we want to just get a little bit of clarity in terms of what was contemplated with respect to the request for an audit so that when we go out for

050an RFP we're setting the parameters properly we do not have a presentation board member Werner thank you so Scott susd is known for having a great special ed program I think we have a great reputation for the delivery of the services that um that our students need and um having gone through the process myself with two of my children and hearing from our community of some of the needs that we have and this is really an audit so that we can search out some best practices and really be able to provide the best for all the students that need Services whether it's an IEP or whether it's a 504 and some of the the concerns that come up are from parents who identify that their students have issues and need help and the process for

051them to get Services is incredibly difficult and often gets overlooked and and I can speak as as a parent I've experienced the same thing so um I'd like for us to take a look at and make the identifying process a little easier or a simpler so that when the concern is either coming from a teacher or from a parent that there's a concern with their student that they need some type of services so there's some issues going on again whether it's going for an IEP or 504 and and so that's the one concern the other concern is the time from the time that a student's identified as having the situation or needing Services uh to the time of testing so it's a time of results to the time of services actually being implemented it's an

052incredibly long time and we need to look at why is that is it Staffing is it you know what is it so that we can improve upon it and make that process quicker so that our students can get the services they need quicker and and the um the third thing is uh that that is of concern is when you need for the testing and that you're reviewing the tests with parents so whether that's an annual they're retesting or it's an initial one uh parents gets out down with with a 50 page test in front of them that they're expected to read through and understand and then decisions are made based upon that and typically what that room looks like it's stacked with District Personnel some interns maybe it's a speech pathologist a psychologist and then

053maybe some teachers or two and then you have the parents and it's it's a lonely spot to sit in as a parent particularly because they're not experts in the subject so I'd really like to take a look at giving parents seven days to review the testing and the recommendations that is going to be recommended for for their child by the district and then give them an opportunity to seek out an advocate or any type of resources that they want to review to fully understand what they're going into so that their student you can get the proper services that they need help those are three things I'm going to ask that you two as professionals maybe provide a little bit of overview of the special ed task force that has met in the past and some

054of the recommendations that address Ms werner's concerns and look at because a lot of this I assume is regulated since it's a regulation of our federal government at least the IEP portion of it so maybe you can give an overview on some of the recommendations of this special ed task force right now it in this discussion and conversation sure um so specifically one of the things looking at Best Practices so the special ed task force looked at what practices and procedures we had within the district and we looked at kind of some problem statements and some root causes of those and I'm happy to share that information with the board um one of the areas to look at was our mtss process or multi-tiered systems of support and look at what processes and procedures we

055have in place in order to get kids the interventions that they need as quickly and as early as they need them there is a strategic plan plan and a strategic task force that's also looking at the mtss process and what that looks like as far as intervention supports for students prior to that evaluation process as far as timelines and those things go there are very specific timelines that we do have to fall under according to the Ade and state statute so we are in compliance with all of those timelines so those timelines include from the time that a parent requests an evaluation to the time that we have to hold a meeting with that parent there is this there's a specific timeline there's a timeline from the time that we receive informed consent from a

056parent to the time that we have to complete testing that allows for a professional process and time for parents or for students to have that testing done in a time frame that that meets their needs so that we're not you know pulling them or rushing through the testing and then there is a procedure for parents to have some time after that evaluation process is completed before any decisions have to be made decisions do not have to be made in that room so there's a process in place for that and then there's a timeline in order to create an IEP should one be needed after the evaluation process is finished and that's actually there's a timeline for that as well to allow for parents to process through that information of the evaluation before a plan is

057written for the school can I ask if this is communicated to the parents whose children are going through the evaluation process for the IEP yes typically it is done by the school psychologist um sometimes there's more questions sometimes there's less questions it depends on whether it's an initial evaluation if the student has been in early intervention if it's a reevaluation so it kind of depends but the school psychologist is typically the one that leads that process oftentimes when they receive a request from a parent for an evaluation the first thing they do is call the parent and talk through that process sometimes parents understand what the process looks like sometimes they don't understand the process they walk them through timelines all of those things they're also given procedural safeguards which map out all of the

058parental rights that parents have it's a long document it's a packet we offer it at every single meeting and parents can take it they don't have to take it every time it's also available on our website and through the Ade as well just to piggyback off of what you said as a former school psychologist myself I know one of the things that a lot of us would do would be to meet with a parent ahead of time to go over those valuation results answer questions and explain so when they are sitting in a room full of people they were able to fully participate and they had a better understanding of maybe what was being explained to them so decisions were not made you know prior to that team meeting but it was nice for parents

059to be able to hear and absorb that information in a safe setting the Miss Crone can you please um identify because you deal specifically with the 504 process correct correct can you please um go over the difference between an IEP and a 504 for those that are paying attention to this meeting today there's a lot of before the biggest difference between the two is with a 504 it's a student who has a medical or physical impairment or documented disability which substantially sorry limits a major life activity so we often see students who may have a food allergy where you know they would need accommodations we see students that have diabetes so a lot of medical impairments but then we also see students that have anxiety ADHD those are two of the most common reasons as

060to why a student or receive a 504 the biggest difference between the 504 and an IEP is 504 special education so students require specialized instruction whereas yes whereas a 504 those are students that really require more accommodations in the classroom so they can receive specialized construction but if a student's needs significantly impact their learning that's where we really start to look at that evaluation process and say is this a student that's in need of more of those specialized instructions so the biggest difference there is accommodations versus specialized instruction and the student has may not necessarily need the 504 throughout their education in Scottsdale schools correct um they may not so the 504s are reviewed every year similar to the IEPs and the team comes together to look at you know to review revise that 504

061there are times where the student has learned you know strategies and are able to apply those strategies in the classroom where accommodations are no longer you know needed but if they have that disability oftentimes it is something that impacts them throughout the course of their school career and so they would need those accommodations throughout board member Warner so um there was one thing that I wanted to add to it as well as looking at for Best Practices I also understand that there's a lot of documenting and things that teachers have to do to stay in compliance and you know it's also something to look at is there a possibility of simplifying that so it's taking a little bit of a load off of from them because um there are definitely concerns in that area as

062well and um the um her to respond to that go ahead yeah thank you is there is there a possibility to reduce the expectation of that's placed on teachers and and are you specifically referring to the 504 process I'm actually referring to both because but both we can go to 504 and then we can I I'll ask the same question okay yeah um so that's a great question and that's really kind of what our mtss process is about is helping teachers support all students in the classroom through that differentiated instruction and you know providing those classroom supports and accommodations a lot of what we see in 504s is really just good teaching that all students would benefit from and so going back and thinking about you know that tier one instruction if we're implementing those

063supports and that differentiated instruction in the classroom it really kind of decreases the need that students would need that written into a plan does that address your question um sort of but I'll move on to um Brooke and and that's the same you know we're really trying to lighten the load and reduce some of the expectations and the additional work because I know there's documenting and there's things that they have to do in preparation for your meetings and so on and that they are responsible for when they have students that are on 504s or have IEPs so I guess my question would be what types of things are are you looking to want to reduce I would teachers are one of the most important parts of and a required member of the IEP team both

064the general education teacher as well as the special education teacher so the data and the information that they bring to the team is so important and having that information documented while it does take some extra time and effort allows the parent to be able to see that data in either written or documented forms so that we're not getting to a meeting and and talking about anecdotal type things that we're really talking about the documented successes and challenges that students are having in the classroom so I'm going to touch back on compliance because I know that that we're as a district we do really well on compliance so that's not what this is for it really is to take a look at what are the best practices what's really happening particularly with the with the teachers

065as an example um let's let's get some outside eyes on this and really get a good um audit of it and then be able to implement some new practices so I've actually mentioned four things it is if a parent comes forward thinking that there's something going on with their child and it needs extra Services whether it's through an IEP or a 504 and then on the processes and I understand that there are set timelines for that you you have to do the buy right but can we shorten those timelines to get that child's support sooner than than what's been happening in the past um and I loved what you said about a parent sitting with somebody ahead of time before they go into a meeting to make decisions but and that becomes probably burdensome again

066for some of these people because now we're talking about more time and so but but something definitely would be really great if it would shift there and so that's why I'm asking for this independent audit and it really is to to make us even better and to um to get new best practices and and like I said just make us better and thank you for all you do Dr hartwells thank you board president sanovski thank you Dr Williams thank you Miss Crum for being here I had um won a request and then two just a clarification of my understanding in terms of the request Dr Williams you've referenced the special education task force that um had some fits and starts but because it I think it straddled covid um but it did it did wrap

067up and in that task force there was an analysis of best practices I believe we received that document in advance of the board meeting and I remember Dr Garen had presented that information a little less than a year ago now I believe right she did and we do have that information we also have independent survey results both a survey that went out to a staff and I believe it went to parents and admin that was a likert type scale so we have data from that and then we did focus groups with classified staff certified staff and admin looking at their concerns in the classrooms and or processes and procedures that we can look at so we can look at some of that data as well okay okay so I'm trying to understand what because I

068think the point of this was what's going to be in an RFP right so it needs to be able to be used to practice in a clear way in quantifiable way because they're going to be a price tag associated with this so what would that look like in an RFP translating what board member Werner had just asked and what we already have What's So So based on the conversations we've had previously I'm thinking there are a couple of things one we we have a fair amount of data that exists already we also have the ability to be clear about what the law requires so under idea what are the categories that qualify someone for special education services you know so we can document all that what we don't have it are two things I think

069one putting that all together into a compelling Narrative of where we are and then having the conversation so to a board member werner's comment best practices so there are a number of ways that we can look at what are some of the best practices around the country we you know work with Hanover research there might be something even in the research library to pull some of those ideas to say okay what what do we know already in the literature about best practice and then overlay that on what are we doing to identify opportunities for improvement so there's the core standard of compliance and then there's a standard of Excellence that we aspire to if we're going to be world class and what we do for all of our students including our students with IEPs so

070I think the the benefit in an RFP might be to have someone who can take and compile all that together because our people are spending their time working every day to meet the needs of our kids and so there's this body of work to kind of tell the story and and provide some directional cues for how we can be even better based on some of the evidence that we have concerns that parents have expressed so I think that's how I would Envision the RFP being crafted so that we can have something that helps us improve thank you I appreciate that um so then my next question is I still have my clarification on policy and I will get to it in a second um is is it is that an audit or is that a

071consultant that's a sincere question so so I I mean personally and I will let board member Werner talk about how she interprets audit I interpret it as trying to really unpack where we are and how we can get better that's what I understood from our conversation um and so so if an audit is is a post-mortem on things that have been done that's sometimes it's useful but really what we're trying to do is kind of aspirationally figure out how do we become the very best we can be so my understanding was that it's more of a consultive role taking all of this information together willing to look in the mirror honestly so one of the things that I think people often get concerned about is is they feel frustrated because something didn't work right they

072don't understand why so how how do we make sure that we're looking in the mirror honestly with respect to where we are celebrate the things that are working well but also acknowledge where we can improve so that's how I understood the audit to be is is taking that approach not so much a like a forensic audit that's saying well what happened last year I I thought it was more about what are we doing now and how can we actually get better because you're in Hope okay I want to make sure we're all on the same page and then and I can look this up I guess but maybe board member or Miss McLennan can just confirm that charge is within the scope of the charter for the audit committee Madam president Dr hartwell's if I

073understand how the conversation is steering what Ms Warner has requested is that an outside individual look at The District's practices particularly with respect to compliance regarding parent requests for evaluations support for parents who are trying to interpret those evaluation results and the speed in which the services are rendered that to me is not an audit that to me is Consulting Services because an audit for instance and these ladies could speak to this but Ade comes in in and does a compliance audit and what they're looking at is did Scottsdale unified comply with all of the idea regulations 504 regulations I don't think that's what Ms Warner's concern is so I do think that what you're talking about is looking at who can come in to provide that overlay of where the District should go next

074in trying to shorten those time frames and meet be more than compliant and can I add to that the the operative word I heard was independent you know so someone from outside the system so that it's it's not just us telling our own story but a third set of eyes to look at it I think that's maybe that's where the word audit came in when when really what we're looking for is independent review and and so to answer Dr hartwell's question directly no that would not fall within your policy it would fall within the district's ability to employ a consultant which would need to be properly procured thank you very much for clarifying that and I want to make sure what we just talked about here is you're comfortable with board member Warner because you

075I mean this is a very important issue so I want to make sure we get it right and then some so make sure you're comfortable that it's hitting on all the goals yes and then I had sorry can I ask my policy clarification this is quick um policy ihb this also goes to whether we really maybe just a consultant would be better fit here under policy ihb there is a section k at the outset of that policy that asks the administration to bring forward to the board no later than March 1st of each year a suggested reasonable ratio of student to teacher in special education and student to paraprofessional in special education and I you know you know I keep putting this on your radar screen so I do it yet again this evening because

076we are talking about it this is very important it's also a ratio of Miss Crozer you can confirm that's used when we set our budget yes thank you um so I look forward I know you're working on that um because I know Dr Williams has done a great job get getting herself situated and getting special education um admin you know compliance and an assessment a holistic assessment and I look forward to receive that by the deadline thank you board member cardi and thank you president sinowski one thing I'd like to see if we could include is special ed transportation in this because I know we're having a lot of issues we're hearing from parents um you know that uh that's that's an issue of concern so that would I know that falls under transportation but

077if that could be something included as well I think that is really important thank you are there any other comments board members I appreciate this discussion and and professionals thank you for your input appreciate it and at this time we will move on to action items eight a to begin with the second reading approval of revisions to Middle School planning guide for the 23-24 school year Dr Dodd's Karen has just a couple of slides to remind people what the proposed changes were in the planning guide and she'll be prepared to answer any questions good evening thank you for your time um president sinowski vice president Werner governing board members Dr Menzel Gladys and Jennifer tonight I'm just here to revisit what was presented a few weeks ago for the recommendations for the Middle School planning

078guide for the 23-24 school year we are recommending the expansion of dual language immersion Mandarin at Deseret Canyon Middle School we have a simple language update for civics and the Civics test on page 37 we have two new electives that we are proposing cs101 and cs102 for coding computer software development courses we also have the same elective course on two different pages it's a prequel precursor to CTE of design my future this course currently exists at Mountainside there is an interest from our other schools to also have this elective so we have tweaked it a little bit to not be isolated to IB with their language that is required at Mountainside but opened up for all of our other schools and then on page 56 we just updated some language on the gifted test criteria

079language where we previously have been listing the title of the state exam that students are measured by given that the state exam name often changes we've just simply changed that with that I'll take any questions do any of the governing board members have questions yes board member of Kearney thank you president sinowski I just had one question from um I had emailed Dr Menzel about a couple Corrections on the legal notice at the the last page and I just see that that hasn't been updated I'm just wanting to know if that's uh your version should be updated we added um the appropriate legal counsel we fixed Dr sakos's last name we gave her the o to make her Dr sakos again so we did update that so I'll just double check the the version that

080you may have I just checked it before and I didn't it wasn't attached to this but I was just confirming that that yes that has been changed okay and then just so you all know as well after you hopefully approve the recommendations we have for these courses or edits then we go back through with a fine-tooth comb and we fix all of our grammar all of our pages right now it's in draft form so we'll reformat it and create the index to match our page structure okay thank you yep seeing that there are no other comments thank you [Music] so I don't have the presentation from last night in front of me but I just wanted to make sure that the accessibility to honors programs and accelerated programs for our Advanced students is is accessible

081at all levels of middle schools there's been some some concerns that there are a couple schools where they're not able to get honors classes um that wasn't something that was part of our revisions anything that would be a change I can certainly work with seritorion and gifted to see if there have been any staffing issues that may be impacting courses that are offered out of campus thank you are there any other questions or comments board members seeing none since this is an action item I'm going to call for a motion to approve the second read and revisions to the Middle School planning guide for the 23-24 school year second all in favor say aye aye any opposed pardon me you made the motion yes okay no not opposed that motion passes 5-0 thank you moving

082on to 8B consideration of governing board policy BCC and waiver of additional readings pursuant to governing board policy bgb Madam president members of the governing board governing board policy BCC was discussed as the last governing board meeting on January 17th is brought back to you for your consideration and to waive any additional readings required pursuant to governing board policy bgb to allow you as a five-member board to make whatever changes you would like to make to this policy all right governing board members go ahead board member Kearney thank you president sunowski um yeah so obviously one of our main responsibilities as board members is to develop and adopt policies and so I think we need to be transparent around around that and that's why I want to have this discussion about this um on January

08325th of 2022 language was removed from policy bbaa and turned into a separate policy which is this BCC which was approved February 8 2022 meeting the problem with it is that the board member who presented that changed voice to the public that there was no real change and that the language was just being moved over to a new policy but that's not that's untrue and there was language added to policy BCC that was not originally in policy bbaa and I think we need to to talk about that the second paragraph of policy BCC was never publicly mentioned in any of the four reads um in 2022 and this paragraphing question the second paragraph there was left entirely off um of the November 15th and December 6 reads all together so it's just concerning to me

084that uh there's just all these things going on with it so I just like to go through the language that was taken from policy bbaa and moved over to to the second paragraph of policy BCC uh reads if an individual board member directly requests information of a staff member the board member shall copy the superintendent on such requests but the new language added to BCC without anyone ever stating it or discussing it in public says and the superintendent is permitted to intercede prior to the staff member responding to the board member so I'm just wondering why was this language added to the policy without anyone acknowledging it Madam president members of the governor board I was not your Council in February 2022 so I don't know the answer to the question you all had in-house

085counsel Laurie Byrd at that time board member hurt Wells well I don't know the answer the question because I'm not sure it's it's the right question so I we don't have each of these Legacy documents in front of us to answer that question accurately at the moment um but I will say this my understanding of this doc this policy coming before us tonight was because at a previous board meeting board member Carney had indicated that there was a copy in the board docs that did not have a unamended paragraph two paragraph two in it and that that was there was some confusion even though that paragraph was not being amended at that time in December 6th the adoption date that's at the bottom of the document that was my understanding of what was coming before

086us tonight now we're hearing you have 12 months of having changed language that's that's a very different type of uh assertion and I would argue that we need to table this I don't I'm not comfortable voting on something where there's an allegation that there is multiple attempts to amend a policy without showing it to the public which I don't believe happened at all but I think putting out the timeline to be fully transparent and fair to everyone is appropriate and therefore I would move that we table this policy so you're making a motion to table the policy moving to table the policy so that we can bring it back and have addressed the uh the new new content um that was not my understanding of why we were here tonight for this particular agenda item

087thank you the motion has been made and I would like to second that all in favor of tabling this say aye aye aye that motion passes five zero thank you I'd like to clarify when it's brought back to do you want it back to you as a first read or do you want it brought back to you as it was tonight so that you can act on it at the next board meeting is there a um an opportunity for you to go back and clarify the work that had been done in the past based on recorded meetings yes to actually present then accuracy of the information right I understand Ms Carney's timeline to be accurate but from what I recall that I can go back and confirm sure and present but my question to you

088is whether you want it to be on as a first read or as a you can make a decision at the next board meeting um I would suspect your motion was to bring it back as a first read according to the information okay I would prefer that I'd like to see the timeline with the supporting documentation of the strikethroughs okay thank you very much thank you okay 8C approved the award of requests for proposal RFP 23005 employee medical and Pharmacy benefits Shannon yes good evening board president zinowski vice president Warner members of the board and guests here tonight we are here to talk about an RFP that was done for medical insurance for our employees let's see if we get that loaded up okay um so to give a little bit of a background on

089on this topic currently the district is self-insured meaning that we incur all and pay all costs for medical and Pharmacy for our districts it's typical of larger districts to be self-insured it gives them more flexibility there's not a set premium that you might experience if you were in a pooled program um there's pros and cons with it if your district is doing well and you have healthy employees and it's a good year you can have savings with that and and and see that benefit uh if you have a year where things cost more you have an uh employees that have more health issues then you end up paying more than you possibly anticipated for or budgeted for for that for that year we've had in the past five years we've had really good years and

090the last two years haven't been as good and so we've paid a little bit more for our a little bit more we paid a lot more for our medical insurance um so there's pros and cons with that type of insurance but that is what we are in we offer a PPO plan as well as three High deductible plans I'm with insurance there are basically two types of insurance we are in a trust currently within a trust you can have pooled which means they pull all of the different groups together agencies organizations and the pool trust decides what the premium is going to be and they'll say as a pool this is what our Collective costs are and they'll set a premium based on that or you can be self-insured which is what we are like

091again I said that again gives us the flexibility of um how do we want to do those costs it's also when we're looking at the cost of the district it's just us it's what cost have we incurred for medical there's also direct purchase which means you purchase directly from an insurance carrier currently we use Kairos health insurance which is a trust um for that and we are self-insured within that trust so we have the flexibility with Kairos to determine what we want our premiums to be as well as what those plans look like one of the things when we were looking at this so what's come up is is medical insurance is really expensive it's really expensive and so part of what came about with this is because we are in a trust we haven't

092done a bid for insurance in gosh I don't I couldn't even tell you how many years because we are not required to do an RFP or a bid if you are in a trust or part of a trust and so we looked at it and said and the governing board came back to us and said um there's a lot of expense with this and we think it would be prudent to look to see do we have the best option are we offering the best that we can for the best price that we can get for that insurance and so we that's kind of what sparked us moving forward with this pursuit of this process as a part of that we also wanted to look at how do we compare with our peer districts so we

093took a look at Paradise Valley Mesa Gilbert Dysart Peoria Chandler and Deer Valley those are kind of the districts that we always get bumped up with when we're looking at how do our how do we do on things and what it really came down to it's really hard to compare everybody has a different PPO plan some have higher deductibles some have lower deductibles with the high deductible plans some have one high deductible plan and that's it some have two we were the only one that has three High deductible plans um that makes a difference on what the cost is for that District but the other variables that come into it is um do they have a higher class claims index is there is their employee group younger in age where maybe a little bit healthier

094or is it older in age where we start to unfortunately see things pop up a little bit more um does it have issues with Cancers or premature babies things like that therapeutic medications are so expensive and so you have to kind of look at do they have those High claims there's no way to tell when you're looking at dollars to dollars of what they spend and what we spend we don't know what's necessarily included in their plan in our current plan right now we have Mayo Clinic not all plans have Mayo Clinic um that's an option that gets added on and then the last part of it is how many employees are in that plan um that makes a big difference as well as to again older younger how many people are contributing to that

095on a simple just dollar to dollar we have a PPO they have a PPO how much do we pay how much do they pay we have an a high deductible plan how much do we pay how much do they pay it really came down to in some cases we are less expensive in other cases we're more expensive so it was really looking at it it was really hard to say gosh we're doing things really right or boy we were really doing things wrong and we need to figure something else out one of the things we did notice that has come up is um are we paying an equal amount for every employee are there varying amounts Scott's still in Paradise Valley and the information that we had are the only two districts that are paying

096contributing more depending on what plan you're in part of that comes from in the last couple of years we have not passed the increase in medical costs onto our employees the district itself has absorbed those costs and as we've absorbed those costs that's meant we've gone from a flat rate from every person every premium to varying rates that the district is contributing um we did find I think it's um Peoria offered a plan where if you have two spouses um that work for the district then what they'll do is let you like the one spouse doesn't claim the insurance the other spouse claims family and they apply um basically what would have gone to both of the single employee towards that family something to consider what we really found in looking at the comparison with

097other districts is we need to look more to see do we have the right plans and are there ways that we can lower our costs and also knowing I mean some things you can do that just shift the cost right if you raise your deductible it's cheaper for the district but somebody's still paying an additional cost but it's all things we need to look at and consider and definitely things that are on our radar as we move forward because there's definitely um definitely uh an increase or definitely that's something we need to do within that plan and I'm looking at this this is not the updated one that was sent out on Saturday can we get that okay thank you Gladys we made a change to this uh this particular slide this weekend to break

098that down a little bit what this one was looking at so you if you want to know the difference in the two is this one annual premium this is looking at just what was the district paying out of mno and what we wanted to show is that yes the district is paying out of mno a certain amount for the contributions but the self-insurance trust is also picking up a cost um and that so broke it out with what the district is paying out at mno and what the district is paying out through their self-insurance trust are we is that getting updated or okay do I need to escape out of here I am so sorry about that change as we're bringing that up so one of the things I will say is that because um

099we have had um a healthy balance in our self-insurance trust one of the decisions that's been made has been to utilize those funds within the self-insurance trust to help deal with those costs um to help fail so that we weren't pushing especially during a time when inflation was so high that we weren't doing something that put more of a burden onto our onto our employees knowing that we had money within the self-insurance trust that could help offset that thank you this is this is the good slide so as you can see um the First Column we've been out of mno we've basically been contributing the same amount it's lesser on those lower plans because they were lower at the time um we made a decision that whatever increases were coming were going to be covered

100by the district self-insurance Trust um so as you can see it really it really varies as to what we're paying in some cases between the district and the self-insurance trust we're covering as much as nine thousand dollars towards a family plan if you're on the PPO in addition to um mno contributes to the HSA plans if you pick one of the higher high deductible plans they'll contribute money to your HSA plan so this just really looks at what are we what are we paying like I said in comparison to our other districts in some cases we're higher in some cases we are lower so what was the process that we went through as we did this um we looked at it and knew that this was a this is a big deal this is not

101a simple small um RFP process that you put together a scope quickly and then put that out to bid and collect that information and review it in a couple of days this was a this is a big scope and it's a big ask and so we wanted to make sure that we did it appropriately and we did and we got people to help us out um I can talk about numbers all day I am not a guru of insurance and how pharmaceutical works and the um ins and out of the medical and Pharmacy world so we said we need some help as we develop that scope so in November of 21 the governing board approved us using Siegel which is a human resource benefits company that helps do that this is exactly what they do

102they put together bids for um our rfps for medical insurance so we signed on with them we met with them in February talked about timelines talked about what are the needs of the district what are the types of insurance are we looking for a specific type like a trust are we looking for a direct carrier what were we looking for so we met with him on that in may we did a thought exchange with our employees to find out what were they looking for when it came to our insurance and I'll touch on what those responses came in just a minute here we met with Mesa Public Schools they direct a direct purchase from an insurance carrier that's different than what we've done in our district and so we thought we want to meet with

103another District to understand how does that work what are the pros and cons are there things we need to consider when we're looking at that and so we met with them to get feedback on how that works and so we could have a clear understanding of what that looks like as we go into this process as well uh then we collected data from our current provider that takes a long time there's a lot of data on how what our medical spend has been but they received that and then in September there was a draft RFP for us to review we put that out in October was downloaded by 35 vendors we had nine that actually responded to that and the time that it was due within and then Siegel's job for us was to take

104all of that information and to compile it into a way that would be easy to review it's really hard when you're looking at a notebook and or in this case a digital book and and say okay well they answered this on you know question number two they said this what does everybody else say so what Siegel did is took that information and said here's the list of questions we asked here's the responses from each vendor so we could do a side-by-side comparison so it took them a little bit of time to go through all of that as well compile it for us and then bring that to us to be able to review we wanted to make sure that in this process we heard from a variety of people typically our process involves three to

105five individuals looking at it but we felt like we needed we need lots of eyes to be able to look at this and and have a collective review from all kinds of employee groups so we did a two-step process for the review the first step was made up of a principal a teacher and a classified employee to be able to collect those employees we reached out to the Presidents of our three employee groups and said do you have any recommendations of somebody from your groups that would like to participate in that um in one of the cases we use the principal who'd been on our insurance Committee in the past they reviewed the selections made a selection for their top three choices and then passed that on to a second Review Committee which was myself

106the Director of Finance the director of payroll and benefits the assistant superintendent of Human Resources when we look at the scope of work of what we asked there were six major components first we asked for a third party Administration so we needed somebody who could look at the claims Administration the case management PPO network access and wellness programming we asked for pharmacy benefits management Health Savings Account Administration flexible spending account Administration employee assistance as well as cobra we did not want to limit ourselves to a specific type of insurance so we opened it up and said show us what it looks like between a trust and a direct purchase program so we had it open to be able to compare both of those options and the other thing we said is these are the plans

107we have right now we're not locked into them we're open to suggestions so you can base that off of what our plans are currently right now we're open to suggestion um as to what other options could be there for cost savings as well when we did the thought exchange we had 233 participants 207 thoughts and 3827 ratings we asked one question what are what do you feel are the most important things that susd should consider as we plan for future health insurance coverage and benefits um we had a lot of the same comments different words method maybe but the same thing affordable cost of medical premiums and Pharmacy good coverage mental health and wellness and consistent with the same providers I will tell you a couple of years ago when we moved to Kairos we

108had to change the health savings administrator so we went from a different account uh account company for your HSA and I learned at that time that's a quick way to make a lot of people really upset is to mess with that HSA card and then while on cairos we moved from United Healthcare or I'm sorry from Blue Cross Blue Shield to United and I also learned don't mess with people's doctors that's another quick way to uh to upset folks so um that was one of the things we thought okay we need to make sure we know that we know that those are quick ways to upset our employees and I get it those are important things as part of the scope like I said Siegel can gave us detailed comparison lists to look at the

109comp the response and Company's responses to line those up to review easily they also gave us a summary of the proposals we also had access to the proposals ourselves to go through and review them this is just the points criteria we used it's very similar it's how we use all of our points criteria when we're doing rfps but that was the criteria we used like I said we had a two-tier committee the first one again being a principal teacher classified and our benefit specialist and then the second tier and so the unanimous recommendation from both tiers and the one that scored the highest out of all scoring was Kairos health insurance um so that is the company we are bringing forth for recommendation tonight um through this process we had made it about three rfps

110if we made one RFP that encompassed medical dental vision and all of the ancillary insurance we had it would be a beast of an RFP medical is already a beast of an RFP um so we kind of chunked that we put that on hold we can take that off of hold we can continue to move forward we kind of have left it at the governing board's discretion as to um one moving forward with the recommendation and two um do you want us to move forward with with that or or we can talk about what that looks like at a different time but right now we put that on hold just to decide or just for the governing board to decide what steps they'd like us to take next so with that I'll open it up

111to questions um Shannon when do you suspect that the um that we would be able to work on the dental vision and ancillary Insurance RFP the dental vision and ancillary RFP has already done and we have received responses for that so we would if the recommendation is to move forward reviewing those separately we would move forward with that probably have a recommendation I'm going to say March at this point hopefully early March I would think maybe I'm looking at our procurement director um the ancillary unfortunately um our timelines were a little bit off so the ancillary we now have a scope to review it would still need to go out get the bids and then um review we can do that we have a little bit of time the only concern that we would get

112into as we typically put together a benefits package for open enrollment in mid-spring so we're getting a little bit tight to be able to have that done it's still possible okay that was my concern was the timeline yeah with contracts and stuff coming up so contracts could go out we just don't do open enrollment until april-ish mid aprilish but and I also understand that sometimes the the package is a consideration for retaining employees so I do appreciate the work uh any other comments from guests board member Lindsay was there analysis done that these are the four very best plans for our district so that's a great question that was not part of the scope but I think that is something we absolutely need to do we absolutely need to communicate better what our insurance is

113and how as employees we can make it more affordable for ourselves but for the district I don't know that that employees always know and I'm not advocating for don't get the best health care you could possibly get but I'm not sure if um people always understand the district pays for that bill if um so when you make the choices that you make and I'm again not advocating don't go to the doctors um but the choices we make with our health care The District covers that and at the end of the day that's also out of as an employee your pocket so I think we need to do better about promoting Wellness um about our insurance programs but absolutely we need to look at our do we have the best programs is our PPO the best

114we can do is it the most affordable we could do do we should we have three a high deductible plans when everybody else has one or two that's absolutely something we should look at one of the other things we've talked about is we don't use clinical advocacy as much as other people do we've been skittish about saying yes here's our employees phone numbers to reach out to them but I think that's something that during open enrollment we need to make as an option for our employees to understand that if you would like this benefit it could be a huge benefit for you and for the district and you can select that that way we're not just handing out phone numbers but we are letting our employees make the choice if they'd like to have that

115service available to them because that is a service that has helped other districts out with their costs so absolutely think we need to look at a lot of things um right now we offer a plan that is kind of like Weight Watchers type it's not way too but it's a it's a weight management plan are people utilizing it not as much as we thought they would so maybe we that's a small cost but those are the things we need to look at is what are we doing what are some of the ways we can get the cost down because it is expensive and it's expensive for our families board member hartwells thank you board president sinowski and one question does this recommendation with cairos check all those boxes that our employees identified as needs those

116four that you showed on the slide um oh the thought exchange ones I mean it's hard to Define Affordable Health Care because I oh Healthcare isn't affordable um we did look at cost and that was one of the factors we looked at um so yeah I that is something we have to continue to look at and we'll and and see what we can do to make it a little bit more affordable I think that's the biggest issue for us is it good coverage is United Healthcare it's the same coverage we have right now um does it have mental and health Wellness yes it does it offers an EAP program um as well as programs designed for making sure that folks are getting their annual checkups and checking your cholesterol and your A1C and making sure

117that you know you're doing the annual things that you need to do for good health um consistent with the same providers it's the company where it was the same with and not that that was I don't want it to seem like we just went with what we already have that was not at all what we were looking at going forward with this we really did look at what what could we do about cost and making sure that we offer the best that we could for our employees and then on the dental Envision you said you've already received the responses to the RFP yes I have not seen them we've had them on kind of a hold to determine if if you if the governing board wanted us to continue to move forward with that process

118or just continue with what we have and with that timeline do we have enough time given contracts we'll be rolling out here soon what what do we in terms of a timeline what do you suggest if we hold off now that could be too compressed of a timeline or give us some guidance if you're wanting this to all be wrapped up by the time we issue contracts to our teachers no we do not have time if you're asking do we have time to do this before we have to make our annual selections and open enrollment tight but yes if we proceed now if we if we yeah if we went back tomorrow and said yes if you said move forward with those and we went back to seagull tomorrow and and our team and said

119yep evaluate these the ones that we have now and move quickly forward with the ancillary tight but I think doable but we need to start but I would not have that in time for contracts so even if we start with the if we give you the green light on a dental vision and ancillary there's still not a possibility to even get the dental vision maybe I'm just not asking this question so I think I understand the question we we already have the dental and vision rfps in hand we just haven't analyzed those so that's just a timing process to determine is it are the are the bids that that we've received do they provide a better benefit at a lower cost than what we currently have we have the the ability to do that analysis

120and get it in place for the open enrollment period but not in time to be able to specifically say what that would be in the contracts because the contracts are going to go at the beginning of March March the ancillary is a different conversation because that one is behind the eight ball and and so it may be in our best interest to roll the ancillary benefit that we currently have forward so that we have that as a known review the the dental and vision that we have bids for because it could very well be that our current plan is the one that we should stay with we need to review the bids to know are we getting the best value for the dollar no reason to delay that analysis us it just means that we

121won't have that Clarity on where we've landed at the time contracts go out but we'll have Clarity that there will be dental and vision benefits for our employees so that's not what's going to be lost it's just the specifics does that make sense it does make sense and I'm really thinking with a hat on of being an employee would I want that certainty before I entered into a contract where you might get that certainty at another District so I'm going to let so Roger Spivey is our director of purchasing and he's I think can explain some of that better than I'm doing yeah so there's a couple of things that we really have to look at and we put this on hold the evaluation of the dental and vision purposely because if we continue with

122Kairos now we're also still continue with that employee benefits trust right so we can move forward with it with dental and vision through Kairos and not need the RFP process because as long as we're participating in that trust it's exempt so it doesn't require additional procurement so it's do we need do you want us to do an additional procurement when we could lean on Kairos and they could do that evaluation for us and we could purchase through the trust instead of doing it on our own because if we decided to do dental Envision separately from Kairos then we also need to find someone to administer that plan because currently we don't have the capabilities to do that internally we would have to find a third party administrator if we decided to break away and do

123those benefits separately thank you that's helpful I thought the whole point of this exercise though was to evaluate costs so so we did I did we did that with health insurance first because that's the Lion's Share yeah and then we ended up with Kairos so we can do the same with dental and vision I think what Roger's pointing out is that it may end up in the very same place where we find that there's really not a material difference between what we get a la carte with separate providers and what we would be able to get under Kairos but if we go with a separate RFP and a separate provider then we have to have a third party administrator for that in addition to Kairos so if if the board's going to improve Kairos then

124we could move forward with certainty about all of these other things under that umbrella because we've already put out to bid the largest component of our health insurance costs correct so in other words we're right back where we started I would say no because we didn't have certainty when we went with Kairos initially we didn't put anything out for bid so we didn't test the market at all we've tested the market now on the biggest cost of you know our insurance benefit and found that Kairos for us right now still represents the best value for the dollar stay with the plans as proposed board member Lindsay Kairos has different dental and vision plans besides the ones we use right no the plan that we use is the one that's contracted through them so do they

125have other like other districts do they go through Kairos and they have different Dental they they go through Kairos their plan may not be match exactly as ours does but the vendor is the same so we might be able to find a better deal in Kairos for a little bit different dental and vision yes they might have there might be something besides the the vendors that Kairos is using for dental division currently they're using them but we're not like we're using different Dental no we're using gently for examples in Kairos they may have different Dental Envision through kind of different coverage but they're using the same okay yeah so we might be able to get something different that's better cost wise through Kairos or through looking through this through Kairos we could maybe um same

126type of thing looking at the premiums or the um plant structure the plan structure we might be able to do something different within the plan structure to make it better the providers would still be the same providers with Kairos so it's like the health insurance because I'm on a different type plan through Kairos than what we have can I make a request when this comes out to employees with these options can we make sure that with certainty that there's an explanation a very clear explanation of what the out-of-pocket expenses are going to be if there's a change to the employee because I think that's always the bottom line for employees like well what is this going to cost me okay so when we do our benefit our open enrollment there's a package that goes out

127that shows what all of the different options are we also offer to do fares and have our benefits folks come out and speak with well you know it'll be hey we're at this community this day where they'll talk to them about what are the questions you know what what does this mean what is the difference between a PPO and a high deductible plan you know which high deductible plan is better for me but that is when we put that packet out that information is within what are the different deductibles if I have employee or if it's employed with family what am I how much is it going to cost out of pocket yes and how much is it going to cost if I go with this plan I'm going to have a deductible of fifteen

128hundred dollars or depending on which plan you go with right so to provide a summary a simple summary so they don't have to go somewhere to learn more about the options we're providing for them I think the health fair is nice but not everyone has the opportunity to take advantage of that absolutely and we have that with like I said within the when you go through your different um options it states in there what are the different options it shows how much your monthly premium will be as well as what are what are the definitions of the plans and what do those deductibles look like okay good any other questions on this topic all right seeing that there are none I would like to make a motion to approve the award request proposal RFP 23005

129employee medical and Pharmacy benefits is there a second I have a clarification question sure so this motion is specific specific to medical and Pharmacy correctly yes correct okay is there a second second all in favor say aye aye aye that motion passes five zero thank you can I believe Shannon you're going to be up here with us for the next two yes and then go ahead as a follow-up there was a request although it's not Dental yeah dental and vision um and guidance therefore so so I'm gonna ask Jennifer for guidance on how to seek the clarification on do we move forward or do we not move forward Madam president members of the governing board uh Miss Crusher I would assume that you all will make your best recommendation and bring this back to the

130governing board so um I don't think you need further direction from the board to do that because you've heard their thoughts and they are cost and employees so that's what I would do okay okay super and don't leave Shannon I won't I told him not to leave because she's going to be able to answer the next two questions right agenda items yes moving on to 8D Shannon approve the use of the State of Arizona Cooperative contract for the purchase of asbestos abatement services we don't have presentations we just have information to be able to answer any questions you might have about these maybe a little overview in terms of what's going to do for us yes President Warner members of the board as we are working through the Pueblo rebuild part of that process when

131you get into older schools is asbestos abatement which we need to do as we demolish and work through that that rebuild at Pueblo as such we have gone out to State contract and they actually went to State contract there's a variety of vendors on state contract so the process was to look at three different vendors look at the cost and what they would offer and have them look at the scope and from that they made a selection which is the recommendation for the opening board tonight thank you Shannon governing board members do you have any questions for Shannon on this particular issue seeing none I call for a motion to approve the use of the State of Arizona Cooperative contract for the purchase of asbestos abatement services wait a second I'm calling for that I'm

132sorry um so moved so Isaiah second okay seconded by Kearney all in favor say aye aye aye that motion passes 5-0 and Shannon on to 8e approved the use of the State of Arizona Cooperative contract for the purchase of elevator repair Maintenance and Service yes board president sinowski vice president Warner members of the board Redfield Elementary has a as a two-story has an elevator which is reached a point that receiving some of those parts are of more difficultly difficult it's kind of got to its end of cycle with that with uh that elevator and so to be in compliance with Ada we are looking to do some more substantial repairs there and so again this was brought through State contract reviewed the different vendors that are out there looked for what is the best cost

133for the scope of work that we're asking for and so the recommendation brought forth is based off of that need governing board members to any of you have questions on modernizing the elevator at Redfield for Shannon seeing that there are none I would like to make a motion to approve AE the use of the state con Cooperative contract and for the purchase of elevator repair maintenance and services is there a second seconded by Dr hartwell's all in favor say aye aye that motion passes five zero thank you and at this time I would like to make a motion to adjourn this special governing board meeting is there a second all in favor say aye aye that motion passes 5-0 it's 7 52 pm